Sakura Haruno: Takasaki Had Described Me in Such a Disgusting Way

A thought suddenly occurred to Sasuke, one so unbelievable that he immediately dismissed it as soon as it came to him. "Impossible. How could Takasaki know the Great Fireball Technique? It must just be a coincidence."

When Takasaki formed the sixth Tiger hand seal, Sasuke stared at him, dumbfounded. "It can't be that much of a coincidence, can it?"

The hand seals Takasaki had formed were exactly the same as those for the Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique.

As long as Takasaki knew how to channel chakra for the Great Fireball Technique, he could perform it successfully.

The key question was—

Could Takasaki do it?

Impossible!

That was Sasuke's ingrained impression of Takasaki.

He was the dead last in his class, even in his entire year. He hadn't even learned how to channel chakra for the Three Body Technique. How could he possibly perform a jutsu like this?

The next second—

A soft shout rang out beside the quiet lake. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

A huge ball of fire burst from Takasaki's mouth.

The flames met the water's surface, producing a cloud of hissing steam.

Even Sasuke, standing more than ten meters away, felt a wave of heat brush against his cheeks.

At that moment, Sasuke barely noticed the heat on his face. He sprang to his feet, frozen in shock.

Takasaki had actually performed the Great Fireball Technique!

It was exactly the same as the jutsu he trained so diligently every day.

And the power of Takasaki's Great Fireball Technique was no small thing.

The flames surged upward, churning the lake's surface. The water beside the fireball boiled and bubbled.

Sasuke held his breath and studied the fireball intently, estimating its diameter.

Seven meters!

The fireball Takasaki had produced with the Great Fireball Technique was actually seven meters across!

It was 0.4 meters wider than his.

It was even as big as Itachi's had been back then!

"How is this possible?! Isn't Takasaki the dead last?!"

Sasuke was completely caught off guard.

Where had this guy even learned the Great Fireball Technique?

No.

Where he'd learned it didn't matter at all.

The Great Fireball Technique wasn't a secret technique of the Uchiha Clan. It was simply a jutsu the Uchiha Clan excelled at.

Many ninjas in Konoha knew it.

The teachers at the Ninja Academy knew it, too.

The real question was, how had Takasaki trained his Great Fireball Technique to this level?

It was even a little stronger than Sasuke's.

There was no way to achieve that without spending a great deal of time training. The problem was that Takasaki was only the dead last in his class.

How could the dead last possibly learn the Great Fireball Technique?

How could the dead last possibly stick with it long enough to train it to this level?

Sasuke's mind was in a muddle. He wanted to go over and ask Takasaki how he'd managed it, but his innate pride made it hard for him to swallow his embarrassment.

At the Ninja Academy, he was known as a genius. He ranked first in his year on every exam.

That was why he looked down on every other student at the Ninja Academy.

And now, asking the dead last for advice would take some courage.

Fortunately, Takasaki's Great Fireball Technique didn't outclass him in every way.

At least Sasuke was faster at forming hand seals.

Takasaki needed six seconds to finish. Sasuke needed only one.

The fact that he could form hand seals faster than Takasaki finally let Sasuke hold on to some of his sense of superiority.

As Sasuke hesitated over whether to approach Takasaki, Takasaki had already moved on to the next step.

"Takasaki isn't planning to rest? Does he have enough chakra to use the Great Fireball Technique again?"

Sasuke's throat bobbed. He took a deep breath and watched, almost holding his breath.

At that moment—

Takasaki hadn't noticed Sasuke watching him from the shadows beneath a large tree more than ten meters away.

All his attention was on the translucent Control Panel that only he could see in front of him.

In particular, he was looking at the jutsu attributes for the Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique.

It had originally been: [Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique (0/100) (30 chakra)]

Now it was: [Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique (1/100) (30 chakra)]

His proficiency had increased by 1 point.

"This thing really burns through chakra," Takasaki thought to himself.

At most, he had 80 points of chakra, and a single Great Fireball Technique had used up 30.

Come to think of it, apart from its high chakra cost, the jutsu had nothing but advantages.

After performing it successfully, Takasaki had seen the results for himself.

It was powerful enough to nearly roast the fish in the lake.

He just wasn't very skilled at using it yet.

After successfully performing the jutsu once, Takasaki found it much easier to do it again.

He took a deep breath and formed the hand seals once more.

He didn't rush to use the Great Fireball Technique right away. Instead, he tried to form the seals as fast as he could.

It took him three seconds to complete all six seals.

