Whose pride did a five-year-old's teleportation shatter?

Inside the examination hall.

Asuma stared at Uchiha Satoru across from him, his expression shifting several times.

Where did this brat get such a terrifying presence?

Was he putting on an act again?

Bullshit.

How could killing intent this intense possibly be an act?

Whatever happened, he couldn't let this little brat get the better of him.

If a five-year-old really managed to get close to him that easily...

His old man would laugh at him until next year.

He still couldn't tell just how capable Uchiha Satoru was.

But the moment that aura pressed down on him, he knew something was wrong.

This brat was definitely no pushover.

He might actually manage to reach him.

If word got back to the daimyo that even a child could pass a test under him...

Who would dare entrust their life and fortune to him?

Uchiha Satoru made no flashy moves. He simply held a shuriken in his hand.

He had no intention of revealing all his trump cards.

His usual offensive techniques were too conspicuous, and far too powerful.

This wasn't the place to show them.

But he could play around with the high-speed teleportation derived from those techniques.

Combined with the weapon in his hand, it was more than enough to handle Asuma.

"Quit trying to act all mysterious!"

Asuma steadied his breathing, his gaze sharpening.

Gojo Satoru's string of moves had forced him to get serious despite himself.

"You..."

He had barely uttered a single word before the rest caught in his throat.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The sound of blades slicing through the air rang out several times across the examination hall.

Asuma glanced down. The shuriken had come within a hair of slicing open his thighs and arms, and cold sweat broke out over him.

So fast.

If his body hadn't instinctively taken half a step back, he would probably already have been on the floor.

But when had that brat gotten behind him?

Asuma glanced at Gojo Satoru behind him out of the corner of his eye, his head buzzing.

He hadn't seen the movement at all. All he had heard was the whistle of blades cutting through the air.

Then a relentless barrage of shuriken came flying at him, without the slightest mercy.

He was a seasoned veteran of years on the battlefield, after all. His instincts and sense for danger had saved him this time.

Shuriken, huh?

Looks like he's a taijutsu specialist.

Then don't blame me for playing rough.

The corners of Asuma's mouth curved upward.

Once there's enough distance between us, even the fiercest taijutsu can't strike instantaneously.

He's bound to leave an opening.

You're still too green to compete with an adult, brat.

Besides, that stick of incense of yours is almost burned out, isn't it?

Once time's up, go back to school and train for another couple of years.

The battlefield isn't somewhere a little brat like you can handle.

What the hell good is taijutsu alone?

Ninjutsu is still what counts.

Just look at that Earth Release technique from earlier. It was nowhere near good enough.

His chakra was paper-thin. That Earth Release was nothing but an empty shell, all form and no substance.

Asuma thought he had it all figured out.

Little did he know that Gojo Satoru had another kind of power stored within him.

Chakra was only a small part of Gojo Satoru's energy reserves.

His true trump card wasn't the chakra refined from his body.

It was the cursed energy rooted in his soul.

"Asuma is going to lose." Orochimaru delivered his verdict in a single sentence.

The man was far too careless, and far too conceited.

Had he been facing a formidable opponent of the same rank from another village, he would never have performed so poorly.

Even after being taught a lesson and realizing something was wrong, he still couldn't adjust his attitude.

With such a hasty judgment, his defeat was inevitable.

But Uchiha Satoru really had opened his eyes.

How did he pull off that move just now?

He simply appeared out of nowhere.

Ninjutsu?

No, there wasn't any fluctuation in his chakra at that moment.

Taijutsu was even less plausible.

What else was he hiding?

I'd love to open him up and get a good look at how his body works.

Was the Uchiha Clan's bloodline really that different?

Orochimaru's pupils contracted, abruptly turning into vertical slits.

"Hey, Sensei, you're kidding, aren't you?"

"He's just a five-year-old kid, isn't he?"

"There's no way he can beat Asuma."

"Heh." Orochimaru gave a cold chuckle.

"Don't try to measure a genius with that tiny brain of yours."

This disciple of his was so naive he was practically an idiot.

The match continued.

"What a pain. I'm done wasting time." Gojo Satoru raised a hand to touch his blindfold and muttered.

The moment his words fell...

The figure right before Asuma's eyes vanished.

Where did he go?

Impossible.

I'd already put enough distance between us.

Why can't I still track Gojo Satoru?

Whoosh-

Whoosh-

That familiar sound swept through the air again.