Chunin

Watching Yichen charge at him again in such an abnormal manner, Kenbon remained remarkably calm this time, displaying the Combat Power expected of a seasoned Chunin.

Although Yichen had chosen an excellent moment to attack—Kenbon was already visibly exhausted after repeatedly evading Earth Style: Earth Flow Defense, and his condition was poor after the Exploding Tag blast—

The gap in their raw strength was still there. Aside from Yichen's initial few attacks, Kenbon gradually suppressed him, and that suppression quickly made Yichen appear headed for defeat.

Just as the spectators all thought Yichen was about to lose, he decisively hurled away the longsword in his hand after one unsuccessful strike.

Kenbon was startled. He had not expected Yichen to make such a move now. Although Yichen's situation was dangerous, he had not yet reached the end of his rope. Throwing away his most familiar weapon would only make him lose faster.

Yet because the move caught him off guard, Kenbon not only failed to seize the opportunity, but was also delayed for a moment by the longsword Yichen had thrown like a hidden weapon. The two widened the distance between them.

After knocking aside the longsword, Kenbon saw Yichen retreating while forming One-handed Hand Seals with his right hand. His left hand had drawn out two more Shuriken.

Seeing this alarming sight, Kenbon did not dare slack off. He used all his strength to rush toward Yichen.

In Kenbon's eyes, Yichen, with only two Shuriken left, could be taken down immediately as long as he got close.

But if he waited for Yichen to use one hand to unleash some strange Ninjutsu, the outcome would be impossible to predict.

This scene startled not only Kenbon, but the spectators at the edge of the field as well.

Yichen's battle had been intense from the very beginning, unlike the battle on the other side, where the two were still constantly probing each other.

So everyone's attention was focused on Yichen's side.

However, unlike the shocked Genin, the two Squad Leader Jonin and several High-ranking officials quickly realized that Yichen was not forming seals for combat Ninjutsu, but sealing hand signs.

"That really gave me a fright," one of the advisors joked.

The others nodded as well, though they also felt some regret. If only Yichen truly could use One-handed Hand Seals.

Sure enough, after forming a series of seals, Yichen slapped his right hand against his left wrist. At the same time, his left hand shook open his collar, revealing a patch of sealing markings on his wrist.

After Yichen slapped the markings with his right hand, a longsword appeared out of thin air. It was essentially the same type as the one Yichen had thrown earlier.

Unfortunately for Kenbon, he had rushed directly in front of Yichen by then, and his agility had greatly diminished due to his high-speed charge.

Moreover, he could never have imagined that Yichen would suddenly produce another longsword.

Yichen's longsword was much longer than the kunai in his hand. Under normal circumstances, Kenbon naturally would not have cared, since Yichen's swordsmanship was so poor. But in his current state, things were truly difficult to put into words.

Yichen, however, had no such thoughts. He directly launched a fierce assault according to the methods Kitsuchi had drilled into him.

He had used this kind of fierce assault many times over the past three days, but never had it gone so smoothly.

That was because his opponent's rhythm was completely thrown into chaos. Though Kenbon continued resisting with difficulty, his lack of preparation, coupled with his poor condition—

Left him unable to fight back against Yichen's attacks.

Just as the people outside the field thought Yichen would defeat Kenbon with this sharp barrage of swordsmanship, Yichen suddenly withdrew his sword and began forming hand seals.

It was not that Yichen did not want to continue, but that he could not. His swordsmanship consisted of only those few moves, and he had already used them all. If he continued, then once Kenbon recovered, he would not even have a chance to use Ninjutsu.

Besides, he had learned this swordsmanship precisely to create an opportunity to use Ninjutsu. The effect was unexpectedly good. If he did not use Ninjutsu now, then when would he?

And everything unfolded exactly as Yichen had expected. Kenbon had been badly frightened by Yichen's sudden burst of swordsmanship. When Yichen abruptly pulled back, his first reaction was not to pursue, but to retreat instinctively.

But after steadying himself, he discovered in despair that Yichen was using Ninjutsu again.

Kenbon felt like crying but had no tears. It was already too late to interrupt him. At such close range, and in his current state, how could he possibly evade another wave of Ninjutsu?

Sure enough, Yichen successfully used Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear. Kenbon only managed to evade two earth spikes before Kitsuchi appeared just as the third was about to impale him, rescuing him in time.

With that, Yichen successfully defeated Kenbon and completed the Chunin Assessment.

Yichen's victory in this battle had been somewhat lucky. The main reason was that he had exploited an Intelligence Advantage, which came in two aspects.

On one hand, Yichen had learned of Kenbon's abilities before the fight, so his tactics had been highly targeted.

For example, after Kenbon used Earth Style: Earth Flow Defense and vanished from Yichen's sight, Yichen had guessed that his opponent would use an Earth Style Clone.

In response, Yichen used Sensory Ninjutsu to track his opponent's movements, then Turn the Tables and lured him into a trap.

On the other hand, Yichen had learned about Kenbon's personality beforehand. He was extremely cautious, and this intelligence had been the most important.

It was the foundation for Yichen's entire series of tactics.

If his opponent had been reckless and charged straight at him without dodging during their first exchange, Yichen might have lost before he even had the chance to use Ninjutsu.

