Even under those three paths, plenty of children from ordinary families made it into S Class, though that depended on the child fighting for it.
So in Yuuga’s mind, the strength of those three girls, Yumiko, Senhime and Reiko, already sat below the baseline.
They lacked the ability to get into S Class themselves, so they went green with envy over other people’s backgrounds.
Ino was the young lady of a great clan, but she had been training in jutsu since she was small.
If a little girl slacked off now and then, that did no real harm.
The foundation was there, so what was there to argue about?
Yuuga’s own strength was at genin level, and Iruka knew that.
But there was one thing Iruka did not know: Yuuga’s chakra reserves had already reached chunin level.
So Yuuga’s ability to sense chakra was decent.
From a short distance away, even though he had no Byakugan and could not see how chakra moved through the meridians, he could feel it clearly: the total chakra of Yumiko, Reiko and Senhime was only a little higher than Ino’s.
So this fight was close to a foregone conclusion.
“Ahh.”
An autumn wind rose.
While Yuuga was lost in thought, Yumiko went down along with the falling leaves, kicked over by Ino, sprawled on the ground in a sorry state.
Her small fists clenched a handful of dirt and she said in disbelief, “Impossible!
How could I lose?
Sasuke is mine!”
Ino, in her kimono, set her raised foot back down, her sandal knocking against the ground.
Even the white bellflower by her ear was still pinned neatly in place, as if the fight had cost her nothing in appearance.
“Sasuke isn’t yours, and you think someone like you can beat a person from S Class?” Ino looked at Yumiko sprawled on the ground, tucked all the hair that had come loose in the fight back behind her ear, and said it with her nose in the air.
Yuuga nodded, agreeing with the second half of what Ino said.
Neither of them had handled chakra well just now, but the taijutsu was decent.
Ino was wearing a kimono, which put her at a disadvantage to begin with, yet she still finished the other girl off quickly.
There had never been any suspense in that battle.
“Hmph!” Yumiko laughed coldly, got up off the ground, and, humiliated into anger, waved a hand at Reiko and Senhime.
No more talk.
All three of them went in at once.
Reiko and Senhime caught her meaning and spread out, circling Ino until the three of them had her surrounded.
Sakura saw Ino’s situation turn bad and ran around behind her, watching Senhime warily as she faced her down.
“It was supposed to be one on one.
Are all you A Class people this dishonest?”
Senhime smiled softly, as though watching a joke, and fixed Sakura with an almost pitying look.
“Yumiko was the one who agreed to one on one.
Reiko and I never agreed to anything.”
Over at the corner, Yuuga heard that and gave Senhime a thumbs up.
Brilliant.
That move was truly brilliant.
He had not expected a little girl like Senhime to be able to come out with that kind of nonsense.
Nothing wrong with it either.
In a palace intrigue drama she would have been the MVP.
Surrounded, Ino did not like it.
She swore under her breath, then set her stance and struck first without hesitating.
Two against three should not have put Ino and Sakura at a disadvantage, but the problem was that Yumiko gave Senhime a look, signaling her to tie Sakura up, and then teamed with Reiko to handle Ino together.
Two fists are no match for four hands, and on top of that Ino had put on a pretty kimono today for the school festival, so once she started moving she was slower than Reiko and Yumiko in their ninja outfits.
It only took a few exchanges before Ino was completely on the losing end.
Yuuga watched Yumiko’s foot come within an inch of Ino’s stomach several times, and he could not keep watching.
Otherwise something was going to happen.
He drew a deep breath and got himself mentally prepared.
A fight between girls over a boy was something he really did not want to get involved in.
But he was not going to stand there and watch Ino get surrounded and “beaten up” by two people.
He gathered chakra at his feet and cut into the scuffle as fast as he could, spinning as he went to pull the cornered Ino into his arm, then raised his other hand straight into Yumiko’s small pink fist, pushed it away, and stepped back twice.
“Ladies, please, stop for a moment.”
Ino, caught in his arm, had been about to struggle, but she gave it up once she heard the familiar voice.
Now that Yuuga was here, he would not let them bully her.
Reiko and Yumiko, after that one test, did not think Yuuga was much stronger than the two of them, but they were on guard now.
Yuuga did not have many friends in the Village, and Ino was one of them.
If this went on, it would not be one on one anymore.
Sakura and Senhime, who had been fighting on the other side, saw what had happened and stopped as well.
Sakura used the opening to run behind Yuuga, her breathing audibly ragged.
Yuuga glanced sideways at the pink-haired girl and saw that she was already covered in dust.
She had probably been surrounded and bullied by those three A Class students before he arrived.
No, before Ino arrived.
She was biting her lip, looking like she refused to admit defeat.
“Yuuga, let go of me!” Ino saw that the others had stopped attacking for now and squirmed.
Being held by a boy felt strange, even if he was a good friend.
“Oh?
Ah.” Yuuga was a beat slow to react.
He blinked, then nodded and let go.
Yumiko, Reiko and Senhime had gathered together again at some point, their expressions unpleasant.
Staring at Yuuga, Ino and Sakura, she said, “Hey, Yuuga!
This is a fight between us girls.
You’re a boy, and you’ve got the nerve to stick your face in?”
The nerve?
Yuuga rubbed his temple, exasperated.
“Isn’t the Academy supposed to forbid students from brawling in groups?
Besides, it’s the school festival right now.
Shouldn’t you be getting ready for your class activities?”
Even the Academy would not allow violent clashes between students on school grounds.
He thought about it and added, meaning well, “What you’re doing is school bullying.
Get it?”
Senhime, standing in the middle, raised her sleeve, and her mouth curved, a sly look in her eyes.
“And what does any of that have to do with you, an outsider from another village?
You’re not even a student at our school.
Yuuga, let me give you some advice: don’t stick your nose in.
Otherwise, when the teachers come, they’ll definitely take the side of us Academy students.”