Spar

Uchiha Shaoyu looked at the longing and curiosity nearly overflowing from young Ai's eyes and understood.

He knew this hurdle had to be crossed sooner or later.

This first contact with the Raikage's son was both an opportunity to gauge the top level of Kumogakure's younger generation and a chance to further establish his own standing in Kumogakure.

After a brief moment of thought, he nodded.

"Guidance would be too much to call it. Exchanging insights and testing each other's skills is beneficial to cultivation. How would Young Master Ai like to experience it?"

Seeing Shaoyu agree so readily, young Ai immediately broke into an undisguised, excited smile. On his dark face, that smile was surprisingly bright and full of fighting spirit.

"Great! Then please be careful, Elder!"

Young Ai retreated several steps, opening up a distance suitable for exerting force. Lightning Release chakra began to flow faintly around him with soft crackling sounds, and his gaze became incomparably focused.

As his words fell, his burly body did not immediately transform into lightning for a surprise attack. Instead, he pushed off the ground, making it tremble slightly, and charged at Shaoyu like a cannonball.

He was extremely fast, but he had not used his maximum speed. Clearly, he was controlling his strength, treating this as an exchange rather than a decisive battle.

He threw a punch. The wind howled as it went straight for Shaoyu's chest. Its force was fierce and its trajectory clear, yet it still held something in reserve.

"Is he underestimating me?"

Facing that swift punch, Uchiha Shaoyu shifted his feet slightly and gently leaned aside like a willow branch in the wind, evading the fist by a hair's breadth.

At the same time, he casually raised his right hand, his five fingers slightly spread as they met young Ai's wrist before it could be withdrawn, seemingly intending to seize it.

His movement was graceful and effortless.

After awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, Shaoyu felt that even the body that had been stuck at the elite jonin level was gradually growing stronger. Though he could not reach Kage level through physical strength alone, it was enough to handle young Ai before him.

Young Ai's gaze sharpened as he silently praised him.

What quick reactions and footwork!

He immediately changed moves. The muscles in his arm bulged, and his Lightning Release chakra erupted slightly, shaking off Shaoyu's seemingly effortless grip. His other hand had already turned into a hand blade, slicing toward Shaoyu's ribs with a sharp howl of wind.

On the flat ground beside the waterfall, the two engaged in a rapid close-quarters exchange using taijutsu and basic chakra application, though they kept it within the bounds of a spar.

Fists blurred past each other, leg winds howled, and the sounds of impact rang out without end.

Mist filled the clearing beside the waterfall. The exchange between young Ai and Uchiha Shaoyu had already continued for dozens of rounds.

The more young Ai fought, the more alarmed he became. Fine beads of sweat had even appeared on his forehead.

He had pushed his normal strength and speed to their limits. His fists and kicks came down like a raging storm, supplemented by the Lightning Release chakra enhancement he had only just begun to master and still could not perfectly spread across his entire body. Every strike was capable of shattering stone, and an ordinary elite jonin would likely have been unable to withstand them long ago.

Yet Uchiha Shaoyu, standing across from him, remained like a reef in a rushing current, unbelievably steady.

Shaoyu had not even used the legendary and mysterious Mangekyō Sharingan. He faced him with only an ordinary pair of Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

Relying on the Sharingan's outstanding dynamic vision and predictive ability, combined with his superb taijutsu, footwork, and exquisite chakra control, he always evaded young Ai's fiercest attacks at the critical moment or deflected their force with skill.

His occasional counterattacks were even more elusive, appearing without a trace, yet precisely aimed at the tiny openings between shifts in young Ai's offense, forcing him to defend or change moves.

The two moved rapidly around the field, colliding as their figures crossed, producing dull thuds.

Young Ai's attacks were like raging waves crashing against the shore, imposing and awe-inspiring. Shaoyu's responses, meanwhile, were like a breeze brushing willow branches—seemingly gentle, yet always able to divert and dissipate the waves' force.

Bang!

In another clash of fist and palm, young Ai felt his strength strike something as slippery as cotton, redirected into empty space. Meanwhile, his opponent's palm slid along his arm, fingertips lightly tapping the numbing point at his elbow.

Young Ai hurriedly dropped his elbow to block, but his footing stalled slightly from using too much force.

