The Apprenticeship Commotion (Two-in-One, Please Keep Reading!)

Sasuke Uchiha finally ran out of stamina and couldn't dodge in time.

Akimichi Denji landed a straight punch that sent Sasuke flying, bringing the spar to an end.

Sasuke didn't get up. He lay on the ground, staring at the sky and questioning his life.

"Where exactly did I go wrong? Why can't I beat him even after awakening my Sharingan?"

He got up, unwilling to accept the result, and glared at Denji.

"Why can't I copy your jutsu?"

"Looks like your eyes still need some work. That's my Kekkei Genkai. You have one, so why can't I?" Akimichi Denji answered with a cheerful smile.

"Kekkei Genkai?" Sasuke said in shock.

"Why would the Akimichi Clan have a Kekkei Genkai?"

Nara Shikamaru's expression changed. He thought he'd figured out why Tsunade had taken Denji on as her student.

"As expected of my best friend!" Uzumaki Naruto strode over enthusiastically, beaming with pride.

"Anyone else want to fight?"

Seeing that the sparring had worked so well—even Sasuke Uchiha had been motivated to awaken his Sharingan—Iruka decided to keep going.

"Want to have a match?" Yamanaka Ino asked Haruno Sakura, who was standing beside her.

"Fine by me!" Haruno Sakura said, unwilling to back down.

They'd already been at each other while cheering, and now they were both worked up.

"Denji, will you cheer for me?" Yamanaka Ino asked shyly as she walked over to him.

"Good luck." Akimichi Denji didn't refuse. She'd cheered for him earlier, after all.

Besides, what if he could earn a Wish Point?

Haruno Sakura glared resentfully at Yamanaka Ino, then looked toward Sasuke. She wanted him to cheer for her, too.

But seeing Sasuke defeated and wearing an utterly lost expression, she gave up on the idea.

Akimichi Denji watched Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino form Hand Seals and face off. The match began.

They didn't use jutsu, relying only on Taijutsu and thrown ninja tools.

That gave him an idea.

His body was already incredibly strong, and with Strength of a Hundred, his physique would eventually surpass other ninja by a wide margin. He'd held back in his fights against Naruto and Sasuke today, not even using Strength of a Hundred at full power. With its destructive force, he could have split the earth and shattered mountains.

But that would have gone against the principles of a spar.

His fight with Sasuke had been a perfect example. Sasuke was weaker than him in both strength and speed, but thanks to the Sharingan's visual acuity, he'd still managed to keep Denji occupied for quite a while.

Ultimately, Denji's Taijutsu wasn't good enough. He only knew how to throw wild punches. If he combined his strength with proper Taijutsu, he should have dominated the fight.

It was time to learn Taijutsu and broaden his fighting style.

Ninja were all high-attack, low-defense creatures. The Third Raikage was a bit of an exception, but everyone else had a fragile health bar.

Akimichi Denji could increase his physical strength without restraint by spending energy on it.

Putting points into his physique could make up for that weakness. He didn't want to be killed by a Kunai from behind on the battlefield, after all. Strengthening his body would also improve his defense. If he could build a physique like the Nine-Tails', then not only ninja tools—even jutsu might feel like little more than a tickle...

And if he paired that with his Taijutsu, kicking his way to a decisive victory might not be an empty boast.

A fierce light appeared in Akimichi Denji's eyes.

When it came to Taijutsu, the most widespread style in Konoha was Konoha Style Taijutsu. It was taught at the Ninja Academy, and Naruto, Sakura, and the others had all learned it. It was also the most common style around.

Besides that, each ninja clan had its own Taijutsu to some extent, such as Uchiha Style Taijutsu and even Akimichi Style Taijutsu.

And as for the most famous Taijutsu style, was anyone more renowned than the Blue Beast?

In the sparring area, Haruno Sakura was stronger than Yamanaka Ino, but that wasn't fully apparent yet. In the original story, Tsunade took her on as a student and passed down Strength of a Hundred.

Too bad she probably wouldn't get that chance now.

In the end, Yamanaka Ino narrowly won thanks to her superb Ninja Tool Throwing.

Yamanaka Ino proudly patted Haruno Sakura on the shoulder. "Better luck next time."

"Just you wait," Haruno Sakura said, looking disgruntled.

Inuzuka Kiba glanced at Nara Shikamaru. "Want to have a match?"

Nara Shikamaru waved him off. "Not interested."

He was a lazy bum who hated pointless exercise.

Umino Iruka clapped his hands to wrap things up. "Everyone did well in today's practical lesson. Those who fought showed off their own style, too. You should all learn from them."

Everyone began to disperse.

Even though this was the ninja world, the children here weren't much different from those in his previous life. They were just as eager to get out of school.

