Fierce Battle

After Yichen sent Kenbon flying with a slash, Kenbon slowly adjusted his posture in midair, then landed steadily.

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

He had the strength and confidence. If Yichen came at him, he could turn the tables in a short time.

But after steadying himself, Kenbon found no trace of Yichen. The only thing around him was a lone Earth Wall.

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 had to be hiding behind it.

As for what he was doing, that was easy to guess. He was definitely forming hand seals to prepare another jutsu.

"Misstep," Kenbon gritted his teeth inwardly.

He had thought Yichen intended to seize the initiative with ninjutsu and end the match quickly.

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

Just when he thought his opponent wanted to catch him off guard by using taijutsu, his weaker area, Yichen had hidden again to use ninjutsu.

He should have had enough time to stop him, but the delay on his side had cost him that chance. It was now too late to rush forward again, so he could only cautiously deal with Yichen's ninjutsu attack.

Looks like I can't underestimate this kid.

"But what jutsu could it be? The intelligence says this kid 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 the target 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 in mind, Kenbon did not approach Yichen again.

Sure enough, Yichen finished forming his hand seals behind the Earth Wall, darted out from one side, and slammed both hands against the ground.

The next moment, Kenbon sensed an unusual disturbance in the earth beneath his feet.

The experienced Kenbon did not hesitate. He flashed away several times in succession, dodging the earthen spears constantly bursting from underground.

After flashing aside more than a dozen times and widening the distance between himself and Yichen to more than twice what it had been at the start, Kenbon finally evaded all the Earth Rising Spears with lingering fear.

"Whew."

He had not expected this kid's Earth Rising Spears to be controlled so precisely. More than a dozen times in a row, a new earthen spear had erupted beneath his feet the moment he landed.

"Give a Ninjutsu Ninja enough room to work, and they really are troublesome."

Let's see what else he can do. One look was enough to give him a shock.

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

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

This kid was only ten, yet he had mastered three natures? And he could use ninjutsu from every one of them?

Though he could hardly believe it, Kenbon still responded correctly. He formed hand seals with both hands and cast a jutsu Yichen found extremely familiar: Earth Release—Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall.

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

Kenbon was no fool. He immediately realized what had happened. Damn it, I fell for it. This kid doesn't know any Great Fireball Jutsu at all. No wonder he formed those seals so openly this time, without even trying to hide them.

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

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

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

Thanks to the time Kenbon had spent blankly waiting for the Great Fireball, Yichen managed to complete the seals before his opponent appeared, even though the seals for Sensory Ninjutsu were relatively slow.

Yichen pressed the fingers of his right hand to the ground and sensed for a moment, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. Sure enough, in his perception, another Chakra fluctuation suddenly appeared behind the distant Earth Wall.

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

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

After obtaining Kitsuchi's intelligence that day, Yichen had also asked around for detailed information on Kenbon and the other man. It was not that he distrusted Kitsuchi, but that he 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 taking the Chunin Assessment and had come to ask about Kenbon, the man's unscrupulous teammate immediately "sold out" Kenbon.

After learning that Kenbon also knew Earth Style: Earth Clone Jutsu, Yichen had been looking for a way to make use of that information. Now, he had finally found an opportunity.

While forming hand seals, he hid behind the Earth Wall again. Soon, Yichen also created a clone, though his clone had little Combat Power and could only perform simple actions.

For example, holding a kunai wrapped with Exploding Tags and launching a Sneak Attack from the side.

Yichen's real body formed hand seals to cast Water Style: Water Line Jutsu. With Yichen's rapidly improving Chakra control, the Water Line Jutsu now carried a degree of water-pressure enhancement. Its power had more than doubled compared to when he had first learned it.

Hearing the deliberate noise made outside by Kenbon's clone, Yichen sneered. Once he had finished forming the seals, he flashed out again and cast Water Line Jutsu at Kenbon's clone, which was already very close.

Kenbon had created this clone to interfere with Yichen's judgment. Its Combat Power could not compare to the real body's, and its agility was far worse as well.

