Seeing that things were about to turn physical, Uchiha Chi remained calm and casually interjected, "And what about your homework? Don't tell me all seven of you lost your homework together—what a joke. Weren't you among the ones sent out to stand in the corner today? Who are you trying to fool?"
Sarutobi Zhang was still young after all and didn't know how to retort. Deciding that there was no point in talking anymore, he immediately signaled his cronies to jump in and surround Uchiha Chi.
At his signal, the six of them formed a semicircle and closed in directly. Sarutobi Zhang deliberately lagged half a step behind, pushing the others forward to shield himself. Such poor character only made Uchiha Chi hold him in even deeper contempt, while lowering his opinion of the Sarutobi clan even further.
Seeing this, Uchiha Chi didn't waste any more breath. Believing his fists and feet were more than enough, he circulated his Chakra to reinforce his physical body and lunged forward with his fists. Uchiha Chi's two seatmates moved to join him, but they were intercepted by Sarutobi Zhang—evidently too cowardly to face Uchiha Chi directly, Sarutobi Zhang preferred to pick on soft targets instead.
As he moved, Uchiha Chi's mental focus heightened sharply, making his reactions three parts faster than usual.
Catching the punch thrown from the opposite side, he grabbed the fist, used the opponent's momentum to guide him forward, and used his body to block another attacker's path.
Then, adjusting his stance, he used the two men in front of him as human shields to break the third man's line of sight, spun around, gathered strength, and lashed out with a flying kick straight into the charging third man's stomach, sending him crashing to the ground and temporarily knocking him out of the fight.
Next, he retreated a few steps in succession to evade a coordinated assault by another three, then surged toward the left. One of them was slightly isolated, and Uchiha Chi seized the opening. Adopting a trade-blows-for-blows strategy, he took a punch to the shoulder in exchange for an opening, then delivered a crisp, decisive knee strike that incapacitated his opponent.
Using that downed opponent as a weapon, he swung him directly at the next attacker. His shoulder was starting to ache dully, but it didn't hinder his movements at all—he had clearly come out ahead.
Relying once more on his advantage in speed, he took down another opponent. Half of the six-man group had now been dealt with.
The remaining three, however, had become extremely cautious, moving strictly in tandem. Although they posed no real threat to him, they made it difficult for Uchiha Chi to find a good opening, proving somewhat troublesome. But it was only a slight annoyance; after all, since the three of them had to coordinate their movements constantly, their stamina consumption was far greater than his own free movement.
At that moment, Uchiha Chi glanced over at Mizutani Hayun and Tachibana Taki. He saw that although Sarutobi Zhang's combat strength was decent, he and his group hadn't even managed to gain the upper hand against the two girls—who were fighting with a reckless disregard for their own injuries—let alone secure a victory.
No longer worried, he settled in to wear down the remaining three.
To minimize Chakra and stamina consumption, Uchiha Chi avoided direct confrontations as much as possible, using his superior speed and agility to constantly strike fast and keep the opponents off balance while wearing them down on the move.
After two or three minutes, the trio's Chakra began to run low, their reaction times grew sluggish, and their coordination fell apart.
After all, their current level was still far from being able to refine Chakra during actual combat—a standard capability of a Chunin. Even Uchiha Chi had only just begun practicing that technique and was still some distance away from mastering it; he was aiming to achieve it before he turned ten.
Seizing an opening in the trio's defense, Uchiha Chi went all out once again. Adopting a trade-blows strategy, he knocked another one down at the cost of a few more external injuries, then used his raw strength to overwhelm the final two head-on.
Naturally, the external injuries on Uchiha Chi's body multiplied as well, though he had done so somewhat intentionally. He felt that doing so would earn him the favor of the two girls; after all, girls in the Shinobi World matured quite early, and he was getting hurt on their account.
Uchiha Chi didn't care which of them ended up favoring him—just one was enough. He wasn't greedy.
Striding forward with the aura of a victor, he slowly approached Sarutobi Zhang, who was still locked in a desperate struggle with Mizutani Hayun and Tachibana Taki, fixing him with a gaze sharp as a knife to pile on the pressure.
Stopping close to Sarutobi Zhang, Uchiha Chi asked with absolute confidence, "Sarutobi Zhang, still want to fight?"
Daring not to make another move under the circumstances, Sarutobi Zhang hurriedly blurted out, "You win this time. I'll apologize to the two classmates, and we'll call it even. How about that?"
Although not entirely satisfied, Uchiha Chi had no intention of pursuing the matter further. He hadn't planned on beating Sarutobi Zhang up along with the others anyway; after all, once the beating was over, what would become of the six wounded casualties? Was he supposed to go report to the teacher himself?
Besides, if all seven of them were injured, they would end up sharing the same misery, which would only forge a revolutionary camaraderie. Why would Uchiha Chi ever give them such an opportunity? Naturally, he needed to sow a little internal discord among them.
He glanced at Mizutani Hayun and Tachibana Taki. Seeing that neither of them objected, he nodded toward Sarutobi Zhang and said, "I hope you keep your word."
Sarutobi Zhang hurriedly gave his word, even swearing to the heavens to make Uchiha Chi and the others believe him.
With a swagger, Uchiha Chi led Mizutani Hayun and Tachibana Taki away from the scene to a nearby clearing. Although the two girls were in a rather disheveled state, radiant joy brimmed across their faces, so intense that they had even forgotten their pain.
Uchiha Chi produced a jar of ointment and said, "It's a family secret medicine. You two should try it."
"Thank you so much, Taki-kun. You're so considerate—such a thoughtful person." After thanking Uchiha Chi, Mizutani Hayun and Tachibana Taki applied the ointment to themselves one after the other. Uchiha Chi did the same.
After a short while, feeling the cooling sensation of the ointment soothe their pain, the group stopped chatting.
After escorting the two girls home, Uchiha Chi handed the remaining ointment over to them as a gift—after all, fully recovering would require a few more applications, and he had plenty more at home—before heading back himself.
What he didn't know was that after the three of them left, just as Sarutobi Zhang was wondering how to deal with his injured cronies, a teacher walked over. It was none other than the dean of students.
The dean bluntly reprimanded them, "You students have too much energy and you're far too reckless! You can't turn a sparring match into a disaster like this. Look at you all sprawled out—absolute madness."
Clearly, his impression of Sarutobi Zhang was abysmal; after all, Sarutobi Zhang's conduct was hardly that of a qualified teammate. The dean even considered slapping a demerit on his permanent record, but remembering that Sarutobi Zhang belonged to the Hokage's clan, he decided to give him a pass this once.
Sarutobi Zhang opened his mouth to speak, but words failed him. He already understood the teacher's intent—evidently, this was how the incident would be officially framed. Clever as he was, he even guessed that the teacher had probably been watching from the very beginning.