Kapitel 140: 139-Predictable

With the bets already decided, Renjiro and Hiro chose to head to one of the Hatake Clan's training grounds.

When Renjiro arrived, he was struck by the size and layout of the area. It was expansive, far larger than the training grounds of the Uchiha clan.

The terrain was varied, with open fields, and dense wooded areas. The sky above was clear, and the late afternoon sun cast long shadows across the ground, adding a dramatic flair to the setting.

'This is bigger than the training grounds belonging to the Uchiha clan,' Renjiro thought, 'You'd think that the Hatake clan is on par with the Uchiha Clan.'

While both were regarded as shinobi clans from Konoha, the Uchiha clan was one of the founding clans, while the Hatake clan had only come into prominence a couple of decades ago, with Sakumo being the second clan head after his father.

The first Hokage had picked up an orphan in the Land of Iron during one of his travels. The orphan's name was Hirai, who, after being trained by Hashirama to be a proper shinobi, took on the name Hatake.

It was only when he retired that the Hatake clan was acknowledged by the village as an official clan, with his son, and Sakumo's father, becoming the first clan head of the Hatake Clan.

'Don't get me wrong, but while both clans have contributed to the village, their standings are only similar due to the chasm between the Uchiha clan and the village administration,' Renjiro mused.

Hiro broke Renjiro's train of thought. "Are you ready?"

Renjiro nodded, confirming that he was. Hiro retrieved his two swords and a coin,

"The moment the coin touches the ground, we will begin," Hiro said.

Renjiro nodded in response and retrieved his Bō staff from one of his seals, disassembling it into batons before extending the blades at their ends.

Hiro flipped the coin high into the air. The metallic glint caught the sunlight as it spun before descending. Renjiro prepared himself and changed his stance, shifting his focus between the coin and Hiro interchangeably.

"Clink!"

The instant it hit the ground with a soft sound, both chunin moved with blinding speed.

"Whoosh!"

Hiro's swords cut through the air as he darted forward.

"Clang! clang!"

Renjiro met him head-on, his batons twirling and blocking Hiro's strikes. Sparks flew from their weapons as they clashed.

'This is a different style than he used when we were genins.'

Renjiro's Sharingan spun rapidly as he analysed Hiro's movements. Hiro's dual-wielding style was fast and aggressive, each strike aimed with deadly precision.

Renjiro deflected a slash aimed at his torso, countering with a swift strike to Hiro's side. Hiro twisted his body, narrowly avoiding the blow, and retaliated with a spinning slash that Renjiro ducked under.

Their movements were a blur, each trying to outmanoeuvre the other. The two fought across the training ground, moving from the open field to the edge of the wooded area.

Hiro pressed the attack, his swords slicing through the air with relentless speed. Renjiro parried each strike, his batons a whirl of motion. Hiro was fast, but not faster than Renjiro whose dojutsu helped him in the fast transitions he was experiencing.

"You've gotten stronger," Renjiro remarked, his voice calm even as he blocked another flurry of strikes.

Hiro grinned, his eyes blazing with intensity. "I've been training hard. I'm not the same shinobi I was before."

Renjiro attempted to trap Hiro in a genjutsu, but Hiro, knowing better, consciously disrupted his chakra flow. This proved no issue for Hiro, who barely used chakra, relying almost entirely on his sword style.

He retaliated with a slash aimed at Renjiro's side. Renjiro blocked the attack by combining his batons into an X shape.

As Renjiro blocked, Hiro's shadow clone emerged from behind, leaping into the air while making hand signs. The shadow then exhaled a wave of water from its mouth completing his water balst jutsu.

Fortunately, Renjiro had anticipated the jutsu. Hiro thought Renjiro had flickered away, but an explosion suddenly went off, throwing Hiro back while also dispelling his shadow clone.

Renjiro had not flickered away but had substituted himself with a bunch of his modified explosive tags he had left lying around the moment they entered the training grounds.

The blast sent Hiro sprawling, but he quickly recovered, rolling to his feet and glaring at Renjiro.

The ground around them bore the marks of their clash—scorched earth from the explosion, deep gouges from Hiro's swords, and broken branches from Renjiro's evasive manoeuvres.

"You're always full of surprises," Hiro admitted, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.

Renjiro smirked. "Well, I can't say the same."

In a bold move, Hiro threw one of his swords at Renjiro. Renjiro deflected it, but the distraction allowed Hiro to close the distance. He swung his remaining sword in a powerful arc.

