"The assessment begins!"
Outside the barrier, Sarutobi Nagakawa announced loudly.
Though he had no idea why the higher-ups wanted to treat Shien's test so differently, he had no authority to defy their orders.
Whoosh!
Kakashi lunged forward, his figure blurring as he charged.
He understood perfectly well what that mission meant.
Even if the order was unreasonable, he had already made up his mind — he would carry it out. He could not allow the Hatake clan to be shamed again. He would not repeat that man's mistakes.
Watching Kakashi rush at him, Uchiha Shien cursed silently.
Damn it!
He really wanted to cry — wasn't this supposed to be someone else's protagonist slot? — wasn't this supposed to be someone else's protagonist slot?
Wasn't this supposed to be a world where everything could be solved by talking? Apparently that perk was protagonist-only. Why wasn't it working for him?!
Apparently, talk-no-jutsu only worked for main characters blessed with plot armor. For side characters like him, it was useless.
But there was no time to complain now.
Even if his opponent was "Fifty-Fifty" Kakashi, Shien wasn't about to just stand there and die.
He quickly leapt back while forming hand seals.
Though his speed was nowhere near that of a certain Uchiha prodigy who could do one-handed seals at lightning pace, he could still manage several per second.
"Boar–Dog–Bird…"
A sequence of seals was completed.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
With a sharp shout, Shien slammed his right palm onto the ground.
Whether he could survive against the pre–"Fifty-Fifty" Kakashi would depend entirely on this technique.
This single summoning was enough to drain his chakra reserves.
Luckily, the summoning contract he had didn't require him to bear all the chakra cost alone — otherwise, with his pitiful reserves, he wouldn't even be able to activate it.
Even a proper genin could be exhausted after casting a C-rank jutsu.
That's why genin mostly relied on kunai and shuriken in real combat — not because they were unskilled, but because using jutsu would deplete their chakra in seconds.
Boom!
White smoke erupted in front of him.
Kakashi instinctively halted and leapt back, eyes narrowing.
Wasn't he supposed to be a dead-last?
He had reviewed Shien's records before the test — a complete underachiever in every category. He hadn't expected him to be hiding something like this.
The smoke cleared.
Standing between them was a large crow — nearly as tall as a man.
Its feathers shimmered in alternating hues of gold and black, five golden plumes stood upright on its head like a crown, and it had three claws instead of two.
It looked eerie, majestic, and distinctly not normal.
"An… ninja crow?"
Perched in a nearby tree, Uchiha Fugaku murmured.
As the young clan leader, he was only here to observe the exam as a formality — yet what he saw stunned him.
There was no way that crow came from the Uchiha clan's breeding program.
The Uchiha mainly trained ninja cats for summoning; ninja crows were a minor side project and none of them were anywhere near this level.
After calling out his trump card, Shien did something nobody expected.
He raised his voice and shouted toward the edge of the training field — toward Sarutobi Nagakawa outside the barrier:
"I surrender!"
Yes, he immediately surrendered.
The summoning had been just to buy him a few seconds to admit defeat, not to fight to the death.
Unfortunately…
His teacher simply looked at him in confusion and made no move to intervene.
That meant only one thing — the sound couldn't pass through.
The barrier not only contained the battle but also blocked sound entirely.
No one could hear him surrender.
Damn it!
Shien's heart burned with fury.
That old bastard Danzo really set me up to die!
But anger wouldn't save him now. He had to survive first.
Kakashi was already charging in again, eyes cold and emotionless.
Hmph!
If you want me dead, then I'll take you down first!
The fear and helplessness Shien had been bottling up all this time finally exploded.
He'd tried to lie flat and avoid trouble because he knew just how deadly this ninja world was — but that didn't mean he was ready to die.
Now that someone had pushed him to the brink, his instincts took over.
When life itself was on the line, all hesitation vanished.
"Taiyi! Kill him!"
Shien retreated and issued the order.
He was no fighter — the "dead-last" label wasn't undeserved. If he had any real strength, the higher-ups would've noticed long ago.
