Uchiha Shao Yu looked at the yearning and inquiry that almost overflowed from Young Ai's eyes, and he understood in his heart.
He knew that he would have to pass this hurdle sooner or later.
This first contact with the son of the Raikage was both an opportunity to understand the top level of Kumogakure's younger generation and a chance to further establish his status in Kumogakure.
After a moment's deliberation, he nodded.
"I wouldn't call it guidance, but exchanging and verifying with each other is beneficial for cultivation. How would Master Ai like to experience it?"
Seeing Shao Yu agree so readily, an unmasked smile of excitement immediately appeared on Young Ai's face; that dark face actually had a sunny smile full of fighting spirit.
"Great! Then please be careful, Elder!"
Young Ai took a few steps back, pulling away to a distance suitable for exerting force. Lightning Release Chakra began to flow faintly around his body, making subtle crackling sounds, and his eyes became incredibly focused.
As his words fell, his burly body did not immediately turn into a lightning strike. Instead, he exerted force with his feet, the ground shook slightly, and he charged toward Shao Yu like a cannonball.
His speed was extremely fast, but he did not use his maximum speed. He was clearly controlling his strength, with the premise being an exchange rather than a decisive battle.
A punch was thrown, the wind howling, aimed straight at Shao Yu's chest. The force was fierce and the trajectory clear, yet he left room for maneuver.
"Am I being underestimated?"
Facing this swift punch, Uchiha Shao Yu moved his feet slightly, his body shifting like a willow catkin in the wind, letting the fist pass by a hair's breadth.
At the same time, he raised his right hand seemingly at random, fingers slightly spread, meeting Young Ai's wrist which he hadn't had time to pull back, appearing as if he wanted to grab it.
The movement was elegant, making the heavy seem light.
After awakening the Mangekyo, Shao Yu felt that his body, which had been stuck at the level of an Elite Jonin, was also gradually becoming stronger. Although he couldn't reach Kage-level by physical body alone, it was enough to deal with the Young Ai before him.
Young Ai's eyes narrowed, and he praised him in his heart.
"What fast reactions and footwork!"
He immediately changed his move, his arm muscles bulging. Lightning Release Chakra erupted slightly, shaking off Shao Yu's seemingly light capture. His other hand had already turned into a hand-blade, cutting across toward Shao Yu's ribs with a sharp whistling wind.
On the flat ground next to the waterfall, the two of them engaged in a fast-paced close-quarters exchange using Taijutsu and basic Chakra application, yet it remained within the scope of sparring.
Fist shadows interlaced, leg winds howled, and the sounds of collision were incessant... In the open space by the waterfall, water vapor filled the air. The exchange between Young Ai and Uchiha Shao Yu had already lasted for dozens of rounds.
Young Ai became more and more alarmed as the fight went on, and fine beads of sweat even seeped from his forehead.
He had already pushed his strength and speed in his normal state to the limit. His punches and kicks were like a storm, coordinated with the initial mastery of Lightning Release Chakra amplification that he couldn't yet perfectly cover his whole body with. Every strike was enough to shatter stone; an ordinary Elite Jonin would likely have been unable to withstand it long ago.
However, the Uchiha Shao Yu opposite him remained like a reef in a torrent, incredibly steady.
Shao Yu didn't even use the legendary and mysterious Mangekyo Sharingan, only facing the battle with a pair of ordinary Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
Relying on the Sharingan's excellent dynamic vision and predictive abilities, combined with his own exquisite Taijutsu, footwork, and subtle control of Chakra, he could always avoid Young Ai's most violent attacks at the critical moment or neutralize the force with clever techniques.
His occasional counterattacks were even more like a 'mountain goat hanging by its horns'—untraceable, yet precisely pointing at the tiny flaws in Young Ai's offensive transitions, forcing him to defend or change his move.
The two moved quickly and collided in the field, their figures interlacing and making dull thumping sounds.
Young Ai's attacks were like angry waves hitting the shore, with amazing momentum, while Shao Yu's response was like a breeze brushing against a willow, seemingly gentle, yet always able to divert and eliminate the power of the angry waves.
"Bang!"
In another clash of fist and palm, Young Ai felt as if his strength had hit slippery cotton and was led into empty space, while the opponent's palm slid along his arm, his fingertips lightly pointing toward the numbing nerve at his elbow.
Young Ai hastily lowered his elbow to parry, but his feet stalled slightly due to overexertion.
