Progress

A month later, Konoha, a training clearing north of the Uchiha Clan Grounds.

A six-year-old boy and girl were engaged in an intense sparring match.

The boy held the advantage in speed, but every one of his close-range and long-range attacks was either dodged or blocked by the girl, unable to inflict any meaningful damage on her.

Relying on his far superior speed, the boy had maintained absolute initiative throughout the battle, launching attack after attack and firmly suppressing the girl, giving her no chance to form Hand Seals.

In response, the girl calmly kept her pair of unusual eyes, each bearing two tomoe, fixed on the boy's movements. She saw through all his attacks and dodged or blocked them in advance, never giving him an opportunity to hurt her.

"Your movements have slowed down."

After several minutes of back and forth, the girl suddenly sneered.

As she spoke, she nimbly twisted aside to evade the boy's incoming punch, then swiftly seized his arm and used his momentum to fling him viciously into the air.

The next instant, her hands rapidly formed Hand Seals, and she spat a huge fireball at the boy hanging in midair.

Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu.

The fireball struck the boy squarely and swallowed him whole.

Yet what eventually fell from the air was only a charred piece of wood.

Clearly, at the critical moment, the boy had used the Substitution Technique to evade the attack.

Seeing this, Chizuru swiftly swept her Sharingan over the surroundings. With the Sharingan's ability to see the flow of Chakra within others' bodies, she quickly spotted Kirito hiding in the grass and decisively hurled two Senbon.

"Clang! Clang!"

Kirito knocked the Senbon aside with a Kunai, then instantly erupted with twice the speed he had displayed before.

Chizuru's expression immediately turned grave. She stared closely at Kirito with her Sharingan, trying to make out his movements.

With the power of her Two-Tomoe Sharingan, she managed to see them clearly—but discovered that her body could not keep up.

In the end, Kirito's fist struck her.

With a bang.

Kirito watched as the Chizuru he had sent flying turned into a piece of wood. He immediately performed several rapid backflips across the ground, dodging several Senbon, before looking toward Chizuru standing atop a nearby tree and sighing. "Let's call it here for today. I'm almost out of strength, and your Sharingan is nearly unusable too, right? How about we call it a draw?"

"Hmph, in your dreams. I still have enough Chakra to keep my Sharingan active for at least another minute, or use the Substitution Technique twice. Meanwhile, you can't use that instant burst ability anymore. So I won this spar."

Chizuru utterly rejected Kirito's proposal and stared coldly at him with her Sharingan.

"You can't count it like that. I still have plenty of Chakra, okay? Even if I can't burst out in speed anymore, I'm still faster than you. It'll be enough for me to hold on until you can't use your Sharingan anymore. I'm doing this for your own good."

Kirito was just as unwilling to admit defeat and argued back.

"Enough nonsense. If you don't accept it, then come again."

Chizuru frowned and let out a sharp shout.

She forcefully flung out two Senbon, sending them flying toward Kirito.

And so, their spar began again.

A minute later, the two of them lay on the ground, both gasping for breath.

Several Senbon were embedded in Kirito's hands and feet, and he had lost quite a bit of blood. One of Chizuru's arms, meanwhile, was bent at an unnatural angle.

"Damn it, you actually coated those Senbon with paralytic poison? Was that really necessary?"

Kirito felt the injured parts of his body rapidly going numb and rolled his eyes.

Chizuru smiled faintly at his words. Enduring the dizziness brought on by excessive Chakra consumption, she struggled to her feet, then planted one foot on Kirito's face and said happily, "I won this time. Do you admit it?"

"Yes, yes, you won. Hurry up and give me the antidote and treat my injuries."

Kirito humiliatingly accepted the truth.

At the same time, he was already cursing inwardly.

Damn woman. You're only improving so quickly because your Sharingan evolved into Two-Tomoe Sharingan. Just wait, I'll turn things around and deal with you sooner or later.

Ever since Chizuru's Sharingan had evolved into the Two-Tomoe Sharingan, its powers of observation had improved further. Moreover, her Chakra had more than doubled in just one month, steadily reaching the Chakra level of an ordinary Chunin. Naturally, her strength had skyrocketed.

Kirito had also improved considerably over the past month, but nowhere near as much as Chizuru. On top of that, he lacked offensive methods, and after fighting Chizuru many times, once his trump card of Natural Energy was swapped away by Chizuru's Substitution Technique, he was left helpless.

As a result, he had won fewer and fewer of his recent matches with Chizuru over the past month, and his win rate had begun to plummet.

Still, he had gained a great deal from sparring with Chizuru.

Chizuru trained every day under the guidance of powerful members of the Uchiha Clan, and through his frequent fights with her, Kirito's combat skills had continuously improved.

When Chizuru saw Kirito concede, she moved her foot away, then made a gesture toward the sky with her uninjured hand. A woman in medical attire swiftly appeared before Chizuru.

Sakura Uchiha, Chizuru's personal medic.

"Sister Sakura, hurry and detoxify me. I feel like everything below my head has gone numb."

The moment Sakura Uchiha appeared, Kirito immediately said ingratiatingly.

Ever since Chizuru had helped him last time, his relationship with her had grown much closer. Over the past month, they had often trained through sparring together.

Naturally, the two were often injured in the process.

It was during this time that Kirito got to know Sakura Uchiha and encountered Medical Ninjutsu for the first time, becoming deeply interested in it.

"Sakura, help treat him."

Lady Chizuru instructed Sakura Uchiha.

"Yes, Lady Chizuru, but before that, please allow me to treat your injuries first."

Upon receiving the order, Sakura Uchiha glanced at Kirito, who was looking at her eagerly. Seeing that he was not in any immediate danger, she promptly looked away and smiled at Lady Chizuru.

As Lady Chizuru's personal Medical Ninja, she naturally had to treat Lady Chizuru first.

Lady Chizuru had no objections and let Sakura Uchiha set her bone and treat her injuries.

Beside them, Kirito watched the treatment process without blinking.

Sakura Uchiha was an outstanding Medical Ninja with excellent Chakra control. She quickly finished treating Lady Chizuru and reminded her, "Lady Chizuru, just to be safe, it would be best not to continue training with this arm for the next few days."

"I understand."

Lady Chizuru replied indifferently.

Seeing this, Sakura Uchiha knew that Lady Chizuru had not taken her words to heart. She wanted to say a few more things, but then noticed that Kirito had suddenly fainted and hurried over to check on him.

"Sakura, what happened to him?"

Lady Chizuru was startled and asked nervously.

"It's nothing. He's just overly exhausted and has fallen asleep."

Sakura Uchiha swiftly examined Kirito, found that he was merely asleep, and gave Lady Chizuru a reassuring look.

Hearing that, and seeing Kirito begin to snore soundly, Lady Chizuru quickly realized something. Her previously deactivated Sharingan opened again as she glared at Kirito in irritation, seized by the urge to punch him awake.

But when she saw how deeply asleep Kirito was, she held herself back and muttered, "That bastard... he actually dared to fight me while..."

Meanwhile, at Nawaki's home in the Senju Clan Compound, inside the study.

Nawaki looked at Mito, who was smiling at him, and said somewhat fearfully, "Grandma Mito, I didn't know he was using a Shadow Clone to attend class."

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