Fierce Battle

After Kenbon was sent flying by Yichen's slash, he slowly adjusted his posture in midair before landing steadily.

The instant he landed, he was already prepared for Yichen's follow-up attack.

He had both the strength and confidence. If Yichen attacked, he could turn defeat into victory in a short time.

But after steadying himself, Kenbon found no trace of Yichen. Only a lone Earth Wall stood nearby.

After cautiously scanning the area and confirming there was nothing else, Kenbon turned his gaze toward the Earth Wall. There was no need to ask—Yichen was definitely hiding behind it.

As for what he was doing, that was easy enough to guess. He had to be forming hand seals and preparing another jutsu.

I miscalculated. Kenbon gritted his teeth inwardly.

He had thought Yichen would use ninjutsu to seize the initiative and end the match quickly.

Who would have thought Yichen's jutsu would be an Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall? It had merely been a feint. After disrupting his rhythm, Yichen had launched a fierce Taijutsu assault.

Just when he thought his opponent was trying to catch him off guard by using Taijutsu, his weak point, Yichen had hidden again to cast ninjutsu.

He should have had time to stop him, but after that delay, it was too late to charge in again. He could only cautiously deal with Yichen's ninjutsu attack.

It seemed he could not underestimate this brat.

"But what jutsu could it be? The intelligence says this brat knows at least two attack ninjutsu. One is Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear, and the other is some kind of Water Release Ninjutsu."

It should be Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear. After all, the closer an enemy was to the caster, the faster the Earth Rising Spears could attack.

It was a jutsu that could effectively force an enemy back.

With that thought, Kenbon did not approach Yichen again.

Sure enough, Yichen emerged from one side of the Earth Wall just after finishing his hand seals, then slapped both hands against the ground.

The next moment, Kenbon sensed an abnormal tremor in the earth beneath his feet.

Experienced as he was, Kenbon did not hesitate. He flashed away several times in succession, avoiding the earth spears constantly erupting from underground.

Only after flashing away more than a dozen times and widening the distance between himself and Yichen to more than twice what it had been at the start did Kenbon narrowly avoid every Earth Rising Spear attack.

"Whew."

He had not expected this brat's control over Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear to be so precise. More than a dozen times in a row, a new earth spear had tried to burst from beneath his feet the instant he landed.

"Once a Ninjutsu Ninja is given enough room to cast, he really is troublesome."

He wanted to see what his opponent would do next. And when he looked, he was shocked.

Yichen was indeed forming hand seals again. Those seals were... impossible.

"Snake-Ram-Monkey-Boar-Horse-Tiger, Fire Release, Great Fireball Jutsu."

This brat was only ten years old, yet he knew three elemental natures? And he could cast ninjutsu of every one of them?

Though he could hardly believe it, Kenbon still reacted correctly. His hands formed seals, and a jutsu Yichen knew all too well was cast: Earth Release—Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall.

But Kenbon waited behind the Earth Flow Wall for quite a while without hearing a fireball strike it.

Kenbon was not stupid. He immediately realized what had happened. Damn it, he had been fooled. This brat did not know any Great Fireball Jutsu at all. No wonder he had formed those seals so openly this time, without even trying to hide it.

Kenbon gritted his teeth. The rhythm of the battle today had been completely controlled by Yichen.

When Yichen saw his opponent's Earth Wall rise, he found it rather amusing. His tentative deception had worked pretty well.

Once his opponent left his line of sight, Yichen did not hesitate. He formed hand seals again, but this time he used Sensory Ninjutsu.

Thanks to the time Kenbon had wasted standing there waiting for the Great Fireball, Yichen managed to complete the slower hand seals for his Sensory Ninjutsu before his opponent appeared.

Yichen touched the ground with the fingers of his right hand and sensed the area for a moment. A faint smile curved his lips. Sure enough, in his perception, another Chakra fluctuation suddenly appeared behind the distant Earth Wall.

After carefully distinguishing them, Yichen identified which one was the clone and which was the real body.

After judging the directions in which the two Chakra signatures were moving, Yichen ended the Sensory Ninjutsu and formed hand seals again, preparing his next round of attacks.

After receiving Kitsuchi's intelligence that day, Yichen had asked around for more specific information about Kenbon and his teammate. It was not that he did not trust Kitsuchi; he simply believed this was also one of Kitsuchi's tests.

Kitsuchi had made it very clear that day: "Accurate intelligence." The accuracy of intelligence had to be verified personally.

When Yichen found Kenbon's companion and honestly explained that he was participating in the Chunin Assessment, so he had come to inquire about Kenbon, the man's shameless teammate immediately "sold out" Kenbon.

After learning that Kenbon also knew Earth Style: Earth Clone Jutsu, Yichen had been thinking of a way to make use of that information. He had finally found the opportunity.

As he formed hand seals, he hid behind the Earth Wall once more. Before long, Yichen also created a clone, though this clone had little combat power and could only perform some simple actions.

For example, it could hold a Kunai wrapped with Exploding Tags and launch a sneak attack from the side.

Yichen's real body formed hand seals and cast Water Style: Water Line Jutsu. With Yichen's rapidly improving Chakra control, the current Water Line Jutsu now carried something of a water-pressure effect. Its power was more than double what it had been at first.

Hearing the commotion deliberately made outside by Kenbon's clone, Yichen sneered. Once he finished forming the seals, he flashed out again and fired Water Style: Water Line Jutsu at Kenbon's clone, which was already very close.

Kenbon had created that clone to interfere with Yichen's judgment. A clone's combat power could not compare with the original's, and it was far less agile.

Thus, Kenbon did not dodge much. He merely avoided his vital spots slightly and pretended to be injured. Just as Yichen expected, he began pressing in for close combat.

