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They made their way to a wide open space within the Uchiha compound that had clearly been used as training grounds. The area was flat and clear, with wooden training posts scattered around the edges and weapon racks that had long since been emptied.
Kuro sighed as they faced off across the open ground. "What do I get out of this if I win?"
Sasuke paused, considering the question. "Win, huh?" A confident smirk crossed his face. "I'm pretty sure you'll lose... but if you somehow manage to win, I'll drop the price to 750,000 ryo instead."
That was a pretty shitty offer, but Kuro agreed nonetheless. It wasn't like he couldn't just earn a lot more money later. "Fine..." he said without much resistance.
He started stretching his arms and rolling his shoulders. "So what are the rules for this thing?"
"Everything's allowed... except weapons. Don't want you getting injured or hurt," Sasuke said, sliding his foot back and settling into his fighting stance.
Kuro raised an eyebrow. "You do know I'm a genin, right? That makes me better than you." He seemed genuinely confused by the boy's absolute confidence, especially since Sasuke was still in the academy.
Sasuke shrugged, maintaining that cool demeanor even as smugness crept into his voice. "You aren't the first genin I've fought, and all of them lost."
Kuro didn't doubt it for a second. Sasuke was already on par with a chunin when he graduated from the academy, so it wasn't really surprising. "Hmm, well if that's the case... I'll put you in your place then," Kuro said confidently before placing one hand behind his back. "I'll only use one hand to make this a fair fight."
Sasuke's jaw clenched. "You're underestimating me?" His voice carried a sharp edge of annoyance. The one thing Sasuke hated more than Itachi was being underestimated and losing.
Kuro shrugged casually. "I didn't say that. I'm just saying it wouldn't be fair for you, that's all." He smiled openly and gestured forward with his free hand. "Come at me..."
"I'll make you regret that!" Sasuke exploded forward, cutting the distance between them almost instantly before firing his right fist forward cutting through the air towards Kuro's face. But Kuro moved like water, his single hand rising just enough to catch the punch and deflect it sideways. Before Sasuke could recover, Kuro's palm slammed against his chest with surprising force, sending him skidding backward across the dirt.
Sasuke's feet found their grip again, and he came back swinging. This time he feinted left before driving his knee upward, aiming for Kuro's ribs. Kuro simply wasn't there anymore, having shifted his weight and slipped past the attack like smoke through fingers. Sasuke's frustration bubbled over as he spun around, throwing a wild haymaker that met nothing but empty air.
The pattern continued, each of Sasuke's attacks becoming more desperate and less controlled. His breathing grew ragged as sweat beaded on his forehead. Kuro moved with an almost lazy confidence, his single hand doing all the work while the rest of his body remained relaxed. When Sasuke threw a combination of punches, Kuro would tap one aside, duck under another, and casually step away from the third.
Sasuke clenched his jaw tight due to pure frustration. His hands trembled with barely contained anger as he watched Kuro's almost bored expression. Then he saw it - or thought he did. Kuro's stance had shifted slightly, his weight favoring his left side. It was an obvious opening.
Sasuke lunged forward with everything he had, his fist screaming toward Kuro's face with all his remaining strength behind it. For a split second, he thought he had him. Then Kuro tilted his head just enough for the punch to whistle past his cheek, and his open hand came up in a casual arc that connected with Sasuke's face in a resounding slap.
The sound echoed like a gunshot in the sudden silence.
"My turn to attack now," Kuro said, his voice carrying the same casual tone someone might use to comment on the weather.
Sasuke stumbled backward, his cheek stinging and his pride wounded even deeper. "Did you just slap me?" he asked, disbelief coloring his voice. After all that he did to land a single blow, he slapped him...bitch slapped him. He was starting to realize that he may have underestimated this guy severely.
'No! no way!..This guy is just a genin!' But then Itachi's face flickered behind his eyes, those cold, crimson sharingan that had haunted his nightmares for years. His brother's overwhelming presence, that suffocating aura of absolute power that had crushed him so completely that night. Itachi was leagues beyond this opponent, a force of nature wrapped in human skin, someone who could end lives with nothing more than a glance.
The realization crept over him like ice water in his veins. 'Itachi is way stronger than him...' The comparison formed slowly, each word dropping into place with terrible clarity. 'If I'm losing this badly to him...'
His hands shook as the thought completed itself, the conclusion he didn't want to face settling over him like a death sentence.
