Hand-to-Hand Sparring

When Mizuki called his name, Menma answered and stepped out of line, taking his place before the target.

Menma pulled four shuriken from his pockets, steadied his breathing, recalled the shuriken-throwing techniques from his memories, aimed at the red bullseye, and flicked his arm, sending all four shuriken flying.

With a sharp thud, all four shuriken struck the target at once, firmly embedded around the bullseye.

"Very good. Accuracy: nine. Power: nine. Throwing technique: nine. Excellent!" Mizuki nodded in satisfaction at Menma's score. "Next, Shikamaru Nara!"

"Yeah!" A pineapple-haired boy stepped out of line, rummaged through his ninja tool pouch for ages, then emerged empty-handed. Scratching his head, he gave Mizuki a foolish grin and said,

"Hehehe, sorry, Mizuki-sensei. I think I forgot to bring my shuriken."

"Idiot! You and Shino will run five laps around the training ground later!" Mizuki roared. "Next, Sakura Haruno!"

...Menma watched the brats throw shuriken with a blank expression, rapidly analyzing the information he had gathered in his mind:

Delinquent girl Hinata Hyuga, background character Kiba Inuzuka, attention-seeking Shino Aburame, suspected idiot Shikamaru Nara...

Calm down, calm down. This definitely isn't everyone. There should be plenty more people who differ from the original Naruto.

Still, it's good that, for now, the changes seem limited to their personalities. The major events of the Shinobi World probably haven't changed. Menma comforted himself inwardly.

Before he knew it, shuriken practice had ended. Mizuki led the children into formation, then announced the next lesson.

"Next is hand-to-hand sparring. Choose your own opponents. Remember: no attacking vital areas, and no offensive ninjutsu. Once one side falls and cannot get back up, or admits defeat, the sparring match ends. Understood?"

"Yeah!" the children answered loudly.

"Then, who will be first—"

"Mizuki-sensei! Me, me! I want to challenge Sasuke Uchiha!" Before Mizuki could finish, an eager voice interrupted him. Yes, it was the attention-seeking Shino.

"Fine. Shino Aburame and Sasuke Uchiha, step forward and form the Opposition Seal!"

After hearing Mizuki's words, Sasuke Uchiha strolled out of the crowd with both hands in his pockets. Behind him, a group of fangirls began cheering him on.

"Go, Sasuke!"

"Sasuke is so handsome!"

"Sasuke, beat that smug Shino up!"

Hearing the support of the fangirls behind him, Sasuke turned around, tossed his hair, winked one eye, and pulled his right hand from his pocket to form half a hand seal—really, he just held up two fingers. He pressed them to his lips, blew the girls a kiss, and said with a wickedly charming, arrogant smile,

"I've received everyone's feelings. Carrying all your hopes and love, there's no way I'll lose!"

What the hell was wrong with this Sasuke? And what was with this overwhelming sense of a third-rate male power fantasy novel?

Was there seriously not one normal person in this world? Sasuke, let me tell you, just for that, you've lost your position as the female lead!

"Take your positions!" At Mizuki's command, Sasuke finally turned back around. Facing the teeth-grindingly jealous Shino, Sasuke curled his lips in disdain and casually formed an Opposition Seal.

Shino had never been able to stand how popular Sasuke was with girls, and after what he had just seen, he was so jealous he could practically fall apart.

With plenty of boys behind him cheering him on in shared outrage, Shino felt as though his entire body was overflowing with chakra. Even if a tailed beast came at him, he could give it a fight—let alone some flashy Sasuke standing across from him!

"Sasuke, I'm definitely going to beat you flat!" It was time for the customary trash talk, and Shino roared at Sasuke.

"Hmph. If you can do it, then come at me." Sasuke took his stance and replied disdainfully.

"Sparring begins!" At Mizuki's command, Shino raised his fists and charged at Sasuke with a wild howl.

As he closed in on Sasuke, Shino aimed at Sasuke's face and swung viciously. Got him! Shino thought excitedly, already imagining Sasuke being sent flying.

Just as Shino's fist was about to touch Sasuke's face, accompanied by the cries of the girls in class, Sasuke merely shifted aside lightly, evading Shino's attack, which looked imposing but was actually riddled with openings.

"What? Impossible!"

Shino's face changed drastically. He tried to pull back his fist, but Sasuke reached out and caught his wrist first. Then Sasuke stuck out his left foot and tripped him, sending Shino flying with the momentum of his own attack before he crashed heavily to the ground.

"Damn it!" Shino braced himself with one hand and tried to get up, but before he could steady himself, Sasuke rushed over, grabbed his collar, forced him downward, and drove a knee into his abdomen.

"Urgh!" Shino clutched his stomach with both hands and dropped to his knees, dry-heaving. Seeing this, Mizuki hurried forward to check on him.

After confirming that Shino had merely had the wind knocked out of him, Mizuki let out a breath of relief and loudly announced, "Sasuke wins this match! Shino, Sasuke, form the Reconciliation Seal!"

"Damn it! Mizuki-sensei, I haven't lost yet!" Shino had recovered by then and shouted loudly. "I was careless just now! I didn't dodge! If we do it again, I'll definitely send Sasuke flying!"

