"There are many excellent students in this class. Their future achievements will surely surpass mine."
Standing at the front of the room, Takahara Naoyasu glanced at Kyosuke, then scanned the rest of the room, letting his eyes linger on Kakashi, Asuma, and the other clan heirs. He felt a deep sense of gratification.
When the final bell rang and school ended, Kyosuke gathered his things and headed for the gate, only to find his path blocked. Someone wanted to challenge him.
"Kyosuke! I challenge you! You should feel honored to be defeated by the great Uchiha!"
Obito stood blocking the exit, his head held high. He was squawking like a proud rooster, but his eyes kept darting to the surrounding classmates, soaking in their attention and looking extremely pleased with himself.
Kyosuke looked at the boy and sighed internally. My performance in class really wasn't that brilliant if the only person challenging me is a guy like Obito.
But then again, extracting Chakra quickly didn't automatically equate to combat strength in the eyes of children.
If Kakashi had challenged him, Kyosuke genuinely felt he might not win without exposing his shared abilities. But Obito? On the first day of school, Obito's infamous "Dead Last" traits hadn't fully bloomed yet, and the name "Uchiha" still carried an intimidating weight among the students. Defeating him now would definitely earn Kyosuke some solid reputation points in the eyes of the teachers.
Because Kyosuke was lost in thought, he didn't answer immediately. Misinterpreting the silence, Guy stepped directly in front of Kyosuke, pointing a thumb at his own chest, ready to take the hit.
"Obito, I want to challenge you too! Let me go first today!"
Guy wasn't a fool; he knew Kyosuke had only just refined Chakra for the very first time today. As a member of the elite Uchiha, Obito had undoubtedly undergone rigorous combat training for years. Kyosuke would surely be no match for him. Guy didn't want his only friend to be publicly embarrassed, so he prepared to step up and take the beating himself. At the very least, Guy had received long-term Taijutsu training from his father.
"Hmph! Move aside, bushy-brows!" Obito sneered, not taking Guy seriously at all. "Once I've finished off this pretty boy, it'll be your turn!"
Obito was riding a high of pure arrogance. Moreover, seeing Kyosuke's handsome face attract the whispered attention of several girls in the class made him intensely jealous. He fully planned to teach Kyosuke a harsh lesson and humiliate him in front of everyone.
Haha, so he's challenging me not just to show off, but because he's jealous of my face, Kyosuke realized.
A smirk appeared on Kyosuke's lips as he gently pushed Guy aside. He decided to tease Obito with a hint of playfulness.
"Hehehe... Obito, I'm already much more handsome than you. If I beat you up in front of everyone, you'll be both ugly and weak. Then absolutely no girls will like you."
Having his exact insecurities exposed so bluntly, Obito's face flushed a deep, furious red. He stiffened his neck and shouted, "What nonsense are you talking about?! I don't care about girls! Today, I'll show you how powerful the Uchiha really are!"
Kyosuke wasn't afraid of a six-year-old's temper tantrum. He pointed toward the Academy training grounds. "Then let's go to the playground. There's plenty of space there."
It was just a schoolyard scuffle. Winning was glorious, but losing didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. Kyosuke possessed the mental fortitude of an adult; he wouldn't feel ashamed if he took a hit.
Sensing a show, a massive crowd of students who were about to go home decided to stay behind, quickly forming a ring around the training ground. Many parents who had come to pick up their children also lingered. After all, Obito was a member of the Uchiha, a clan held in both high regard and deep wariness by the village.
Up in the school building, several instructors stood by the windows, watching the scene unfold. They had no intention of stopping the fight. Real combat was the fastest way to gain a deeper understanding of a student's true abilities and personality.
"Who do you think will win?" Ebisu asked, adjusting his dark sunglasses as he looked at the surrounding classmates.
Asuma crossed his arms and snorted. "Hmph. Kyosuke might be a bit faster at refining Chakra, but the Uchiha are a premier clan. They might be arrogant, but their strength is real. Kyosuke is doomed."
Guy immediately fired back, "Kyosuke trains himself incredibly hard! He hasn't wasted a single drop of his youth! He will definitely win!"
Standing near the edge of the crowd, Genma Shiranui chewed on his senbon and glanced toward the school gates, watching Kakashi's departing back. "To a true genius, the desperate efforts of ordinary people amount to nothing."
Back in the ring, feeling the weight of hundreds of gazes, Obito felt incredibly smug. He wanted to make this as flashy as possible. His hands blurred through a sequence of seals, and with a puff of smoke, a perfect copy of himself appeared.
