Kapitel 78: Ragdoll

The crowd went electric immediately they heard Renjiro challenging the top rank. Only five people were left with their last chance of ranking up.

They also wanted to see why no one had challenged the first rank. He had not used his two chances since he had more to lose if he used them.

This only made the crowd desperate to watch him get challenged. Surely being in the first rank meant that he was one of, if not, the strongest genin among the the challengers.

In the stands, Shimura Isagi, a jounin, remarked, "Why did your Nephew challenge him, Miwa? He might be good, but from what I have seen, he might not win."

Miwa, on the other hand, just smiled. "How did you expect to see much from him when no one has pushed him to a wall? You have always spoken highly of that boy, so I am sure this is going to be a good battle."

Back at the platforms, A brown-headed boy just humphed as he followed Renjiro to the arena. His name was Shimura Tenko.

He did not outrightly use Intimidation on his fellow genins to ensure he did not get any challenges coming his way, but his reputation did create a similar effect.

If Tenko wanted, he would have participated in the previous chunin exams and even passed, but he was advised not to and forced to follow a path laid out by his father so that he could make a name for himself during this iteration of the exam.

So far, everything had gone according to plan. He had been among the first teams to clear the Forest of Death days prior to the deadline. He also easily won his three matches in the preliminaries earning his rank.

He was almost going to finish the finals without receiving a challenge until Renjiro challenged him. He had seen Renjiro's previous matches and wasn't really impressed.

'Either way, winning this match would still ensure that my objective will be met.'

Meanwhile, Renjiro was perplexed. 'Tenko Shimura. Why does the name sound familiar, it seems like I am forgetting something.'

"Begin!"

With the signal given, both sprang into action heading towards each other.

"Bam!" Both genins clashed as their fists met they then jumped back. It was clear that they were probing one another.

'He is strong! Now I remember why the name sounded familiar. He was the guy the academy instructors were calling a prodigy.

He had graduated before I enrolled but the instructors still praised him. I am sure he is a capable shinobi, but he is no Itachi.'

Tenku did not waste more time and closed in on Renjiro while throwing a left hook. Renjiro ducked and counteracted with a sweeping kick intending to sweep Tenko off his feet.

Unfortunately, Tenku sees the attack and he does a backflip while throwing five kunais at Renjiro. Instead of dodging, Renjiro grabbed the moving kunais in pairs and redirected them back to their sender.

Tenku uses a kunai he was holding to deflect the incoming projectiles.

"I was wondering why no one challenged you. I thought you were strong, but I guess the rest were cowards."

Renjiro knew that a fight was as much mental as it was physical. Taunting his opponents was not beneath him because gaining an inching in a mental exchange would make the fight easier for him.

Tenku's face darkened as he heard Renjiro, but after a moment it reverted to his previous expression.

'He has good control.' Renjiro Thought.

"Don't worry, let me enlighten you," Tenku said as four shadow clones appeared next to him. All clones of him headed towards him.

Renjiro tilted his head as he dodged the clone holding a kunai. He flipped backwards while throwing, dispelling the clone.

While he was in the air, he got ahold of the nape of the other two clones intending to shove their head to the ground as he landed, but it seemed that Tenku had other plans.

The original Tenku smirked as Renjiro was met with a blinding light. Just as his feet were inches to the ground, the two clones he was holding exploded.

The impact of the explosion sent Renjiro crashing to the ground twice in succession before rolling.

'What just-'

Renjiro did not have time to express his shock as he opened his eyes to a view of Tenku in the air directly above him. His foot was outstretched clearly targeting Renjiro's abdomen.

Tenku shouted, "Wind Barrage!"

Quickly gathering himself, Renjiro rolled to the side as he avoided the kick and turned his head. What he saw shocked him! A couple of meters away from him, there were cracks on the ground.

'Did he do that with his foot? No, he must have used a wind jutsu to reinforce his foot.'

After concluding the most likely case, Renjiro quickly rose and flickered a metre away. Tenku did not give Renjiro any moment to breathe as he appeared behind him attacking with a kunai.

Renjiro tilted his head avoiding the strike, but Tenku retracted his arm and hit Renjiro on his cheeks with his elbow. He followed with a kick to the side which Renjiro blocked with his arms.

The genins continued trading blows for a while until when Tenku had enough of it and jumped several meters back. Yes, they were trading blows, but none of Tenku's connected since Renjiro had fast reflexes.

