Jun opened his eyes just before dawn.
The fire was long dead, reduced to gray ash and the faintest thread of smoke curling toward the ceiling of the cave. The faint chill of morning clung to his skin, but he felt refreshed.
The scent of cooked fish still lingered faintly in the air, mingled with damp earth and moss. Kentaro took the last lookout shift, so he is at the entrance, drowsy but vigilant.
He sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes and looked at the chakra points.
[ Chakra Points : 28/28 ]
He'd asked the System the night before how Chakra Points regenerated, half expecting some vague nonsense. But it was a straightforward answer.
[ Chakra regenerates passively while resting, or manually through chakra channeling. ]
Next to him, something shifted.
"Morning, Jun~" came a too-cheerful voice.
Aya was curled right beside him, far too close for comfort, her one eye half-lidded like she'd been awake long enough to choose this level of proximity.
She yawned dramatically. "Are we going eye hunting today?"
"Aya...That's your first thought this morning?" Jun asked the mean girl. He was half joking yesterday, but this lunatic of a chick is really asking for him to help her gouge out some eyes.
With a pout, she corrected him again with a cutesy voice. "It's Riko, and you said that there were plenty in the forest!"
Kentaro, who was on lookout, couldn't help but take a deep breath as he gave them a side eye. He began wondering if he made the right life choices. Being a ninja is a scary occupation, especially with mentally ill teammates.
"Sure why not," Jun said as he got up and did a quick moral inventory.
Yes, he had absolutely stolen Aya's body heat last night. And no, he did not feel bad about it. It was too cold for him so he copped a feel here and there for some heat.
"Alright," Jun stretched his body a bit and asked, "Are you guys ready? I had some very prospective targets yesterday after scouting."
The fight with the Sound team wouldn't begin until after daybreak, which gave them time to observe from the shadows. That was why Jun had gotten up so early—there was still a show to catch.
Kentaro hesitated, then muttered, "I just want to pass the exam without anyone harvesting organs, thanks."
"Shut it, Kentaro!" Aya nudged Kentaro and excitedly got ready also. She was indeed closer with Kentaro before, but now… she feels like he doesn't have her best interest in mind.
On the other hand, Jun was rather skilled and seemed to want to take care of her with all his might. Along with his looks that seemed to become better in her eyes by the second, she wanted to give some pushback onto Kentaro.
Kentaro rolled his eyes but he also got ready. He swore that after the Chunin Exams, he's going to officially disband with Riko regardless if he passes or not.
The forest clearing where Team 7 clashed with Orochimaru's sound team looked like it had been hit by a natural disaster. The ground was torn, gouged in places, trees splintered and shredded like they'd lost an argument with a hurricane. Smoke hung low and stubborn in the air, mixing with the metallic tang of blood soaked deep into the roots—where Dosu's team had tried, and failed, to make their stand.
Hidden in the nearby bush, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji crouched silently. They retreated after Sasuke rose with black flame-like curse marks crawling across his skin like living ink. His chakra—wild and wrong—made the air hum with pressure.
Neji and Tenten watched from higher up in the trees. Tension gripped them both as they observed the scene unfold.
Sasuke's eyes flicked toward Sakura—her swollen face, her shorn hair. Something in him cracked.
Then he moved.
He blitzed Zaku without a word. One punch crushed his nose flat, the follow-up strike dislocated his arm. By the time Zaku hit the dirt, he had fallen unconscious. The sound of bones snapping echoed like gunfire in the still clearing.
Sasuke stood in the middle of it all, steam rising off him in waves. His shirt was torn, revealing the curse mark's jagged tendrils still snaking along his skin. He didn't look angry nor emotional.
Just… detached.
Dosu shivered as he looked at the markings on Sasuke. He had seen such marks before on the Sound Four of his village, and each one of them were Orochimaru's chosen freaks.
He wasn't about to fight one of them again and risk his own life.
Just as he was thinking this, Sasuke took a step towards him, which nearly scared him half to death. However, Sakura dashed in, desperate to stop Sasuke before he did something irreversible.
