Chapter 5

Uchiha Satsuki knew that she was stronger than most of her age. She had been trained by her mother, one of the strongest kunoichis in the village, for years and was so above the other students in academy that it wasn't even funny. The only ones in her class who could challenge her in smarts were pink fangirl Haruno and Shigaraki Sumire, but she was better than them in anything practical. And in physical battle the only ones who could give her a challenge were, no matter how hard it was to admit, Naruko with her seemingly endless stamina and Chocho who was physically the strongest in the class. Yet she didn't lose to them either.

But it wasn't enough.

Her brother had graduated before he had hit puberty and had promoted many times until he was an ANBU captain right around the time he did enter puberty. She knew that Itachi as he had been in her age would destroy her in a battle.

The worse part, even though she was ahead of her peers; she wasn't the best. Senju Daiki had once bested her and after that, they were never paired in spars again. She had thought she could surpass him but she was not sure if she managed it since in spars he always did the bare minimum required to win, which meant he tended to force his opponents out of the circle with a bored look in his face.

She had to be strong, if she wasn't even sure that she was the best among people of her age, how could she defeat Itachi. Who was a genius beyond most people's comprehension. That's why she demanded the spar, her need of knowing overpowering any and all etiquette lessons her mother drilled into her head. She liked her sword and bow lessons more anyway.

Daiki had accepted her challenge, even if he still looked rather disinterested. This was her chance to prove her power, chance to prove the power of the Uchiha clan still existed and she wasn't going to let it go.

Though she would be lying if she said that she didn't want to wipe the disinterested look off of the Senju's face.

"I hope that I don't have to remind either of you that we don't want any injuries." Her mother said with a frown that Satsuki felt was directed at her for some reason. It's not like she wanted to hurt Daiki. She just wanted to punch him in the face and establish her superiority.

After both contestants nodded in affirmative, Uchiha matriarch started the match.

"Ready, fight!"

And then she threw herself at her opponent and when she reached him, her hand shot forward in a fast jab towards his face. Which he dodged and tried to grab her wrist, making the Uchiha heiress jump away.

As she analyzed her opponent, she saw the clear difference between the Senju heir and the other students at the academy.

He was muscular.

Even those from clans who specialized in close quarter combat like Kiba, the students tended to have physiques that were lean and favored speed. But the Senju heir was, as Chocho would put it, buff. He was by no means slow but as she looked at the veins pulsing in his arms, she knew that a hit from him or being grabbed by him would hurt a lot.

Seeing that she was slightly distracted; the Senju heir ran towards her, something he never did in any spar before, and was in her personal space before she realized. A punch went towards her head that she barely avoided. And then she was falling.

It took her a moment to realize that when she was dodging his fist, the Senju had swiped her feet off the ground with his foot and as she was falling down; his leg went up and kicked her to the other side of the room before she could meet the ground.

Just as she had suspected, it hurt. A lot. She had once seen a genin try to use Shunshin and end up slamming into a tree, she had a rough idea how that felt now.

She didn't have much time to have those thoughts since her opponent was coming at her, very fast. So she rolled away from him just as he slammed his foot down to where she was, making cracking sounds come from the floor.

Not willing to be on the defensive, she got up as fast as she could and threw another jab at her opponent which he slapped away from his face.

For a while, it was a flurry of strikes with both of them trying to hit each other and the other deflecting the strikes away with a few strikes getting through. Satsuki was hitting Daiki as much as he was hitting her but that's where the difference between their physiques was making the difference. Each hit from Daiki was equivalent of at least three hits of Satsuki and if she didn't find a way to get more hits or at least get away from him, she would end up beaten black and blue and yield long before her opponent would.

So she decided to copy what he did before and swiped her foot at his ankles, intending to trip him and hit him while he was falling much like he did. Except her foot couldn't move him and instead the unexpected resistance made her slightly lose her balance. An opening the Senju heir did not waste.

His hand grabbed the back of her neck and pushed her downward at the same moment his other hand delivered a palm strike at her stomach, making her spin in the air for a second before falling down on her back.

Before she could make a move to get back up, Daiki was on top of her with his knee pressing on her still aching stomach and his right hand just above her throat in a chopping position, ready to hit her neck at the slightest sign of movement.

"I believe, this is my win." The last Senju said with a steely gaze and a slightly cocky smile on his face. For some reason, the sight of such a smile made her feel something other than the pressure of a knee and the aching of a palm strike in her stomach.