"Sasuke!"
Iruka hurriedly rushed into the sports field, wanting to check on Sasuke's injuries.
Unexpectedly, Sasuke pushed his hands away and hurriedly pointed at the thick smoke of the explosion, shouting, "Save Jokichi."
"Jokichi?"
Iruka was stunned, then thought of something, and quickly scanned over Sasuke's body.
There was not a single trace of burn, not even a mark of the clothes being scorched by high temperature. Instead, there was a clear footprint on his abdomen.
No way!
His conjecture confirmed, Iruka immediately turned around and rushed into the thick smoke of the explosion.
But after running just two steps, a gust of wind blew by, dispersing the thick smoke.
It was completely empty inside; the scorched ground only had an additional sunken crater.
"Where is he?"
Iruka and the onlookers were all dumbfounded.
"What is going on?" Sasuke could not believe it. "Could he have been blown to pieces?"
"Sasuke..." Iruka looked over, his expression serious. "Did Jokichi kick you out?"
"...Mhm!" Sasuke hesitated for a moment and said, "Just now, before being hit by the explosion's impact, Jokichi rushed over and kicked me out of the explosion's range, while he himself was swallowed by the heat wave."
"You bastard, you killed Jokichi!"
Naruto rushed in with red eyes.
Mizuki hurriedly stopped him.
Ino even fell to her knees on the sandy ground and began to cry.
Seeing this from the opposite side, Sakura felt worry rise in her heart. She wanted to go over and comfort her, but did not know what to say.
Sasuke stared blankly at Naruto and Ino, his mind completely blank.
He had always thought of surpassing Jokichi, but never had the thought of harming him. The reason he used ninjutsu in the grade assessment was also because the spars over the past few years had given him a certain degree of understanding of Jokichi's strength.
He knew that just the Great Fireball Jutsu would absolutely not pose a fatal danger to Jokichi.
He did not expect...
"Do not panic."
Iruka shouted loudly, and seeing everyone's gazes look over, he said calmly, "The power of the explosion just now was not enough to blow a person to pieces, so Jokichi is fine."
"Eh?" Naruto was stunned for a moment, and then his azure eyes lit up with anticipation. "Iruka-sensei, is Jokichi really fine?"
"Mhm!"
Iruka nodded. "If I am not guessing incorrectly, the one fighting Sasuke just now was a shadow clone."
"Shadow clone?"
Naruto looked at Iruka with a bewildered expression, and most of the surrounding classmates were the same.
They had never heard of this ninjutsu before.
Only a few people had a look of shock on their faces after hearing this term.
Sasuke was one of them.
As a member of the Uchiha clan, he had heard of this ninjutsu from the mouths of his clansmen, knowing it was an advanced clone jutsu capable of creating physical entities, and it seemed to be a forbidden jutsu at that.
Not only did he learn the Great Fireball, but he also knows such an advanced clone jutsu.
Furthermore, I cannot even defeat a single clone. Is the gap getting bigger and bigger?
Sasuke bit his lower lip tightly, clenching his hands until his knuckles turned white.
...
39th Training Ground.
Two figures rapidly shuttled through the forest, throwing shuriken at each other from time to time to probe one another, like phantoms.
"Clang, clang, clang..."
Shuriken either collided in mid-air, were blocked by weapons, or were swiftly dodged and nailed into the large trees to the side.
The two ran around the terrain, and after several maneuvers, they finally engaged in close combat.
The longsword and the sharp blade clashed, bursting with brilliant sparks.
After several exchanges, the blades of both sides pressed against each other, wrestling for strength.
"Is this all there is to a year of actual combat growth?" Ryohei looked at the young figure in front of him, a hint of mockery on his face.
Words are also a combat technique. Jokichi knew Ryohei wanted to mess with his mentality, so he did not fall for it.
He just smiled slightly, increased the grip strength of his right hand holding the sword, let go with his left hand, and held his index and middle fingers together upright in front of his chest.
"Fire Release: Sanka Slash."
