NTHO: Chapter 13

"The duel begins."

"Then I'll go first!" Tenma was also a hothead, but he had ranked in the top 20 in the previous tests, so he was considered a good student.

However, the jutsu he used wasn't worth mentioning. After all, it was his original "Environmental Jutsu."

The most famous ones were "Environment: Rock Throwing" and "Environment: Random Water Sprinkling." This was a perfect combination of confusion and attack.

"Yeah! Environment: Dust Raising!" Tenma stomped his feet hard on the ground, shaking all the dust on the ground into the air, and then he waved his sleeves, trying to blow the dust, which could be used as a blindfold, into Shikamaru's face.

But Shikamaru, with his personality, wasn't going to wait that long. He hated trouble the most, who knew what kind of trouble he might get into if he waited for the dust to come over. So, he formed a hand seal, his legs naturally spread in a horse stance, slightly squatting down.

Secret Technique: Shadow Possession Jutsu!

The shadow beneath Shikamaru's feet slowly changed shape, the range of motion became larger and larger, twisting, as if it was going to break free from Shikamaru's body!

It came out! The shadow turned into a straight line, heading straight for Tenma, who was still waving his sleeves a few meters away, oblivious to the danger. Tenma felt that Shikamaru hadn't moved, so he naturally didn't feel threatened, and he was still wholeheartedly setting up what he thought was an environment.

"Alright, Shadow Possession Jutsu, successful!" Shikamaru only said this one sentence, and the dust surrounding Tenma slowly settled down. Everyone saw Tenma exposed.

He was clearly holding a kunai to his own neck! And Shikamaru across from him was holding his hands empty at his neck.

"This is… Nara Shikamaru. That explains it. Round three, Nara Shikamaru wins." Ibiki muttered to himself, he had noticed something. The Nara clan was famous in Konoha for their shadow that could control the actions of their enemies. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio, formed by the Akimichi, Yamanaka, and Nara clans, was also famous in the Shinobi World. Seeing the shadow under Shikamaru's feet, Ibiki knew that Tenma had no chance of winning, so he directly announced the result.

"Nara Shikamaru, not bad ability. I'll have to make friends with him sometime." Haryu thought. Getting to know strong people, and surpassing them, seemed to be a knot in his heart.

"The next pair, come on up."

Uchiha Sasuke jumped onto the stage, while Aburame Shino slowly walked up step by step.

"Teacher, I..."

"The match begins!" Shino had just wanted to forfeit, Ibiki heard him, but he didn't care, he directly started the match.

"Ibiki, why didn't you let Shino finish?" Iruka was a little strange, normally an instructor should accept a student's reasonable request. But Ibiki didn't do that, obviously, there was a reason.

"I guessed he was going to forfeit, because his Insect Technique is countered by Fire Release. But I want him to know that enemies on the battlefield aren't chosen by you. Watch carefully."

"Hey, you rarely talk this much." Hearing such a detailed explanation, Iruka was also quite happy, after all, Ibiki was usually truly taciturn.

Shino on stage obviously didn't react, he had intended to forfeit, but now that the instructor ignored him, he could only go on. And he wasn't a pushover!

In terms of intelligence, in this batch of students, he was probably second only to Haryu and Shikamaru. And his ninjutsu skills were about to be displayed in front of everyone!

"Uchiha Sasuke, your Fire Release counters my Insect Technique, and it will also cause serious damage to my insects. But since I can't forfeit, I'll do my best. Please go easy on me." Shino showed the same calmness as always, although he was already anxious in his heart, after all, he cared deeply about the safety of his insects, but he showed no sign of it on the surface.

"Alright, let me see your secret technique. But I'll defeat you." Sasuke's arrogance was unmatched, when it came to self-confidence, he was truly unbeatable.

Compared to before, Sasuke was now more proficient in Fire Release, and his hand seals were as fast as Haryu's.

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!