No, his real trump card was the summoned beast before him.
Caw!
Responding to his command, Taiyi's eyes flashed gold and red. It fixed its gaze on the rapidly advancing Kakashi.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several shuriken sliced through the air toward Shien.
Whoom!
Taiyi spread its massive wings, unleashing a gust so powerful that the shuriken were blown off course.
Size meant strength — a rule that held true even in the ninja world.
Though a large body didn't automatically make a beast powerful, it did grant overwhelming physical advantage.
Kakashi's form flickered within the wind — then vanished.
Taiyi suddenly raised its right claw, flames coiling around it before it slammed down with a deafening crash.
Boom!
The ground within several meters shattered, tongues of flame erupting like a volcanic burst.
The watching students were stunned.
"So strong!"
"Am I hallucinating?"
"That guy Shien — how could he have a summon that powerful? If only it were mine…"
Their shock quickly turned into jealousy and awe.
A strong summoning beast could easily elevate a ninja's status — just look at the Legendary Sannin.
Even Shien's two closest friends, Honda Taka and Yamanaka Koji, were staring blankly.
Was this the same lazy, truant "buddy" they knew?
As the crowd reeled—
Whoosh!
A blur burst from the cracked earth beneath Taiyi — Kakashi!
Clang!
His short blade met Taiyi's beak with a shower of sparks.
Beak strikes, claw swipes, wing slashes —
The ninja crow countered each of Kakashi's attacks with sheer force.
Whenever Kakashi tried to slip past, Taiyi lunged again, forcing him to defend.
Despite being a bird, its wing-assisted pounces were just as fast as Kakashi's movements.
After several exchanges, Kakashi realized brute force wouldn't work.
He leapt back, fingers weaving seals as he drew in a deep breath.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
A blazing fireball, the size of a wagon wheel, roared toward Taiyi.
Caw!
In response, Taiyi unfurled its wings wide, gathering air as if inhaling the flames themselves.
The onlookers immediately panicked.
"This is—!"
"Stop it, quick!"
"It's too late!"
They could tell just from the buildup that the coming blast was going to be huge.
Not dangerous for them — but potentially lethal to two ungraduated students.
Yet with the sealing barrier still intact, no one could intervene in time.
BOOM!!
A massive wave of fire exploded outward from Taiyi, engulfing everything ahead in a storm of heat and smoke.
BOOM!!!
"Kakashi!!"
The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, shattered the barrier by force and rushed in.
He finally relaxed when he saw Kakashi unconscious but alive — only heat-exhausted, not burned.
Across the field, Taiyi had already vanished — the summoning undone as its chakra was spent.
And Shien?
In the next moment, a squad of masked ANBU surrounded him.
"Uchiha Shien,"
"Uchiha Shien," their leader barked coldly,
"you are suspected of being a spy from another village. You'll be taken to the ANBU for interrogation!"
Shien didn't argue. He had no right to.
He wasn't even a genin yet — just a student.
Even at full power, he was barely below genin-level; Taiyi, going all out, could maybe threaten a chunin, and only if the opponent knew nothing about it beforehand.
So whether by rank or strength, he had no grounds to resist.
As for appealing to logic?
Please. Ninjas don't deal in logic.
But he didn't regret it.
Kakashi had attacked with full intent to kill.
And in this world — if you have the resolve to kill, you must also be prepared to be killed.
That was the rule.
Kakashi surviving Taiyi's strike was sheer skill — not mercy.
If Shien had held back, he really would have been brainless.
He didn't even hate Kakashi — tools didn't get to pick missions, and Shien was trying not to become one.
Because the true culprit behind this whole setup wasn't him — it was Danzo, that scheming old fox.
Shien had tried to lay low for so long… and still got dragged into the crossfire.
As these thoughts raced through his mind, a dangerous resolve flickered in his eyes —
Maybe it's time to risk everything.
And far away, in the shadows of the Hokage Building, a figure put down a report with Uchiha Shien's name on it — and smiled.
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on P@treon if you're interested:
patreon.com/FicHaven786