The blade suddenly turned red, burning with wild flames, and then erupted like a volcano.
The move was not chanted silently in his heart, but shouted out loud.
The purpose was to warn Ryohei.
Because Jokichi was worried that Ryohei would be killed by this underhanded move.
However, his worry was clearly somewhat superfluous.
Ryohei, who came from Root...
From the beginning of his training, he had always wandered between life and death, until he became a Jonin and served as a Root squad captain... the battles he had experienced were so many that even he himself could not remember them clearly.
The richness of his combat experience was hard for outsiders to imagine.
Seeing Jokichi free a hand to form hand seals, he immediately retracted his sword and retreated.
Upon hearing the ninjutsu name shouted by Jokichi, he hastened his pace even more.
The flames swallowed everything. The fan-shaped area about ten meters ahead all burst into a raging fire.
The firelight illuminated the forest. The tender green branches and leaves had their moisture rapidly evaporated and then turned withered and yellow as they burned.
But, despite the astonishing momentum, Ryohei had already retreated to a safe place.
Jokichi spun his longsword, and the wave of fire danced along with the blade, turning into a long sharp blade that sliced horizontally, chasing closely after Ryohei's figure. Along the way, countless large trees were cut in two.
The flame sword had a wide range and fast speed; wanting to retreat and open up a distance to dodge was somewhat unrealistic.
Moreover, one step back leads to step after step back.
Ryohei had guided Jokichi in combat for a year and understood Jokichi's combat style very well. Once he seized the initiative, he would press step by step, throwing all kinds of ninjutsu attacks as if they cost nothing, absolutely giving the enemy no chance to catch their breath.
Therefore, Ryohei chose to counter with ninjutsu.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall."
A thick rocky wall rose from the ground. Although it did not have a dog head on it, its defensive power was not the slightest bit inferior.
The flame sword crashed into it, lifting a fierce airwave. The wall began to crack inch by inch from the outside, and was then blown away.
But, the central part was perfectly intact.
Ryohei curled up behind it and did not receive the slightest injury.
He calmly felt the flow of the air. As the airwave weakened and before it had completely stopped, he used the aftermath of the explosion for cover and charged out of the billowing smoke and dust holding his longsword.
It was just that, as soon as he charged out of the smoke and dust.
He saw Jokichi hacking down right at his head with the flame sword.
How did he discover me?
Ryohei widened his eyes slightly, somewhat in disbelief.
"Because I understand you very well too!"
Seeming to guess what Ryohei was thinking, Jokichi, who was slashing down with his sword, laughed loudly and shouted.
Suddenly, the sword stopped in mid-air.
Jokichi furrowed his brows.
Ryohei noticed the anomaly and also hastily retracted his sword and stopped his momentum.
"What is wrong?" Ryohei asked.
"The shadow clone at the academy disappeared."
"Disappeared?" Ryohei opened his mouth wide and asked in disbelief, "Are there students in the academy who can defeat your shadow clone?"
Aside from the master dispelling the jutsu, a shadow clone will only disappear when its chakra is exhausted or when it sustains damage beyond its limit.
And Jokichi was just in the middle of executing a move, so it was impossible for him to actively dispel the clone. His chakra was also monster-level, so it was impossible for a single shadow clone to exhaust its chakra.
Therefore, the only possibility was that the shadow clone received an attack exceeding its limit.
Remembering that before the training, Jokichi had told him that the shadow clone went to handle the grade assessment, Ryohei came up with this conjecture.
"No, there was just a little accident."
Jokichi shook his head slightly.
The Uchiha clan had not been wiped out. Sasuke, guided by his clansmen, progressed very quickly. He now possessed strength similar to or even greater than when he graduated in the anime.
Jokichi's shadow clone had not anticipated this, and was therefore somewhat careless.
Otherwise, Sasuke would not have even been able to use ninjutsu.
However...
"Having exposed a certain level of strength, next, there will probably be some trivial matters coming my way!"
Jokichi sighed helplessly.
He was currently in a period of explosive growth and only wanted to focus wholeheartedly on training.