"First-year student Shimura Kizaru—early graduation assessment, begin!"
As the Academy instructor's voice rang out across the grounds, Kizaru stepped onto the field beneath the eyes of the teachers, students, and Konoha's senior officials.
At the center of the training ground stood Uchiha Kensuke, a ninjatō roughly a meter long resting in his hand.
As he looked at the child walking toward him—a child already taller than most boys his age—Kensuke quietly steeled himself.
He had already read the reports the clan head and elders had given him.
He knew very well that the boy in front of him could not be treated like an ordinary child.
If he underestimated him, he would pay for it.
Maybe...
he'd even be the one who lost here.
And if that happened, he would become the clan's laughingstock.
"I won't hold back in this assessment," Kensuke said flatly, staring straight at Kizaru. "Come at me with everything you've got."
"With everything I've got?" Kizaru touched the side of his head, looking oddly troubled. Then he smiled. "That's a pretty difficult request."
The kid was irritating in a way that felt almost natural.
Kensuke forced himself to stay calm.
"Then show me," he said coldly. "Let me see what you can really do."
Kizaru stood there with both hands in his pockets, looking at him lazily through those tinted glasses.
"Alright," he said with an easy smile. "Then I won't be polite."
As soon as the words fell, Kizaru lifted his right leg.
Golden light burst from it instantly—brilliant, dazzling, almost blinding.
Then he swung.
A golden slash tore through the air and shot straight toward Kensuke.
Kensuke's pupils shrank.
That attack had never been mentioned in the clan's report.
Realizing at once that the information he'd been given was incomplete, Kensuke vanished with the Body Flicker Technique and narrowly avoided the slash.
The strike missed him—
but it stunned everyone watching.
That golden leg.
That destructive flying slash.
The sheer impact of it made countless onlookers suck in a breath.
"What was that just now...?" one of the Konoha officials on the rooftop blurted out before he could stop himself.
The corner of Danzo's mouth lifted ever so slightly as he turned to glance at the Uchiha clan head and elders nearby.
"That brat..." he said in a flat voice, "using his kekkei genkai in something as simple as a graduation assessment..."
Kekkei genkai?
That single phrase instantly drew everyone's attention.
One after another, the eyes of the senior shinobi present shifted toward Danzo and the three Shimura elders standing behind him, each gaze filled with shock and curiosity.
"The bloodline power left down by our Shimura ancestors awakened in that child," the Great Elder said with a beaming smile, speaking before anyone else could.
The expression on several faces twitched almost imperceptibly.
The Shimura clan had a kekkei genkai?
Who was going to believe that nonsense?
Everyone standing here knew the Shimura clan well enough. At minimum, they were all from shinobi families themselves. They knew perfectly well that the Shimura had never once been known for any bloodline limit.
And with both of Kizaru's parents being Shimura by blood, there were only a few possible explanations.
Either Kizaru wasn't really Shimura by birth—
or—
that golden power had been born from Kizaru himself.
The first possibility barely held up.
After all, no one in the shinobi world had ever seen or even heard of a bloodline ability like this—one that turned the body into golden light and produced attacks of this kind.
Which meant the second possibility was the only one left.
Shimura Kizaru, not yet seven years old, had created a completely new power.
And that thought was enough to make everyone there burn with envy.
A genius could support a clan for decades.
A secret technique could elevate an entire family.
But a kekkei genkai—
a true bloodline power—
could raise a clan into the ranks of the truly great.
The Uchiha.
The Hyūga.
The great clans of Konoha all stood where they did because of that kind of foundation.
And now, the Shimura clan might be about to gain one of their own.
For a moment, the emotions on the rooftop became impossibly complicated.
But in the next breath, everyone turned their attention back to the battlefield below.
On the field, after avoiding Kizaru's opening strike, Kensuke immediately retaliated.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive fireball roared toward Kizaru.
At the same time, using the fire as cover, Kensuke formed shadow clones. Three identical figures rushed forward from different angles, each gripping a sword.
Facing the incoming flames, Kizaru didn't so much as flinch.
He didn't even take his hands out of his pockets.
He simply hopped back, creating distance—
then swung his leg again.
Three golden slashes cut through the air in succession, each one flying toward one of the three Kensukes.
Bang! Bang!
Two of them burst into smoke instantly.
Shadow clones.
The last Kensuke avoided the slash—
then disappeared from sight at once.
Kizaru had already read Kensuke's information beforehand.
The moment that last figure vanished, he understood.
Taking one hand out of his pocket at last, he tilted his body slightly and avoided a sword strike from behind with effortless precision.
At the same moment, chakra swirled into his palm.
A Rasengan formed in an instant.
Kizaru turned with a smile still on his face and drove it straight into Kensuke's abdomen.
Boom!
Another cloud of white smoke exploded outward.
That one had been a shadow clone too.
"So powerful~," Kizaru murmured lightly as he looked around, slipping his hand back into his pocket. "As expected of the Uchiha."
Hidden behind a thick tree trunk near the edge of the training ground, the real Kensuke felt the feedback from the destroyed clone and his expression darkened.
At that point, he genuinely wanted to curse.
Who had written those reports?
Who was the idiot who said Shimura Kizaru was just a brat with unusually good Wind Release and strong physical ability?
What was that golden slash?
What was that spinning chakra sphere with that much destructive force?
The clan's intelligence had been completely off.
From this moment on, Kensuke no longer saw Kizaru as some talented Academy child.
He was facing a real enemy now.
A dangerous one.
Just as Kensuke was adjusting his plan, Kizaru—still standing near the center of the field—raised his right hand with a smile.
"Oh? Found you," he said lightly.
Then he extended one finger toward the distant tree.
A golden laser shot from his fingertip.
It struck the trunk in an instant and exploded.
Kensuke moved the moment his hiding place was exposed.
Using the smoke from the blast as cover, and with his Sharingan already active, he quickly formed hand seals.
"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Jutsu!"
A blazing stream of fire shaped like a dragon's head burst through the smoke and surged toward Kizaru with fierce power.
"Now that's dangerous," Kizaru said, still smiling.
But instead of retreating, he moved forward.
He vanished with the Body Flicker Technique, leapt into the air, and in the next instant his whole figure flashed into golden light as he shot straight toward Kensuke.
The combination of Kizaru's light-based ability and the Body Flicker Technique created terrifying speed.
In almost less than the blink of an eye, he was already in front of him.
A burst of golden radiance exploded outward.
For that instant, Kizaru became a human flash grenade, and Kensuke—caught off guard—was blinded on the spot.
There was no pause this time.
No extra words.
No chance to recover.
Kizaru's leg, wrapped in golden light, lashed out at high speed toward Kensuke just as he was starting another set of seals.
Kensuke didn't even have time to use the Substitution Jutsu.
All he felt was a monstrous force crashing into him.
Crack.
The sound of breaking bone rang out clearly.
Tears burst from Kensuke's eyes on reflex as his body was sent flying.
Boom!
He crashed to the ground hard.
The moment he landed, blood surged up his throat. He coughed violently, and a mouthful of blood spilled from his lips.
Under the stunned gaze of the entire audience, Kizaru descended lightly to the ground.
Then, with both hands in his pockets and that same easy smile still on his face, he began walking toward the fallen Uchiha jōnin.
He stopped a few meters away.
Then, as if only just remembering it, he added the line at the perfect moment—
"Have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?"
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