He, other the other hand, received the full brunt of a majority of Renjiro's strikes. He had always been proud of his physique but it seemed to be made of iron.

"What? Is this too much for you?" Renjiro said with a taunting smile.

Tenku scoffed and retrieved a shuriken which he threw towards Renjiro's direction.

As the shuriken neared, Tenku made a hand sign and five more similar appeared. From the trajectory, Renjiro concluded that Tenku was targeting his head and limbs.

'I have to dodge this!'

Renjiro jumped, almost making a split in the air. He also moved his head leaving him in an unnatural position in the air which Tenku took advantage of.

He appeared behind Renjiro and shouted, "Infinite Breakthrough!!"

Renjiro was pushed by winds to the nearest wall surrounding the arena. He crashed into the wall but he did not take long before he regained composure and headed towards Tenku.

Tenku repeated the jutsu sending him back crashing at the same wall. This time he did not get up.

'Is this how Hyuro felt? Because it is really annoying!' he thought as Tenku was meters from him. Renjiro turned his head and used genjutsu on Tenku.

At least that is what he thought, but Tenku just scoffed and said,

"I was getting lessons on how to avoid genjutsu even before I got into the academy, what makes you think that your attempt will succeed."

Tenku spammed the infinite breakthrough again. Since Renjiro was already close to the wall, he took the full brunt of the attack.

Immediately the winds stopped, a shadow clone appeared next to Renjiro. With a hand sign from both him and the shadow clone, Renjiro used his first combination jutsu.

"Flame Wave!"

"Wind Wave!"

Tenku widened his eyes as the wind and flame expelled by Renjiro combined and exploded right in front of him. The Impact took Tenku from one end of the arena to another.

Tenku's figure flailed in the air like a ragdoll as he covered the arena's diameter, crushing into the wall.

Cheers echoes around the arena. This was by far the most entertaining fight the village had seen the whole day.

"That was oddly satisfying," Renjiro muttered as take a moment to gather himself, something he would regret soon.

"I agree that you might be good, by other's standards, next time choose your battles well." Tenku began making hand signs.

'What is he on about-' Renjiro's instincts flared as Tenku finished preparing his Jutsu.

Back in the podium above them, Hiruzen turned to the man sitting beside him and asked, "Danzo, why would you teach a genin such a dangerous jutsu?"

=====

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Kapitel 79: Gamble

Danzo failed to answer Hirzuen, but a frown still appeared on his face.

'What is wrong with this boy? He wasn't supposed to use this set of jutsus.'

Hiruzen was not the only one alarmed, all experienced shinobi who saw him in the second war were also alarmed. Daichi also furrowed his brows at the scene but decided not to do anything about it.

The same could not be said for Fugaku who was sitting beside his father. He couldn't help but yell,

"Is he trying to kill him?"

His outburst only garnered looks from the other clan heads sitting around them.

"Cool down Fugaku, your behaviour is not befitting of the future Uchiha Clan head. Also, have some faith in Renjiro."

Back on the stage, Tenku shouted, "Wind Release; Vacuum bullets!"

He used one of his father's signature jutsus. The vacuum jutsus developed by Danzo was among the most destructive wind jutsus ever created.

To learn jutsus of such calibre just showed how Tenku was talented as well as dangerous.

Despite having a considerable distance between them, Renjiro still found it difficult to dodge the bullets. The bullets were moving at high speeds as Tenku continued to shoot the bullets from his mouth.

"Shit!"

One of the bullets grazed Renjiro's left thigh. At first, he thought that the bullet only left behind a shallow wound, but with the amount of blood dying his pants red, he knew there was more to the wound.

'This is Dangerous!'

Seeing that he could dodge other bullets heading his way, a shadow clone appeared in front of Renjiro. The shadow clone took the full brunt of the attack. Before it was dispelled, Renjiro stepped on it to jump higher to avoid other bullets.

'This is my chance!'

Once Renjiro landed, he realized that Tenku had stopped releasing the bullets and was panting. Clearly, releasing such attacks was taking a toll on him.

"Just give Up!" Tenku urged as he threw a punch at Renjiro.

"Now why would I do that?" Renjiro retorted.

"Fine, don't say you weren't warned."

Tenku took a deep breath as he used another wind vacuum jutsu, Vacuum Wave.

This time, Renjiro was prepared. He moved his abdomen and took a crab-like stance as he dodged the wave.

Before Tenku could adjust his target, Renjiro shifted his weight to his hands. Using his legs he clasped Tenku on the neck and performed the scissor takedown on him.

