Five Minutes

Haruno Kizashi's "Perfect Defense" created a vacuum around him. The weak Phoenix Flower Fire projectiles were blown apart by the sickle winds halfway to their target.

While his opponent, a Genin, was still thinking, Haruno Kizashi didn't hesitate. He dragged his giant scythe along and used the Body Flicker Technique to close in.

The scythe, twice a normal one's length, had an impressive range. A horizontal slash swept across the field, leaving a deep gash across the chest of the Genin, who couldn't dodge in time.

Still, this Genin wasn't an ordinary one, helplessly stuck doing D-rank missions. He'd just returned from the front lines at Kikyo City, and his combat experience was at its peak.

Facing the second wave of sickle wind, he quickly dropped low, pushed off with his back foot, and turned on his front foot. Working together, his feet carried him along a Z-shaped path.

This low, ground-hugging Taijutsu movement made it difficult for Haruno Kizashi to lock on to his target with the giant scythe, allowing the Genin to quickly close the distance.

But just as the Genin threw a Shuriken as a feint and thrust forward with a Kunai gripped in his hand, Haruno Kizashi squeezed the scythe's handle. The giant scythe rapidly shrank until it was only a quarter of its original size.

Haruno Kizashi could spin the smaller scythe with one hand. After swiftly deflecting the incoming Shuriken, he focused his chakra and sent his charging opponent flying with a single powerful blow.

This scythe wasn't some cheap weapon. It was a mechanical scythe custom-made for him at great expense by his parents in the Land of Artisans.

It couldn't extend and change shape at will like Touma's black iron rod, but it was still versatile enough for all kinds of flexible combat tactics.

The Haruno family was wealthy. They were a famous merchant family in the Land of Fire, and when one of their children showed real talent as a ninja, they spared no effort to support him.

All four of Haruno Kizashi's ninja tools, each designed for a different style of combat, had been custom-made by the Haruno Clan in the Land of Artisans. They had cost a fortune—hundreds of thousands of ryo.

Some might wonder: if Haruno Kizashi's four mechanical ninja tools cost hundreds of thousands of ryo, wouldn't Touma's black rod, which could extend and change shape at will under chakra control, cost even more?

It certainly would. Touma remembered that when he was three or four, several ninja-tool brokers had come to his mother, Takako, asking to buy the black rod. Their offers had eventually reached over a million ryo.

But despite the temptation of such a huge sum, Takako chose to hold on to her memories of her late husband rather than sell the black rod.

As Takako understood it, Dou Huan had acquired the black rod through sheer luck.

Dou Huan had won it as a prize in a watermelon-smashing game at the summer festival on Tanzaku Street. At the time, it had been only one of several consolation prizes. It wasn't until he got home and accidentally infused it with chakra that he discovered its unusual properties.

Dou Huan didn't know what the black rod was made of. He'd once taken it to Manten-do for an appraisal, but they hadn't been able to give him a definite answer either.

The appraiser had only guessed that it might contain a small amount of Chakra Proliferation Alloy, which would explain how it could change shape at will under chakra control. But the appraiser couldn't estimate how much of the alloy it contained, or how valuable it was!

Touma had also speculated that the original series featured very few abilities that could freely alter an object's size and shape. The only one that came close was Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's black-eye technique, Sukunahikona. Surely this black rod couldn't be one of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's sacred weapons!

Haruno Kizashi's match ended when his opponent ran out of chakra. The fight had featured several reversals, lifting the spectators' spirits after their team's consecutive losses in the first two matches.

Aburame Shibi was thirty-fifth in the draw, but his luck was rotten. He was matched directly against a Chunin—and not just any Chunin, but a powerful ninja who was about to take the Jonin promotion exam. His name was Kizashi Moku.

Kizashi Moku was no nobody in Konoha. He was an idol and a role model to many civilian ninjas.

When he graduated from the Ninja Academy, his instructor had already declared that, given his abilities, he would never get beyond Genin.

After all, besides having poor aptitude as a ninja and narrow chakra pathways that couldn't hold enough chakra, his reflexes were also slow. When exchanging Taijutsu blows with an enemy, he struggled to keep up with their attacks and often left himself open to defeat.

His instructor hadn't meant any harm. He'd only wanted Kizashi Moku to choose another path instead of wasting his life as a combat ninja. He could put his abilities and talents to use in the analysis or code departments of the Intelligence Division.

But Kizashi Moku refused to accept his fate. He began spending long hours studying the structure of the human body and poring over ancient books for a solution.

Hard work paid off. In his sixth year after graduating, just as he came of age, he saw a glimmer of hope for solving his narrow-pathway problem.

According to the records he'd found, a predecessor from the Warring States period had successfully discovered a solution.

The method combined internal and external approaches. A breathing technique guided chakra to vibrate rapidly through the pathways, while nourishing secret medicines strengthened their resilience. Together, these methods gradually increased the amount of chakra the pathways could hold.

Unfortunately, the predecessor from the Hagoromo Clan had been too old. Repeatedly training his pathways hadn't produced very noticeable results, and he hadn't truly solved his own problem. Still, he'd theorized that the method would work much better for someone young enough.

Of course, the Hagoromo predecessor had left behind only the basic principles and some ideas for preparing the secret medicine. He hadn't explained how to use a breathing technique to guide chakra, how to make chakra vibrate through the pathways, or what the medicine's recipe was.

Despite having no answers to any of these questions, Kizashi Moku didn't give up. Instead, he threw himself into learning the fundamentals of Medical Ninjutsu and herbal medicine. In the end, he really did manage to develop a technique for expanding the chakra pathways.

After several years of training, Kizashi Moku had, by the age of twenty-seven, raised his chakra reserves to the average level of a Chunin.

After another three years of training, the thirty-year-old Kizashi Moku had earned special approval from the Third, who added his name to the list of candidates for the Jonin Squad.

With the Hokage's office also quietly promoting him, Kizashi Moku had become very popular among civilians and civilian ninjas.

So when he appeared at the center of the arena, the spectators unanimously greeted him with enthusiastic applause. Kizashi Moku, who was already a little socially anxious, blushed to the roots of his ears!

Of course, the judges on the raised platform couldn't possibly expect a newly graduated Aburame Shibi to defeat a ninja of this caliber.

If such an unlikely upset happened, either Kizashi Moku had gone far too easy on him, or Aburame Shibi might have been replaced.

After all, the Aburame Clan had never excelled at direct combat. Their ninjas were assigned to gather and relay intelligence and provide sensory support across a limited area of the battlefield. They weren't considered combat specialists at all.

So after balancing the two fighters' abilities, the judges set a five-minute time limit. If Shibi could hold out against his senior, Kizashi Moku, for five minutes, he would pass the test!