Chapter 5: The Ten-Minute Trial
Twenty-four shuriken filled the air, a blizzard of whirling steel that left almost no room to breathe. My heart hammered against my ribs. Damn it!
"Sharingan!" I snarled, and the world snapped into hyper-clarity. The crimson lens of my eye tracked each shuriken's trajectory, calculating the tiny, shifting gaps between them. I twisted, dropped, and rolled, the wind of the blades whipping past my ears and tearing at my clothes. I emerged from the cloud unscathed, but my breath was coming in short gasps.
There was no way I could face Hiruzen head-on for ten minutes. My only chance was to run, to delay, to be as annoying and elusive as a gnat.
And so, the dance began. He advanced with calm, measured steps, and I retreated, using the trees as cover, throwing the occasional kunai to keep him honest. It was like trying to fend off a mountain with a pebble.
"Tenchi, if you keep hiding, we'll never see what you're made of," Hiruzen called out, his voice deceptively calm. Then, he was just there, having closed the distance in the blink of an eye. A fist, casual yet impossibly fast, shot towards my face.
I threw myself backward, my hands already flying through the seals the system had burned into my soul. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
The sphere of flame roared toward him. I saw a flicker of approval in his eyes even as his own hands moved. He was starting his seals after me, but they were a fluid, seamless blur, far faster than my own.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
A curtain of water erupted from the ground before him, meeting my fireball with a furious hiss. Steam billowed out in a thick, white cloud, blanketing the clearing. Perfect. I used the cover to leap into the trees, putting distance between us again. Seven minutes down. Just three more.
"Your ninjutsu is proficient," Hiruzen's voice came, not from the ground, but from right behind me. "But this ends now."
I didn't panic. A grim smile touched my lips. "Yeah," I said, not turning around. "I don't think so."
He was about to grab me when he stopped, his eyes darting to the glint of nearly invisible chakra-conductive wires now surrounding him. He followed them back to my fingers. Understanding dawned on his face.
"I see. You didn't run up here just to hide. The tree itself was the trap. You led me right into it."
"Now, let me show you something I've been working on," I said, my hands forming the last seal. "Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!"
I didn't breathe a dragon's head. Instead, I channeled a focused stream of fire along the steel wires. The flames raced down the lines, converging on the entangled Hiruzen in a web of incandescent heat.
I didn't celebrate. I watched the figure consumed by flames, my Sharingan scanning the surroundings. The burning Hiruzen sagged, melting into a pile of wet, brown mud.
An Earth Clone! Where is he?!
My chest was heaving. I was running on fumes. Two C-ranks and the chakra for the wires had drained me. One minute. Just one more minute!
The earth beneath my feet erupted. The real Hiruzen shot from the ground, his fist connecting with my chin with a sickening crack. My world exploded in white light. I was lifted off my feet, tasting copper as I crashed to the ground, spitting blood.
"It's over, Tenchi," Hiruzen said, standing over me. "You're out of fight. You should have focused on the bell, but you aimed for me. That arrogance doomed you."
Trembling, I pushed myself up. Every muscle screamed in protest. I wiped the blood from my mouth with the back of my hand.
"I never wanted the bell from the start," I rasped. "I just wanted you to know that even without your precious Academy, I, Uchiha Tenchi, am not inferior to any of its graduates. I will fight until I can't stand. If you want me to quit, you'll have to knock me out cold."
Thirty seconds.
"This… is my last shot." I forced my hands together, the seals feeling like they were made of lead. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A smaller, weaker fireball than my first two sputtered forth, but it flew with my last ounce of will.
Hiruzen didn't bother with a simple defense this time. His hands became a blur. "Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
A massive, roaring dragon of water took form, effortlessly swallowing my pitiful fireball and continuing its charge. I stared into its maw, my chakra utterly spent, and the world went black as I collapsed.
The water dragon, under Hiruzen's precise control, veered at the last second and crashed harmlessly into the trees beside me.
He walked over to my unconscious form, shaking his head with a wry, impressed smile. "You reckless, stubborn brat. You go all out, don't you?" He knelt, gently prying my mouth open and placing a soldier pill on my tongue.
I came to some time later, my body aching but a strange warmth from the pill already mending my bruises.
"Congratulations," Hiruzen said, holding out a Konoha forehead protector. "As of today, you are a shinobi of this village."
I took the cool metal band and tied it around my head. The weight of it felt significant, a symbol of both my new status and my new chains.
"Starting tomorrow, I will continue your training while we take on missions," he said.
"Yes, Sarutobi-sensei," I replied automatically.
"You don't have to call me 'sensei'. Captain is fine. I'm only a decade older than you, after all."
"Yes, Captain."
"Good. Now, go home and rest. We start our duties tomorrow." With a final nod, he vanished in a swirl of leaves.
I dragged my battered body home, each step a minor victory. After forcing down some food and a hot bath, I collapsed onto my bed, my mind finally clear enough to remember.
The mission.
I called up the system interface. The 100 points were nice, but the real prize was the Sharingan upgrade. I looked at my remaining points. Upgrading to the Three-Tomoe would cost 10,000. This free upgrade was a massive boon.
System, I thought carefully. Can I save this upgrade opportunity? Use it later, for the Mangekyo?
The screen flickered, its text cold and final.
[Host, this upgrade opportunity is only applicable to advancements within the Three-Tomoe stage. It cannot be used to unlock the Mangekyo Sharingan. Do not attempt to exploit the system.]
I sighed. Of course there were no easy shortcuts. "Then upgrade my Two-Tomoe," I commanded.
A familiar, though less intense, energy surged in my mind, flowing into my optic nerves. The process was quicker this time, a sharp, hot pressure that subsided into a cool clarity. I walked to the small mirror on my wall.
My eyes were now a deeper, more vibrant crimson. Where before there had been one black comma, now there were two, spinning slowly around my pupil in a hypnotic dance.
This is the real Sharingan, I thought, a thrill running through me. With one tomoe, I saw the world clearly. With two, I felt I could begin to understand it—to deconstruct movement, to see the flow of chakra, to copy the very arts of my enemies.
It was a terrifying, intoxicating power. In a world built on bloodlines, I had just been handed one of the most coveted. The path ahead was still fraught with danger, but for the first time, I felt like I had a real weapon in my hands.