Today was the day the first stage of the Chūnin Exams began. Hoshiyomi had said he would stay at home to spend time with the kids, but in the end he couldn't suppress his curiosity. Leaving behind a shadow clone at home, he quietly made his way to the exam venue himself.
By the time Hoshiyomi arrived, the idiotic illusion staircase test—so brainless it was practically an insult to intelligence—had already ended. What was unfolding now was the fight between Rock Lee and Sasuke.
In the lobby on the first floor, Sasuke and Lee stood on opposite sides, facing each other. Not far away, Sakura was curled up in a corner with a look of deep disgust on her face, as if she had just suffered immense psychological torment.
At the stairway leading from the first to the second floor, Naruto was chatting with the three members of Team Eight. Of course, while there were technically three of them, the only one Naruto really cared about was Hinata.
While chatting cheerfully with Hinata, Naruto leaned forward and shouted down at Sasuke below:
"Hey, Sasuke, you better do your best! If you lose to that bushy-brow guy, that'd be way too embarrassing!"
With how relaxed and composed he looked, anyone who didn't know better would think he was some kind of life-winning protagonist.
Sasuke glanced at Naruto and muttered,
"Being told I'd be 'embarrassing' by a guy like that somehow makes it even harder to accept."
After finishing his complaint, Sasuke beckoned to Lee with his hand.
"Show me what you've got—right now."
Lee's thick eyebrows twitched comically as he replied,
"Don't say I didn't warn you. If you fight me with that relaxed attitude, you'll lose very badly."
When Hoshiyomi entered the hall using his Transparent Escape Techniqe and saw this scene, he raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. Arriving at just the right moment—he really had stumbled upon a good show.
He was genuinely curious now: between the current Sasuke and Rock Lee, which of them would come out on top?
Without any further prompting, the fight officially began.
Sasuke did indeed underestimate Lee at the start. When Lee suddenly burst forth with explosive speed, Sasuke briefly fell into a disadvantage.
However, compared to his original-timeline self, Sasuke had improved significantly. Although his carelessness put him on the back foot for a moment, it didn't develop into him being completely overwhelmed.
After blocking one of Lee's kicks with his arms, Sasuke used the opportunity to pull back and create some distance.
"I'll admit it—I underestimated you at first. You really are an opponent worth fighting. But if you think you can defeat me, you're still not good enough."
As he spoke, Sasuke's eyes suddenly changed. His originally black pupils turned crimson, and two tomoe slowly rotated within each eye.
Although Sasuke hadn't experienced the trauma of the Uchiha massacre or the ordeal of Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals, Itachi's guidance had been excellent. By this point, Sasuke had already awakened the two-tomoe Sharingan.
He had already been barely able to keep up with Lee's speed before; now, with the two-tomoe Sharingan activated, his confidence surged. He crooked his finger at Lee.
"From here on out, your speed won't be an advantage anymore."
Instead of continuing to defend, Sasuke took the initiative and threw a punch toward Lee's head. Lee's expression sharpened as he instinctively prepared to grab Sasuke's arm and use a throwing technique.
But at that moment, Sasuke smiled—because his Sharingan had perfectly captured Lee's movements.
"You're planning to use a throw the moment you block, aren't you?"
Ignoring the sudden change in Lee's expression, Sasuke adjusted the trajectory of his right fist mid-air, precisely catching Lee's incoming arm. His left hand followed immediately, and with both hands gripping Lee's arm, he executed a flawless shoulder throw.
Lee was slammed into the ground, anger flashing unmistakably in his eyes.
Part of it was because Sasuke's style—seeing through his move, calling it out, and then countering it with the same method—was incredibly demoralizing. But more than that, Lee couldn't accept that years of relentless effort had been surpassed so easily.
He had challenged Sasuke today precisely to prove that hard work could overcome genius—only to find that all his years of effort were effortlessly neutralized by those two tomoe in Sasuke's Sharingan.
The feeling of having one's life philosophy shattered was deeply unpleasant. In order to rebuild his beliefs, Lee clenched his teeth and began unwrapping the bandages around his hands.
He wasn't just planning to use Shadow of the Dancing Leaf—he was even intending to remove his training weights.
But before he could fully undo the bandages, a figure suddenly grabbed his wrist.
"That's enough, Lee. You've already done very well. Leave yourself some trump cards."
The person who stopped him was none other than Neji.
Just as Neji finished speaking, Guy let out a strange shout and rode into the arena on his red turtle, a sight so blindingly absurd that Hoshiyomi quietly turned his head away.
Some things were simply bad for the eyes if watched for too long.
On the other side, Sasuke felt displeased when he saw Neji appear. He stared at Neji, clearly waiting for some kind of explanation.
If this were the Neji from the original story, he would surely have mocked Sasuke with sarcasm and then gone on about destiny and fate.
But this Neji was completely different. Both in strength and mentality, he had surpassed his original counterpart by several levels.
So he said nothing—he simply smiled at Sasuke.
Yet that very smile caused Sasuke's expression to darken for no clear reason.
This guy… is strong.
So strong that Sasuke felt as though it was hard to breathe.
Facing Neji's calm smile, Sasuke said nothing. He deactivated his two-tomoe Sharingan, turned around, and took Sakura by the hand.
"Let's go. No need to waste time."
"Ah… okay~"
Sakura's face flushed red as she allowed Sasuke to lead her up the stairs, her mind completely filled with thoughts like:
Sasuke is holding my hand… so embarrassing! Should I lean against his arm like this? If I go upstairs with Sasuke like this and let Ino see, she'll definitely know when to back off. Then I won't have any rivals left!
Lost in these chaotic thoughts, Sakura completely failed to notice that at some point, Sasuke's other hand had clenched tightly into a fist.
Inside Sasuke, an inexplicable surge of violent emotion was rising—not because the fight had been unsatisfying, but because he suddenly realized that he might not be as strong as he had always believed.
He had always thought that among Konoha's younger generation, he was unquestionably number one, with only Naruto capable of giving him any real trouble.
As for people like Itachi or Kimimaro, since they had played together when he was young, he never harbored any special resentment toward them. He simply believed that in a few more years, he would be just as strong as they were.
But what had happened over the past few days had changed that perception.
First Naruto and Gaara.
Then today, the sudden appearance of Rock Lee—and now Neji.
Every one of them made him feel strained and pressured. Just when he thought Lee was already outrageous enough, another Neji appeared out of nowhere.
These unexpected rivals stirred a deep sense of crisis within Sasuke—or rather, the Indra chakra within his body had begun to stir restlessly.
From a distance, Hoshiyomi watched this scene with a thoughtful expression.
It seemed he would need to pay closer attention to Sasuke from now on—after all, Sasuke was one of Black Zetsu's primary targets.
...
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