"Impossible...!"
Flat on the ground, Sasuke stared in disbelief. He had actually lost—to him.
"You lost," Nagi said calmly.
A kunai was already pressed to Sasuke's neck.
"The winner: Nagi!" Iruka announced.
Before he even finished speaking, the girls in the crowd erupted into cheers.
"He won?!"
"Oh my god, that was insane! I didn't think Nagi was this strong!"
"Was that the Water Style: Wild Water Wave? It looked even more polished than my dad's—and he's a jōnin!"
"Uchiha Sasuke, the top student of this class, lost to Nagi?!"
"Nagi is soooo cool! I wanna—"
Naruto was completely dumbfounded. This wasn't how the story was supposed to go!
Up in the stands—
Neji and Tenten couldn't believe it either. Nagi had defeated Sasuke?
"What happened back there? Didn't the Sharingan see through his clones?" Tenten asked, confused. That shouldn't have been possible.
"Wait, Lee—how did you know Nagi would win?" she added, suddenly remembering Lee had said so earlier.
Lee shared what he had seen the day before.
"You're saying… Nagi beat Sasuke that cleanly while wearing terrifyingly heavy weights?"
Neji's eyes lit up.
"Interesting. Very interesting."
He had assumed only Sasuke might be worthy of challenging him this year—but Nagi might also be capable of pushing him.
Reactions around the arena varied, but the most stunned of all was still Sasuke.
He sat up stiffly, mind spiraling into chaos.
He hadn't seen through the clone jutsu? And what was with that insane chakra?! Ref, this guy's cheating!
When those dozen clones all came at him using Water Style, Sasuke had genuinely thought he might be reunited with his parents in the afterlife.
That sense of danger—those clones were no ordinary illusions.
"That jutsu just now—it wasn't regular Clone Jutsu!" Sasuke said stubbornly as he got to his feet.
And he wasn't just guessing. He'd seen his cousin use Body Flicker Technique before—he knew the difference.
Nagi's clones were something else entirely.
"Oh?"
Nagi was mildly surprised Sasuke noticed. As expected of the Sharingan.
"You're right. It wasn't a basic technique. It was Shadow Clone Jutsu—a B-rank ninjutsu."
"WHAT?!"
Sasuke's eyes went wide.
"I've been training for years, and even I can only use Fireball Jutsu a few times before I'm out of chakra!"
This loss hit Sasuke hard.
He couldn't even comprehend what kind of monster he'd just fought.
"Everyone's chakra capacity is different."
Nagi responded calmly.
With Wood Release running through his body, having an absurd amount of chakra was perfectly normal.
He turned and glanced toward where Kakashi and the others were hiding.
"Interesting… so they're watching us?"
But Nagi didn't care much. Shadow Clone Jutsu was something his parents had left behind for him.
Using it was totally legit.
As for his outrageous chakra levels? Same answer: everyone's built differently. So what if he just happened to have… a billion times more than them?
But that one little glance of his made Kakashi fall into deep thought.
"Did… did he just notice us?" Kurenai asked, stunned.
"And what hand seals was he even forming?" she added. Even she couldn't make out Nagi's movements during the fight.
"B-rank ninjutsu. Shadow Clone Jutsu," Kakashi muttered.
He'd seen it clearly. The hand signs Nagi made were half-hearted—probably just for show.
"B-rank? At his age?" Asuma sucked in a sharp breath. "He already pulled that off?"
"Then that Water Style move earlier… was real too?"
Even Asuma had to admit now—Nagi was someone to take seriously.
"When did Konoha produce a genius like this?!"
This was the kind of thing he needed to report to his old man.
Young, handsome, absurdly talented—and a civilian to top it all off!
The last time Asuma saw someone with that kind of "main character aura" was the Fourth Hokage himself!
"No…"
Kakashi's gut feeling came rushing back.
That massive chakra eruption he'd sensed on the mountain the other day—it had to be Nagi.
It wasn't just "connected." He was almost certain Nagi was the one who caused it.
Kakashi was shaken by the possibility.
"What's wrong, Kakashi?"
Asuma noticed his daze and asked.
"It's nothing."
Kakashi quickly shook it off. Maybe he was just overthinking.
A kid like Nagi couldn't possibly have unleashed that scale of chakra... right?
Still, both Kakashi and Asuma silently agreed—this needed to be reported to the Third Hokage immediately.
"I'll stay behind to watch the rest of the matches," Kurenai said, as if something had just occurred to her.
It was clear Nagi had piqued her interest.
Back on the field, Sasuke had come to terms with his loss.
"Next time… I won't lose to you again."
"You won this time."
Sasuke wasn't a sore loser—but he wasn't taking it lying down, either.
You might beat him—but you'd never convince him.
"I hope you surprise me a little next time," Nagi said casually.
He didn't hold anything against Sasuke.
The guy's tsundere attitude was just who he was. Nagi didn't take it personally.
Not that Sasuke was likely to ever surpass him.
Even if the Sage of Six Paths personally came to buff him, Sasuke probably still wouldn't have a shot.
After all, this was only Nagi's second day with the system.
And just the two tags he'd gotten so far—[One-Click Max Level] and [God-Tier Comprehension]—were already enough to make him invincible.
[End of Chapter]