Sasuke Had a Breakdown: What Kind of Ninjutsu Was That?!

The lingering flames of the Great Fireball gradually dissipated in the air, turning into wisps of black smoke.

On both sides of the street, leaves scorched by the intense heat spiraled down, landing by Sasuke's feet.

Sasuke stood there blankly.

He raised a slightly trembling hand and touched his cheek.

A faint cut was slowly beading with blood.

The searing pain reminded him that everything that had just happened was not an illusion.

He lowered his head and looked at the few strands of black hair that had been severed on the ground.

Then he looked up at the hard stone wall that had been sliced deeply open.

Finally, his gaze locked onto the end of the street.

That small, thin figure with his hands in his pockets, leisurely walking away without even looking back as though nothing had happened.

Sasuke's legs began to tremble uncontrollably.

"How is that possible..."

He muttered to himself, his voice filled with unprecedented terror and self-doubt.

"That was a C-rank ninjutsu! The Great Fireball my brother taught me!"

"He didn't even form seals. He used a... a broken tree branch..."

Sasuke felt as though his mind had descended into chaos.

The Uchiha bloodline he took such pride in, the Fire Release ninjutsu he had trained day and night.

Before that guy named Sen Senju, they had actually been as fragile as paper?

This completely defied the principles of ninjutsu!

Even if the other party was a ninja specializing in taijutsu, there was no way he could split flames apart with a dead tree branch!

What kind of terrifying chakra had been imbued into that branch?

Wind Release? Lightning Release?

Or... some kind of power he simply could not understand?

"I don't believe it! I absolutely refuse to admit that I lost to someone like him!"

Sasuke gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging deeply into his flesh and drawing thin trails of blood.

Uchiha pride would never allow him to bow his head to someone his own age!

He abruptly turned around and sprinted madly toward the Uchiha compound.

When he got home, Sasuke slammed his bedroom door shut.

He locked himself alone inside the empty room.

He did not even eat dinner.

Like a crazed little beast, he tore through the room.

He pulled out every scroll concerning ninjutsu principles, chakra nature counters, and the secret techniques of the major clans.

"There has to be a way. There has to be a way to counter that bizarre power!"

Sasuke sat cross-legged amid piles of scattered scrolls, frantically searching through them by the dim candlelight.

His eyes were red from exhaustion and filled with bloodshot veins.

"Wind counters Lightning, Fire counters Wind... no, that wasn't ordinary nature chakra."

"Kenjutsu? A samurai's chakra blade? No, that's not it either. It was just an ordinary dead branch!"

He went through one ancient tome after another, yet could not find any record of such a phenomenon.

The more he failed to find an answer, the stronger the frustration in Sasuke's heart became.

That lazy figure was like an insurmountable mountain, pressing heavily on his heart.

It made it hard for him to breathe.

For an entire day and night.

Sasuke neither ate nor drank, keeping himself shut inside his room.

Until the next morning, when the first ray of sunlight shone through the window.

Only then did Sasuke dejectedly put down the yellowed ancient book in his hand.

He looked at the room full of discarded papers, his expression becoming incredibly complicated.

There was unwillingness, there was anger, but more than anything, there was a mad obsession.

"If I can't find a way to break it, that only means I'm not strong enough."

Sasuke slowly rose to his feet and walked over to the mirror.

He looked at the haggard but terrifyingly intense version of himself in the reflection.

"Sen Senju, you've successfully caught my attention."

He washed his face, changed into clean clothes, and pushed open the door.

When Sasuke appeared in the Ninja Academy classroom again.

Naruto was sprawled across his desk, bragging to Shikamaru.

The moment he saw Sasuke come in, Naruto jumped up and pointed at him with a laugh.

"Hahaha! You smug Sasuke! My big bro beat you up so badly yesterday that you didn't even dare fight back, huh?!"

"My big bro is the strongest! You couldn't even beat one of his branches!"

If it had been before, Sasuke would definitely have sneered coldly and mocked him in return, maybe even started a fight right away.

But today, he was unusually quiet.

He ignored Naruto's provocation and did not even spare him a glance.

Sasuke walked straight to his seat and sat down.

His gaze passed over the noisy students in the front rows and landed directly on the corner by the window in the back row.

There, Sen was sprawled over his desk, sleeping like the dead.

Sunlight fell over Sen, outlining him in a faint golden glow.

As Sasuke watched that drooling sleeping face, the contempt and arrogance in his eyes had completely vanished.

In their place was an intensely burning fervor, even tinged with obsession.

One day, I'll defeat you with my own hands and wash away today's humiliation.

Sasuke silently swore to himself as he clenched his fist.

From this moment onward.

In his world, besides the man he wanted to kill, there was now another lifelong enemy.

Meanwhile, Sen, still immersed in his dreams, was completely unaware of all this.

He only felt that the classroom seemed much quieter than usual today.

At the very least, that annoying, hostile gaze was no longer constantly watching him from behind.

"Snore... with one less fly around, even sleeping feels better..."

Sen smacked his lips, rolled over, and continued comfortably serving as a perpetual blue-bar generator under the warm sunlight.

After school.

As usual, Sen slowly made his way out of the school.

Naruto followed behind him like a dutiful little tail, chattering nonstop.

"Big bro, that move you used yesterday was so cool! Teach me! I want to split Fireballs with a tree branch too!"

Sen rolled his eyes, too lazy to deal with this chatterbox.

Just as he stepped out of the school gates.

Sen suddenly stopped.

He sharply sensed several extremely concealed chakra fluctuations in the woods to his right.

They were exactly like the auras of those Root ANBU agents from the night before last.

They really won't leave me alone.

Sen sneered inwardly.

He knew that old dog Danzo would not let this go so easily.

It seemed the little show of intimidation at the training ground yesterday had not been enough.

"Naruto."

Sen abruptly stopped and turned to look at the blond kid, who was still excitedly gesturing around.

"Huh? What is it, big bro?"

"We're not getting barbecue today. Go do something for me."

Sen pulled several crumpled bills from his pocket and stuffed them into Naruto's hand.

"Go to the ninja tool shop at the east end of the village and buy me some explosive tags. The shoddier and cheaper, the better."

Naruto held the money with a confused look on his face.

"What are you buying those for? Are you gonna blow up fish, big bro?"

Sen narrowed his eyes at the shadows deep in the woods, a dangerous curve forming at the corner of his mouth.

"Not fish."

"Dogs."