Aoki moved fast, his form flawless.
Leaning forward and lowering his center of gravity, he raised his right leg and launched a textbook Uchiha Style Front Kick straight at Obito's chest.
He put eighty percent of his strength into the kick.
Not out of mercy, but because he was afraid of killing him.
After all, this was a sparring class, not a fight to the death.
But eighty percent was still enough to put Obito in bed for days.
"It's over," lackey number one whispered.
"Should've been over ages ago." Lackey number two nodded.
Rin Nohara covered her eyes, unable to watch.
Teacher Nakamura was already about to call a halt.
Only Uchiha Makoto stood with his arms folded, a faint smile playing on his lips.
The kick connected.
Aoki's foot slammed squarely into Obito's chest.
Thud!
The sound was dull, like a kick against a concrete wall.
But Obito didn't move.
He didn't even sway.
Aoki's expression went from confidence to confusion to shock in just one second.
He felt as though he had kicked a solid steel plate.
And then...
"Hiss-"
Aoki sucked in a sharp breath and staggered a step as he landed.
An agonizing pain shot through his right leg, from his ankle to his calf.
It wasn't an injury from being kicked.
It was from the recoil.
Like punching a wall with all your strength: the wall was fine, but your hand bones cracked.
That was exactly how Aoki felt.
He stood there, his right leg trembling slightly, his face pale.
The sidelines fell silent.
Everyone stared at Obito.
Obito opened his eyes.
He looked at Aoki, his expression calm.
"Done kicking?" he asked.
Aoki opened his mouth but couldn't get a word out.
"Then it's my turn," Obito said.
Then he moved.
He didn't charge or leap. He simply took an ordinary step forward, clenched his right hand into a fist, and punched.
The movement wasn't fast or flashy.
It was the most basic straight punch.
But Aoki couldn't dodge it.
His right leg still hurt, his balance was shaky, and his reaction was a fraction too slow.
All he could do was raise his hands to block.
Thump!
But he was still a beat too late, and the fist struck his face.
Aoki flew backward, traced a rather graceless arc through the air, then landed on the ground with a smack.
Dust rose. The entire field fell deathly silent.
Everyone remained frozen in their previous poses-mouths open, eyes wide, hands covering faces.
As though someone had hit pause.
Teacher Nakamura reacted first and rushed onto the field.
"Aoki! Aoki, are you all right?"
Aoki lay on the ground without speaking.
There was only one thought in his head: What... just happened?
He had kicked Obito. Obito was fine, but his own foot hurt.
Then Obito had punched him, and he had gone flying.
Did that make sense?
That made no sense at all!
Teacher Nakamura examined Aoki and breathed a sigh of relief.
No broken bones or internal injuries, just a bruise on his face and a slightly swollen right ankle.
"Can you still stand?" Teacher Nakamura asked.
Aoki tried and barely managed to get up, but he didn't dare put weight on his right foot.
The outcome was settled. Aoki Uchiha could no longer fight.
"For the first match," Teacher Nakamura announced, looking at Obito, then at Aoki, "Obito Uchiha wins."
The moment he finished, the sidelines erupted.
"He won? Obito won?"
"Aoki lost? How is that possible?"
"What just happened? How did Obito suddenly..."
"Did he use some kind of ninjutsu?"
"Ninjutsu? He didn't make any hand seals!"
"Then what was it? Taijutsu? What kind of taijutsu lets you take a kick head-on and hit back?"
The students buzzed with discussion, and the way they looked at Obito changed completely.
Before, it had been, "Oh, Obito. That dead last."
Now, it was, "Holy shit, Obito's that strong?"
Rin Nohara was the first to rush onto the field, running up to Obito.
"Obito! Are you okay?" She anxiously checked his chest. "Aoki's kick was really hard. You..."
"I'm fine." Obito grinned and even patted his chest. "Completely fine."
He was telling the truth.
With Iron Body active, Aoki's kick had barely felt like a tickle.
Rin Nohara looked at him, her eyes sparkling.
"Obito, you're amazing!"
Obito blushed.
"I-I'm all right." He scratched his head. "Mostly because Makoto taught me well."
