"You've got guts."
Kenjiro wasn't surprised by Sasuke Uchiha's decision.
Still, he gave Sasuke a thumbs-up.
For Kenjiro, this choice was actually beneficial.
A pure taijutsu match wouldn't allow him to unleash his full strength, and even if he won, the drop rate for talents would be much lower compared to an unrestricted fight.
He had already tested this.
When Hinata didn't use her Gentle Fist to inject chakra into his body, defeating her yielded nothing.
The gap between their strengths was just too wide.
Although overwhelming victories could sometimes result in talent drops, Kenjiro hadn't encountered such luck in the past year.
But when Hinata fought with full force using her Gentle Fist, he managed to extract two talents from her—a purple one and a blue one.
Those talents were Byakugan (Purple) and Chakra Control (Blue).
It wasn't that Kenjiro looked down on Sasuke; rather, he knew the storyline inside out and had an overwhelming talent advantage. By age three, he was already far ahead, taking shortcuts that even another prodigy like Sasuke couldn't match.
A cheat character outpacing another cheat character by three or four years.
If Sasuke hadn't already mastered Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu, he wouldn't have posed any threat to Kenjiro at all.
And that jutsu increased Sasuke's drop rate.
An unrestricted duel was the best choice.
"Then let's begin!"
Kenjiro took a few steps back, putting some distance between them before raising two fingers in front of him.
Seeing this, Sasuke formed the opposing seal.
Then, they charged at each other.
Sasuke threw a punch as soon as they got close.
Kenjiro sidestepped, twisting his body 180 degrees and kicking towards Sasuke's face with impressive flexibility.
Sasuke couldn't dodge in time and had to raise his arm to block, stumbling backward from the impact.
By the time he steadied himself, he was already at a serious disadvantage.
Kenjiro rushed in, launching a flurry of punches at Sasuke's face and chest.
The strikes weren't overwhelmingly strong, but they were so fast that Sasuke struggled to react.
He barely blocked the first punch when the second one slipped through his guard and landed square on his face.
After taking the first hit, Sasuke completely lost his rhythm, turning into nothing more than a moving punching bag.
His raised arms were used against him—Kenjiro manipulated his limbs, pulling and disrupting his balance.
Meanwhile, Kenjiro's attacks, initially unstructured, gradually found a steady rhythm.
Like the Gentle Fist of the Hyuga clan, his strikes weren't infused with chakra, so they weren't terribly damaging, but during the continuous assault, Sasuke had no way to fight back.
Who knew how many hits he took? Eventually, Kenjiro stopped his attacks, spun 360 degrees, and delivered a powerful kick to Sasuke's chest, sending him flying.
This kick hurt even more than the previous barrage, leaving Sasuke gasping for breath.
Looking at Kenjiro, Sasuke, who had been trapped in an illusion space for days, forced to relive the Uchiha massacre, suddenly saw Itachi's figure in him.
His brother's dismissive words echoed in his mind.
"You're too weak right now. Just keep living in disgrace, scraping by however you can..."
Sasuke's expression twisted with rage.
"I will kill you! Fire Style... Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Mistaking Kenjiro for Itachi, Sasuke quickly formed hand seals and exhaled a small flame that expanded into a massive fireball, hurtling toward him.
"Perfect timing—Wind Style: Wind Cutter Jutsu!"
Instead of panicking, Kenjiro was thrilled. He went through the hand seals in a theatrical manner before exhaling what seemed like a gentle breath.
That breath instantly transformed—becoming a scythe-like, transparent white wind blade, slashing straight into the incoming fireball.
A moment later, the massive fireball was sliced in half diagonally. The weakened wind blade continued forward, striking Sasuke head-on.
Rip—
The sound of fabric tearing filled the air as blood splattered from Sasuke's body.
Sasuke collapsed to the ground, motionless.
Kenjiro remained calm, walking toward him at an unhurried pace.
At this stage, anyone might die—except Sasuke and Naruto Uzumaki.
The Gedo Statue had been summoned from the moon, meaning the Sage of Six Paths must have already noticed.
He would know that a second pair of Sage Eyes had awakened.
To prevent Indra and Asura's reincarnations from dying before they matured—especially before their mother could be revived—the Sage of Six Paths would never allow Sasuke or Naruto to die so easily.
And honestly, if Sasuke could die from a weakened C-rank Wind Cutter Jutsu, he wouldn't deserve to be the deuteragonist.
Standing next to Sasuke, Kenjiro confirmed that he was still breathing.
The wind blade had only cut his clothes and left a shallow wound—no bones were visible.
Crouching down, Kenjiro used a basic healing jutsu to treat him.
Pop!
Just then, a clear, balloon-popping sound reached his ears.
He thought he was hearing things at first, but his expression quickly became focused.
Bubbles—visible only to him—floated around Sasuke's body.
Kenjiro saw one of them just as it popped, releasing a red light that shot toward him.
"Huh?"
Watching the red glow rapidly expand in his vision, Kenjiro was utterly dumbfounded.
'Red… Red?!'
'How many red talents did Sasuke even have?'
'Was red the highest tier, or was it purple?'
Ding!
Before he could fully process it, a notification rang in his mind, confirming he wasn't seeing things.
He had hit the jackpot!
[You have obtained the talent: Sage Eyes (Red)]
[Fuse or Disassemble?]
"...Fuse!"
Kenjiro immediately responded in his mind, unable to suppress the grin forming on his face.
Still, wary of potential onlookers, he forced himself to hold back, leading to an awkward twitch in the corner of his mouth.
At that moment, words couldn't describe his emotions.
From his experience with Hinata, he had assumed that extracting Sasuke's red-tier talent would take a long time.
He had already prepared himself for years of sparring with Sasuke whenever he had the chance.
If he still hadn't gotten a red talent by the end of the Academy, he planned to slow his own growth to match Sasuke and Hinata's pace.
But unexpectedly, in their very first unrestricted match, he had already obtained Sasuke's Sage Eyes (Red).
The absurdly low probability had actually happened.
At that moment, Kenjiro finally understood the joy of being absurdly lucky.
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