Confusion

"What target?"

Uchiha Gen turned around and saw the other person's face. He looked completely bewildered. "Who are you?... Who am I?" His finger unconsciously pointed at the other person, then at himself.

The other person showed no reaction to Uchiha Gen's somewhat comical behavior. He simply announced, "Execute the purge!"

What the hell?! This "Ye Yuan" grabbed a Kunai and charged at him.

Uchiha Gen instinctively dodged backward. At the same time, he felt around in his pockets, only to find he didn't have a single weapon on him! Damn! Young people had no honor.

He tried to activate his Sharingan, but after several attempts, he found that his field of vision hadn't changed at all. ??? What the hell was going on!!!

Barehanded, he was already at a disadvantage. And with the initiative lost, Uchiha Gen could only defend himself as the wounds on his body kept piling up.

Finally, for some reason, "Ye Yuan" suddenly raised his arm slightly, exposing a brief opening! Uchiha Gen, who had been forced to take hit after hit, saw his chance and seized the wrist of "Ye Yuan's" Kunai hand. He redirected the force, pulling him toward himself, while slamming his knee into "Ye Yuan's" chin.

The solid hit sent "Ye Yuan" flying backward, crashing heavily onto the black ground! Yet the ground made no sound at all, as if something were missing.

Ye Yuan wiped the blood from his face. For the first time, his expression turned vicious. Signals of pain kept firing through his brain. It had been a long time since he'd felt like this, as if... he were still alive?!

But if he were alive, then by all logic, with so many wounds and all that blood loss, he should have gone into shock by now.

Yet Uchiha Gen felt as lively as ever, without a care in the world. Besides, the blood vanished as soon as it hit the ground. He held out his hand and examined it. Hmm—the only thing was, his body seemed a little transparent.

Even after being kicked so hard that his mouth was crooked, the "Ye Yuan" in front of him stood up immediately, his face still expressionless. He was just like a machine!

Seeing this, Ye Yuan's brain, which had been as good as shut down and couldn't be bothered to think, finally started working again. System, soul, purge... He sorted through the clues. Tsk... It seemed he'd managed to piss off the system.

But his face showed no sign of regret or misery. If anything, there was a strange hint of pride at having managed to anger the system.

This felt pretty good. Ye Yuan tilted his head and smiled. If things were like this, then losing would probably make him disappear for good. Hmm... why did he suddenly feel like that wasn't such a big deal?

While Ye Yuan was lost in thought, his body slowly rose to its feet. His eyes had turned cold and mechanical, and only one command remained in his mind: reclaim the Sharingan!

According to the system's calculations, Sasuke's eyes were the easiest to obtain right now. There had been so many chances to take them outright, and it couldn't understand what Uchiha Gen had been thinking.

"Sasuke, let me tell you, I was the real hero this time!..." Naruto had finally found Sasuke again, and was dramatically bragging about everything he'd done over the past few days.

Sakura noticed Sasuke's expression growing worse and worse as he listened to Naruto. She cut in, "That's enough, Naruto. Sasuke's already in a bad mood. Just be quiet for a while."

Naruto's eyes drooped and his mouth twisted. His expression clearly showed how little he thought of Sasuke acting like this.

Sakura saw that obviously irritating look and felt a vein pop on her forehead. She was about to give Naruto a loving Iron Fist when Sasuke suddenly spoke.

"You only managed it because of your summoning beast. A dead-last will always be a dead-last." Sasuke knew that a summoning beast was part of one's strength, but seeing Naruto act so smug made him want to get in a couple of jabs.

Hearing Sasuke speak made Naruto happy, though he still bickered back. "You stuck-up Sasuke, who are you calling a dead-last?!"

"Idiot."

"You—%@*￥"

After saying that, Sasuke ignored Naruto, putting on an expression that said he wouldn't stoop to arguing with an idiot. He let Naruto carry on making a racket.

Hearing them, Jiraiya laughed. "It's great to be young."

Suddenly, his laughter gradually faded.

Nearby, Kakashi watched Jiraiya's expression grow serious, as if he were surveying their surroundings. After looking around, he silently pulled up his forehead protector with his left hand.

"Ye Yuan," who had been waiting in hiding for the right moment, used his Sharingan to observe their strange movements and realized they were nearing the limit of his range!

At almost the same moment Jiraiya and Kakashi reacted, the scene in front of Sasuke suddenly "moved." What was this?! "Ye Yuan" suddenly appeared right in front of Sasuke! Two fingers curled like an eagle's talons, aiming straight for Sasuke's eyes!

Sasuke had no time to react. All he could do was look terrified as, the next second, "Ye Yuan's" fingers sank into his eye sockets.

Got them!

Just as "Ye Yuan" was about to pluck out the Sharingan and escape, the eyes in his grasp suddenly burst into a cloud of smoke. Calculation error!!! Reassessing the target's strength!

At the same time, the real Sasuke suddenly appeared behind "Ye Yuan." He pulled out a Kunai, stabbed it hard into "Ye Yuan's" shoulder, and quickly retreated! The next moment, an explosion rang out from where "Ye Yuan" stood, BOOM!! Thick smoke billowed into the air.

After jumping to safety, Sasuke was in a terrible mood. "Heh." How could he not learn a thing or two after being kidnapped so many times?

Watching the whole sequence of events, Naruto was dumbfounded. He had no idea when Sasuke had switched places with a clone. Damn, that stuck-up Sasuke was showing off in front of Sakura again!

Seeing Sasuke's performance, Jiraiya frowned. He ran toward Sasuke, shouting, "Get back!" Sasuke's performance just now had been impressive, there was no denying that, but—there was no way that many Explosive Tags could produce so much smoke!

As Jiraiya rushed toward Sasuke, "Ye Yuan," concealed by the smoke, somehow suddenly appeared beside him again and reached out to dig into Sasuke's eye sockets once more!

But with only two centimeters to go, Jiraiya arrived in time and grabbed his wrist. For Sasuke, that tiny distance was like the difference between heaven and hell. "Ye Yuan" was restrained, while in Sasuke's eyes, the fingers had appeared huge, missing his eyes by only the barest margin.

Sasuke stood frozen for half a second. Then cold sweat trickled down his forehead, his heart pounded faster and faster, and fear filled his eyes. He collapsed onto the ground!

"Ye Yuan" turned his face toward Jiraiya and stared at him without emotion. He tried to pull his hand free, but their struggle came to nothing. With his other hand, he formed Hand Seals one-handed, and his cheeks began to bulge.

One-handed Hand Seals?!!

The instant Jiraiya saw "Ye Yuan's" face, his expression turned furious. A flurry of thoughts flashed through his mind, but a Great Fireball interrupted him and forced him back.