Chapter 443: You Are the Challenger
Obito had entered Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, and the moment he did, Mimurabe felt something deeply wrong.
Before that, Obito's performance was still within the category of genius. Unreasonable, yes, but still something Mimurabe could accept.
Now it felt like the roles had flipped.
For a heartbeat, Mimurabe almost believed he was the examinee and Obito was the examiner.
It sounded ridiculous, but Obito's ability was ridiculous.
He could release Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique without hand signs while throwing shuriken at the same time, sealing off escape routes with pinpoint timing. He could even wrap flames around his body and move with a Fire Release body technique Mimurabe had never seen in his life.
"Fire Release: Flame Fist!"
Under Mimurabe's stunned gaze, Obito's fist erupted with roaring fire. He charged forward and punched the large tree beside Mimurabe, snapping it apart.
At this point, Mimurabe had completely lost the option of countering Obito's Fire Release with his own Fire Release.
When they both launched fireballs, Obito's fire surged forward, swallowed Mimurabe's flames, and kept coming. Mimurabe could only dodge awkwardly after losing the clash.
"What is this?" Mimurabe was genuinely confused. "Did he not use his full power earlier?"
"I'm running low on chakra. I'll have to end this with full power." Seeing Mimurabe still resisting stubbornly, Obito decided to use his strongest Fire Release.
Mimurabe was not an ordinary jonin. If the fight dragged on, Obito would actually lose combat capability from chakra exhaustion.
"Uncle, be careful. I'm using my ultimate move next," Obito warned him kindly before attacking.
He was not very skilled with this technique yet, so he could not control it the way he controlled Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet.
Mimurabe's expression changed sharply. He was already this strong and he still was not at full power? Who exactly was the chunin here?
"Fire Release: Great Flame Ring, Flame Emperor!"
Obito unleashed all his chakra. He raised both hands as rings of fire ignited around his feet, quickly forming a spiraling sea of flames.
In the next instant, that fire surged upward, converging toward his hands and compressing into a single fireball.
It kept growing.
And growing.
Until it became a monstrous sphere of flame more than ten meters tall, radiating an oppressive heat that made the air itself feel like it was shrinking.
Obito would have called it a Super Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique Max. It had no tricks, no finesse, no hidden layers.
Only raw firepower and destruction.
The blazing light painted the entire exam area crimson. Mimurabe and the watching ninja stared, stunned, at the terrifying fireball hanging above Obito's hands.
"How can someone train nature transformation to this level in such a short time?" Sakata felt an overwhelming sense of defeat.
Compared to Obito, the ninjutsu Sakata had cultivated for more than ten years felt like a bad joke.
"Such a powerful Fire Release." Hisui imagined himself fighting Obito and immediately understood he would not survive it. "I'd probably burn to death on the spot."
Differences existed even among examinees.
Some were being evaluated by the examiner.
And some were evaluating the examiner.
"It all depends on this one jutsu," Kakashi thought, staring at the field without blinking.
After releasing Flame Emperor, Obito would be almost completely drained. If this did not put Mimurabe down, Obito would end the battle by losing combat capability before the fifteen minutes were up.
"No wonder he told me to be careful." Cold sweat slid down Mimurabe's forehead as he stared at the exaggerated fireball.
The heat waves rolled forward like tides, silently declaring the truth.
This was not just a slightly bigger Great Fireball Technique.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
Mimurabe gathered a huge amount of chakra, shaped it into Earth Release, and forced the ground up into a thick, towering wall.
Then he retreated immediately.
He had no confidence that one wall could stop this. He did not even believe three walls would.
Mimurabe tried his best to overestimate Flame Emperor's power.
And still, the moment the fireball slammed into the wall, he realized he had underestimated it.
Boom!
The instant the fireball made contact, the world erupted into a violent explosion. Fire flashed, the roar hit like a hammer, and dirt and stone blasted into the air as dust swallowed the battlefield.
