Sasuke Uchiha was in a completely different league from Madara Uchiha.
During training sessions with Madara, Hirofumi had been on the receiving end of a completely one-sided beating, but his combat experience had been climbing fast.
Now, facing Sasuke Uchiha felt completely effortless.
…
After their first exchange, Sasuke Uchiha was breathing hard, staring at Hirofumi with eyes full of disbelief.
“You! I never expected you to get this much stronger!”
Sasuke was having a hard time accepting it.
In all their previous sparring sessions, Hirofumi had always been his final opponent, and Hirofumi had never managed to hold out this long against him.
Every single time had ended in his victory.
But now, of all times, he was the one being suppressed.
When facing him, Hirofumi had looked completely at ease the entire time.
Could it be…
that this time he would actually have to reveal his trump card?!
After all…
his eyes were the pride of the Uchiha Clan!
“Not bad yourself, Sasuke! But I’m not losing this time. You’ve held the top spot in the class for years now — don’t you think it’s time to let me have a turn?”
“Damn it! Stop running your mouth! I haven’t even gone all out yet!”
“Tch! As if I went all out either?!”
Hirofumi truly had not.
After obtaining Indra’s Chakra, that day and a half of training had left him feeling like he had grown by leaps and bounds, especially after taking a beating from Madara Uchiha.
Sasuke’s raw, undeveloped combat instincts looked like a child’s in comparison.
Of course, Hirofumi knew exactly what Sasuke’s so-called trump card was.
It was nothing more than the one-tomoe Sharingan he had awakened in fury after the clan massacre.
Oh, right — Sasuke also apparently knew the Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.
But given Sasuke’s current chakra reserves, firing it just once would drain him completely dry.
Hirofumi, on the other hand, could casually throw out several in a row without breaking a sweat.
“Heh… Hirofumi Ito! I’ll show you what my trump card really is! And I’ll show you what the true pride of the Uchiha Clan really means! Today! I’ll show everyone here what the pride of the Uchiha truly is!”
Watching Sasuke posture in front of him like he owned the sky and the earth and everything in between, Hirofumi’s expression turned a little strange.
Was Sasuke actually grandstanding right now?!
He seemed to recall there was a certain unbreakable law in the world of Naruto.
That law: whenever Sasuke Uchiha grandstands, he gets beaten up.
So today…
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE…
Let this law start with him!
The moment Sasuke finished speaking, both his pupils shifted in an instant.
A red tomoe surfaced within each eye, spinning several times before locking into place.
“Hirofumi Ito! Do you see my eyes?! This is the Uchiha! This is the pride of the Uchiha! This is the Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan! Standing before me — you have earned the right to witness the pride of the Uchiha! I will defeat you with the Sharingan!”
Listening to him, Hirofumi felt a helpless sort of weariness wash over him.
This guy really couldn’t get through three sentences without mentioning the Uchiha, or three sentences without mentioning pride.
Sasuke did not move to attack right away, as though still adjusting to the enhanced dynamic vision the Sharingan provided, and it seemed like he was giving Hirofumi time to prepare as well.
Meanwhile, the transformation in Sasuke’s eyes had already sent every watching classmate and Iruka-sensei into stunned silence.
“Hey! What’s wrong with smug Sasuke?! Did he get pink eye?! And there’s a little tadpole inside his eyeball! Iruka-sensei! Hurry up and fish that tadpole out of his eye!”
Naruto Uzumaki had absolutely no idea what the Sharingan was.
He just saw that Sasuke’s eyes had turned red in an instant and that something resembling a tiny tadpole had appeared inside the eyeball.
It made Naruto genuinely worried.
Sasuke Uchiha was still his friend, and if his friend went blind he would be devastated.
Iruka paid no attention to the shouting.
Iruka stared at Sasuke’s eyes with an expression of profound amazement.
“Naruto! Quiet down. This is not pink eye, and there is no tadpole. This is… the Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan!”
The explanation went completely over Naruto’s head.
“Huh? What’s a Sharingan… never even heard of it!”
The usually composed Shikamaru Nara gave Naruto a pat on the shoulder.
