The next day, Uchiha Yuan arrived at school as usual.
Perhaps because their class would soon be heading to the battlefield, the number of combat training sessions had increased significantly. What used to be one session every three days was now a daily occurrence.
The Academy instructors were using this time to cram in teachings on the Three Basic Techniques and practical combat experience.
Most of the students in Class 2 of Year 4 either had ninja parents or came from noble clans, so their foundations were solid. Thanks to this intense training, their abilities had noticeably improved.
Among them, the most surprising case to the teachers was Uchiha Yuan—his growth had been incredibly fast.
Previously, he had been a mid-tier student—not particularly good or bad.
But over the past few weeks, his strength had skyrocketed. In the last combat session, he even defeated one of the class's top five students.
This time, the instructors decided to pit Uchiha Yuan against the class's long-time top student: Hyuga Asana.
In the teachers' eyes, Hyuga Asana had already reached genin-level strength after activating her Byakugan. Among all the fourth-year students, she was definitely in the top five.
Only two or three students from Class 1 could be considered comparable to her—and the only one who could definitely beat her was the Hokage's son, Asuma.
The instructors believed that a spar between Hyuga Asana and Uchiha Yuan would be enough to gauge Yuan's current strength, which would help in class placement later.
Uchiha Yuan didn't know any of this, but he was interested in the sparring anyway.
At the very least, it was more interesting than listening to the teacher drone on about the Will of Fire in class.
Around 10 a.m., Class 2 arrived at the Academy's training field.
The teacher called out names and assigned sparring pairs. Uchiha Yuan and Hyuga Asana's names were called last.
Hyuga Asana had always been the top student of Class 2, while Uchiha Yuan had only recently become powerful.
On top of that, the Uchiha and Hyuga clans had always had a tense relationship.
So when their names were called, the class immediately started whispering and buzzing.
The instructor barked, "Quiet! Everyone get ready! Sparring begins in 10 minutes!"
"Asana, make sure to give that Uchiha brat a real beating. He's caused me no end of trouble in the past," said Hyuga Chiwa, the Main House heiress.
"Yes, Lady Chiwa. I'll give it my all," Asana replied. Then she looked over at Uchiha Yuan.
At the same time, Uchiha Yuan looked her way. Their eyes met in midair—and then both turned away.
"Uchiha Yuan, you're about to spar with Hyuga Asana. Nervous?" a chubby kid came over and asked.
"I'm fine," Uchiha Yuan replied flatly.
"Kagetsu Yamanaka, you should worry about yourself more than him," said a girl holding a book. "You're up against the Main House heiress of the Hyuga clan."
Kagetsu sighed—he really didn't want to spar with someone from the Hyuga Main House.
He was a member of the Yamanaka clan, but in his year there weren't any Nara or Akimichi clan members of similar age. So he, the "ino", had no "shika" or "chō" to team up with.
Plus, Kagetsu's chubby build made him look more like someone from the Akimichi clan than Yamanaka.
As a lone "ino", Kagetsu often felt isolated. Coincidentally, Uchiha Yuan also kept to himself in class, so Kagetsu often gravitated toward him, and over time, the two had become friends.
Kagetsu's grades were similar to Yuan's previous level, though still better than Hyuga Chiwa's.
However, as a Main House heiress, Chiwa was treated differently.
Teachers often went easy on her, and if anyone accidentally went too hard, they might get into trouble.
So most students didn't want to spar with her.
The 10-minute prep time passed quickly, and the sparring began.
Pairs went up one by one from back to front.
Kagetsu Yamanaka and Hyuga Chiwa were the 10th pair.
Uchiha Yuan glanced at their match but quickly lost interest. Kagetsu was holding back too much, and Chiwa was too weak—this match was just two noobs pecking at each other.
Unsurprisingly, the bout ended in a farcical draw.
After a few more matches, it was finally time for Uchiha Yuan and Hyuga Asana.
They stood in the center of the field and made the sign of opposition.
"Begin!"
As soon as the teacher's voice fell, Uchiha Yuan heard the sound of wind slicing past him. He shifted his body to dodge Asana's first strike, then drew a kunai from his waist and stabbed forward.
The sharp kunai aimed straight for Asana's chest.
But in the next instant, veins bulged around her eyes as she activated the Byakugan. Just as the kunai was about to hit, she used a substitution jutsu.
Yuan's kunai pierced a puff of white smoke and stabbed into a wooden log.
"That was a fast substitution," Yuan thought.
But the next attack came even faster. Before he could turn around, a palm strike landed squarely on his shoulder.
With the Byakugan, Asana could clearly see his chakra points. She launched her Eight Trigrams Sixteen Palms, aiming rapid strikes at Yuan's vital chakra nodes.
Yuan knew he couldn't afford to get hit—if she landed even a few strikes, the match would be over.
He shut his eyes and then snapped them open—his one-tomoe Sharingan gleamed scarlet in his pupils.
With the Sharingan's enhanced dynamic vision, he tracked her movements, dodged the first two strikes, then quickly formed hand seals and used a substitution jutsu to obscure her sight and relocate to safety.
From his new position, he hurled a kunai at Asana, then pulled several more from his tool pouch and threw them in quick succession.
Among the Uchiha, two techniques were standard fare: Fireball Jutsu and kunai throwing. They were practically required skills—and Yuan had mastered them.
He varied the angles and strength of each throw, causing the kunai to fly along different trajectories, targeting Asana's vital points and blocking all her escape routes.
"This should do it. No way Asana can dodge this. The teacher will have to intervene," Yuan thought confidently.
But the next moment, he realized he was wrong—Asana vanished from her spot.
Ding ding ding ding!—all the kunai struck the ground.
Then Yuan felt a chill at his neck. Asana stood behind him, pressing a kunai to his throat.
"Body Flicker Technique!" the nearby teacher exclaimed in surprise.
The Body Flicker is a simple technique in theory—using chakra to stimulate the cells and achieve high-speed movement.
But it requires extraordinary reaction time and precise chakra control. A typical genin couldn't possibly use it.
(To Be Continued...)