"Slash!"

Renjiro sidestepped, using his baton to redirect the blade and deliver a sharp kick to Hiro's midsection. Hiro grunted but used the momentum to spin around and slash at Renjiro's legs with his bladed baton.

Renjiro jumped, narrowly avoiding the strike, and countered with a downward slash that Hiro blocked with his sword.

Renjiro quickly created two shadow clones that emerged from the ground on either side behind Hiro. They immediately began spewing wind bullets from their mouths.

Hiro deftly evaded the projectiles. Despite his agility, he couldn't afford to turn his back on Renjiro and face the clones.

Hiro knew he was in a precarious position. "If I turn my back on Renjiro, I'll be at a disadvantage," he thought.

He focused on evading the wind bullets, trusting his instincts to keep him out of harm's way. However, Renjiro didn't let him breathe as he, too, began using the Wind Bullet Jutsu, creating a barrage of projectiles from three different points.

Despite Hiro's best efforts, some of the wind bullets grazed him, tearing through his clothes and leaving shallow cuts on his skin.

Renjiro was holding back since this was a spar and not a lethal fight. He could have used more powerful techniques, but he chose restraint.

Hiro decided to create some distance. He used the Earth Pillar Jutsu, causing a column of earth to rise beneath him and propel him backwards. He landed a few meters away, panting slightly from the exertion.

Renjiro snickered, "I knew you were weak, but I never knew you were also a coward,"

Hiro screamed internally, struggling to maintain his composure. Renjiro's taunts were getting under his skin, and it took all his self-control to stay focused on the fight.

He must have put a calm front on the outside because when Renjiro saw that Hiro wasn't reacting, he muttered, "So you're just going to stand there? Fine, I was getting tired of these probing attacks anyway."

Renjiro quickly formed a hand sign and unleashed the Fireblast Jutsu. Flames roared from his mouth, surging towards Hiro in a wave of intense heat.

At the same time, the two shadow clones synchronized their efforts, using the Violent Wind Jutsu to amplify the flames.

The combined jutsu created a massive inferno, the wind feeding the fire and making it grow larger and more destructive. The ground between Renjiro and Hiro became a blazing path of fire, and the heat was nearly unbearable.

Hiro's eyes widened in surprise, but he didn't panic.

'Why does he always resort to his fire Jutsu? Doesn't he know that it is predictable?'

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Kapitel 141: 140-If One Doesn't Work, Use Two!

Hiro swiftly formed a series of hand signs and slammed his palms into the ground.

"Earth-Style: Mud Wall!" he shouted.

A thick wall of mud erupted from the ground, forming a barrier between him and the incoming flames. The fire crashed against the mud wall, the heat causing steam to rise as the mud hardened into a protective barrier.

The fire continued to rage, but the mud wall held strong. Hiro took a deep breath and steadied himself.

'I can't let my guard down,' he thought 'Renjiro's not holding back anymore.'

When Renjiro saw Hiro creating the Earth wall, he just mused, 'Does he really think he could outlast me in a battle of chakra?'

Determined to prove his dominance, Renjiro decided to pour more chakra into the two jutsus he was using.

The increased chakra increased the intensity of the two jutsus working in tandem. The heat and wind became more intense, which caused a web of cracks to form on the wall Hiro had created and pieces of the wall started to crumble.

Seeing his wall was failing, Hiro thought, 'I need to contain this fast.'

With a determined expression, Hiro created four more shadow clones. The clones dispersed in different directions, and each of them, like Hiro, used the Earth-Style: Mud Wall Jutsu. The earth walls surrounded Renjiro and his two shadow clones, forming a circular barrier.

This confused Renjiro, who wondered, 'What are they trying to do? My attacks are only heading towards one direction.'

Hiro, noticing the puzzled look on Renjiro's face, thought with a smirk, 'Let's see how you like it when the tables are turned.'

Hiro deactivated the earth wall he had been channelling chakra into, letting it crumble, and flickered away to his closest shadow clone.

Renjiro, seeing that Hiro was no longer in his attack range, deactivated the Fire Blast and Violent Wind jutsus. He shifted his focus to Hiro and his shadow clone, who were rapidly making a series of hand signs.

Renjiro tried to read the hand signs to prepare a jutsu to counter Hiro's next move, thinking, 'What is the jutsu he is planning on using?'

