Shuriken spun through the air like miniature windmills, flashing so fast they were almost dazzling to look at.
Kunai in hand, Sarutobi Enjun moved with the nimble quickness of a monkey, ducking and weaving through the barrage. Every now and then his blade slashed out, cleanly severing the nearly invisible wires attached to the backs of the shuriken.
The Uchiha clan's shurikenjutsu was famous throughout Konoha. In the sparring match earlier, Uchiha Inahisa had already shown throwing skills no worse than Uchiha Gen's, so Enjun had long been on guard against this move.
Uchiha Gen, Sarutobi Enjun, and Uchiha Inahisa formed the iron triangle at the top of this year's class. Their strength was close enough that, in almost every practical test, they ended up facing one another.
Because of that, they were all deeply familiar with each other's usual methods.
All Enjun had to do was hold his rhythm, wait for the right opening, and unleash a ninjutsu powerful enough to decide a fight at this level.
In the practical exam during the previous term's finals, Gen had never shown anything on the level of the Great Fireball Technique.
If he hadn't managed to master a technique like that in the meantime, like Inahisa had, then Enjun was certain the top rank this time would be his.
And even if Gen had learned it too, Enjun was still confident he would win.
No matter how he looked at it, the advantage was his.
Off to the side, Akimichi Choza curiously picked up Sarutobi Enjun's water cup.
"I've never seen a drink like this before. It smells weird too."
The chubby boy dipped a finger into the yellow-orange liquid, sucked it into his mouth, and instantly spat it back out.
"Ugh! This tastes disgusting! It's oil!"
Uchiha Inahisa, who had just stepped down to recover, heard Choza shout and immediately leaned over for a sniff. His expression darkened at once.
It really was oil.
"No wonder," Kurama Murakumo said, staring at Enjun's cup. "So he had oil in his mouth. Specially refined oil, too. That's why the fire release he used earlier burned harder and lasted longer than Inahisa's. But outside of the first use in a real fight, it'd be hard to find another chance to drink it."
"Not necessarily," Nara Shikaku said lazily, legs crossed and hands pillowing the back of his head as he leaned against the trunk of a tree. "On an actual mission, teammates would definitely buy you time. There'd be chances. I just don't know how Enjun came up with an idea that awful."
Uchiha Inahisa's voice dropped low.
"If we're judging by what I know of Gen, then I'm afraid he's going to lose. Half a year ago, I sparred with him once at the clan training grounds. He'd already learned the Great Fireball Technique back then, but his mastery over fire release was probably still a little behind mine."
His own ninjutsu had been taught personally by his jonin father, a shinobi highly skilled in Fire Release nature transformation. Compared to half a year ago, its power had risen sharply.
No matter how solid Gen's fundamentals were, with the talent he'd shown to the class - talent that seemed merely on par with Inahisa's - there should have been no way for him to surpass that in such a short time without guidance from a truly strong fire-release specialist.
Unfortunately for everyone trying to judge him with common sense, Uchiha Gen possessed an absurd advantage.
At the start of the school term, he had already accumulated enough experience to level up to level eight. With that came another draw, and from that draw he'd gotten an item card.
[Item Card: Skill Proficiency Card (Green)][Can be used on a ninjutsu you have already mastered. During the next month of training, it can raise your proficiency in that ninjutsu by a certain amount.]
That one card had saved him an enormous amount of time.
"Bang!"
Gen had already used up most of his ninja tools. After spending a great deal of energy weaving through the assault, Sarutobi Enjun finally relied on his movement and agility to force his way into close range.
His taijutsu was recognized as the best in the class, even a step ahead of both Uchiha boys.
Enjun needed to find the right moment to use ninjutsu, but he also needed to close the distance far enough to make sure his target couldn't simply evade once the technique was unleashed.
After all, he could only keep one mouthful of oil ready at a time. If his first attack failed, the power of his fire release would drop noticeably the second time he used it.
He had to use that slight edge in taijutsu to create the perfect opening after getting in close.
"Clang!"
Kunai slammed together with a clear metallic ring.
Feeling the force travel up through the hilt, Uchiha Gen took a half-step back to bleed off the impact. At the same time, his left hand dipped into his ninja pouch and drew out another kunai.
He slipped his index finger through the ring at the end of the handle, spun it once, twice, three times to build centrifugal force, then flicked his wrist and sent it flying.
The technique wasn't particularly destructive at long range and its killing power was limited, but in close quarters it was quick, concealed, and more than enough.
Sarutobi Enjun had been waiting for exactly that. He withdrew his arm, twisted his body aside, and let the kunai slice past.
Gen instantly took advantage of the opening, stepping in, pivoting on one foot, and whipping a side kick toward Enjun's flank.
"Bang!"
A puff of dust rose from the ground as Enjun crossed both forearms in front of him and blocked the kick head-on. Then he sprang backward at once, fingers already beginning to weave signs.
It looked like the perfect opportunity.
Switch from defense to offense. Use ninjutsu in one clean motion. End the fight in a single strike.
But the truth was that this opening had also been created by Uchiha Gen.
It was his chance to use ninjutsu too.
"Snake - Ram - Monkey - Boar - Horse - Tiger!"
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
The fireball that burst from Gen's mouth was at least twice the size of the one Uchiha Inahisa had used earlier.
It roared across the training ground with terrifying force, a mass of flame so large it looked less like something a student should produce and more like the work of a true shinobi already blooded in war.
Compared to it, the fireball released by Sarutobi Enjun looked small.
Not tiny, perhaps, but the difference was as obvious as comparing a ping-pong ball to a tennis ball. They belonged to the same category, yet the size gap was impossible to ignore.
"Boom!"
The two fireballs collided head-on.
Light and heat exploded outward in a violent wave. The air wavered. The ground seemed to tremble. Under that crushing heat, sweat sprang instantly from Sarutobi Enjun's forehead.
This was power far beyond what a ninja academy student should have been able to wield.
Back in the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly lowered the pipe in his hand, narrowed his eyes, and fixed his gaze on the crystal ball showing the scene below.
As one of the foremost masters of ninjutsu in the village - a shinobi who had mastered all five elemental transformations - he could tell at a glance that the shape and color of Gen's Great Fireball did not suggest any advanced Fire Release nature transformation. Nor was its shape transformation especially exquisite.
That in itself was normal.
After all, the boy was still just a student on the verge of graduating as a genin. If he had already mastered elemental transformation to a jonin-level standard, that would have been the truly strange thing.
And precisely because that wasn't the case, what he was seeing now was all the more remarkable.
The sheer force of it could only be explained by talent.
"This level of aptitude for ninjutsu..." Hiruzen murmured, stroking his thick beard. "It may not be much worse than Orochimaru's was back then."
A boy like that, and an Uchiha on top of it, could not simply be left to grow however he pleased.
If he could be brought into the Hokage's orbit, guided, influenced, and made part of their side, then in the future he could become a crucial bridge between the village leadership and the Uchiha clan.
But if such a talent were allowed to mature into an uncontrollable Uchiha...
Then one day, Konoha might see the rise of a second Madara.
That was a possibility Hiruzen had no intention of ignoring.
He drew slowly on his pipe, eyes still fixed on the crystal ball.
"Kodo should understand what I mean, and his abilities are more than enough," he thought. "But if we want to deepen Uchiha Gen's ties to the Hokage faction even further, then it seems we'll need a different candidate."
Below, on the academy grounds, the sea of fire still raged at the center of the field.
And somewhere beyond the smoke and heat, the outcome of the match - and perhaps something far more significant - was beginning to take shape.