"Hahaha! I am a genius of the Uchiha! I've already mastered Ninjutsu. You can't beat me!"
It was only the most basic Clone Jutsu—an illusion with no physical substance—but for civilian children who had never seen real ninjutsu, it was a miracle. A collective gasp rippled through the crowd of students.
Hearing the admiration, Obito became dangerously overexcited. He and his clone charged at Kyosuke from both sides, shouting in unison, "It's over! Accept your defeat!"
Kyosuke calmly raised his right hand, forming the Seal of Confrontation out of pure habit, and locked his eyes on the two Obitos.
Because Sensuke and the others practice this constantly in the Dream Space, my eyes naturally know how to spot the flaws in a basic E-rank clone.
Kyosuke didn't even flinch. He completely ignored the Obito rushing him from the right. He smoothly side-stepped a wildly telegraphed punch from the Obito on the left. Because Obito had thrown his entire body weight into the strike and couldn't pull back, his balance was entirely ruined. Kyosuke simply planted his foot into Obito's exposed stomach, kicking him hard to the dirt.
Simultaneously, the illusory clone on the right vanished into a puff of white smoke.
Obito sat slumped on the ground, clutching his stomach with a look of absolute disbelief. "Impossible! How could you see through my clone?!"
Kyosuke naturally couldn't tell the truth, so he delivered a cold, analytical lie. "Your clone's movements were stiff, its facial expressions were totally blank, and it didn't sound nearly as arrogant as you did. All I had to do was look for the loudest, most brainless one, and I knew it was the real body."
Hearing Kyosuke's blunt explanation, many people in the crowd nodded in realization.
It was true. Not only was Obito's chakra control too poor to make a perfect clone, but his constant, frantic shouting had highlighted the illusion's silence. With a bit of calm observation, anyone could have identified the real body.
However, the fact remained: in a matter of seconds, an untrained civilian boy had remained perfectly composed in the face of a ninjutsu attack, analyzed the enemy's flaws, and executed a flawless counterattack. It displayed a level of psychological fortitude that many active Genin couldn't achieve.
"This Uchiha kid's strength is pretty average," a parent whispered. "Did he just hold back?"
"He just got kicked into the dirt," another muttered. "Why would he hold back?"
"Still, that Kyosuke kid is impressive. He hasn't had a day of clan training, but he's as calm as a veteran."
"Yeah, I heard he refined Chakra in just ten minutes today. He really is a genius."
Hearing the hushed discussions, Obito's face burned with intense shame and fury. He scrambled to his feet and charged forward, throwing another wild punch.
"I haven't lost yet! I was just being careless! Now I'll show you the true Taijutsu of the Uchiha!"
It had to be said, because he had undergone clan training, Obito's attacks did have a methodical rhythm to them. His punches and kicks flowed together decently well, leaving no massive gaps for an easy counter, forcing Kyosuke to retreat step by step.
Seeing Kyosuke back up, Obito's arrogance immediately returned. He pushed harder, his attacks growing faster and wilder. "Hahaha! I knew it! You're no match for me in hand-to-hand combat!"
Through his shared memories with Sensuke and Kiichiro, Kyosuke knew exactly how to dismantle Obito's sloppy form. But he couldn't explain how a civilian orphan knew advanced Taijutsu counters, so he didn't dare use them.
Instead, he opted for a simpler strategy: he would exploit Obito's sheer lack of stamina and win through basic attrition.
Sure enough, with Obito screaming at the top of his lungs and putting 100% of his strength into every single strike, he burned out fast. In less than a minute, before his fists had even grazed Kyosuke's clothes, Obito was panting heavily, his face flushed and drenched in sweat. He stopped shouting, and his movements grew painfully slow and clumsy.
Clearly, the pampered Uchiha's physical stamina was vastly inferior to the grueling daily conditioning Kyosuke put himself through.
The time has come!
Watching Obito throw a horribly weak, telegraphed punch, Kyosuke suddenly stopped retreating. He extended his right arm, violently swatting Obito's wrist aside to break his guard. Stepping smoothly into Obito's personal space, Kyosuke delivered a brutal left uppercut squarely to Obito's chin.
"What—?!"
Obito had been entirely focused on his own offensive momentum. He never expected Kyosuke to suddenly stop running and counterattack. With absolutely zero defensive instinct and a dazed look in his eyes, he took the hit flush on the jaw.
His brain rattled against his skull. The world spun, a sharp flash of pain erupted from his chin, and Obito crumpled to the ground for the second time.
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