Chapter 251: Passed
The ninja who was to fight Himeki Suda was named Satoshi Yamaguchi. He was several years older than Ishiro, in his early twenties, and still a Genin. One shouldn't look down on these Genin; for a ninja, this was actually the norm, a common phenomenon.
The twenty-something Satoshi Yamaguchi was not strong—otherwise, he would have become a Chunin long ago—but he was very experienced. As a new Genin, Satoshi had caught the tail end of the Second Great Ninja War and later participated in the entire Third War. Having survived two great wars, Satoshi had a good mentality and his own set of survival skills.
It should be known that ninjas with talent like Satoshi's could not expect special treatment on the battlefield. Some dangerous missions were often assigned to such Genin with little future prospects to test the waters. Ninjas like Satoshi who could survive on the battlefield were not simple.
The moment he stepped into area number 9, Satoshi was already prepared to use Himeki Suda to showcase his own strength.
Before the match, Satoshi had collected as much intelligence on this year's examinees as possible. Although the collection was incomplete, the intelligence on Himeki Suda and her five companions was relatively easy to gather because of Ishiro.
Although Satoshi didn't know Himeki's strength, he knew she wasn't the most outstanding among the six. Even if her strength was greater than his, it wouldn't be to the point of leaving him with no ability to fight back.
So, after registering his name and after the proctor announced the start, Satoshi was the first to attack.
Satoshi's tactics were conventional: probing with kunai, unsparing use of explosive tags, mixed with some steel wire techniques.
Although Satoshi was a taijutsu ninja, he still knew the three basic academy jutsu. During the battle, he also cleverly used the Body Replacement Technique to successfully dodge an attack from Himeki's ninja cat, Fūka.
Seeing this scene, Ishiro smiled faintly to himself. The average strength of his six disciples this time was not high. If Satoshi had changed his tactics and not given Himeki time to adapt to the rhythm of the battle, instead launching a direct, strong assault with his varied techniques and rich experience, his chances of winning would actually have been very high. But unfortunately, he adopted the most conservative approach.
Under Ishiro's deliberate cultivation, his disciples might not have been good at other things, but their fundamentals were all very solid. This kind of tight-paced but not out-of-the-ordinary attack was something his disciples would have no problem dealing with.
Sure enough, after experiencing initial passive dodging, Himeki quickly adapted to Satoshi's rhythm. Slowly, Himeki began to launch targeted counterattacks.
The climax of the counterattack was Fūka's move. One-on-one, Himeki's strength might not have been a match for Satoshi's, but with Fūka's cooperation, the battle situation quickly changed, and the initiative fell into Himeki's hands.
But just when everyone thought Himeki was certain to win, Satoshi's tactics changed. Satoshi, who had been dodging Fūka's attacks, suddenly ignored Fūka, took a claw strike head-on, and rushed forward to close the distance with Himeki.
Both were taijutsu ninjas, so Himeki wasn't afraid of the opponent getting close, but this move was ultimately somewhat unexpected.
In fact, with Satoshi's experience, he had long seen Fūka's weakness: fast but with low attack power. As long as he wasn't hit in a vital spot, an injured ninja wouldn't lose their combat ability in the short term.
However, Himeki didn't panic too much either. She could be considered a ninja who had experienced some real battles and wouldn't easily make a mistake due to panic. She quickly adjusted her body and met Satoshi head-on.
But just as Himeki thought Satoshi was going to engage her in close combat, Satoshi made another move that surprised her.
Just as he was about to rush in front of Himeki, Satoshi suddenly took out a longsword from his ninja tool pouch. This completely disrupted Himeki's plan. Himeki had originally prepared to deal with a ninja who fought with kunai like her, but the opponent suddenly pulled out a longsword.
The key was that Satoshi's timing was too good; the distance between the two was neither too far nor too close. Any further, and Himeki would have had enough time to react. Any closer, and the longsword would have been less effective than a kunai.
Caught at this most awkward moment, Himeki, having been played by Satoshi, was first startled. But she was also very decisive, shooting the kunai in her hand at Satoshi at the fastest speed.
Satoshi smiled faintly. Although the two were very close, Himeki's move was too straightforward; it was impossible to hit anyone. Sure enough, Satoshi just shifted slightly and dodged the kunai attack.
"Let's see what you do now," Satoshi thought, feeling it was unwise for Himeki to throw away her only weapon when an enemy was closing in.
At this time, Fūka was still far from the two of them, and Himeki had lost her weapon. It would probably be too late to take another weapon from her tool pouch. Everyone thought Himeki was going to lose.
But at this moment, Himeki, who was already rushing towards Satoshi, suddenly accelerated. With this acceleration, the speed Himeki burst forth with directly surpassed any speed she had shown since the beginning of the battle.
Satoshi was shocked, "Could it be that she was hiding her strength?"
However, this was not the time to be distracted. Because of Himeki's acceleration, Satoshi's rhythm fell into chaos. He didn't have time to charge up the longsword he had just raised and immediately slashed down.
But unfortunately, in the nick of time, Himeki successfully rushed past him, and the fatal sword strike missed.
