After defeating Sasuke, Yuto left with a smile, leaving Sasuke staring at the big 'DEFEAT' on the screen, feeling utterly frustrated.
Although he had to admit, he hadn't expected Yuto to be such a hidden master.
But Sasuke couldn't stand the fact that someone had used Sasuke to beat him, and it wasn't just a simple gap in skill...
This was a complete... absolute domination in terms of mechanics, awareness, and game knowledge!
Throughout the entire match, Sasuke hadn't even managed to touch Yuto's Hawk Sasuke.
Now, the Hawk Sasuke, which Sasuke had initially thought was just 'pretty strong,' had risen to the same level as Eternal Mangekyo Sasuke in his mind… becoming 'extremely strong'!
After that, Sasuke went back into the training mode. There was still one Ninja he hadn't explored yet… Uchiha Sasuke [Susanoo], also known as Susanoo Sasuke.
Sasuke couldn't understand why, in the storyline, it had taken him so long to unlock the Mangekyo Sharingan.
And how could a mere Susanoo warrant its own separate form?
Although, admittedly, the illustration looked pretty cool.
With the groundwork laid by the previous Sasuke forms... the best basic attacks, in Sasuke's opinion, belonged to the Cursed Seal Sasuke Shippuden, who could practically fly around the screen.
So Sasuke naturally assumed that Susanoo Sasuke's basic attacks would be pretty mediocre. He skipped testing them and went straight to checking out the other abilities.
First, he clicked the first skill.
Then the in-game character suddenly shouted, "Susanoo!"
And then... nothing else happened.
Sasuke was confused, 'This... is just a broken skeleton? This counts as a skill?'
'Is this Ninja really this half-baked?' Sasuke thought to himself.
But given how much he had been outplayed by superior knowledge earlier…
Naruto had thought Eternal Mangekyo Sasuke was trash, only to get stomped.
Sasuke had thought he had figured out Hawk Sasuke, only to be schooled by Yuto using invincibility frames and three-stage openers.
Now, Sasuke didn't immediately dismiss this skill. He noticed that the Susanoo skeleton seemed to last for a while?
'Wait... could it move?'
Sasuke hypothesized, and the facts confirmed his guess.
'Moving Susanoo!'
'Even if it was just the skeleton form, since it's Susanoo, it should also be able to mitigate damage, right?'
Sasuke made another guess. At this point, the training dummy had been switched to Nine Tails Naruto.
Nine Tails Naruto used his two-stage second skill to start a combo, but the initial hits against the Susanoo didn't result in any real control!
'Huh? Super armor effect!'
It wasn't until the later hits that the Susanoo was broken.
Now Sasuke understood. This skeleton ability wasn't completely useless. It could tank a few hits... and had a super armor effect.
Next, he decided to test the second skill.
After understanding Susanoo Sasuke's first skill, Sasuke turned his attention to the second skill.
The strength of Susanoo Sasuke's first skill was flexible. If the second skill was strong, then the super armor effect of the first skill would definitely be useful. But if the second skill was weak, then the super armor effect wouldn't matter much.
Sasuke pinned his hopes on the second skill, hoping it would be strong enough to give him a pleasant surprise.
He clicked to activate the second skill. On the screen, Susanoo Sasuke simultaneously unleashed Kagutsuchi.
Kagutsuchi burned forward like a blazing sword, knocking Nine-Tails Naruto into the air.
'This skill...why does it look so similar to Eternal Mangekyo Sasuke's Flame Blade second skill?'
Sasuke couldn't help but complained in his mind.
He thought that was the end of it.
But then he noticed that the second skill was still lit up, with a small yellow circle spinning beside it.
'Wait... there's a second stage?'
This wasn't unfamiliar to Sasuke, so he tapped the second stage of the second skill.
However, all it did was summon another Kagutsuchi the same spot where it had burned earlier. Nothing special.
'Huh? That's it?'
Sasuke casually tried out the ultimate Jutsu next.
The ultimate Jutsu had decent damage, covering the entire screen, but its downside was... the damage wasn't dealt quickly, and it couldn't be chained.
Now, in Sasuke's mind, Hawk Sasuke's ultimate… with its grab, high damage, and ability to chain, shone even brighter.
Sasuke couldn't wait. He was eager to prove his strength in ranked matches.
He didn't even bother testing Susanoo Sasuke's basic attacks before exiting the training mode and jumping into ranked matchmaking.
Sasuke was currently at Kage 3. While he hasn't reached the highest Super Kage rank, it was still a relatively high tier.
The reason he hadn't climbed to Super Kage was... he kept getting matched against actual Super Kage players during his promotion matches.
Whether it was Zabuza the Carry, Kakashi with the Sharingan, Itachi, or the mechanical monster Sasori... these were all players Sasuke couldn't easily compete with.
But in Sasuke's eyes, everything was different now.
Now... he was terrifyingly strong!
[An opponent has been found for you]
Seeing that a match had been found, Sasuke instantly perked up.
He decisively selected the same lineup he had used against Naruto and Yuto earlier. However, after some thought, he swapped out the Susanoo Sasuke in the middle slot for the Cursed Seal Sasuke Shippuden, which he believed was stronger.
Sure, it was ugly, but he was playing ranked!
Who cared about looks? As long as it was strong, that was all that mattered!
While Sasuke was a bit of a perfectionist when it came to aesthetics, he cared more about strength!
After finalizing his lineup, he entered the loading screen.
---
Meanwhile, back in his office, Yuto figured he didn't have much else to do since the new version had just been released. So he logged back into his account and started a ranked match.
At first, he thought about smurfing, but his account had dropped to Genin rank due to the version update.
So... Yuto used his admin account to adjust his rank to Kage 3.
This rank... was just right. He wouldn't have trouble matching against higher-ranked Super Kage or Kage players, and the competition should be decent. Smurfing here wouldn't feel too unfair.
Yuto pondered, 'Since I had just played a match with Hawk Sasuke, why not try Susanoo Sasuke this time? Skeleton mode, let's go!'
Then, Yuto saw the opponent's lineup, 'Three Sasukes?'
He couldn't help but chuckle, "Heh, looks like this is going to be another teaching moment... but why isn't the opponent using Susanoo Sasuke? Do they think the skeleton mode is weak?"
As Yuto finished speaking, the match began.
Susanoo Sasuke vs. Eternal Mangekyo Sasuke.
---
Unbeknownst to Sasuke, the person who had just frustrated him... was now his opponent.
Neither of them had paid much attention to the other's username, and Sasuke smirked devilishly.
"Using the weakest Sasuke, Susanoo Sasuke? Watch closely, stranger. I'll show you how a real Sasuke is played!"