____________
[— Manga Scene —]
'He slipped through my guard… Was that ninjutsu, or genjutsu?'
Sasuke wondered after being struck in the first clash.
'Heh… Fine… This gives me a chance to practice it.'
Sakura noticed the change that had come over Sasuke's eyes. ('No way!! That is… Sharingan!!')
A confident smile appeared on Sasuke's face as he activated the Sharingan with his own two-tomoe version.
'When did he…? Plus both eyes…' Sakura was stunned.
'So that's the sharingan…' Rock Lee's expression remained serious as he watched his opponent, who had now grown serious as well.
'Haha… Sasuke-kun is incredible. This is the same kekei genkai as Kakashi-sensei… then he can read thickbrow's moves!' Sakura was excited.
Sasuke launched forward, focusing his Sharingan on Rock Lee with full force.
'Ninjutsu or Genjutsu… it must be some magic… I'll reveal it…!!' Sasuke was confident in his ability to expose his opponent's techniques.
('Sasuke-kun is getting stronger and stronger… the Uchiha Clan is great!! Yeah, Sasuke-kun can't lose to this guy.')
Sakura was elated, but in the very next moment, her eyes widened in shock, for the outcome was utterly unexpected.
Sasuke was kicked hard in the chin, blood spraying upward.
[— End Scene —]
The moment Rock Lee's foot connected with Sasuke's chin, the expressions of the Uchiha clan members gathered in a particular corner of the art store shifted all at once.
They had been eagerly watching to see how Sasuke would defeat this ridiculous thickbrow's boy, then they all fell silent, and as the battle progressed, their silence grew heavier and heavier.
Especially when they began hearing the mockery and laughter of members from other clans who were reading the same chapter.
Dozens of eyes, some plain black, others carved with the marks of the Sharingan, were fixed on the pages of the first chapter of the fifth volume.
On the droplets of blood flying upward and on Sasuke's face, twisted by the force of the blow.
"I-Impossible…" whispered a young Uchiha boy, an Academy student of twelve, his fingers trembling on the edges of the volume.
"The Sharingan… it was active… so how was he still able to hit Sasuke…?"
Beside him, his younger sister, also an Academy student, was equally stunned, her wide eyes moving between the page and her brother's shocked face.
"Brother… didn't you say the Sharingan can see everything? Didn't you say it's unbeatable?"
The boy did not answer. He remained silent. What was being shown in the manga had taken on the weight of fact for many of those affected by its events and revealed truths, and so he could not answer, being young and inexperienced, for any answer he gave might be wrong.
In the back row, a group of Uchiha women was exchanging bewildered glances. A woman in her thirties could not comprehend what had happened.
"Riko-san… did you see that? Why couldn't Sasuke predict the movement even with the Sharingan active?"
"I saw it… But… but this is just taijutsu, isn't it? Just ordinary punches and kicks… the Sharingan should be able to…"
"It wasn't ordinary." A deep voice cut them off from behind.
It was the first woman's husband, a Uchiha in his forties, a seasoned Jonin, staring at the manga with a very grave expression.
"Look at that boy's foot in the last panel. The angle and the timing… he wasn't moving normally. He was moving at a speed that exceeded Sasuke's ability to track."
"But how can anything bypass the Sharingan?"
That was the question circling in all their minds.
…
Following the intense battle, young Obito was stunned by how the fight was unfolding. Sasuke was losing the entire time.
He said in his childish voice, "Why does Sasuke keep getting hit?"
Uchiha Minoru, Obito's father, a stern-featured man in his late thirties, did not respond immediately. His eyes were fixed on those spraying droplets of blood, his jaw clenched tight. "Obito, this… this is a lesson."
"A lesson?" Obito looked at his father without understanding.
"A lesson in arrogance."
Minoru continued, his voice dropping lower. "Sasuke relied on the Sharingan alone. He believed the eyes would solve everything. But eyes… eyes mean nothing if the body is slow."
Minoru paused, his fingers tightening on the cover of the volume.
"Even if you see the attack coming… if you cannot dodge it, you are dead."
Obito swallowed hard, his gaze returning to the page. To Sasuke's injured face as he struggled to cope with the pressure, where at one point, Rock Lee had ended up behind him, even as he was still flying from the blow.
'Even the Sharingan… isn't enough…?'
…
Two rows away from them, Fugaku sat beside Mikoto, whose attitude toward him had softened recently, as if she were gradually preparing to accept his feelings.
Mikoto, the young woman of quiet beauty and long black hair, had her hand covering her slightly open mouth.
