"Damn it!"
Seeing Sanada Aran dare to laugh at him, Sasuke instantly lunged forward with a flurry of relentless attacks.
"So cool! Go, Sasuke-sama!"
The girls watching from below erupted into cheers, convinced that Sasuke had already gained the upper hand.
Ding! Taijutsu 'Shadow of the Dancing Leaf' absorbed successfully. Congratulations, Host—upgraded technique obtained: Lion Combo!
"Yes! That's exactly what I was waiting for!"
With a loud shout, Aran suddenly launched his counterattack against Sasuke.
"What the—?! Aran, that dead-last, took Sasuke's entire combo and didn't even flinch?"
"Yeah! And now he dares to counterattack Sasuke? Has he lost his mind? Did he eat something weird today?"
"Bold or not, a loser's still a loser. He'll just end up getting beaten even worse!"
But just as the crowd mocked him, Aran unleashed a technique far more powerful than anyone expected.
In an instant, the so-called genius Uchiha Sasuke was completely overpowered, beaten down without even a chance to fight back. Aran's strikes slammed into him one after another, finishing with a devastating blow that sent Sasuke crashing onto the ground.
"No way… Am I seeing things?"
"Did Aran—the class failure—just knock Sasuke down?!"
The entire crowd was stunned beyond belief. Even Sasuke, lying battered on the stage, stared in disbelief.
Because what he had just experienced wasn't an illusion—Sanada Aran's attacks had carried overwhelming power.
Sasuke's body was covered in injuries, and worse, he felt a burning sensation searing through his skin and muscles.
That was the effect of Aran's strange flame—the Xuanhuang Blaze—infused into his techniques through the Burning System.
Now, whether it was ninjutsu or taijutsu, all of Aran's attacks carried the added, terrifying burn of strange fire.
And this was Aran holding back. If he hadn't restrained himself, Sasuke might have spent the rest of his life in a hospital bed.
Ding! First successful use of Lion Combo detected!Ding! Congratulations, Host—you have awakened Super Perception! You can now sense movement within a five-hundred-mile radius!
"Super Perception…?"
The moment Aran heard the system's words, his five senses sharpened to an unimaginable degree, hundreds of times clearer than before.
And in that clarity, he felt two powerful presences lurking in the distance—both elite jōnin.
Aran instantly recognized them: Danzo's agents, Root operatives.
After Sanada Aran had killed three of his men, Danzo had become obsessed with finding out how the boy had suddenly grown so strong. So he had sent two Root shinobi to capture Aran and drag him before him.
Aran was just about to strike first against those hidden watchers when Sasuke's furious roar interrupted him.
"No! Impossible! There's no way I—I—could lose to a dead-last like you!"
Humiliated, Sasuke shouted in rage while his hands quickly began forming seals.
"Wait! Those seals—could it be…?"
Iruka, watching from below, froze in alarm. His eyes widened as recognition struck.
That sequence of hand signs—it was the Uchiha clan's specialty: Fire Release.
Iruka had never imagined that a student who hadn't even graduated yet would already be able to perform such a technique.
He immediately rushed forward to stop him, but it was too late.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
"What?! Sasuke knows Fire Release?!"
"This is bad—Aran's finished! The Uchiha clan's fire techniques are insanely powerful!"
The crowd gasped, already convinced Aran couldn't withstand such a legendary attack.
But then, before their very eyes, something even more shocking happened.
Sanada Aran formed his own seals—and unleashed a fire technique of his own.
Only, his was infinitely stronger.
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
From his mouth roared not one, but three blazing fire dragons.
Empowered by the strange flame, they howled through the air with devastating force, colliding head-on with Sasuke's Great Fireball.
The fireball didn't even last a second. It was consumed and burned into nothingness.
And still, the fire dragons surged forward—unstoppable—straight toward Sasuke.