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Damn it, she's been seeing through my real body this whole time. What do I do? What do I do?

Nawaki repeatedly dodged the rapidly approaching Water Whips in a miserable state, his heart filled with anxiety.

He had thought he could easily defeat this opponent, but he never expected this girl from the Hyuga Branch Family to be so troublesome. His usual Shadow Clone tactics were completely useless before her Byakugan and failed to confuse her at all.

This was the first time Nawaki had encountered such a situation.

Moreover, his opponent was even faster than him, and the Water Style Ninjutsu she used was extremely troublesome, not giving him even a moment to form hand seals.

He deeply regretted not working harder to improve his Chakra control in the past, leaving him unable to reduce the number of hand seals needed for the various Ninjutsu he had learned.

The hand seals for Ninjutsu could be simplified. A ninja proficient in a certain Ninjutsu could reduce a technique that originally required more than ten seals to a single-digit number, or even cast it hand seal-less. But to do that, one had to possess exceptional Chakra control.

Ninjutsu required hand seals because the seals mobilized the Chakra within the body, guiding it through the body's Chakra meridian system along a specific route before successfully releasing the Ninjutsu.

If a ninja had already mastered the Chakra meridian route for a certain Ninjutsu, they could rely on their exceptional Chakra control to guide their Chakra along that route themselves, thereby reducing the number of hand seals and eventually casting it hand seal-less.

"See? You didn't listen to your brother, and now you're suffering for it."

Kirito watched Nawaki's frustrated state and sighed.

After sparring with Nawaki, he had often reminded him to work hard on improving his Chakra control.

Unfortunately, relying on the Shadow Clone Jutsu to safely hide while forming hand seals, Nawaki had always treated Kirito's words as background noise and chosen to spend his time learning Ninjutsu and Taijutsu instead.

Now that he had encountered the Byakugan, whose powers of observation surpassed even the Sharingan, it could precisely locate his real body. His Shadow Clone tactics had been broken, and he could not smoothly complete the hand seals needed to use other Ninjutsu and capitalize on his massive Chakra reserves. He had instantly fallen into a hard battle.

Still, Kirito was shocked by Karen's ability to continuously lock onto Nawaki's real body with her Byakugan.

Logically speaking, Shadow Clones were physical clones, and the Byakugan could not distinguish the original from the clones. In the original story, even Neji Hyuga, the Hyuga Clan's genius, had been unable to find Naruto's real body.

Kirito had put considerable effort into solving that problem.

So how had Karen managed to keep locking onto Nawaki's real body among his clones?

There had to be some secret unique to Karen.

"That's about enough. That idiot is about to lose."

Chizuru suddenly spoke from beside him.

Hearing this, Kirito looked at Nawaki's increasingly ugly expression and heard the other students around them mocking Nawaki. He nodded thoughtfully.

Nawaki was simple-minded and impulsive, much like Naruto. Once he encountered a problem he could not solve quickly, he would swiftly grow agitated and then charge ahead without thinking.

From the looks of it, Nawaki's patience had reached its limit.

After the Shadow Clones created with his fourth use of the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu were once again destroyed by Karen, Nawaki, unable to save face, finally exploded. He shouted furiously, "Bastard! Don't think I don't dare fight you at close range!"

This time, he did not choose to evade the rapidly approaching Water Whip. Instead, he drew a Kunai and charged at Karen.

Karen made a slight adjustment with the hand controlling the Water Whip. The whip avoided Nawaki's Kunai, then wrapped around his body.

With his body bound by the Water Whip, Nawaki immediately panicked. While he could still move his hands, he hurriedly formed hand seals, preparing to use the Substitution Technique to escape his predicament.

But at that moment, a flash of electricity appeared in the hand Karen used to control the Water Whip.

In an instant, the lightning traveled through the water and struck Nawaki.

"Aah!!!"

Nawaki immediately cried out in agony. His entire body went numb from the shock, leaving him unable to move.

"That's enough. The winner is Karen Hyuga."

Seeing this, Wasabi Mitarai decisively announced the result of the match.

Karen, breathing slightly heavily, immediately stopped releasing Lightning Release Chakra, dispelled the Water Style: Water Flow Whip, and deactivated her Byakugan. Then she turned around and smiled brightly at Kirito.

But she discovered that Kirito was talking to a masked person.

She recognized the person's identity. He was an Anbu ninja from the village.

"Kirito Tonsaka, the Third Hokage wishes to see you. Please come with me."

The Anbu ninja spoke coldly to Kirito.

"The Third Hokage wants to see me?"

Kirito looked at the Anbu ninja who had suddenly appeared before him, confusion rising in his heart.

"Yes, understood."

He quickly realized why the Third Hokage wanted to see him. He nodded, then looked toward Wasabi Mitarai, who was watching them.

Since it was the Third Hokage's order, Wasabi Mitarai naturally had no reason to stop him. However, as a ninja, she never let down her guard and stared at the Anbu ninja with suspicious eyes.

The Anbu ninja understood and swiftly took out an item.

Once Wasabi Mitarai saw it, she nodded to Kirito, signaling that he could leave with the Anbu ninja.

The Anbu ninja's arrival immediately drew the attention of the curious children present. After Kirito left with the Anbu ninja, they began discussing why the Third Hokage had summoned him.

Clever people like Chizuru, Shikaku, and Karen immediately guessed that it had something to do with the Magnet Release Kirito had recently developed. Those who were less clever and jealous of Kirito suspected that he had done something bad and would soon be punished by the Third Hokage, secretly delighting in the thought.

But given Kirito's outstanding performance at the Ninja Academy, most believed he had gone to receive praise from the Third Hokage.

Wasabi Mitarai did not indulge her students. She immediately suppressed them again with a cold glare and continued with the next group's match.

Seeing that Kirito was no longer there, Chizuru left on her own before class had ended.

She climbed over the school wall and went straight home.

After Nawaki regained the ability to move, he silently went to a corner, collapsed onto the ground, and gloomily drew circles with a twig.

Before long, he got back to his feet. Like Chizuru, he went home on his own before school was over.

Karen returned to being the timid, weak-looking girl she had been before. Back among the crowd, she quietly watched the direction Kirito had left in and thought, I won, Kirito. Will you be happy?

Above Sunagakure, surrounded by layers of rock, a sharp eagle cry rang out.

Then, a Messenger Hawk with a message tube tied to its leg flew into one of Sunagakure's tall towers.

"Top Secret Intelligence?"

The Sand ninja stationed in the tower saw the red message tube on the Messenger Hawk's leg, and surprise immediately appeared on his face. He quickly stepped forward and retrieved the intelligence from the tube.

Not long afterward, an urgent report that had been decrypted was swiftly delivered to the Kage Building.