"Makoto?" Rin Nohara looked toward Uchiha Makoto at the edge of the field.
Uchiha Makoto nodded to her.
On the other side, Might Guy was also staring at Obito, his eyes shining.
When he had practiced Iron Body before, he had always felt the technique was too passive. He couldn't move, only take hits.
But Obito's demonstration had given him a new idea.
Being unable to move didn't mean being unable to fight.
As long as he withstood the first blow, he would have a chance to counterattack.
"I'm going to get that good too!" Guy clenched his fists, his blood pumping.
Obito walked off the field, and the students automatically cleared a path for him.
No one called him "dead last" anymore.
Aoki's two lackeys were pale. Just moments earlier, they had mocked Obito, saying, "Dead last will always be dead last."
Now...
Aoki limped off the field and paused as he passed Obito.
"You..." He looked at Obito. "What was that just now?"
"Taijutsu," Obito said.
"What kind of taijutsu?"
"Iron Body."
"Iron Body?" Aoki frowned. "Never heard of it."
Obito just chuckled goofily. After all, he had beaten Aoki, but Makoto had told him not to reveal that Iron Body was his own creation.
So Obito didn't explain where Iron Body came from.
Aoki stared at him for a few seconds, then lowered his head.
"I lost." With that, he turned and left.
His retreating figure looked a little forlorn.
Obito watched him go without saying anything.
I won.
I beat Aoki.
The Aoki who had bullied him since childhood, mocked him, and told him he "didn't deserve to be an Uchiha."
He had won.
"How does it feel?" Uchiha Makoto walked over and patted his shoulder.
"Great." Obito grinned. "Really great."
"Good." Uchiha Makoto smiled too. "Remember that feeling. The next time someone calls you dead last, use your fists to tell them you're not."
"Yeah!" Obito nodded hard.
The rest of the sparring class wasn't much to watch.
How exciting could fights between first-year students be?
It was just punches and kicks back and forth, with the occasional shuriken thrown in-and even then, they had to be careful not to miss and hit the spectators.
Asuma faced a civilian student and ended the fight in three moves.
Guy faced a boy wearing glasses and knocked him flat with one punch.
Flat on his face, literally. He couldn't get up for quite a while.
Teacher Nakamura hurriedly declared Guy the winner, then went to check the bespectacled boy's injuries.
"Guy, go a little easier," Teacher Nakamura said helplessly. "This is just a sparring class, not a fight to the death."
"Sorry, sir!" Guy bowed. "I got too excited!"
He really was excited.
After seeing Obito win, he wanted to win too.
To win impressively, to win decisively.
Uchiha Makoto stood at the edge of the field, watching these amateurs flail at each other, and felt a wave of relief.
Thank goodness Aoki was only a first-year.
Thank goodness he hadn't learned Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu yet.
Thank goodness he wasn't very smart in a fight.
He had seen Obito take that strange stance and actually just kicked him.
If Aoki had any sense at all and had thrown a shuriken to test him first, or used taijutsu to maneuver around him, Obito's secret would have been exposed.
What was Iron Body's greatest weakness?
He couldn't move.
Once he used Iron Body, Obito was a sitting duck. As long as Aoki kept his distance and wore him down with ranged attacks, Obito was bound to lose.
But Aoki hadn't done that.
He had chosen the simplest, most direct approach: a head-on clash.
Then he had kicked an iron plate.
A literal iron plate.
Still, first-year students didn't have many tricks. Most only knew how to charge in.
Luck is part of strength too, Uchiha Makoto thought.
Obito had won. That was enough.
With a win, he could keep "developing" more "ninjutsu."
With a win, those NPCs-no, his classmates-would believe what he said.
With a win, he could make up stories even more brazenly.
Obito believed him anyway, and so did Guy.
Uchiha Makoto looked at Guy on the field, then at Obito beside him.
Several classmates had surrounded Obito and were peppering him with questions.
"Obito, how do you practice that Iron Body move?"
"Can you teach me?"
"Does it take a lot of chakra?"
"All right, next pair, get ready," Teacher Nakamura called.
Before you continue