Wherever he passed, the boys stepped aside to make way.
It was not out of fear, but because with teachers present and fighting forbidden, no one wanted to be caught in the same frame as Nebula Kotetsu.
Rin Nohara looked at him with joy, Obito Uchiha tensed up in vigilance, but Nebula Kotetsu did not stop.
Ignoring the possibility of being spotted by the teachers, Mitarashi Anko pulled the conflicted-looking Uzuki Yugao along and waved at him excitedly, to which he merely nodded.
He then arrived at the side of Might Guy, who was currently wearing his green spandex suit, with classmates keeping a one-meter distance from him.
"Guy."
"How was it? Did I perform well?"
Might Guy grinned at the words and gave a thumbs-up: "Not bad, Nebula."
"You performed well."
"But if you want to keep challenging me, you still need more power of youth!"
Nebula Kotetsu said earnestly.
"Rest assured."
"Guy, I will definitely catch up to you!"
"Thanks for the support!"
Might Guy grinned, his teeth flashing brightly.
The two then stood side by side to watch the matches.
Not long after.
"Next group, Obito Uchiha versus Might Guy."
At the voice of Kaede Hyuga, Might Guy became suddenly excited.
He grinned at Nebula Kotetsu: "Nebula, I'm going in!"
Nebula Kotetsu: "Good luck!"
"Guy, your opponent is an Uchiha; don't underestimate him, use your full strength!"
Might Guy: "Don't worry!"
"My youth is already prepared to burn intensely!"
On the other side.
Rin Nohara raised a fist: "Obito, good luck!"
Obito Uchiha said with full confidence: "I will definitely win!"
The heartache Rin had caused him that morning had been temporarily suppressed by his powerful self-regulation abilities. Carrying a trace of coldness and determination from his injury, he looked at Might Guy, who was constantly leaping and warming up in the center of the arena, and a flicker of fighting spirit emerged in his eyes.
Come on! You green spandex weirdo!
I'm sorry, but you've run into a terrifying man who was just wounded.
I will let Rin know that compared to that guy Nebula Kotetsu, I am the superior ninja who possesses both strength and good looks!
They formed the Seal of Confrontation!
Obito Uchiha spoke in a cold voice: "Might Guy, is it?"
"It's your bad luck to run into me right now. Bring out all your strength; don't blame me for not warning you."
Might Guy extended one hand forward, clenched the other into a fist, and crossed his legs into a fighting stance.
"Bring it on!"
The next second, fueled by anger, resentment, and a heart full of scars, Obito Uchiha lunged forward!
In an instant.
"Strong Fist Whirlwind!"
"BANG!!!"
Obito Uchiha only felt a blur before his eyes.
The next second, there was a faint buzzing in his ears, and then, the world seemed to go quiet.
His heart went quiet, too.
Heartache, resentment, all negative emotions seemed to be wiped away in an instant.
He felt very free.
Before him were the blue sky and white clouds. Birds flew through them, and as they stretched their wings, a string of white things seemed to fall down.
Are those the birds' tears?
His mind drifted for a moment.
0.5 seconds later, the internally tranquil Obito Uchiha suddenly snapped back to reality.
Something felt wrong... he was flying!
That was right! He had been kicked into the air by Might Guy!
The guy in the green spandex was fast and strong; caught off guard for a moment, he had been sent flying by a single whip-kick!
The training ground... the exam... Rin! And himself, having just spouted such arrogant nonsense! In an instant, Obito Uchiha recalled his situation, and sudden anxiety surged in his heart!
How embarrassing!
No! He couldn't go out like this! If he really just collapsed here, how would he ever show his face in the village again?!
Feeling his body plummeting, Obito Uchiha summoned a burst of new strength through sheer willpower! Enduring the pain in his chest, he reached his hands downward.
The timing was perfect; his hands braced against the ground, and ignoring the dust, he used the momentum to roll backward.
As he rolled, he kept one leg slightly bent and the other extended, and as his legs touched the ground, he raised his left hand to the side and snapped his head up!
Opposite him, Might Guy did not take the opportunity to launch a sneak attack.
Obito Uchiha tried his best to keep his breathing steady and said, "Very well, I'm getting serious now!"
"Take this!"
He reached into his shuriken holster, and with a flick of his hands, eight shuriken traced strange, curved paths, rapidly closing in on Might Guy.
A flicker of gravity crossed Might Guy's eyes.
The Uchiha clan's Shurikenjutsu was famous throughout the ninja world. Not knowing if Obito Uchiha's shuriken truly had "strange trajectories," he chose the safest way to respond.
"BOOM!!!" The ground exploded with a loud sound!
Amidst the spraying dirt, Might Guy leaped thirty feet into the air, instantly taking to the sky!
Mid-air, he also reached into his pouch, eight shuriken pinched between his fingertips.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!!"
The shuriken tore through the air!
Compared to Obito Uchiha's shuriken, Might Guy's throwing technique could only be described as standard.
The trajectory was a clear straight line, and the accuracy wasn't high. But what it lacked in precision, it made up for in quantity.
Under the force of Might Guy's throw, the eight shuriken whistled through the wind like eight stones, slamming fiercely toward Obito Uchiha.
Obito Uchiha's pupils constricted; a sense of intense danger made him instinctively roll to the side.
This time, he couldn't pretend to be elegant anymore, rolling until he was covered in dust.
Yet, he felt relieved.
"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!!!~" The shuriken embedded themselves into the ground where he had just been, creating a series of explosions and leaving eight fist-sized craters in the earth.
Obito Uchiha: "(キ`゚Д゚´)!!"
Damn it! If he hadn't dodged just now, would he have been beaten to death on the training ground by unsharpened shuriken!?
A feeling called "lingering fear" rose in his heart.
At this moment, Obito Uchiha suddenly realized that the events of the morning weren't actually a big deal.
He didn't remember them at all.
He wasn't some wounded, cold-blooded man.
Nor was he an elite ninja who possessed both good looks and strength.
He was just a Ninja Academy student who hadn't even graduated yet.
A teenage boy, gentle by nature, who loved helping the elderly and hated school bullying.
In his terror, he saw Might Guy's figure descending from mid-air.
His legs were like steel machines; Obito hadn't even seen how he absorbed the impact, but as he landed with a "thud," the guy was already charging toward him.
As he ran, dust flew in his wake, and he saw Might Guy's excited face.
Shiny hair, shiny teeth, like a wild beast, letting out a bloodthirsty laugh at him.
"Hahaha!!!~"
"A battle full of passion!"
"What truly moving youth!"
"Take this! Konoha Gale!"
"Bang, bang, bang!!!"
"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!!!!~"
Hard fists and kicks struck his body relentlessly.
Obito Uchiha felt as if he were being mauled by a giant bear.
Following a sharp pain in his chest, he saw the blue sky once again.
He even thought he saw a few grandmothers.
He knew he had been sent flying once again.
Yet this time, he felt no nervousness or shame, only a sense of relief and quiet. There was but a single thought remaining in his mind.
Why hasn't the referee called a stop yet?
Is this a deliberate targeting of the Uchiha by the Hyuga clan?
The inherently evil Hyuga clan...