What was worse was that as the two passed each other, Himeki also threw a sweeping punch, hitting Satoshi in the chest. Although it wasn't a fatal blow, Satoshi, who was already injured from Fūka's attack, was now even more seriously wounded.
After passing each other, both immediately turned to face the other. Himeki, having regained the advantage, did not let this opportunity go. In the process of turning, she pulled out a new kunai from her tool pouch. After turning, she immediately rushed towards Satoshi, kunai in hand.
At this time, Fūka had also finished circling around from the side, preparing to launch another attack.
Satoshi gave a bitter smile. Badly injured, he simply couldn't handle this situation. Not wanting to be beaten anymore, Satoshi immediately raised his hand and surrendered.
On the high platform, seeing this scene, Ishiro smiled faintly. "Good performance." Ishiro didn't care much about Himeki's other performances; only her final risky move made him very satisfied.
The kunai Himeki had thrown out just now, like Satoshi's previous kunai, also had a steel wire attached. After the kunai lodged into the earth wall used to separate the two combat areas behind Satoshi, Himeki immediately used the force of the steel wire to successfully accelerate, which led to the later scene.
Ishiro's students were like disciples from a prestigious sect. They all had some strength, but their mentality was somewhat lacking in toughness. Himeki daring to take a risk at the end showed that the part of her that worried Ishiro the most no longer existed.
"You've passed," Ishiro said to himself. Then he glanced at Satoshi Yamaguchi. This Genin was not bad either; he would also be among those promoted to Chunin this time.
Himeki and Satoshi's strengths were comparable, and during the battle, the offense and defense shifted between them multiple times. The fighting style was also relatively normal, and everyone could understand it, so the watching crowd cheered loudly. Although most people didn't see how Himeki dodged Satoshi's killing blow at the end, it didn't mean they weren't excited.
The audience, while guessing Himeki's method, shouted her name to express their excitement.
After the two left the field, the competition continued. After a short while, it was Kanako's turn.
The opponent Kanako met was a bit stronger than Satoshi, but much worse in terms of experience and techniques. Facing Kanako's peculiar Paper Release attack, this person didn't even get to properly show his skills before he was scared into surrendering by an explosive-tag paper crane getting close.
At the Genin stage, Kanako's explosive tag Paper Release was quite unbeatable. After thinking for a moment, Ishiro decided, "You've passed too."
The next battle was the most exciting because both participants were not unknown figures. One was the strongest among Ishiro's current disciples, Takuhiro Uchiyama, and the other was the top student of their year, Akio Wada.
Everyone knew that Ishiro never chose the most talented students, but his disciples could often miraculously surpass the top students of their year. So everyone was very much looking forward to this battle.
This scene was, of course, deliberately created by Ishiro.
Ever since he began to study Porcelain Release sealing jutsu, the final method Ishiro had researched was to disperse the runes as much as possible, not to pre-assemble them in large blocks, but to reassemble them after they had attached to the enemy. Although this would slow down the time it took for the sealing jutsu to take effect, the seal would become more concealed.
After all, in a real battle, the sealing runes Ishiro inscribed would not be as easily visible as they were now. Ishiro would naturally deliberately hide the runes so that the opponent wouldn't discover them.
So when choosing the numbers at the beginning, although it seemed like the examinees were choosing for themselves, Ishiro had actually tampered with it. Ishiro would place the prepared rocks in the optimal choice positions for his target individuals, luring them to grab them.
He didn't manage the others, but at least the opponents for his six disciples were all chosen for them by him.
Of course, Ishiro didn't specifically choose rookies, but opponents who were all quite strong.
Among them, Takuhiro Uchiyama's opponent was the strongest, probably also the strongest among all the examinees participating in the Chunin Exams this time.
Akio Wada hadn't expected his opponent to be Takuhiro. He had originally wanted to challenge Takuhiro in front of Ishiro when the promotion list was announced at the end. Now, even that step was saved.
Being able to formally compete with Takuhiro, Akio was very excited. After arriving in area number 5, he didn't look at Takuhiro first but instead cast his gaze towards Ishiro. Only after seeing Ishiro look back at him did he retract his gaze.
The two were classmates. Although their moods were different at this time, they still chatted for a few sentences first.
"Akio, I didn't expect my opponent to be you," Takuhiro said. He had some understanding of Ishiro; this teacher of his was never a serious person. Now he was sure that Akio had been deliberately arranged by Ishiro to be his opponent.
"Takuhiro, let's have a serious match. Bring out your full strength and let me see just how effective Lord Ishiro's guidance is," Akio said with utmost seriousness.
Takuhiro somewhat understood Akio's thoughts and said, "Don't worry. Although I don't know why Teacher chose me as his student, I know Teacher never chose me because I was outstanding. I know you want to use this battle to make Teacher see you in a different light. I won't let you down."
After speaking, the two simultaneously signaled to the proctor that they could begin.
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We've hit 200 Power Stones goal As promised This week, here's the bonus chapter. Thank you for your support—please keep it coming!