Looking at the short figure who appeared in front of her, Mira instinctively stopped her hand signs and pulled her arm back to her waist. A moment later, she felt a massive impact that pushed her back several meters.
'He is fast!' Mira thought, her teeth gritting as she absorbed the shock. 'If I didn't move my arm in time, I would've taken massive damage.'
Mira's Sharingan locked onto Shinra's figure.
'Even if speed is your forte, blame your luck for being matched against an Uchiha. Even geniuses pale in comparison when faced against the Uchiha clan.'
Shinra didn't immediately push forward. His eyes were focused entirely on Mira's body, making sure that he avoided direct eye contact.
'Fighting against the Sharingan will be a pain in the ass,' Shinra analyzed calmly as he prepared his next course of action. 'It can track high-speed movements, copy my techniques, and worst of all is the visual genjutsu. But for some reason, I am actually looking forward to this fight.'
Throughout the series, there were two things that were considered the ultimate cheat codes.
One was Hashirama cells, and the second was the Sharingan.
'Although you can track my movements with your eyes, how well can you respond with your body?'
Shinra lowered his stance.
The answer came quickly.
He disappeared.
Mira's Sharingan followed him immediately.
'Left.'
Her body turned on pure reflex before her mind had fully processed the movement, a testament to her elite training. Shinra's fist came toward her ribs, but Mira twisted her torso and brought her elbow down.
THUD!
His fist slammed into her forearm. The raw force still pushed her sideways, but she held her ground.
'He's using a straightforward taijutsu style. There is no complex form behind his attacks,' Mira thought, her mind racing as she dealt with the intense pain following the strike. 'The problem is that monstrous strength behind every strike. I can't let him gain momentum on me.'
Mira planted her foot and immediately counterattacked. Her fist shot toward Shinra's face with precision.
Shinra tilted his head to the side, allowing the punch to pass by his cheek.
'Good form,' he noted internally.
He caught her wrist with his left hand and stepped forward, attempting to pull her off balance.
Mira reacted almost instantly. Her free hand shot toward his chest.
Shinra released her wrist, but not before driving a sharp kick into her stomach that pushed her backward.
The two separated.
Mira stared at him, her chest heaving slightly.
Her Sharingan remained fixed on him.
'His movements are fast, but they're not impossible to follow,' Mira convinced herself, narrowing her eyes. 'Speed alone isn't enough to defeat the Sharingan. As long as I can see an attack coming, I can prepare my body to respond.'
Mira's lips curled slightly into a defiant smirk.
"If that's all you can do, why don't you save us both the trouble and forfeit?"
Shinra smirked back as he dusted off his jacket, playing right into the psychological game.
"Big talk for someone who couldn't even land a clean hit on me. Aren't you a little old to try these tactics?"
Mira clicked her tongue and pulled out a kunai from her pouch.
"I am only 14, you damn brat."
Shinra noticed her irritation and continued on, maintaining the pressure.
"Tsk tsk~ I have heard that the Uchiha clan was a clan full of prodigies, but it appears that was all just rumors. So far, every Uchiha I've seen turned out to be a fraud. A 14-year-old genin? Maybe being a shinobi isn't your calling. Why not stick to being a housewife?"
Mira's expression darkened into pure ice.
"I will kill you. You fucking bastard!!"
Up in the stands, the spectators immediately picked up on his tactics.
"What's your view on this, Shinomiya?" Akimichi Taeko asked her teammate, Nara Shinomiya.
Shinomiya stared downward at the angry Uchiha girl and chuckled.
"She is falling for his taunts quite easily. Since this is meant to simulate an actual battlefield, there is no such thing as honor in a shinobi fight."
"I was asking what's your view on what he just said. Do you think I should become a housewife if I don't pass this year?" Taeko asked as she stuffed a handful of chips into her mouth.
Shinomiya tactfully avoided answering by pretending not to hear her.
A few meters away from them, Hyori sighed.
"It feels like I am looking at Yogi-sensei down there."
Inumaki nodded in agreement.
"Yogi-sensei really rubbed off on him. That smug expression and those taunts are definitely a consequence of training with him."
Down in the arena, Mira was annoyed, but she refused to let the taunts cloud her judgment. She continued fighting at close range, waiting for Shinra to overextend while using her Sharingan to track every twitch of his muscles.
