A boy wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt stood in a tree with his arms folded, his chin slightly raised as he looked down at Shinsei.
Oh, Uchiha Sasuke. Shinsei had thought he was actually under attack.
"Free this early? Don't you have missions to do?" It was only morning. Normally, he should have been doing missions with Naruto and Sakura.
"A D-rank mission. We finished quickly." Sasuke flipped neatly out of the tree and landed on the ground.
"Need something from me?" Shinsei understood that when Sasuke acted like this, he generally had something on his mind. Otherwise, he would rather go an entire day without saying a word.
Sure enough, Sasuke nodded.
Shinsei looked around. This wasn't a good place to talk.
"Come with me."
One following the other, they left Konoha's populated area and soon arrived at an abandoned training ground.
The place was secluded and open, with no one to eavesdrop, making it a good place to talk. Shinsei had only dared come somewhere like this after growing strong. Before that, he wouldn't have dared come alone.
"Go on, then. What did you need me for?" Shinsei stood facing Sasuke, whose brows were tightly knitted.
Sasuke didn't answer. He formed the Seal of Confrontation with both hands.
Shinsei raised his eyebrows. Want to fight first? Looks like the rain's cleared and the sky's sunny again. The cursed seal really gave Uchiha Sasuke a lot of confidence.
Shinsei also formed the Seal of Confrontation with both hands. He wanted to know how much the cursed seal had improved Sasuke, too.
Sasuke closed his eyes. When he opened them again, two tomoe were slowly rotating in each of his red eyes.
Opening with the Sharingan? Looks like I've put a lot of psychological pressure on Sasuke.
Shinsei formed a Monkey Seal with both hands, and a flicker of lightning flashed across his body. This was a variant of Chidori that used only its cell-activation aspect to increase his overall speed.
"Here I come!" Sasuke took a handful of shuriken from his ninja tool pouch. With a series of whistles, eight shuriken shot toward Shinsei, forming a net that blocked every direction he could dodge.
There was no need for this kind of probing attack. Shinsei easily dodged them one by one, and those he couldn't dodge, he deflected with a hand and caught.
Clang! Clang!
Two metallic clashes rang out behind him. Four shuriken collided behind his back, changing direction and stabbing toward him from behind.
As though he had eyes in the back of his head, Shinsei kept his feet planted and reached backward with both hands to knock the four shuriken aside, while kicking his right leg toward the approaching Sasuke.
Sasuke held both hands in front of his chest to block the kick coming straight at him, then used its force to flip away, putting distance between them as he formed hand seals.
Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Fire!
Blazing flames poured from Sasuke's mouth, splitting into masses like enormous flowers as they closed in from all sides.
Water Release: Water Formation Wall!
Shinsei used only one seal. Water swirled out from beneath his feet, forming an encircling wall that instantly isolated him.
The masses of flame struck the water wall and swiftly went out, their explosions making it tremble only slightly. Two Fūma Shuriken were concealed among them, but the rotating water diverted them, and they fell to the ground.
Oh, ninja tools mixed into fire style. Too bad they didn't do much. This was also why Shinsei rarely spent time and energy pursuing details like these. They weren't worth a damn. Of course, that was easy for Shinsei to say: when he spent time improving himself, he could almost always see progress. Those who couldn't see any obvious improvement in themselves could only spend their time working out the details.
"That kind of power isn't enough, Sasuke." Shinsei also understood that Sasuke couldn't have come to challenge him over such a small improvement, but they could skip the pointless steps.
"I haven't fully mastered this new power yet. Be careful!" As soon as Sasuke finished speaking, the black tomoe on his neck rapidly spread across his entire body like burning flames. His chakra seemed almost tangible, whipping the surrounding flowers and grass to shreds.
Shinsei looked at Sasuke before him. An indescribably sinister air surrounded his entire body, and a faint, wicked smile played at the corners of his mouth.
"That's more like it. Come show me. Attack with everything you've got."
Sasuke's figure flickered and vanished from in front of him. When he reappeared, he was already behind Shinsei, his lips curling into a wicked smile.
Now that's more like it for speed. Shinsei reached back and caught Sasuke's hands, feeling intensely invasive chakra coming from them. He raised his eyebrows. The cursed seal isn't all that impressive, either.
Lightning suddenly flickered over the hands gripping Sasuke's. Sasuke felt an enormous surge of chakra engulf him like an ocean wave. His own chakra was like a low embankment, shattering on contact, while the dense lightning brought an endless stream of numbness that left his entire body weak.
Sasuke's knees buckled, and he staggered and collapsed. Shinsei hurriedly withdrew the chakra from his hands.
Uh... I used a little too much force. This wasn't the result I wanted.
"Sorry, I used too much force. Try again!"
Sasuke flipped to his feet and took a great leap backward to put distance between them, his expression grave. The cursed seal on his body was unstable, looking as though it might disappear at any moment.
Sasuke gritted his teeth, looking unwilling to admit defeat, but his presence no longer held that sinister quality from before.
Looking at Sasuke opposite him, whose gaze was much clearer now, Shinsei thought that Uchiha Sasuke was actually very easy to talk to. Beat him up once, and anything could be discussed. In the original story, Sasuke had probably defected from Konoha because none of his peers could easily beat him up anymore.
Sasuke formed hand seals. Shinsei recognized this ninjutsu; he knew it himself.
Lightning Release: Chidori!
A mass of lightning leaped back and forth over Sasuke's right hand, its crackling sparks sounding like the chirping of birds. Cast using chakra altered by the cursed seal, Chidori had a purplish hue and looked considerably more powerful, too.
With his right hand hanging low, Sasuke began running at high speed. The chakra spilling from Chidori carved a deep furrow in the ground.
Watching Sasuke charge straight toward him, Shinsei marveled that Sasuke's first cheat had arrived. He was much faster than before.
With a swing of Sasuke's arm, the chirping Chidori thrust toward him. Fortunately, Sasuke was still clearheaded enough that he didn't truly want to kill Shinsei, and he was going to change direction midway to move it aside.
But Shinsei wasn't willing. It wasn't that he couldn't dodge, but that he didn't need to. Though his left hand moved later, it arrived first, passing around the side of Chidori and seizing Sasuke's right hand. Lightning release chakra danced over Shinsei's hand.
From the moment Shinsei moved, Sasuke's rotating Sharingan saw his movements perfectly clearly. But although his eyes could see them, his body couldn't react fast enough. He could only watch helplessly as Shinsei caught his wrist.
The familiar numbness swept over him like an ocean wave. Sasuke was like a little boat adrift amid towering waves, and a sense of powerlessness welled up in his heart.
Chidori's twittering cries slowly faded, and Sasuke slumped to the ground.
Is the gap still this big? Sasuke's eyes went somewhat blank, but he soon pulled himself together. Isn't this exactly why I came looking for Shinsei? I'm improving, but I can't even see his back anymore.
"Let's stop here," Shinsei said, sitting down too. "Chidori and the cursed seal put too much strain on you."
"You know about the cursed seal?" Sasuke's dark eyes fixed tightly on Shinsei.