Chapter 85: On How Much God Itachi Really Held Back (Patreon)

Huff— huff—!

Sasuke dragged in one huge breath after another.

He'd been unloading on A-Bao for over ten minutes now, and he'd put everything he had behind almost every single punch.

But the panda in front of him was a wall of sighs. No matter how he attacked, nothing worked.

The attacks failing to land was one thing. The real problem was the panda's giggling, which shredded his composure — and the fact that even now, it hadn't once attacked him back. That part left Sasuke deeply uneasy.

The whole tableau felt eerily familiar, and watching Sasuke pound away to no effect dredged a line up out of Genshin's memory — Nanomachines, son.

Sasuke sprang backward to open the distance, hands already weaving Hand Seals in midair.

He was still a kid, after all — about two seals a second.

If Taijutsu won't work…

He finished the last seal just as his feet touched down. His chest swelled — and then a fireball two meters across erupted out of him!

Then take this — Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!

The giant fireball tore toward A-Bao, its heat searing a blackened trail across the ground.

"Aaah—!"

A few of the more timid girls covered their faces, unwilling to watch the panda get roasted.

And A-Bao?

Its two chubby little legs were churning frantically against the dirt — legs pumping at full tilt, body going absolutely nowhere. Pure Disney-cartoon slapstick.

Only when the Great Fireball was practically on top of it did A-Bao finally get two steps out, suck in a deep breath, pull its belly in, and slip past the fireball by a hair.

It didn't get to exhale. Across the field, Sasuke had already finished the seals for a second Great Fireball, and another huge sphere of flame came roaring in.

So what'll you do about number two? Genshin watched with genuine interest. Even he couldn't guess how a comic-relief character like A-Bao would handle this one.

Out on the field, A-Bao was clawing at its ears and cheeks in a panic. Then it spread both paws — and just as Genshin braced for some hidden trump card, it simply clapped them over its eyes.

Oh, come on, Nicolas Tom, since when are you this at peace with life and death!?

There was a crisp crack, and A-Bao's position vanished entirely into the Great Fireball.

Hm? A crack? Since when does a Great Fireball landing sound like that? Genshin caught the wrongness at once.

Fine hairline fissures spidered across the fireball at the center of the field.

Crack!

The whole thing came apart like shattered glass, breaking into pieces that scattered and faded away into the air.

That's—

Genshin's eyes went wide.

As the fireball crumbled, A-Bao's shape emerged from behind it: eyes shut, locked in a horse stance with one paw extended in a finished punch, a faint orb of glowing Chakra still wrapped around the fist.

It opened its eyes slowly, presence rolling off it in waves. Credit where it's due — the pose was genuinely cool.

Then a stray tongue of flame from the broken fireball drifted down and settled on A-Bao's fluffy fist. It held the cool pose anyway, right up until, two seconds later, the smell of singed fur rose into the air. Only then did it react, shrieking and tearing around the field in search of water.

Genshin was about to put it out with a Water Release when A-Bao jammed the burning paw straight into its own mouth. A thin curl of smoke leaked from the corners of its lips. Fire out.

The kids all around were doubled over laughing at A-Bao's performance art. Genshin covered his face with one hand. Right. A comic-relief character can't stay cool for more than three seconds.

Sasuke's mouth twitched as he stared at the clown panda. You've got to be kidding. I can't even beat something like this? No. Absolutely not!

His Chakra was running low. At this point, all that was left was one last gamble.

With his final tactic settled, Sasuke sank low, both hands planted on the ground in a sprinter's start.

Then his whole body jolted forward and he was gone from where he'd stood.

"Hyah—!"

Sasuke launched into the air and drove down at A-Bao with a flying kick, all his speed and every ounce of gravity behind it!

A-Bao met the ferocious kick by sticking its rump out and thrusting its belly up. It caught the kick on its stomach and, in the same motion, used the borrowed force to fling Sasuke skyward.

"Ho—"

Sasuke never got the second word out. He was already airborne.

That height should be fine… probably. Genshin shaded his eyes with his left hand and squinted up at him.

Sasuke flailed, fighting to right himself in midair. Winning was off the table — but at least, at least he wasn't going to lose ugly, aaaargh!

As Sasuke started to drop, A-Bao helpfully backed up two steps to give him room.