“Naruto! The Sharingan is the most powerful ability of the Uchiha Clan! Every true Uchiha will possess those eyes. I never expected Sasuke’s strength to have already reached such a terrifying level…”
Naruto still didn’t fully understand, but caught the part about the eyes being something a true Uchiha should have, and that Sasuke Uchiha, with those eyes, was probably very strong now. Read the latest chapters at novelping dot com.
“So that’s how it is… it really is strange, though. Now smug Sasuke has red eyes, and that weird Hinata already has white eyes… If those two ever had a kid, would the child’s eyes be half white and half red?!”
Naruto had no idea that Hinata Hyūga had a secret crush on him.
As far as Naruto was concerned, Hinata was just a strange and peculiar girl, every time Hinata ended up in front of him, Hinata would act oddly, and steam would even rise from the top of Hinata’s head.
Naruto had said all of this without lowering his voice even slightly.
Standing in the center of the training ground, Hirofumi heard every single word loud and clear.
It struck him like a bolt from the blue.
He hadn’t expected Naruto to be this much of a character, actually floating the idea of pairing his good buddy up with his own future wife to have a kid together.
He wondered what kind of expression this guy would make in the future, after marrying Hinata Hyūga, if he ever happened to remember what he’d said today.
It would probably be quite a sight.
Unlike his stunned classmates, Iruka’s expression had gone very serious.
Sasuke Uchiha awakening the Sharingan at this age was nothing short of extraordinary genius.
And within the Uchiha Clan, the moment one awakened the Sharingan, even just a single tomoe, it meant that Uchiha had reached the combat level of a genin.
➤ Next: Can You Even Handle It, You Scrawny Dog
Chapter 26 – Can You Even Handle It, You Scrawny Dog
You had to hand it to the Uchiha Clan, their bloodline was something else.
Once the Sharingan awakened and started evolving step by step, strength climbed at a breathtaking pace.
Iruka was almost vibrating with excitement right now.
Hirofumi Ito had already shown off his insane improvement just moments ago, and now Sasuke Uchiha had gone and awakened his Sharingan!
He never imagined his own class would produce two students of this caliber!
Truly, without Iruka, the sun would still rise, but the Ninja Academy’s teachers would have wandered in darkness for ten thousand ages!
No.
What happened today absolutely had to be reported to the Third Hokage.
The Hokage needed to know that a genius of this caliber had appeared in Iruka’s class!
“Hirofumi Ito… are you ready? I’m coming! Prepare to face the pride of the Uchiha Clan!”
Sasuke declared this while settling into his fighting stance.
Hirofumi got serious too.
The Uchiha Clan’s Sharingan was genuinely powerful, especially that enhanced dynamic vision it unlocked after activation.
Still, he’d been dominating Sasuke just moments ago.
Even with a one-tomoe Sharingan now active, fighting him to a draw shouldn’t be a problem.
“Come on then, Sasuke! Let me see the pride of the Uchiha Clan!”
The words had barely left his mouth before both of them shot toward each other from the center of the training ground.
BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM…
Hirofumi fought with the combat experience he’d hammered into himself by taking beatings from Madara Uchiha.
Sasuke fought with the dynamic vision his Sharingan provided.
For a stretch of time that kept going and going, the two of them fought to a complete standstill.
That was difficult for Sasuke to accept.
He’d already activated his Sharingan, and he still couldn’t beat Hirofumi Ito?!
Hirofumi was equally surprised.
He knew the Sharingan was incredible, but he hadn’t expected a single tomoe to bring this big a boost.
Truly worthy of the Uchiha Clan.
They really did have grounds for their pride.
No wonder someone once said Naruto should just be renamed Eye Legend.
Though, now that he himself carried Indra’s Chakra, he had every chance of awakening the Sharingan one day too.
No reason to envy Sasuke too much.
The exchange stretched on for an exceptionally long time.
Neither of them dared let their focus slip for even a second, because a single lapse right now meant only one thing: losing.
The spectating classmates had, by this point, gone a little numb.