At this moment, Kenbon's real body was slowly approaching Yichen from the ceiling of the training room.

Seeing Yichen rush toward his clone, Kenbon did not delay. He was about to leap down from above at high speed and charge straight at Yichen.

In his plan, Yichen would easily defeat his clone, and then he would swiftly close in while Yichen was distracted, defeating him in a single move.

Even if Yichen managed to react, once he got close, how could a Ninjutsu Ninja hope to widen the distance again? Dream on.

But just as he was about to launch himself downward at Yichen, another Yichen suddenly emerged from the Earth Wall beside him.

Having had his rhythm thrown off by Yichen several times already, Kenbon was greatly alarmed. Before he could tell real from fake, he instinctively judged that this newly appeared Yichen was the real body.

No longer paying attention to the Yichen fighting his clone, Kenbon forcibly adjusted his direction atop the roof and instead pounced toward the Yichen on the Earth Wall.

Though Yichen had seized the timing well, Kenbon was confident that even if he attacked in haste, Yichen, whose Taijutsu was far inferior to his, could not possibly defeat him.

With his attention shifted to Yichen's clone, Kenbon had been prepared to go all out when he suddenly realized something was wrong.

The countless battles he had experienced as a veteran Chunin told him that this Yichen was not right.

"Not good, it's a clone." Kenbon was deeply shocked, because at the same moment he recognized it as a clone, he saw that the Exploding Tag wrapped around the end of the clone's Kunai had already been lit.

"Earth Release, Earth Style: Earth Flow Defense." Unable to dodge while in midair, Kenbon could only forcibly cast Earth Release.

Speaking of which, casting ninjutsu was closely tied to the natural environment. In a place with water, Water Release was naturally stronger, while in an environment without water, its power would be greatly reduced.

If Earth Release was cast with the aid of the ground, its power was considerable. It could also be forcibly cast in midair, but its power would be another matter entirely.

Kenbon naturally was not like the Second Hokage, who could still cast powerful Water Release without a water source. The Earth Flow Defense he cast this time had less than one-tenth of its previous power.

It only barely managed to protect him.

But although the Earth Flow Wall blocked the Exploding Tag's blast, lacking support, it was shoved by the explosion and slammed solidly into Kenbon's body.

If Yichen's real body had seized the chance to press forward and attack at this moment, he could certainly have ended the battle quickly.

But Yichen had underestimated the combat power of Kenbon's Earth Style Clone.

Although an Earth Style Clone possessed less than one-tenth of the original's combat power, Yichen himself was already far weaker than Kenbon, so he failed to defeat the Earth Style Clone immediately.

Later, when the Earth Style Clone saw Yichen trying to abandon it and trouble the real body, it desperately rushed forward again to entangle Yichen.

This was the advantage of jutsu like Earth Style Clone and Shadow Clone. They possessed a certain degree of intelligence and could think independently.

By the time Yichen finished dealing with the Earth Style Clone, he had already missed the best opportunity to beat a fallen foe.

Left with no choice, Yichen did not dare risk getting close. Instead, he cast Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear once more.

Meanwhile, Kenbon, who had just recovered from the Exploding Tag blast in the distance, sighed in relief when he saw that Yichen had not pursued him.

Only he knew his own condition. He was not in good shape right now. Though he did not fear Yichen's Taijutsu attacks, having time to catch his breath and adjust his internal breathing was a good thing.

But when he saw Yichen begin forming hand seals again, Kenbon still could not help cursing.

It seemed he had no choice but to risk a forceful assault. At this point, Kenbon's mindset instead calmed down.

He knew that from the beginning until now, Yichen had been leading him by the nose, and Yichen's performance had already been excellent enough.

There was no need for the higher-ups to announce it. Kenbon knew Yichen had passed his trial, and there was no longer any suspense over Yichen becoming a Chunin.

Since the mission had already failed, he might as well have a proper fight. With all distracting thoughts gone, Kenbon charged forward through Yichen's ninjutsu.

Seeing this, Yichen's heart tightened. The thing he feared most had happened.

Though his ninjutsu was not weak in attack power, it was too limited.

Although his Chakra Amount was now enough to cast ninjutsu many times, if his opponent risked everything to force his way in, Yichen still might not be able to stop him with Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear.

His opponent was injured, but if he failed to stop him and allowed him to get close, Yichen would be at a disadvantage.

There was no choice. He could only try. After forming the seals for Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear with all his strength, Yichen began controlling the earth spears to attack Kenbon.

But Kenbon was now fully mentally prepared. He knew the speed and power of Yichen's Earth Rising Spears.

With a clear response plan, Kenbon's jumps this time were much smaller than before. As a result, after more than a dozen earth spears had fired, his breathing was rapid, but he was not exhausted.

Looking at Kenbon, who was already not far from him, Yichen gritted his teeth, took out a scroll, and rapidly formed hand seals.

"What? A Sealing Ninjutsu Scroll? Damn it."

Kenbon, still catching his breath, raised his guard again. Though he had no way of knowing what jutsu it was, Yichen only knew two attack ninjutsu, and he had already experienced both. So instead of rashly approaching, he retreated slightly and prepared to face Yichen's next attack.

Using a Ninjutsu Scroll consumed less Chakra and required fewer hand seals, so Yichen cast this one very quickly. Kenbon had only just steadied himself.

That familiar sense of crisis came from beneath his feet again.

Another series of flashes, turns, and evasions followed. In the end, after suffering several minor injuries, Kenbon once again closed part of the distance between himself and Yichen.

At this distance, Yichen no longer had time to cast ninjutsu. Even using a sealed scroll would not let him strike before his opponent.

So Yichen had no choice but to grit his teeth and charge at Kenbon, intending to fight with Taijutsu while his opponent was still adjusting his condition.