Chapter 417: Awakening the Eyes

Chapter 417: Chapter 417: Awakening the Eyes

Hearing Naruto’s shout cut through the waves of noise across the entire plaza, Sasuke, still kneeling on the ground, clenched his fists tightly.

"Damn it! You think I don’t want to fight back? This guy’s just way too fast!"

This was the first time Sasuke had ever felt this kind of despair against someone his own age.

His opponent was simply too fast—so fast that Sasuke could barely put up any resistance at all.

Sasuke considered his taijutsu to be pretty good. Even when sparring with his older brother Itachi, he could trade blows with him for a while. But against Kimimaro’s lightning-fast taijutsu assault, Sasuke couldn’t put any of his own taijutsu skills to use.

Kimimaro silently regarded Sasuke for a moment before turning and walking back toward the group from Otogakure.

He did indeed harbor jealousy and resentment toward the Uchiha clan, but he had no intention of humiliating Sasuke, who was even younger than him.

After discovering that Sasuke was far weaker than he had expected—so weak that he wasn’t even as strong as Haku, the weakest among the Sound Four—Kimimaro had already lost all interest in continuing the fight.

"Stop right there!"

Gritting his teeth, Sasuke forced himself back to his feet.

More than any verbal humiliation or provocation, what Sasuke couldn’t stand was Kimimaro’s complete disregard for him.

He couldn’t tolerate that utterly unruffled expression on Kimimaro’s face either.

Kimimaro glanced back at Sasuke.

"You’ve already lost."

"No!" Sasuke suddenly thrust out a hand and shouted, "I haven’t lost yet!"

Kimimaro turned around, a trace of impatience appearing on his face.

Seeing Kimimaro’s somewhat impatient expression and hearing the villagers whispering around him, Sasuke felt his face burning.

That burning sensation wasn’t merely the swollen pain left behind by Kimimaro’s blows.

More than anything, it came from the overwhelming humiliation he had never experienced before!

The thought that his pathetic display had been witnessed by all the villagers—and even by foreign shinobi from Sunagakure, Kusagakure, and Takigakure—causing the proud Uchiha clan to lose face, made Sasuke tremble all over with humiliation and rage!

In truth, ordinary Konoha villagers might laugh at Sasuke, but the shinobi wouldn’t, whether they were from Konoha or the other villages.

On the contrary, the stronger the shinobi, the less inclined they were to mock Sasuke.

Everyone had witnessed Kimimaro’s strength for themselves. Many of the older shinobi present privately admitted that if they had been in Sasuke’s place, they might not have been Kimimaro’s match either.

But the young and hot-blooded Sasuke naturally couldn’t understand that.

At this moment, he was completely engulfed by boundless humiliation and fury. In his eyes, there was only the white-haired, utterly indifferent Kimimaro.

Amid that intense shame and anger, Sasuke entered an indescribable state.

Suddenly, he felt his vision become much clearer, as though a window had opened within his mind.

At the same time, he could feel the amount of chakra within his body increase significantly.

"Hm?"

Kimimaro’s gaze sharpened, his attention locking onto the pair of blood-red eyes in Sasuke’s sockets.

The spectators around the field also began murmuring in surprise.

Even Fugaku, who had maintained a stern expression throughout and rarely showed any emotion, couldn’t help but react. He murmured under his breath,

"The Sharingan!"

Within the Uchiha clan, every single person who managed to awaken the Sharingan before the age of ten—so long as they didn’t die young—would almost invariably go on to become a figure renowned throughout the shinobi world.

And yet Sasuke had awakened the Sharingan at just seven years old. This greatly exceeded Fugaku’s expectations.

After all, even his eldest son Itachi, whom he was most proud of, had only awakened the Sharingan at around seven and a half, nearly eight years old.

Among the group from Otogakure, a gleam of greed flashed through Orochimaru’s eyes.

He stared at Sasuke like a predator eyeing its prey and grinned.

"Another Uchiha genius, huh..."

At that moment, following Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Itachi, and Uchiha En, another name was added to Orochimaru’s list of prey—

Uchiha Sasuke.

On the Hyuga clan’s side, Hiashi looked at the conspicuous single-tomoe Sharingan in Sasuke’s eyes, then thought of his own mediocre daughter, Hinata, and felt a wave of bitterness.

Although the Hyuga and Uchiha clans were collectively known within the village as the two great dōjutsu Kekkei Genkai clans, Hiashi privately understood very well that whether in reputation or status, the Hyuga clan was clearly inferior to the Uchiha clan.

Part of the reason was that the Hyuga Main House had grown accustomed to keeping a low profile and yielding whenever conflicts arose.

But the more important reason was that the Hyuga clan simply did not produce geniuses one after another like the Uchiha clan did.

Nor did they possess a powerhouse like Uchiha Shisui, someone capable of intimidating the entire shinobi world.

Thinking of this, Hiashi turned toward Neji beside him.

Looking at Neji’s young yet serious face, he thought to himself,

"Perhaps the future of the Hyuga clan will have to depend on Neji."

Far away, perched on the edge of a rooftop, Hyuga Kagami was also taken aback.

"No way. That was enough to awaken his Sharingan? Tsk, tsk... An Indra reincarnation really is something else!"

At that moment, Sasuke also noticed the change in his eyes and exclaimed in delight,

"I awakened them! I have the Sharingan too!"

Kimimaro asked, "So that’s the Sharingan?"

With the awakening of his Sharingan, Sasuke’s confidence immediately returned. His fighting spirit surging, he declared,

"That’s right! This is the dōjutsu Kekkei Genkai that made the Uchiha clan feared throughout the shinobi world! Before these Sharingan of mine, none of your movements can escape my sight! I’ll repay the humiliation you gave me just now tenfold!"

Kimimaro beckoned toward Sasuke and said calmly,

"Then come."

"I can see through everything you do!"

Although he still wasn’t entirely accustomed to using the Sharingan, Sasuke was brimming with confidence.

Determined to wipe away his earlier humiliation, he charged straight at Kimimaro, the single tomoe within each of his Sharingan slowly beginning to spin.

Through his enhanced vision, Sasuke could faintly make out the flow of chakra within Kimimaro’s body.

It wasn’t particularly clear, but it was already enough for him to make judgments based on what he saw.

At that moment, he recalled something Itachi had once told him during training:

"The flow of an enemy’s chakra is the precursor to their next movement..."

Suddenly, Sasuke noticed Kimimaro’s chakra gathering toward his legs.

But before he could even think of a way to respond—

Kimimaro vanished from his field of vision.

Sasuke’s eyes widened in shock.

"How is that possible?!"

Thud!

With a muffled impact, Kimimaro swept Sasuke to the ground with a roundhouse kick.

The blow even knocked out one of his teeth.

Refusing to accept it, Sasuke scrambled back to his feet and shouted,

"Why?! How can you possibly escape the insight of my Sharingan?!"

Bam!

Kimimaro answered him with a straight punch.

His fist slammed directly into Sasuke’s chest. Although Kimimaro had only used forty to fifty percent of his strength, the blow still sent Sasuke flying.

"Ugh—aaah..."

The excruciating pain radiating from his chest made Sasuke curl up like a shrimp.

For a brief moment, his mind went completely blank, and saliva involuntarily spilled from his mouth, dripping onto the ground.

Looking at Sasuke writhing in pain on the ground, Kimimaro appeared somewhat surprised.

As though asking a question, yet at the same time talking to himself, he said,

"Is that all the Sharingan amounts to?"