NOVEL NEXT Chapter 48
After leaving the Hokage meeting, where he announced the third phase of the Chunin Exams, we headed to the training ground where we usually met our sensei.
The fights were set: we would face Kurenai's team — none of whom we knew — while Aoba's team, which trained Hayato and the others, would go against Choza Akimichi's team. We were excited, and more than that, we couldn't stand waiting a whole week for the tournament semifinals to arrive.
"I must admit, I was extremely surprised by your effectiveness in the second phase of the exam! I expected you to do well, but damn, defeating and taking scrolls from more than 14 teams was too much, don't you think?" Tetsu said, smiling.
"It was Riku's idea, sensei! He sometimes comes up with these megalomaniacal things, which is why I think he's cool!" Sora said, without a hint of embarrassment.
I was a little shy about the way she acted, but I let it go.
"You did very well, congratulations to everyone—especially you, Renji. You applied what I taught you during our training perfectly." Tetsu congratulated Renji with a high five.
"Thank you, sensei."
Renji was also a little shy.
Despite our obvious differences, he and I acted very similarly most of the time, and when we screwed up, one of us was always there to stop the other—or both of us together to stop Sora. Our team worked really well.
"Well, sensei, we're going to face Kurenai's team, but we don't know anything about her students. Do you know anything useful?"
"Hmmm, good question. I do know a few things. Their names are Nara Itsuki, Okuda Rie, and Hoshino Daigo, and they're pretty strong, to be honest... but in a slightly different way. So far, they haven't failed a single mission, and they've completed all of them in excellent time," Tetsu replied.
'Are they really that good? Dangerous.'
"And what do they do to have such a high success rate on missions? I imagine they're not physically strong, from the way you put it."
"Yes, in terms of brute strength or taijutsu and kenjutsu skills, I have no doubt that you would win—after all, you were trained by me. But they are frightening in the way they manipulate the battlefield—the reports don't lie! From what I've heard, their genjutsu and team coordination leave their enemies with little to do other than run or surrender."
"Genjutsu? Interesting... I've never cared much about them, but I can get out of them easily," Renji said confidently.
"I can't..." Sora muttered.
"Worst case scenario, either Renji takes them out, or we end the battle as quickly as possible so they don't have time to react and we win... how hard can it be?"
Tetsu shrugged.
"Well, just in case, let's practice these weaknesses against genjutsu and prepare you as best we can," he said.
"Um, sensei, I have one more question... you mentioned a Nara, right? Does he also use these techniques?"
"I'm not sure about that, but his clan has a very dangerous ability with shadows. If you're not careful, you'll definitely lose. I've failed a few exams because of that..." Tetsu muttered.
"If he uses genjutsu and shadows, it could be very dangerous," I thought, trying to come up with strategies for the battle ahead.
"All right, no time to waste then. Can we start training?" I asked.
Everyone was excited, so Tetsu decided we would train that afternoon.
***
During the week, training was intense. We started by testing our abilities to escape genjutsu—at first with Tetsu and Renji helping us — and over the next two days, a new person showed up to support us in training. It was Renji's cousin, Shisui Uchiha.
When he arrived, things started to get more complicated. Bad memories came to mind whenever I couldn't escape the illusions quickly — like when he put me in a genjutsu the first time we met — and the training kept getting more and more intense. But as a result, we realized some important things for our development.
Sora was the most susceptible to genjutsu out of the three of us, and no matter how much we trained, it would be difficult to fix that in just a week of preparation, so we had to think of other strategies to avoid it. As a result, we made a containment plan, with Renji and me on standby to protect her at the slightest sign of an illusion against her. Luckily, Renji could sense her altered chakra flow and tell when she was in a genjutsu.
Then, we moved on to developing the final strategy.
Sora would start off aggressively, not giving them time to think straight and allowing Renji and me to get close without any problems to try to end the fight quickly. But if they managed to react in time, we would move on to the second part of the plan — containment — with Renji's Sharingan activated. He would be our primary support, alerting us to illusions and pulling us out of them if necessary. And then we wouldn't have so much trouble facing them.
We were ready. We had our basic strategy, and if it went wrong, we would improvise, as always. But we also trusted our strength enough to know that we wouldn't lose the first fight we entered.
There was only one thing that remained ingrained in my mind throughout the week of training — and that continued to follow me — even now, as we stood in front of the gate of the arena where we would fight, with thousands of people shouting excitedly to see the battles that day.
'If nothing goes as we planned... should I use everything I've got, even if it means messing up their evaluation? I can't make up my mind.'
I stared at my friends, who were preparing to enter the battlefield at any moment.
"Are you ready, Riku?" Renji asked me, noticing my silence.
It took me a few seconds before I could answer.
"Let's do this. They won't beat us."
"That's the spirit! Come on, guys, they don't stand a chance, haha!" Sora was more excited than usual.
And then we heard the announcer calling our names to enter the arena.
That was it. The moment had arrived.
....
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