On the training ground, Yagyu and Sasuke Uchiha stood two meters apart, facing each other.
Iruka stood between them and called out, "Both sides, form the seal of confrontation."
Upon hearing this, both Yagyu and Sasuke raised their right hands and formed the confrontation seal with their index and middle fingers.
Iruka took a few steps back, then raised the whistle hanging from his chest, saying, "The rule is simple: whoever hits the ground first loses. Begin!"
Beep—
As soon as the whistle blew, Yagyu and Sasuke lowered their hands and charged toward each other.
When they closed the distance, Sasuke raised his right hand and threw a punch toward Yagyu.
Yagyu sidestepped the punch and reached out, intending to grab Sasuke's arm and throw him over his shoulder.
However, it seemed that Sasuke had anticipated this. He didn't put full power into his punch, and as soon as it extended, he pulled it back by tensing his left shoulder, crouching, and using the momentum to perform a sweeping kick, aiming to knock Yagyu to the ground and end the fight quickly.
The next moment, something completely unexpected happened, leaving Sasuke confused and the audience, including Iruka, wide-eyed in shock.
Sasuke's well-calculated sweep missed. The Yagyu standing in front of him had suddenly vanished with a whoosh.
Sasuke then felt a pair of hands grab his shoulders and fling him forward.
Because of his sweeping kick, Sasuke was already low to the ground, so this sudden force caused him to fall flat on his face, as if he had tripped on level ground.
Seeing this, Iruka didn't immediately announce the result. Instead, he stared at Yagyu in disbelief and exclaimed, "That… that was the Body Flicker Technique?!"
"What… what just happened?"
"Did Yagyu disappear and then reappear?"
"That was the Body Flicker Technique! Only upperclassmen know that move. I've seen my brother use it before."
"I've seen my dad use it too."
"Wow… that's amazing!"
The students' exclamations reached Sasuke's ears.
Although he was somewhat disheveled from the fall, he quickly got up and, unwilling to admit defeat, said to Yagyu, "Let's go again!"
Beep—
Iruka blew the whistle and declared, "The match is over. The winner is Yagyu!"
Whoosh—
Almost as soon as Iruka finished speaking, a blue light suddenly flashed around Sasuke.
A blue beam shot out from Sasuke's body and landed nearby, forming a floating blue orb.
Seeing this, Yagyu's eyes immediately lit up, and he began to ponder.
Both with Naruto and now with Sasuke, items had dropped when they were thrown to the ground.
Yagyu hadn't incapacitated them, nor knocked them unconscious, let alone killed them.
Iruka had merely announced the match's result.
This kind of judgment was similar to a fighting game where the match ended when the time ran out.
Could it be that as long as the opponent was defeated, regardless of the method, the game-like system's item drop function would activate?
"Damn it!" Sasuke muttered in frustration.
However, since his clan hadn't been wiped out yet, Sasuke wasn't as extreme as he would later become, nor did he care as much about victory and clan honor.
At Iruka's reminder, Sasuke walked over to Yagyu, raised his fingers, and said, "Thanks for the match!"
Yagyu snapped back to reality, formed the seal of reconciliation with Sasuke, and then returned to the group.
Just like after the previous small test, Yagyu watched the next matches with his attention wandering, clearly deep in thought.
It wasn't until the taijutsu matches ended that Yagyu finally sorted out his thoughts and stood up, heading toward the survival exercise grounds.
While putting on his friendly mask and responding to his classmates' enthusiasm, he opened the virtual panel only he could see to check the blue orb that had automatically been added to his inventory.
[Inventory: Yin Attribute (Blue)]
Seeing the information about the blue orb, Yagyu was momentarily stunned.
"The Yin attribute? So chakra attributes can drop too?"
There are seven chakra natures in total: Yin, Yang, Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, and Lightning.
There are special chakra test papers sold in shops that can detect one's chakra nature.
However, those papers only detect Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, and Lightning; Yin and Yang are considered hidden attributes.
Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, and Lightning can either be innate or learned.
But Yin and Yang can only be acquired at birth unless the body undergoes some sort of change.
Yagyu had previously tested his chakra attributes and found that he possessed Water and Earth.
As for the Yin and Yang attributes, Yagyu wasn't sure if he had them before awakening his game-like system, and the virtual panel hadn't displayed them either.
However, after awakening the system and merging with Asura's chakra, Yagyu was certain that he had acquired the Yang attribute.
And now, after obtaining the Yin attribute from Sasuke, Yagyu would have four chakra natures: Yin, Yang, Water, and Earth.
This realization put Yagyu in a very good mood.
After clicking on the virtual panel to merge with the blue orb, Yagyu murmured to himself, "Gold and blue. I wonder how many different colors of these orbs exist."
However, more than the orb's color, Yagyu was now more curious about the item drop mechanics.
After his earlier reflection, Yagyu had realized why he had only gotten two "drops" in the past six months.
It had to do with the nature of the "victory."
In games, there are many types of victories: winning a match when the time runs out, defeating an opponent, winning two out of three rounds, etc.
There's also defeating monsters through direct combat or via specific mechanics.
Different types of victories lead to different ratings, affecting the drop rate and the quality of rewards.
The reason Yagyu had only gotten two items so far was likely due to the way the system rated his victories.
These wins were too easy, so the drop rate had been low.
Of course, this was only Yagyu's theory for now.
He couldn't confirm it yet.
After all, he couldn't very well knock his classmates unconscious or kill them, right?
If he did that, his ninja career would be over before it even started.
He could only wait until graduation to test this theory.
Looking at Sasuke ahead of him, a bold idea suddenly flashed through Yagyu's mind.
But in the next second, he dismissed it as too crazy.
"What am I thinking?"
The Uchiha Clan's extermination event, orchestrated by the Konoha higher-ups, was not something a small fry like him—who wasn't even a genin yet—could get involved in.
Yagyu chuckled to himself, startled by his own thoughts.
Ever since gaining the power to defy fate, it seemed he had started to get carried away. This couldn't go on.
In a world full of hidden schemes and dangers, he needed to proceed cautiously until his strength reached the point where he feared no one.
With that thought, Yagyu calmed his emotions and prepared for the final test.