'Then...' anger flared hot in his chest, burning away the doubt. 'NO! IMPOSSIBLE!' his hands moved almost on their own, weaving through a series of complex hand signs that he'd practiced countless times but rarely used in real combat.
'I wasn't going to use this jutsu... but I'll use it anyway!' The thought flickered through his mind, before he pulled in a deep breath, feeling the chakra build in his chest like a furnace coming to life.
"FIRE STYLE... FIREBALL JUTSU!" The words tore from his throat as a sphere of orange flame erupted from his mouth, roaring toward Kuro with enough heat to make the air shimmer.
Kuro's mouth twisted into a crooked grin as the fireball hurtled toward him. The heat washed over his face, but his expression only grew more amused. 'This guy actually wants to kill me or something? I guess you shouldn't hurt an Uchiha's pride.' The thought flickered through his mind as his grin stretched even wider, revealing teeth that caught the orange glow of the approaching flames.
'Might as well show off now, right?'
His hands moved like lightning, weaving through hand signs with a speed that made Sasuke's earlier sequence look sluggish. The fireball was eating up the distance between them, close enough now that he could feel the air itself beginning to burn.
The final sign clicked into place just as the flames were about to engulf him. Kuro's chest expanded as he drew in a breath that seemed to pull air from every corner of the training ground. Then he exhaled with the force of a hurricane, and fire erupted from his mouth in a torrent that was double the size of Sasuke's attack.
[ACTIVATING FIREBALL JUTSU] Lv.4
The two jutsu met in the space between them with a sound like thunder, orange light exploding outward as they wrestled for dominance, but Kuro's fireball was clearly pushing sasuke's back.
The air around them shimmered with the hot heat waves the fireballs were giving off, and the very ground beneath it began to crack from the sheer intensity. Then, as suddenly as they had met, both fireballs collapsed in on themselves, leaving only scorched earth and the lingering smell of burned air.
Sasuke stood there stunned, his body frozen as the reality of what just happened hit him. The world seemed to blur around the edges, as the sounds around him started fading into a distant hum.
'What the...'
Kuro had countered his technique, not just blocked it, but completely dismantled it like it was nothing. Years of training, countless hours perfecting every hand sign until his muscles knew the sequence by heart. He'd practiced that jutsu until his fingers bled, until even his father had been impressed.
His father had said he performed it better than Itachi, and he was seven years old at that time, which was the closest thing to praise he'd ever received from his father and that meant something, because in that one moment he'd felt worthy of the Uchiha name.
And now it had been crushed in seconds.
Sasuke's hands trembled as he stared at Kuro, who stood there with that same infuriating calm. But worse than the nonchalant look was the smug look spreading across his face, a subtle curl of his lips that made Sasuke's blood boil. Like this had all been some kind of joke.
'Just who the hell is this guy...'
Kuro rolled his shoulders and casually slipped his hands into his pockets. "So I win... so a deal is a deal, right?" he asked, though his tone made it clear he wasn't really asking. He was saying he basically won, plain and simple.
Sasuke's hands clenched into tight fists, his nails digging into his palms. Every muscle in his body screamed at him to keep fighting, to prove that this was just a fluke. But the rational part of his mind, the part that sounded annoyingly like his brother, knew the truth.
"Ye... yes," he struggled to say, the words scraping against his throat. The frustration was building inside him like a pressure cooker ready to explode.
Kuro let out a quiet sigh of relief, and for the first time, that smug expression softened slightly. He seemed genuinely happy that Sasuke wasn't going to drag this out further. At least unlike Naruto, Sasuke was smart enough to recognize when he'd lost a battle. That much Kuro could respect.
"Alright... I'll have the contract and the money ready in a couple days," Kuro said with a satisfied smile, his eyes taking in Sasuke's annoyed expression.
Sasuke could only manage a stiff nod in response. His jaw was clenched so tight he thought his teeth might crack, but he forced himself to acknowledge Kuro's words. A deal was a deal, even if it tasted like piss in his mouth.
Kuro seemed to pick up on Sasuke's mood and with a casual shrug, he decided it was probably best to leave before the Uchiha's pride pushed him to do something stupid.
"Well... see ya," Kuro said with a lazy wave, already turning to head off.
"I'LL WIN NEXT TIME, I PROMISE!" Sasuke yelled from behind him, his voice cracking slightly.
