The Brat Thought He Was Tough Again

Afternoon arrived quickly...

All the students gathered on the training field. As Iruka took attendance, he paid special attention to whether Lin Chuan was present.

Seeing that Lin Chuan was still there, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. After calling Lin Chuan's name last, he pulled out another combat training roster and prepared to arrange ninja sparring matches according to the names.

But Sasuke could no longer sit still. He interrupted Iruka's roll call, raised a hand, pointed at Lin Chuan, and shouted, "Iruka, I want to fight him..."

"Sasuke, you should call me Teacher at the academy." Iruka looked at Sasuke and helplessly rubbed his forehead. Sasuke had no regard for him as a teacher at all; his eyes were fixed solely on Lin Chuan.

"I want to fight him," Sasuke repeated. He did not want to say it a third time.

"Fine. The matchups will be changed. The first sparring match will be Sasuke Uchiha versus Chiba Lin Chuan." Iruka ultimately announced their names. He was afraid Sasuke's obsession would run too deep and cause him to attack a fellow student directly, in which case they would have to call the parents again.

"Tch, Second Pillar thinks he's tough again. Is it because he learned the Fireball Jutsu?" Lin Chuan curled his lips helplessly. Second Pillar really never learned his lesson. Had Sasuke still not seen the gap between them? Did he not know Lin Chuan could use Water Shock Wave?

His current strength had already reached the level of a Genin. He was completely beyond the reach of these Ninja Academy students—an overpowered kindergartener among children.

If he remembered correctly, the Uchiha clan massacre would happen when Sasuke was seven. By then, Sasuke would have no family and no one to teach him, making him even less of a match for Lin Chuan.

Sasuke would not reach Chunin level until the Chunin Ninja Exams, after learning Kakashi's Lightning Cutter. Lin Chuan could keep crushing Sasuke for another six years. This was great!

"The sparring match beg—" Iruka saw the two standing in the middle of the training field and was just about to announce the start when Sasuke had already charged forward.

"Go, Sasuke! Go, Sasuke..."

Before the match had even begun, the little fangirls outside the field were already cheering Sasuke on. Sakura and Ino shouted the loudest, competing to see who could raise her voice higher.

"This time... I... will definitely defeat you." Filled with determination to win, Sasuke pulled a kunai from his ninja tool pouch and rushed at Lin Chuan. The blade gleamed with cold light, and from the look of it, he intended to finish Lin Chuan in one strike!

Lin Chuan was somewhat helpless. Had he known it would be this troublesome, he would have skipped class. Facing the charging Sasuke, he pulled out four shuriken connected by steel wire from his ninja tool pouch and threw them toward Sasuke.

Clang, clang, clang—

Sasuke deflected all four shuriken with his kunai as he charged, producing crisp metallic rings. Just as he thought Lin Chuan had given up resisting and was waiting to be captured—

Lin Chuan suddenly raised his hand and yanked the wires. The four shuriken flew back again, shooting toward Sasuke's back.

"What?" Sasuke instantly noticed the returning shuriken and immediately used the Substitution Technique to evade them. There were substitution logs on the training field for the students to practice with.

Thud, thud, thud, thud—

All four shuriken struck the substitution log. But Lin Chuan pulled his arm again, and Sasuke, who had just switched places with the log, was bound tightly against it by four nearly invisible wires.

The four shuriken Sasuke had knocked away were connected by steel wire. The moment he passed between them, he had already entered the encirclement formed by the wires. The Sasuke who substituted away had never escaped that perimeter.

The wire encirclement covered the substitution log on the training field. There was no way Lin Chuan had failed to notice that. From the moment he threw the shuriken, he had been waiting for Sasuke to walk right into the trap.

"Damn it! I haven't even used my Fireball Jutsu yet! How can I fall here?" Sasuke struggled desperately, trying to break free of the wires binding his hands and feet.

