"He hit him!"
"He took a Great Fireball head-on. Even a Chunin would be badly injured, right?"
"That Liuyu is done for. Setsuna-kun was way too harsh, but that's the Shinobi World for you."
The stands buzzed with chatter. Quite a few girls even covered their eyes, afraid to look at the gruesome scene that would follow.
Uchiha Setsuna stood where he was, breathing slightly hard, a victor's sneer on his lips.
"Hmph. Pathetic."
He turned to the proctor and said arrogantly, "Teacher, you can announce the results now, right? I may have accidentally killed him, but he was just too weak..."
Whoosh—
A gust of wind blew through, and the smoke gradually cleared.
The whole arena fell silent.
The noisy stands seemed to have had their throats seized by an invisible hand. Every voice stopped at once.
The smile froze on Uchiha Setsuna's face.
Uchiha Fugaku's eyes snapped open, his Sharingan activating as he stared intently at the field.
"What is this..."
Where the smoke had cleared, the ground had been scorched into a charred crater.
But at the center of the crater, Uchiha Ryūha was still standing.
Not even the hem of his clothes was singed. There wasn't so much as a speck of dust on his plain glasses.
He held his sword in one hand, its tip angled toward the ground.
He looked so relaxed, as if he'd just come back from a party rather than a life-or-death battle.
"T-That's impossible?!"
Uchiha Setsuna's pupils contracted violently. He shrieked, "My Great Fireball hit you! That heat, that impact... Why aren't you hurt at all?!"
Uchiha Ryūha raised his head and looked at Setsuna through his lenses, a trace of pity in his eyes.
As if he were looking at an ant struggling in a downpour.
"Did you really hit me, Setsuna-kun?"
Uchiha Ryūha's gentle voice echoed across the empty training ground. "Or was everything you saw merely an illusion you wanted to believe in?"
After saying that, Uchiha Ryūha felt a strange surge of excitement. Sure enough, he was a chunibyo.
"An illusion? Stop spouting nonsense!"
Setsuna was enraged by that look, his face reddening with humiliation.
"If you're not dead, then I'll kill you again!"
Setsuna roared and pulled four Shuriken from his ninja pouch, holding Explosive Tags between the fingers of both hands.
Shuriken Manipulation: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!
He hurled them forward. The Shuriken traced bizarre arcs through the air, cutting off every avenue of escape for Liuyu.
The fuses on the Explosive Tags hissed as they burned.
Then something bizarre happened.
In the eyes of every spectator—
Uchiha Ryūha didn't move at all.
He simply stood there, calmly sliding the sword in his hand back into its scabbard.
But in Uchiha Setsuna's eyes—
Uchiha Ryūha suddenly transformed into a gigantic black dragon made of ink and water. It opened its maw and lunged at him!
"Aaaah! What kind of monster is that?!"
Uchiha Setsuna cried out in terror.
Though people in the Hokage's world matured early, he was still only ten years old.
The Shuriken he'd thrown at Uchiha Ryūha suddenly veered out of control in midair, turning toward the empty ground beside him!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Explosive Tags detonated across the empty ground, sending dirt flying.
Then Uchiha Setsuna began frantically forming Hand Seals at the air, dodging and throwing punches.
"Stay back! Stay back!"
Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!
"Why can't I cut you down?! Why?!"
He was like a madman, rolling and leaping across the level ground.
He hurled one chakra-draining Ninjutsu after another at the empty air.
Great Fireball, Phoenix Flower Fire, even the Dragon Fire Technique, which he hadn't mastered...
Chakra poured out of him as if it were free, yet every attack hit nothing or exploded at his own feet.
"What... what's going on?"
The proctor's mouth hung open. He didn't even notice the record board slipping from his hands. "Did Setsuna fall under a genjutsu? But Ryūha didn't form any Hand Seals, and they didn't even make eye contact!"
The Sharingan's genjutsu had to be activated through eye contact.
That was an ironclad rule of the Shinobi World!
Of course, the little-known Izanami was an exception.
In the stands, Uchiha Fugaku's face darkened as if rain might drip from it.
His Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun wildly as he tried to see through the flow of Ryūha's Chakra.
"No sign of Hand Seals... His Chakra flow is steady too... This isn't a Sharingan genjutsu."
A storm raged in Fugaku's mind. "A technique that makes an opponent fall completely into madness, even completely deceiving their senses... What is it?"
At the center of the battlefield.
Uchiha Ryūha lightly pushed up his glasses and looked at Uchiha Setsuna, who was breathing hard, his Chakra almost completely depleted.
Under Kyoka Suigetsu's Complete Hypnosis, all five of Setsuna's senses—
Sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—were under Ryūha's control.
Setsuna thought he was fighting a monster. In reality, he was only squaring off against thin air.
"It's about time to end this."
Ryūha murmured softly.
He rushed toward Uchiha Setsuna.
Not wanting to reveal his Flash Step, Ryūha used Reiatsu to accelerate instead.
At that moment, Setsuna was kneeling on the ground, bracing himself with both hands.
Sweat soaked his clothes. His eyes were bloodshot and full of terror.
"Ha... ha... It's finally... dead..." Setsuna looked at the phantom monster he had "killed" and smiled maniacally.
"Where are you looking?"
A warm, gentle voice suddenly spoke right beside his ear.
Setsuna's whole body stiffened. He turned his head mechanically.
Uchiha Ryūha's face came into view, still clean and handsome, a faint smile on his lips.
And a cold scabbard pressed against his throat.
"You lose, Setsuna-kun."
Setsuna's pupils dilated. The crushing shock and the weakness of his depleted Chakra hit him at once.
"M-Monster..."
He rolled his eyes, foamed at the mouth, and passed out.
The entire arena was utterly silent.
Only the rustle of wind through the leaves could be heard.
Everyone stared at the seemingly harmless boy in the middle of the field as if he were a stranger—or even a monster.
Ryūha sheathed his sword, turned to the dumbfounded proctor, and bowed slightly. His manners were impeccable.
"Teacher, is the exam over?"
Before you continue