'That being said, fighting an opponent without looking into their eyes is extremely difficult,' Shinra thought, keeping his gaze firmly locked below her shoulders. 'The reason Guy was able to do so was due to his countless spars with Kakashi. But no matter, this is the ultimate testing ground for my taijutsu.'
For a while, the fight remained firmly in Shinra's favor.
He was faster and physically stronger, so much so that after a few exchanges, Mira's body was already starting to feel numb.
But Mira wasn't trying to defeat him in a contest of pure strength.
She was waiting for an opportunity to change the conditions of the battle.
Eventually, she found one.
Mira abruptly disengaged, executing a swift Body Flicker to create a considerable distance between them.
Shinra stopped, watching her closely.
Mira's hands moved through a sequence of hand signs.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Roaring flames surged across the arena, a wall of intense heat. Shinra flickered away from the primary blast, but several shuriken immediately intercepted his landing zone.
Thin, almost invisible wires were attached to them.
The weapons suddenly changed direction midair, forcing Shinra to alter his route again. Another fireball followed swiftly behind, cutting off his flank and driving him even farther back.
Mira didn't pursue him. She simply stood her ground and watched.
'Don't chase him. Since close combat is his strong suit, I'll dismantle him from a distance.'
Shinra landed lightly and narrowed his eyes.
'If she keeps using ninjutsu to keep me away, she'll eventually burn through her chakra reserves. So what's her actual goal?'
The answer became obvious after another sequence.
Mira wasn't trying to end the fight quickly anymore. She was trying to control its rhythm.
Whenever Shinra approached, she retreated and used ninjutsu to push him back. When he changed direction, her wired shuriken were already waiting for him.
She had turned the arena into a living chessboard where Shinra was constantly forced to react to her decisions.
In the stands, one of the Suna genin leaned forward.
"Hey, Kusakabe, who do you think is going to win? This fight started off good, but it turned into a game of tag. I'm getting bored."
The puppet user remained silent for a moment before answering, his eyes tracking the movement below.
"The blue-haired boy. If it turns into a battle of endurance, or if he manages to close the distance just once, he will win."
"That's a shame. I wanted to fight that Uchiha girl myself."
The wind-style user continued watching the battle intently.
Down below, Mira felt her confidence returning like a tide.
'As long as I maintain this distance, his speed doesn't matter.'
For several minutes, she maintained firm control of the battlefield. Shinra would approach; Mira would retreat. Fire Release would force him away while her wired shuriken covered his escape routes. Then the process would repeat.
But Shinra wasn't frustrated.
He was learning.
'She needs a split second before every fireball.'
His eyes tracked her hand signs rather than the flames themselves.
'And whenever I approach the fifty-meter mark, she prepares another Fireball Jutsu. If I stay at range, she relies entirely on shurikenjutsu to conserve her chakra.'
A slow grin returned to his face.
'So I'll bait it out.'
The next time Shinra crossed the distance, Mira immediately began forming hand signs.
'Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu.'
Shinra kept charging forward.
'He isn't planning to dodge?' Mira's Sharingan remained fixed on him, her eyes flaring. 'But so what? Did you think my shuriken were merely used to keep you away?'
Mira violently tugged on the wires attached to several shuriken she had thrown earlier. The shuriken whipped around, flying back toward Shinra's blind spot from behind. At the same time, she released another spread of shuriken directly from her hands.
Shinra found himself caught in a multi-directional pincer attack.
Mira's eyes sharpened into a triumphant glare.
'He has nowhere to go.'
Shinra suddenly dipped his knees, preparing to jump.
'In midair, he won't be able to dodge.'
Mira immediately read his muscle shift through the Sharingan and released another set of shuriken to seal his fate.
'This is the end.'
But Shinra never jumped.
At the last possible moment, Shinra shifted his weight completely and accelerated sideways, narrowly evading the Great Fireball.
The shuriken pierced nothing but empty air.
Mira's eyes widened in disbelief.
'He tricked me.'
She finally understood.
'He wasn't using his full speed from the start of the match. At this speed, he'll be able to cover the distance between us before I can create more distance.'
Shinra landed several meters away and dashed toward her.
"You're getting predictable."
Mira's expression hardened. She answered by throwing another barrage of shuriken, but Shinra effortlessly avoided them, closing the distance before she could create more space.
