Sparks flew as sword and staff collided at blinding speed, scattering across the training ground before dying in the dust. Then, with another fierce clash of wooden sword against wooden staff, brilliant sparks flared anew.
Shingetsu tightened her grip on the wooden sword trembling from the impact, her dark eyes fixed on Hiruzen Sarutobi as he attacked with ever-changing staff techniques.
She nimbly evaded every attack, then seized an opening to slam the hilt into Hiruzen Sarutobi's elbow. As he recoiled in pain, she thrust her wooden sword into his throat.
The deliberately blunted tip sank into the boy's soft skin. Had Shingetsu been holding a real sword, Hiruzen Sarutobi would already have been dead.
Watching the Sarutobi monkey break into a cold sweat, Shingetsu curled her lips in a soft chuckle. She relaxed her sword hand slightly, giving him room to breathe. Deciding she had had enough of this monkey show, she pushed the hilt downward, moving the blade away from Hiruzen Sarutobi's vital points.
"We've fought enough. How about we stop here?"
"No!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi refused without a moment's thought. He shouted in frustration, looking utterly unwilling to surrender, his expression even taking on a look of insult.
Instead, Shingetsu's sincere offer of a truce became his opening to strike back. The monkey seized his chance, mustered all his strength, and swung his wooden staff, forcibly pushing her sword back.
"I'm the Hokage's student! I'm not admitting defeat just like that!"
"Hmph. What a pointless, useless need to win."
Shingetsu snorted disdainfully and reversed her grip, bringing the hilt before her chest to block Hiruzen Sarutobi's staff. Their duel had reached a heated stalemate; neither could defeat the other anytime soon.
With an overwhelming advantage in speed and technique, Shingetsu's sword strikes fell like a sudden downpour. Though Hiruzen Sarutobi was driven back again and again, he was as tough as a damage sponge, and she could do little about him in the short term. Worse, his strength was extraordinary. Every blow of his staff seemed to carry crushing force, leaving her arms numb even when she successfully blocked.
Facing Hiruzen Sarutobi gave her an early taste of the frustration and helplessness Madara felt against Hashirama, or Sasuke against Naruto. What good were high attack power and massive damage? Unless you killed them in one hit, they would heal right back to full in no time!
In comparison, Hiruzen Sarutobi was still relatively easy to handle. He could simply take a beating; he lacked the Sage Body's cheating, endless regeneration. Even so, his sheer durability was more than enough to outlast the young Shingetsu.
By now, Shingetsu's arm muscles were aching and numb. Silently suppressing the discomfort, she clamped down on the hilt and continued attacking. Meanwhile, endless anger and frustration churned in her chest-
I'm just a five-year-old brat! Why do I have to fight someone to the death?!
Damn this Shinobi world! Damn Tobirama Senju!
Her anger boiling over, Shingetsu caught sight of Tobirama Senju watching them from the corner of her eye. Wariness and revulsion surged within her. She did not know what he wanted to discover, but she would never let him get his way.
This pointless monkey show ends here!
Shingetsu suddenly turned her blade, released the restraints on her chakra, and poured it into the wooden sword with all her strength. Vivid, unrestrained flames coiled around its edge, stretching freely like living creatures.
"Uchiha Style: Sun Halo Dance!"
A crack suddenly appeared in Tobirama Senju's stone-cold expression, his garnet eyes sharply contracting. Shingetsu's sword-drawing stance reminded him of his former sworn enemy-Uchiha Izuna.
In his eyes, Shingetsu's figure overlapped with Izuna's. The angle of her draw, the force of her strike, and that superb swordsmanship, like a nightmare from only yesterday, all seemed to drag the sword prodigy who had once dominated the battlefield out of the Pure Land and back into the living world.
Tobirama Senju could not understand it at all. Rather than teaching his student his own customary Taijutsu, Madara Uchiha had passed on his dead younger brother's swordsmanship. How utterly inconceivable!
The Uchiha Clan's maddened love and hatred shook him deeply once more, sending a sudden chill through his body. But this was no time for reflection.
He knew Uchiha Izuna's swordsmanship inside out. Uchiha Style: Sun Halo Dance was a powerful sword technique that combined the Body Flicker Technique with Flame Leaping Sword to deliver three strikes in an instant. It could inflict terrifying damage in a split second, and at Hiruzen Sarutobi's current speed, he could not possibly evade it.
"This ends here!"
Swinging her flame-wreathed wooden sword, Shingetsu flickered behind Hiruzen Sarutobi. The scorching fire release chakra burst with the deadly heat of magma, yet the blade's fierce arc was as dazzling and magnificent as a dancing solar halo, mesmerizing to behold.
Searing sword light mingled with flames, reflected in Hiruzen Sarutobi's pupils as they abruptly contracted, then rapidly dilated. His grip on the wooden staff loosened unconsciously. He already knew he could no longer resist.
No, I haven't lost! I can still fight!
Remembering Tobirama Senju's orders, Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression grew resolute again. He cast aside his wooden staff without hesitation and slammed his bloodied palm against the ground.
"Summoning Technique!"
Swirling white smoke engulfed Shingetsu as she swung her sword at him. When it cleared, a small, thin monkey with white fur and black skin stood in front of Sarutobi, taking Shingetsu's sword strike head-on with his slender arm. The lethal technique left not a scratch on him, instead producing a loud clang like metal striking metal.
