Ibiki Morino's gaze lingered on the laid-back, black-haired boy for two seconds.
A survivor of the Uchiha Clan. His file said he had already awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
But that wasn't what caught Ibiki's attention. It was Sahiro Uchiha's demeanor.
He was too relaxed.
It wasn't the resignation of someone who had given up, or the blankness of someone overwhelmed by the rules. It was the calm of someone looking down on the entire exam as though it were a joke.
Thirty-seven minutes into the exam, Ibiki suddenly sensed something.
One of the assistant examiners stood beside a window on the right side of the classroom, hands clasped behind his back, his posture straight out of a textbook.
He stared ahead with a stern expression, exactly as he had when the exam began.
But Ibiki noticed something wrong.
The assistant examiner's pupils weren't their usual black. They were an almost translucent gray-white.
Genjutsu.
Someone had cast a genjutsu on him.
Ibiki's pupils contracted sharply. His gaze swept across the other assistant examiners in the classroom.
One, two, three...
Five.
All five assistant examiners had been caught.
Ibiki's eyes widened as his gaze snapped back to Sahiro Uchiha.
The boy still leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed, the faintest smile on his lips. He looked as if he were sleeping soundly—or enjoying something no one else could perceive.
He was refining chakra. Ever since he had gained Indra's Chakra, Tailed Beast Chakra, and the Senjutsu Chakra of the Cursed Seal, the speed at which he refined it had multiplied day by day.
Ibiki fixed his gaze on the boy.
All five assistant examiners had been caught.
Not a single examinee in the classroom had noticed anything unusual.
The Genin bent over their papers didn't even know the assistant examiners beside them had become empty shells. Their pupils were gray-white, their breathing steady and their heartbeats normal, but their minds had been dragged into some unknown world.
In the shadows on the second floor of the examination hall, four figures watched through the Observation Window, their eyes fixed on the classroom below.
Might Guy's thick brows drew together. "That kid... what technique did he just use?"
No one answered him.
Because no one could.
Kakashi leaned against the wall, his one visible eye wide, shock surging through it.
He could sense that a mysterious power had taken control of the five assistant examiners.
This was a genjutsu intrusion of the highest order.
Kakashi suddenly remembered what the Third had told him: Sahiro Uchiha's abilities had been gravely underestimated, and his file could no longer be trusted.
Only now did Kakashi realize he had still underestimated him.
Asuma's cigarette had burned down to the end. Ash fell onto the back of his hand and left a red mark, but he didn't notice.
His lips parted slightly as he stared blankly at the classroom below. Without thinking, he turned his head a little toward Kurenai.
"This is beyond a Genin's level... No, it's beyond a Chunin's level..."
Kurenai didn't answer.
She stood with her arms at her sides, her fingertips trembling faintly.
Not from fear, but from shock.
Yes, she was a genjutsu expert.
But she was a Jōnin.
Sahiro Uchiha was a Genin.
A twelve-year-old Genin.
He had invaded the senses of five Chunin at once and completed the entire technique without her noticing. Its speed, stealth, and precision had all reached a level that even she, a genjutsu expert, found unbelievable.
She couldn't do it.
But Sahiro Uchiha had.
Right under the nose of one of Konoha's strongest genjutsu Jōnin, a twelve-year-old Genin had carried out a textbook-perfect genjutsu intrusion that even a Jōnin couldn't manage.
A chill ran down Kurenai's spine.
Might Guy's voice broke into her thoughts.
"Kurenai... you're a genjutsu expert too. If he can do that, what level is he at?"
Kurenai was silent for a long time.
A boy had taken control of the entire examination hall without anyone noticing.
"The Uchiha Clan," she finally said. "Now I understand why that name struck fear into the entire Shinobi World."
"It isn't how many Ninjutsu they know. It's that their understanding of power has gone beyond what ordinary shinobi like us can imagine."
Kakashi said nothing. He pulled Icha Icha Paradise from his pocket, then closed it gently and put it back.
He wondered whether he should have a proper talk with Sahiro Uchiha after the exam.
Not as his teacher, but as a shinobi who also possessed a Sharingan. He wanted to ask about Sahiro Uchiha's training and what he had learned from it.
The exam continued.
Sahiro Uchiha leaned back in his chair and opened his eyes a fraction. A crimson gleam flashed deep within his pupils, then vanished.
Then something chilling happened.
The four Jōnin watching the examination hall from the second floor—Kakashi, Might Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai—felt a subtle shift in the air behind them at the same instant.
Someone was there.
There was a fifth person in the room.
Kakashi reacted first, his right hand darting toward the Kunai pouch at his waist.
But his hand stopped halfway.
He had seen the person's face.
Sahiro Uchiha.
He leaned against the wall beside the window, legs casually crossed and hands in his pockets. He looked as comfortable as if he were sunning himself on his own balcony.
"Hello, everyone."
Sahiro Uchiha spoke softly, yet his voice sent a chill through the room.
Might Guy's thick brows shot up. His eyes widened like saucers, and the finger he raised trembled with shock.
"Y-you're supposed to be in the examination hall!"
Asuma's cigarette slipped from his lips. The glowing butt fell to the floor, but he didn't notice. His wide eyes held nothing but disbelief.
"How is this possible..."
His voice came out hoarse, as though something had lodged in his throat.
Kurenai reacted at once.
As a genjutsu Jōnin, her first instinct was to break the illusion. Her hands flashed through Hand Seals, and chakra surged from the tenketsu across her body.
"Release!"
Nothing happened.
It wasn't genjutsu.
Kurenai's fingers began to tremble uncontrollably.
If this wasn't genjutsu, what did that mean?
It meant Sahiro Uchiha was in two places at once.
Kakashi slowly withdrew his hand from his Kunai pouch.
He fixed his Sharingan on Sahiro Uchiha. Shock roiled in his eye, but his voice was strangely calm.
"A Shadow Clone!"
"That's right." Sahiro Uchiha tilted his head, his smile deepening.
The Shadow Clone Technique.
A Forbidden Technique created by the Second, Tobirama Senju. It produced a solid clone identical to the original, with all of the original's memories and combat abilities. When the clone was released, all its experiences and information returned to the original.
But the technique had one fatal drawback: it divided the user's chakra equally.
Even a Jōnin could use only two or three Shadow Clones at most. Any more, and each clone's fighting strength would drop sharply.
A Chunin couldn't even use the technique safely. They lacked the chakra to sustain a clone.
Yet Sahiro Uchiha had kept a Shadow Clone in the written portion of the Chunin Ninja Exams while coming up to the second-floor room himself and appearing silently behind four Jōnin.
Surrounded by four Jōnin, he had arrived without a single one of them noticing.
That meant he had entered the room and reached his position without making a sound, leaking a trace of chakra, or disturbing the airflow.
It meant that if Sahiro Uchiha had wanted to kill any one of them just then, that person would already be dead.
A low gulp escaped Might Guy's throat. For the first time, utter disbelief crossed his usually spirited face.
"But... your chakra... how could you..."
He trailed off, unsure how to ask.
A twelve-year-old Genin had kept a Shadow Clone sitting a written exam while infiltrating the Jōnin's observation room at that speed.
It was simply too much to believe.
Asuma frowned.
"That technique is forbidden."
"It's a Forbidden Technique from the Scroll of Seals. Even a Jōnin needs the Hokage's permission to learn it. How could you possibly know it?"
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