"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Sayuri blinked. "When did he make it?"
At that same moment,
Hands shot out from the ground.
The real Otis emerged from below, grabbing her and dragging her downward into the earth.
"Got you."
For a moment, it looked like it worked.
But Mikoto smiled.
Her body dissolved into smoke.
Sayuri exhaled. "Yeah… that looked too easy." (￣▽￣;)
Behind Otis, he felt a presence.
Too late.
A blade flashed.
The real Mikoto appeared, already mid-swing, a tanto cutting toward his left side.
Otis reacted instantly, pulling his axe up just in time.
CLANG
Steel met steel.
The impact forced his arm down slightly, but he held.
Then he countered immediately.
A sharp kick to her side.
Mikoto was sent flying across the yard…
Only for her body to vanish into white smoke mid-air.
Puff
Otis's eyes narrowed. Irritation flickered in them.
"…This again." (￣д￣)
Sayuri laughed.
"He's getting played." (≧▽≦)
Sasuke said nothing.
"… "
He was watching everything. Every movement. Every feint and every mistake.
From Otis's left—
The real Mikoto appeared.
The tanto cut through the air toward him.
Otis raised his axe to block
But this time, the force behind her strike was heavier.
Much much heavier.
CLAANG
The clash echoed.
Otis was pushed back several steps, his boots digging into the ground as he struggled to hold his position.
The difference in strength was crystal clear.
She wasn't just faster.
She was controlling the entire fight.
Mikoto stepped forward lightly, her blade lowering.
Her Sharingan spun slowly.
Behind Otis, the ground trembled faintly, responding to him again.
Mikoto noticed.
And smirked.
Otis slammed his foot into the ground.
Chunks of earth rose…Compressed and then Hardened, forming layer after layer, covering his body.
Titan Armor.
Mikoto stepped back, observing.
"So you're putting on armor now," she said lightly.
Otis rolled his shoulders.
"Thought I'd try surviving."
Sayuri leaned forward.
"Woah, that looks so cool." (✧ω✧)
Sasuke nodded, his eyes shining with excitement.
Mikoto smiled again, then took a step forward.
"Then let's make it fair."
Dense chakra surged around her.
Her Mangekyō rotated.
Behind her, something began to form.
Bones.
A skeletal structure rose around her upper body, glowing with black-red chakra. Ribs. Spine. Arms.
Then it changed.
The chakra deepened, darkening into something heavier.
The light around it bent, dimmed… and disappeared.
It felt like it was swallowing everything around it.
It formed into a half-complete torso.
Susanoo.
Even though it was an incomplete, half-formed ribcage Susanoo, it radiated overwhelming pressure.
(Pic)
Sayuri's eyes widened.
"She's actually using it."
Hinata stepped back slightly. (・・;)
Shisui just shook his head.
"Otis is finished."
━━━━━━━━━━━ ☠ ━━━━━━━━━━━
Otis stared.
"…What .. the HELL."
Mikoto didn't even look strained.
"Well~."
The skeletal arm lifted toward the sky.
A chakra tanto formed in its grip.
"You wanted it to be fair."
The blade came down.
Fast.
Too fast for Otis's heavy armor to dodge.
Otis raised his arms, his armor thickening instinctively.
"HOW IS THIS FUCKING FAIR?!" he shouted. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
The strike landed.
BOOOM
The impact shattered the ground.
Otis's stone armor cracked like a brittle shell.
The force drove him into the earth like a nail.
Dust exploded outward, filling the entire yard.
The shockwave rolled across the ground.
Hinata gasped.
Sayuri grabbed the doorway pillar to steady herself.
Shisui exhaled slowly.
The Mangekyō Sharingan was truly the ultimate power in the ninja world.
"…That's over."
Sasuke's eyes burned with envy as he witnessed the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan for the first time in his life.
━━━━━━━━━━━ ☠ ━━━━━━━━━━━
In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen paused mid-sip.
He felt it through the ground.
The vibration.
