I Predicted That You'd Predict My Prediction

The moment Uchiha Rin finished speaking, she flicked her wrist sharply.

Several kunai sliced through the air and flew swiftly toward Hyuga Satoru, all aimed at vital spots.

"Wooden?"

After seeing what the kunai were made of, Hyuga Satoru's pupils contracted slightly.

She knew my ability could control metal, so she replaced all her ninja tools with wooden ones in advance?

After realizing this, Hyuga Satoru's expression turned solemn. He flipped backward and narrowly dodged every kunai.

Uchiha Rin reached for the ninja tool pouch at her waist and threw out another cluster of wooden kunai. The kunai collided with one another midair, changing their trajectories and forming an airtight net that swept toward him.

Hyuga Satoru was startled. She had actually used the Uchiha Throwing Technique with wooden kunai. After all, metal and wood had completely different rebound properties.

With the same throwing technique, wooden kunai were far more difficult to use!

She hadn't gained anything from this move last time, so she switched to wood and tried it again?

Hyuga Satoru gave a wry smile.

She really was a training maniac!

One could only imagine how much effort Uchiha Rin had put into training in secret to reproduce this move with wooden kunai.

Holding a metal kunai, Hyuga Satoru retreated while blocking every incoming kunai. Fortunately, his reaction speed had improved tremendously under the stimulation of electricity, so he could still handle this kind of attack with ease.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Uchiha Rin had vanished from where she had been standing. A sharp whistling sound came from beside him as a slender leg swept toward him, her toes aimed directly at his chest.

Hyuga Satoru twisted aside. Her toes grazed past his chest, and the wind from her kick howled.

Was she getting serious now?

Sensing the pressure, Hyuga Satoru did not dare underestimate her. He activated his Byakugan and entered a fighting stance.

The sharp smacking sounds of flesh colliding echoed continuously through the forest, shaking leaves loose from the trees one after another.

"Why aren't you using Gentle Fist?" Uchiha Rin asked curiously.

"I don't really like it. Gentle Fist is too rigid and has too many limitations."

Hyuga Satoru raised his palm to block Uchiha Rin's sweeping leg, then drove his right fist toward the base of her thigh, forcing her to retreat.

"But if you break the martial art apart and attack weak points instead, it suits my rhythm better."

Uchiha Rin nodded. If he had used conventional Gentle Fist, its single-minded attack patterns might not have pressured her so much. But Hyuga Satoru's attacks had no discernible pattern at all. Every strike hit one of her weak points, leaving her flustered.

Seeing that she could gain no advantage in close combat, Uchiha Rin leaped back, widening the distance between them as her hands formed seals.

After seeing the sequence of seals, Hyuga Satoru raised a brow and said dismissively, "You still dare to use Great Fireball? Was last time's lesson not enough?"

Yet Uchiha Rin seemed not to hear him. She took a deep breath and spat out a blazing orange-red fireball.

Hyuga Satoru was startled. The Great Fireball was not aimed at him, but at the open ground between him and Uchiha Rin!

Because the distance had been drastically shortened, the Great Fireball slammed into the ground in an instant. Orange-red flames swept fallen leaves into the air, while gray-black smoke and sparks exploded outward, suddenly engulfing Hyuga Satoru.

Hyuga Satoru had no choice but to leap backward at once.

Just as he exited the blast range of the flames, a chilling gust suddenly rushed at him from behind.

Before he could react, slender arms wrapped around his upper body, restraining both his arms and body. A wooden kunai was pressed against his throat.

Holding the wooden kunai to Hyuga Satoru's throat, Uchiha Rin revealed a trace of pride on her pretty face and softly said,

"I won!"

Heh...

She had used my contempt for Great Fireball against me, attacked the ground to explode the flames, forced me to dodge in haste, then predicted where I would land and circled behind me for a sneak attack?

Although the main reason was that he had been careless and failed to dodge.

Still, Hyuga Satoru could not help praising her. Uchiha Rin's combat instincts were probably no weaker than those of an ordinary Genin.

