The next day, at ten in the morning, Training Ground Seven.
It lay on the outskirts of Sunagakure, where yellow sand filled the sky and the wind made it hard to open one's eyes.
Hoshino walked over at a leisurely pace, carrying his ninja tool pouch and equipment.
After he waited a short while.
Rasa, Grandma Chiyo, and Ebizo, whom he rarely saw, appeared before him.
Four or five Anbu Ninja wearing animal masks followed them.
Unlike them, Konoha's Anbu mostly wore masks depicting harmless animals such as cats and dogs.
Sunagakure's Anbu masks, on the other hand, mostly depicted somewhat ferocious ninja beasts.
Still, Hoshino was curious. Surely an early graduation assessment didn't require this many people?
"Lord Kazekage!"
Hoshino greeted him with great respect.
He was Sunagakure's leader, after all. Hoshino couldn't be too casual; he had to show him some respect.
Rasa, by contrast, gave a thoroughly aloof "Mm," then looked at the two elders beside him.
"Begin."
The moment he finished speaking, an Anbu Ninja flashed into view before Hoshino.
"The early graduation assessment is much harder than the regular graduation assessment. Are you ready?"
"I'm ready!"
"First, the Three Basic Techniques. Perform all of them once, fully and smoothly. No flaws are permitted."
Hoshino nodded solemnly. He straightened his thumbs, index fingers, and little fingers, curled his middle and ring fingers, and formed the starting seal.
The Three Basic Techniques consisted of the Clone Technique, the Substitution Technique, and the Transformation Technique.
They were techniques every Ninja Academy student had to learn.
Those three techniques were precisely what set ninja apart from ordinary people.
As it happened, all three techniques began with the Ram Hand Seal.
So Hoshino decided to combine all three and use them together.
If he wanted to make a splash, he naturally couldn't hold anything back.
This wasn't Konoha, after all. He didn't have to worry about being targeted by the Darkness of the Shinobi World, and besides, who didn't have someone backing them?
"Clone Technique!"
Two figures split off from him, identical to the original, with not the slightest difference between them.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-
The Anbu examiner flung three Shuriken, their passage through the air tearing through the wind and sand.
Thud, thud, thud-
Three muffled impacts rang out.
The two clones were struck by the Shuriken on the spot and vanished in puffs of smoke.
At the original's position, a Shuriken embedded itself in a log, but Hoshino was nowhere to be seen.
The examiner narrowed his eyes and looked at the ninja tool pouch lying on the ground, the corners of his mouth rising slightly.
This kid's impressive!
He used three techniques at the same time in such a short span.
They may all be basic techniques, but for a third-year student, that's still quite an accomplishment.
"Lord Examiner, does that count as passing the first part of the assessment?"
The ninja tool pouch Hoshino had transformed into returned to his original form with a poof, and he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
That was close!
The other man's Shuriken came too fast. I almost didn't finish the hand seals.
The rest was manageable, but the Substitution Technique was a bit of a hassle.
To put it plainly, the Substitution Technique summoned a substitute log in front of the user to block an attack.
A more advanced way to use it was to combine it with the Transformation Technique.
When the smoke rose and blocked the enemy's vision, the user could transform into something else to confuse them and launch a sneak attack.
But if the opponent attacked too quickly, or could see the flow of Chakra within the human body, the method wasn't very useful.
To put it bluntly.
This method could fool a Genin at best, and might not even fool an experienced Chunin.
"You've passed the first part. Next is the second: directly withstand my Taijutsu attacks for one minute."
As soon as he finished speaking, the examiner vanished from where he stood.
So fast!
Hoshino couldn't even see how the man had disappeared. He only heard a rush of air behind his ear and instinctively raised his arm to block.
Bam-
A sharp pain shot through his arm, and his body flew four or five meters away.
So strong!
Is this an attack from an Anbu Ninja?
Even without augmentation Ninjutsu, the examiner's physical abilities alone left Hoshino unable to fight back.
But just because the examiner can't use Ninjutsu or other aids doesn't mean I can't.
As for losing face and all that...
Come on, this is the assessment in the first place. Besides, anyone who can join the Anbu is at least a Special Jōnin.
There's nothing strange about not being able to beat him, okay?
Hoshino flipped over and landed firmly on the ground, then quickly pulled three Shuriken from his ninja tool pouch and flung them out.
He knew an attack like that couldn't possibly hit his opponent.
So with his other hand, Hoshino took a lens from behind his waist and placed it over his left eye.
Stimulated by Chakra, ten flies flew out from his belt, while ten small spiders crawled down his trouser legs and slipped into the sand.
By then, the examiner had dodged the incoming Shuriken and was closing in again.
Seeing this, Hoshino sent the ten flies swarming toward him, then used shared vision to observe his movements from every angle.
In his field of vision.
Dotted lines appeared across the lens, dividing the area more than ten meters ahead into sections, each about the size of a foot.
Ten faint red dots flickered in some of those sections.
They marked the positions of the small spiders.
Hoshino knew he couldn't possibly match the examiner's speed, so he could only predict where he might land.
Fortunately, his luck was good.
When the examiner leaped to within roughly five meters of Hoshino, the tip of his foot happened to be right over a red dot.
With a bang, the ground exploded, and flames shot straight toward the examiner's foot.
The blast wasn't very powerful, nowhere near as strong as an Explosive Tag, but at point-blank range, it was enough to blow a foot off.
This is bad, the examiner thought.
He forcibly twisted his body in midair, just managing to get himself out of the blast radius.
But in doing so, he lost his balance in the air.
Seeing the opportunity, Hoshino didn't recklessly rush forward. Instead, he continued controlling the remaining spiders, sending them in to surround the examiner.
He was a puppeteer, after all!
What kind of puppeteer runs up to fight someone at close quarters?
If I can surround someone and kill them with puppets, I'll never show myself in front of them.
The whole point is to fight dirty.
Besides, the spiders didn't move all that slowly, at least compared with the examiner, who had nothing to push against in midair.
They held an absolute advantage in terrain.
The corners of Hoshino's mouth rose slightly. "Ready for the art of explosions?"
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang-
The remaining spiders exploded one after another. Booms rose and fell across the training ground, kicking up a great cloud of sand and dust.
"Done!"
A confident smile appeared on Hoshino's face.
But only a moment later, his beaming smile suddenly froze.
A figure had suddenly appeared among the bursts of flame and was charging straight at Hoshino.
On closer inspection, his clothes were somewhat torn, and blood was seeping from his wounds, but they were nowhere near fatal.
What else could I say? He really is an Anbu Ninja!
"Hmph, brat, this ends here!" The examiner's gaze was sharp, with a faint trace of anger.
He really had nearly fallen for it.
Fortunately, the small spiders' explosions were weak and had a small range.
As long as he had enough control over his body, he could break out of the blast radius at the cost of some injuries.