"The battle is over. Minato Namikaze wins."
In the end, the match still ended in Minato Namikaze's victory.
After all, although Minato Namikaze had no means of attacking, he could still wear Akimichi Chōza down through sheer attrition.
The two formed the Seal of Reconciliation with each other before returning to the line.
Several more pairs followed in succession for combat practice, and Shin'un watched clearly from his place in line.
Soon, it was Shin'un's turn to spar.
Stepping out of the line, Shin'un looked at Uchiha Yūichi across from him.
Uchiha Yūichi seemed somewhat impatient as he stood opposite Shin'un.
"Form the Seal of Confrontation!"
Although reluctant, Uchiha Yūichi still made a perfunctory Seal of Confrontation under their teacher's supervision.
Shin'un clearly saw every expression on Uchiha Yūichi's face throughout.
"Begin!"
As soon as the battle began, Uchiha Yūichi immediately closed in on Shin'un, seemingly planning to defeat him outright.
Unfortunately, to Shin'un's eyes now, every one of Uchiha Yūichi's movements was perfectly clear.
Uchiha Yūichi charged at tremendous speed, gripping a kunai, and launched a sweeping strike as soon as he reached Shin'un.
Relying on his vastly improved powers of observation, Shin'un intercepted Uchiha Yūichi's arm before he could sweep it across.
Ignoring Uchiha Yūichi's astonished expression, Shin'un used the momentum of his charge, slung his arm over his shoulder, and executed a shoulder throw.
Uchiha Yūichi was immediately thrown over Shin'un's back and slammed into the ground at an even greater speed.
"Urgh..."
The heavy blow to his upper body left Uchiha Yūichi unable to breathe for a short while.
Struggling to his feet, Uchiha Yūichi felt humiliation alongside his physical pain.
Turning his head, Yūichi looked toward Hirakawa Shin'un a short distance away.
What's going on?
How are this kid's reactions so fast today?
Yūichi recalled the instant they had just exchanged blows.
In that instant, Hirakawa Shin'un seemed to have seen through and anticipated his every movement, blocking his arm at precisely the right moment and using the momentum of his charge to throw him straight to the ground.
What was that?
Hirakawa Shin'un clearly didn't show such terrifying reflexes during combat class the day before yesterday.
Could it be that I didn't get enough rest at noon?
Uchiha Yūichi gritted his teeth and chalked up his performance just now to a fluke.
Drawing seven or eight kunai from the ninja tool pouch behind him, Yūichi decided to start taking this battle seriously.
Swinging both arms, he hurled every kunai in his hands. The kunai collided in midair and changed direction, forming a ring that surrounded the distant Shin'un from every angle.
This was the Uchiha Clan's exclusive Uchiha Style Shurikenjutsu. Although Yūichi had yet to awaken his Sharingan, his diligent practice had ultimately allowed him to master this advanced projectile-throwing technique.
At the sight, some of the students in line began to worry.
After all, judging by Shin'un's past performance, he could not possibly evade such an attack.
Their teacher, Mizukawa Masaru, furrowed his brows. His wrists lowered, his body tensed, and chakra circulated throughout him as he prepared to rescue Shin'un and interrupt the spar.
Yūichi watched the airborne kunai surrounding Shin'un on all sides and thought of the frightening speed Shin'un had just displayed.
Gritting his teeth, Yūichi drew another kunai and charged at Shin'un.
Shin'un watched the kunai surrounding him advance slowly in his vision, while out of the corner of his eye, he also saw Yūichi approaching with a kunai in hand.
Drawing a kunai from the ninja tool pouch behind him, Shin'un began studying the trajectories of the incoming kunai and the order in which they would reach him.
Clang!
In a flash, Shin'un knocked away every kunai around him.
The sight startled Uchiha Yūichi as he advanced toward Shin'un.
Gritting his teeth, Uchiha Yūichi continued his charge toward Shin'un.
Glancing sideways at Yūichi's turtle-like charging speed, Shin'un decided to take the initiative.
Channeling chakra into his legs, Shin'un charged toward Uchiha Yūichi.
The instant they met, Shin'un saw through every one of Uchiha Yūichi's movements.
The improvement brought by [Extreme Reaction] was unparalleled.
Uchiha Yūichi's snarling face before him, the scratches left by wear on the kunai in his hand, the light reflected off its edge...
Everything seemed to have slowed down hundreds or thousands of times over.
Shin'un easily read the trajectory of the kunai in Yūichi's hand, knocked it away in just a few strikes, then brought his own kunai to Yūichi's neck.
In just an instant, the situation had changed completely.
"Huh?"
"What happened?"
"What just happened?"
"..."
A chorus of astonished cries rose from the class's line. Uchiha Yūichi's display of Uchiha Style Shurikenjutsu had already amazed them.
But what they had least expected was for Hirakawa Shin'un to simply and brutally knock away every kunai, then subdue Uchiha Yūichi with his own.
They could not make sense of it at all.
Mizukawa Masaru, who had been standing to one side ready to intervene if things went wrong, saw that the match on the training ground was over and hurried into the middle to oversee the proceedings.
"The match is over. Hirakawa Shin'un wins!"
Only after the result was announced did Shin'un withdraw the kunai he held at Uchiha Yūichi's neck. Under Mizukawa Masaru's instructions, they formed the Seal of Reconciliation with each other.
Then Shin'un turned straight around and returned to the class's line.
Uchiha Yūichi, however, looked at Shin'un as though he were a monster.
That strike in the instant they had clashed was simply too astonishing.
Clean, decisive, swift, precise...
He had been completely unable to follow the precise path of Shin'un's kunai. All he knew was that it had reached his neck in an instant.
When that kunai approached his neck with pure killing intent, seemingly seeing through his every thought and bypassing every means he had of blocking it, without slowing in the slightest, Yūichi truly thought Shin'un was going to kill him.
In that instant, Uchiha Yūichi had even thought back to his parents at home.
Still shaken, Uchiha Yūichi glanced at Shin'un's back, shook his head, and returned to the class's line.
Walking toward the training ground, Shin'un was in a good mood for the first time in a long while.
Eight years of waiting had finally borne fruit today. Now, even the rats in the dark corners of the streets looked cute to Shin'un.
Of course, even so, Shin'un could not slack off on his daily training.
After all, the Skill Editor took far too long to generate a skill. Training hard while using skills to help raise the ceiling of his growth was the proper path.
Today's match was just such a case.
In the past, Shin'un's greatest weakness had been his truly mediocre talent for combat. His reactions in battle were always a beat too slow.
Although the [Extreme Reaction] skill had made up for his greatest weakness, without all his previous hard training, he could not actually have won today's match so easily.
Overall, ninjutsu training and skills could fully complement each other and allow him to reach greater heights.