On the day of the match, the Ninja Academy's training ground was buzzing with excitement.
Sasuke and Yu, the Uchiha Clan's young prodigy and the Hyuga Clan's little wunderkind, had drawn plenty of attention with their Shurikenjutsu showdown!
Mizuki, the teacher in charge of shuriken training, had been on leave for three days straight!
And so Iruka served as the referee for the match.
After delivering Fugaku's handwritten letter to the Hokage the previous night, Itachi had gone home to coach Sasuke in Shurikenjutsu, asking a few questions about Yu along the way.
Itachi seemed very interested and said he would come watch the match today.
Would my brother really come?
Sasuke scanned his surroundings, full of anticipation.
When he saw no sign of Itachi, he felt a little disappointed.
Right, my brother was so busy. How could he have time to watch a couple of kids compete...?
Just as he was about to look away, he spotted a familiar figure standing atop a utility pole outside the field!
"Brother..." Sasuke's face lit up, and he nearly called out.
But he quickly got his expression under control. Like Neji, Sasuke maintained a cool, aloof image at school!
Itachi met Sasuke's gaze from afar and gave him an encouraging smile.
Sasuke steadied his excited heartbeat and thought, I had to win! I couldn't let my brother's efforts go to waste!
A breeze stirred Itachi's ponytail. He crouched on the utility pole, staring at Yu's back, and murmured, "So that's the child? He has unusual horns, and he deliberately approached Naruto, the Fourth Hokage's son and the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki..."
So far, Itachi had yet to connect Yu with the expert Shisui had mentioned.
But the negotiations between the Uchiha Clan and Konoha were only three days away!
Time was running short. He couldn't overlook any possibility, even one he himself found absurd!
Bzz! Itachi activated his Sharingan.
Although the Sharingan's perceptive abilities fell short of the Byakugan's, it could still gauge the strength of someone's chakra!
He saw an unusually vigorous flame of chakra burning at Yu's root chakra.
Itachi was taken aback. "Hm? A seven-year-old child already has chakra on par with a jonin?"
Some people were born with enormous chakra reserves. This much was still within the bounds of Itachi's understanding.
His gaze grew thoughtful. "But the issue is that the Hyuga Clan's chakra circulates at high speed when they activate the Byakugan. Does that mean his actual chakra is even stronger...?"
For Itachi to deduce that much was already remarkable. After all, only Yu himself, an Ōtsutsuki youngster, knew the true extent of his chakra...
Before the match began.
Sasuke said, "Yū Hyuga, let me see what your training's accomplished. If you're still as lousy as before, we might as well forget the match!"
"Sure, I'll show you~."
Yu took a shuriken from his ninja tool pouch, glanced at a target ten meters off to the side, and casually threw it, hitting the bull's-eye!
Clean and crisp. He didn't look like a beginner at all!
It was hard to imagine that a novice with absolutely no foundation three days ago could already throw so convincingly!
An uninformed child from another class said, "That kid's pretty good. He must've put in a lot of work!"
A classmate who disliked Yu snapped, "Work, my ass! That guy basically spends all his time at school playing. I've never seen him seriously practice with shuriken!"
Damn it, why could he do it?!
Little bubbles of resentment floated out...
Too bad Itachi hadn't activated his Mangekyo, or the truth would have come to light!
"Hmph." Sasuke wasn't particularly surprised. He knew how talented Yu was. "That's more like it. You're qualified to compete against me!"
Yu cradled the back of his head and grinned. "Hehe, how are we doing this? Just throwing at targets?"
Sasuke was quite generous. "I've trained in Shurikenjutsu far longer than you have, so I won't take advantage of you. However you want to compete, that's how we'll do it!"
Yu didn't stand on ceremony. "Hey, then how about we face each other and throw shuriken at one another? Whoever goes down first loses?"
Sasuke froze, thinking, This guy was deliberately testing my nerve, wasn't he?
Stubbornly, he replied, "Hmph, if you're not afraid of losing your head, then give it a try!"
At that moment, Iruka crossed his arms into an X. "Rejected! The Student Handbook stipulates that matches at the Ninja Academy must be conducted without endangering anyone's safety!"
He thought, Was this a joke? If anything happened to these two idiots, I could kiss my teaching job goodbye. My secure livelihood!
Yu spread his hands. "All right, what a shame. Let's stick to targets, then. But we'll hit them in unconventional ways..."
Sasuke asked, "Unconventional?"
"Here, I'll demonstrate first..."
Yu stepped back, pinched a shuriken between his fingers, and whirled his arm like a fan!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...!
Everyone had the same thought. Hey, hey, was this guy serious about that ridiculous throwing motion???
Whoosh!!!
While the spectators weren't paying attention, the shuriken shot into the sky at an almost vertical angle!
Once everyone registered what had happened, they all thought, That was it???
But then something unbelievable happened. After reaching its highest point, the shuriken suddenly accelerated downward along a bizarre curve and buried itself deep in the bull's-eye!!
Gasp!!!
The entire crowd erupted. That worked too???
Under Sasuke's astonished gaze, Yu grinned. "Hehe, this is my invention, the High-Arc Shuriken~."
"All flash, no substance!"
"What a roundabout way to do it!"
"By the time you finished, the enemy would've been long gone!"
"Exactly, exactly!"
Outside the field, all sorts of envious, jealous, and bitter remarks drifted through the air alongside little bubbles of resentment!
But atop the utility pole, Itachi took a broader view. "Shurikenjutsu has never had a single fixed form. Besides, every difficult technique rests on solid fundamentals. Clearly, his Shurikenjutsu has already reached mastery."
"Also, although that move's flaws were obvious, its strengths were equally outstanding. Whether it's spontaneous play or a means of killing an enemy depends entirely on where and when it's used... This child doesn't cling to convention. He likes figuring things out."
On the field.
Having recovered from his surprise, Sasuke jumped to a conclusion. "I get it. We're just showing off fancy tricks?"
Yu gave him a knowing smile. "Hehe, is that how you understand it? Then let's call it that. Of course, you don't have to throw the way I just did. As long as you use an unconventional method, make a different motion each time, and hit the bull's-eye, it counts~."
Sasuke asked, "So the winner is decided when one of us misses the target, right?"
Yu nodded. "Yeah. Scoring the motions would be way too subjective, and we don't have a discerning judge here anyway. Let's use that standard for now..."
Sasuke said, "Fine. I'll compete against you under those rules!"
The two took their stances, ready to officially begin the match.
Iruka, the supposedly undiscerning referee, said, "Before the match, both participants should form the seal symbolizing confrontation!"
Yu and Sasuke faced each other and formed the Seal of Confrontation!
Outside the field, Naruto shouted, "Yu, you can do it! Don't lose to that poser, believe it!!"
Sasuke thought, You were the poser!! You dead-last loser!!
Sakura Haruno shouted, "Sasuke-kun!! You can do it!! Don't lose to that clueless idiot!!"
Yu thought, You were the clueless one, you blessed, lovesick fool!!
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