In that instant of hesitation, Shaoyu's figure closed in like a ghost. A seemingly light hand blade had already stopped beside young Ai's neck, its icy touch making every hair on his body stand on end.

The hand blade did not truly strike. It merely touched him lightly before withdrawing.

Shaoyu drifted back several steps, his breathing steady and not visibly hurried in the slightest, as though the fierce exchange just now had been nothing more than a warm-up.

Young Ai, by contrast, quickly readjusted his stance, but his breathing had grown much heavier. His chest rose and fell slightly, and his eyes were filled with frustration and unwillingness.

And... an even stronger curiosity and yearning.

He had lost! Lost without the slightest suspense!

His opponent had not even used his true trump card. With only the Three-Tomoe Sharingan and basic taijutsu and footwork, he had forced him into such a state. The gap between them was even greater than he had imagined.

"Ha... ha..."

Young Ai panted a few times, staring fixedly at Shaoyu. The pure longing for strength in his eyes was nearly burning.

"Incredible... as expected of Elder Shaoyu! To have such strength with only the Three-Tomoe Sharingan."

He forcefully wiped the moisture from his face, his tone carrying barely restrained urgency and pleading.

"But... I'm not satisfied. I want to see it. I want to witness with my own eyes just what kind of power the legendary Mangekyō Sharingan possesses—the one that could battle the old man for half a day. Please... let me see it, even if it's only one attack!"

His eyes were fervent and sincere. It was a warrior's pure yearning for power at a higher realm, not a provocative refusal to accept defeat.

He acknowledged his loss, but he longed to see his opponent's true form.

Uchiha Shaoyu looked at the unfeigned desire in young Ai's eyes and fell silent for a moment.

He appreciated the other man's straightforwardness and pursuit of strength.

Moreover, displaying a portion of his power appropriately would benefit the stability of his position in Kumogakure, especially if it won over these proud young geniuses.

"Very well."

Shaoyu finally nodded slowly, his voice calm.

"Just one attack. Be careful."

As soon as he finished speaking, the three tomoe pattern in his left eye instantly vanished. In its place, within the deep crimson background, strange bands of light began to slowly revolve, as though they contained the laws governing the movement of cosmic stars.

The Mangekyō Sharingan had opened!

An indescribable aura mixed with majesty, profundity, and a faint sense of spatial distortion spread outward from Shaoyu. Even the sound of the surrounding waterfall seemed to freeze.

Every hair on young Ai's body stood on end! An unprecedented sense of danger washed over him like ice water. He knew that the coming attack would far surpass any of their previous taijutsu exchanges.

"Haaah—!!!"

Under the threat of death, young Ai unleashed all his potential. With a wild roar, the Lightning Release chakra already active within him surged through his entire body at unprecedented speed and intensity.

The blue arcs of electricity no longer merely crackled and flashed. They burst from every pore like living creatures, rapidly intertwining and spreading as they tried to form a stable chakra cloak over his body—one that combined offense and defense.

"Lightning Release... Armor!!!"

He screamed himself hoarse. Veins bulged on his forehead, his muscles swelled across his entire body, and his skin faintly reddened under the excessive strain.

At that critical moment, driven by immense pressure and his own powerful will, the violent Lightning Release chakra that had been unstable and difficult to form suddenly condensed. Upon his body, it truly formed a rudimentary layer of—

Blue Lightning Release Chakra Armor!

Crackling blue arcs slithered around his body like countless little snakes, radiating a powerful sense of defense and increased speed.

He had succeeded?!

Under extreme pressure, he had actually broken through in the midst of battle, gaining an initial grasp of the Lightning Release Chakra Armor.

However, before young Ai could savor the joy of his breakthrough, Uchiha Shaoyu's attack had already been unleashed.

Shaoyu did not form any hand seals. He merely calmly raised his right hand, while the bands of light within his left Mangekyō suddenly accelerated their rotation.

"Since you have Lightning Release Armor, I'll hit a little harder."

"Technique Reversal: Blue."

With his calm words, a point of deep blue light suddenly lit up before his palm.

The light rapidly expanded and spun, becoming a fist-sized blue sphere. Within it, blue nebula-like vortices seemed to swirl, radiating powerful attraction and a sense of spatial distortion.

The blue "Blue," as Shaoyu wielded it now, possessed a profound, icy hue, as though it had condensed a stretch of sky before a storm—beautiful and deadly.

"Go."