"If they're just clones," Nawaki said, smashing his fists together, "then it's not impossible to win."
A Shadow Clone split one's chakra among the clones—the more clones there were, the weaker each one became. Arin had created a full twenty-seven.
They might not be unbeatable.
"Mushi-hime, let's go."
"Okay." Aburame Mushi-hime nodded. Countless insects poured out from her body, rapidly coating Nawaki.
Nawaki kicked off the ground and charged straight at Arin's clone, monstrous strength surging into both fists.
Arin sidestepped. Nawaki stomped forward, spun his body in a tight arc, and drove a punch toward Arin.
"Not bad. You've improved quite a bit."
Arin caught Nawaki's fist with one hand, propped himself up in midair, flipped a full three hundred and sixty degrees, and kicked Nawaki in the face—but a split second earlier, countless black insects crawled up and covered Nawaki's face.
Bang!
So hard.
The insects were shattered into pieces, but Nawaki himself wasn't injured at all. Instead, he reached out to grab Arin's leg—only to seize nothing but an afterimage.
Arin had retracted his leg midair.
"Insect Hand!"
Mushi-hime thrust out her arm. Countless insects fused into rope-like chains, shooting toward Arin to bind him.
Bang!
Substitution Technique.
Arin's body turned into a kunai, instantly ensnared by the insect chains, while his real position shifted aside.
He flipped in midair, landed lightly, drew in a breath, and spat forcefully toward Mushi-hime.
"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"
A torrent of fire blasted from his mouth, slamming straight into Mushi-hime.
Because Arin hadn't formed any hand seals, she couldn't react in time. The Flame Bullet hit her squarely—her clothes and body rapidly charring into blackened husks.
Suddenly, two hands emerged from her mouth, and an entirely unharmed Mushi-hime crawled out.
"Insect Stream Substitution!"
The remains collapsed into countless insect corpses that scattered across the ground.
She really was a female version of Orochimaru—her techniques were eerily similar.
Arin looked at the drenched Mushi-hime. Compared to Orochimaru's version, hers was… strangely more appealing.
After all, a sticky little girl and a sticky rough grown man were very different things.
—Wait. What was he even thinking?!
"Earth Release: Shaking Ground Fist!"
Nawaki slammed his fist into the ground. Massive jagged rocks erupted beneath Arin's feet. He flipped backward to avoid them.
"Combo!!" Nawaki roared.
More sharp stone spikes burst up from the ground, forcing Arin to keep retreating.
At that moment, another Arin clone knocked out an examinee.
[Experience +1210]
"Barely qualifies," Arin muttered.
Seeing another clone being pushed back by Nawaki, he raised his hand and flicked several kunai toward Nawaki and Mushi-hime.
"Whoosh!"
That clone's body suddenly swelled, clothing tearing apart as its back muscles twisted into a grotesque demon-like visage.
Demon Back.
He threw a punch straight at Nawaki.
Bang! Smoke burst out as Nawaki's body dissolved into countless insects, each one glowing red.
They actually looked rather pretty.
But when those insects swarmed over him in dense masses, it stopped being pretty very quickly.
"When did they—?" the Arin clone exclaimed in shock.
"Shaking Ground Fist doesn't need constant maintenance!" Nawaki shouted, emerging from behind Mushi-hime.
Mushi-hime raised both hands toward the Arin clone.
"Our target was never that clone from the start," she said calmly. "It was you. Burst—explode!!!"
BOOM!!
The insects covering the clone detonated violently. Flames engulfed the clone, and with a wisp of smoke, it vanished—his Shadow Clone completely destroyed.
Seated in the stands, Arin's real body nodded in genuine admiration.
"That coordination was impressive. They calculated that the clone's chakra could only handle one long-range Substitution, used rocks to block vision, and synchronized with Mushi-hime."
From the moment Nawaki used Earth Release: Shaking Ground Fist, the trap had already been set.
He turned to look at Orochimaru and Jiraiya, both watching the battlefield intently. They had also used Shadow Clones, their own clones busy scoring each examinee.
"That Shaking Ground Fist—doesn't need hand seals either?" Arin asked, noticing Nawaki hadn't used any.
One of Orochimaru's clones explained, "That's a technique Nawaki developed himself. It injects chakra into the ground to disrupt its structure and force whatever's underground to burst out. I helped refine it a bit, but it's very terrain-dependent."
Strictly speaking, it wasn't really Earth Release. It simply injected chakra underground—if there was something solid below, it would be forced out. If not, the technique was useless.
"The exam's about to end," Jiraiya said from the side.
After all, these genin were facing Hyuga Arin—even Shadow Clones were overwhelming opponents. In a straight fight, none of them could win. And anyone who relied purely on brute force wouldn't qualify as chūnin anyway.
Traps, strategy, calculation, combat ability—those four aspects all had to meet the standard.
Anyone who could hold their own against Arin's clones had solid combat ability. Anyone who managed to counter-kill a clone had demonstrated the first three as well—more than enough to qualify as chūnin.
Out of twenty-seven examinees, only seven had successfully counter-killed a clone. The other twenty were enjoying an excellent nap.
Nawaki and Mushi-hime were among the seven. After taking down one clone, they were still trying to defeat another—but were now completely suppressed.
The others were in similar situations, doing their best to demonstrate their worth.
"Nawaki, Nara Yoshimaru, Sarutobi Kid, Yōhi, Hijikata Jūshirō, Aburame Mushi-hime."
Orochimaru looked at the list of candidates marked as eligible for promotion. The rest had mostly played supporting roles—these six had acted as commanders or main combatants, even coordinating with one another.
"And me," Arin added, pointing at himself emphatically.
"And you, Hyuga Arin," Orochimaru said flatly, shooting him a sideways glance. You'd basically passed through the back door anyway.
"All right. The fighting can end now."
They had already selected enough candidates for promotion. Continuing would just waste time.
"No—miracles might still happen," Jiraiya said calmly.
"A ninja's battle shouldn't be stopped halfway through."
"Exactly," Arin echoed at the same time, lips curling upward. "A ninja's battle isn't something you just stop whenever you feel like it."
Boom!Boom!Boom!
One after another, Arin's remaining clones burst into blue flames.
Arin's smile slowly widened.
The battle—was escalating.
✨ Bonus Chapter Goals ✨
10 Reviews = 1 Bonus Chapter
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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