"What a powerful combo. Looks like these top three have all been hiding their true strength."
Perched atop a tree, Shino Aburame watched dust billow over the clearing and into the forest, speaking quietly to himself. At the same time, he swiftly released a swarm of insects, using the dust as cover to sneak them toward Kurenai's belt and snatch the bells while she was distracted.
Unfortunately, Hinata had already startled the prey. As the Jonin sensei of a "sensing-type" team, Kurenai's own sensory skills were quite high. After being spooked by Hinata's combo and swallowed by the dust cloud, she quickly expanded her awareness. She detected the trio's positions—along with Shino's insects approaching.
With a loud pop, reminiscent of a burst balloon, the dust thinned to reveal only a block of wood circled by insects on the ground.
Substitution Jutsu!
None of Team 8 looked surprised.
Veins bulging at her temples, Hinata scanned the area with her Byakugan's black-and-white vision. She could see Shino concealed in a tree, Kurenai slipping into the woods beneath the cover of white smoke, and Izayoi already blurring toward Kurenai at high speed. Watching Izayoi confront Kurenai directly, Hinata's lips curled in a slight smile.
She pulled out a small cloth and nodded toward Shino before disappearing. The hum of insects followed.
Meanwhile, in another patch of forest, the sharp clang of colliding metal rang out. Zooming in, a boy and a girl—only a few centimeters difference in height—were locked in close combat with kunai in reverse grips. Izayoi aimed slash after slash at Kurenai's vital points with lightning-fast attacks. Even with her combat experience, Kurenai was stuck on the defensive.
At first, her wealth of battle experience kept her calm. But soon, she seemed to notice something impossible. Her eyes flew wide, and her face went pale with shock.
"How is that possible?!"
She even shouted aloud. Izayoi, knowing exactly what had rattled her, smirked. In the next second, poof—he vanished in a puff of smoke.
Simultaneously, three voices echoed from the surrounding forest:
"Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire!"
An orange glow—like a fiery sunset—flooded the area around Kurenai. Three four-meter-long fire dragons roared in from three sides. With no time for a Body Flicker—and her genjutsu useless—she formed rapid hand seals and yelled:
"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!"
Water spewed from her mouth like a waterfall, spinning around with her body and colliding with the oncoming dragons. Explosions crackled and hissed, unleashing a thick mist that spread everywhere.
"Cough, cough…"
The fog expanded even into the clearing. Kurenai emerged from it coughing, only to abruptly freeze as if realizing something. A second later, a familiar sound reached her:
Jingle… Jingle…
The pleasant chime of bells came closer, carried on the wind that dispersed the remaining haze. There stood Team 8, completely unharmed, stepping out from the forest. In the center, Izayoi gently swung the bells in his hand, smiling at Kurenai.
"Kurenai-sensei, I guess we pass?"
"Incredible. Even though I was on guard, you still managed to swipe these." Kurenai glanced from Team 8's pristine appearance to her own bedraggled state. Her cheeks tinged with awkwardness, but she was mostly proud. Flashing a grin, she said, "You guys are seriously strong, and your strategy was perfect. Teacher admits defeat."
"No…in a ninja battle, intel is everything." Izayoi shook his head, smiling. "We only got the bells so easily because you gave away your specialty and didn't really know our full capabilities. If this had been to the death, we'd never have pulled it off so cleanly. It's all thanks to you going easy on us, Sensei."
Hearing that, Hinata and Shino—standing half a step behind Izayoi—both gave him startled looks, each with their own thoughts:
"I–Iz… Izayoi-kun's so good at talking."
"Whoa, you can spin it that way? Isn't that basically flattery?"
Kurenai also looked a bit taken aback. Then her smile grew brighter, warmth in her eyes. "You sure know how to say the right thing!"
Her embarrassment dispelled, she patted Izayoi on the shoulder and slung an arm around Hinata. "All right, to celebrate Team 8's formation, I'm treating you all to a feast!"
Walking along the path toward downtown, Kurenai glanced at Izayoi in curiosity. "So, Izayoi, how did your Shadow Clone manage to break my genjutsu mid-fight?"
Schools teach that dispelling illusions requires disrupting your own chakra flow. Easy to say, but doing it in actual combat is extremely hard. It usually involves deliberately shifting your chakra, which takes focus and hand seals.
What shocked her earlier wasn't that Izayoi was fighting as a clone or that his real body and clone were ambushing. It was that Izayoi's clone just flat-out ignored her genjutsu.
"It's classified, Sensei." Izayoi raised his finger to his lips with a playful look. "Ninja battles revolve around intel, and secrets make a man more intriguing."
He winked mischievously at Hinata, making her blush and lower her head.
"Come on—you're hardly a 'man.' Just a brat." Kurenai rolled her eyes. "Wait 'til you're twenty and can share a drink with your teacher—then talk about being a man."
Still, she didn't press further. Inwardly, her estimation of Izayoi soared even beyond that of Hinata and Shino—he boasted overwhelming chakra, solid Fire Release, a surprisingly mature personality, and a prime "ninja mindset." Now she truly understood how he'd kept outperforming everyone for the number-one spot.
Izayoi just kept smiling, offering no explanation. After all, the real reason he shrugged off her illusions wasn't just the sheer strength of his yin chakra, but also his ability to cast jutsu without hand seals. Other people needed seals to manipulate chakra, but Izayoi didn't need them at all. When it came to genjutsu, he was pretty much the worst-case opponent.
~~~
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