Iruka stood in the middle of the training ground, holding two bells in his hand. They glinted faintly in the sunlight.
"The rules of the survival exercise are as follows." His gaze swept over the students before him. "You'll work in teams of three against a Chunin—that is, me. Take a bell from me or last thirty minutes without being defeated. Any team that fails will have to do twice their usual training."
A commotion rippled through the crowd, mixed with a chorus of sharp inhales.
Takuma remained calm. He knew that this rule was less an assessment than a way to put the fear of God into the newcomers. The outcome was decided from the start when you sent a group of kids who hadn't even learned proper Ninjutsu to face a Chunin.
But winning or losing had never been the point. Iruka wanted to see how each person performed in a desperate situation.
"First team, step up."
Three students nervously walked onto the training ground. Two boys and a girl, none of whom Takuma knew very well. They exchanged glances, then nodded to one another and adopted a seemingly sensible formation: a triangle, each covering the others' flanks.
Then Iruka moved.
No flashy Ninjutsu, just a standard Body Flicker Technique followed by a Substitution Technique. A wooden log was left behind as his real body appeared in the triangle's blind spot. The blunt side of the Kunai in his hand struck the rearmost boy precisely at the nape. The boy grunted and dropped to one knee, and one side of the formation instantly crumbled. The other two hurriedly turned, but Iruka had already vanished again.
In less than three minutes, all three had been subdued. When Iruka held a Kunai to the last girl's neck, she still hadn't thrown the Shuriken in her hand.
The training ground fell silent for a moment. The students who had been whispering among themselves all abruptly shut up.
"Second team."
The second team had clearly learned from the first. They didn't huddle together, instead spreading out to try to pin Iruka down with ranged attacks. Two Shuriken flew at him from opposite sides at once, their angles tricky and their timing excellent.
Iruka didn't even dodge. He formed Hand Seals with one hand, and a clone charged out from the side, slapping away the attacker on the left. His real body used the Smoke Bomb in his hand for cover, darted in from the right, and knocked the second student over with his knee. The last one tried to escape with a Substitution Technique, but Iruka grabbed him and yanked him out of the smoke.
The breeze dispersed the lingering smoke from the Smoke Bomb, revealing all three students lying neatly on the training ground, "killed" to a person.
The spectators' area was dead silent. Someone instinctively took half a step back.
"Next team."
When it was Takuma's team's turn, Yamada Kenta looked more serious than usual. He had already thoroughly limbered up his wrists and ankles, and was taking repeated deep breaths. Sato Jiro didn't seem as nervous—or rather, his nerves showed in a different way. The practice Shuriken spun rapidly between his fingers, nearly slipping out of his hand several times.
"Stop spinning it." Takuma pressed down on his wrist. "Save your strength. You'll get your chance to throw it soon."
Sato chuckled and put the Shuriken back in his ninja pouch. "What about you? Nervous?"
"Not really."
Yamada walked up to them, his expression almost excessively serious. He lowered his voice. "I watched the first two teams. Iruka-sensei's strategy is to create confusion. He uses the Substitution Technique and Clone Technique to misdirect us, then attacks from an unexpected angle and picks us off one by one. If we charge him head-on in a group, we'll probably end up just like them."
When he finished, he looked at Takuma expectantly.
Takuma was a little surprised. He'd thought Yamada would advocate a cautious, steady strategy, but his analysis was right on the mark.
"So my suggestion is—" Yamada took a deep breath and clenched his fists. "We concentrate our strength and break through head-on! Use our numbers to our advantage and charge straight at him!"
"...What did you say?"
"Iruka-sensei has just finished two matches, so his chakra and stamina are already running low. And he'll expect us to probe cautiously, like the first two teams. We should attack with all our strength right away and settle things in one go! Catch him off guard!"
Sato's eyes lit up. "Well said! That's the spirit! I'll lay down suppressive fire with my Shuriken, then Yamada will use the Substitution Technique to get around behind him, and Takuma will take him head-on. We'll try to finish this in thirty seconds!"
Takuma opened his mouth, then looked from one of them to the other twice, trying to find a hint that they were joking. There was none. Yamada looked more serious than ever, and Sato had already clenched his fists.
