Ninjutsu Duel

Watching twenty-four shuriken fly toward him, Tianqi silently cursed the shamelessness of using superior numbers to bully the weak, then directly activated his Sharingan to dodge.

With the insight of the Sharingan backing him, Tianqi evaded the attack, narrowly escaping danger.

To last ten minutes against Sarutobi's hands with my current strength is impossible. I'll have to use a delaying tactic.

And so the two began a pattern of attack and evasion. Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't go all out either; he simply kept pulling and pushing with Tianqi.

"Tianqi, dodging like this won't let me see your true strength. I've played around enough—time to end this." Sarutobi used a Body Flicker Technique, appearing directly in front of Tianqi, aiming to finish the fight with one punch.

Seeing Sarutobi charge at him, Tianqi immediately pushed off with his legs, leaping backward, and began forming hand seals.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" Tianqi spat a massive fireball at Sarutobi. Watching the fireball rush toward him, Sarutobi silently praised Tianqi's fast seal speed and the technique's decent power—he really did have some skill. As the great fireball drew closer, Sarutobi started forming seals himself. Though he began later, his seal speed was far faster than Tianqi's.

"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!" A wall of water appeared directly in front of Sarutobi, blocking the fireball.

For a moment, the clash of fire and water generated a thick cloud of steam. Taking advantage of the mist, Tianqi immediately left Sarutobi's attack range and leaped onto a tree. Checking the time, seven minutes had passed. He planned to use long-range tactics to drag out another three minutes. "Just three more minutes. A little longer, and I'll make it."

"Your ninjutsu is impressive, but Tianqi, this is where it ends." Sarutobi's voice suddenly came from behind Tianqi. Somehow, without Tianqi noticing, Sarutobi had already moved behind him.

Tianqi showed no panic; instead, a smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Is that so? I don't think so."

Just as Sarutobi was about to make his move against Tianqi, he realized his surroundings were wrapped in countless thin steel wires. Following the wires with his gaze, he saw their ends held in Tianqi's hand. It all clicked.

"I see. So that's why you suddenly jumped into the tree—you set a trap up here. Leaping up was just to lure me up too."

"That's right. I laid the trap in the tree long ago. Now let me show you a new technique I've been working on." With that, Tianqi immediately formed hand seals.

"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!" Tianqi spat flames directly along the steel wires. The fire raced along the wires toward Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was already entangled.

Calling it Dragon Fire Technique was really just shooting the Great Fireball Technique along the wires.

Watching Sarutobi Hiruzen engulfed in flames, Tianqi wasn't worried about accidentally killing him at all. Instead, he kept a sharp eye on his surroundings.

Are you kidding me? He's the future Third Hokage. How could my meager strength possibly kill him? Sure enough, the burning Sarutobi slowly turned into a pile of earth.

"An Earth Clone, huh? Where will he come from?" Tianqi panted heavily, watching his surroundings warily. He had no choice—his chakra reserves could only support three C-Rank Ninjutsu at most.

Just one more minute. I have to hold out.

As Tianqi scanned the area, the ground beneath his feet suddenly split open. Sarutobi burst up from the earth and drove a fist straight into Tianqi's chin.

Caught off guard, Tianqi was sent flying. He spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground.

"Tianqi, this is the end. You have no strength left to fight. Give up. You could have aimed for the bells, but you only wanted to defeat me. This outcome was inevitable."

Tianqi staggered to his feet, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and said, "I never planned to snatch the bells from the start. I only wanted you to know that even without academy training, I, Uchiha Tianqi, am inferior to no one who came out of that school."

"I will fight until the very last moment. You want me to give up? Impossible!"

The last thirty seconds. This is my final technique. With that, Tianqi immediately began forming hand seals.

Watching Tianqi fall and rise again to form seals, Sarutobi felt genuine admiration. With this kind of unyielding will, he was sure to carve out a place for himself in the ninja world. Whether that would be good or bad for Konoha remained to be seen.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Watching the great fireball rush toward him, this time Sarutobi chose not to defend. Instead, he formed many seals.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!" A water dragon charged straight at the fireball. In an instant, the fireball was scattered. The water dragon pierced through the flames and shot directly toward Tianqi.

Watching the water dragon bearing down on him, Tianqi finally exhausted his chakra and passed out.

Under Sarutobi's control, the water dragon veered off and crashed to the side.

Looking at Tianqi lying unconscious on the ground, Sarutobi shook his head and let out a scolding laugh.

"You reckless brat. You really do throw yourself into things with everything you've got. Looks like I can safely assign you missions from now on." He then took a Military Ration Pill from his pocket and fed it to Tianqi.

After a while, Tianqi woke up.

"Congratulations. From today on, you are a qualified Genin." Sarutobi Hiruzen took out a ninja forehead protector and placed it in front of Tianqi.

Taking the forehead protector from Sarutobi Hiruzen's hand, Tianqi put it on his head directly.

"Starting tomorrow, we'll take on missions while I continue to teach you."

"Yes, Sarutobi-sensei."

"You don't need to call me sensei. Just call me Captain. I'm only about ten years older than you."

"Yes, Captain."

"Alright. Go home and rest well today. Tomorrow we start our missions. See you at the usual place. I'm off."

Watching Sarutobi Hiruzen leave, Tianqi dragged his exhausted body home. After eating dinner and taking a shower, he lay down on the bed.

"Right, completing today's mission should have rewarded me with a thousand points and one Sharingan upgrade opportunity. Let's open the system and take a look."

He directly called up the system. "I'll save this thousand points for now. Since upgrading to the Three-Tomoe requires ten thousand points, I'm still nine thousand short. As for this one Sharingan upgrade..." Tianqi's mind started scheming.

"System, can this Sharingan upgrade be saved for later?" Tianqi asked directly. He wanted to keep this upgrade opportunity to use when breaking through from Three-Tomoe to Mangekyo.

If possible, he'd rather use it to break through to the Eternal Mangekyo. After all, he had no brother to transplant eyes from. Even if he did, he wouldn't transplant unless his brother really asked for it.

But the system's response shattered his little scheme. [Host, this upgrade opportunity can only be used for the Three-Tomoe Sharingan or below. That is, you can use it to upgrade to Three-Tomoe, but not to upgrade to Mangekyo. Host, don't try to exploit loopholes in the system.]

Hearing the system say this, Tianqi sighed softly. "I knew the system couldn't have a bug to exploit."

"Then let's upgrade to the Two Tomoe Sharingan first."

A surge of energy appeared in his head. Having already opened his eyes once, the second time was clearly less painful than the first. In just a moment, the Single Tomoe advanced to Two Tomoe.

Tianqi walked to the mirror and carefully examined his eyes.

"So this is the Sharingan. A bewitching red pupil with two tomoe inside. Damn! It looks incredibly badass."

"The Single Tomoe Sharingan grants insight, while the Two Tomoe Sharingan provides powerful observation, allowing one to copy others' ninjutsu. This ability is practically broken."

Tianqi couldn't help but marvel. The world of Naruto truly was one ruled by bloodlines—anyone related to the Sage of Six Paths was almost guaranteed to be a powerhouse.