But how could Lin Chuan give Sasuke that chance? Seeing him struggle so desperately, Lin Chuan guessed Sasuke definitely had another move up his sleeve—one he would no longer have the opportunity to use.

With another pull of his hand, the log and the bound Sasuke flew toward him. Chakra instantly gathered in his legs, capable of boosting his body's explosive power in an instant. The Body Flicker Technique strengthened the legs in just this way, unleashing incredibly high-speed movement.

His feet brushed lightly against the ground like springs. The instant he launched forward, he turned into an afterimage. Borrowing the momentum of his Body Flicker dash, he folded his right leg, raised his knee, and turned the sole of his foot outward.

This was no ordinary kick. It was a side kick carrying the full weight and momentum of his body. His hips twisted sharply, releasing all the accumulated force without reservation as, accompanied by a howling gust, it shot straight toward Sasuke's abdomen.

Then came a dull explosion of impact.

Sasuke had no time to break free from the steel wires. He could only watch helplessly as the side kick rapidly filled his vision, sending him flying backward along with the log.

Bang!

The instant the kick landed, Lin Chuan smoothly withdrew his right leg. His toes lightly tapped the ground, and his posture remained steady as he retained a guarded stance, as though that thunderous strike had never happened. Only the gust that fluttered the girls' skirts proved how dangerous the attack had been.

Sasuke crashed straight into a pile of substitution logs and passed out among them. In the end, he never got to unleash his Fireball Jutsu. Lin Chuan had not used Water Release either. This was only a childish scuffle; using ninjutsu would have been overdoing it. Besides, if he needed ninjutsu just to beat Sasuke, would all his hard training not have been for nothing?

After taking Maruboshi Kosuke as his teacher, Lin Chuan had added taijutsu training to his routine. It was not just running anymore; he also trained by punching sandbags. He had to practice his fists and kicks as well.

Otherwise, knowing only ninjutsu without knowing how to fight would not make him a proper ninja. If not, that side kick just now would not have been so smooth. He had learned that force-generation technique from Rock Lee.

Rock Lee had summed up that technique through countless failed attempts, and Lin Chuan had simply learned it. Once Rock Lee graduated and became Might Guy's student, Lin Chuan might be able to pick up some taijutsu moves from him. That was the benefit of having many friends.

"Sasuke, how are you? Are you okay?" Sakura, Ino, and the other girls saw Sasuke fly away and immediately rushed into the pile of logs to look for him.

In the end, Iruka was the one who dragged Sasuke out of the pile. Looking at Sasuke's dusty and disheveled state, the girls surrounded him, constantly asking after and comforting him. But Sasuke merely lowered his head and remained silent.

"You're... so annoying." Sasuke suddenly growled. He slowly rose from the ground without looking at the chattering girls, then walked toward the classroom with his head lowered. No matter how the girls called after him, no matter how Iruka shouted, he never looked back.

"That child's pride is too strong." Iruka sighed helplessly. He stopped paying attention to Sasuke as he left. It was better to let him be alone for a while.

Then he looked at the victorious Lin Chuan. Without even mentioning the Reconciliation Seal, he announced, "First sparring match: Chiba Lin Chuan wins..."

"Lin Chuan is so awful! Why did he have to defeat Sasuke? Couldn't he just let Sasuke win..."

"Yeah! Couldn't he let Sasuke win just once? We won't play with him anymore..."

"Fine, we won't play with him ever again..."

"Tch, kids really are just kids." Lin Chuan turned and left helplessly. He naturally heard the girls whispering about him, but as an adult, he would not care about such things. The strength of an adult's heart was not something these children could compare to.

There were not many things that could make an adult break down. At the very least, this group of children could not do it, nor could threats like refusing to play with him.

After leaving the training field, he skipped class again. The training ahead was demanding. He now had additional taijutsu training with sandbags and Shadow Clone practice. Without Life Points to add to his talents, the path to becoming stronger was still long and arduous!