With a sharp crack, the wooden sword in Shingetsu's hand snapped in two!
"Ah-Lady Shingetsu!"
The Uchiha children cried out in horror, glaring at the monkey Sarutobi had summoned, their hearts cold as though submerged in ice water.
More than fire release, what had truly made the Sarutobi Clan famous during the Warring States Period was their trump card: their summoned beast, the Monkey King, with his indestructible body.
"That's cheating!"
Frantic and furious, Miki grabbed her hair and tugged at it wildly. The Sarutobi Clan's summoned beasts had more than indestructible bodies. These monkeys could even use ninjutsu, rivaled jōnin in strength, and were formidable foes hailed as the strongest summoned beasts!
The situation on the field reversed once more. Faced with a two-on-one disadvantage, Shingetsu could only tighten her grip on her remaining half of the sword, crouch, and leap several meters backward. Hiruzen Sarutobi flung away his battered staff and advanced on her with his summoned beast.
"Uchiha Shingetsu, surrender! You have no chance of winning!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's face darkened. His features, normally comical as a monkey's when he smiled, were now unusually cold and stern. His youth did nothing to soften a ninja's customary ruthlessness and resolve. After being driven into a corner several times, he would certainly no longer underestimate his opponent. Even as he urged her to surrender, he blocked her escape routes in front and behind, joining Enma to surround her.
Shingetsu remained expressionless as Sarutobi pressed closer, though fine beads of cold sweat had appeared at her temples. Of course she knew she was at a disadvantage, but her Uchiha pride would not allow her to beg for mercy or admit defeat.
Shingetsu gave a faint, self-mocking smile. It seemed she had that pointless, useless need to win too.
"Transformation: Adamantine Staff!"
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
Under everyone's astonished gazes, Enma used the Transformation Technique, becoming a long, jet-black staff with golden ends that smashed straight toward Shingetsu's head. At the same time, Hiruzen Sarutobi rapidly formed hand seals and unleashed one of Tobirama Senju's customary Water Release techniques, spitting a dragon formed of water from his mouth toward Shingetsu.
"Shingetsu!"
Kagami Uchiha let out an uncontrollable scream of terror. His fear spread to the other children, and the students around the field all looked frightened. One deathly pale civilian student even sank to his knees, his legs trembling nonstop.
"Th-this is going too far! Teacher, please stop them!"
In his panic, he grabbed the hem of Tobirama Senju's clothing, since he was closest, and pleaded desperately, his bright black eyes brimming with tears.
"..."
Tobirama Senju had never imagined a child from the Uchiha Clan would one day beg him in tears, and his feelings were complicated. His gaze swept toward Uchiha Shingetsu, besieged by the Monkey King and the water dragon. He already knew she was barely holding on, with little chakra or physical stamina left.
Could I have guessed wrong?
Tobirama Senju's brows knitted tightly. He knew that if this continued, even if he did not intervene, Uchiha Hōkaku would rush forward to separate them.
Then let it end here.
Tobirama half closed his eyes, considering the various details of the spar. For Uchiha Shingetsu to possess such a high level of ability at only five years old, she certainly deserved her reputation as an Uchiha Clan prodigy.
But such talent still could not compare with her teacher, Madara Uchiha, or his own elder brother, Hashirama Senju.
Just as Tobirama Senju had surmised, Shingetsu herself knew she had reached her limit.
Her body ached so badly she could barely move, the Adamantine Staff was too close to evade, and the fierce water dragon charged straight at her-all of it trapped her in a hopeless situation. As the gust from the Adamantine Staff cutting through the air struck her cheeks alongside the moisture of the roaring water dragon, Shingetsu suddenly felt a bone-deep chill.
What happens if those attacks hit me? Will I die?
Will I... die?
A horrifying sensation rose from beneath her feet, crawling up Shingetsu's spine and spreading through her entire body. Her eyes closed involuntarily. When she opened them again, they were a startling crimson, with a single black tomoe spinning within that blood-red expanse!
Not only that, the world before her eyes was once again covered in countless tangled Death Lines, cruelly dividing every person and object between life and death.
The tomoe Sharingan's unique ability to perceive an opponent's chakra flow, combined with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception's vision of all death, made the world before Shingetsu's eyes resemble a film played in slow motion. Even time itself slowed. She watched the staff and water dragon slowly approach, then, after a brief moment's thought, aimed her sword at the enormous water dragon coming toward her.
In that slowed world, Shingetsu merely extended her hand at an unhurried pace and stepped forward, lightly drawing her half-broken wooden sword along the red line of death on the water dragon's body. It was even easier than slicing through a block of tofu.
As Shingetsu sliced through the entire line of death as easily as cutting paper and took a leisurely step up to Hiruzen Sarutobi, the enormous chakra-formed water dragon behind her instantly collapsed.
"What happened?!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked incredulous. To him, Uchiha Shingetsu had severed his entire water dragon in a single instant!
And with nothing but half a wooden sword!
"So this is... the Sharingan?"
Staring at the girl's Sharingan, vivid as blood and brilliant as gemstones, Hiruzen Sarutobi was shaken to his core. Even when Shingetsu laid her sword against his neck once more, he stood there oblivious, lost in the radiant, jewel-like gleam of her eyes.
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