Tobirama furrowed his brow slightly. "Fire Release..." he murmured.
Born into the chaotic Warring States period and having fought the Uchiha Clan for so many years, Tobirama had an almost instinctive sensitivity to—and aversion to—the clan's signature Fire Release techniques.
Perhaps it was because he always considered the Uchiha potential rivals that he had worked so hard on Water Release, honing his skills until he became one of its top practitioners.
"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!" Hibari took a deep breath, puffing out his chest before opening his mouth and spitting a scorching fireball straight at Tobirama.
It was a basic Fire Release technique, but a practical one. The principle was simple: convert chakra into oil inside the body, then ignite it as it was expelled. The more oil you produced, the stronger the attack; produce too little, and it was just a parlor trick.
Hashirama watched from the sidelines, shaking his head as he shielded little Tsunade in his arms.
"You two really don't care about anyone else, do you?" he muttered. "Little Tsunade, don't pick up the bad habit of your second granduncle and Hibari when you're older, okay?"
Hashirama complained, but he moved fast. Afraid that using a Ninjutsu might interfere with the test, he couldn't even be bothered to block the attack. He tucked little Tsunade into his arms, pushed off the ground, and shot out of the fighting zone in a flash, getting away faster than anyone.
Tobirama was just as quick. Almost the instant Hashirama disappeared, his hands formed a simple seal in front of his chest.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall," he murmured.
The moment he finished speaking, a thick earthen wall burst up from the ground, blocking him. The fireball Hibari had spat out slammed into it and exploded in a burst of flames.
Hibari showed no sign of disappointment when his Flame Bullet was blocked.
He knew exactly how strong Tobirama was. It would have been strange if he hadn't been able to defend against that. Rather than feel discouraged, Hibari grinned, looking pleased with himself.
Smoke from the Earth-Style Wall and the exploding Flame Bullet mingled, instantly obscuring their view. That brief moment of cover was exactly what Hibari wanted. He changed his hand seals, and chakra surged through his body.
At almost the same moment, Tobirama, standing behind the earthen wall, twitched his brow and glanced down. The solid ground beneath his feet had somehow turned soft and sticky, slowly sinking away.
"Yellow Springs Swamp?" he said with a snort. "Fire Release followed by Earth Style. You know how to mix things up."
Before he could finish muttering, Hibari was already on the move again. He reached behind his waist, pulled out an ornate scroll, and tossed it into the air.
The scroll burst open with a puff of white smoke. When it cleared, a gigantic Fuma Shuriken hung before him. Hibari reached out with his left hand and caught it by the handle, then swung it with a powerful twist of his waist—
The Fuma Shuriken spun through the air, cutting a tricky arc as it deftly circled around the Earth-Style Wall and rushed straight toward Tobirama, trapped in the swamp.
As the huge weapon came hurtling at him with a whistling rush, a hint of approval flashed in Tobirama's eyes. But approval aside, Hibari's string of moves only rated as "not bad" in his book.
Standing in the steadily sinking swamp, he didn't move an inch. He simply drew a kunai from his waist. The instant the Fuma Shuriken reached him, he raised his hand and blocked it with a clang, holding its blade in place.
"If this is all you can do," Tobirama said evenly, looking at the blade a mere inch from his brow, "you're a hundred years too early to learn my 'weird and wonderful' Ninjutsu."
But before he had finished speaking, something happened that surprised him.
The Fuma Shuriken he had just blocked suddenly burst into white smoke. In the blink of an eye, it turned into Hibari! The boy's smug face popped up right in front of Tobirama.
"Second Granduncle, you really underestimate me!" Hibari grinned.
As he spoke, he had already drawn back his fist and was swinging it straight at Tobirama's face without the slightest hesitation. His fist was wrapped in surging chakra, whooshing through the air.
The Senju Clan were born with large reserves of chakra. To make the most of this advantage, their ancestors had passed down a Nintaijutsu that would later become famous throughout the Shinobi World: "Strength of a Hundred." Tsunade wasn't the only one who could use it; Hashirama and Tobirama had both been experts in their day.
As a promising third-generation member of the Senju Clan, Hibari had naturally learned it at an early age. This powerful punch, infused with Strength of a Hundred, was the "surprise" he had saved for Tobirama.
A look of surprise did flash through Tobirama's eyes—not because Hibari could use Strength of a Hundred; he already knew that. What surprised him was that he hadn't realized the Fuma Shuriken was a decoy.
With his eyesight, an ordinary Transformation Technique could never have fooled him. When he blocked it, the shuriken had clearly been a solid chunk of iron.
In other words... in that split second, Hibari and the Fuma Shuriken had switched places. That had to involve the advanced concept of "Space-Time."
At the thought, Tobirama's gaze grew more intent.
"If this is all you can do," Tobirama said evenly, looking at the blade a mere inch from his brow, "you're a hundred years too early to learn my 'weird and wonderful' Ninjutsu."
In other words... in that split second, Hibari and the Fuma Shuriken had switched places.
The moment the thought occurred to him, Tobirama understood. If that move had involved "Space-Time," then he had indeed been right to think so—because he had immediately recalled the simplest and most basic Space-Time Ninjutsu, one that almost every ninja knew at least a little.
That was the Substitution Technique.
The ordinary Substitution Technique amounted to swapping places with some nearby object. It barely counted as having anything to do with "Space-Time," and only scratched the surface. Few people ever looked into it any further.
Most ninjas only knew how to "use" it; they couldn't claim to "understand" it.
