Chapter 24: CH_24

The different parts of the test were placed around the auditorium in a zig-zag manner along the length of the hall. The bukijutsu part was placed near one wall, and to go to the next part, Takuma had to go toward the other wall.

"Good afternoon, child. Are you Takuma?" The next invigilator was a middle-aged woman with thick-gray streaks on either side of her head. She wore unique earrings that looked like miniature explosive tags but instead of paper, they were made from a thin but rigid and glossy material.

"Yes, ma'am," said Takuma instinctively— the woman gave that vibe.

"Good, good, how are you feeling today; nervous?" she asked with a gentle smile. When Takuma nodded, she continued, "It's okay to feel nervous, but there's nothing to be worried about. For this portion of the test, you simply have to show me all of the academy three. Relax and take your time, there's no hurry," she smiled sweetly.

Takuma's stomach felt queasy. He knew this part of the test was going to be bad, and he had prepared himself for it. He was going to put on the best Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu) of his life. But the ninjutsu invigilator was so supportive that Takuma felt embarrassed about what he was about to show her.

"Let's start with Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Jutsu)," she said and pointed to what seemed like a stuffed leather bag. The way it depressed on the floor made it look heavy— not an ideal substitute to be used in the jutsu.

Takuma stared at the leather bag for a moment. He turned to the invigilator, and with pursed lips, he said: "I can't do it."

The invigilator looked confused for a moment. "It's okay, Takuma. You can take your time to prepare and try; there's no need to rush," she said.

"I can't perform it. I have never performed the jutsu successfully, and I know I can't do it here even if I tried," said Takuma. He tried to be as blunt as possible to avoid more embarrassment.

The invigilator seemed to be at a loss for words. Takuma couldn't blame her; all his classmates could perform the jutsu successfully, even clumsily. Not being able to perform one the academy three only a few months from graduation wasn't expected from a student at his stage.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

Takuma nodded.

The woman looked down at her clipboard and crossed out a box on the form.

"Let's move on to Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu)," she said.

Takuma nodded. Same as Kawarimi no Jutsu, he hadn't executed Henge no Jutsu even once. But unlike the former, Takuma had actually practiced the latter, so he was ready to try it. He melded the two energies to produce chakra and weaved the hand seals with the utmost attention. The chakra moved through the chakra pathway network, pushed by him, and directed by the hand seals.

'Hold control, hold control,' Takuma repeated to himself.

The chakra smoothly passed through the route dictated by the dog seal. Takuma clenched his toes as he proceeded to make the boar seal. The chakra quivered like a speeding car over speed breakers. He summoned all of his control and pushed it forward with a firm grip. The shaking stopped, and the chakra spun through the boar seal route. Now was the time for the final hand seal, and Takuma felt his palm damp from sweat as he made the ram seal. The moment the seal was complete, the chakra seemed to turn into a ram as it suddenly thrashed forward and slammed into the pathway wall, destroying the momentum and Takuma's with it.

There was no puff of smoke or anything. Takuma lowered his hand and raised his eyes to look at the ninjutsu invigilator, biting the inside of his cheek so that pain could cover all the other things he was feeling.

"Would you like to try again?" she asked.

Takuma shook his head. He had already made enough fool out of himself for the day, and the rest of the test was still remaining.

"... Can you do the Bunshin no Jutsu," she asked with pity pooling in her eyes.

'She doesn't think I can do it,' Takuma could immediately tell what the woman was thinking from her eyes. He stiffly nodded and quickly weaved the hand seals to produce four clones.

He didn't try to be smart with the invigilator like he had been with Kibe. He couldn't deceive her into thinking a clone was the real him as the first thing she did was look at his feet to spot the shadow made by the real Takuma, something Kibe had forgotten to do from the surprise of seeing him perform a jutsu and not fail.

She observed the clones thoroughly until she was satisfied, compared each one to the original, and made him move them around to see his control. "Good, very good. Excellent, I say," she smiled brightly. "This is as good as the best Bunshin no Jutsu I have seen, if not better. Well done, Takuma."

It would've felt great if Takuma hadn't seen the pity in her eyes before. Now, all it seemed was her trying to make him feel better about his pathetic performance.

Takuma was asked to move to the next stage. Just when he thought he couldn't feel worse, he remembered the next part of the test was the taijutsu spar against an invigilator.

Unlike the last two parts, the taijutsu part of the test was invigilated by multiple shinobi. A man was fighting Hideaki while another man and woman observed the spar outside the white circle marking the sparring stage. The woman noticed Takuma. She raised her palm, signaling him to stop and wait. Takuma obliged. He was in absolutely no hurry as every step toward the white-marked circle made his heartbeat spike.

He observed the fight. Hideaki fought as he usually did, taking advantage of his large body and heavy weight to overpower his opponents. But this time, Hideaki's opponent wasn't one of his classmates, none bigger than him. The taijutsu invigilator fighting Hideaki had a wiry frame with stickman-like limbs, and yet those thin arms grabbed the bulky Akimichi and threw him over his shoulder. Takuma had long learned that in this world, weight difference stopped mattering in taijutsu when strength didn't come from the muscles but the chakra channeled through them. The thin invigilator could overpower Hideaki because the former could use chakra better than the latter.

Ting!  Takuma turned back towards the sound of the sharp sound of weapons clashing. He was right as he saw Okubo Momoe exchanging sword strikes against the bukijutsu invigilator. Momoe swung a straight-blade ninjato while the invigilator wielded the curved-blade katana.

