Chapter 19: The Only Thing I Love is My Talent
His five fingers clenched, one by one, into a fist.
Hiiro Rinko twisted his neck, leaned forward, and smoothly delivered the uppercut.
The white crescent of his fist scraped the ground, whistling fiercely as it shot straight toward Kintarō's face.
SHO! RYU! KEN!
The constraints of gravity and the impact of the fist clashed on the battlefield of Kintarō's nose, but 0.1 seconds later, gravity declared its defeat.
The head that had been plunging toward the ground was snapped violently upward by the punch. The momentum carried his entire body, sending him flying backward like a ragdoll for more than a meter.
K.O.!
Like a boxer declaring victory, Rinko held his blood-stained fist high in the air, maintaining the uppercut pose. He felt an electric current surge through his entire body.
On the journey back to Sunagakure with Chiyo, they had maintained a fairly relaxed pace. This was the first time Rinko had truly, in an undamaged state, activated his body's full capabilities.
It was precisely because his soul had, under the influence of the Binding Vow, completely and indivisibly merged with this body that he could feel so clearly, in that instant, what this fully activated vessel was capable of.
A dual soul, the body of an Uzumaki, and transcendent calculation ability!
The switch for all of it had just been flipped.
"Are you all coming at once?"
Slowly, slowly, he retracted his fist, flicking the blood off. Hiiro Rinko bounced lightly on his toes, turning his gaze to the other children who had come to corner him.
His voice was so calm, as if he had just done something completely trivial.
"What are you talking about?!"
"It's just one guy, what are you so arrogant for!"
Children of five or six years old couldn't possibly withstand such a provocation. The retreat they had considered just a moment ago was instantly overwhelmed by the false confidence of 'numerical superiority.' They swarmed forward, shouting like classic, low-level grunts—
And were sent flying, one by one. (No mercy.)
A-ba! Sa! Yo! Na! Ra!
In the end, they were just low-level warriors—no, not even warriors. They weren't even shinobi yet. It was only natural they couldn't do anything.
"You all saw it. They started it."
Wiping the blood from his hands on the clothes of a boy lying at his feet, Rinko looked at his classmates with a perfectly composed expression.
As far as he could see, he was met only with gazes of confusion and fear.
For them, 'strength' was something they understood as Rasa and Pakura using cool ninjutsu, or their Sensei disappearing from sight with a whoosh.
But Rinko… they could see every single one of his movements clearly, yet they just couldn't understand how he had dodged so many attacks and effortlessly sent them all flying. It was… like he was a monster.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm not some kind of demon. How could I get serious over something so small? The worst they got was a broken nose. Right, Rasa-kun… I didn't get your name wrong, did I?"
Aside from Misawa-sensei, there were indeed a few others present who could understand what he had just done.
For example, Rasa, who was standing to the side with his arms crossed, staring intently at him.
Perhaps because his pupils were so small, Rasa's gaze looked incredibly fierce even when he had no expression.
"You… are strong. Your Chakra is pathetically thin, but your control over your body isn't something anyone this age should be able to achieve."
Ignoring Rinko's comment, or rather, not caring about such trivialities at all, Rasa took two steps forward to meet his gaze. "Just as expected of Lady Chiyo's adopted son."
"You've got one point wrong, Rasa."
Seeing Karura run over worriedly, Rinko casually began helping the kids he'd knocked down, letting Karura take them to the infirmary, all while correcting the red-haired, scowling boy's mistake.
"What?"
"I'm not strong because that Old Hag adopted me. She adopted me because I possess this incredible talent."
He wasn't surprised that Rasa knew his identity. To possess such a large amount of Chakra at this age, and to have such decent circulatory efficiency, wasn't something that could be achieved by raw talent alone.
In comparison, Pakura's Chakra circulation was noticeably cruder. Of course, that was also partly due to her Chakra nature being inherently more volatile.
But all in all, Rasa had clearly received detailed, one-on-one guidance from a very experienced elder.
A family with that kind of luxury, even if not a major clan, must hold considerable influence in Sunagakure. And the great families always had better access to information.
"..."
Hearing Rinko's rebuttal, Rasa was slightly stunned. That sour face, which looked like someone owed him a dozen custom-made kunai, couldn't quite maintain itself.
Clearly, he had not expected Rinko to focus on that.
But that was, in fact, the only thing Hiiro Rinko cared about.
His talent. His intellect. His techniques. After abandoning so many things, even after being rebuked for ignoring the very baseline of humanity, these were the only things he still held tightly in his palm.
"Say, Misawa-sensei. I'd like to request a sparring match with Rasa-kun and Pakura-san. Is that possible?"
Turning to Misawa, who had been back from the infirmary for a little while, Rinko suddenly proposed.
Having already confirmed Rinko's skill, Misawa naturally had no reason to deny it. It was just that in one-on-one pairings, someone would always have to fight twice.
"Or," Rinko continued, "how about a three-way battle royale?"
"I have no objection!"
Pakura's interested voice came from the distance.
She had just gone with Karura to take the others to the infirmary; her return speed naturally couldn't match Misawa's, who had used a Shunshin.
But with Rinko's sensory abilities, it wasn't difficult to time his proposal so she would overhear it.
As one of the acknowledged geniuses of this Academy year, Pakura would certainly not refuse such a challenge. Besides, she usually only got to fight Rasa; no one else could last more than a few moves against her.
Now that there was a new, skilled opponent, how could she possibly say no?
With that, all the pressure fell on Rasa.
Stared at by everyone, the reddish-brown-haired boy dropped his crossed arms and asked one final question.
"You just took down those guys in such a flashy way. You didn't use up too much stamina, did you?"
"Hah. That was hardly difficult. It was just simple calculation. Cal-cu-la-tion~"
Rinko drew out the word. "Calculate the result, then execute the correct action at the correct time, with perfect precision. Is anything else really necessary?"
"Hmph. They may have been idiots who couldn't recognize the gap in strength, but they weren't wrong about one thing: you are arrogant."
"Ah, ah. Please spare me that kind of evaluation."
Raising a hand to scratch his hair, Rinko's already flat tone became even colder.
"If you'd used the word 'confident,' I would have been a little happier—"