Therefore, Kenbon did not dodge much. He merely avoided the vital areas slightly and pretended to be injured. Just as expected, Yichen began pressing forward at close range.

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

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

In his plan, Yichen would easily defeat his clone. Then, while Yichen was distracted, he would rapidly close in and defeat him in one move.

Even if Yichen could react, once Kenbon got close, did a Ninjutsu Ninja really think he could open up the distance again? Dream on.

But just as he was about to exert force and pounce down on Yichen, another Yichen suddenly emerged from the Earth Wall beside Yichen.

Having had his rhythm thrown off by Yichen several times, Kenbon was greatly alarmed. Before he could distinguish real from fake, he instinctively decided that this newly emerged one was Yichen's real body.

No longer paying attention to Yichen, who was trading blows with his clone, Kenbon forcibly adjusted his direction while on the ceiling and changed course toward the Yichen on the Earth Wall.

Although 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.

Kenbon had shifted his attention to Yichen's clone and was prepared to go all out when he suddenly noticed something was wrong.

The countless battles he had experienced as a veteran Chunin told him that there was something off about this Yichen.

"Not good, it's a clone." Kenbon's shock was no small matter, because at the same time he recognized it as a clone, he saw that the Exploding Tag wrapped around the end of its kunai had already been lit.

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

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

When Earth Release was cast with the ground as support, its power was considerable. It could still be forcibly cast in the air, but its strength was another matter entirely.

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

It 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 heavily into Kenbon.

If Yichen's real body had seized the chance to press the attack, he could definitely 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 a tenth of the real body's Combat Power, the gap between Yichen and Kenbon was already enormous. As a result, he failed to take down the Earth Style Clone immediately.

Later, when the Earth Style Clone saw Yichen trying to abandon it and cause trouble for the real body, it desperately came up to entangle Yichen again.

That was the advantage of jutsu such as Earth Style Clones and Shadow Clones. They possessed a certain degree of intelligence and could think independently.

By the time Yichen dealt with the Earth Style Clone, he had already missed the best chance to kick Kenbon while he was down.

Left with no choice, Yichen did not dare risk engaging at close range. Instead, he cast Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear again.

Meanwhile, seeing that Yichen had not pursued him, Kenbon, who had just recovered from the Exploding Tag blast in the distance, also let out a sigh of relief.

He knew his own condition best. He was not in good shape right now. Though he did not fear Yichen's taijutsu attacks, having time to catch his breath and regulate the Chakra within his body was a good thing.

But when he saw Yichen forming hand seals again, Kenbon could not help swearing.

Looks like I have no choice but to risk a direct assault. At this point, Kenbon's mindset instead calmed down.

He knew that from beginning to end, Yichen had led him by the nose, and Yichen's performance had already been outstanding enough.

There was no need for the higher-ups to announce it. Kenbon knew that Yichen had already passed his test, and there was no longer any doubt that Yichen would become a Chunin.

Since the mission had already failed, he might as well have a serious fight. With no more distracting thoughts, 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 offensively, it was too limited.

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

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

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

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

With a clear response in mind, Kenbon's leaps were much smaller than they had been at the start. As a result, even after more than a dozen earthen spears had launched, Kenbon was breathing heavily but had not yet exhausted his strength.

Watching Kenbon draw close, Yichen gritted his teeth and took out a scroll, rapidly forming hand seals with both hands.

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

Kenbon, still catching his breath, raised his guard again. Although he had no way of knowing what jutsu it was, Yichen only knew two Attack Ninjutsu, and he had experienced both. Therefore, he no longer recklessly approached, instead retreating slightly to prepare for Yichen's next attack.

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

That familiar Sense of Crisis came from beneath his feet again.

Another round of dodging followed. In the end, after suffering several minor injuries, Kenbon once more closed part of the distance to Yichen.

At this distance, it was already too late for Yichen to cast ninjutsu. Even using a sealed scroll could not get ahead of his opponent.

Thus, Yichen had no choice but to grit his teeth and charge at Kenbon, intending to use taijutsu to fight head-on while his opponent was still recovering.