Chapter 16: The Assessment
Three days later, at noon.
Konoha Training Ground Three.
The blazing sun hung high in the sky, roasting the flat, yellow earth until it was scorching hot. The air shimmered and distorted, and the deafening shriek of cicadas only made the heat feel more oppressive.
Shūji arrived exactly on time. He was dressed in his standard dark green shinobi flak jacket, his headband worn correctly. In the center of the empty training ground, two figures already stood waiting.
Both were dressed in the standard Anbu uniform—a dark gray, high-collared flak jacket—and their faces were hidden behind expressionless animal masks, concealing both identity and emotion.
One was taller, his posture holding a trace of hard-to-detect laziness. A few stubborn tufts of silver-white hair stuck out from the edge of his mask, strikingly bright in the sunlight.
The other was slighter of build, seeming even a year or two younger than Shūji. He stood perfectly straight, like a spear, as silent and unmoving as a part of the background.
"Special Jōnin Promotion Assessment. Subject: Shūji." The tall, silver-haired Anbu spoke. His voice came out muffled and intentionally flat from the mask, but that unique, slightly drawling tone still held a hint of familiarity.
"The two of us will be responsible for the evaluation. The assessment is: demonstrate the ninjutsu you have mastered. Criteria: power, control, efficiency, and combat application."
His gaze, visible through the eyeholes of the mask, locked onto Shūji.
"Begin when ready."
There was no further pleasantry. The Anbu style was direct and to the point.
The moment his voice fell, the silver-haired Anbu's figure blurred without warning!
Shūji's pupils contracted. His body shot to the right.
"ZAP—!"
A blinding blue crackle of electricity tore through the air where he had just been, leaving a scorched mark and the acrid smell of ozone. The silver-haired Anbu appeared in that spot, his right hand wreathed in crackling lightning—Lightning Style: Lightning Blade!
Though he had clearly suppressed its power, the instantaneous speed and sharp killing intent were enough to demonstrate the oppressive power of an elite Anbu.
"Combat reflexes: pass." The flat voice came again, but the assault didn't stop. His left hand blurred through seals. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" A massive, roaring fireball erupted from his mouth, cutting off Shūji's escape.
Shūji's eyes were fixed, his own hands a blur of motion.
"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!" A thick, solid wall of water erupted from the ground, precisely intercepting the fireball.
HISSS—!
A violent explosion of steam instantly filled the area, obscuring the battlefield in a dense white mist.
Using the mist for cover, Shūji retreated rapidly, his hands already forming new seals.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" A violent gale exploded outward from his position, not only blowing the mist away but also howling toward the silver-haired Anbu, attempting to break his rhythm.
The silver-haired Anbu's body flickered, weaving through the gale like a ghost, his movements so fluid it was as if he'd predicted the wind's every path.
He formed new seals. "Earth Style: Earth-Style Wall!" A solid wall of rock rose to block the main force of the wind.
However, the instant the wall rose, several razor-sharp wind blades had already curved around it, striking from a blind spot!
"Tch." A soft click of the tongue came from behind the mask. The Anbu twisted his body at an almost impossible angle, narrowly avoiding the blades, though the hem of his cloak was silently sliced.
"Wind Style control: excellent," he evaluated.
Just then, the shorter Anbu, who had been standing motionlessly, moved.
His hands clasped together at his chest, chakra flaring with a practiced, mechanical precision.
"Wood Style: Silent Strangle Jutsu!"
Several tough, woody vines, like vipers waking from a deep sleep, burst from the ground beneath Shūji's feet, lashing out to bind his ankles!
Shūji's heart went cold. Mokuton! Yamato?
"Earth Style: Rock Collapse!" The hard ground at his feet instantly fractured and collapsed, creating a shallow pit. The erupting vines were blocked and crushed by the breaking rock, their advance faltering.
Using that split second, Shūji leaped into the air. While airborne, his hands finished the seals. "Lightning Style: Earth Crawl!" A web of blue lightning crackled across the broken ground, racing straight for the shorter Anbu!
The shorter Anbu showed no panic. His hands clasped together again, his movements as steady as a machine. "Wood Style: Wood Locking Wall!" A dome of thick, perfectly arched wooden pillars erupted from the ground, shielding him completely. The lightning crackled harmlessly against the dark wood, leaving scorch marks but failing to breach it.
The silver-haired Anbu closed in silently from the flank, his kunai now wreathed in the same fine, hair-raising lightning as his Lightning Blade, looking like a viper's fang.
The kunai shrieked through the air, aimed straight at Shūji's undefended ribs.
Shūji was still in the air with no leverage, but he remained calm. He flashed two seals: Serpent -> Dragon.
"Wind Style: Gale!"
A powerful blast of air exploded from him. The recoil pushed him to the other side, allowing him to dodge the attack.
Shūji landed, breathing a little hard, sweat on his temple. The silver-haired Anbu landed as well.
"Practical ninjutsu application: masterful. Chakra reserves... abundant." He gave his objective evaluation. Based on the level Shūji had displayed, his qualification for Special Jōnin was beyond question.
However, the assessment was not over.
The shorter, silent Anbu stepped forward. The empty eyeholes of his mask locked onto Shūji. His hands clasped at his chest one more time. "Wood Style: Birth of a Dense Forest!"
RUMBLE!
The ground trembled violently! Countless thick, gnarled tree roots, like ancient pythons awakening, burst from the earth, growing and spreading wildly! The once-open training ground was instantly overrun by a rapidly expanding, miniature forest, pulsing with primal life. The green branches swayed, but they carried a terrifying, crushing force as they closed in on Shūji from all sides!
The silver-haired Anbu leaped back several steps, his gaze locked on the center of the jutsu.
Faced with such an overwhelming jutsu, Shūji took a deep breath. He created a Shadow Clone, as his main body's chakra flared, refining at an unprecedented speed! His hands blurred into afterimages!
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Bullet!" A medium-sized, but incredibly dense, searing-hot red dragon roared from his mouth, setting the trees ablaze.
At the same moment, the Shadow Clone finished its seals, summoning a powerful gale.
Wind fuels fire!
ROOOOAAAAR—!!!
Infused with the gale, the red fire dragon's volume exploded, multiplying several times over! Its temperature skyrocketed, the color shifting from crimson to a blinding, incandescent white.
A single, peerless, raging Flame-Wind Dragon roared and smashed into the forest's right flank, where the regrowth was slowest and the structure thinnest!
BOOOOOOM!
A deafening explosion tore the training ground's silence to shreds.
Everywhere the white-hot dragon passed, the impossibly tough Wood Style branches were torn apart, incinerated, and vaporized into an expanding cloud of ash and embers! A charred, superheated tunnel of destruction, reeking of smoke, was blasted clean through the living, murderous prison!
Shūji's figure, following in the dragon's wake, shot from the hellish, scorching-hot tunnel. He landed steadily on the cleared, smoldering earth.
He was breathing heavily, his uniform singed and curled in several places from the intense heat and his face smudged with soot, but his calm eyes, staring through the shimmering heat waves, were locked firmly on the two Anbu.
The training ground was a wreck.
The miniature, terrifying forest had been torn open, leaving a massive, blackened crater whose edges were still burning. The broken, flaming branches popped and cracked, filling the hot air with the smell of char. The flames died down, leaving only twisting plumes of smoke and a field of smoldering cinders.
The silver-haired Anbu stared at the path that had been torn open by sheer force, and at the figure standing at the end of it.
"Ninjutsu combination... timing, power, and control: excellent." He put away his lightning-wreathed kunai. His voice, through the mask, returned to its intentional flatness.
"Assessment complete. Special Jōnin status is confirmed."