Chapter 17: Huh?

Chapter 17: Huh?

"Brave choice."

Izayoi wasn't surprised by Sasuke Uchiha's decision. Still, he gave Sasuke a thumbs-up. This matchup worked in his favor too.

Taijutsu Duels couldn't unleash full strength. Even victory here would yield lower drop rates compared to Unrestricted Duels. Izayoi had confirmed this before. When Hinata Hyuga fought without her Gentle Fist technique—without channeling chakra into his body—Izayoi defeated her without triggering a single item drop. The power gap between them had been too vast.

While crushing victories could drop items, the probability was astronomically low. Izayoi hadn't seen a single drop in an entire year. But when Hinata used her Gentle Fist with full effort, he'd acquired two traits from her—Byakugan (Purple) and Chakra Control (Blue).

It wasn't that Izayoi looked down on Sasuke. He simply understood the canon storyline intimately. With his ridiculous head start—three years of cheating before Sasuke even started cheating four years later—Sasuke posed no real threat without his Fire Release techniques. Fire Release significantly increased drop rates. Unrestricted Duel was clearly the better choice.

"Let's begin!"

Izayoi stepped back, creating distance. He raised two fingers to his temple. Sasuke responded by forming the Ram Seal. Then both charged.

Closing in, Sasuke lunged with a punch. Izayoi twisted sideways, pivoting 180 degrees mid-motion to deliver a shockingly flexible spinning kick to Sasuke's face. Forced to block with his forearm, Sasuke skidded backward, already on the defensive.

Izayoi pressed forward, battering Sasuke's face and chest with rapid blows. The strikes lacked raw power but came too fast for Sasuke to react. The moment he blocked the first punch, the second slipped through his guard, sending his head snapping back.

Sasuke lost rhythm completely, reduced to a mobile punching bag. Even his attempts to grapple were exploited—arms wrenched, balance disrupted. Meanwhile, Izayoi's onslaught shifted from chaotic to rhythmic, like the Hyūga's Eight Trigrams Palm. No chakra penetration, but the relentless combo left Sasuke helpless.

When Izayoi finally finished with a 360-degree spinning kick, Sasuke flew backward, gasping for breath. The impact of that final strike hurt far worse than the entire combo.

But as Izayoi landed, Sasuke—trapped for days in endless genjutsu loops of his clan's massacre—suddenly saw Itachi Uchiha's shadow in his opponent. The memory echoed in his mind:

'You're too weak. Live on, ugly and pathetic... survive at any cost.'

Sasuke's face contorted.

"Itachi Uchiha—I'll kill you! Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

He aimed his hatred at Izayoi, exhaling a flame that swelled into a massive fireball.

"Perfect. Wind Release: Wind Slice Jutsu!"

Izayoi feigned delight. His breath became a transparent wind blade shaped like a scythe, cleaving through the fireball diagonally. The weakened wind blade slashed Sasuke's chest with a tearing sound.

Blood sprayed as Sasuke collapsed motionless.

Izayoi strolled over calmly. Sasuke and Naruto were practically immortal now. The Six Paths Sage would never let this generation's Indra and Asura reincarnations die easily—especially not before the Otsutsuki threat awakened.

Besides, if Sasuke died to a weakened C-rank Wind Slice, he wouldn't deserve to be the number two character.

Kneeling, Izayoi applied basic medical ninjutsu to Sasuke's torn clothes and shallow wound. Suddenly—

Pop.

A sound like a balloon bursting made him freeze. Dozens of invisible bubbles surrounded Sasuke. One had just burst, releasing a crimson beam straight at him.

"Huh?"

Izayoi stared wide-eyed as the red light expanded. Red? He'd only ever seen blue or purple traits before. Was red even a valid rank?

The system's chime confirmed his fortune:

"Ding! You've acquired Talent Trait【Sage's Eye (Red)】. Fuse or Dissolve?"

"...Fuse."

Izayoi's heart raced. He'd expected years of grinding against Sasuke like with Hinata. He'd even planned to stall his own growth to keep matching Sasuke's pace.

Yet here it was—his first Unrestricted Duel, and he'd struck gold.

For once, he understood what it felt like to be one of those cursed lucky bastards.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end