At the last second Sasuke got his body straightened out and landed in a full superhero pose, both feet stamping into the dirt. Then he didn't move at all.

The pose was flashy enough to set off a chorus of shrieks from the girls in Sasuke's class fan club.

Karin tugged at the hem of Genshin's shirt and asked, curious, "Genshin-niichan, why isn't Uchiha Sasuke moving? Has he got some kind of follow-up move?"

"Nope. His legs went numb and he can't move," Genshin said in a low voice, blowing Sasuke's cover without a shred of mercy.

"Oh. Numb legs."

"Right. Think about it — you fall from that high up and still land stomping like that? You'd go numb too."

"Ohh… boys really are dumb." Karin pursed her lips.

Still… fine. Sasuke had worked hard enough that Genshin decided to stop letting him embarrass himself.

He hauled the still-numb-legged Sasuke upright, had him and A-Bao exchange the seal of reconciliation, and called the match finished.

Sasuke stalked off the field unwilling to accept it — but after all that fruitless output, he'd seen the truth clearly enough. The gap between his strength and that panda's was simply too wide.

Most of the other kids couldn't tell; they assumed Sasuke hadn't lost and could still have fought on. But Sasuke knew better — in that match, A-Bao had been exactly like his brother Itachi. Just humoring him the whole way.

Tch. This is… humiliating.

It was still a long way to the noon bell, so Genshin paired the kids off for sparring. It was a practical-combat class; they could hit each other as hard as they liked.

If anything got broken, Genshin could patch it right back up anyway.

The pairings did require some thought, though — clan shinobi against clan shinobi, civilian shinobi against civilian shinobi. High hidden ratings naturally matched against strong opponents. The least he could do was spare these kids from discovering the ELO system this early in life.

With the field lively and loud, Genshin and A-Bao settled into the shade of a nearby tree, crossed their legs, and enjoyed the show.

Sasuke had already had his match, so Genshin hadn't assigned him a partner. Bored out of his mind, he stalked over to Genshin's side with a face like a thundercloud.

"How do I get as strong as you," Sasuke asked sullenly.

Oh, that's easy. Go find the Sage of Six Paths, get the old man to hand you a cheat code. One meeting with him and you'd be stronger than me.

Naturally, Genshin didn't actually say that. Steering kids in the right direction was part of a teacher's job, after all.

"Constant practice. Hard, disciplined training." (Plus a little bit of a cheat code.) "Your Ninjutsu is actually coming along pretty well, Sasuke," Genshin said, "but your Taijutsu still hasn't improved much by comparison… It's because you got the Sharingan and eased off on that side of your training without noticing, isn't it."

Ngh!

Sasuke had no comeback. Ever since he'd awakened the Sharingan and could read other people's movements so easily, he really had stopped taking Taijutsu seriously.

"Let me give you an example you'll actually listen to, Sasuke." Genshin stretched as he spoke. "When Uchiha Itachi and I crossed hands three years ago, he already had the Sharingan. And in the three years since, he hasn't slacked off on his Taijutsu training for a single day."

Uchiha Taijutsu really was formidable. In the databook, Itachi's rating was a 9, the same as Jiraiya's, and in the original story the Edo Tensei Itachi's Taijutsu could go fifty-fifty with Naruto in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode — at one point in that fight he'd pinned down both the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B and Naruto and beaten on the pair of them two-on-one.

Then there was Sasuke: the moment he unlocked the Mangekyo his head floated off into the clouds, he confidently went to capture the Eight-Tails, and got skewered by Killer B for his trouble. One fight, and he came out of it two lives in debt.

Which left Genshin with one of the great unsolved questions of the age — exactly how much had Itachi been holding back when he fought Sasuke?

Sasuke listened and nodded, half understanding.

Anyway, if this guy said his brother Itachi took Taijutsu seriously, then training it hard himself couldn't possibly be wrong!

"Um… Genshin nii-san."

Someone tugged at the hem of Genshin's shirt. He turned to find Hinata standing there, looking a little lost.

He'd nearly forgotten — he genuinely hadn't assigned Hinata a sparring partner, because the girl simply wasn't in the same league as anyone else in the class. Ordinary sparring would be meaningless for her.

As for Hinata's training, Genshin planned to step into the ring himself.