For the first time, a premonition of death enveloped Sasuke's heart!
Not even back on the night of the massacre, when facing Uchiha Itachi, had Sasuke felt such a premonition of death!
After all, deep down in his heart, he could sense that Itachi would not kill him!
But the attack right now was different!
Swords and blades are merciless. If he failed to block this, he would genuinely die!
Watching the cyan-black kunai drawing closer and closer, Sasuke's eyes widened, his pupils contracted, and the single black tomoe spun at high speed, clustering toward the center!
Faintly, it seemed as though a second tomoe was about to emerge!
Fortunately, in this critical moment, with a burst of violent chakra that threatened to tear his meridians apart, Sasuke abruptly jerked backward, throwing himself into a flawless iron-plate bridge posture!
Akali's cyan-black kunai brushed right past Sasuke's cheek, drawing a string of scarlet blood droplets!
At that moment, Sasuke's previous question was finally answered!
This wasn't a ninja tool; it was a ninjutsu!
Only the shape of this ninjutsu had been transformed to look like a kunai!
Because the instant Akali's kunai brushed past his cheek, Sasuke's Sharingan was able to see very clearly that a pale white chakra ring was expanding outward with him at the center!
Given Sasuke's knowledge, he knew this was some kind of chakra imprint!
Thus, ignoring the lingering pain in his waist from the forcible burst of chakra just a moment ago, Sasuke violently twisted his torso and flipped upright to stand straight!
Sure enough, by this time Akali had already drawn her Kama and passed through the ring!
In an instant, Akali's speed surged explosively!
The dozen or so meters between them vanished in the blink of an eye!
Connected to the end of the Kama by a chain made of chakra, she whirled the weapon like a helicopter.
Sasuke didn't even have time to be surprised before he was swept into a close-combat storm as fierce as a gale and driving rain by Akali!
Under Naruto's astonished gaze from the side, Sasuke—who had originally ranked first in the Ninja Academy and had been invincible—could now only fight and retreat simultaneously, barely managing to sustain himself by relying on the dynamic vision of his Sharingan and his exceptional bodily coordination, reduced to having almost no power to fight back!
Meanwhile, Akali, who back at school could only manage a third-place ranking because her theoretical scores lost to Sakura, grew more and more casual the longer they fought!
The sharp Kama slashed blue bricks to pieces and punched through walls, yet deliberately avoided aiming at Sasuke's body!
Even so, the rubble shattered by her strikes and the smoke and dust flying through the combat sent Sasuke sliding inexorably toward an abyss!
That posture was just like an adult beating up a child!
Yet, looking at the "child" Sasuke, Naruto still couldn't call him weak!
Because if he substituted himself into this level of offensive pressure, Naruto wouldn't even have been able to block the first move!
Many of Akali's attacks were completely invisible to Naruto!
The gap was laid bare right in front of him like that!
[Ding! Emotion value from Naruto +999!]
Watching the fight unfolding before him, even someone as optimistic as Naruto wore a bitter smile. "Are these the kinds of strengths Akali and Sasuke possess?"
"Is this what a genius is?"
"To think I actually believed that as long as I worked hard, I could catch up to them!"
"Good thing I agreed to Akali!"
Naruto felt immensely grateful that he hadn't refused at the time.
Otherwise, Naruto couldn't even bear to imagine how he was supposed to catch up to these geniuses.
Regarding what Akali wanted him to do, a sense of positivity naturally grew within Naruto's heart.
At that moment, just as Naruto underwent a partial internal transformation, the pressure Akali was exerting on Sasuke reached its limit!
Amidst yet another swing of the Kama, Sasuke failed to dodge in time, and was sent flying by the blunt back of Akali's blade!
"Bang!" The figure clad in a dark blue top and white shorts was flung high into the air, spinning out of control.
After a full three 360-degree rotations, Sasuke finally crashed heavily onto the ground, producing a dull thud!
That dark blue top and white shorts—which were always impeccably clean back at the Ninja Academy—were now torn to shreds here and there, covered in stains, and smeared with grass clippings and fresh blood.
If one didn't look at his face, it would be hard to believe that the battered and disheveled youth before their eyes was none other than the idol of the Ninja Academy, the Uchiha clan's genius shinobi!
At the same time, whether Akali had dealt too heavy a blow and knocked him out cold, or whether Sasuke's state of mind had suffered a total collapse after a fleeting moment of clarity and he couldn't pull himself together, after crashing into a face-down prone position, Sasuke remained motionless for a long time!
Fortunately, just as Naruto was about to step forward in worry to check on him, Sasuke finally let out a painful groan and laboriously flipped himself over.
Staring up at the boundless azure sky, three questions echoed in Sasuke's mind.
Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?
After frowning in deep thought for quite a while, Sasuke, completely dazed by Akali's beating, finally remembered.
Oh, my name is Uchiha Sasuke, an orphan whose entire family was wiped out, and an avenger.
This morning I went out preparing to train in ninjutsu, only to discover halfway there that outsiders were taking photos in the Uchiha Clan Compound without my permission.
One of them was the second-best student in practical combat at my Ninja Academy; although no match for me, I always had a feeling that person was hiding their strength.
As it happened, my ninjutsu training had hit a bottleneck, and I had just awakened the Sharingan, so I needed an opponent to test my strength.
So, I made my move!
As a result, I lost... and lost miserably, completely steamrolled!
[Ding! Emotion value from Sasuke +9999!]
Sasuke closed his eyes in agony.
He couldn't fathom it. He was an Uchiha who had awakened the Sharingan, so why had he been defeated so thoroughly?
And Akali's strength—why on earth could it be strong to this degree?!
It was one thing for Akali to have hidden her strength at school, but why couldn't even he, someone with the awakened eye, defeat the other party?
Weren't they supposed to say that once an Uchiha awakened the Sharingan, their strength would undergo a qualitative leap?
At the same time, a soul-searching question pierced into Sasuke's heart!
If he couldn't even surpass a civilian genius like Akali, how could he ever talk about finding that man to exact his revenge?
"......"
harboring all sorts of doubts, Sasuke fell silent.
Fierce emotions churned within his chest!
Finally, under the astonished gazes of Akali and Naruto, Sasuke let out a low roar and wobblily staggered to his feet.
"I haven't lost, and I cannot lose!"
Forcibly ignoring the stinging pain all over his body, opening his blood-red eyes, Sasuke resembled a gambler whose eyes had turned red from heavy losses:
"I still have my ultimate move. Akali, you merely took advantage of a momentary opportunity! I was just careless and underestimated the enemy!"
"Do you dare take one more move from me?"
"Hah!" Looking at the stubborn Sasuke, Akali smiled. "No problem. Whatever other tricks you have, feel free to use them!"
"Good!" Sasuke nodded.
Then, Sasuke brought his hands together, his five fingers crossing to form a shaky Boar hand seal!
Next, he raised the index and middle fingers of both hands while curling the other three, pressing his right hand just beneath his left—this was the Dog hand seal!
Finally, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger!
The incantations for Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique were complete!