The Challenge

Yotsuki Kagura narrowed his eyes and sized up the boy approaching him.

He wore the Uchiha clan uniform. His black hair fell in loose bangs, and he wore glasses. He looked refined and scholarly, almost like a bookish sort.

But those eyes...

Calm.

Too calm.

So calm that they made people... uncomfortable.

"Who are you?" Yotsuki Kagura took his foot off the Genin and let him crumple to the ground.

He turned to face Liuyu, a vicious grin spreading across his lips. "Another useless Uchiha?"

Uchiha Ryūha didn't answer.

He walked to within five meters of Yotsuki Kagura and stopped.

His gaze swept over the three injured Genin on the ground, then settled on Yotsuki Kagura.

"The Chunin Ninja Exams haven't even begun, and you're already in such a hurry to show off your barbarism."

Uchiha Ryūha's voice remained calm, as if he were stating an objective fact:

"The educational standards in Kumogakure seem even lower than I imagined."

The smile vanished from Yotsuki Kagura's face.

"What did you say?!"

"I said," Liuyu pushed up his glasses, "someone like you, who can only think with his muscles and makes even his taunts seem so deliberately crude—

wouldn't even qualify to be my sparring partner in Konoha."

The words fell.

A chorus of sharp inhales swept through the training ground.

The eyes of several young Uchiha shone brightly.

Yotsuki Kagura's expression darkened completely.

"Kid..." He slowly clenched his fists, his knuckles popping like firecrackers. "You're asking to die."

A torrent of Lightning Release Chakra erupted from him.

Blue arcs of electricity danced across his skin as the air crackled.

He unleashed the full pressure of a Jonin!

The surrounding Genin turned pale and instinctively backed away.

But Liuyu stood rooted in place, without so much as a flutter of his clothes.

He simply looked at Yotsuki Kagura calmly, as if watching a monkey bare its fangs and claws.

"You want to fight?" Liuyu said flatly. "Fine.

"But if I injure a member of the Kumogakure delegation, it could cause a diplomatic incident.

"So..."

He paused, the faintest, almost imperceptible curve appearing at the corner of his mouth:

"Let's settle this another way."

Yotsuki Kagura frowned. "What way?"

"The first round of the Chunin Ninja Exams."

Liuyu's voice was soft, yet carried an undeniable force:

"In the exam arena, in front of everyone, I'll put you under my heel—just like you did to him."

He pointed at the bloodied Genin on the ground.

"Then I'll tell everyone that Kumogakure's so-called genius isn't even a match for a Genin in Konoha."

The training ground fell deathly silent.

Everyone stared at the black-haired boy standing before Yotsuki Kagura, his expression calm.

Was he crazy?

That was a Kumogakure Jonin!

A genius of the Yotsuki Clan! A powerhouse who might one day inherit the title of Raikage!

A Konoha Genin actually dared to talk to him like that?

And yet...

Why did it feel... so satisfying?!

Yotsuki Kagura glared at Liuyu, murder boiling in his eyes.

But in the end, he didn't attack.

Not because he was afraid, but because... Liuyu's words had just brought him to his senses.

If he got into a private fight and injured a Konoha Genin, he could brush it off as an "accident while offering pointers."

But killing or seriously injuring an Uchiha prodigy here, in front of so many witnesses, would be an entirely different matter.

The Kumogakure delegation had come to "observe" the Chunin Ninja Exams and assess the strength of Konoha's new generation.

And, while they were at it... test Konoha's limits.

They hadn't come to start a war.

At least, not yet.

"Fine..." Yotsuki Kagura forced the word through his teeth, his voice as cold as a snake's hiss.

"The first round of the Chunin Ninja Exams, right?"

He bared his teeth in a grin:

"I'll remember you, Uchiha brat.

"When the time comes, I'll crush every bone in your body myself and make you crawl on the ground like a dog, begging for mercy."

Then he added, "Don't say I'm picking on you. I'll use only Genin-level Chakra when I fight you!"

Uchiha Ryūha pushed up his glasses.

"Anyone can talk big."

He turned away without another glance at Yotsuki Kagura and walked straight out of the training ground.

When he reached the young Uchiha, he stopped and looked at them.

"Take your injured comrades to the hospital."

Then he continued on, his figure soon vanishing around the street corner.

A group of Konoha shinobi were left staring at one another, along with a Yotsuki Kagura whose expression had darkened to the extreme.

The uproar at the training ground spread through Konoha at astonishing speed.

"Have you heard? Uchiha Ryūha stood up to Yotsuki Kagura from Kumogakure!"

"He even said he'd put him under his heel in the first round of the Chunin Ninja Exams!"

"That's bold! But... well done!"

"Yotsuki Kagura has been acting insufferably for days. Someone should've put him in his place!"

"But... can Ryūha really do it? His opponent's a Jonin..."

"Who cares! At least he didn't back down!"

At the Uchiha Clan compound, in clan leader Uchiha Fugaku's study.

The young Uchiha elites had gathered there, every one of them visibly excited.

Uchiha Shisui was the most animated of them all.

"Clan leader! Ryūha did the Uchiha Clan proud today!"

"Exactly! Why should those Kumogakure brutes be allowed to run wild in our Konoha?"

"Clan leader, we have to give the Chunin Ninja Exams everything we've got. We can't leave Ryūha to shoulder the pressure alone."

Uchiha Fugaku sat behind his desk, his expression calm.

After hearing their report, he fell silent for a moment, then slowly spoke:

"Pass this order along: no Uchiha taking part in the Chunin Ninja Exams is to provoke the Kumogakure delegation again.

"Settle every grievance in the exam arena."

"But, clan leader..."

"No buts." Fugaku raised his eyes and looked across the group. "Ryūha has already issued his challenge.

"What we need to do now isn't act on impulse. We need to prepare, then show everyone our strength in the exam arena—"

His voice was steady and resolute:

"The Uchiha are still Konoha's most powerful clan."

The young men straightened, their spirits lifted. "Yes!"

After everyone had left, Fugaku sat alone in his study, lightly tapping his fingers on the desk.

Uchiha Ryūha...

That boy from a branch family had surprised him again and again.

No—not surprised him. Shaken him.

From awakening the Eye of the Heart, to changing Hatake Sakumo's outlook, to standing up to a Kumogakure Jonin today...

Every step had gone beyond his expectations.

"Perhaps... you really can lead the Uchiha toward a different future."

Fugaku murmured to himself, a glimmer of anticipation in his eyes.

East of Konoha, at the Kumogakure guesthouse.

Yotsuki Kagura slammed a fist into the wall. The solid stone cracked instantly, and rubble pattered to the floor.

"Uchiha Ryūha..." He gritted his teeth. "That sharp-tongued brat."

Blue B leaned against the doorframe, his eyes filled with the ferocity of a Tailed Beast. "Lord Kagura, that kid's interesting.

"His Chakra feels unusual—not like an ordinary Uchiha's."

"Unusual?" Yotsuki Kagura sneered. "No matter how unusual, he's still just a Genin.

"The Chunin Ninja Exams... I'll make him understand the price of provoking Kumogakure."

Shimoka silently wiped his Ninja Blade without a word.

But a cold killing intent flashed in his eyes.

Outside the guesthouse windows, night deepened.

Konoha's lights came on one after another, peaceful and serene.

But beneath that calm, undercurrents were stirring.

The Chunin Ninja Exams hadn't begun yet.

But the smoke of battle was already in the air.