Terrifying Pressure

After that, the instructors came to the classroom to take their students away.

Whenever one of them entered, they would first glance in Yeyu's direction.

They were incredibly curious about him.

The students were taken away one class at a time.

Before long, only Team 7 and Yeyu remained in the classroom. He was fast asleep with his head on the desk.

The room felt cavernously empty.

Naruto kept sneaking glances at Yeyu. Seeing him asleep at his desk, Naruto inexplicably felt relieved.

Sasuke had been staring in Yeyu's direction for a long time, lost in thought. Then he stood up.

Sakura, who had been watching Sasuke the whole time, stood up too. "Sasuke, where are you going?"

Naruto had been feeling uneasy, and Sakura's question made him look over at Sasuke.

Sasuke ignored them both and walked toward Yeyu.

Alarmed, Naruto called after him, "Sasuke, what are you doing? Don't go over there!"

Sasuke glanced at Naruto, deep in thought.

But he didn't listen. With his hands in his pockets, he walked over to Yeyu.

"Yeyu, you're hiding something, aren't you?"

Sasuke sat on the desk beside Yeyu.

Yeyu didn't lift his head. He hadn't even woken up.

He wasn't very interested in the original characters anymore.

When Yeyu didn't respond, Sasuke's gaze grew increasingly dangerous.

Naruto stood behind them, wanting to step forward and say something. But as soon as he remembered how terrifying Yeyu had looked last night, he couldn't move.

Sakura walked over to Sasuke and looked at Yeyu.

She was curious too. "Yeyu, how did you become a Chunin right away?"

"And you're the only one in your class. That's so strange."

Yeyu seemed to wake from his nap. He wiped away some nonexistent drool.

With a hint of impatience, he said, "I don't know either. The Hokage decided it, not me."

Sasuke felt a little annoyed. Why hadn't Yeyu woken up when he spoke, but woke up when Sakura asked him something?

And why had he only answered Sakura's question?

"You don't know?"

"I'd think you'd know better than anyone. Skipping straight past Genin and becoming a Chunin has never happened before."

"How could you not know?"

Though Sasuke was annoyed that Yeyu had ignored him, he was still a little jealous that Yeyu had become a Chunin right away.

After all, he was only twelve.

Yeyu glanced at Sasuke. "I really don't know."

"But it has nothing to do with you, does it?"

Sasuke and Sakura were momentarily at a loss for words.

It was true. Even if Yeyu had become a Chunin right away, what did that have to do with them?

After a brief silence, Sasuke said, "You must have been hiding your strength back at the academy, right?"

"Why? Did you think even I wasn't worth fighting?"

Yeyu looked at Sasuke calmly. "Maybe you weren't."

Yeyu had once been far weaker than Sasuke, but now the gap between them was like heaven and earth.

Only if Sasuke gained Six Paths Power would Yeyu be unable to beat him.

Before gaining that power, Sasuke was no match for Yeyu.

Yeyu knew that perfectly well.

Sasuke was stunned.

He hadn't expected Yeyu to admit it so bluntly, without even trying to soften the blow.

"Is that so? How would you know without trying?"

Sasuke clenched his fists and looked at Yeyu challengingly.

He couldn't accept anyone surpassing him, especially a classmate.

Yeyu didn't respond to the challenge. His expression remained unchanged, as if he hadn't even realized Sasuke was challenging him.

He calmly asked Sasuke, "Does it matter that much to you?"

Sasuke froze.

Yeyu had hit the mark.

"There's no need. If you want to grow stronger, your only opponent is yourself. Even if you surpass someone else, does that mean you can surpass the person you've always wanted to?"

Yeyu's words seemed to come out of nowhere, but Sasuke was shaken to his core.

He stared at Yeyu in shock.

How... how did he know?

Sasuke had always wanted to kill Itachi Uchiha, his older brother—the criminal who had wiped out the entire Uchiha Clan.

Sakura listened to them, completely bewildered.

"What are you two talking about?"

Yeyu looked at Sasuke, his expression calm.

But Sasuke's eyes were wide with shock. Yeyu's words had snapped him to his senses.

What had he been doing all this time?

Whenever he met someone who might be stronger than him, he tried every possible way to defeat them. What was the point?

Could any of them really compare to Itachi Uchiha?

Even if he defeated them all, would that mean he could defeat Itachi Uchiha?

Of course not.

What mattered most was whether he kept getting stronger.

Sasuke looked at Yeyu. "How did you know?"

He asked anyway.

Yeyu was perfectly calm. "It doesn't take much to figure out. After all, it's the Uchiha Clan."

"The Uchiha Clan..." Sasuke murmured.

How long had it been since he'd heard those words?

Because the Uchiha Clan had been wiped out, people who talked about it avoided doing so in front of Sasuke.

He hadn't heard those words in a long time.

Sasuke clenched his fists, then looked up at Yeyu. "I want to challenge you. Do you really have the strength to be a Chunin?"

"How far am I from becoming a Chunin?"

"That man is a Jonin. If I can't even beat a Chunin, then I'll never be able to defeat him."

"Yeyu, please help me find out."

Sasuke issued his challenge.

But his words terrified Naruto, who still hadn't dared to approach them.

"Sasuke, have you gone crazy? Do you know how strong that guy is?"

"Mizuki—"

Naruto was about to tell him about Mizuki, but clamped a hand over his mouth.

Iruka had told him last night not to reveal what had happened with Yeyu.

But keeping it to himself was killing him.

Sasuke turned to Naruto. "You've seen how strong he is, haven't you?"

Yeyu glanced at Naruto.

The moment Naruto noticed Yeyu's gaze, he began to tremble.

He quickly waved his hands and denied it. "I-I haven't seen anything. Don't make things up."

Naruto was afraid Yeyu would punch him like he had Mizuki, leaving him covered in blood.

"Is Naruto really that timid?"

Yeyu was a little puzzled.

Naruto really was timid at this point. During the Land of Waves mission, two Chunin would be enough to leave him unable to move.

And the night before, Yeyu had punched Mizuki so hard he was a bloody mess, leaving a huge crater in the ground.

The impact had been so shocking that Naruto couldn't forget it even if he wanted to.

Yeyu looked at Sasuke and said calmly, "You're still a long way off."

Sasuke gritted his teeth. "How would you know?"

"When have you ever seen my true strength?"

Sasuke wasn't convinced. He thought Yeyu was bluffing.

Maybe Yeyu wasn't really stronger than him.

So Sasuke taunted him. "You're afraid, aren't you?"

"Boom!"

Suddenly, Sasuke felt a terrifying killing intent.

The mental assault nearly made him pass out.

Under that terrifying pressure, Sasuke felt as if he had been plunged into hell.

His mind couldn't withstand it.

Even the One-Tomoe Sharingan appeared in his eyes on its own.

Sasuke staggered, nearly collapsing.

Sakura was stunned by what she saw.

When Sasuke began to fall, she hurriedly caught him.