The Genjutsu Devil of Konoha

Mikoto and Minato were currently in a very intense spar. They were both incredibly quick, going blow for blow. While Mikoto was more agile, Minato had faster reaction speed and was just faster in general.

Using kunai, she would toss them at him. The boy would use Shunshin in order to dodge them; he was moving around very quickly.

Meanwhile, in the stands—

Jiraiya would look at Minato. The boy was doing very well for someone who wasn't from a clan.

His speed, his reaction time—it was all top-notch.

For a split second there, he thought of the prophecy. Was this boy perhaps the Child of Prophecy that he was supposed to train?

He did seem to be on the bright side and all.

Though, his gaze would drift back to the Kurama clan kid who was taking notes. He knew for a fact it wasn't him. He just knew it. He seemed a bit too tricky for that—for a Child of Prophecy, he expected something brighter, not straight-up ANBU-level shit.

Seijuro, however, had no clue about the future Sannin's thoughts. Tsunade, meanwhile, understood why her brother was so eager to learn how to break Genjutsu to the point they had spent like a whole month on it.

It's only been 6 months, yet ever since the first day of school—7-ish months ago—Nawaki had been training his ass off every day, not stopping unless his body gave out on him.

She had never seen Nawaki train this hard in her life. He even had Mito make some seals to help him train because he saw Seijuro wearing weighted clothes. By the time the boy graduated, he would be a very strong Genin—might even be Chunin-tier, depending on how much he grinded. He was a Senju, and he would be 12, so being a Chunin was very achievable.

9-year-old Chunins did exist—they were just very, very rare. So let's not talk about them.

Orochimaru found himself more and more interested in the boy. Maybe he should take him as a disciple when he graduated, after all. The boy was showing a lot of potential for being quite a good fighter.

And a good candidate overall.

Meanwhile, back on the battlefield—which was the arena—kunai could be seen everywhere. Mikoto was sweating.

However, she was locked the fuck in. She was not going to lose this shit. She refused to lose.

Taking out a wooden kunai, she would toss it at him. He would tilt his body to the side, while she jumped in the air, avoiding the clone on the floor trying to pull her underneath. Having faced Seijuro so many times, she had a knack for sniffing out traps.

'He is fast. His reaction speed is quite fast. Trying to outspeed him won't work,' she pondered.

She rushed at him, and with a singular hand seal, she created a clone of herself—not a physical clone, but the Clone Jutsu.

Then, using said jutsu, she launched three shuriken at him, though only one of them was real.

Minato ran through the first, tilted his head to dodge the second one—as it was the one with the shadow—and the third one slammed into his chest.

Minato would pause... heh.

Mikoto would smile. It worked. Looking at the kunai on the floor—yeah, it was physical. Then what about the second one? Turning around, he noticed what seemed to be a Henge just beneath the clone. So she henged a rock and tossed it with the fake shuriken in order to make it look like it had a shadow.

Minato's gaze would land on Seijuro... yeah, he knew where she learned that trick.

"That was a great fight," he would say with a smile. He wasn't salty—he made it to the quarter-finals, he made top 5. Even if he wanted to fight Seijuro, he wanted to test his skills against the number one student in the class.

Minato was planning on graduating at the end of the year, since he was already stronger than some grade 4 academy students. Though it seemed like he wouldn't be the only one—Mikoto, Nawaki, Seijuro, Kaito, Hiashi, Hizashi—seemed to have reached that level as well. And Seijuro stood at the top of that list.

This year would be fun.

Mikoto would smile at him, and they would both do the sign of reconciliation.

Mikoto knew it... she would be fighting Seijuro... this was going to be hard... very hard.

She was ready. Turning around to look at Seijuro, he would give her a solemn smile. Hm. She was determined.

She wouldn't lose.

Up in the Kage's box, the Third Hokage exhaled thoughtfully.

"The Uchiha clan seems to be thriving this generation."

Across from him, the Uchiha patriarch offered a rare smile, but his pride was restrained. Controlled.

"It is our duty to carry the flame, Hokage-sama."

Meanwhile, the Hyuga clan head stood silent, his gaze falling on the defeated Hiashi and Hizashi. His jaw clenched—but he said nothing.

The Senju clan head, seated beside Mito Uzumaki, offered a quiet nod. The Senju had dwindled in number, but Nawaki was holding the name high.

Danzo, sitting at the far end, remained as impassive as ever.

His gaze lingered not on the Uchiha, nor the Senju, but on Seijuro.

There was something about the boy. The precision. The restraint. The eerie calm with which he fought.

Danzo didn't see a child.

He saw a weapon.

And in a time when the embers of the Second Great War were already smoldering in the distance, that was a tool he might need sooner than the others realized.

A/N Seijuro will probably graduate early.