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Chapter 24 - Chapter 24: Sparring Again?

Yorin decided that after training he'd go "farm coins" off Clan Head Fugaku—i.e., press him to open the clan archive so he could train on more jutsu.

Right now his chakra natures were Fire, Wind, Earth, Yin, and Yang.

Short term, he figured he should stack more high-power Fire Style and be a textbook Uchiha—laying the groundwork for casually tossing out Amaterasu someday.

Later, if the system threw a quest, he'd grab some Lightning nature too.

Cloud's taijutsu-lightning style is sweet—perfect for a real manly man like Yorin.

Before this, he didn't have Lightning, so he could only drool over Kumo's secret Lightning taijutsu and console himself:

"I'm not jealous at all. That stuff's mid compared to our Konoha Eight Gates.

I'll max my physical stats and debut as Blue Beast's partner. They've got the A–B combo with Double Lariat; we can have a Beauty–Beast duo, pop 'Twin Eight Gates,' and kick an Ōtsutsuki clear to the moon."

That really was Yorin's plan back then; through Kakashi he'd gotten in with Might Guy.

Guy is easy to win over—talk friendship, youth, hot-blooded spirit and he'll tear up and bare his soul. Forget the Eight Gates—he'd entrust you with his life.

But that was then. Now he's unhinged.

If he can sweet-talk Tsunade, there's nothing he won't try.

Thinking it over, the Blue Beast fits the Copy Ninja better anyway.

Kakashi already lost Nohara Rin—no way he should lose Might Guy too.

Yorin would "take one for the team" and learn the Raikage's body-techniques instead—aim to become Konoha's first "ace."

With that in mind, he fired a variant of Manipulating Shuriken—Manipulating Kunai—and rushed Shisui, driving him steadily backward.

To be fair, Shisui's kenjutsu and taijutsu are excellent—the title "Shisui of the Body Flicker" was carved with a blade.

But overall, his close-quarters still lagged a touch behind Yorin's.

Add in Yorin's Manipulating Kunai—like sprouting three extra tentacles—and Shisui's disadvantage widened; for a while he could only parry with no chance to strike back.

He'd lost to Yorin before, but still couldn't help protesting: "C'mon, Yorin-nii, we agreed—no ninjutsu."

"That was then; this is now," Yorin said. "If you don't like it, use ninjutsu too."

"Fine—you said it!" Shisui answered, starting hand seals to at least lob a couple Great Fireballs.

Thirty seconds later, the match ended. Shisui never found a single opening to cast.

Yorin smothered him too tightly—one hand on the sword to block, the other frantically flicking shuriken and kunai to relieve pressure. There was no chance to weave seals.

And the rare moment a seal window opened, Manipulating Kunai would interrupt it. If he didn't want to carry his fingers to the med-nin, he had to break off.

Uchiha Yorin: "Told you—once a taijutsu fighter gets in your face, the fight's basically over~"

Shisui took it well. He didn't whine or deny it—just shook his head with a wry smile:

"This technique… is way too cheesy. It's only D-rank."

"The strong one isn't the jutsu—it's the ninja, Shisui."

"Sure, sure… want to go again?"

Yorin glanced at the system pane:

[Permanent Quest: Train Hard]

The progress bars on each track were ticking up nicely. Clearly, sparring with someone like Shisui beats solo grinding.

Little bro still wasn't quite convinced. No problem—run it back.

"The training field's a bit cramped," Shisui added.

"Then let's hit the forest."

It's the ninja world—natural energy's everywhere. Forests are like scallions in a field; you can't chop them all down. No need to fret about climate change or erosion from collateral damage.

A few minutes later, in the woods outside Konoha.

Yorin and Shisui took their stances.

"How about it?"

"OK." Yorin nodded. "Let's go all out—good, honest fight?"

"Of course. Make it a pure live-combat scenario?"

"That puts me at a disadvantage."

"Please, Yorin-nii—let me win once~"

Half joking, Shisui pressed his hands together.

"No helping it—you're my adorable little brother."

"…"

"Gross? You started it."

In the next heartbeat they broke contact, bounded away, and vanished into the trees—

If it's "live combat," then finding the enemy and cracking ambushes and traps is part of it.

So while tracking each other, they also had to watch for explosive-tag traps.

Question:

What has the highest K/D ratio in the ninja world?

Answer: explosive tags.

Explosive tags, explosive tags, and more explosive tags.

Countless young ninja met their first battlefield—and got blown to bits by some sneaky trap before they even saw the enemy.

Peasant or prince—under tags, all are equal. Right, little brother Nawaki?

In a mock battle they wouldn't use real tags, so they set simpler snares:

Twine, vine, and branches braided together, with a paper slip reading "Explosive Tag" tossed in. Voilà, a mock trap.

With ninja hand speed, they could turn the whole forest into a shinobi-Vietnam in no time.

Before it got that far, each had to find the other.

Whoever found the target first got the alpha strike.

With Shisui's level of genjutsu, that first strike could mean life or death.

So Yorin had to find Shisui first.

Not easy—Shisui's eye power outclassed his.

With Mangekyō open, Shisui's recon, search, and telephoto vision outstrip Yorin's.

So… is it over?

No chance for Yorin?

Not so.

Run Yang Release chakra! Today I'll recombine Asura and Indra's powers—pseudo Six Paths Sage mode, pseudo Rinnegan—open!

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