"...Are you two serious?"
"Of course!"
"Then I'll make two points." Takuma raised one finger. "First, Iruka-sensei really has used up a little stamina in the first two matches, but he's a Chunin fighting a group of students. For him, that kind of exertion is about the same as a warm-up. Second, a head-on breakthrough isn't necessarily a bad strategy, but it only works if your opponent is slower and weaker than you. Right now, we can't even react in time when facing Iruka-sensei."
Yamada frowned. "But—"
"And one more thing." Takuma cut him off. "Since you noticed that his strategy is to create confusion and pick us off one by one, the best counter is to turn his expectations against him. Let him think we'll be cautious like the first two teams, then we—forget it."
He stopped. He'd seen the look in Yamada and Sato's eyes: the resentment of people who felt their ideas had been dismissed and belittled. It wasn't defiance. It was something more genuine—they felt their ideas hadn't even been given proper consideration.
Takuma fell silent for three seconds. Then he sighed.
"Fine. We'll do it your way."
Yamada stared at him. "Really?"
"Two to one. Majority rules." Takuma rolled his shoulders. "But if the head-on breakthrough fails—"
"Don't worry!" Sato thumped his chest. "It won't fail!"
Takuma didn't finish what he'd been about to say. He silently tucked two extra Explosive Tags into his ninja pouch, then followed the other two toward the training ground.
Yamada and Sato charged forward, one on either side.
Sato attacked first, sending three Kunai arcing toward Iruka's face. It was his full-power strike. Yamada charged straight ahead, forming Hand Seals to use the Clone Technique—two clones moved in from the sides while his real body went straight for the center.
There was no hesitation or probing. It was a genuine all-out attack. Against an ordinary Genin, or even students of their own level, this combination attack might actually have worked. The strategy was reckless, but their execution and coordination were genuinely good.
Their opponent was Iruka, a Chunin. He'd graduated from the Ninja Academy at twelve and had been a Chunin for six years. Compared to the strong, he might be unimpressive, but against students who had only recently enrolled, his strength was overwhelming. He'd faced more opponents than Yamada and Sato could imagine combined.
Iruka's figure wavered in place, leaving behind a wooden log. Two Shuriken struck it with a dull thunk. Yamada's clones missed at the same time, and before his real body could turn around, he felt a sharp numbness at the nape of his neck. Iruka's hand chop had landed precisely on the side of his neck, with just enough force to incapacitate him without causing any real injury.
Yamada's legs gave way, and he dropped to one knee. The Shuriken in his hand rolled across the ground.
At the same time, another of Iruka's clones appeared beside Sato. Sato had just taken out his second volley of Shuriken when he caught sight of the figure out of the corner of his eye and instinctively tried to dodge sideways. But Iruka was faster. He swept Sato's ankles with a low kick, then struck him in the back as he lost his balance.
Sato stumbled twice, then landed face-first on the ground.
From the start of the match to the moment they both fell, no more than fifteen seconds had passed.
Takuma hadn't moved. He'd seen it all clearly: Iruka had used a clone, with his real body taking out Yamada as the clone dropped Sato. The gap between the two takedowns had been less than a second; they were practically simultaneous. This wasn't a spur-of-the-moment reaction. It was muscle memory built through experience.
"Your tactical intent was good, and your execution was fast," Iruka said, walking past the fallen Yamada. His tone was gentle, but his words hit home. "But your opponent is a Chunin. A Chunin's range of perception, reaction speed, and combat experience are all far beyond a Genin's. Thinking that you can turn the tables by catching them off guard is a flaw in itself."
He turned to look at the last one standing.
"You're the only one left." Iruka's voice wasn't loud, but everyone on the training ground could hear him clearly. "Are you going to give up?"
The sunlight poured straight down onto the training ground. Takuma stood about ten meters from Iruka. Yamada and Sato lay at the edge of the field, and their classmates were helping them up. Both were still conscious, but temporarily unable to continue fighting.
Takuma didn't answer Iruka's question. He bent slightly and took up the starting stance for basic Taijutsu.
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