"Although his personality leaves much to be desired, I must admit, Sasuke's combat prowess is undeniable. A genius of that caliber would be a perfect fit for your teaching style, Kakashi."
Hidden within the foliage, the three Jonin team leaders watched Sasuke's aggressive opening move with keen interest.
It had to be said—Sasuke Uchiha was living up to his reputation as the Rookie of the Year. His speed, precision, and ferocity were leagues above the standard academy student.
"Honestly, I don't feel there's any need to watch the rest of this match," Asuma Sarutobi grunted, shifting his weight as he prepared to leave. "That civilian kid, Shiro, isn't going to be able to block a frontal assault like that. It's over."
To Asuma, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. A genius from the legendary Uchiha Clan against a nameless civilian orphan? The gap in their lineage alone determined the winner.
However, down in the arena, Shiro remained perfectly calm.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Shiro casually brought his hands together, weaving a few deliberate, symbolic hand seals.
In reality, with his proficiency maxed out by the system, Shiro could have unleashed the jutsu with a mere thought, bypassing the need for seals entirely. But to maintain a low profile and avoid shocking the instructors into a heart attack, he decided to put on a show of weaving the standard signs.
*Poof! Poof! Poof!*
Thick clouds of white smoke exploded outward. In an instant, over a dozen identical Shiro clones materialized, surrounding his original body in a defensive formation.
"Wow! Shiro can actually create that many solid clones at once?!"
Sakura let out a piercing scream of excitement from the sidelines, her hands clasping her cheeks as she watched Shiro's display.
"Troublesome..." Shikamaru Nara muttered, watching with half-lidded eyes. "But mere clones aren't going to be enough to stop Sasuke. He'll see right through them."
In the center of the arena, Sasuke smirked, his expression dripping with disdain.
"Shadow Clones? Do you honestly think you can confuse *me* with such a basic diversion? You're too naive!"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Before these eyes, all trickery is useless!"
He channeled chakra into his pupils, fully expecting his Sharingan to instantly highlight the real Shiro by identifying the original chakra source.
But the moment Sasuke focused his vision, his smirk froze. He stood utterly dumbfounded.
"How... How is this possible?!"
From Sasuke's enhanced perspective, the world had turned into a nightmare. Every single one of the dozen clones was radiating a massive, blinding amount of chakra. They were all identical. There was no uneven distribution, no faint signature to target.
In other words, even the legendary Sharingan couldn't distinguish the real body from the fakes because Shiro's reserves were simply too vast to measure.
"Water Style: Wild Water Wave!"
Shiro didn't give Sasuke time to process his shock. He didn't dodge the incoming fireball. Instead, he chose to counter it head-on with the C-rank ninjutsu he had picked up just the day before.
*Whoosh!*
A massive torrent of high-pressure water erupted from Shiro's mouth.
Water and fire collided in the center of the arena with a violent hiss. The steam explosion was instantaneous. However, the disparity in power was brutal. Sasuke's Great Fireball was snuffed out like a candle in a hurricane.
The surging wave of water didn't stop there. It crashed through the steam, slamming into Sasuke with the force of a tidal wave.
"Gah!"
Sasuke was lifted off his feet and sent flying backward by the powerful surge of water pressure and steam.
Shiro had been incredibly careful. If his mastery of the jutsu hadn't been absolutely flawless, allowing him to suppress the lethality of the water pressure at the last second, that strike might have genuinely killed the last Uchiha right then and there.
---
"How... How could this happen?"
Lying flat on his back in the mud, soaked to the bone, Sasuke stared up at the sky with an expression of utter, shattered disbelief.
He had lost. He had actually lost to the class dead-last.
"Match over!"
Before Sasuke could struggle to his feet, Iruka was already there, a kunai held defensively as he checked Sasuke's condition. Seeing the boy was only winded, Iruka raised his other hand.
"The winner is... Shiro!"
The moment Iruka announced the verdict, the female side of the audience erupted into a deafening roar of cheers.
"He won! He actually won!"
"Oh my god, this is unbelievable! I never expected Shiro to be this strong!"
"Did you see that? That was the C-rank *Wild Water Wave*! I swear, Shiro uses it more proficiently than my father, and my dad is a Tokubetsu Jonin!"
"The Rookie of the Year... Uchiha Sasuke... actually lost to Shiro?"
"Shiro is so handsome and strong! I think I'm going to faint!"
Naruto, standing on the sidelines with his mouth hanging open, was completely dumbfounded. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was dreaming.
"This isn't right..." Naruto muttered, scratching his head. "The story isn't supposed to go this way! Isn't Shiro supposed to be at the bottom with me?"
Up on the distant observation platform, the reaction was more analytical but equally shocked.
Neji Hyuga and Tenten stared at the scene, finding it difficult to reconcile what they had just seen. Shiro had cleanly defeated Sasuke?
"What happened to Sasuke just now?" Tenten asked, frowning. "Why didn't he dodge? Couldn't his Sharingan see which one was the real body to counterattack?"
"By the way, Lee," Tenten turned to her teammate, realizing something. " earlier, you were so sure Shiro would win. How did you know?"
Rock Lee, his eyes burning with admiration, finally explained what he had witnessed at the ninja tool shop that morning.
"Wait..." Neji narrowed his pale eyes. "You are saying that Shiro fought this entire match while wearing the highest-grade weighted training gear available in the village? And he still moved fast enough to defeat Sasuke?"
