Chapter 86: Three-Way Battle
Renjiro continued training the three students for another month.
During this month, Kaito extensively trained to enhance the power of his ninjutsu.
He could now inject twenty percent of his chakra into Wind Release: Great Breakthrough within fifteen seconds. More importantly, he could inject five percent of his chakra into Great Breakthrough in just over two seconds.
This meant the technique could be used in battle as long as a certain distance was maintained.
He also continued training Wind Release: Wind Wolf Technique and Wind Release: Wind Dragon Technique, and could now perform them without needing any hand seals.
Renjiro was astonished that he could use these techniques so easily without hand seals.
Kaito's kenjutsu also improved significantly. Renjiro taught him all the fundamentals of samurai swordsmanship.
He could freely control the flow of chakra within his blade. He could even inject Wind Release chakra into it through normal chakra flow.
Renjiro couldn't help him much in this regard, as he specialized in Earth and Water Release techniques, which were not suitable for elemental chakra flow, and he himself had never tried to incorporate elemental chakra into chakra flow.
However, Kaito learned it with ease. In fact, while learning, he also mastered a technique he had dreamed of for over a decade!
The squad once again had a day of rest, and all three of them rested well.
Early the next morning, the team gathered again.
Hodaka saw Kaito arrive at the training grounds and asked, "Hey, how's your training progressing?"
Kaito said, "It's going smoothly. How about you two?"
Hodaka grinned and said, "Very well. I want to spar with you again."
Kaito also smiled and said, "Alright, I hope you can actually touch me this time."
This annoyed Hodaka, and he retorted, "It's all because of you that sensei trained my ninjutsu for three consecutive months!"
Hearing this, Kaito laughed.
Mieko, annoyed at being excluded from the conversation, snorted and interjected, "Hmph, I can defeat both of you in a spar."
Hodaka and Kaito turned to her. Kaito said, "Alright, we'll see if you still have the energy to boast after your morning workout."
Upon hearing this, her shoulders immediately slumped, while Kaito and Hodaka teased her.
The poor girl complained that it wasn't fair to her. "It's not that I'm slacking off in training. It's just that every time I'm about to reach sensei's goal, he makes it even harder!"
Just as Mieko was feeling dejected, Renjiro appeared.
He announced, "We have been training for three consecutive months. Next, we will be performing C-rank missions consecutively."
This immediately cheered Mieko up. After all, performing missions meant no more brutal training sessions!
Hodaka and Kaito also breathed a sigh of relief—their bodies desperately needed rest. Unlike Mieko, who often left training early, Hodaka and Kaito persevered through the entire training regimen every day.
Renjiro continued, "Today, instead of any training, we will have a special sparring match."
This immediately piqued the interest of all three.
Renjiro continued, "The three of you will engage in a three-way battle. You cannot form alliances unless absolutely necessary. If you deliberately cooperate to defeat a third party, I will disqualify you."
"The battlefield is this entire training ground. From now until 6 PM, you have time to determine the winner. You can defeat others by knocking them unconscious or making them surrender. Of course, I can intervene and declare someone defeated. Also, you are not allowed to severely injure each other. You cannot use soldier pills. And Kaito, you cannot use your sword."
Mieko suddenly asked, "Why can't Kaito use his sword? Isn't that his primary weapon?"
Hodaka also nodded—he had the same question. Neither of them wanted to win if their opponent was handicapped.
Renjiro shook his head and said, "The way Kaito uses his sword is purely for killing. If he wins with his sword, you two will be severely injured or worse. In any case, he is not allowed to use his sword in sparring matches with his comrades, understood?"
They understood the reasoning but were still a bit unconvinced. Kaito interjected, "Are you two underestimating me? With or without a sword, neither of you will be able to touch me."
With that, he smiled confidently.
Hodaka and Mieko looked at him in annoyance. Among the three, Kaito was the fastest and excelled at long-range combat. In their few sparring matches, they had never truly gotten close to him.
Before they could argue, Renjiro interrupted them.
"No more questions. My rules are final. You haven't heard the best part yet—the winner will receive a reward."
This again piqued the interest of all three. Mieko asked, "What reward?"
Renjiro replied, "The winner will be taught an A-rank technique by me."
This shocked all three of them. They all had the same thought: "Will he really let us learn a technique above C-rank?"
Renjiro understood his students' thoughts. He smiled and said, "Of course, I will only teach it to you once you've been promoted to chunin."
Upon hearing this, the three genin were expressionless.
Not wanting to hear any complaints from them, he shouted, "Begin!"
Before he could finish his word, the three genin used Body Flicker in different directions without making any hand seals.
Now they were over a hundred meters apart, observing the other two and contemplating their strategy.
The best approach would be to temporarily team up with one of the others, eliminate the third, and then determine the winner. Unfortunately, this option was explicitly forbidden.
Suddenly, Hodaka and Mieko noticed Kaito grinning. The next moment, he vanished.
Mieko and Hodaka both cursed him and his annoying Wind Release: Body Flicker Technique.
Hodaka activated his Byakugan and found Kaito appearing six hundred meters away.
But he quickly disappeared again, this time beyond the observable range of the Byakugan.
Mieko cursed, "Kaito is still a coward as always."
Hodaka and Mieko exchanged glances, wondering what action to take.
About a kilometer from their original position, Kaito had been sensing the locations of the other two—they were still in the same spot. He chuckled, "The battle time is thirteen hours. I think Renjiro-sensei calculated that it's impossible for us to decide the winner through a few quick matches."
"So the winner mainly depends on who has the most chakra remaining. The best strategy for me is to force multiple rounds of combat so that all of us lose equal amounts of chakra. Since I have the largest chakra reserves, I should be able to win easily in a battle of attrition. Especially considering that the Byakugan and Sharingan consume significant chakra when activated."
"But I know these two—there's no doubt they'll fight aggressively anyway. This should be interesting."
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