"Bastard!"
Seeing Sanada Kazama smirking at him, Sasuke immediately launched a furious flurry of attacks.
"So cool! Go, Sasuke-sama!"
The girls below the platform erupted into cheers, convinced Sasuke had seized the upper hand. Their applause echoed across the training grounds.
Ding! Taijutsu: Shadow of the Dancing Leaf successfully absorbed. Congratulations, host—upgrade acquired: Lion Combo!
"Yes! That's exactly what I was waiting for!"
Kazama roared and charged forward, counterattacking without hesitation.
"What the—?! Kazama took Sasuke's whole taijutsu assault and he's fine?!"
"No way! And now he's counterattacking Sasuke? Did that loser eat something strange this morning? How did his courage grow this big all of a sudden?"
"Big courage means nothing. A dead-last is still a dead-last. He's just going to lose even worse!"
But just as the crowd was dismissing Kazama's counterattack as reckless overconfidence—something utterly laughable—an impossible scene unfolded before their eyes.
Kazama unleashed a taijutsu technique far more devastating than Sasuke's.
The "genius" they all admired—Uchiha Sasuke—was suddenly overwhelmed.
And in the next moment, he was struck down hard, slammed against the ground by Kazama's relentless assault.
"No way… Am I seeing this right?"
"That can't be real! The dead-last Kazama actually knocked Sasuke to the ground?!"
The spectators were stunned into disbelief. Even Sasuke himself, lying battered on the platform, wore an expression of pure shock.
Because he had felt it—the overwhelming strength behind Kazama's blows.
His entire body throbbed with pain, his skin seared as though burned.
That burning sensation wasn't an illusion. It was the lingering effect of Kazama's Mystic Yellow Flame, fused into every strike by the Burning Art.
Right now, every ninjutsu and taijutsu attack Kazama unleashed carried that otherworldly flame as added damage.
And this was him holding back. Had he gone all out, Sasuke's future might have been spent permanently in a hospital bed.
Ding! First successful use of upgraded taijutsu: Lion Combo!Ding! Congratulations, host—reward unlocked: Super Sensory Perception. Range: five hundred miles.
"Super Sensory Perception?"
The moment the system's words echoed in his mind, Kazama felt his five senses sharpen hundreds of times over.
In an instant, he could sense the faintest shifts in wind and grass. He even perceived, in the distance, the presence of two elite shinobi—jōnin-level.
Kazama immediately recognized them. They were Root operatives, under Danzō's command.
It all made sense. Danzō had discovered Kazama had slain three of his men, and now his curiosity burned. How had this so-called dead-last suddenly grown so strong?
So, he had sent his subordinates to capture Kazama and drag him before him.
Kazama clenched his fists, ready to strike first against these lurking enemies—when Sasuke's enraged voice cut through the air.
"No! This isn't possible! There's no way I could be beaten by a dead-last like you!"
Consumed by fury and humiliation, Sasuke shouted as his hands flew into a rapid sequence of seals.
"No…!" Iruka's face paled as he recognized the pattern. "Those seals—don't tell me…!"
It was unmistakable: Uchiha-style Fire Release hand signs.
Iruka's heart sank. For Sasuke, a mere Academy student, to have already mastered a clan-level Fire Release… he hadn't seen this coming.
He tried to intervene, but it was too late.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
"What?! Sasuke can use Fire Release already?!"
"This is bad—Kazama's finished! The Uchiha clan's fire techniques are insanely powerful!"
The crowd braced themselves for Kazama's downfall. Surely, there was no way he could withstand the searing might of Sasuke's Fireball Jutsu.
But then, something happened that no one in the audience could have predicted.
Kazama formed his own seals—and unleashed a Fire Release of his own.
But this was no ordinary technique.
It dwarfed Sasuke's Fireball in sheer force.
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
Three blazing dragons erupted from Kazama's hands, their roars shaking the air.
They collided with Sasuke's Fireball—and in an instant, the great orb of flame was utterly consumed, torn apart into nothingness.
And the fire dragons did not stop there. Their strength only surged as they surged forward, racing straight for Sasuke with unstoppable momentum.