“Master. Can she really get here in under an hour?”

“Yes.”

Both of them were waiting for Sakura to arrive. Facing the stretch of ocean between them. Chizuki was worried. When she heard Uehara’s answer, she suppressed her worries and continued caressing his body. She was sitting on a wooden rocking chair with Uehara in his dragon form on her lap.

Opening his eyes slightly, he spoke.

“If she can’t even get here under an hour, then she can’t survive my second test.”

Dozens of minutes trickled by and before the hour mark was up, across the horizon was a hunchbacked Sakura running across the ocean in their direction. Her skin was red and there were so many veins on her face that even a constipated man would have to bow in awe.

Uehara lifted his neck and opened his mouth. He drew in a quick breath and shot out a fire bullet at Sakura. The maiden’s eyes which were initially glazed over widened when she felt the flame approach. Tears threatened to come out of her eyes as her knees trembled in trepidation.

She quickly fell to her knees as the flame bullet passed over her head. She lifted her head up and she clenched her teeth while her eyes were threatening to overflow with tears.

Regardless, she grit her teeth and continued running. She was only a dozen or so kilometres from the shores and she had a few minutes left to get to the island. Unfortunately, more flame bullets came her way and were closing in even faster than before. Facing four of them, she channeled more chakra into her unwilling legs and jumped a few metres into the air.

She channeled chakra into her throat and spat out a few flame bullets of her own. She would be more than happy to use her hands but they were more useless than wet noodles after having been subjected to such a heavy weight pulling them down. Right now, she was more focused on making sure they’re not pulled out of their sockets.

Clenching her teeth and struggling to run forward, she’d dodge a few flame bullets and shoot out her own to block those she wouldn’t be able to dodge in time. But without her hands and the heavy beads that were strapped to them, her balance wasn’t on-point and there were a couple of times where she fell on the ocean surface.

Thankfully, she was able to right herself by rolling on her shoulders. Using fine chakra control, she would release bursts of chakra through her feet to propel herself sideways and avoid the scorching hot flames that would whiz past her face.

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[Looks like she indeed hasn’t slacked off on her training.]

Watching her movements, Uehara was impressed. He increased the speed of the flame bullets and seeing them coming so fast, the bones in her legs cracked as more chakra was channeled through them. She began kicking them away while inching ever closer to the island. Sweat trickled down he brows as she continuously executed techniques that would make taekwando masters kneel in awe.

She was only a few kilometres away now and the flame bullets were increasing in number. When she was just a kilometre away, two-hundred and fifty flame bullets were arranged in front of her in a fifty by fifty formation.

One could only imagine how grief-stricken Sakura became. Her knees became weak while her lips quivered.

“Black-sama! Why!”

Uehara didn’t say anything. He merely changed into a more comfortable posture on Chizuki’s thighs. Chizuki was concerned as to whether Sakura could make it through this. Looking at the sun, she could see that there was just less than a minute before time ran out.

[I hope you pass Sakura.]

Meanwhile, the girl in question had given up all thoughts of dodging. She simply channeled all of her chakra around her and made a flame vortex that spun rapidly around her. With this new protection, she charged forward. Uehara admired her determination and controlled the flame bullets to attack her with an even greater speed.

Sakura gritted her teeth and continued to run as dozens of flame bullets collided against her flame vortex every second. Although the spinning force of the flame vortex managed to redirect most of the impact, the penetrating ability of the flame bullet wasn’t to be underestimated as their momentum when they struck the vortex did cause her to slow down considerably.

There was also the problem of her chakra being vastly consumed and she couldn’t afford to continuously support the chakra-consumption of the flame vortex. She was tempted to fly but she knew she’d be in an even worse position than on the ocean’s surface.

Rushing against the flame vortex like an angry bull, she harbored no intentions of dodging and only hoped to get to the island as soon as possible. But with the flame bullets slowing her down, her progress was halted and she couldn’t pick up enough momentum to bash through. And with the huge number of flame bullets coming from the sides, dodging would’ve taken too much time.

Unfortunately, time was not on her side and Uehara was merciless. As a result, when she finally reached the island, the allotted time had long since passed. Initially, she was excited but…

“You fail.”

Her mood dropped instantly.

“But-but...”

“You failed. No excuses.”

Uehara got up from Chizuki’s lap and shifted into his humanoid form.

“I have no choice but to push back your second test and make sure you get in shape for the next year’s assessment. There’s only two months left so give it your all.”

He touched the bead bracelets on her hands, canceling the weight function. Sakura smiled gleefully when she heard the news.

“I’ll do my best Black-sama!”

Seeing her unguarded pose, a slight smile formed on his face.

“Good. So training will begin now.”

He kicked her in the stomach with so much force that she was sent flying for a few kilometres. He appeared in front of her and held her by the collar before she could fall into the water.

“I taught you this before. Never let your guard down. I’ll make sure to thoroughly re-educate you this time.”