No one would pity the death of a piece of trash, much less use it as an excuse to cause trouble for the young clan head of the Uchiha.
However, the power of the Hatake Kenjutsu surprised him quite a bit.
The previous strike was just the most basic draw-and-slash of the style. Jie Uchiha hadn't even infused much chakra into it. Even so, he felt a faint, lingering cutting edge surrounding his short sword after the swing. Despite being such a simple strike, it had left a deep, devastating gash in the earth.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
"How can a mere child unleash such a terrifying sword technique?"
Zane swallowed hard. He stared at the deep gouge in the ground, his eyes filled with absolute terror. If he hadn't dodged just now, that gash would be on his own body. No, it wouldn't just be a gash—that monstrous strike would have cleaved him completely in two.
With just one clash, Zane realized the insurmountable gap between him and Jie Uchiha. Even if he had the skill to carve a bloody path through a horde of Anbu trainees, he had absolutely no confidence in surviving Jie's next attack.
"I'll give you all my scrolls. Just let me live," Zane pleaded. He pulled open his jacket, revealing the scrolls tucked inside, his eyes locked desperately onto Jie.
"I already told you," Jie replied coolly. "I want the scrolls, but you're staying here, too."
"Hatake Kenjutsu: Slash!"
A faint white light flickered to life across the blade of Jie's standard-issue Anbu tantō, exuding a deadly sharpness.
"Konoha-Style Kenjutsu: Dance of the Crescent Moon!"
Zane was going all out! He had already offered up his scrolls, yet Jie still refused to let him go. Driven by sheer desperation, Zane unleashed his ultimate trump card.
Out of nowhere, two shadow clones appeared beside him. All three wielded their blades in perfect synchronicity, executing identical movements that made it impossible to tell reality from illusion. Without activating his Sharingan, even Jie couldn't immediately pinpoint the original body.
Konoha-Style Kenjutsu was considered a top-tier sword art within the village, and the Dance of the Crescent Moon was notoriously difficult to master. The fact that Zane had learned it and could use it so proficiently proved he had incredible potential in kenjutsu—what most people would call a genius.
Unfortunately for Zane, he had run into a cheat code named Jie Uchiha.
Konoha-Style Kenjutsu was impressive, but in the face of the Hatake Kenjutsu created by the White Fang, it wasn't worth a damn. Since Jie couldn't tell which was the clone and which was the main body, he decided to simply cut them all down at once.
Clang!
The moment their blades collided, a crisp sound echoed through the forest. Jie's short sword sheared through the opposition like a hot knife through butter, meeting zero resistance. The severed tip of a blade flew high into the air as the two clones shattered into smoke. Zane's original body was left standing in stunned disbelief, staring at the broken hilt in his hand.
'As expected, standard-issue Anbu weapons are garbage. They can't bring out the true power of the Hatake Kenjutsu at all,' Jie thought. 'When I get back, I'll have the clan forge me a proper blade.'
He frowned, examining a small chip on the edge of his own sword. Lacking chakra-conductive metal, the standard tantō's ability to channel chakra was simply too weak. Even though Jie had infused more chakra this time, the results were still underwhelming. But that was a problem for later; this was merely an Anbu exam, so a makeshift weapon would have to do.
It only took a single strike to completely shatter his weapon. Facing such a monster in an Anbu exam was a reality Zane couldn't seem to process. He just stood there, completely dumbfounded.
Seeing his opponent give up entirely, Jie lost interest. He thought he had finally found a decent whetstone to sharpen his skills, but it turned out to be far too brittle.
He casually knocked Zane unconscious, stripped him of all his scrolls, and tossed his limp body up into the branches of a nearby tree. When you're fishing, you couldn't exactly let the fish see the ones the fisherman had already caught.
Jie piled the massive stack of captured scrolls right outside the entrance of the central tower and returned to his usual hiding spot to wait. The bait was set, and the net was cast. Now, all he had to do was wait for the fish to deliver themselves to his doorstep.
Zane had been right about one thing: only one person was going to pass this exam.
...
Meanwhile, inside the Anbu base, Squad Captain Paper Crane put down his paperwork and casually glanced up at Kenji.
"How is the Anbu exam proceeding?" he asked. "Spotted any promising rookies? How many have reached the central tower so far?"
Kenji stared at the intelligence report in his hands, his expression incredibly odd. For a moment, he didn't even know how to answer.
"Well... Captain," Kenji hesitated, carefully choosing his words. "There might have been a tiny little accident during this exam. The results are... quite different from what we anticipated."
"An accident?" Paper Crane sounded surprised. "Did that Zane kid actually manage to steal all the scrolls and make it to the central tower in one piece?"
He muttered to himself, recalling the earlier reports, "He's got decent guts and the skills to back it up. Even though it means fewer recruits will pass the exam this time, it's still a good thing overall."
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