In that moment of stalling, Shao Yu's figure closed in like a ghost. A seemingly light palm-blade had already stopped at the side of Young Ai's neck; the cold sensation made Young Ai's hair stand on end instantly.
The palm-blade didn't actually cut down, but was retracted immediately after a light touch.
Shao Yu floated back a few steps, his aura steady, without even any obvious shortness of breath, as if the intense exchange just now was only a warm-up.
In contrast, although Young Ai also quickly adjusted his posture, his breathing was much heavier, his chest heaving slightly, and his eyes were full of frustration and unwillingness.
And... an even stronger curiosity and thirst.
He had lost! Lost without any suspense!
The opponent hadn't even used his true trump cards, only relying on the Three-Tomoe Sharingan and basic Taijutsu footwork to push him to such a state; this gap was even larger than imagined.
"Ha... ha..."
Young Ai took a few breaths and stared fixedly at Shao Yu, that pure yearning for power in his eyes almost catching fire.
"Incredible... as expected of Elder Shao Yu! To have such strength with only the Three-Tomoe Sharingan."
He wiped the water from his face forcefully, his tone carrying an irrepressible urgency and plea.
"But... I'm not satisfied. I want to see, I want to see with my own eyes, what kind of power the legendary Mangekyo Sharingan—the one that could fight the Old Man for half a day—actually possesses. Please... let me see it, even if it's just one strike!"
His gaze was burning and sincere; it was a martial artist's pure yearning for a higher realm of power, rather than an indignant provocation.
He admitted his defeat but longed to see the opponent's true form.
Uchiha Shao Yu looked at the unfeigned desire in Young Ai's eyes and was silent for a moment.
He appreciated the other's straightforwardness and pursuit of power.
Moreover, appropriately displaying a part of his power would also be beneficial for stabilizing his position in Kumogakure, especially for winning over these arrogant young geniuses.
"Fine."
Shao Yu finally nodded slowly, his voice calm.
"Just this one strike. Be careful."
As soon as he finished speaking, the Three Tomoe pattern in his left eye instantly disappeared, replaced by a strange band of light that began to flow slowly within that deep crimson base, as if containing the laws of the movement of the stars in the universe.
Mangekyo Sharingan, open!
An indescribable, strange aura—a mixture of majesty, depth, and a hint of spatial distortion—spread out with Shao Yu as the center. The sound of the surrounding waterfall seemed to still because of it.
Young Ai's hair stood on end! An unprecedented sense of crisis was like ice water poured over his head. He knew that the next strike would far exceed any previous Taijutsu exchange.
"Hah——!!!"
Under the life-and-death crisis, Young Ai erupted with all his potential. He roared, and the already active Lightning Release Chakra in his body surged madly toward his whole body with unprecedented speed and intensity.
The blue electric arcs were no longer just crackling and flickering, but burst out from every one of his pores like living things, quickly interlacing and spreading, attempting to form a stable, integrated offensive and defensive Chakra mantle on the surface of his body.
"Lightning Release... Armor!!!"
He shouted with all his might, the veins on his forehead bulging, his body's muscles tensing, and his skin turning faintly red due to the excessive load.
At this critical moment, driven by extreme pressure and his own strong will, that originally unstable and difficult-to-form violent Lightning Release Chakra actually condensed suddenly, truly forming an initial prototype on the surface of his body.
A blue Lightning Release Chakra Armor!
The crackling blue electric arcs moved around his body like countless small snakes, emitting a powerful aura of defense and a sense of speed amplification.
It worked?!
Under extreme pressure, he actually made a breakthrough on the spot and initially mastered the 'Lightning Release Armor'.
However, before Young Ai could experience the joy of this breakthrough, Uchiha Shao Yu's attack had already been launched.
Shao Yu didn't perform any hand seals; he just calmly raised his right hand, and the flow of the light band in his left Mangekyo suddenly accelerated.
"Since you have the Lightning Release Armor, I'll strike a bit harder."
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."
Following his flat words, a point of deep blue light suddenly lit up in front of his palm.
That light expanded and rotated rapidly, turning into a fist-sized blue sphere with what looked like a blue nebula vortex swirling inside, emitting a powerful gravitational pull and a sense of spatial distortion.
The blue 'Blue', under Shao Yu's execution at this moment, presented a deep and cold blue, as if condensing a piece of the sky before a storm—beautiful and deadly.
"Go."
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