With the boost from the Skill Proficiency Card, the Great Fireball Technique had long since become the strongest ninjutsu in Uchiha Gen's arsenal.
Now, with the special kerosene Sarutobi Enjun had provided mixed into it, its power became even more terrifying. The blazing sphere of fire looked less like a technique cast by a newly graduated genin and more like a flaming meteor crashing down from the heavens.
The two giant snakes lunging at Gen were too close and too committed to dodge. They were swallowed by the burst of fire on the spot, their enormous bodies convulsing as the summoning was forcibly broken. In the next instant, they vanished in clouds of smoke and were sent back to Ryuchi Cave, leaving only scorched air and the smell of roasted scales behind.
"The power of that fireball..." Uchiha Yatsuho narrowed his eyes, shock plain on his face. "Is something wrong with it? A nature transformation? No... that doesn't seem right either. The power is still a little off from that."
Orochimaru was much calmer, though even he showed a trace of surprise. His golden eyes shifted toward Sarutobi Enjun.
"It's not a nature transformation," he said. "He simply added kerosene."
For shinobi of Orochimaru's level, the principle behind it was obvious.
Strictly speaking, this was closer to a combination method involving Fire Release and an oil medium than a pure change in fire nature. It wasn't unrelated to elemental transformation, but it wasn't the same thing either. Both the Sarutobi clan and Jiraiya were especially skilled in this style of amplification.
The difference was that seasoned shinobi did not usually rely on drinking oil in advance the way Enjun had. Instead, they could use Water Release to convert water into oil and directly incorporate it into their Fire Release techniques. That not only raised the heat of the flames dramatically, but also made them far harder to extinguish because of oil's inherent properties.
Once Orochimaru explained it, Yatsuho immediately understood.
So that was why he hadn't recognized it at first. It wasn't that the fire had undergone some advanced transformation. It was simply that ordinary fire release had been pushed into another league by an external enhancement.
"Even so," Yatsuho said, still staring at Gen in the distance, "that child's mastery of the Great Fireball Technique is already astonishing. He really does deserve to be called a genius of the Uchiha clan. No wonder you felt the need to test him like this, Orochimaru Jonin."
Sarutobi Enjun scratched the back of his head awkwardly after noticing Orochimaru's gaze settle on him.
Both he and Gen had used oil to strengthen their fire-style techniques. But in the end, the difference in the final output was impossible to ignore. Gen's fire release was simply much stronger than his.
"Uh... Gen's Fire Release really is stronger than mine," Enjun admitted honestly.
"Falcon, we can all see that," Uzuki Ruri said as she tightened the bandage around his shoulder and rolled her eyes. "Say something we don't already know."
Enjun only laughed sheepishly, the foolish grin on his face making it impossible to tell whether he was embarrassed or just thick-skinned.
"I also provided the kerosene," he added a second later, as though that somehow redeemed the situation.
"We could tell that without you saying it."
Orochimaru's tone remained flat, but there was a faint glint in his eyes as he continued, "Still, that was not a meaningless contribution. Concentrating surplus resources in the hands of those with greater ability allows them to produce greater value. That is not only a reasonable internal allocation of resources within a team - it is one of the underlying logics of human society itself. And from that logic, power is born."
His words sounded detached, almost clinical, but they were also an evaluation.
By now, Orochimaru had more or less grasped Uchiha Gen's overall combat capability.
At this stage, Gen's battlefield sense, tactical judgment, and execution were all excellent. He was daring when necessary, cautious when it mattered, and his ninjutsu talent was outstanding even by Orochimaru's standards. Naturally, there were still many flaws. In Orochimaru's eyes, a freshly graduated genin was nothing more than unrefined material. But flaws could be corrected, provided the foundation was solid enough.
And Gen's foundation was more than solid.
As long as a child was clever enough, adaptable enough, and had the guidance of a first-rate teacher, rapid growth was not difficult. With enough polishing, someone like Gen might very well reach jonin-level combat power by the age of thirteen or fourteen, just as Orochimaru himself had once done.
Even now, if one ignored the obvious gap in combat experience, Uchiha Gen's overall strength had already begun to surpass the normal boundaries of a genin.
***
Not far away, at the center of the battlefield, Uchiha Gen had no idea that Orochimaru had already evaluated him so highly.
All he knew was that his two system-issued standard kunai had already gone dull from repeated impact and had been discarded somewhere on the scorched forest floor.
Sweat mixed with snake blood and slid down his face and neck. Without pausing, he twisted his body, sensed the attack coming from behind, and flung two shuriken backward. The spinning blades pinned a large python that had been trying to launch a sneak attack onto the blackened trunk of a burning tree. In the same motion, he drew out the last few kunai from his tool pouch and threw them around the battlefield as well, embedding them at different points nearby.
This was deliberate.
If the fight dragged on any longer, he wouldn't have time to keep rummaging through his pouch for fresh blades. By planting weapons around the battlefield ahead of time, even if one broke or went dull, he could simply grab another from the environment around him.