Yamanaka Ino walked over to Akimichi Denji, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and said shyly, "Denji, let's have lunch together again today."

Akimichi Denji thought it over. "I still have to see Lady Tsunade first. I'll come over after training."

He hadn't earned a Wish Point from Yamanaka Ino today, and wanted to give it one last try.

He'd promised Tsunade that he'd visit her for guidance every other day.

He still had to train first.

Yamanaka Ino nodded. As long as Choji showed up eventually, that was enough.

Hyuga Hinata watched from the side, feeling down.

She wanted to join them for lunch, too, but her father had already grounded her.

Akimichi Denji saw a wish appear above Hinata's head.

[Grounded Hinata]: Hinata wants to join the group for lunch, too, but Hyuga Hiashi has grounded her, and she's troubled by it.

Akimichi Denji thought for a while, but couldn't come up with a good way to make it happen. No matter how powerful he became, he couldn't control Hyuga Hiashi—that man was the head of the Hyuga Clan.

The Hyuga Clan had strict rules. The Main House controlled the Branch House through the Caged Bird, with the power of life and death over its members. The Main House also held itself to strict standards of etiquette and conduct.

After school, Akimichi Denji didn't walk with his friends. He headed alone to the Senju Ancestral Home.

What he hadn't expected was that the well-known ninja throughout Konoha would all be stirred up because of him.

At Root, Shimura Danzō stared intently at the report a Root ninja had handed him, his expression so gloomy it seemed water might drip from it.

He'd noticed Akimichi Denji's potential long ago. Unfortunately, his repeated attempts to recruit him into Root had failed. Now that Tsunade had taken Denji on as her student, recruiting him was even more impossible.

Shimura Danzō's expression shifted unpredictably. After a long silence, he finally muttered, "Damn that monkey."

Without realizing it, his desire for the Hokage Position had grown even stronger.

Sasuke Uchiha returned home, but Itachi hadn't come back yet.

He excitedly told his mother that he'd awakened his Sharingan.

Uchiha Mikoto's eyes widened in shock, as if a storm had risen within her. She stared at Sasuke in astonishment, unable to calm down for a long time.

Sasuke Uchiha glanced at his mother in confusion. "Mom, what's wrong?"

Beneath his bowl cut, his eyes brimmed with pride and a desperate desire for his mother's approval.

Uchiha Mikoto came to her senses and affectionately stroked Itachi's hair. "Our Sasuke is so talented!"

Her gaze was complicated, but she hadn't said it just to flatter him.

The reason Shimura Danzō and Tobirama Senju had called the Uchiha Clan "Naturally Evil Uchiha" was that awakening the Sharingan required extremely intense emotional stimulation.

And what could cause more emotional turmoil than death?

That was why an Uchiha's Sharingan awakening was often accompanied by the death of a close friend or family member. Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Mikoto had both awakened theirs that way.

Some of the more radical elders in the clan would even assign difficult missions to Uchiha teams to help the younger generation gain the power of the Sharingan. They might even secretly kill civilians who had formed deep bonds with them...

So, essentially, Tobirama Senju hadn't been wrong. The Sharingan really was an evil power.

"How did you awaken it?" Uchiha Mikoto asked, getting straight to what she wanted to know most.

Sasuke Uchiha's face reddened a little. He didn't want to admit he'd awakened it after being defeated, but under Mikoto's eager gaze, he eventually mumbled out the whole story.

Uchiha Mikoto's expression shifted as she asked, "So you awakened your Sharingan after being defeated?"

Sasuke Uchiha didn't want to admit it, but he nodded in embarrassment.

Uchiha Mikoto was so shocked her mouth fell open.

What kind of joke was this? If the Uchiha could awaken their Sharingan so easily, they would have been mass-producing powerful ninja long ago.

Uchiha Mikoto looked at her embarrassed son and reached a conclusion: Sasuke Uchiha's pride was simply too strong. That had made being defeated in the spar an intense source of shame.

A glaring weakness had instead brought about the Sharingan.

She didn't know whether to praise the boy as a genius or call him an idiot.

Uchiha Mikoto was at a loss between laughter and tears.

"Then tell your brother the good news when he gets back."

"Mm! Mm!" Sasuke Uchiha nodded vigorously. He couldn't wait for his brother to come home and hear the news.

Uchiha Itachi came back a little late and looked somewhat tired.

Sasuke Uchiha rushed to meet him and happily announced, "Brother, I awakened my Sharingan!"

Uchiha Itachi reacted just like Mikoto. First he froze, then instinctively asked, "Who died?"

Only after Sasuke Uchiha explained what had happened did he understand.

It wasn't surprising that Itachi's first reaction had been so dramatic. Every time he'd awakened his Sharingan, someone close to him had died. When he first heard Sasuke's news, he'd almost suspected that Sasuke Uchiha had no heart. How could an Uchiha be so excited about awakening the Sharingan?