Conversely, Kenbon did not know enough about Yichen. First, he had no idea that Yichen could not use Fire Style, and Yichen had successfully bluffed him.

Then he had not expected Yichen to know Sensory Ninjutsu, meaning every one of his actions had been sensed by Yichen.

After that, he had never imagined Yichen possessed Sealing Jutsu and had sealed a longsword onto his wrist.

Most importantly, he had no idea that two shameless teammates had already sold out all his information.

Over the course of this battle, Yichen had used nearly ten Ninjutsu. Due to the tension of battle, his consumption had been far greater than usual. Combined with the consecutive Taijutsu exchanges, although his Chakra was not depleted, more than half of it had been consumed.

In truth, Kenbon had not consumed much Chakra. This was both the advantage and the helplessness of Taijutsu Ninja.

They could last longer, but more often than not, they were killed before they had the chance to exert much effort.

Once he relaxed, Yichen immediately felt a wave of exhaustion. Fighting a seasoned Chunin and ultimately winning was an extremely valuable experience for him.

If he went back and reflected on it carefully, he should gain quite a lot from it.

At the very least, Kitsuchi could see Yichen's growth from his expression. Previously, although Yichen had aspired to become strong, he had still viewed himself as support, believing that he was far from being a main force on the battlefield.

In the original story, Kakashi had just become a Jonin when he ignored Minato Namikaze's advice and used Chidori against an enemy alone, nearly injuring himself.

Though that seemed reckless, it was also a manifestation of a strong heart. In their eyes, there was a kind of fearlessness.

Yichen had not yet reached that point, but he was beginning to gain confidence.

This confidence was intangible and invisible, but as someone who had been through it, Kitsuchi knew how greatly such confidence could help a Ninja.

At this time, the High-ranking officials were also discussing Yichen's battle. The Middle-aged Male Advisor said, "Powerful Mental Power, Water and Earth dual-attribute Ninjutsu, Sensory Ninjutsu, Sealing Jutsu that can be used in actual combat, decent tactics, and strong intelligence awareness."

"Decisive judgment, and the ability to link Ninjutsu together smoothly. He will make a good Chunin."

The others, including Ōnoki, all nodded in agreement.

Yichen gathered up his belongings, mainly retrieving the longsword he had thrown away.

For the time being, neither of his longswords could be stored in the seal, so he could only carry one in his hand and one on his body, looking rather strange.

However, no one who had seen Yichen's performance thought there was anything wrong with it.

Yichen followed Kitsuchi to the edge of the field and watched the other ongoing battle with everyone else.

In Yichen's battle against Kenbon, Kenbon, as a Taijutsu Ninja, had wanted a close-range decisive battle, while Yichen had deliberately guided him using his Intelligence Advantage. In the end, it had turned into a lightning-fast battle full of sudden twists.

The other side, however, was the normal model for a Ninja battle. Ikura and Nagao were both Ninja skilled in both Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, so neither could counter the other, and their fighting styles were similar.

Thus, the pace was steadier. In addition, both of them were considerably stronger than Yichen's group, and they were evenly matched.

Yichen rested as he watched. Only after a long time did the two determine a victor. Yichen was somewhat amazed. Judging from the expenditure, the Chakra Ikura had used throughout the Entire process was more than ten times Yichen's.

That did not even include the B-rank Ninjutsu he had used at the end, which had shocked the entire audience.

Yichen watched with great envy, but then he thought from another perspective, Having a goal to chase is really nice.

Ikura's performance could be called perfect. In wartime, strength like his would have been enough for him to be assigned missions as a Special Jonin.

Ōnoki handed the Chunin vests he had prepared long ago to Yichen and Ikura, then took the opportunity to give a speech about the Will of Stone.

However, what Yichen cared about most at the moment was the reward the village gave to every newly promoted Chunin.

Besides a set of standard equipment, there was also a serving of Medicinal Food.

As the two most outstanding performers of this round, Ōnoki specially approved two servings of Medicinal Food for them.

Yichen was very excited. In fact, compared to before, Yichen's Chakra had already undergone a qualitative leap.

It was simply that he had spent too much Chakra on Sealing Jutsu recently, so his Ninjutsu training had progressed rather slowly.

Now that he had received the Medicinal Food, Yichen decided to set Sealing Jutsu aside for a while and focus on practicing Ninjutsu, improving his combat ability first.

But that was for later. Right now, no matter what, he had to make Captain Kurotsuchi treat them to a meal.

The past three days of training had really put him through the wringer.

Yichen eagerly ran over to Kitsuchi and said, "Captain Kurotsuchi, to celebrate my successful promotion to Chunin, you should treat us. Let's go eat barbecue."

Kitsuchi's expression stiffened. Speaking of which, why should I treat everyone just because you became a Chunin?

Before Kitsuchi could refuse, Tana, who had caught on at Yichen's signal, spoke up as well. "That's right. Other than when we first met, Captain Kurotsuchi has never treated us to a big meal again."

Just as Kitsuchi was about to find an excuse to refuse, Yichen had already shouted toward Team Two, "Squad Leader Mizuhara, Ikura, Meikou, Yumi! Captain Kurotsuchi is treating Team Five to barbecue. Captain Mizuhara, bring Team Two along too!"

Kitsuchi's words were choked off in his throat. When did I ever agree to that?