That was his fastest time so far.

Not good.

Too slow.

Takasaki wasn't satisfied with his current speed at forming hand seals.

The system had implanted the hand seals for the Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique in his mind, but his body wasn't used to them yet.

Reducing the time it took to form hand seals could greatly improve his combat ability.

He didn't need to be as fast as Kakashi, who could form thirty-two seals in one second, but he had to be able to finish the Great Fireball Technique's six seals in one second.

Takasaki formed the seals again.

This time, he was a little faster. Two and a half seconds.

That was progress.

Keep going.

Two minutes later, Takasaki had formed the seals more than forty times without stopping. He had reduced his time to two seconds.

He continued training.

His fingertips moved against each other over and over, and every hand seal he formed was perfectly precise.

The system's instructions for forming the seals were etched into his mind. He couldn't make a mistake.

"Is Takasaki training his hand-seal speed over and over?"

"The rate at which he's improving at forming seals for the Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique is just too fast."

Sasuke's eyes flickered.

He could clearly see Takasaki taking less time with each attempt.

Back when Sasuke had trained himself to reduce the time it took to form the Great Fireball Technique's six seals from six seconds to two, it had taken him a year and more than ten thousand repetitions.

And Takasaki had done it in just two minutes!

It was clearly beyond anything Sasuke could comprehend.

Of course, he didn't think Takasaki had just learned the Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique and was now practicing the hand seals.

"Takasaki must have practiced the hand seals for the Great Fireball Technique countless times in private. He's just trying to speed them up bit by bit now." That was the thought that instinctively came to Sasuke.

He really wanted to know just how fast Takasaki could get.

Gradually, Takasaki's movements became more and more practiced.

At first, he had to consciously direct his hands through the seals. Now his body had developed muscle memory.

This time, he completed all the hand seals for the Great Fireball Technique in one second.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

A huge fireball burst from his mouth.

A wave of heat swept over them.

Just like before, the fireball was seven meters across.

From the shadow of the tree, Sasuke watched it happen again, still stunned.

It wasn't the power of Takasaki's Great Fireball Technique that shocked him. It was the speed of his hand seals.

"Takasaki's hand seals are actually as fast as mine!"

Sasuke's pupils contracted. Suddenly, it felt as though all the strength had drained from his body. He no longer had the nerve to go up and talk to Takasaki.

Takasaki's Great Fireball Technique was more powerful than his.

And he was no slower at forming the hand seals.

The key was that this was Sasuke's best and proudest jutsu, the one he'd trained for the longest.

In this regard, Takasaki had actually outclassed him completely.

If Neji, whose performance at the Ninja Academy was plain for everyone to see and not much worse than his own, had managed this, Sasuke wouldn't have felt so humiliated.

But Takasaki was the dead last—and one who even had to cheat on exams.

"How did this dead last manage it?" Sasuke thought, his heart beating faster.

He never would have imagined that Takasaki, whom he'd often passed on the street without even sparing a glance, would now have his full and undivided attention.

Meanwhile—

In a one-story house in Konoha.

At the Haruno family home.

Sakura Haruno was practicing the Three Body Technique with complete concentration in preparation for the ninjutsu test ten days away when she suddenly felt a stirring in her heart.

She locked her bedroom door, drew the curtains, and took out her Diary.

"Takasaki's written a new entry. I wonder if he mentioned me?"

When Sakura first saw her name in Takasaki's Diary, she felt relieved.

Sure enough, he'd mentioned her!

But when she skimmed the lines about her, she couldn't help silently complaining. "All I did was report him for cheating. I didn't do anything wrong. Cheating on an exam isn't allowed, and I didn't even succeed in reporting him. He's a guy—does he really have to hold a grudge over something so small...?"

She could complain all she wanted.

Truthfully, Sakura knew she'd been a little harsh with Takasaki during the exam.

If someone else had treated her that way, she probably would have blown up on the spot.

So when she saw Takasaki writing about it in his Diary, her first instinct was to get angry, but she felt even more guilty.

Sakura continued reading.

She saw that Takasaki had written that she didn't know what had gotten into her.

Sakura held back her complaint.

After all, she felt guilty.

Then she saw that Takasaki had called her "keh-peh."

Sakura was confused.

It was an unfamiliar word to her. What did it mean?

"Keh-peh, keh-peh, keh-peh..."

Sakura repeated it several times, then suddenly realized what it meant. She took a deep breath. "Takasaki actually compared me to a gob of spit! He described me in such a disgusting way. What gives him the right?"