Standing behind Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Chen understood that he had only one chance. His opponent would let his guard down just once, and after that, there wouldn't be another opening!
He threw the last three Kunai in his hand and waited for that one opportunity.
Each Kunai had an Explosive Tag attached. Chen planned to use the smoke from the blast to create an opening.
But just then...
"Chen? Itachi?"
A girl's voice rang out, drawing the attention of the two fighters.
"Big Sis Izumi?"
"Izumi?"
Uchiha Chen and Uchiha Itachi spoke almost simultaneously. Uchiha Izumi's arrival completely disrupted what they had planned to do next.
While the two were distracted, the Explosive Tags began to smoke. They were about to go off.
At the critical moment, Itachi struck Chen's clothes with his Kunai, trying to knock him out of the blast zone.
Chen had the same idea.
Chen had challenged Itachi because of the system, but he certainly didn't want anyone to get hurt.
For that reason, he also tried to save Itachi. But since both of them had the same thought, neither managed to escape the blast radius in time.
The explosion caught both Chen and Itachi. Fortunately, they had moved away from its center at the last moment. The blast sent them flying, but neither was injured.
"Ah!"
Chen hit the ground hard. He heard a scream and looked up, only to see that Itachi had somehow landed right on top of Izumi.
More importantly, the two of them were in a rather...
Holy crap, seriously? Could Itachi in this world be a transmigrator too?
Chen was astonished, and the scene unfolding nearby was more than a little awkward.
"Izumi, I..."
"Are you hurt? Why were you fighting Chen?"
Izumi could see that Itachi hadn't done it on purpose; it had all been an accident. But the way his face had flushed for that brief moment left Chen in shock.
Is this guy really Itachi?
Seeing Itachi blush had to be rarer than seeing Sasuke not show off.
"Big Sis Izumi, this was actually my fault. I heard you always say how strong Big Brother Itachi was, so I wanted to challenge him."
As soon as Chen spoke, he promptly threw Izumi under the bus.
Izumi did often bring up Itachi, but saying it now would obviously embarrass her.
Sure enough, the moment Chen spoke, Izumi's face turned red. Itachi, however, seemed completely oblivious to what it meant.
"You know each other?"
"Chen lives next door to me. His parents passed away, so I sometimes go over to look after him."
Izumi answered without daring to meet Itachi's eyes. Itachi nodded and said nothing more.
"Then it was just a misunderstanding. Itachi, you're hurt too, so you can skip training today."
Shisui spoke up at just the right moment. Itachi looked a little puzzled, then nodded.
The two who had planned to keep training decided to head home instead, while Izumi took Chen away with her.
"Ding! System notification: Challenge mission—challenge Uchiha Shisui!"
"Ding! System notification: Affection mission unlocked. Create some time alone for Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Izumi. Mission reward: Uchiha Izumi's affection. The longer they spend alone together, the greater the bonus reward."
As Izumi led Chen away, the system's voice rang out in his mind.
Damn it, Pit-Father System, are you messing with me? I just finished challenging Itachi, and now I have to challenge Shisui? Are you going to make me challenge the whole Uchiha Clan in some hundred-man killing spree?
And what the hell is an affection system?
Are you trying to make me steal Itachi's girl?
Chen was completely speechless. He wasn't worried about what Itachi might do if he tried to steal his girl, but who knew how Itachi's fans would tear him apart?
(System: No worries! Everything's fine!)
"One last warning: I'm not called the Pit-Father System. If you insult me again, believe me, I'll give you a mission to kill the Third."
"..."
"And you're the one with the dirty mind. The affection module just measures how much the other person likes you. It has nothing to do with what you were thinking."
"Don't blame me for your own filthy thoughts."
The system's defense sounded thoroughly unconvincing to Chen.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you. If you fail the mission, your punishment this time will be XX shrinking by two centimeters."
"You bastard!"
"And you still claim you're not the Pit-Father System? Have you ever heard of a system that uses a censored body part as a mission punishment?"
"Tell me exactly what's shrinking by two centimeters!"
"You just insulted me again, so the mission difficulty has been raised. The challenge-Uchiha-Shisui mission is now a defeat-Uchiha-Shisui mission, and failure now means XX shrinks by ten centimeters."
"You..."
"It's fine. Keep talking, and I'll raise the mission to killing Uchiha Shisui."
When he heard the system's voice, Chen hurriedly covered his mouth. That awful system always followed through on its threats.
"Boss, I'm sorry. I'll never call you the Pit-Father System again. I'd be a dog if I did."
With tears in his eyes, Chen had no choice but to back down. Picking another fight with that nuisance was just asking for trouble.
"Chen, what's wrong?"
Noticing that Chen was acting strangely, Izumi asked in confusion.
"Nothing."
"Big Sis Izumi, who's the big brother who was with Itachi? Is he strong too?"
Under normal circumstances, Chen wouldn't know Shisui, so he could only call him "big brother."
"His name is Uchiha Shisui. He's already a Chunin. Do you want to challenge him?"
Izumi had only asked casually, but Chen seized the chance to go along with it.
"That's right! I want to challenge Uchiha Shisui. If I beat him, I'll be even stronger than Big Brother Itachi."
Chen did his best to act like a child, hoping not to draw attention. He had no idea that both Shisui and Itachi already had their suspicions about him.
"You're always thinking about challenging people. Fine, I can't be bothered to stop you. Just be careful not to get hurt. Explosive Tags are dangerous, so I'm confiscating them. If I'd known you were going to use them for something this dangerous, I wouldn't have given them to you."
Izumi spoke like a kindly big sister, while also cutting off Chen's supply of Explosive Tags.
Chen was a little frustrated by that. When he got home, he began thinking about how he could defeat Shisui.
There was no way he could win in a straightforward fight, no matter how he looked at it. His only hope was to take an unconventional approach.
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