But...

"You think you can beat me with just that? You're being a little too naive."

The corner of his mouth curled up slightly.

"Have you forgotten about my other bloodline limit?"

Uchiha Rin's pupils shrank. As if she had remembered something, her gaze shifted downward slightly, and a chill immediately crawled up her spine.

A metal shuriken was floating before her throat, slowly spinning.

"When did you..."

Her voice trembled, and none of her earlier pride remained.

"The instant your Great Fireball erupted, I used Magnet Release to control four shuriken and keep them floating around us. The moment you appeared, those shuriken could have taken your life. Simply put..."

"I predicted that you'd predict my prediction!"

Hearing that, Uchiha Rin looked around and indeed found the other three slowly spinning shuriken floating around her body.

"Magnet Release... what a terrifying ability."

"I lost..."

The kunai weakly moved away from Hyuga Satoru's throat. The light had vanished from Uchiha Rin's eyes, leaving behind only disappointment and shock.

"Hey, don't give up on yourself. Your Sharingan hasn't awakened yet, after all. If you had the Sharingan, the outcome really would have been hard to say."

Worried that she would lose heart, Hyuga Satoru could not help trying to comfort her.

"You don't need to comfort me. I'm not that fragile."

Uchiha Rin shot Hyuga Satoru a cold glance, but the light in her eyes returned.

"Go on, then. What's your condition?"

Uchiha Rin returned the wooden kunai to the ninja tool pouch at her waist and stared coldly at Hyuga Satoru.

Before their fight, she had agreed to Hyuga Satoru's condition. Since she had lost, she naturally had to honor their agreement.

She believed she possessed at least that much integrity.

"But let me make this clear first. If you dare make any excessive demands..." Uchiha Rin bit her lip. "Even if it costs me my life, I'll kill you!"

"It's not that serious!"

Sensing the chill in Uchiha Rin's words, Hyuga Satoru scratched his head and laughed.

Then, he took a blueprint from his clothes and handed it to Uchiha Rin.

"Your Uchiha Clan has a good relationship with the Ninja Cat Clan, right? Cat Granny of the Ninja Cat Clan is one of the biggest ninja tool merchants in the ninja world. I want to ask you to help me custom-make this. I'll pay for it."

Uchiha Rin froze.

She took the blueprint. It depicted a weapon similar to a crossbow, but unlike anything she had seen before.

"That's it?"

Uchiha Rin looked up at Hyuga Satoru in astonishment.

"What were you expecting?"

Hyuga Satoru rolled his eyes at her.

He had asked around at nearly every ninja tool shop in Leaf Village. Customizing such a precision electromagnetic cannon was extremely difficult, while the Uchiha Clan had close ties with Cat Granny, the ninja world's largest ninja tool merchant. The Uchiha Clan was one of the clans in Leaf Village least likely to lack ninja tools.

Put simply, he was just borrowing Uchiha Rin's connections.

"Leave it to me. Don't worry about the money. It's a small matter."

Uchiha Rin said magnanimously.

"Really... Then thank you, Rin."

Hyuga Satoru paused. Uchiha Rin's words made him feel a little embarrassed.

He had asked about the price in advance. Customizing this full set of weapons would cost at least tens of thousands of ryo. Originally, he had only planned to have Uchiha Rin get him a small discount through their friendship as classmates.

He had not expected Uchiha Rin to refuse payment outright!

This girl...

Could she actually be a rich lady?

Hyuga Satoru's eyes lit up.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

Uchiha Rin looked at him in confusion.

"Nothing!"

Hyuga Satoru swallowed. Uchiha Rin was a cool little girl with long black hair, and when their eyes met, his heartbeat suddenly sped up.

At that moment, a voice rang out in his mind.

I must not become a sex offender!!!

"But I have a question."

Uchiha Rin said hesitantly.

"Why is your Magnet Release so powerful? I remember ordinary Magnet Release can't control shuriken and kunai so freely, can it? Otherwise, Sand Village wouldn't be the weakest of the Five Great Villages."