Renjiro was not well-versed in Earth Chakra nature, but he was familiar with a number of Earth nature jutsus, especially those under A-rank, as he only witnessed and had not mastered most of them. It was a surprise when he didn't recognize what jutsu Hiro was about to perform.

Hiro and his shadow clone completed their hand signs and slammed their hands on the ground, activating their next jutsu. The ground around Renjiro began to tremble and shift. He could feel the vibrations under his feet growing stronger by the second.

The jutsu that Hiro had used was Earth-Style: Earth Burial. Like a massive slab of stone, the ground Renjiro was standing on flipped over, burying him underground.

The jutsu Hiro had employed was an A-rank earth barrier jutsu. It worked by utilizing the earth walls Hiro had erected to form a barrier that granted him partial manipulation of the ground within its confines.

Renjiro couldn't sense any of this because the chakra in the earth walls masked Hiro's chakra spreading through the ground inside the barrier.

When Hiro first came across this technique, he thought it would be useful in situations where he needed to buy some time to escape. Now, using it against Renjiro, he found it even more worthwhile.

With Renjiro trapped underground, Hiro dispelled all his shadow clones and kept his hands on the ground, reinforcing the jutsu.

'While I cannot outlast him since he has more chakra than me, leaving him stuck underground for as long as possible will tire him out,' Hiro thought.

True to Hiro's words, Renjiro was already sweating. He had tried using his fire jutsus, but they only made things worse. While fire-style required chakra to be activated, they also relied on the surrounding oxygen to amplify their power, thus consuming the limited oxygen Renjiro had.

Turning to his wind-natured jutsus didn't help either, as Hiro was reinforcing the ground above him, nullifying any damage Renjiro could inflict.

'The fact that my go-to chakra natures are weak against Hiro's Earth chakra nature is making this harder,' Renjiro thought, racking his brain for a solution.

'What lightning jutsu should I use? Wait! I could use that!' Renjiro's mind lit up when a thought flashed through it. 'But I still haven't completely mastered it yet!'

With a resolve born of necessity, Renjiro stopped using the wind jutsu he had been attempting. He closed his eyes and focused on his chakra. This was a risky move, but it was his best shot at breaking free.

When Renjiro was working on the Rasengan, he realized that the Chidori was easier to learn compared to the more advanced forms of the Rasengan.

This was no surprise considering the story behind the jutsu's conception. However, Renjiro had been focusing more on the Rasengan, so he only managed to perform the Chidori a handful of times without completely perfecting it.

But with his current circumstances, he thought, 'Using it would be the best option since it directly counters the earth jutsu Hiro is using.'

Renjiro began gathering chakra in his left hand, quickly transforming it into lightning nature.

"Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!"

The high concentration of electricity produced a sound reminiscent of many birds chirping. Feeling that the chakra concentration was at a suitable level, Renjiro leapt up and struck the ground above him with the Chidori.

The Chidori worked better than Renjiro expected, cutting through the ground like butter. However, the ground was too thick for Renjiro to break through in one hit.

'It works, but it is still not enough. If one doesn't work, let's see if two will,' Renjiro thought as he began channelling chakra into both his hands, intending to use the Chidori with both hands.

It was hard since the pain on both his hands brought by not mastering the jutsu intensified. However, Pain was not a new experience to Renjiro, so he continued channelling chakra into his hands

Once he was done, Renjiro leapt up again, repeating what he had done a couple of seconds before, striking the ground above him with the Chidori in both hands.

The combined power of the dual Chidori was immense, and this time, the ground shattered completely, sending chunks of earth flying in all directions.

Hiro, who had been reinforcing the earth above Renjiro, felt the ground tremble and saw cracks spreading rapidly.

"What is he doing now?" he muttered, realizing that Renjiro had found a way to counter his jutsu.

The earth barrier collapsed, and Renjiro emerged from the ground, lightning crackling around his hands, his eyes filled with determination.

"You didn't think I'd stay buried forever, did you?" Renjiro said, a smirk playing on his lips.

'He managed to break out of my jutsu? I should have expected him to have another trick under his sleeve. I don't think I need to continue it's already clear who the winner is.'

Hiro was momentarily stunned but quickly recovered. "You managed to break out again. Impressive, Renjiro," he admitted.

Renjiro asked, "Do you concede, Hiro?"

Hiro stood there for a moment, catching his breath. Reinforcing the ground had taken much of his stamina "I concede. You got me, Renjiro."