Sasuke launched the attack first, releasing a large fireball that compressed Shino's space. This was a C-rank Fire Release! And a six-year-old child could use it normally. It seemed that the Uchiha clan's mastery of Fire Release was truly unbeatable.

"It's going to be hard to win." Shino muttered to himself under his collar. This situation was very unfavorable to him, he didn't have the ability to teleport instantly, and he wasn't very good at taijutsu either, he was completely helpless against this fireball.

But how would he know if he didn't try?

Parasite Technique: Insect Jade!

To reduce the number of insects that would die, Shino chose Insect Jade. The insects gathered together to form a small sphere, then quickly moved towards the fireball. This was an attempt to force a breakthrough!

The small Insect Jade slammed into the center of the fireball, and it actually shattered the large fireball containing a lot of chakra! And Shino seized this opportunity and directly burrowed out from the hole that had been broken.

"Tch, not bad use of it." Sasuke saw his jutsu being broken and was a little dissatisfied, but he could only temporarily retreat from the slowly flying insect swarm.

But as he walked backward, his hands didn't stop. He formed hand seals! Another C-rank Fire Release! Against a small swarm of insects, the best choice was naturally small fireballs!

Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!

"He can use that too. My insects don't fly that fast." Shino muttered again, feeling uneasy. From the beginning, he had been on the defensive, if he kept fighting like this, he would definitely lose. But Shino had many tactics in store. He recalled all his insects to his side, returning them to his body, and then he used his physical body to approach and dodge the fireballs one by one. Whenever he couldn't dodge, he would release a few insects to lure the chakra fireballs away. This brought him closer and closer to Sasuke.

At this moment, Sasuke felt that it was time to use taijutsu to engage in close combat, and coincidentally, Shino thought the same thing. Within three seconds, the two of them clashed, their fists and feet met, but neither could do anything to the other, they were locked in a stalemate. Even Sasuke's Uchiha Style taijutsu couldn't inflict any effective damage on Shino, who kept releasing insects to interfere.

"Third Hokage, it seems that these kids started training very early, even the Aburame kid has strengthened his taijutsu specifically."

"Yeah, I didn't expect this inconspicuous kid to be so strong. Konoha, maybe it's going to rise again!"

Sasuke suddenly felt a portion of his chakra disappear, he jumped away from Shino alertly, and he saw insects crawling on his arm!

"When did you..." These little insects were really hard to guard against, so Sasuke didn't dare to get close anymore, but when Shino realized that this was effective, he chased after Sasuke.

Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!

This time, he only used one small fireball, accurately hitting Shino's feet, and this caused Sasuke not to see Shino in front of him for a second!

The smoke dissipated, revealing Shino behind it. At this moment, two Shinos appeared! They were clearly insect clones! This made Sasuke even more hesitant to get close, if he hit the insect clones, who knew how much chakra he would lose? At this time, Sasuke brought out the C-rank jutsu he had learned from Haryu half a year ago.

Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!

A large-scale Fire Release enveloped Shino and his clones, now there was no space left on the entire stage!

At this point, even if Shino had other tricks up his sleeve, he couldn't protect his insects. And as a match, there was no need to always save his strength, so Shino resolutely jumped off the stage and left.

"I forfeit." His calm voice reached Ibiki, this time he couldn't grab Shino and force him back onto the stage to continue, so he had to announce Sasuke's victory.

"Haha, interesting kid." Minato was amused, there were quite a few kids with their own ideas this time. It seemed like the teachers of this batch of students would have a headache.

The following matches were mostly lackluster, there was no amazing ninjutsu or taijutsu, most of the children were just like ordinary fights, they went on stage and fought tooth and nail, then ended up with both sides injured, and they had to be pulled apart by the instructors before they would stop.

Until the second to last match, when the Hyuga heir went on stage, did it attract Minato's attention. "I remember this kid has opened his Byakugan, he's a little prodigy. His agility score seemed pretty good in the previous test. Let's see."

"Yeah, Hizashi's child won't be bad."

"Alright, Suigetsu…

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