A dangerous glint flashed in Neji's eyes.
"Interesting. This is getting more and more interesting."
Originally, Neji believed that only Sasuke Uchiha offered any semblance of a challenge in this graduating class. He never expected that a nobody like Shiro would be the one to apply pressure.
Back in the arena, while the crowd buzzed, the most confused person was undoubtedly Sasuke.
He stiffly pushed himself up from the wet ground, water dripping from his hair, and began to question his entire existence.
*I couldn't see through it,* Sasuke thought, his mind racing. *My eyes... they failed?*
And then there was the chakra.
*Referee! This guy is cheating!* Sasuke screamed internally. *How am I supposed to fight against a chakra monster like that?!*
When those dozen Shadow Clones had targeted him, Sasuke had felt a genuine, suffocating pressure. It wasn't just a spar; for a split second, he felt like he was about to meet his parents in the afterlife. That sense of crisis proved those weren't simple illusions.
"The jutsu you used just now," Sasuke wiped the mud from his face, staring intently at Shiro. "That was definitely not the standard Clone Jutsu."
Sasuke was stubborn. He refused to believe he had been fooled by a basic E-rank technique. He had seen his cousin Shisui use the Body Flicker to create afterimages, but this was different.
"Oh?"
Shiro raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised Sasuke had figured it out so quickly. *As expected of the Sharingan,* he thought.
"Correct," Shiro admitted openly. "It's a B-rank Ninjutsu: The Shadow Clone Jutsu."
"What?! How is that possible?!"
Sasuke's eyes widened in horror.
"A B-rank jutsu... that splits your chakra evenly?" Sasuke gritted his teeth. "Even after training for years, my chakra reserves can barely sustain a few Great Fireballs! How can you possibly maintain over a dozen solid clones and still cast a Water Style jutsu?"
This defeat was a massive psychological blow. It wasn't just a loss of skill; it was a realization that he was facing a freak of nature.
"Everyone's constitution is different," Shiro shrugged, offering a maddeningly calm explanation.
Possessing the wood style bloodline meant his vitality and energy were boundless. Was it really so strange to have a *little* bit more chakra than everyone else?
As he spoke, Shiro casually turned his head, his gaze drifting precisely toward the tree line where Kakashi and the other Jonin were hiding.
*Interesting. So they are observing us after all,* Shiro mused.
He wasn't too worried. The Shadow Clone Jutsu was a technique contained in the scroll his parents had left him. It was perfectly reasonable for him to know it. As for his chakra levels? He would stick to his story: he was just built different.
However, that simple glance from Shiro sent a jolt of shock through Kakashi.
"Did he..." Kurenai whispered, her voice tight. "Did he just sense us?"
"And those hand seals..." Asuma frowned deeply. "I couldn't even track them. Did you see what signs he used?"
"He used the B-rank Shadow Clone Jutsu," Kakashi said, his voice serious. "But those hand seals... they felt superfluous. Like he was doing them just for show."
"A B-rank Ninjutsu? At his age?" Asuma gasped, finally realizing the gravity of the situation. "And he has the reserves to use it casually in a spar?"
"Then the Water Style jutsu he used earlier was real too?"
Asuma rubbed his beard, stunned. "When did Konoha produce such a monster?"
"We have to report this to the Old Man," Asuma decided instantly. "A young, handsome, civilian genius with chakra reserves that rival a Tailed Beast... The last time I saw a prodigy like this, it was the Fourth Hokage."
"No..."
Kakashi shook his head slowly, a deep intuition seizing his heart.
*The chakra explosion on the hillside yesterday...*
Kakashi connected the dots. The massive presence he had felt, comparable to the First Hokage, and now this boy with bottomless reserves. It wasn't a coincidence. The person who caused that anomaly was definitely connected to Shiro.
In fact, it was very likely Shiro himself.
Kakashi was shocked by his own deduction.
"What's wrong, Kakashi? You look like you've seen a ghost," Asuma asked.
"Nothing," Kakashi quickly composed himself. He couldn't make baseless accusations yet. How could a mere child unleash power on the scale of Hashirama Senju?
Regardless, both Jonin agreed: the Third Hokage needed to know about this immediately.
"You two go ahead. I'm going to stay and watch the rest of the matches," Kurenai said suddenly. Her crimson eyes were fixed on the arena. It was clear that Shiro had successfully piqued her interest.
Back on the field, Sasuke took a deep breath, forcing himself to accept reality.
"Next time... I absolutely will not lose to you," Sasuke declared, his voice trembling slightly with suppressed emotion.
"But this time... you won."
Sasuke wasn't a sore loser, but his pride was bruised. *You may have defeated me today, but you will never make me submit.*
"I look forward to it. I hope you'll give me a bit of a surprise the next time we meet," Shiro replied with a polite smile.
He held no grudge against Sasuke. He understood the Uchiha's personality perfectly—arrogant, driven, and intense. Shiro didn't feel targeted; he knew this was just how Sasuke operated.
However, privately, Shiro knew the truth.
He probably wouldn't live to see the day Sasuke surpassed him. Even if the Sage of Six Paths descended from the heavens to hand Sasuke a power-up personally, the Uchiha likely wouldn't catch up in this lifetime.
After all, Shiro was already this strong, and today was only the second day since he had obtained the system.