"Sasuke! Stop…!" she cried, voice cracking, "Please…"
He stood there, fingers twitching, eyes locked on Dosu. But something inside him pulled back—just enough. And once the cursed mark fully receded, he fell down in Sakura's arms, feeling weak.
Dosu's hands slowly raised when he saw the opportunity to do so.
"You are too strong," he croaked. "We can't hope to defeat you. We… will strike a deal. You get the scroll and you'll just—just let us go."
Without waiting any longer after setting down an Earth scroll, Dosu quickly picked up both Kin and Zaku. He still needed both of them after all.
Neji and Shikamaru's team watched this unfold and didn't act. They didn't feel the need to do anything since the battle is practically over now.
Dosu's hands were full as he walked away from Sasuke and the other leaf genins.
Sakura was just about to shout out to ask for information about 'Orochimaru', the person they had battled yesterday.
But before Sakura could even do so…
A kunai whistled through the air.
It shot past Dosu's shoulder, just inches from his neck—and in the next instant, it vanished mid-flight, replaced by the blur of a motion.
The blur twisted.
And Jun materialized in midair—spinning lazily, a smirk already tugging at his lips as he spun in midair.
Dosu froze, completely taken aback by the sudden flying kunai and instant swap with a person. "Wha—"
The other genins were also shocked beyond belief. The execution of the technique was too fast for any of them to follow.
Even with the substitution jutsu, no normal ninja should be able to substitute with a kunai that fast. No one other than the legendary Yellow Flash, that is!
A kunai was already in Jun's grip—and with one smooth, brutal motion, he drove it clean into the side of Dosu's neck.
The Sound ninja gurgled.
Then collapsed.
Zaku and Kin, already unconscious, slipped from Dosu's grasp and hit the ground like discarded luggage.
[ Genin Killed: +2 CP ]
[ Chakra Points: 28 / 30 ]
"What the hell…" Shikamaru uttered in disbelief. The others were so shocked that they couldn't even utter any words.
Jun landed lightly on the forest floor, arm already outstretched as he caught the kunai mid-air—the very same one he had just used for his substitution.
The swap had worked, but he had already accounted for the kunai's momentum. Even after switching places with it, the damn thing kept flying—straight at him. Luckily, he had already activated the Sharingan beforehand to help him predict the movements of the kunai. Otherwise, his very own kunai would've stabbed him, and it would be extremely embarrassing.
But how was this done you wonder?
Jun already had this idea the very moment the system activated.
Back when he first received his system, buried in the initial wall of text, was a line most would overlook. But Jun remembered it. Word for word.
[ You may also perfectly use anything you copy, and all techniques can be instantly casted. ]
He hadn't learned Flying Raijin. Of course not. That was sealed, complex, and linked to minuscule seals and markers. Probably costs a lot of Chakra Points too.
Substitution, however…
That was simple, and he had already learned it.
But when paired with his System's Instant Cast… it didn't just become fast—it became unfair.
There were drawbacks, sure. He couldn't teleport beyond the substitution range. He couldn't escape physics—whatever he threw, the momentum still applied. If a kunai was still flying when he swapped, he had to deal with the kinetic aftermath unless he swapped with something that's not moving.
But still.
He had turned a basic E-rank escape jutsu into a god-tier movement technique.
And no one else had a clue what he did.
Jun adjusted his stance, then looked up—and his Sharingan met Sasuke's gaze across the battlefield.
"You're too weak, little brother," he said flatly.
Sasuke's body tensed. His fingers curled into fists.
That voice…
That line.
Jun took a slow step forward, keeping his smile. His voice softened into something cold and affectionate—eerily reminiscent of someone else.
"If you can't even bring yourself to kill your opponent…" Jun tilted his head slightly. "Then I, your big brother, will do it for you."
It then hit Sasuke like lightning.
The words and the cadence.
Itachi's voice had haunted his dreams for years—but now, this self proclaimed half brother of his, was making his nightmare even worse?
Sasuke stared back at him, face pale. Thunder clapped behind his eyes.
Jun didn't blink.
He just grinned wider.