Chapter 19: Partial Heavenly Transformation
Nara Shikagen came out of his office. "What are you all arguing about?" Seeing Yamashita So dressed in his flashy armor, he said, "Are you planning to wear that for the combat exams?"
So took out an iron staff from his back, struck a pose like Sun Wukong fighting a demon, and said excitedly, "That's right! This is the battle armor of Sun Wukong! Cool, right?"
Nara Shikagen looked at the two feathers on his head. "You'll find out how useful it is during the combat portion. By the way, you were the only one who failed yesterday's theory exam. After the practical exams, go to the classroom and copy the test paper ten times. You're not leaving until you're finished."
"Ah..." So's face fell instantly. The others all burst out laughing.
Next was the shuriken throwing exam. "Yamashita So, you're up first."
So threw out ten shuriken with a series of swooshes. In the end, only three hit the target board.
"Three on the board, zero in the bullseye. Fail. Next, Uchiha Kagami."
Kagami, unlike a certain other Uchiha, didn't bother with any fancy Uchiha Style Shurikenjutsu and just threw them normally like everyone else.
"Ten hits, all in the bullseye. Excellent."
The students went up one by one to take the test. Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo both hit nine bullseyes without missing the board.
Yamamoto Ryusei and Hyuga Natsuki both hit eight bullseyes. The rest of the students mostly scored between four and seven bullseyes. Yuki missed the board with one but still hit seven bullseyes. The only one who failed was Yamashita So.
Nara Shikagen led all the students to the sparring ground. "We will now begin the combat exams. First match: Uchiha Kagami versus Sarutobi Hiruzen."
"Kagami, you can do it! Beat that monkey!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen was relatively thin and small, but his long arms made him look like a monkey, which had earned him the nickname.
"Kagami, you're the coolest! You have to win!"
Hiruzen and Kagami both leaped onto the stage. Nara Shikagen stood in the middle. "On this stage, any means can be used, but you are not to kill or permanently injure your opponent. You may surrender. Alright, you may begin when ready."
Kagami started by throwing several shuriken and kunai at Hiruzen. The projectiles collided in mid-air, changing their trajectories to fly at Hiruzen from different angles—the Uchiha Style Shurikenjutsu.
Hiruzen used a kunai to knock away the incoming shuriken one by one. Kagami took the opportunity to close the distance and attack with taijutsu. The two went back and forth on the stage. Suddenly, Kagami's eyes turned red as he activated his one-tomoe Sharingan. "Hiruzen, I can see all your movements clearly! This match is mine!"
Kagami pressed his attack relentlessly, forcing Hiruzen to constantly retreat. Taking a hit to create an opening, Hiruzen swung his kunai forward to push Kagami back, then immediately used a Body Flicker to flash to the side. He formed hand seals. "Water Style: Great Water Wave!" Hiruzen spewed a large volume of water that rushed towards Kagami.
"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" Kagami formed his own seals and slammed his hands on the ground. An earthen wall rose before him, blocking Hiruzen's torrent.
Before Kagami's hands even left the ground, he heard Hiruzen's voice from above. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
Hiruzen's blast of wind directly hit Kagami's body, leaving several small cuts on him.
Poof! The injured Kagami turned into a block of splintered wood.
"A Substitution Jutsu? When did he form the seals?" Hiruzen thought.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!" A massive fireball came roaring at Hiruzen from behind. He formed hand seals. "Water Style: Water Whip!" He turned and lashed the whip at the fireball.
Boom! The water whip and the fireball collided violently before dissipating, splashing out to the sides. The watching students scrambled and yelped, clumsily dodging the scattered flames and water.
The sparring stage was enveloped in the steam generated by the collision.
"This is bad!" Hiruzen's heart sank as his vision was obscured by the mist.
"I win, Hiruzen." Using his Sharingan, Kagami accurately located Hiruzen and held a kunai to his neck from behind.
"Yeah... I lose," Hiruzen conceded. Although he still had some tricks to escape, on a real battlefield, he would already be dead.
"The winner of this match is Uchiha Kagami! Next match: Shimura Danzo versus Yamamoto Ryusei," Nara Shikagen announced.
The girls below began to scream again.
"Danzo is so handsome too! I love him!"
"Danzo, you have to win beautifully, just like Kagami!"
"Beat that muscle monster! Don't let us down, Danzo!"