The comfortable control Mira had maintained for several minutes shattered instantly.
The fight was back in close quarters.
'If I let him dictate the pace again, I'm finished.'
Mira fought with desperate precision, constantly searching for a window to disengage. But Shinra had already mapped out her habits. Whenever she tried to create space, he applied suffocating pressure before she could flicker away.
The battle dragged on. Mira's Sharingan kept up with his movements, but the physical and mental strain was starting to show. Her breathing turned ragged, and dark bruises bloomed across her arms and legs where she had blocked his blows.
Shinra noticed the shift.
'She's reaching her absolute limit. I guess it's time to end this.'
Mira knew it too.
'I need to end this right now.'
She finally managed to force an opening and began weaving hand signs for a final jutsu.
Shinra didn't give her the chance.
He surged forward like a missile.
Mira abandoned the technique, abandoning all pretense of distance, and threw her arms up into a rigid guard.
'He's coming straight in. I'm ready.'
Shinra's fist crashed against her guard.
THUD!
Mira absorbed the impact of the blow and prepared to retreat.
Then—
BOOM!
A secondary, invisible shockwave of condensed chakra erupted directly against her arm.
Her eyes widened in absolute shock.
'What?!'
Her defense was blown wide open, the secondary shock scrambling her posture entirely. For the first time in the match, genuine panic flickered across Mira's face.
Shinra's eyes sharpened instantly.
'Got you.'
He had been waiting for the right moment to test the technique against an opponent who could actually react to his physical attacks, but decided to use it at the decisive moment to get the best result.
Mira had spent the entire fight learning how to deal with his physical attacks, predicting his strikes and attempting to fight him from long range.
But she had never experienced this.
The first impact had been blocked.
The second had bypassed her guard entirely.
Before Mira could recover her balance, Shinra made sure to end the battle swiftly. He overwhelmed her with a ruthless wave of punches, preventing her from regaining her footing.
Up in the stands, Muta's eyes widened behind his tinted glasses.
'A second impact using concentrated chakra.'
His attention locked onto Shinra with intense scrutiny.
'The level of chakra control needed to execute a delayed second impact at will… it's extraordinary.'
Ren's expression darkened.
'Since the beginning of the fight, he has used nothing but pure taijutsu and that strange impact trick. How much more is he hiding?'
Mira desperately tried to anchor her feet, but Shinra gave her zero room to breathe.
One final, devastating punch to her stomach sent her crashing hard onto the arena floor, knocking the wind completely out of her lungs as she slid to a halt.
She didn't get back up.
Silence settled heavily over the arena.
The proctor immediately stepped forward, kneeling to check Mira's pulse and condition. After confirming she was unconscious, he sharply raised his hand.
"Uchiha Mira is unable to continue."
He turned toward Shinra.
"Kamikaze Shinra wins."
Shinra straightened his jacket and exhaled slowly, looking down at the fallen Uchiha. He wasn't particularly ecstatic about the win; the match had given him something far more valuable than a victory.
Experience fighting the Sharingan.
'The Sharingan is genuinely troublesome.'
If Mira hadn't possessed the Sharingan, the match would have ended in under a minute. That's how vast the difference between their physical abilities was. Her eyes had allowed her to keep pace with his speed and adapt to his rhythm far faster than any ordinary genin could manage.
'I'll definitely have to refine my strategies for fighting Dōjutsu users.'
At the same time, he had accomplished his primary objective. He had tested his taijutsu to its limits without revealing his Lightning Release, his sword mastery, or any of his heavier trump cards.
As far as the stadium full of spectators and opposing teams was concerned, Kamikaze Shinra was simply an exceptionally fast taijutsu specialist capable of using an unusual, devastating delayed-impact technique.
The next opponents would undoubtedly be prepared for his delayed-impact technique, but that suited him just fine.
From the stands, Hyori and Inumaki nodded at him with knowing smiles.
Across the arena, Ren continued to stare intently at him.
'He is extremely strong. It's Mira's own misfortune for being matched against him early on.'
Muta adjusted his glasses, his attention still fixed on Shinra.
'He deliberately concealed his abilities throughout the fight. How much is he actually hiding?'
Shinra turned his back on the arena floor, casting one final glance at the board displaying the upcoming matches.
Next match: Nara Shinomiya vs Hachiman Sho