A more advanced Substitution Technique let you prepare a specific object in advance, then instantly switch places with it when needed, much like the Summoning Jutsu. These substitutes—
often had little tricks like Explosive Tags stuffed into them, making them excellent for catching an enemy off guard or turning the tables.
There were even more powerful techniques, of course, but they had nothing to do with Hibari right now.
Tobirama's thoughts raced, and he instantly concluded that the Fuma Shuriken had been a "substitute" Hibari had prepared in advance. He'd waited for the right moment, then pulled off a "swap the cat for the prince."
After all his years traveling the Shinobi World, what hadn't Tobirama seen? Yet this was the first time he'd encountered someone using a basic Ninjutsu in such a clever way. The brief surprise and resulting train of thought made him lose focus for the tiniest fraction of a second.
That was the opening Hibari had been waiting for!
"Got you!!!"
Excitement flashed in Hibari's eyes as he cheered inwardly. His fist, infused with Strength of a Hundred, slammed squarely into Tobirama's face!
But reality was always harsh.
The moment Hibari's fist landed, Tobirama's head burst apart with a bang. But there was none of the blood and brains Hibari had expected. Instead, a clear splash of water burst outward, splattering all over his face.
"Damn it! Water Clone!"
Hibari cursed and immediately tried to pull back.
But before he could use the Body Flicker Technique, Tobirama's utterly calm voice was already at his ear:
"You little brat. You've got plenty of tricks. But when it comes down to it, a ninja's strength is what matters."
The instant the words reached his ears, Hibari felt a fierce gust of wind at his side! He had only enough time to raise an arm to block, not even managing to complete the motion, before Tobirama's vicious sweeping kick slammed into it!
Thud!
Hibari was sent flying backward. Fortunately, he had guessed before leaving home that he'd be "sparring" with Second Granduncle today, so he had made a point of wearing the Senju Clan's signature Black Layered Armor.
The armor was cleverly designed, with one layer overlapping another, and could absorb a good deal of the impact. Thanks to the arm guards cushioning the blow, Hibari was kicked a long way—
and landed in a heap, but he wasn't seriously injured. After all, Tobirama was only testing him, not trying to kill him, so he had held back.
Hibari rolled twice across the ground, then sprang back to his feet and shook his numb arm. He was just about to say something when he looked up and saw Tobirama already forming hand seals in the distance.
"Water Release? No... those hand signs... Damn it! It's a genjutsu!"
Hibari instinctively tried to identify Tobirama's hand seals to predict what Ninjutsu he was using and decide whether to dodge or block.
But that instinct was exactly what Tobirama had counted on. As a veteran who had fought his way out of the blood-soaked Warring States period, Tobirama knew these "fledglings" and their habits all too well. Instinct could save your life sometimes, and other times, it could cost you.
No matter how varied genjutsu could be, its essence was always to plant a "suggestion" in the opponent's mind. Every clan had its own way of doing that.
The Uchiha relied on the ocular power of the Sharingan. Most other schools relied on guiding their opponents with body movements. That was exactly what Tobirama was doing now.
He had cleverly hidden the key "suggestion" in the movements of his hand seals. Hibari instinctively watched the changes in his fingers, and as soon as his attention was drawn in, he fell for it.
"Ninja Art: Bringer-of-Darkness Technique."
Tobirama murmured the name of the jutsu.
In an instant, Hibari's vision went dark! All light and scenery vanished without a trace, as if he had been thrown into a vat of ink. He couldn't see his hand in front of his face or tell up from down, left from right.
Meanwhile, Hashirama watched from afar, cheerfully stroking his chin. "Oh, Tobirama's using my jutsu to bully a kid? That's pretty amusing, actually..."
That was right: the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique was originally Hashirama's jutsu. Tobirama had learned it from his older brother but didn't use it often. He had been in the mood today, so he'd decided to give Hibari "a lesson."
In the pitch darkness, unable to sense a thing, Hibari felt anxious and frustrated. Breaking a genjutsu was easy to explain, but not so easy to do. And when the genjutsu had been cast by Tobirama, how could he expect to break it just like that?
Besides, this wasn't an illusion that created false images. It directly robbed him of his sight, making it a real pain to deal with.
Although he couldn't see a thing, his other senses still worked. The moment a gust of wind rushed toward him, Hibari gritted his teeth, stomped the ground, and poured all his chakra into his arm. Then he swung his fist down at the ground with all his might!
Rock-Crushing Fist!
He shouted. To Hashirama, it looked as though a meteor had crashed into the ground around the boy, shattering it with a thunderous roar! Tobirama, who had been about to follow up with another attack, was forced back by the brute force of the blow.
"Whoa, quick reaction..." Hashirama chuckled, stroking his chin.
Why was breaking a genjutsu so difficult, especially when Tobirama was the one who had cast it? Because after you fell for one of his techniques—
he could probably hit you with a whole string of attacks and finish you off in an instant. When would you get the chance to break the genjutsu? That was why Hibari hadn't frantically tried to dispel it. Instead, he had first driven Second Granduncle back.
Once Hibari felt that his attack had worked, he began breaking the genjutsu.
The principle behind breaking a genjutsu was simple: disrupt the flow of your own chakra. As a member of the Senju Clan, famous for precise chakra control, and someone who had mastered Strength of a Hundred, Hibari was naturally familiar with how to do that.
"Release!"
He brought his hands together in front of his chest and called out. The chakra throughout his body began to...
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