She knows how to use a sword?!  Takuma gaped as Momoe parried the invigilator's strike and immediately stuck, but the invigilator didn't miss a beat and raised his parried sword to meet Momoe's strike with the sword hilt.

After being in the same class with Momoe for seven months, it was clear to Takuma that Momoe was just another breed of people, the kind who were simply good at everything. But seeing her wielding a sword against the invigilator and doing it competently hammered the point across even more.

He couldn't remove his eyes from the combat. The way Momoe fought was so different from her fighting style in the taijutsu spars. The Momoe he had observed was a watch-and-chose kind of fighter who would attack less and evade and block more, only to strike at opportune times to do the most damage with maximum efficiency. But the Momoe in front of him was nimble, quick, and aggressive; the sword in her hand seemed weightless, as did her feet, as it looked like she was performing a ferocious sword dance.

It was simply mesmerizing. He even caught a glimpse of the shinobi on the second-floor corridor observing Momoe's fight.

"Takuma."

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He jumped at the touch on his shoulder. It was the woman taijutsu invigilators; she had her black hair tied up in a messy bun held together with a bright red hair stick with fingernail-sized seashells on a string hanging on one side.

"I'm sorry, I got distracted," he said, bowing his head in apology.

"It's okay," she smiled, "but let's get you started quickly, can't let a backlog develop."

Takuma was asked to enter the fighting circle, and the other man entered the circle along with him. Unlike the man who had fought Hideaki, the man in front of Takuma had a wider frame with broad shoulders and chest and a toned abdomen that formed a triangular upper body. Not to mention the man had muscular arms and long legs. In short, the man in front of him was a prime physical specimen.

"I will be your opponent, come at me with all you got," said the man in his deep voice.

Outside the circle, the other man chuckled behind his hand. His voice had a feminine flair to it. "You have to say more than that, Takeo," he brushed his curly locks behind his ear. "Takuma, is it? The big lug here will be your opponent. We are going to test your skill in taijutsu and what we want from you is to show us all you can do. So don't hold back or worry about hurting him; he's really really tough— he was dropped on his head when he was a baby."

"...Okay?" said Takuma. Though he had no idea how the last line fit into the rest of what was said.

"Come," said Takeo.

Takuma didn't charge at first, and neither did Takeo, so he took a moment to observe his opponent. Takeo showed no fighting stance and simply stood straight with his arms crossed— the picture of a still statue. Takeo narrowed his eyes before charging at Takeo with a couple punches to his chest. The shinobi uncurled his arms and blocked the punches with his bulging arms. Takuma kicked himself off the floor and tried to plant the back of his heel into the shinobi's face, but Takeo grabbed the foot and pushed it back.

Takuma had to scrap all of his plans and concentrate on landing properly and not make a fool of himself. The moment his foot touched the ground and his knees were bent enough, he slid one foot back and then propelled forward. His target was Takeo's knees— hit anyone, no matter the size, in the knee, and they would crumble.

Takeo suddenly raised one of his feet as if about to kick forward. Takuma's sandals made a screeching sound against the wooden floor as he changed direction on a dime and again raised himself up to jam his foot into the side waist above Takeo's foot. The attack never reached, and Takeo simply grabbed Takuma and threw him away.

He had to roll a couple times to soften his landing before using the momentum to get on his feet and again charging toward Takeo.

He kicked, punched, and even tried to grapple, but Takeo effortlessly dodged or blocked everything Takuma threw at him. Eventually, it became a cycle of Takuma trying to land a single hit only to be thrown away. He tried to attack from the front and back, targeting the legs, torso, and head, he tried to feint and bait— he tried everything, but nothing worked.

"Alright, that's it, stop," said the woman invigilator.

Takuma stopped his attempt to get behind Takeo so that he could kick him in the back of his knee to get him to kneel so that he could go for the throat. Takuma breathed heavily while Takeo still looked like an unchanging statue with his straight stance and folded arms.

"Okay, Takuma. If you make your way through that door, you will find the next invigilator." The woman invigilator pointed at the auditorium door that opened to the outdoors.

That's it?  Takuma thought he would get more, but looking at the three invigilators, none seemed to have any plans to give him good feedback.

He stepped out of the circle and walked a few steps before retrieving a hand towel to wipe the sweat. He had pushed the gas pedal for way too long without allowing himself to stabilize his breathing. He glanced back and saw Momoe facing Takeo. He wanted to watch, see how the genius would do things differently, but he had to move on to the next test.

Takuma exited the auditorium and was surprised to see a bald old man dressed in a white and magenta kimono sitting under the shade of a large red umbrella. He sat on a patio chair with another empty one in front of him and had a round single-leg table with a traditional pottery tea set on it.

"Takuma?" asked the old man when Takuma entered his vision.

Takuma nodded and was asked to sit.

There was a spell of silence, a couple of minutes, but under the old man's gaze, Takuma felt it had been like hours. Not knowing what else to do, Takuma stared back.

"I only have one question for you," the old man broke the silence, "it will be used to complete the rest of your test. The last portion of what you did inside and viva-voce both."

Takuma silently gulped. A single question raised the stakes. If he got it correct, he won big, but if he was incorrect, he lost equally as bad.

"The question is quite simple, and anyone in your position would be able to answer it," said the man. There was a pause before the old man posed the question.

"In the auditorium, how many people stood on the second-floor corridor?"

Takuma stopped blinking. His mind went back into the hall, thinking about the shinobi who he thought were observing the testing for any signs of cheating.

This inside of his mouth felt dessert dry as he opened it to speak his response,

"I do not know."

He did not know.

 

 

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