Strength Test

After awakening memories of his past life, Uchiha Arashi had been working hard to improve himself.

He possessed a mindset more mature than his peers and a firmer will, allowing him to force himself away from play and compel himself to study and train.

However, such methods were only useful within the Ninja Academy, as most students during this period could not learn proper ninjutsu; aside from theoretical knowledge, the most they could learn were the Three Body Technique and some simple taijutsu or ninja tool manipulation.

At this stage, relying on his powerful self-control, Uchiha Arashi's academic performance was far ahead of the rest, long occupying the throne of first place in his grade.

In terms of actual combat, due to the inherent excellent qualities of the Uchiha, he was no worse than the others, at most not as outstanding as he was in his academic subjects.

But as he graduated from the Ninja Academy and truly became a ninja, the flaw of his insufficient talent gradually revealed itself.

Of course, not every Uchiha is like a dragon; true geniuses are a tiny minority. The vast majority of the Uchiha are ordinary people with mediocre talent, and aside from slightly better physical fitness and a larger pool of chakra, they are almost indistinguishable from other villagers.

Uchiha Arashi was unfortunate enough to be one of these ordinary Uchiha.

When geniuses could master various ninjutsu with a casual wave of their hands, he had to spend far more time and energy than them just to barely master a low-level ninjutsu.

And when geniuses were already making a name for themselves in various missions, he could only quickly retreat to the second line, firmly refusing all missions.

And when geniuses easily awakened their Sharingan not long after leaving school, to this day, Uchiha Arashi's own Sharingan remained a distant prospect.

This gap in talent could never be bridged by a simple phrase like "firm will and hard work." Therefore, Uchiha Arashi gradually began to leave the clan grounds less often and stopped performing missions—even refusing clan missions—content to peacefully run his bookstore and voluntarily becoming an obscure passerby.

By this time, Uchiha Arashi had already activated his cheat, and as he worked hard to accumulate the Power of Recognition, his focus had long since shifted from the ninjutsu system to his cheat.

Compared to training and learning from scratch only to see minimal results from his efforts in ninjutsu, this straightforward way of gaining power through his cheat was much better suited to him.

Of course, he had never truly abandoned ninjutsu and chakra, because in this world, these two were the core foundation; even with a cheat, ninjutsu and chakra could absolutely not be forsaken.

Today, he was going to have a serious sparring match with Izumi in the Shadow Space. On one hand, it was to test the fruits of his recent efforts, and on the other, it was to determine what level his strength could reach without using Mangekyo ocular techniques.

Izumi was an excellent benchmark.

Her strength was quite typical.

If one counted her Mangekyo ocular techniques, she could barely reach the Kage Level. Although the ocular techniques were powerful, the consumption was not small; in a real life-or-death fight, Izumi was currently no match for the Third.

And if one excluded the Mangekyo ocular techniques and only used the various basic abilities of the Sharingan, Izumi could steadily reach the Jonin level—yes, the level of that Anbu captain they had previously ambushed and killed.

And if she were not allowed to use the Sharingan at all, then Izumi would be at most at the Chunin level, which was the largest demographic among all ninjas in Konoha, the backbone of the village.

"Are we really going to fight?"

Even when the two were already standing in their positions, Izumi still hesitated.

She knew very well what his strength was; after all, they had known each other for many years. She really didn't want to make Uchiha Arashi lose face, as he was the spiritual pillar in the hearts of their younger siblings and needed to maintain an image of authority.

Uchiha Arashi, however, didn't mind.

"The worst that happens is I get beaten by you. Losing to Sister Izumi is normal, haven't we been doing this for years?"

"But..."

Izumi glanced at the younger siblings beside them with some embarrassment.

Uchiha Arashi smiled.

"It's fine, don't worry."

Izumi gritted her teeth, knowing she couldn't talk Uchiha Arashi out of it.

"Alright then, I'm... starting now?"

Uchiha Arashi nodded.

"Come on."

Before the words had even faded.

Izumi had already vanished from her spot.

Almost at the same instant, she gripped a kunai and flashed in front of Uchiha Arashi.

Those scarlet eyes were locked tightly onto every one of Uchiha Arashi's movements.

Izumi was using her Sharingan.

This was only natural; testing strength didn't need to start from the lowest level. The Sharingan was a necessity for the Uchiha clan during combat. Once the eyes were awakened, applying them in battle was as simple as breathing. There was no need to suffer unnecessarily by not using a tool that was available and effective.

Correspondingly, Uchiha Arashi also activated his Mangekyo.

He could also clearly see every one of Izumi's movements, and he countered by drawing his own kunai to block her series of storm-like strikes.

Basic Uchiha sparring was sometimes just this boring.

When both sides had a Sharingan, theoretically, it was the same as if neither of them had one.

Because everyone possessed the same dynamic vision; as long as one's own speed could not exceed the opponent's ability to track it, then no matter how fast one was, it was useless.

The younger siblings had not yet awakened their eyes, so to them, the taijutsu exchange between the two was somewhat frightening.

The speed was so fast they couldn't see clearly; there were only streaks of afterimages flashing through the air, followed by a barrage of sparks generated by the collision of weapons. It seemed that if one were to accidentally get too close, they would be immediately swept into the storm and torn to shreds.

The basic abilities of their eyes were evenly matched, but there was still a gap in their personal physical attributes.

As a woman, Izumi's body was naturally weaker than Arashi's, and she was a cut below in both strength and stamina. She did not have the advantage in a taijutsu contest and soon fell into a disadvantageous position.

She gritted her teeth, suddenly flashed backward, and at the same time threw a shuriken while her hands moved at high speed to weave signs.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson!"

She spat out a dozen small fireballs, which attached themselves to the shuriken and shot toward Uchiha Arashi.

This was a B-rank ninjutsu, considered a fairly advanced Fire Style technique. Its lethality was secondary; its primary purpose was to seal off the enemy's movement path and obstruct their line of sight.

Once the enemy was affected, follow-up ninjutsu would immediately ensue.

Uchiha Arashi abruptly stopped in his tracks, took a deep breath, and puffed out his chest.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

The next second, a scorching, massive fireball manifested out of thin air, swallowing all the shuriken aimed at him before hurtling toward Uchiha Izumi with unabated momentum.

Uchiha Izumi responded with a Great Fireball of her own.

The two fireballs collided, quickly triggering an explosion. Amidst the thick smoke and flames generated by the blast, Uchiha Arashi and Uchiha Izumi clashed once again.