Cruel Tenderness!

His adaptability was pretty strong.

Ye sneered inwardly.

Wanted to desensitize himself?

No chance.

You couldn't harvest the chives bare; you had to switch sickles.

Since simple physical pursuit could no longer squeeze out much emotional value, he could only serve this Hokage brat something intense.

Ye quietly slipped his right hand into his pocket, his fingertips touching several kunai.

They were from the System Panel's ten-pull mystery boxes.

Those Causality Kunai that "would absolutely never hit a living being" lay quietly at the bottom of his pocket.

Ye drew three kunai with his right hand and held them between his fingers.

He abruptly stopped, drew upon the Chakra that had just filled his body, and shouted at the figure ahead.

"Asuma, catch these!"

Fifteen meters ahead, Asuma's entire body jolted.

He mechanically turned his head as if by reflex, his eyes nearly popping out.

To his horror, he saw Ye raise his right hand high, and three black flashes flew from between his fingers.

With piercing, shrill whistles, they shot straight for his face!

Asuma's scalp went numb, and his heart seemed to skip a beat.

This bastard was trying to kill him!

He was serious!

Asuma wanted to dodge, but his aching legs refused to obey.

His mind went completely blank. He even forgot to evade, shutting his eyes in despair as he waited for steel to enter and blood to spill.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Something utterly bizarre happened.

One-hundredth of a second before striking Asuma's face, the three kunai forcibly changed course at angles that defied all physical common sense.

One grazed past his left earlobe, the wind screaming past his ear and taking three loose strands of hair with it.

One skimmed past his right cheek.

The last one absurdly shaved past his scalp, precisely taking away a small tuft of slightly greasy black hair.

Asuma could clearly feel the breeze stirred up by the blades cutting through the air.

That suffocating sensation, like Death's scythe brushing across his neck, was ten thousand times more terrifying than actually being stabbed.

In that instant, Asuma felt that half his foot had already crossed the threshold of the Pure Land.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!"

Asuma let out a shriek that did not sound human at all, clutching his head with both hands.

His already exhausted potential erupted once more.

His thoroughly ruined legs somehow burst forth with astonishing speed again, kicking up afterimages as he frantically accelerated forward!

[Ding! Guard-Break Points from Asuma Sarutobi: +999!!!]

The system's crisp notification sounded in Ye's mind.

Ye smacked his lips in satisfaction.

Sure enough, Guard-Break Points born from threats to one's life were the purest.

Fear was like chili peppers. Once you got used to it, you had to increase the dose.

Bricks were mild spice; kunai right in your face were insane spice.

The pursuit that followed completely turned into Ye herding Asuma one-sidedly.

Whenever Asuma slowed even a little, whenever the Guard-Break Points on the System Panel fell back to single digits—

Ye would accurately pull a kunai from his pocket and flick his wrist.

Whoosh!

The kunai would absolutely never hit him, but it would definitely scrape past Asuma's vital areas at incredibly tricky angles.

Past the tip of his nose.

Across his Adam's apple.

Between his fingers.

Either grazing his neck or brushing past the roots of his thighs.

Every time a cold gust swept by, Asuma would let out a pig-slaughtering scream before desperately lunging forward.

[Guard-Break Points from Asuma Sarutobi: +888!]

[Guard-Break Points from Asuma Sarutobi: +777!]

Ye followed behind, listening to his system balance skyrocket, his face nearly splitting from his grin.

This Hokage brat really was an inexhaustible gold mine.

Just then, an earth-shaking roar came from the very back of the group.

"Burn!!!"

Might Guy, drenched in sweat and sporting his bowl cut, charged after them on all fours.

Seeing the kunai constantly flying ahead and Asuma fleeing with his head in his hands, tears filled his eyes.

Guy trembled with excitement, his fists clenching with crackling sounds. His voice quavered tearfully as he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"What magnificent training!"

"Not only must he run under extreme fatigue while carrying weight, he must also undergo live kunai-dodging training in this life-and-death situation!"

"Driving a classmate into a corner to awaken his dormant potential! Using the utmost pressure between life and death to force a companion to surpass himself!"

"Is this the Uchiha Clan's deepest expression of the bonds between companions? How beautiful! This cruel tenderness!"

"Ye! I completely recognize you now! Asuma, don't let Ye's painstaking intentions go to waste!"

[Recognition Points from Might Guy: +500!]

Hearing Guy's roar, Ye nearly lost it.

Cruel tenderness?

What the hell was this idiot talking about?

And what the hell were Recognition Points???

Guy's roar echoed through the empty streets.

Asuma, running at the very front, heard those words and became so furious that sweetness surged into his throat. He nearly spat out a mouthful of blood onto the road.

The hell did he mean, deepest expression!

The hell did he mean, painstaking intentions!

Was that bushy-browed idiot's brain filled entirely with muscles?!

Which of his eyes saw this as training?!

This was murder!

Was he blind?!

[Guard-Break Points from Asuma Sarutobi: +999!!!]

Another massive payout.

Ye nearly laughed out loud.

Guy's godlike off-topic assist had directly dealt Asuma a devastating second mental blow.

Under the dual torment of physical and psychological extremes, Asuma completely lost his sense of direction and fled blindly.

He plunged headfirst into a narrow alley, clawing at the walls as he rushed inward.

Three meters.

Five meters.

Eight meters.

The moment he rushed inside, Asuma fell into despair.

A dead end.

Before him stood a five-meter-tall red brick wall, with shards of glass embedded along the top to deter thieves.

Abandoned wooden crates, broken baskets, and burlap sacks were piled against its base.

There was no way out.

Asuma's legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the dirt-covered ground with a thud.

His back pressed tightly against the wall, his hands clawing desperately at the sand and stones on the ground, his body trembling uncontrollably.

He gasped for breath, his face streaked with tears as he stared fixedly at the alley entrance.

Inwardly, he prayed frantically to every previous Hokage.

Please.

Don't come in.

That demon must not follow him in.

Tap.

Tap.

Steady, powerful footsteps sounded at the mouth of the alley.

Each step seemed to land directly on Asuma's fraying nerves.

The blood-red afterglow of the setting sun poured in from the alley entrance, casting a tall figure across the ground.

Uchiha Ye strolled into the alley.

Standing against the light, his face was hidden in shadow. Only that faint, terrifyingly gentle smile was visible.

The setting sun shone behind him, stretching his shadow long enough to completely envelop the collapsed Asuma.

Ye still held that red brick in his left hand. The fingers of his right hand were slightly spread, holding four kunai.

One of them even glimmered faintly with golden light.

It was the System Panel's premium guaranteed item, the Gold-Plated Kunai That Absolutely Won't Hit.

Its golden coating reflected an incomparably dazzling radiance beneath the setting sun.

Ye walked in step by step, unhurriedly.

Asuma's pupils constricted violently, and his lips trembled so badly that he could not form a complete sentence.

"Don't... don't come any closer..."