Then Sasuke told him something else that shocked him: "I heard Akimichi Denji was taken on as a student by someone named Steelhand?"

"Steel?" Uchiha Itachi was confused. Then his expression changed. "You mean Lady Tsunade?"

"Yeah." Sasuke Uchiha nodded. "I think that was her name."

He asked curiously, "Is she really that strong?"

"Lady Tsunade is a very powerful ninja," Uchiha Itachi said solemnly.

To improve relations between his clan and Konoha, he'd tried many different approaches and naturally had learned about the village's political situation. Tsunade had been active before he was born, and had already left the village by the time he made a name for himself. Still, he'd heard things about Konoha's Princess and had even tried to enlist her help, but to no avail.

"Is she stronger than you, Brother?" In Sasuke's eyes, his brother was invincible.

Uchiha Itachi smiled wryly and stroked Sasuke's head, a hint of bitterness in his expression.

"It's not like that. I wish I had the kind of standing Lady Tsunade has."

He was talking about Lady Tsunade's political status.

Itachi looked at Mikoto, thought for a long while, then suggested, "Maybe we should pay Akimichi Denji a visit, congratulate him on being taken on as Lady Tsunade's student, and thank him for helping Sasuke awaken his Sharingan."

Uchiha Mikoto nodded.

Sasuke Uchiha was a little displeased. Akimichi Denji had beaten him twice that afternoon, and Sasuke didn't really want to thank him.

Then he thought of his Sharingan and asked Uchiha Itachi, "Now that I have the Sharingan, will I learn jutsu much faster?"

Uchiha Itachi nodded firmly. "The Sharingan can see the flow of chakra, so it gives you a natural advantage when learning jutsu."

"Then can I start practicing the Great Fireball Technique now?"

Uchiha Itachi paused. The Great Fireball Technique was the standard Fire Release Ninjutsu of the Uchiha Clan. He hadn't let Sasuke practice it before because Sasuke was too young, and without solid fundamentals, the whole structure would fall apart. The technique could also easily injure his throat. But now that Sasuke had the Sharingan, it should be fine.

Itachi nodded.

A satisfied smile appeared on Sasuke Uchiha's face.

He'd gotten over his defeat that afternoon. He hadn't even shown what the Sharingan could really do yet. As long as he used it to master his clan's jutsu, he could challenge Akimichi Denji again.

At the thought, Sasuke clenched his fist excitedly.

Akimichi Denji, just you wait. Once I've mastered the Uchiha Clan's jutsu with my Sharingan—

The river flows east for thirty years, then west for thirty years!

Hyuga Clan

Hyuga Hiashi listened to the report from a clan member, deeply surprised.

"Lady Tsunade has returned to the village! And she took a member of the Akimichi Clan on as her student."

"When did something this important happen?"

The Hyuga Clan was rather insular and rarely interacted with people outside the clan, living largely by itself. A lot of news didn't reach them promptly, which was why Hyuga Hiashi asked.

"It happened this morning. The Akimichi Clan hasn't kept it quiet. They've told several clans the good news."

The Hyuga Clan had an awkward position in Konoha. It wasn't particularly close to the Hokage's faction, but it wasn't a faction of its own, either. It was somewhat neutral.

To maintain that neutrality in the current situation, it needed to understand what was going on in the village.

For some reason, Hyuga Hiashi found the name of the Akimichi Clan member vaguely familiar.

Wasn't he the classmate Hinata had gone to have lunch with?

Hyuga Hiashi returned home and saw Hinata being escorted back by the guards. His expression softened. "You're back today, Hinata."

Hyuga Hinata looked at her father in surprise. He seemed unusually different today, and she wondered why he was being so kind.

She silently nodded.

Hyuga Hiashi led her along, took a moment to gather his words, then asked, "What was the name of the classmate whose home you visited for a meal the other day?"

Hyuga Hinata didn't know why he was asking again, but she was never one to refuse. "Akimichi Denji, from the Akimichi Clan."

Hyuga Hiashi smiled warmly. "I heard a child from the Akimichi Clan was taken on as Lady Tsunade's student. Was it Akimichi Denji?"

Even though Hyuga Hinata was shy, she wasn't foolish. Little by little, she understood why her father's attitude had changed.

Complicated feelings welled up inside her. She didn't say anything, just nodded.

"Actually, I wasn't trying to stop you from making friends. I was only worried you'd make bad friends who might lead you astray."

"I thought it over, and decided I shouldn't interfere too much with your choices. You're growing up, and it's normal for you to have your own ideas."

Hyuga Hiashi carefully chose his words and spoke slowly.

He had been arrogant before, and now he was being obsequious.