“Huh? Brother Makoto, you’re using standard Tekkai?” Obito was stunned.
“Won’t you be unable to move then?”
“Who said that?” Uchiha Makoto smiled.
“Tekkai is a defensive technique, not a binding jutsu. Watch closely.”
The two distanced themselves from each other.
Obito took a deep breath and assumed his stance.
He decided to use Flowing Tekkai to harden his arms, though it wasn’t perfected yet.
“Start!”
Obito rushed forward and delivered a direct punch.
Uchiha Makoto didn’t dodge or evade; he instantly used standard Tekkai, hardening his entire body.
As soon as Obito’s fist passed, he immediately released it.
“Bang!”
Immediately afterwards, Uchiha Makoto’s left fist had already swung out, landing squarely on Obito’s shoulder the moment he released it.
“Smack!”
Obito was knocked back two steps by this punch.
“Wait!” Obito shouted.
“Brother Makoto, just now… did you move?”
“I’ve been moving the whole time,” Uchiha Makoto said.
“No, I mean… when you use Tekkai, you can still move?”
“Who says you can’t move when using Tekkai?” Uchiha Makoto countered.
“Tekkai is ‘muscle hardening’, not a ‘petrification curse’. When you need to harden your body and when to release it are things you should consider yourself!”
Obito was dumbfounded.
He had always thought that once Tekkai was used, one couldn’t move.
That was why he desperately practiced Flowing Tekkai, trying to fix this flaw.
But now Brother Makoto was telling him that standard Tekkai wasn’t a binding curse.
Obito realized it wasn’t that Tekkai wasn’t strong enough.
It was that he himself was too weak.
Five minutes later, Obito sprawled on the ground, raising his hand in surrender.
“I’m not fighting anymore, I’m not fighting anymore…” He panted.
“Brother Makoto, you’re too monstrous. You can beat me up like this just by using standard Tekkai.”
Obito fell silent for a moment, then slowly sat up.
“Brother Makoto.”
“Hmm?”
“I’ve decided,” Obito said.
“I’m not practicing Flowing Tekkai anymore.”
“Oh?”
“I’ll master standard Tekkai first.” Obito clenched his fists.
“Just like you said, finding the right path is more important than blindly charging forward. I can’t even use standard Tekkai properly right now, so what’s the point of practicing Flowing Tekkai? That’s called being too ambitious.” Read this novel at novelping . com for the best experience.
Uchiha Makoto looked at him and smiled.
The current Obito no longer had the inferiority complex of a tail-ender as before; instead, he inexplicably gained a sense of confidence.
“Starting today, I’m going to practice standard Tekkai. I’ll practice until I can switch Tekkai freely just like you, Brother Makoto.”
“That might take a long time to practice.”
“I’m not afraid.” Obito stood up, dusting the dirt off his body.
“I’m the man who’s going to become Hokage, how can I not even have this bit of perseverance?”
Uchiha Makoto also stood up and patted his shoulder.
“That’s the spirit.”
Looking into Obito’s burning eyes, he suddenly felt a wave of emotion in his heart.
Obito at this period was truly…
simple and cute.
It would be great if it could stay like this forever.
But Uchiha Makoto knew that was impossible.
The gears of fate had already begun to turn, and sooner or later, Obito would experience those events and eventually turn into that masked man.
All he could do was let this youth smile a little longer before the gears completely locked together.
Perhaps in the future he might change these tragedies, but that would have to wait until he became strong enough.
Class 1-A’s first actual combat class was set at Training Ground No.
3 on the east side of the school.
A dozen or so white square grids were drawn on the field, each about ten meters square.
For six-year-old kids, it was more than enough to toss around in.
Homeroom Teacher Nakamura stood in the center of the field, holding the roll call sheet and pushing up his glasses.
“Is everyone here?” He glanced over.
“Today is the first actual combat class, and the rules are very simple. Draw lots to decide opponents: Number 1 versus Number 2, Number 3 versus Number 4, and so on. Those whose names are called, come up and draw lots.”
The students lined up, going up one by one to draw paper slips from the box.
Uchiha Makoto drew Number 7.
He glanced at the slip and looked around—he didn’t know who his opponent was yet.
But it didn’t matter.
With his current level, beating these six-year-old kids was pretty much like playing Whack-a-Mole; what he cared more about was Obito.
Obito and Aoki walked up to Teacher Nakamura together.
“Teacher!” Obito raised his hand.
“Can I be grouped with Aoki?”
Aoki beside him also nodded.
“I want to be grouped with Obito too.”
Teacher Nakamura glanced at them, then looked at the name list in his hand.
Two Uchihas, huh!
“Alright.” He readily agreed.
“Then you two will be Number 1 and Number 2, the first match.”
“Thank you, Teacher!” Obito grinned.
The two returned to the line, and Obito immediately sidled up to Rin.
“Rin! I drew Number 1!” Excitement laced his voice.
“The first match is me!”
Rin looked at him, then looked at Aoki not far away who was sneering, and whispered, “Obito, you have to be careful. Aoki… is quite strong.”
“I know,” Obito nodded.
“But I’m not weak either.”
When he said this, his eyes were bright, with an air of “I’m going to prove it to you all today”.
Uchiha Makoto walked over and patted his shoulder.
“Believe in yourself,” he said.
“You didn’t practice in vain this past month.”
Obito nodded vigorously.
“Yeah!”
Several classmates nearby heard this and exchanged glances with each other.
“Did Obito take the wrong medicine today?” a spiky-haired boy whispered.
“Doesn’t he usually avoid Aoki?”
“Who knows.” Another glasses-wearing girl shrugged.
“Maybe Makoto-kun gave him some secret special training.”
“Special training? What can you train out in a month?” The spiky-haired boy curled his lip.
“Aoki’s dad is a Jonin, giving him private lessons since he was little. What about Obito? His parents aren’t around anymore, who’s going to teach him?”
“You can’t put it that way.” The bespectacled girl glanced at Uchiha Makoto.
“Isn’t Makoto-kun also…”
“Makoto-kun is a genius, can they be compared?”
They didn’t speak very loudly, but Obito heard every word clearly.
He clenched his fists and said nothing.
Over on Aoki’s side, his two lackeys also sidled up.
“Aoki, go easy on him later,” one of them said with a grin.
“Don’t make Obito cry, or he’ll go running to the teacher again.”
“Running to the teacher?” The other sneered.
“What good does running to the teacher do? Isn’t getting injured in actual combat class normal?”
Aoki didn’t reply, only looking at Obito with a cold sneer on the corners of his lips.
He had been waiting for this day for a long time.
Obito was a failure as an Uchiha, and as a fellow Uchiha, he was determined to make such a trashy person clearly recognize himself and stop humiliating the Uchiha clan.
He was late for class, lazy in training, and ranked at the bottom of his grades, yet he always wore an expression of “I’m working very hard”.
What was most infuriating was that this guy actually dared to talk back to him.
Today, the opportunity had finally arrived, and in the actual combat class he could beat him up fair and square.
Aoki had already thought it through: he would punch him one blow at a time until he admitted defeat, until he cried, and until he never dared to talk back to him again in the future.