Tenku slammed hard on the ground. As he got up to his feet, he was visibly disoriented and staggard for a moment. Tenku tried to get his bearing, only to hear voices around his shout.

"Flame Wave"

"Wind Wave"

"Flame Wave"

"Wind Wave"

Renjiro had made three more shadow clones and repeated his previous attack. Tenku crashed into the same hole in the wall Renjiro did a few minutes ago.

Renjiro and his clones flickered next to him, but Tenku was quick and released a vacuum jutsu that dispelled the clones and blew Renjiro away. The jutsu slashed on Renjiro, piercing his skin and dying his whole outfit red.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!!" Tenku muttered, he barely had enough energy left and was just holding on.

'Why doesn't he just stay down?' Tenku lamented on seeing Renjiro get up.

Tenku wanted to repeat the same thing, but Renjiro was quicker and punched him, disrupting the flow of chakra for his next jutsu.

"You sure like blasting those jutsus. I guess I should also try them."

"You bastard." Tenku tried to punch Renjiro. Instead of dodging, Renjiro redirected it and their hands met.

Not in the romantic sense, but they performed the rat seal. Tenku continued throwing punches and only became aware of what Renjiro was doing after they completed the fourth hand sign and Renjiro said,

"Here's your Enlightenment, Vacuum serial waves!"

For a moment, there was a pin-drop silence in the arena as the vacuum waves caught Tenku at point-blank range.

They also made deep cuts on him, gifting him with the same treatment he dished at Renjiro a few minutes prior.

How did Renjiro perform the same jutsu, that Tenku did a few minutes prior? It's pretty simple. From the first time Tenku used the vacuum bullets jutsu, Renjiro's keen eyes caught a minute detail.

Tenku had not really mastered the jutsu, otherwise, why would he need more than four signs to actually perform it?

'Is he Danzo's son? Still, this is good. If he already knows one vacuum jutsu, then if I push him, he might show me more. These Jutsus are the premium wind jutsus in Konoha. I am not sure if I'll ever see Danzo or someone else use them again, so I better utilize this opportunity.' Renjiro schemed.

When Tenku used the Vacuum Serial waves, Renjiro was elated. Even as he lay there with cuts all over his body, he was contented.

Once Renjiro knew he couldn't keep pushing Tenku, he decided to take a gamble and try out the jutsu. It was a risky idea, but it paid off as he flawlessly performed the Jutsu with him only receiving minor wounds on his arms as a drawback.

Fortunately or unfortunately, he had already received far worse wounds from the fight for the drawback to matter.

Back to the present, Tenku crashed into the ground and lost his consciousness. At that time, the proctor's voice echoes out in the arena.

"Winner; Uzumaki Renjiro!"

"Yeah!!!!!" The crowd roared as the match was concluded. A challenger had won against the top rank. Renjiro effectively became rank 1 while Tenku dropped to rank 5.

"Finally," Renjiro said as he dropped to the ground. He did not collapse, he just sat there.

'I actually enjoyed that!' He thought as medic-nins rushed in to Tenku and Renjiro and attended to both of them.

After a few minutes of medical ninjutsu, Renjiro made his way to the platforms. Tenku was in a worse condition so he did not return.

With only four people left who could still issue a challenge, the ceremony was bound to end soon.

Rank four, three and two did not issue any challenge as they were contented with their current ranks.

Tenku still had a chance to issue a challenge, but since he was out of commission, the chuunin final exams concluded.

While most people liked how the finals ended, Danzo was mad.

'After all that planning, this boy showed his whole hand to the village and still lost.'

Daichi and Fugaku were happy because this brought honour to the Uchiha clan, despite Renjiro not Bearing their name. It was an open secret he was one of them.

Miwa even got to have a satisfying 'I told you so moment' with her colleague. Whether it was positive or negative, none of those emotions would change what had happened.

With the ranking finalized, the top twenty genins from the initial thirty two were called forward and the Hokage declared that they were now Chuunins of Konoha and the land of Fire in general.

The initial plan was to promote only half the number of genins but rank seventeen to twenty showed exceptional promise that Hiruzen decided to promote them since the Village was in dire need of them

As a gesture, the Daimyo who was still present was asked to hand the former genins their new green flak jackets to signify their rank promotion.

Every one of the new chuunins was on cloud nine as this was what they had been working hard for the last month if you counted their final preparations.

For Uzumaki Renjiro, this was only the second step in the dangerous path he had decided to tread.

End of Arc One.