Undercurrents Surge

Touma silently etched the book title Sea of Scripture into his mind, determined to seek it out once he was assigned to a team and began missions outside the village.

Meanwhile, the battle inside the arena was drawing to a close, with Hideaki Uchiha narrowly edging out Kyo Sarutobi.

Kyo had been sufficiently wary of Hideaki's Sharingan genjutsu, deliberately splitting off a shadow clone to stick close and restrict Hideaki's movement with taijutsu.

However, Hideaki still found his opening, utilizing the Sharingan's ocular power to manipulate the water he had just created with Water Release across the arena floor, controlling Kyo from a considerable distance and forcing him to raise his hand in surrender.

To be fair, both performed brilliantly; had Kyo been more experienced and chosen to seal his vision early on to rely solely on chakra sensing, the final outcome would have been hard to predict.

After all, when comparing chakra reserves, the Uchiha clan truly cannot be mentioned in the same breath as the Sarutobi clan, and with the Sharingan being such a massive drain on chakra, Hideaki's combat endurance could never match Kyo's.

Nevertheless, their duel was truly spectacular, and given that neither resorted to lethal force or unleashed their full power, the spectators felt they had certainly gotten their money's worth.

Indeed, because this graduation exam utilized the arena, it was open to the public, though non-academy students and parents of students below the fifth or sixth grade had to purchase tickets to enter, which served as one of the primary sources of funding for the arena's maintenance.

The next two matches were between the third and fourth-ranked fifth-year students and the genin they had drawn.

The third-ranked student was also from Team Ise: Hyuga Hiashi, the young heir of the Hyuga clan and the future father of the "Princess" Hinata from the original timeline.

Hiashi and Hizashi were truly identical twins; had it not been for the bandages covering the "Caged Bird" seals on their foreheads, even their classmates of five years would have been unable to tell them apart.

In particular, Hizashi seemed to unconsciously mimic his brother's every word and action, from the slightest facial expression to his style of dress, making them nearly indistinguishable.

This led their sparring partners during their school days to often suspect that Hiashi was fighting on his brother's behalf, dragging his brother's grades into the top ten of the year.

However, to Touma's eyes, he could clearly discern the subtle differences in their habits when they utilized the Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Palms.

When Hiashi initiated his Eight Trigrams Palms, his right palm led with the left following, striking two inches below the ribs, which meant his attacks were mostly concentrated on his opponent's upper body.

Hizashi's Eight Trigrams Palms were the exact opposite; his left palm led with the right following, striking below the waist, which usually required him to crouch down, focusing his attacks on his opponent's lower body.

This likely stemmed from their respective training partners within the clan; Hiashi probably sparred with adults, allowing him to strike lower-body pressure points while standing, whereas Hizashi likely sparred with peers, forcing him to crouch to reach those same vital points.

Therefore, the conspiracy theory that Hiashi was carrying Hizashi into the top ten was, in Touma's eyes, nothing more than a joke.

Naturally, facing an adult genin, Hiashi easily secured the match within "Thirty-Two Palms" and successfully advanced to the team-assignment waiting area.

The opposing genin never had a chance to display his taijutsu; the moment the Eight Trigrams formation was deployed, his attack patterns were completely disrupted by the technique's reach.

He should have maintained his distance to leverage the power of Konoha-style taijutsu, but he appeared timid and hesitant, as if he were afraid of something.

Just as Touma turned to ask Uncle Shishin what was going on, he realized that this elite jonin from the Aburame clan's intelligence division had already vanished.

Shibi noticed Touma's gaze but remained silent, instead releasing a Xiao-Destroying Bug from his sleeve to fly toward Touma's ear and deliver a message.

The Xiao-Destroying Bug had two modes for transmitting information: one involved the swarm clustering together to form encrypted characters, while the other used low-frequency infrasound to transmit encrypted messages.

The Aburame clan possessed a secret technique specifically for decoding these low-frequency waves called "Ninja Art: Listening Insect," and Touma and Zhao, who were close with Shibi, had been proficiently using this art to pass secret notes since their third year!

Although Touma had only scraped by with a passing grade of six in intelligence cryptography for four consecutive years, in reality, due to their long-term use of the Xiao-Destroying Bugs, he, Shibi, and Zhao were quite adept at breaking codes.

Within a few breaths, Touma had parsed the content Shibi had sent.

His father, Shishin Aburame, had also noticed the strange behavior of the genin in the third match and suspected that he might have been replaced by an enemy spy.

The primary reason was that his desperation to avoid the Gentle Fist's pressure-point strikes was far too obvious, likely to conceal some special physical alteration.

It was a pity that Hiashi hadn't voluntarily activated his Byakugan; otherwise, no matter the rank of the transformation jutsu, it would have been impossible to hide from the Byakugan's sight.

Uncle Shishin, who was in charge of intelligence gathering for the jonin squad, had gone to find a colleague from the Hyuga clan to see if they could use their Byakugan to expose the flaws in that genin.

However, by this time, the fourth match had already begun, and as the fourth-ranked fifth-year student and the pride of the Senju clan, Nawaki drew cheers from the crowd the moment he stepped onto the field!

This kid knew how to put on a show even better than the future Hokage; not only did he wear a shadow hat inscribed with the character for "Wood," but he also donned a haori embroidered with "Konoha's Number One Genin" on the back.

Most importantly, the guy actually rode a nimble wooden horse into the arena, circling it once to wave at the spectators.

That wooden horse was a Wood Release creation of the First Hokage; after being infused with Yang-attribute chakra, it could be used repeatedly. It was considered an important relic of the First Hokage within the Senju clan, just as familiar to the villagers as the towering tree known as the Canopy of Protection.

However, just as everyone's eyes were fixed on Nawaki, Touma and Shibi simultaneously noticed a flicker of extremely subtle disdain on the face of the genin he had drawn.

The two exchanged a knowing look, and Shibi quickly tapped his Black Ice Kiln insect jar, releasing a cluster of milky-white Xiao-Destroying Bugs that surged toward the back of the arena.

Touma was certain that Nawaki's opponent was definitely not a ninja from Konoha. One had to realize that as the grandson of the First Hokage, Nawaki was treated with kindness by almost everyone in the village.

Furthermore, although Nawaki's personality was flamboyant, he never bullied the weak; instead, he was indifferent to status and often took the initiative to help villagers with whatever he could, earning him the nickname "The Young Village Chief of Konoha"!

Even the Uchiha ninjas, who were often at odds with the Senju clan, had never shown any negativity toward Nawaki; on the contrary, his delicate approach to handling matters had helped the Uchiha Police Force resolve many misunderstandings with the villagers.

Touma was certain that if Nawaki grew up safely to adulthood and his strength proved sufficient, the Uchiha clan would absolutely support him in becoming the next Hokage!

Therefore, this genin who had suddenly revealed a look of disdain was absolutely not a ninja from Konoha!