“These two are genuinely terrifying…”
“I really didn’t think they’d already gotten this strong?!”
“Hirofumi Ito’s improvement speed is way too scary?!”
“These two are probably already capable of becoming Genin right now, aren’t they?!”
“…”
On the other side of the crowd, Naruto Uzumaki was practically losing his mind with excitement, so pumped up that he’d started wiggling his backside.
His two best friends were just that impressive!
After all, this great lord right here was going to be Hokage someday!
“Hirofumi, go for it! Beat this cocky Sasuke into the ground!”
“Oh my, oh my… Cocky Sasuke! Weren’t you just talking about showing Hirofumi the pride of the Uchiha?! After all that buildup, this is what you’ve got?! All you managed was a case of red-eye disease and a few tadpoles?!”
Naruto kept wiggling his backside and hollering from the sidelines in the most bizarre singsong tone…
“Can you even handle it~~~ you scrawny dog~~~~”
He’d actually picked that line up from Hirofumi Ito.
Back in the day, Hirofumi used to taunt him with “scrawny dog” whenever he felt like it.
Sasuke’s face went bright red when he heard it, whether from the exhaustion of fighting Hirofumi or from Naruto’s jeering, it was impossible to say.
But the moment Naruto called him a scrawny dog, Sasuke couldn’t hold back anymore!
“You damn idiot! Shut your mouth! Say I’m a scrawny dog one more time and I’ll show you just how scrawny I really am!”
Naruto’s face went pale with horror.
He immediately slapped both hands over his backside and stumbled several steps backward in a panic.
“Huh?! Cocky Sasuke, you’re not trying to mess with my behind, are you?! Let me tell you, this great lord does NOT have that kind of weird hobby! And whether you’re scrawny or not — this great lord has zero interest in finding out!”
That line sent Sasuke completely over the edge.
Hirofumi seized the exact moment Sasuke lost it and drove a clean kick straight into him, sending Sasuke flying.
BOOM!
Sasuke skidded backward several meters.
But he didn’t counter-attack.
Instead he turned his glare, seething and vicious, directly at Naruto, who was still clutching his backside with a panicked expression.
“You Uzumaki idiot! Shut your mouth! Say one more word and I’ll kill you!”
“Tch… Uchiha scrawny dog!”
“AAAAAAAAAA! I’m going to kill you! Uzumaki idiot!”
“Tch… Uchiha scrawny dog!”
“…”
And just like that, the two of them were going at it right there in front of everyone, one throwing “scrawny dog,” the other firing “idiot” straight back, launching into a whole new round of bickering.
Hirofumi was perfectly happy to take a breather.
He stepped to the side and watched the whole thing with great interest.
Iruka pressed his palm hard against his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut.
“Both of you, shut it! Naruto Uzumaki! Keep disrupting the sparring practice and I’m sending you back to the classroom! And you, Sasuke Uchiha! If you don’t want to keep fighting, I’ll go ahead and declare Hirofumi Ito the winner of this match!”
“No!” ×2
They both shouted at Iruka-sensei in perfect unison.
Naruto closed his mouth with a sulky huff.
Sasuke dragged his full attention back onto Hirofumi Ito.
Sasuke checked his chakra, and his expression turned dead serious.
He’d had the Sharingan running the entire fight.
After a battle this long, what remained of his chakra was running critically low.
Yet Hirofumi Ito over there looked completely unaffected.
Which meant this guy’s chakra reserves were definitely greater than his own.
That left only one move.
But if he used that move, Hirofumi Ito might actually get hurt.
With Iruka-sensei present, things probably wouldn’t spiral too far out of hand, after all, Iruka-sensei was a Chūnin.
And besides, he carried the glory of the Uchiha Clan on his shoulders.
Losing was absolutely not an option!
“Hirofumi Ito! This next move is my last! Watch closely! This time I won’t hold back! Because I carry the final glory of the Uchiha Clan on my shoulders! Failure — is absolutely not permitted! I’m telling you right now — surrender. Because if you don’t, there’s a very real chance you’ll end up getting hurt!”
➤ Next: The Astonished Crowd
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