Who Said You Could Look Me in the Eye?

"The... the winner is Uchiha Ryūha!"

The proctor's voice trembled. He swallowed before managing to announce the result.

The long-suppressed tension in the stands erupted the instant he made the announcement.

"What kind of joke is this? Setsuna actually lost?"

"What kind of sorcery did that Uchiha Ryūha use? Was Setsuna fighting a ghost just now?"

"No hand seals, no eye contact, and he barely even moved... Is this really the dead last we all know?"

Countless gazes focused on Uchiha Ryūha.

There was shock, wariness, and curiosity, but more than anything, the Uchiha clan members looked at him with scrutiny and suspicion.

In this family, which revered strength, a clan member with a strange, unknown ability had suddenly appeared.

It wasn't just a surprise. It was a threat.

Uchiha Ryūha paid them no mind.

A pleasant system notification rang out in his mind:

[ Ding! Newbie mission complete! ]

[ Rating: S-rank (A perfect, overwhelming victory that caused a huge shift in perception). ]

[ Rewards issued: Reiatsu limit increased by 100%; compatibility with the Zanpakuto, Kyōka Suigetsu, increased to 10%. ]

[ Karma Points obtained: 100 (can be used in the System Shop or for draws). ]

A warm current surged through his body, and Ryūha felt his strength rise another level.

His Chakra (Reiatsu), which had been completely depleted, now brimmed as if it were about to overflow.

So this was Reiatsu?

Compared to Chakra, it was denser and more oppressive.

In short, it was better for showing off.

He was about to leave the examination grounds when a stern voice suddenly rang out.

"Hold it."

A figure Body Flickered down from the stands and blocked Ryūha's path.

The middle-aged man had a stern face and deep furrows around his mouth. A bloodthirsty air clung to him, the kind possessed only by a Jonin who had seen years of battle.

Uchiha Yashiro, a squad leader in the Police Force and a representative of the clan's hardliners.

"Uchiha Ryūha."

Uchiha Yashiro looked down at Ryūha, his Three-Tomoe Sharingan slowly turning as he tried to put pressure on the branch-family boy.

"What was that technique you used on Setsuna?"

His tone was less a question than an interrogation. "You used no Hand Seals, evaded the Sharingan's perception, and drove Setsuna into a frenzy... That was no ordinary genjutsu.

There's no record of any such ninjutsu in the clan's archives."

The air around them instantly froze.

Everyone could hear the hostility in Yashiro's words.

The Uchiha clan had an abnormal obsession with controlling power. They would never allow an uncontrollable outsider to emerge within their ranks.

Uchiha Ryūha stopped and looked up at Yashiro.

Faced with the pressure of the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, he didn't retreat in the slightest. Instead, his eyes narrowed slightly behind his glasses.

"Lord Yashiro, it's a 'ninjutsu I created myself.'"

Ryūha smiled as he made it up without batting an eye. "I call it... 'Complete Hypnosis.'"

"A ninjutsu of your own?" Uchiha Yashiro sneered. "A dead last who can't even use the Great Fireball can create a ninjutsu of this caliber?

Hand over your ninja tools. I'm inspecting them! I suspect you used some kind of forbidden poison or Cursed Seal!"

As he spoke, Uchiha Yashiro reached out, actually going for Kyōka Suigetsu at Ryūha's waist.

In his eyes, Uchiha Ryūha was just a brat who'd won by sheer luck.

Faced with the authority of the Police Force, he would have to comply.

However.

Just as Yashiro's fingers were about to touch the hilt—

Smack.

A pale, slender hand gently clamped around Uchiha Yashiro's calloused wrist.

Uchiha Yashiro froze.

He was a Jonin!

Even a casual grab from him shouldn't have been something a freshly graduated Genin could react to!

What shocked him more was the unbelievable strength coming from that seemingly delicate hand.

It was like an iron vise, holding him completely still.

"Lord Yashiro."

The smile on Ryūha's face remained gentle, but a chilling glint stirred in the depths of his dark-brown eyes.

At that moment, he no longer held back his Reiatsu. A faint trace leaked out.

It was only a trace, yet it carried a higher-dimensional pressure that seemed to reach the soul.

Boom!

Uchiha Yashiro's vision blurred. It was as if a towering demon god stood above him, looking down.

The terrifying sensation of suffocation made his heart stop.

"Who gave you permission to touch my sword?"

Uchiha Ryūha spoke softly, yet every person present heard his words clearly.

"You..." Cold sweat instantly beaded on Uchiha Yashiro's forehead. His body instinctively tried to retreat, but he found himself unable to move, crushed beneath the other man's presence.

"Stop!"

Just as the confrontation was about to escalate, a low shout rang out.

Uchiha Fugaku Body Flickered between them.

As clan head, he couldn't let his clan members fight among themselves in front of everyone, much less let outsiders laugh at them.

"Yashiro, stand down."

"What do you think you're doing, attacking a clan member who just graduated?" Uchiha Fugaku said sternly.

Uchiha Yashiro, as if reprieved, hurriedly pulled his hand back. He stared at Ryūha in alarm before retreating behind Fugaku with gritted teeth.

Fugaku turned and studied Ryūha with a deep gaze.

The Chakra that had flared up just now... That cold, dark, yet boundless sensation had made even him uneasy.

The outsider who'd usually kept to the sidelines had been hiding this much?

"Ryūha." Fugaku's tone softened, carrying a hint of an attempt to win him over.

"Since you've graduated, report to the Police Force tomorrow. The clan needs talent like you."

It was an acknowledgment, but also a way to keep an eye on him.

Ryūha understood that perfectly.

He released his grip on the sword, adjusted his glasses, and returned to his harmless, bookish appearance.

"It would be my honor, Clan Head."

He bowed slightly, then turned and walked out of the examination grounds at an unhurried pace, with the crowd watching him in silence, their expressions complicated.

The glow of the Blood-Red Sunset fell across his back, casting a long shadow.

Once outside the school gates, the smile on Ryūha's face gradually faded.

He glanced back at Kage Rock, then toward the Uchiha Compound.

"The Police Force, huh... That'll do."

"If I'm going to find a stage for myself in the world of Naruto, I'll start by taking control of the Uchiha."

He gently stroked Kyōka Suigetsu at his waist.

"After all, admiration is the emotion farthest from understanding... Don't you agree, everyone in Konoha?"

At that moment, in the shadow of a large tree across from the Ninja Academy,

an Anbu wearing a mask was hurriedly recording something on a scroll.

Then he vanished into a streak of shadow and raced toward the Hokage Building.

Intelligence level: S.

Target: Uchiha Ryūha.

Traits: Suspected to have awakened an unknown Kekkei Genkai. Extremely dangerous.