Kuro didn't even turn around, just gave another casual shrug at the mere comment. "Sure..." he called back. It was probably best to cheer the kid up after a loss like that.
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Kuro walked through the narrow streets of Konoha, as he was heading toward his little apartment, though not for much longer.
Moving to a new place meant he would have to start packing, but that wouldn't be much of a hassle. His current apartment was barely big enough to fit any furniture, and besides, his inventory would handle most of the heavy lifting anyway. One of the perks of that he'd grown to appreciate.
As he turned down a quieter side street, Kuro couldn't help but click his tongue in annoyance. "Tsk... that bastard ripped me off," he muttered under his breath. "But I'm happy I gave him a beating for it in return."
A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth as he remembered the look on Sasuke's face. The Uchiha had put up a decent fight, he'd give him that, but it wasn't nearly enough.
Kuro raised his hand with a casual flick of his wrist, bringing up his status screen. The translucent interface materialized in front of him, invisible to anyone else who might be watching. And then, he navigated to the store catalogue.
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[ STORE LEVEL - 4]
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TOTAL RYO: $ 889,000
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'After buying the house, I should have about 139,000 left...' he calculated mentally, but luckily I already bought enough things from the store to upgrade it a couple times.
Since his store had leveled up recently, only a handful of new items had been added to the catalogue. He scanned through them quickly, but nothing caught his interest, they weren't particularly useful to him right now anyway.
With another casual swipe, he navigated back and brought up his status screen properly.
━─━─━─≪◈ STATS ◈≫─━─━─━
[NAME] ➤ Kuroshin Kagemura
[AGE] ➤ 13
[LEVEL] ➤ 40
◇───INFO───◇
[JOB] ➤ [JOB QUEST AVAILABLE]
[TITLES] ➤ Courage Of The Weak...
[HP] ➤ 2009/2009
[CP]➤ 3700/6000 ( LOW CHUUNIN)
[FATIGUE] ➤ 0
[AVAILABLE ABILITY POINTS: 18 ]...
◇───STATS───◇
[STRENGTH] ➤ 94
[AGILITY] ➤ 105
[SENSE] ➤ 62.5
[HEALTH] ➤ 82.5
[INTELLIGENCE] ➤ 77
◇───SKILLS───◇
[INTERMEDIATE TAIJUTSU TECHNIQUES] ➤ Lv.22 (PASSIVE.) [Basic Melee attacks inflicted on an opponent is increased by 49%. ]
[BASIC SHURIKENJUTSU TECHNIQUES]Lv.18 (Passive) [When throwing small concealed weapons, damage inflicted is increased by 42%.]
[WIND AFFINITY] ➤ Lv.10 (PASSIVE.) [Whenever a Wind Style jutsu is used, its power is increased by 100%.]
[INTERMEDIATE DAGGER TECHNIQUES]Lv.25 (PASSIVE) [Basic Daggers attacks inflicted on an oponent are increased by 60%.]
[EXOSKELETON] Lv.5 (ACTIVE) [Forms an invisible layer of armor around the user's entire body, reducing all incoming damage by 19%.]
◇───JUTSU'S───◇
[TRANSFORMATION JUTSU] ➤ Lv.15
[BASIC CLONE JUTSU]➤ Lv.19
[SUBSTITUTION JUTSU] ➤ Lv.13
[VACUUM BLADE JUTSU] ➤ Lv.10
[GALE PALM JUTSU] ➤ Lv.12
[GREAT FIREBALL JUTSU] ➤ Lv.4
[HIDING IN THE MIST JUTSU] ➤ Lv.7
━─━─━─━─≪◆≫─━─━─━─━
Kuro's eyes went straight to his CP, and he couldn't help but smile. His chakra level had finally reached Chunin level, it had taken a long time, but he'd gotten there, which excited him more than he cared to admit. His stats showed an average of 84, which was more than enough to bring his mood through the roof. But his job change quest had elevated his satisfaction even higher.
All his jutsu had leveled up a decent amount too, so that was another plus in his book.
But then Kuro stopped dead in his tracks, pulling his hands out from his pockets as he reached a dead end.
"So how long are you going to follow me for?" Kuro called out before slowly turning around.
As he looked up at the rooftop to see a cloaked figure perched on the edge of a building just out of sight, with a white rabbit mask on.
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