Mimurabe never expected the wall to fully block it, but he also did not expect his full power Earth Flow Wall to shatter on impact like brittle tofu.
His face turned grim.
Flame Emperor tore through the broken wall and continued forward, still massive, still roaring, still coming right at him.
With a fireball that size, Mimurabe did not need to calculate carefully.
There was no way he could escape its range.
"Hiashi, we need to act. If we do nothing, Ketsu may be seriously injured," the referee said, gathering chakra as he spoke.
There were not many jonin left in Konoha right now. Losing one to an exam would be a cruel joke.
Hiashi nodded, stepped into position, and extended both hands, ready to use Eight Trigrams: Empty Palm Wall.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
The referee formed hand signs and spewed a stream of water, trying to weaken the terrifying firepower of Flame Emperor.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
Kakashi also stepped in, gathering chakra and raising an earth wall to reinforce the defense.
With the three of them working together, Mimurabe managed to escape danger and avoid being severely injured by Flame Emperor.
Obito, having finished releasing the technique, was breathing hard. His chakra was essentially empty now. He only had enough to cast Flame Emperor once, and the chakra he burned earlier meant he was completely spent.
"Huff… huff… Uncle, how is this counted now?" Obito adjusted his breathing and asked Mimurabe. "We're not still going to fight until fifteen minutes, right?"
Obito truly had nothing left. If the fight continued, he could only lie down and let Mimurabe look at him.
"The battle ends early. You win," Mimurabe said with a sigh, his expression complicated.
Even the other examiners and the referee had stepped in. How could they possibly continue? Mimurabe was not shameless enough for that.
Being defeated by a ten year old chunin examinee, while serving as the examiner, filled Mimurabe with a mess of emotions he did not want to sort through.
At least the jonin exam was not like the chunin exams, with crowds watching. Otherwise, he would have wanted to bury himself.
"Yes!" Obito pumped his fist, thrilled. "So I can go back now?"
"Yes. You can all go back now. Come back at 2 PM for the written exam," Mimurabe replied, nodding.
The moment he heard that, Obito sprinted home and threw himself into review mode.
"It's too late to panic now," Kakashi thought, watching Obito run at full speed with a hint of disbelief.
Kakashi had never taken a jonin exam before, but he did not need to. He could already guess the theory test would be nowhere near the chunin exam written test.
Jonin and chunin were not the same concept.
The gap between chunin and jonin was several times larger than the gap between a Ninja Academy student and a chunin.
A normal graduate could usually reach chunin within eight years.
But most chunin could not become jonin, not even Special Jonin, after eighteen years.
"Even if I fail, it isn't a loss," Sakata thought bitterly. "At least I've seen what a real genius looks like."
Obito and Kakashi were so talented he could not even bring himself to chase them. He was almost a generation older, yet the difference was still absurd.
"If only I could learn Rotation and Eight Trigrams: Empty Palm," Hisui recalled Kakashi's fight with Hiashi, longing flickering in his eyes.
Gentle Fist's chakra disruption was terrifying, but lacking long range options was a serious weakness. And because branch family members bore the Caged Bird Seal, their Byakugan had a small blind spot.
Rotation's absolute defense could patch that flaw perfectly.
…
After returning home, Obito locked himself in his room and buried his face in books.
Of course, he could not truly bury himself. He was just forcing his eyes to move and his brain to memorize.
Reading was not something Obito enjoyed. It was a slow torture that demanded patience he did not naturally possess.
The only books he could truly get lost in were ninja novels.
Especially the kind where the protagonist was an ordinary nobody, or the dead last with no talent, who defied fate and became the savior of the ninja world.
Those stories always had the same classic pieces.
A forgotten secret technique hidden in a library corner nobody ever noticed.
A battered tool bought from a shop that turned out to be a legendary Sage of Six Paths artifact.
And of course, the mandatory defeat of the villain and rescue of the princess.
"But the princess rescue is usually mid game," Obito thought while reading. "After that comes saving the world. Speaking of which, I've saved a princess before. When is it my turn to save the world? The world feels like one giant ninja novel."
