83. A Painful Lesson, Finally, Justice!

Simply put, even if someone knows the exact movement for a bodybuilding technique and is physically fit enough to do it, if they're untrained, they can still pull a muscle or sprain a tendon after just a few reps. Meanwhile, someone experienced can go hundreds of reps without breaking a sweat.

Hinata's combat style leaned heavily toward taijutsu, so she'd long grown accustomed to channeling massive amounts of fire chakra through her arms. She'd been practicing Dark Sweep for a long time—her muscles and chakra pathways were thoroughly adapted to the motion. So even unleashing a dozen in a row was no problem for her.

Sasuke, on the other hand, focused more on ninja tools and ninjutsu. Taijutsu was more of a side dish. Even Chidori was a trump card for emergencies, not something he used often.

Because of that, his muscles and chakra networks weren't built to handle repeated chakra surges. Driven by the thrill of copying Dark Sweep, Sasuke had fired off over a dozen in a row—overloading his muscles and channels, leaving him paralyzed and drained.

It's like using the same bullets in different guns. In a high-quality barrel, you could fire dozens with no issue. But in a crappy barrel? The gun could explode after one shot.

And right now, Sasuke's hands were the equivalent of a blown-out barrel.

"Damn it... how could this happen..."

Choking with a mix of shame and anger, Sasuke could barely breathe. Then—flash!—Hinata was already in front of him, smirking with a look that spelled bad news.

"If you were going to wear a dress, which style would you pick?"

Her voice was sweet, but what followed was a ruthless elbow strike straight to his gut. Sasuke's breath caught in his throat as Hinata's blow knocked the wind out of him before he could even scream. Before he could fall, she crossed her arms and brought them down like a hammer onto his back, slamming him into the ground like a human cannonball.

Blackness laced with nausea and electric numbness overtook his vision. His consciousness slipped into a void.

Hinata stood over the black-haired boy, who was now white-eyed and embedded in a crater. She clicked her tongue in disgust.

"Hmph~ disgusting."

Sasuke got wrecked.

Initial diagnosis: light electrical burns and muscle tears in both arms, minor internal bleeding in the stomach, and two cracked ribs in his back. The normally cool, expressionless teen couldn't quite hide his embarrassment now.

The match had gone well for most of it. Even after a bad opening, Sasuke had powered through Hinata's explosive-tag blitz, seized his moment, and nearly turned the fight around. He even managed to copy Dark Sweep using the Sharingan.

But that was exactly where he slipped. The Sharingan could copy techniques like it was nothing. In theory, he could mirror anything. But if that were truly all it took, why were so many Uchiha still buried on battlefields?

Simple. Just because you can copy a jutsu doesn't mean you can use it safely.

Think of the human body as a computer, and jutsu as software. The Uchiha could copy any software. But if the hardware—their own body—couldn't support it? You're asking for a system crash.

Try running a game that demands 8GB of VRAM on a machine with just 1GB and see what happens. Best case: blue screen. Worst case: fried motherboard.

Even someone as careful as Kakashi never copied random jutsu lightly. He waited for the perfect moment to use the Sharingan's mimicry.

In the ninja world, never use an enemy's weapon or technique carelessly. It was an unwritten rule.

Sasuke had just learned that lesson the hard way. At the very least, he now understood a golden rule of Sharingan usage: Never use a copied technique unless you're absolutely sure your body can handle it.

And then there was another harsh lesson waiting for him...

"Eeeeeeehhhhh?!"

Sakura and Ino shrieked in unison. The two girls, usually very confident in their own looks, were once again dealt a soul-crushing blow.

Sasuke, kneeling in formal posture on a tatami mat, was wearing a kimono for women. Like Naruto before him, the punishment required real effort—no Transformation Jutsu allowed. The makeup was minimal: a soft touch of lipstick and a simple outfit change.

Still, like Naruto, Sasuke had tried his best to appear convincingly feminine. After all, as Naruto once said, "Wearing a dress and still acting like a guy is just gross."

Even so, the combination of his bowed head, tightly clenched hands on his lap, and the faint blush on his face… honestly, it rivaled Naruto's crossdressing from a week ago.

"Wh-what is going on here, Hinata…?"

Sakura sniffled, her voice trembling. She'd just barely recovered from the blow of seeing pretty-boy Naruto in drag, and now she had to witness her beloved Sasuke looking even more dazzling?

"Why… even Sasuke…"

On the other side, Ino bit her sleeve, tears spilling freely. Naruto's case could be excused—he practiced Sexy Jutsu all the time. And no one had a crush on him.

But why? Why did the always-cool Sasuke… Why did he look prettier than her?

As girls, being outshone by the boys they liked—it was a whole new kind of despair.

"He lost a challenge. That's the punishment. If you pick a fight, you take responsibility for losing."

Still skimming through a report in her hands, Hinata didn't even look up. She ignored the girls' tragic wails without a hint of pity. Her blunt statement left Kakashi, sitting nearby, at a loss for words.

In principle, he agreed with her—actions should have consequences. But… wasn't this punishment a bit over the top?

Hmm… was this morally questionable? Or did it actually refine their morals?

"Hey, you're a jōnin. Isn't it kinda sketchy that you just sit around doing nothing?"

Shikamaru eyed Kakashi curiously. In his mind, jōnin were elite village assets. Kakashi, who'd been lounging on set for ages, seemed like an anomaly.

"Ah~ I'm a special case~ Lots of people can handle regular missions better than me, so I get to slack off a little~"

Kakashi raised a hand lazily, smiling behind his mask. "Besides~ when it's really time to move, I'll vanish before you can blink~"

Hardly surprising. Though he looked idle, Kakashi was actually tasked with monitoring the Hinata Squad. Initially classified as an A-rank mission, it had recently been bumped to S-rank after Naruto's unexpected partial Tailed Beast transformation—and Hinata's swift takedown.

Chances were, that mission rank would only go up from here.

"BAHAHAHAHAHA!! Stuck-up Sasuke~! You finally got what's coming to ya!"

Naruto was on the floor, clutching his stomach in laughter.

Finally, justice!

The brooding edgelord who always got the girls had been taken down a peg. The gods were real.

"Hmph!"

Face red, Sasuke turned away, refusing to look at the grinning blond idiot. Let him laugh. There was still time. One day, they'd see who had the last laugh.

"U-uh... is this kind of punishment... normal around here?"

New recruit Kiba looked pale as he stared at crossdressed Sasuke. He leaned toward Shino and whispered nervously, "You're my desk partner… you gotta have my back, man..."

"No worries. Just don't make mistakes and you'll avoid punishment. Also… it doesn't involve money or physical harm. It's purely psychological. Which helps the team correct errors and accept discipline."

Shino adjusted his glasses with a calm push of the finger and turned toward Kiba, his voice carrying an unshakable aura: "If you're asking why… I can tell you. This… is the system."

Kiba broke into a cold sweat, gulping hard. He stammered, "So… how do I not make mistakes?"

"That's simple… if you're asking why…"

Shino loomed over him, sunglasses glinting. "Just don't go against the leader's will or commands. Follow every task thoroughly and with full effort—that's how you stay clean."

Watching this go down, Chōji sighed, mouth full of chips. He seemed genuinely sorry for Kiba. "Poor guy… Shino's such a jerk sometimes. That was brutal."

"Tch. What a pain. But hey, didn't he know what kind of place this was before signing up?"

Shikamaru snatched a chip from Chōji's bag and popped it in his mouth, completely unfazed.

In the Hinata Squad, there was no point in resisting her. Naruto and Sasuke had already shown what happens when you try.

So—if you can't beat it?

Just go with it~

That's life.