"Next group: Menma Namikaze versus Sakura Haruno!" Mizuki directly ignored Shino's complaints. Thus, amid Shino's muttered "Damn it, you bastard," Menma and Sakura Haruno stepped onto the field.

Sakura (Ninja Academy period)

After forming an Opposition Seal with each other, Menma and Sakura both hopped back three steps.

Sakura pulled three kunai from her ninja tool pouch and sent them flying at Menma.

Unflustered, Menma flicked up his right index finger, and a kunai flew from the ninja tool pouch strapped to his thigh, landing precisely in his right palm.

With a clang, Menma knocked aside the first kunai. Then he twisted aside, narrowly dodging the second and third kunai.

"Huh?! No, that's wrong. Why is smoke coming from the tails of those kunai? Damn, explosive tags!"

Menma's soul nearly left his body. He immediately pushed off the ground and rolled swiftly to the side.

Before he could get up, he caught sight of a shadow rushing at him from the corner of his eye!

There was no time to think. He pulled a shuriken from his ninja tool pouch and threw it at the shadow without even aiming. Then he sprang up at once, planted his feet in a horse stance, and crossed his arms before his chest defensively.

Sure enough, Sakura's front kick struck his arms squarely, forcing him back several steps.

Watching Sakura calmly perform a backflip in midair before landing smoothly, Menma's face turned livid. "Sakura, were you trying to kill me?"

"That was only ordinary paper, not an explosive tag. (^ω^)" Sakura answered with a sweet smile.

Sure enough, there had been no explosion. Realizing he had been tricked, Menma looked displeased, though he still refused to concede verbally.

"Hmph, this level is still far too early to matter. I'm getting serious now."

With that, Menma formed hand seals and shouted, "Shadow Clone Technique!" Then came two puffs of smoke. When the smoke cleared, two more Menmas had appeared and charged toward Sakura.

Mizuki, standing nearby, was shocked. "Minato is being far too reckless. He actually taught Menma a technique like that!" But when he noticed that no dust rose beneath the feet of the two clones running on either side, he understood in an instant.

"I see. He's using the ordinary Clone Technique as a bluff? Not bad tactics, but will Sakura fall for it?"

Sakura remained calm. She drew a shuriken and threw it at all three Menmas. The Menma in the middle pulled out a kunai and knocked the shuriken away.

The two Menma clones on either side were not so fortunate. As ordinary clones, they had no physical bodies and could not block it, so the shuriken pierced them and sent them back into smoke.

Mizuki, who was recording the results nearby, brightened.

"An excellent idea. She wasn't fooled at all by Menma's words. She used a shuriken to test which clones were real, preventing herself from falling into a disadvantage. As expected of the Fourth Hokage's descendant!

"But Menma has closed in now. How will Sakura, who is at a disadvantage in hand-to-hand combat, deal with him?"

Faced with Menma's fierce charge, Sakura showed no panic whatsoever. She formed hand seals with both hands. "Demonic Illusion: This Place Isn't Technique!"

Caught in the genjutsu, Menma's steps faltered. After staggering a few paces, he collapsed to the ground, his body trembling uncontrollably.

Seeing this, Sakura drew a kunai and held it in a reverse grip. She backed away warily as she said, "Stop pretending. I know you've already broken my genjutsu!"

"Seriously, I thought I could fool you. How did you find out?" Menma, who had been sitting on the ground, sprang to his feet and asked while holding his kunai in a reverse grip.

Mizuki was stunned. It was already impressive enough that Sakura could use genjutsu at this age, but he had never expected Menma to notice immediately that he had been caught in genjutsu and break it on his own.

This was completely beyond the level normal Ninja Academy students should possess. Sakura could still be understood—after all, she was the Fourth Hokage's daughter, so her talent was beyond question.

But why was Menma at such a high level too? Were Minato and Kushina really such exceptional teachers?

"Rather than that, I'd like to ask Menma-kun how you broke my genjutsu," Sakura said, not answering Menma's question directly.

"Well, there were all kinds of reasons, but I can't tell you, Sakura-chan. A ninja's intelligence is top secret, after all!"

Menma likewise did not answer Sakura's question, though inwardly, he was still shaken.

If he had not been a mentally mature adult before transmigrating here, combined with the spiritual strength gained from living two lives, he might really have stumbled badly.

But strangely enough, why had he seen his computer desk and the unfinished proposal from his previous life after being caught in This Place Isn't Technique?

At that moment, Sakura was not the only one remaining alert. Menma was also desperately considering his options.

Sakura was excellent in every aspect of combat and had no obvious weaknesses.

Although Menma's hand-to-hand combat was stronger than Sakura's, the gap was limited.

What was more, Sakura's intelligence was extremely high in his memories. If this dragged on, Sakura would definitely use all sorts of factors to defeat him.

It was not as if he could not afford to lose, and losing would even help his plan to keep a low profile to some extent.

But he could not help feeling dissatisfied. Even if he was going to lose, he needed to create the impression that he had only barely fallen short. That way, the village would not overlook him too much and reduce the resources invested in him.

Suddenly, Menma spotted Sasuke in the crowd, and a plan immediately formed in his mind.