Calling me a muscle monster is going too far. Because Ryusei had been training since he was young, not only was he a head taller than his peers, but his self-invented chakra nourishment technique also made his body much stronger. But he wasn't at the level of a "muscle monster."
"Go, Ryusei-nii!" Among the girls, only Komiya Yuki was cheering for him.
Shimura Danzo looked at Ryusei's obviously bulging muscles and resolved that he absolutely could not let him get close. After Nara Shikagen gave the signal to start, Danzo immediately leaped back to create distance and formed hand seals. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" He unleashed a great gale containing wind blades that blew towards Ryusei.
"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" Ryusei slammed his hands on the ground, raising an earthen wall that blocked the attack.
He leaped over the wall and threw several shuriken at Danzo, who dodged them without stopping his hand seals. "Wind Style: Wind Cutter!"
Danzo spat out more wind blades, forcing Ryusei back again.
'This is no good. He can just kite me to death.' Ryusei formed hand seals. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
"Wind Style: Thousand-Faced Wind!" Danzo blew out over a thousand small wind blades that shredded Ryusei's fireball to pieces.
"Soru!" Ryusei used the opening to instantly move in front of Danzo and smashed a fist into his stomach. The pain made Danzo curl up like a cooked shrimp, kneeling on the ground.
The sound from the cheerleaders stopped abruptly. They stared blankly at Danzo on the ground. The sudden end left everyone confused. Danzo clearly had the upper hand, so how did Ryusei win in an instant?
Only Uchiha Kagami with his Sharingan and Hyuga Natsuki with his Byakugan saw that Ryusei hadn't used any hand seals at all.
"Teacher," Ryusei said, looking at the still-stunned Nara Shikagen. "Aren't you going to announce the result?"
'I didn't see him form any seals... Could his hand seals be so fast that I can't even see them?' Nara Shikagen came back to his senses, looked at the incapacitated, shrimp-balled Danzo, and announced, "Yamamoto Ryusei is the winner! Next match: Nara Shikamei versus Hyuga Natsuki."
Danzo was helped down by the girls, who shot Ryusei a vicious glare before leaving.
The fight between Natsuki and Shikamei was a bit boring. Natsuki constantly tested Shikamei's Shadow Imitation Technique from the edge of the ring, while Shikamei, trying to prevent Natsuki from getting close, kept blocking him. Before long, Shikamei exhausted his chakra and surrendered.
The next few fights were just novices pecking at each other, completely incomparable to the earlier matches.
Komiya Yuki's opponent was Utatane Koharu. The two ended up just trading blows in taijutsu until they both collapsed from exhaustion, resulting in a draw.
"Hahaha, it's finally my turn!" Yamashita So leaped from the sidelines onto the stage, planting his iron staff on the ground. "This is the first battle of I, the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven! My undefeated legend begins now!"
So's words drew a round of mockery from the students below. The name "Great Sage, Equal to Heaven" was very popular, and most of them wanted it for themselves.
His opponent, Akimichi Torifu, directly challenged him. "Look at how weak you are. How do you look like the Great Sage? The Great Sage should be strong, like me!" Torifu had always believed that the "Fa Tian Xiang Di" (Heavenly Transformation) was his family's Expansion Jutsu, so he had always considered himself a descendant of Sun Wukong. But other deities could also use that ability, so his conclusion had long since been refuted.
"You?" So looked Torifu up and down and sneered. "You're so fat, you'd be a better fit for the Giant Spirit God."
Torifu's face turned red with anger as he roared, "I'm not fat! I'm just plump!"
"Ninjutsu: Partial Heavenly Transformation!" Torifu's right arm instantly grew larger than his entire body, and he swatted So out of the ring with a single blow.
Seeing So fly out of the sparring stage, Nara Shikagen announced, "The winner of this match is Akimichi Torifu! Only Yamashita So has failed this exam. He will retake the theory and shuriken throwing tests in five days. If he still fails, he will have to repeat the year. You are all dismissed."
"Wait!" So stood up, clutching his face, and pointed at Torifu. "He sneak-attacked me!"
"Sneak attack?" Shikagen asked with a puzzled look. "Ninjas are allowed to use sneak attacks. You were the one who wasn't vigilant, who can you blame? If this were a battlefield, you would already be dead. Who would give you a chance to protest?"
After being reprimanded by Nara Shikagen, Yamashita So fell silent.