Minato

The strong wind blew, stirring up countless fallen leaves. Amidst the bleak autumn wind, Zhou Duan's solitary figure was accentuated, appearing incredibly lonely. Zhou Duan disdainfully glanced at Moshang Shizhen, who had fainted on the ground, then looked up at the sky. After a long while, he sighed, "Loneliness of the master!"

"You're full of it! What right do you have to talk about loneliness!"

The Third Hokage gritted his teeth, furious. Ninjas endure what ordinary people cannot, do what ordinary people cannot do. They are all resolute, strong-willed, and mentally fortified individuals. At least, in the Third Hokage's memory, there had been ninjas who couldn't bear the pain and fainted, but he had never seen one who fainted from sheer humiliation like the one before him. This wasn't to say Moshang Shizhen was mentally weak; he was a ninja who had experienced numerous life-and-death battles. It could only be said that Zhou Duan was too wicked!

The Third Hokage hadn't considered that the ninjutsu Zhou Duan developed was indeed powerful. But upon thinking about enemy attacks, he felt terrible. If the previous two Hokages knew, they might even rise from their graves in anger!

The Third Hokage's beard fluttered high with anger, and his poor pipe had already evolved from fragments to dust. Suppressing the rage in his heart, the Third Hokage looked at the remaining students, forcing his tone:

"Zhou Duan has passed the graduation exam, but I hope Zhou Duan's combat style is an exception!"

The Third Hokage emphasized the word "exception" heavily, its meaning self-evident. Fortunately, the next student was Namikaze Minato, and Minato truly did not disappoint the Third Hokage.

"The match begins!"

As Kato shouted the start, Minato instantly created distance from his opponent. Three shuriken flew in a triangular formation towards the opponent's face and chest.

"Clang, clang, clang!"

The sound of a short sword blocking the shuriken echoed. Minato's shuriken were easily deflected by the Genin being tested, who then used his feet to charge at Minato again.

"Wind Style—Gale Palm!"

Seeing his shuriken easily deflected, Minato's expression remained unchanged, but his hands quickly formed hand seals. With a sharp cry, a large number of palm-sized, crescent-shaped wind blades swarmed towards his opponent!

"Wind Style—Great Breakthrough!"

Facing the barrage of wind blades from Minato, the Genin being tested didn't hesitate. He immediately launched his own attack. A thick tornado instantly formed, directly confronting the wind blades. The next moment, the raging winds caused by the collision of the two Wind Style ninjutsu swept through!

Although the two ninjutsu canceled each other out, judging by the traces left by a few wind blades on the Genin being tested, Minato's ninjutsu was clearly stronger. However, faced with this situation, the Genin being tested didn't feel discouraged; instead, his expression became more relieved. Minato had kept his distance from the start, even using shuriken and ninjutsu to impede him. Even though they were both D-rank ninjutsu, Minato's was slightly stronger. All of this indicated that his opponent was a ninja skilled in long-range attacks and not proficient in close combat!

Seeing the Genin being tested hastily trying to close the distance for close combat with Minato, Zhou Duan curled his lips. If judging by the combat behavior of an ordinary ninja, the Genin being tested's assessment was not wrong, but...

Zhou Duan glanced deeply at the rapidly retreating Namikaze Minato. This guy was a genius!

As expected, Zhou Duan's judgment was validated. To end the battle quickly, Minato deliberately gave the impression that he was not good at close combat. This made the Genin being tested, who was skilled in close combat with his short sword and was already very proficient, even more determined to charge forward and fight head-on. And this was precisely the beginning of the Genin's failure!

Five steps—this was the distance between the Genin and Minato at this moment. His body lowered, his right hand gripping the sword was drawn back to his left waist in an explosive stance, his left hand gripping his right wrist in a fierce struggle—Drawing Slash, this most common yet classic move had been fully prepared by the Genin. Just one more step, and he could defeat the brat who was "desperately" trying to distance himself!

He didn't want to lose miserably like that fool Moshang Shizhen. He knew that although he was an examiner, being defeated by a newly graduated kid meant a lot for his future career, and there was no need to elaborate!

He took another step, and the distance to Minato was reduced to one meter. The restraint on his left hand suddenly released. However, his right hand, poised to unleash a stunning blow, did not strike!

The Genin looked at Minato opposite him and found that the pure, innocent smile on Minato's face had, at some point, been replaced by fervent battle intent. His previously wide-open blue eyes had narrowed into two long, narrow crimson slits.

"This is bad!"

The Genin suddenly felt a sense of crisis. Thanks to his usual hard work, the originally smooth Drawing Slash was forcibly changed into a horizontal sword guard. However, this was merely a death struggle!

"Startled Birds!"

Following the fervent shout, four Minatos simultaneously appeared, surrounding the Genin within a two-meter radius and attacking madly. Through their blurry figures, a shocking fact could be discerned—those four Minatos were not the result of Clone Technique transformations, but afterimages created by Minato's incredibly rapid attacks!

As expected of the technique named Startled Birds, the kunai in Minato's hands struck continuously, like a flock of agitated birds, unleashing a sky-covering barrage of stabs with their beaks!

As expected of a man who would one day perfectly control the Flying Thunder God, without that extreme agility, teleporting next to an enemy would only lead to death!

The short sword, after being struck at the same point more than twenty times, snapped in two. The shuriken, after being blocked less than five times, was sent flying. The two daggers, in the continuous onslaught of attacks, quickly turned into fragments!

Finally, with no weapons left in his hands, the Genin resigned himself and stood still. Minato, too, returned to his appearance as a good young boy!

"Namikaze Minato wins!"

Their battle sounded long, but it was actually very brief. By the time Kato announced the end of their match, the windstorm they had created had still not stopped!

The ninja system is strange. Ninjas can unleash world-destroying attacks, but their physical defense is very weak. This resulted in many students watching from the sidelines, who were unable to protect themselves, being blown about haphazardly. A few unlucky ones even had their clothes blown off and could only watch their flying clothes with silent regret.

Of course, among the graduating students present, Zhou Duan was the most relaxed and unaffected. Knowing that Minato's battle would be noisy, he had cast a defensive ninjutsu on himself beforehand. This caused a situation where, as the storm erupted, others were either desperately casting ninjutsu or being blown about, while Zhou Duan was the only one standing straight with his hands behind his back, exuding an air of supreme arrogance!

However, having his hands behind his back also had a drawback—when four or five fragrant, brightly colored pairs of underwear were thrown in Zhou Duan's face, he didn't have time to defend!

Well, perhaps Zhou Duan intentionally didn't defend. When Zhou Duan looked in a certain direction and saw four or five girls boldly winking at him in the wind, he felt that all of this was unimportant!