First Elementalization

"Yeyu, are you really qualified to become a Chunin?"

Sasuke said coldly to Yeyu.

Everyone fell silent.

Kakashi didn't step in to stop them.

He stood off to the side, as though he hadn't heard anything.

Naruto, meanwhile, felt a surge of panic.

"Damn it, Sasuke! This guy knocked Mizuki-sensei unconscious with one punch. Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

Naruto quietly took a few steps back, in case Yeyu attacked Sasuke and accidentally hit him.

Sasuke showed no fear, staring straight at Yeyu.

Yeyu chuckled softly and looked at Sasuke. "You don't approve?"

Sasuke clenched his fists. "If you can't even beat me, what makes you think you can be promoted straight to Chunin?"

"Have you forgotten how pathetic you looked in the Ninja Academy classroom?"

Sasuke frowned. "That was just some kind of trick. If you have the guts, use ninjutsu."

Yeyu looked at Sasuke and murmured to himself, "Ninjutsu? I'm afraid you couldn't take it."

But Yeyu really only knew the Three Body Technique and Five-Fold Rashomon, neither of which was a damaging technique.

"Anyone can talk big," Sasuke said gravely.

He didn't actually have anything against Yeyu. He was only saying this to provoke him into making a move.

He wanted to know what Yeyu had done to earn an immediate promotion to Chunin.

How was he stronger than Sasuke?

Yeyu glanced at Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei, aren't you going to intervene?"

Kakashi looked troubled. "This is between you two. How am I supposed to intervene?"

Yeyu nodded. "All right, then. I'm not obligated to prove anything to you, but I could use a chance to stretch my muscles."

Seeing Yeyu like this, Kakashi couldn't help warning him, "You're classmates, after all. Take it easy on him."

Kakashi knew full well how strong Yeyu was.

Naruto wanted to give it a try too, but the image of that night kept flashing through his mind.

His legs wouldn't move.

After a while, Sasuke and Yeyu stood facing each other.

Kakashi stood between them.

"Yeyu, take it easy," he reminded him again, still worried.

Yeyu nodded.

Sasuke took up a fighting stance.

Yeyu simply stood there calmly.

After waiting a while with Yeyu making no move to attack, Sasuke frowned.

"If you won't make the first move, then I will."

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" Sasuke opened with a Great Fireball.

Kakashi's gaze sharpened. "That kid still has chakra to spare?"

"He already released a Great Fireball just now."

"As expected of the Uchiha Clan. They have much more chakra than ordinary people."

"But even if we're only comparing chakra, that guy's a monster."

Kakashi looked at Yeyu.

Thinking of how Yeyu had casually unleashed Five-Fold Rashomon, he shook his head.

Sasuke had a huge amount of chakra, but compared with Yeyu, the difference was like an ant next to an elephant.

After finishing his Hand Seals, Sasuke released a fireball five or six meters in diameter.

Kakashi was a little surprised. "It's even bigger than the Great Fireball from before. Sasuke, you really want to beat Yeyu that badly?"

"That Great Fireball must have nearly drained all your chakra, right?"

"Boom!"

The fireball, five or six meters across, surged toward Yeyu.

Yeyu made no attempt to dodge.

Sasuke stared at Yeyu, panting and drenched in sweat. "Is this guy planning to do nothing?"

"Isn't he being a little too arrogant?"

Kakashi frowned slightly too. "What's Yeyu doing? He's not even using Taijutsu?"

At that moment, Sakura and Naruto both held their breath for Yeyu.

Though they weren't in the same class, they didn't want Yeyu to get hurt by the Great Fireball.

"Yeyu, dodge!" Sakura shouted.

Naruto clenched his fists. "Yeyu, don't get cocky! That's a fireball!"

Kakashi wondered whether he should step in.

But when he saw how calm Yeyu's eyes were, he suppressed the urge to rescue him.

Even Sasuke was starting to regret it. "Damn it, what's that guy trying to do?"

"He's not taking my Great Fireball Technique seriously at all. He'll die if this keeps up, won't he?"

Sasuke was getting anxious.

After all, he was the one who had unleashed the Great Fireball.

The fireball quickly engulfed Yeyu.

Once it had completely swallowed Yeyu, Sasuke fell to his knees, staring blankly. "It's over. I—I killed someone?!"

Naruto and Sakura were both horrified. They thought Yeyu had been killed by the Great Fireball.

Only Kakashi activated his Sharingan. Seeing Yeyu inside the fireball, he breathed a sigh of relief. "That guy sure knows how to scare people."

"But why isn't the fire having any effect on him?"

Through Kakashi's Sharingan, Yeyu appeared to have merged with the flames.

It was bizarre.

If he hadn't been able to see that Yeyu's enormous chakra hadn't changed at all, he would have thought Yeyu was dead.

Engulfed by the flames, Yeyu had now elementalized.

It was his first time elementalizing.

"This feeling is amazing."

"I can actually turn into fire."

"Could it be because the Magma-Magma Fruit is an upgraded version of the Flame-Flame Fruit?"

Yeyu hadn't turned into magma. He had turned into fire.

He discovered that he could use the Flame-Flame Fruit's abilities.

In the Pirate World, the Magma-Magma Fruit was an upgraded version of the Flame-Flame Fruit.

Magma could consume fire.

It was the same in this world.

Yeyu could even use the abilities of the inferior Flame-Flame Fruit.

Yeyu smiled and instantly drew all the flames around him into his body.

The flames around him seemed to be sucked into a black hole, merging into Yeyu in an instant.

In that very moment,

Yeyu's figure appeared before everyone.

Sasuke stared at Yeyu, dumbfounded. "H-how are you unharmed?"

Kakashi was utterly shocked. He thought, "Even his clothes weren't burned, and he doesn't have so much as a burn mark."

"Is this one of Yeyu's ninjutsu?"

Sasuke and the others didn't understand, but Kakashi knew how terrifying Yeyu had been just now.

He had transformed into fire.

"No wonder he doesn't study the Five Nature Transformations. He's already skilled in Fire Release Ninjutsu."

"Is that his special Fire Release Ninjutsu?"

"Someone capable of developing techniques with that kind of power should be able to create a Fire Release technique unique to him, too."

Kakashi classified Yeyu's elementalization as a special Fire Release technique that Yeyu had developed himself.

Ever since he had seen the destruction caused by Yeyu's punch that night, nothing Yeyu did seemed strange to Kakashi anymore.

The surroundings grew calm again. Other than a charred mark on the ground, not a single flame remained.

Yeyu stood before everyone, completely unharmed, without even the slightest charred mark.