Then he snapped back.
"No. I'm supposed to be studying!"
Obito raked his hands through his hair, annoyed at himself. How did his brain drift to ninja novels while he was staring at Ninja Tactics?
He shook his head hard, as if he could shake the distractions out, then forced himself to focus.
When his alarm clock rang, Obito stood up with a confident expression.
After several hours of studying, he had become terrifyingly confident.
"Obito, good luck on your exam," his grandmother said with a warm smile.
"I'll pass," Obito replied, patting his chest.
With his Sharingan and all that reviewing, it was practically guaranteed.
"After the exam, spend more time with Rin," his grandmother continued. "Training and studying should be moderate too. My body is getting weaker and weaker. I wonder if I'll get to see you have your own child before I pass away."
Obito's face went bright red.
To have a child, he would have to do that with Rin. That was too… too desirable.
No. Too unhealthy.
"Grandma, you're thinking too far ahead. I'm only ten," Obito said quickly, blushing harder. "And you'll definitely live a long life."
"Grandma, I can't talk anymore. I'm going to the exam."
Fearing she would say something else that would set his face on fire, Obito escaped like he was fleeing a battlefield.
The written exam was held in the same place as the morning assessment, but not outside. It was inside an ordinary wooden building.
After Obito and the others entered, an examiner announced the rules.
"Next, when your name is called, you will follow your examiner. The written portion is separate. Each of you will take the exam in a private room."
"Huh?" Obito went blank.
One person per room?
Then his Sharingan would be useless.
The old Obito always believed the Sharingan was far superior to the Byakugan.
But right now, Obito desperately wished he had the Byakugan.
Because the Byakugan could see through things.
"Uchiha Obito, do you have any questions?" the examiner asked, noticing Obito's stunned expression.
"No," Obito answered after a pause. "I'm just surprised. One person per room feels like a waste of space."
"All right then. Kakashi, step forward," the examiner said, checking his handwritten list.
Kakashi followed his examiner into the assigned room.
"Hyuga Hisui."
"Uchiha Obito."
The remaining examiners called their assigned names and led each candidate to their private room.
"Good thing I studied at home," Obito thought as he walked. "If I relied on my Sharingan, I'd be finished."
But when Obito received the paper, sweat immediately began to bead on his forehead.
The difficulty was… high.
[You are a jonin leading a team on a classified S rank mission. You have successfully obtained the confidential documents, but you are now surrounded by enemies. Based on the map in Figure 1, plan the optimal route and breakthrough tactics, and explain your reasoning.]
Obito glanced at the diagram, stared, and then stared harder.
It was complicated. He could not make sense of it right away.
"Forget it. Sensei said if you can't do it, skip it first. Don't waste time," Obito told himself, and moved on.
[Two tasks, A and B, must be completed by Squad A and Squad B respectively. On a sunny day, Squad A completes a task in 12 days, and Squad B completes a task in 15 days. On a rainy day, Squad A's efficiency decreases by 50 percent, and Squad B's efficiency decreases by 25 percent. Both squads start simultaneously and complete both tasks. How many sunny days occurred during the completion of the tasks?]
Obito's vision blurred.
Math.
His greatest enemy.
If he panicked, he could probably beat a jonin.
But no matter how hard he panicked, it would not solve a math problem.
He skipped it instantly.
Then he skipped the next question.
And the next.
By the time he skipped five in a row, Obito's soul felt numb. Compared to the others, that second question was practically the simplest one.
Then he saw the sixth question.
History.
Obito's eyes lit up.
He had never thought a history question could look so adorable. He wished the entire paper was history.
He finished the history section quickly, and then his heart sank again when he saw what came after.
This exam was going to hurt.
"Mugetsu Sage," Obito whispered, closing his eyes and clasping his hands together, "please grant me supreme wisdom so I can answer these questions."
"Examinee," the examiner said, knocking on the desk, "please do not make strange movements. Focus on the test."
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