Her eyes shimmered with tension as she watched Sasuke take hit after passive hit.
"There's no need to worry. Taijutsu is limited in its horizons. This boy is strong now as a genin; he can defeat Sasuke and Naruto, but afterward, that will become impossible for him." Fugaku spoke with a cold expression.
He did not like the thick-browed character who wanted to show off in front of a girl. In his eyes, he was nothing more than a small obstacle for Sasuke to overcome, unworthy of all this fuss.
Directly behind them, an elderly man sat in imposing silence.
Uchiha Hogaku, Fugaku's father, and the current head of the Uchiha clan, in his late fifties.
His black hair was threaded with grey, with a face carved by the wrinkles of authority and experience.
He wore the clan's traditional robes and sat perfectly upright, as though he were a statue, as he had grown accustomed to doing over the past few months.
Hugaku paid no attention to the clan's chatter or the others' mockery. His eyes, etched with the three-tomoe Sharingan, were fixed on the page with intense concentration.
The aura emanating from him… was enough to make everyone around him feel the weight of it.
"Hugaku-sama…" His personal aide whispered with extreme caution.
"Do… do you think Sasuke will wi—"
"Silence." One word was enough. His aide fell silent at once, swallowing with difficulty.
Hugaku continued staring at the page, at Sasuke's face, then at Rock Lee's confident smile.
"Interesting… this child reminds me of that eternal Genin… he must be the heir to his unique taijutsu arts."
Hugaku smiled. He had been glad to see Sasuke taking these hits, because this was precisely what he needed at this stage, he needed to be taught.
His battle with Haku had not been sufficient, since Haku had not truly wished to kill him in the first place. Having his pride crushed here was most welcome as far as Hugaku was concerned, "so that he doesn't go on thinking he is the center of the world."
Hugaku smiled as he continued turning the pages toward the scenes that followed.
…
"Ohoh~ How astonishing."
The Third Hokage's brow rose in surprise as he watched this remarkable battle, where hard work had triumphed over genius, just like that, simply.
Hiruzen glanced toward Maito Dai, who was sitting a few rows away, stroking his beard.
"Remarkable, it seems Dai's philosophy lives on and will endure into the manga's generation through Rock Lee… and it seems his son Gai will be quite something as well…"
"Taijutsu, huh?"
"The path of those abandoned by the chakra…"
Danzo walked in calmly and took his seat; those last words had been his. Hiruzen had assumed he would not come.
After arriving at the art store, Danzo purchased a volume as usual and went to the spot where Hiruzen, Homura, and Koharu were sitting.
"So you've come out then… I didn't expect to see you recovering this quickly, Danzo."
By "recovering," Hiruzen meant Danzo's inability to respond to everything that had happened over the past month.
And what had happened was truly frightening to Hiruzen.
The ability to bypass the ban and bring people directly into the store.
The crushing of Kumo and the establishment of an art store there.
And most terrifying of all, winning over people's hearts by allowing those who had lost parts of their bodies to live as ordinary human beings within the art store.
These blows had caused Hiruzen to surrender completely, leaving behind any thoughts regarding Rob or the art store. 'So how had these same blows affected Danzo?' Hiruzen wondered.
That was what Hiruzen was curious about.
____________
Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
____________
Chapter 121: Amegakure's Art Store!
Chapter 122: The Appearance of Maito Gai!
Chapter 123: The Nine Rookie Generation… and the Clash of the Clans!
Chapter 124: Kabuto.
____________
Support the journey and unlock advanced chapters!
If you're enjoying Rob's story, his journey of publishing the Naruto manga inside the Shinobi world, and the impact it has on the world, and you want to know what happens before everyone else… there's always a way to stay ahead.
I work every day on this novel, developing its world and chapters, and every bit of support helps me keep delivering more content with higher quality and faster releases.
By supporting me on Patreon, you'll get exclusive access to advanced chapters before they're released to the public. You can move ahead in the story and read up to 30 chapters in advance!
📚 Support Tiers:
$5 → Read 5 advanced chapters
$10 → Read 10 advanced chapters
$15 → Read 15 advanced chapters
$20 → Read 20 advanced chapters
$30 → Read 30 advanced chapters
Every bit of support, even a small one, makes a real difference and helps me continue writing this journey that we're experiencing together.
Join now and start reading the stacked chapters before everyone else:
Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/BlackStar_BH
You can also get the same benefits on Ko-fi:
https://www.ko-fi.com/blackstar_bh
Thank you to everyone who supports the story and believes in this world. You are the reason it continues. ❤️
____________