Magaku Style

Touma neither utilized the Martial Combat Style: Staff Form Six nor employed the Jidoryu: Fist Style Four, relying entirely on the most fundamental Konoha-Style Strong Fist to trade blows with Kamikawa Ryuhei.

Kamikawa Ryuhei likewise refrained from using any special techniques; instead, the further the fight progressed, the more intense the gale force wrapping around his fists became.

Touma was certain that if he were to take those strikes head-on with his physical body, he would not be able to withstand more than a few punches.

Consequently, he hurriedly shifted his tactics, launching a rapid, aggressive assault with the Jidoryu: Strong Fist Piercing Style, hoping to overwhelm Kamikawa Ryuhei and force him to reveal a flaw.

The principle of the Strong Fist Piercing Style is to set the terminal point of the force trajectory behind the target, allowing the fist's energy to erupt with a piercing effect.

This was different from the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist: Air Palm; the Gentle Fist: Air Palm focuses more on compressing fist energy so that it can travel a sufficient distance through the air, meaning its power would be significantly diminished if intercepted.

Touma's Strong Fist Piercing Style did indeed yield impressive results, as no matter what technique Kamikawa Ryuhei used to block, a portion of the fist energy would inevitably land on his torso.

However, Touma could clearly sense that the tactile feedback of his fist energy striking Kamikawa Ryuhei's torso was extremely bizarre, lacking the sensation of hitting a human body.

His subconscious thought was that Kamikawa Ryuhei had used a Water Clone, so he quickly retreated, formed hand seals, and spat a massive Flame Bullet toward his face.

Kamikawa Ryuhei's reaction was not slow; noticing the seals in Touma's hands, he also quickly formed seals to use the Water Release: Water Shockwave technique to collide with the incoming Flame Bullet.

The collision between the Flame Bullet and the water wave kicked up a massive amount of water mist, but Touma did not sit idly by; instead, taking advantage of the dense mist, he quickly lowered his posture, used the Body Flicker Technique along the ground, and closed in to deliver a Wind Release: Divine Wind Sword at point-blank range!

For Touma, the B-rank Wind Release: Divine Wind Sword he had developed himself could be cast entirely without hand seals.

Especially when used as an instant-cast at close quarters, an average Chunin would absolutely be unable to react in time.

However, Touma's goal was not to kill Kamikawa Ryuhei outright, but merely to shatter his Water Clone and force his true body to reveal itself.

Over a dozen wind blades erupted at close range, and as expected, Kamikawa Ryuhei failed to react, instantly being sliced into a dozen pieces and collapsing into a puddle of water on the spot.

The next second, a high-speed water jet shot toward Touma from behind; realizing it was too late to use the Body Flicker Technique to escape, Touma immediately activated a pre-prepared Substitution Technique to swap out.

In truth, using the Substitution Technique in such an open area was not a wise choice.

In several previous matches, inexperienced graduates had been defeated after their opponents exploited the flaws of their Substitution Technique.

However, Touma's Substitution Technique was not an ordinary one.

To clarify the difference between the two, one must first explain the basic principles of the Substitution Technique.

The Substitution Technique is a ninjutsu where a ninja, upon encountering danger, temporarily summons a substitute object to deflect damage.

Take note of the word "summon" mentioned above; you guessed correctly, the Substitution Technique does indeed involve the realm of space-time ninjutsu.

However, the most basic E-rank Substitution Technique has significant limitations regarding the size and distance of the summoned substitute object.

Generally speaking, a ninja proficient in the Substitution Technique can summon a substitute object weighing no more than five kilograms from a distance of at most fifty meters.

Beyond this limit, while the Substitution Technique can still be activated, the corresponding chakra consumption increases exponentially.

In the combat strategies of most ninjas, they do not allocate excessive chakra to the Substitution Technique.

However, some ninjas require the effects of the Substitution Technique, so they develop more advanced versions, such as Earth Substitutions, Water Substitutions, or Summoning Animal Substitutions—like Orochimaru's Orochimaru Style Substitution Technique.

Since it involved the level of space-time ninjutsu, Touma could not easily abandon the advantages of the Substitution Technique.

Especially after absorbing a large number of entries related to the Substitution Technique, it would be no exaggeration to say his understanding of it was the best in the ninja world.

While moving around the arena earlier, he had already marked the entire ground of the dueling arena; in other words, the entire floor of the arena was now his substitute object.

Under Touma's improvements, he could not only summon substitute objects but also truly swap spatial positions with them; most importantly, he could partition the substitute objects and swap positions with only a portion of them.

Although the core structure of the ninjutsu remained the Substitution Technique, in the eyes of the spectators outside, this reserve Genin who had not yet officially graduated was using a space-time Body Flicker Technique!

Most people were speculating whether it was the Second Hokage's famous signature skill, the Flying Thunder God, but only Sarutobi Hiruzen and a few other high-ranking members of Konoha did not think so.

Especially Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage known as the "Professor of Ninjutsu," who, after sensing it with his perception technique, more or less understood the principles of this space-time ninjutsu.

However, in his eyes, Touma's ability to develop the Substitution Technique to this extent was essentially no different from dancing in shackles; this research capability was already no less than his own.

Kamikawa Ryuhei fired several water jets, none of which touched a corner of Touma's clothes, while Touma closed in several times, continuously destroying several of his Water Clones.

At this point, Touma felt that something was wrong.

Even if Kamikawa Ryuhei's talent for Water Release ninjutsu rivaled that of Senju Tobirama, it was impossible for him to continue releasing powerful Water Release ninjutsu after losing multiple Water Clones.

Did he have no chakra consumption?

Suddenly, as if realizing something, Touma's expression turned cold.

He drew the black short staff from his back and gave it a flick, causing two curved bow limbs to emerge from either side of the staff.

As he slowly channeled chakra into the short bow in his hands, a blue chakra bowstring appeared between the two limbs.

Touma held the bow with his left hand and pulled the chakra bowstring with his right, instantly nocking several chakra arrows onto the string.

After aiming at Kamikawa Ryuhei, he released the string, and the chakra arrows flew toward the same target in different arcs.

This was the Magaku Style, one of the three short-staff forms within the Martial Combat Style: Staff Form Six.

Although the Magaku Style was not a ninjutsu and required no hand seals to activate, its exploration of chakra shape transformation was clearly superior to some A-rank ninjutsu.

It had even touched upon the realm of chakra materialization, which was why Sarutobi Hiruzen had valued Dou Huan so highly back then.

Character flaws could potentially be corrected, but in the realm of chakra control, ordinary ninjas simply could not bridge the gap in talent through acquired effort.

For those with mediocre talent, the ceiling was only so high, and they were completely incomparable to Dou Huan; one had to remember that he had only glanced at the Sunagakure Puppet Technique a few times and, without any outside help, had created practical chakra bowstrings and arrows.

These chakra arrows possessed tracking capabilities; after piercing through Kamikawa Ryuhei's Water Clone, they did not track the other Water Clones or his true body, but instead converged entirely on the spot where the Water Clone had shattered.

When the water on the ground began to gather again to reform Kamikawa Ryuhei's figure, Touma let out a cold sneer...