He walked to the window slowly, looking in the direction of the Uchiha compound.
"I guess… he needed that lesson," he muttered, taking another sip.
━━━━━━━━━━━ ☠ ━━━━━━━━━━━
Back in the yard, the dust settled.
Otis was on his knees.
His armor was gone.
Shattered completely.
Both of his eyes were swollen, darkened, with circles forming like a panda.
He didn't move.
Mikoto stood in front of him, calm again.
The Mangekyō faded from her eyes.
Silence hung for a moment…
Then she spoke.
"…Do you understand," she asked gently, "what you did wrong?"
Otis didn't argue.
"…Ye ah."
He looked up at her.
"I was reckless."
A pause.
"…Sorry."
Mikoto's expression softened instantly.
She stepped closer.
"You see, Otis," she said quietly, placing a hand on his head, "we're just worried about you. That's all. You're family too."
She brushed his hair back gently.
"A little warning," she added, "would be nice before you do something like this next time."
Otis repeated, "…Yeah."
She smiled.
"And you can be as reckless as you want."
She tapped his forehead lightly.
"…If you can defeat me, of course."
Otis let out a weak laugh.
"…That might take a while."
Sayuri snorted.
Shisui looked away, pretending not to laugh.
Hinata smiled softly.
Mikoto leaned down and pressed a light kiss to Otis's forehead.
"I don't want to lose you… like Hikari."
Otis froze at those words as he felt her hands trembling against him.
For the first time since the fight started, he didn't have a response.
The yard went quiet.
☯ ──────── 忍 ──────── ☯
The next day~
Konoha Academy
The academy training grounds were louder than usual that morning.
Students from multiple classes had been gathered together. Fourth year, fifth year, and the final sixth year classes all stood packed into the large training ground.
More than ten thousand students were gathered there. The training ground itself looked small under the sheer number of people.
(Pic)
The older students stood in clusters, arms crossed, pretending disinterest.
Or trying to act cool.
The younger ones whispered openly, creating far too much noise.
"What's going on?"
"Why are we all here?"
"I heard it's a special jonin."
"You're wrong. I heard it's someone from ANBU."
"That's so cool."
"Did you know it was Hokage-sama who assigned him?"
"No way, Hokage-sama personally assigned him!"
The chatter kept rising.
At the front, Iruka stood with his arms crossed, already losing patience..
"QUIET."
The single word cut through the noise.
The noise died down, though whispers still lingered.
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Yeah, I know ten thousand sounds like a lot. It really does. But I made this world way bigger than canon, like way bigger.
So in that context, ten thousand is actually on the lower side. It just sounds big because we're used to smaller scales.
Anyway, that's enough explanation ε(´｡•᎑•`)っ 💕
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ANNOUNCEMENT ╾━╤デ╦︻ (•_- )
Yo guys, your favorite author is back... or maybe not.
Anyway, I've got some news.
NEW NOVEL REVEAL (∩˃o˂∩)★
After keeping it to myself for a while, I can finally announce that my next novel is:
[Red Dead Redemption 2: NO Grave for a Gunslinger]
Yep, it's finally happening.
I've been working on this idea for a while, and I'm really excited to finally share it with you guys.
I'll be releasing the first 15 chapters exclusively on Patreon before I start releasing the public free chapters.
So yeah... you guys will have to wait a bit. ⎛⎝( ` ᢍ ´ )⎠⎞ᵐᵘʰᵃʰᵃ
But if you want, you can enjoy the chapters early on Patreon while also supporting this hateful author of yours. ❤️
And to everyone who has supported me so far, thank you. Seriously.
Seeing those numbers go up is one hell of a motivation.
I mean, who doesn't get motivated when they see money coming in? ꉂ(˵˃ ᗜ ˂˵)
Capitalism may not have been part of my writing plan, but apparently, it's an excellent buff.
Oh yeah, before I go...Here's the cover image!
Anyway, that's enough from me.
•⩊•
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[email protected]/pacifist01
Just replace the @ with an "a" before using the link