After a brief silence,
Hyūga Kamon finally lowered his head and said quietly, "…Yes. I lost…"
"And what else?"
Mikami Yuu pressed him without letting up.
Wh-what else?
Kamon was a bit stunned. Was admitting defeat not enough—did he really have to apologize to the "Three Basic Jutsu," those lowest E-rank techniques?
That was humiliating.
But Mikami Yuu's expression was clearly serious.
And besides, he had said those words before stepping onto the ring. If he broke his word in front of everyone, it wouldn't just be him losing face—the Hyūga clan's reputation could be affected too. If someone with ulterior motives latched onto it, he'd be in deep trouble.
So after hesitating for a moment, Hyūga Kamon could only speak again, unwillingly:
"S-sorry… I shouldn't have looked down on the Three Basic Jutsu."
"That's more like it."
Mikami Yuu nodded.
At that moment,
a string of notifications flashed rapidly across his vision:
[Transformation Technique: As expected of Mikami-chan—what a brilliant sequence! My eyes are spinning just watching it. That Hyūga kid is probably going to sulk for a while after this.]
[Clone Technique: Mika-Yuu, you… ugh, fine, fine. I admit I underestimated you before. Since you fought so hard for us sisters, I'll treat you a little better from now on. But listen—after this, you'd better stay away from that red-haired one!]
[Great Fireball Jutsu: ?]
[Substitution Technique: Mikami-kun… you're really so gentle…]
[Ding! Special event "Defend the Dignity of the Three Basic Jutsu" complete!]
[Transformation Technique Affection +10! Current affection: 70/100 (Intimate)]
[Clone Technique Affection +10! Current affection: 37/100 (Friendly)]
(Stage reward obtained: Constitution +1; Trait: Visual Sharing — Your Clone Technique gains limited vision. When you concentrate, you can link your vision with one clone and share its viewpoint.)
[Substitution Technique Affection +10! Current affection: 47/100 (Friendly)]
[Great Fireball Jutsu Affection +4! Current affection: 28/100 (Friendly)]
(Stage reward obtained: Constitution +1; Trait: Spirit of Fire — Your affinity with Fire-nature chakra increases slightly. The power of Fire Style ninjutsu increases by 30% from its current baseline.)
[…]
"Holy—"
When Mikami Yuu saw the two newly unlocked traits, his eyelid twitched.
Visual sharing?!
Power amplification?!
Isn't that basically the ability of Pain's Six Paths and Uchiha Madara?!
No wonder those two techniques were so hard to raise affection for—so their traits were this insane?
After a brief shock, Mikami Yuu came back to his senses: Great Fireball's trait was pretty much what he'd expected, but Clone Technique was different.
Pain's shared vision worked because each of the Six Paths bodies had at least elite jōnin-level combat power. But Clone Technique was, at its core, just an illusion—no physical body, and it couldn't carry out complex commands. So this trait was really only useful as a stationary "ward" to extend vision.
Still…
If he could apply this trait to Multiple Shadow Clone…
Then it really would be almost like the Six Paths.
Of course, the thought only flickered through Mikami Yuu's mind.
After all, the jutsu that had helped him win this time were the basic Three Basic Jutsu. It'd be pretty shameless to immediately turn around and ditch them… And Multiple Shadow Clone was a forbidden technique from the Scroll of Seals—it wasn't something you could just learn casually. Most regular ninja could at best learn the standard Shadow Clone, splitting their chakra into two or three parts, and that was already impressive.
So until he had a chance to learn Shadow Clone, he'd focus on maxing out these basic techniques first.
Three Basic Jutsu—show me your limits!
Besides the two traits, this upgrade also gave him +2 Constitution.
Right then,
Mikami Yuu felt a warm current surge from within, then flow through his limbs and bones like spring rain soaking the earth. The fatigue from fighting Hyūga Kamon eased noticeably.
He turned and hopped off the ring.
Rin came up first, lifting a hand to steady him. Her smile was bright.
"Congratulations, Yuu-kun. I didn't expect you to be this strong already. I was worried you'd lose to him just now… But of course you're still so smart, Yuu-kun. Before, you just hadn't brought out your potential."
"It was luck."
Mikami Yuu glanced at Rin's hand, then flicked his eyes toward Obito a few steps away, who was staring at him hard. His heart gave a subtle thunk: Oh crap. Seeing Rin help me like that—Obito isn't about to rage-unlock a two-tomoe Sharingan on the spot, is he…?
Fortunately, at this point in time, Obito was still relatively stable. He looked unhappy, sure, but aside from a sour expression, he didn't do anything else.
On the other side,
after watching the match and hearing Hyūga Kamon admit defeat, the surrounding Academy students basically exploded.
"No way… Hyūga Kamon… actually lost? Byakugan lost to the Three Basic Jutsu?"
"I just realized—Mikami-kun is so handsome! He's that good-looking and his ninjutsu is that good too. He's basically like Kakashi—a perfect husband candidate!"
"Hehe, if I could marry either one of them, I'd be willing to never become a jōnin for the rest of my life!"
"Croak! Being able to see a fight like that—getting held back would be worth it!"
Of course, not everyone supported Mikami Yuu. A few people raised objections:
"Wait, Hyūga only fell off the ring. He still had fighting power. Doesn't that mean he didn't really lose?"
"That's not how it works. That strike Mikami Yuu landed to the kidney—if that had been a knife, he'd already be dead."
"…"
Amid the chatter,
Might Guy—wearing his green jumpsuit—burst through the crowd. With an excited face, he grabbed Mikami Yuu by the shoulders and shouted:
"Yuu! You guy! I didn't expect you to have burned your youth to this level! I knew those 200 laps weren't your limit!"
"Yuu—please allow me to challenge you! Let me experience the youth you've realized!"
"Guy, what are you saying?"
Rin spoke up. "Yuu just finished sparring—he needs to rest. Challenging him right now is really not okay."
"Huh?"
Guy scratched his head, realizing he'd been a bit impulsive. "Sorry, sorry—my mistake. To apologize, I'll run 200 laps around the field right now!"
With that, Guy howled and sprinted toward the track.
Leaving everyone staring at each other.
In the end, it was Ooki-sensei who stepped in. "Ahem. Everyone, continue with the test first. We'll talk about the rest later… Yuu, after the test is over, stay behind. Himura-sensei and I have some questions for you."
"…Okay," Mikami Yuu said.