"Fire Style: Distant Fire Jutsu!"
A thunderous voice rang out, and a scorching current of air surged from Yūichi's mouth, drifting silently to an open patch of ground over ten meters away.
Crackle!
As Yūichi changed his hand seals, the properties of the gas rapidly changed. Scorching flames erupted from the transparent gas, over ten meters away from him. His Fire Style attacked another location, with no connection between the flames and Yūichi.
"Hmm, not bad. That's good enough to use in actual combat." Orochimaru watched the raging flames in the distance as he evaluated Yūichi.
"Then does that mean I passed this test?" Yūichi was clearly getting impatient.
"Of course. Not only did you pass, you were the first to complete the test. You should rank first," Orochimaru told Yūichi expressionlessly.
"Me? First place?" Happiness had come so suddenly that it felt somewhat unreal to Yūichi.
He could not help looking toward the other end of the dense woods, where the sound of electrical currents rang out from time to time. Hirakawa Shin'un, whom he had regarded as his greatest rival at the Ninja Academy and who had defeated him countless times, was over there.
Had I really beaten Shin'un just like that?
"That's not right." Yūichi abruptly snapped out of his dreamlike state, realizing what was wrong. "Shin'un must be secretly doing something that takes extra time. Otherwise, with his abilities, he wouldn't need this long to practice a Ninjutsu."
Yūichi considered himself Shin'un's only rival during their Ninja Academy days and knew him well enough. A mere C-rank Ninjutsu would not take him long to master.
What is he doing? Something so important that he'd spend extra time on it even if it lowered his test evaluation? Convinced that Shin'un had long since finished practicing his Ninjutsu, Yūichi had already forgotten all about his first-place title. All he could think about was what Shin'un was doing.
"Sensei?" Shiina Sora emerged from the dense woods.
Hearing her voice, Orochimaru opened his eyes again and looked at Shiina Kō, seemingly surprised that even she had finished practicing her Ninjutsu.
"Where's Shin'un?" Shiina Kō scanned the surrounding clearing but could not find the person she wanted to see, leaving her no choice but to ask Yūichi, who stood nearby with a gloomy expression.
"Shin'un? Who knows what he's doing?" At Shiina Kō's question, Yūichi glanced aside and casually pointed toward the patch of dense woods where Shin'un was.
"What is he doing?" Shiina Kō quickly reached the same conclusion as Yūichi-Shin'un was doing something that took extra time.
"Who knows?" Yūichi rolled his eyes at Shiina Kō's words and replied offhandedly, "Maybe he's modifying the Ninjutsu."
"Don't talk nonsense!" Shiina Kō frowned, rejecting Yūichi's guess. She admitted that Shin'un was cheerful, handsome, perceptive, talented, forward-thinking... but no matter how much of a genius he was, he could not possibly finish modifying a Ninjutsu in such a short time.
After a moment's thought, Shiina Kō decided to stop worrying about Shin'un over on the other side. She turned toward Orochimaru, who sat leaning back on the ground, holding a book and seemingly pondering something.
"Sensei, I've finished practicing my Ninjutsu, to the point where I can use it in actual combat." Shiina Kō straightened up and reported to Orochimaru.
"Hmm!" After seeing Shiina Kō arrive and start talking to Yūichi, Orochimaru had thought he could slack off for a while and think things over, only for her report to startle him out of his thoughts.
"Sigh..."
Looking at Shiina Kō standing before him, Orochimaru let out a long sigh and reluctantly began working "overtime."
"All right, show me." Orochimaru's distinctively hoarse, chilling voice rang out.
Choosing a thick tree as her target, Shiina Kō began forming hand seals. Two or three seconds passed in a flash.
"Water Release: Circular Cutting Slash!"
As Shiina Kō finished her hand seals, a water blade shaped like a full moon appeared between her hands. As it flowed, thin streams of water could be seen moving at extremely high speed along its edge, giving the blade tremendous cutting power.
With a wave of her hand, the circular blade immediately shot forward at tremendous speed. The yielding water actually made a faint sound of a blade slicing through the air as it traveled.
Rip!
Like the silkiest chocolate, the circular water blade passed through the trunk without the slightest resistance, then cut through several obstacles behind it before dissipating on the spot.
Crash!
Under the pull of gravity, the severed trunk slowly slid down before finally toppling sideways onto the ground. Fortunately, the Land of Rain's year-round damp conditions kept any dust from rising.
Yūichi curiously approached the severed trunk and stump for a look. The cuts were extremely smooth, without a single splinter left by the cutting.
"Not bad!" Seeing the power of this Ninjutsu, Yūichi turned to look at Shiina Kō in astonishment, as though seeing her in a new light. "That's pretty powerful."
Even Orochimaru raised his brows, pleasantly surprised by the talent for Water Release that Shiina Kō's personal report had failed to mention.
"Why haven't you ever shown this kind of talent before?" Yūichi walked over and asked Shiina Kō curiously.
Shiina Kō glanced at Yūichi as he questioned her.
"My parents are both civilians, and they only moved to Konoha when I was little. Even my enrollment in the Ninja Academy was decided at the last minute. Naturally, there weren't any suitable Water Release Ninjutsu for me to learn."
"Oh, I see." Hearing Shiina Kō's words, Yūichi finally realized that not everyone had the same advantages he did.
Shiina Kō turned toward the shade of the tree and asked, "Sensei, did I pass the test?"
"Of course, you passed." Faced with Shiina Kō's greater proficiency in her Ninjutsu than Yūichi's, Orochimaru had no reason to refuse.
Recalling the difficulty Shiina Kō had just revealed-that her family had no Water Release Ninjutsu for her to practice-Orochimaru put down the book in his hands and thought for a moment.
"Don't worry. I'll arrange suitable Ninjutsu training for you from now on."
Seemingly not having expected the thoroughly chilling Orochimaru to be so warmhearted, Shiina Kō was a little dazed.
Still, she quickly recovered and thanked her teacher with a smile. "Thank you."
Orochimaru seemed to want to respond to Shiina Kō's thanks with a smile as well. However, the cold expression he had worn since childhood meant he was unaccustomed to controlling his facial muscles to smile, making the resulting expression exceedingly strange.
He bared his white teeth, with his brows half raised and half lowered and his nose wrinkled. His entire face looked utterly ferocious.
The expression gave Shiina Kō a terrible fright. Had it not been impossible, she would have thought her newly accepted teacher was about to fight her to the death...
"Sensei, could you act normal? Don't scare me." Looking at the "ferocious" expression on Orochimaru's face, Shiina Kō barely maintained her smile.
Hearing Shiina Kō's words, perhaps realizing that the smile he had displayed did not look good, Orochimaru immediately withdrew his "smile."
His expression turned cold, and his distinctive, chilling aura once again surrounded him. Having endured the ravages of "Orochimaru's smiling face," Shiina Kō let out a long breath of relief.
Seemingly dejected that the smile he had finally managed to produce had been met with misgivings, Orochimaru glared at Shiina Kō as he returned his gaze to the book in his hands.