Strength Test

After awakening memories of his past life, Uchiha Arashi had worked tirelessly to improve himself.

His thinking was more mature than that of his peers, and his will was stronger. He could make himself stop playing and force himself to study and train.

But this approach had only been useful at the Ninja Academy. At that stage, most students couldn't learn any proper ninjutsu. Aside from theory, the most they could manage was the Three Body Technique, some basic Taijutsu, and simple weapons training.

At that stage, Uchiha Arashi's powerful self-discipline had put him far ahead in his studies, and he had held the top spot in his class for years.

As for actual combat, thanks to the Uchiha's natural strengths, he wasn't worse than the others. He simply didn't stand out as much as he did in academics.

But after graduating from the Ninja Academy and becoming a real ninja, his lack of talent gradually began to show.

Of course, not every Uchiha was a dragon among men. True geniuses were few and far between. Most Uchiha were ordinary people with unremarkable talent. They were a little fitter and had a little more chakra than others, but were otherwise much like any other villager.

Unfortunately, Uchiha Arashi was one of those ordinary Uchiha.

While the geniuses picked up all kinds of ninjutsu with ease, he had to spend far more time and effort than they did just to barely master a low-level technique.

And while the geniuses casually made names for themselves on all sorts of missions, he had quickly fallen to the sidelines, firmly refusing every assignment.

The geniuses had awakened their Sharingan with ease not long after leaving the Academy. Even now, Uchiha Arashi's own Sharingan remained nowhere in sight.

No amount of "strong will and hard work" could make up for that kind of difference in talent. As time went on, Uchiha Arashi began leaving the clan compound less and less. He stopped taking missions, even those for the clan, and devoted himself to running his bookstore. He had deliberately made himself into an anonymous face in the crowd.

By then, Uchiha Arashi had already unlocked his special ability and was working hard to accumulate the Power of Recognition. His focus had long since shifted from the ninjutsu system to that ability.

Compared to ninjutsu, which required starting from scratch and gave him little return despite all his effort, the straightforward way his special ability granted him power was much better suited to him.

Of course, he had never truly abandoned ninjutsu or chakra. In this world, they were the very foundation of everything. Even with his special ability, he couldn't afford to give them up.

Today, he was going to have a serious match with Izumi in Shadow Space. It would let him test the results of his recent efforts, and also find out roughly how strong he was without using his Mangekyo techniques.

Izumi was a good benchmark.

Her strength was fairly representative.

With her Mangekyo techniques, she could just about reach Kage Level. Her techniques were powerful, but they also took a heavy toll. In a straight fight, Izumi couldn't beat the Third at her current level.

Without her Mangekyo techniques, but with the basic abilities of the Sharingan, Izumi could reliably reach Jonin level. In other words, she was about as strong as the Anbu Captain they had ambushed and killed before.

And if she couldn't even use her Sharingan, Izumi would be no stronger than a Chunin—the most numerous rank among all the ninjas in Konoha, and the backbone of the village.

"Do we really have to fight?"

Even after they had taken their positions opposite each other, Izumi still seemed hesitant.

She knew how strong Arashi was, after all. They had known each other for years, and she really didn't want to embarrass him. He was the emotional pillar for his younger siblings, and he needed to maintain his authority.

Uchiha Arashi didn't mind.

"The worst that can happen is you beat me. Losing to you is perfectly normal, Izumi. Isn't that how it's always been?"

"But..."

Izumi glanced awkwardly at the younger siblings standing nearby.

Uchiha Arashi smiled.

"It's fine. Don't worry."

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

"All right, then. I'll... get started?"

Uchiha Arashi nodded.

"Come on."

Before the words had even left his mouth,

Izumi vanished from where she stood.

Almost at the same moment, she gripped her Kunai and darted in front of Uchiha Arashi.

Her scarlet eyes fixed intently on his every move.

Izumi had activated her Sharingan.

That was only natural. There was no need to start a test of strength at the lowest level. The Sharingan was essential to the Uchiha Clan's fighting style. Once awakened, using it in battle was as natural as breathing. There was no point in making things harder than they had to be by refusing to use a reliable tool.

In response, Uchiha Arashi activated his Mangekyo as well.

He could clearly see every movement Izumi made, and drew his Kunai to fend off her relentless barrage of attacks.

Basic Uchiha combat could be pretty dull sometimes.

When both fighters had the Sharingan, in theory, it was much the same as if neither of them had it.

They both had the same enhanced dynamic vision. As long as neither could move faster than the other could track, speed alone was useless.

The younger siblings hadn't awakened their eyes yet, so to them, watching the two of them trade blows with Taijutsu was a little frightening.

They moved too fast to follow. Only streaks of afterimages flashed through the air, followed by sparks from the clashing weapons. It seemed that anyone who got too close would be swept into the storm and torn to pieces.

Their eyes' basic abilities were evenly matched, but their physical abilities were not.

As a woman, Izumi was naturally weaker than Arashi. She fell short in both strength and endurance, putting her at a clear disadvantage in Taijutsu. Before long, she was on the back foot.

She gritted her teeth, suddenly leaped back, and flung a handful of Shuriken as her hands formed Seals at lightning speed.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson!"

She breathed out more than a dozen small fireballs. They clung to the Shuriken as they shot toward Uchiha Arashi.

It was a B-rank technique, a fairly advanced Fire Release technique. Its killing power was secondary; its main purpose was to block the enemy's escape routes and obstruct their vision.

Once the enemy was disrupted, the next ninjutsu would follow immediately.

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

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

The next second, a blazing fireball appeared out of nowhere and swallowed every Shuriken flying toward him. It kept surging forward, hurtling straight at Uchiha Izumi.

Uchiha Izumi answered with a Great Fireball of her own.

The two fireballs collided and quickly exploded. Amid the thick smoke and flames from the blast, Uchiha Arashi and Uchiha Izumi clashed once more.