"First match, Sasuke Uchiha versus Xia Mu!" Iruka read from the record sheet.
Oh ho, am I going to fight Sasuke?
Xia Mu subconsciously looked at the cute and handsome Sasuke and found that Sasuke was also looking at him, and the kid had an arrogant look, clearly thinking he was sure to win.
The rain stopped, the sky cleared, and Sasuke felt he was capable again!
Good, since Sasuke is getting arrogant, this match will be easy to fight!
Naruto shouted at this moment: "Iruka-sensei, let me do it, let me do it! I want to challenge Sasuke-kun!"
A vein popped on Iruka's forehead: "Naruto, you're not done with causing trouble this morning!"
Naruto immediately shrank his neck and finally didn't dare to shout anymore.
However, he truly couldn't stand the sight of Sasuke being supported by girls and wished he could beat up Sasuke's cute, handsome face.
He didn't have a chance this time, but Xia Mu did!
So he raised a fist at Xia Mu: "Xia Mu, beat up that annoying Sasuke!"
However, Naruto forgot about Sasuke's fan club:
"Ah! Sasuke-kun is so handsome!"
"Sasuke-kun, ganbatte!"
"Naruto, shut up!
Sasuke-kun is the strongest!
No one can beat Sasuke-kun!
"That's right, that's right, what's-his-name Xia Mu will definitely be instantly killed by Sasuke-kun!"
Xia Mu felt his mouth twitch. He hadn't said anything, so why was the hatred Naruto provoked being thrown onto him? Wasn't this group of love-struck idiots going a bit too far?
At Iruka's signal, Xia Mu and Sasuke walked to the center and formed the Seal of Confrontation.
"Begin!"
As soon as Iruka finished speaking, Sasuke rushed forward, likely wanting to quickly end this not-so-difficult battle, but Sasuke clearly underestimated Xia Mu.
Although Xia Mu wanted to hide his strength, he wouldn't perform too poorly, nor did he want to take hits for nothing.
He used the basic hand-to-hand combat taught at the academy and exchanged a few blows with Sasuke, controlling his strength to be roughly similar to Sasuke's. For a moment, they went back and forth, evenly matched.
Seeing this, Naruto was delighted and immediately cheered loudly: "Go Xia Mu! Hit him! Hit him!"
However, the girls' cheers were clearly more enthusiastic. They started screaming, instantly drowning out Naruto's voice completely.
Sasuke was extremely annoyed but was also slightly surprised by Xia Mu's strength. Although there hadn't been many sparring matches arranged since the start of the school year a month ago, few could last more than a dozen rounds against him.
The students in the class were genuinely quite poor at taijutsu, so it was normal for him to defeat them easily.
This was the first time he had sparred with this guy named Xia Mu, and he hadn't expected him to have some skill. However, basic hand-to-hand combat was nothing; it would definitely lose against Uchiha taijutsu.
Thus, Sasuke decisively used the Uchiha style taijutsu he had learned from his good older brother, immediately gaining the upper hand.
Xia Mu dodged and blocked while observing the Uchiha style taijutsu, finding that it was indeed much more advanced than the ordinary hand-to-hand combat taught at the academy. Not only was it beautiful like a dance, but the technique for exerting force was also quite special.
If Uchiha Madara were to say, "Do you want to dance too?"
It would have that feel!
Seeing that he couldn't win, Xia Mu didn't think about increasing his strength but instead suddenly retreated a few steps and quickly formed hand seals.
"Clone Technique!" *Bang!*
However, everyone was stunned because they could see that Xia Mu's hand seals were correct; it was indeed the Clone Technique, and Xia Mu had also shouted "Clone Technique," but not a single clone appeared.
"Did he fail?" Even Iruka was confused.
In Iruka's impression, although Xia Mu wasn't outstanding in Ninjutsu, he could perform the Clone Technique.
Judging from the hand seals just now, there wasn't a single mistake; it shouldn't have failed.
Naruto also got anxious: "Xia Mu! What are you doing?! It's just the Clone Technique, how did you mess it up!"
His friends were also surprised. Even Shino, who knew Xia Mu was hiding his strength, was puzzled. Even if he was hiding his strength, he wouldn't pretend he couldn't even use the Clone Technique, right?
"Heh, it seems you're so nervous you can't even use the Clone Technique. Why don't you just surrender?" Sasuke became even more arrogant.
However, Xia Mu didn't listen. He charged forward directly, throwing a punch at Sasuke's cute handsome face. Seeing this, Sasuke extended his hand to block, but the next second his expression changed because the incoming punch went straight through his block.
An illusion? When?
Immediately after, a fist landed squarely on his stomach, sending him flying directly away.
He rolled twice on the ground before quickly regaining his footing, enduring the pain in his abdomen, and looked at Xia Mu with surprise and uncertainty, only to see Xia Mu displaying four hands at this moment.
Four hands? What's going on?
Was the punch just now an illusionary attack?
The classmates were also bewildered. The girls' cheers also came to an abrupt halt, each one of them in disbelief.
The mighty Sasuke was actually sent flying!
Naruto reacted and said happily: "Although I don't know what's going on, Xia Mu did a great job, believe it! Hahaha! Arrogant Sasuke, you also have a day when you get sent flying, believe it!"
Hearing this, the girls glared angrily but didn't know what to say. Many looked at Iruka for an explanation with confused expressions.
Iruka was a Chunin after all, and he immediately understood: "It's the Clone Technique! The Clone Technique just now didn't fail, it succeeded! It's just that it merged with the main body, so everyone couldn't see it!"
Clone Technique? So that's it?
I still don't quite understand!
"Xia Mu is very clever. Normally, the Clone Technique creates a few afterimages to distract the opponent from various directions, but they have no attack power and can be ignored once the opponent sees through them. But Xia Mu merged the clone afterimages with his main body. The main body and clones affect vision mutually, making it difficult for the opponent to distinguish. Once attacked, if they can't tell the difference between the main body's attack and a clone's attack, they will be very passive!"
After Iruka's explanation, the students immediately understood.
Each of them was very surprised, probably not having expected that the Clone Technique could be used like this, even causing Sasuke to suffer a disadvantage.
Shino nodded slightly. He had said that Xia Mu wouldn't hide his strength too much; he would show some skill. This special application of the Clone Technique was truly eye-opening.
However, in the eyes of those dark rats, it might not be worth mentioning, so there was no need to worry about being targeted.
Sasuke also reacted. The pain in his abdomen had also eased considerably. He said seriously, which was rare for him: "Xia Mu, right? I admit I underestimated you. This move of yours is indeed good. However, wanting to defeat me like this won't be that easy."
"Then I'll wait for you, Sasuke, to figure out this move."
Saying this, Xia Mu charged forward again. Clone fists and main body fists attacked one after another, forcing Sasuke to retreat continuously.
Although Sasuke was stubborn, it was indeed difficult for him to distinguish between the clone and main body attacks for a while. Sometimes, his defense happened to be against a clone attack, immediately revealing a weakness. Other times, he didn't defend, and it happened to be the main body's attack. In short, he took quite a few punches.
However, Sasuke was also clever.
He suddenly retreated a few steps and quickly formed several hand seals.
"Clone Technique!" *Bang!*
No clones appeared, but instead, Sasuke had two extra pairs of arms on his body. This guy had actually learned this move in such a short amount of time, and he even used two clones hidden within his main body.