His movements remained crisp, but in the back of his mind, one regret still flashed by.
Too bad he hadn't started training in Uchiha-style swordsmanship yet. If he had a proper ninja sword and even a rudimentary grasp of that style, this entire exchange would have been much easier.
That thought had barely formed when his sensory technique flared a warning through his body.
An attack from behind.
Gen kicked off the tree trunk instantly and sprang upward. A large snake shot past where he had been standing just a heartbeat earlier, its fangs snapping shut on empty air. Mid-movement, Gen's hands were already forming seals.
It was the Great Fireball Technique again.
Even without the oil enhancement, it still possessed frightening force. The roaring blast of flame smashed another giant snake that was trying to flank him and sent it back to Ryuchi Cave in a burst of smoke. At the same time, Gen gathered chakra beneath his feet, ran several steps upside down along a nearby trunk, and slashed away several smaller snakes with the blade in his hand.
His chakra was dropping again.
He could feel it with painful clarity now.
If he kept going at this pace, he would no longer have enough left for another sequence of high-powered ninjutsu. And with a body this young and not yet fully developed, facing giant serpents without ninjutsu support would be incredibly dangerous.
But he had not had the luxury of restraint just now.
Even though he had used chakra sensing to detect the ambush early enough to dodge, he had still been forced to move under pressure. If he had not used ninjutsu to break the second giant snake, he would not have been able to stop the encirclement from tightening further. By then, escape would have become impossible.
Now, with his chakra running low, even Gen himself wasn't sure what cards he still had left to play if Orochimaru pushed the difficulty any higher.
That uncertainty lingered for only a short while.
Because the snakes suddenly stopped attacking.
The shift was so abrupt that it felt almost unreal. One moment the surrounding forest had been alive with hissing bodies and killing intent. The next, the pressure vanished as if a curtain had dropped.
"Time's up," Orochimaru said.
He appeared in front of Uchiha Gen without warning, as though he had simply stepped out of the air itself. His pale face remained calm, unreadable, and his tone carried no hint of excitement despite everything that had happened. "You did well."
Then a blue python slid out from Orochimaru's sleeve.
It opened its mouth in a way that was deeply unsettling - the jaws stretching nearly one hundred and eighty degrees - and spat out a scroll still slick with stringy saliva.
Without the slightest hesitation, Orochimaru caught the scroll and tossed it toward Gen.
"This ninjutsu is yours."
From farther back, Sarutobi Enjun and Uzuki Ruri both stared openly, their envy impossible to hide.
Gen caught the scroll and immediately felt a surge of excitement rise through him.
This was the reward he had held out for.
"This technique was originally handed down by the First Hokage," Orochimaru said. "In the current Konoha, I am the only one who can draw out most of its true power. The training process is somewhat dangerous, so when you practice it, make sure you've prepared enough medicine to treat injuries. And you are not to move on to the next stage until you meet my standards."
That only made Gen even more thrilled.
A ninjutsu personally passed down by the First Hokage. A technique whose full power could currently be wielded by Orochimaru alone in all of Konoha. Dangerous to learn, difficult to control, and clearly far beyond anything an ordinary genin would ever get their hands on.
Whatever it was, it absolutely would not be mediocre.
"Thank you, Orochimaru-sensei!"
The brightness in Uchiha Gen's expression this time was utterly genuine.
The suffering had been worth it.
That much, at least, was beyond doubt.
Before he could examine the scroll more closely, another figure approached.
"You are Uchiha Gen? The newly emerged genius of the clan?"
The speaker was a young Uchiha with a mature bearing and an imposing face. His features were sharp and composed, his presence steady in a way that made it obvious he was no ordinary clan member.
Gen looked up at him, then blinked once in recognition.
"You are... Eighth Cousin?"
He and the man before him had not interacted much in the past. The last time they had really met had been during the annual ancestral rites held at Naka Shrine. At the time, Uchiha Yatsuho had just advanced to jonin and awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan. He had personally stepped forward at the shrine to offer incense before the clan's ancestor, Indra.
Now, standing here in the Forest of Death with that same composed authority, Yatsuho looked even more formidable than Gen remembered.
"Mm." Yatsuho gave a small nod. "Your Fire Release was impressive. You lived up to the clan's expectations of a genius. I hope to see you at the clan council soon."
The annual ancestral rites at Naka Shrine and the clan council were not the same thing.
The ancestral ceremony, in theory, was open to all Uchiha, even ordinary members of the clan without status or awakened eyes. On that day, the clan honored Indra's birth, and the event functioned as something close to an internal festival.
The clan council was entirely different.
That gathering was reserved only for Uchiha who had awakened the Sharingan. It convened regularly once a month and could also be called at any time to discuss urgent matters involving the future of the clan. Because of that, the meeting carried clear political weight.
And now, from Yatsuho's words, it was obvious that Gen had finally stepped close enough to the center of the clan's attention to be invited into that world.