The water dragon roared as it came!
Uehara Naraku was still making hand seals, cursing under his breath: "Damn! How come the hand seal patterns invented by Hoshigaki Kisame are so many? What the hell are these hand seals? So troublesome, missing a few should be no problem, right?"
After speaking, Uehara simply gave up on making any more hand seals and clapped his hands together: "Water Release: Roaring Wave!"
A gigantic wave surged upwards into the sky, instantly sweeping away the incoming water dragon!
Maruboshi Kosuke's eyes flashed with a hint of shock. Although Uehara Naraku seemed to have a flaw in making ninjutsu hand seals, his jutsu's power was substantial.
Gazing at the tsunami crashing down towards him, Maruboshi Kosuke quickly formed hand seals again: "Water Release: Water Array Wall!"
Kosuke's Water Array Wall was distinctly different from those of other ninjas.
His Water Array Wall, just like the Second Hokage Senju Tobirama's, swiftly transformed into a hollow cylinder, firmly enclosing him!
The waves gradually receded…
After releasing the Water Array Wall Jutsu, Maruboshi Kosuke eyed Uehara Naraku coldly from a distance, forming hand seals again. He planned a ninjutsu battle, aiming to exploit Uehara Naraku's weakness in hand seals to defeat him.
"Water Release: Water Rushing Wave!"
This time, it was Maruboshi Kosuke's turn to counterattack!
Leveraging the yet-to-recede waves around, Kosuke completed the hand seals for the Water Rushing Wave Jutsu, sending another wave rolling towards Uehara Naraku!
Moreover, this time Kosuke began forming hand seals while the Water Array Wall dissipated, avoiding Uehara Naraku's line of sight.
By the time Uehara reacted, the waves of the Water Rushing Wave were already upon him!
Uehara Naraku continued his cursing, symbolically making a few hand seals: "Damn it! Someday, I'm going to make Kisame's Shark Skin into pickled fish! What's with these hand seals he invented, why are they so cumbersome to use!"
Uehara hurriedly made a few symbolic hand seals and unleashed his skill before the waves engulfed him: "Wind Release: Wind Barrier!"
A wind wall appeared instantly in front of Uehara Naraku, directly blocking the incoming wave, even blowing the seawater back!
Kosuke's confidence solidified even further.
However, his face still looked somewhat displeased: "Though this guy's hand seal gestures are much worse than others, his jutsu's power is considerable... perhaps this is a fair trade-off?"
This was pretty much confirmed.
Because whenever Maruboshi Kosuke saw Uehara Naraku making hand seals, he always seemed somewhat impatient with his expression, clearly not fond of them.
That was understandable.
After all, Uehara Naraku's taijutsu was already strong enough, if he could easily defeat enemies with taijutsu alone, why waste chakra?
Come to think of Uehara Naraku's unscrupulous bullying of their Konoha youngsters...
Clearly, Uehara Naraku had always been fighting people weaker than him, and before encountering someone equally strong or stronger, he had grown used to bullying the weak.
Kosuke looked at Uehara Naraku and sighed: "Truly an outstanding genius, yet lost his mind to his own talents…"
A sigh was a sigh, regret was regret!
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Kosuke still continued forming hand seals, his eyes narrowing as he watched Uehara Naraku finally rush towards him impatiently, coldly saying: "Water Release..."
In the next second, Maruboshi Kosuke suddenly saw Uehara Naraku vanish from his sight, causing him great alarm, until he finally abandoned the hand seals and reached for his ninja blade!
A hand suddenly grasped Kosuke's wrist!
This immediately chilled Kosuke's heart!
In close combat taijutsu encounters, Maruboshi Kosuke believed his chances of winning were dreadfully low, let alone Uehara Naraku had the initiative.
Uehara Naraku's voice thundered into Kosuke's ear, sounding incredibly sinister: "Senior, haven't you had enough of casting ninjutsu?"
"Just two ninjutsu…" Kosuke lightly dallied for time while swiftly darting away to break free from Uehara's grip, quickly drawing his ninja blade!
Yet in the next moment, he found Uehara Naraku again disappeared from before his eyes.
Another hand from behind firmly grasped his wrist, even directly snatching his ninja blade!
Maruboshi Kosuke widened his eyes incredulously, slowly turning his head to look at Uehara Naraku, saying: "Your Instantaneous Jutsu is unimaginably fast!"
"That's totally normal!"
Uehara Naraku reinserted Kosuke's ninja blade back into its sheath, softly continuing: "Our leader, the Ninja Demigod, Hanzo-sama personally taught me the Instantaneous Jutsu."
The Instantaneous Jutsu taught by Salamander Hanzo the Half-God was indeed swift.
Taught by the Ninja Demigod himself, what else could Maruboshi Kosuke say?
The old man's body gradually relaxed, momentarily hunching: "Impressive, seems this old man can only give up on the chance to advance to Chunin..."
"..."
Uehara Naraku furrowed his brow.
Why does Kosuke keep acting even after admitting defeat!
Uehara Naraku didn't hold back either, sternly saying: "I just think there's no need for senior to take the Chunin Examination, estimating that senior will soon be promoted to Konoha's Jonin! If Konoha fails to recognize senior's prowess, I will find a chance to mention senior's promotion aspirations to Kakashi-sensei and have him pass it along."
"No, no." Kosuke hastily waved his hand, tapped on his old waist: "Getting old, just taking on regular Genin level missions is enough..."
"Hmm..."
Uehara Naraku didn't continue to mock, after all, he had received a great reward!
Hidden mission: Defeat a real Konoha Genin (1/1), mission completed, rewarded 3000 life energy points, 3000 chakra energy points, 3000 natural energy points.
The hidden mission was not too extreme.
After all, Maruboshi Kosuke and Might Duy created the first generation legend of Konoha Genin!
From then on, Konoha Genin became increasingly unstoppable, until the era when Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke ushered in the actual Six Paths era under the guise of Genin.
"Oh, there's one more thing."
Uehara Naraku tugged at Maruboshi Kosuke, who was about to leave, and softly said: "After leaving here, please immediately report to your village's executives that the S-Class Traitor Orochimaru is roaming in the Forest of Death!"
"Orochimaru?"
Kosuke's face changed colors.
That name was more than he could handle!
"That's right, I've temporarily scared him off using Hanzo-sama's name."
Uehara Naraku spouted nonsense, continuing: "Orochimaru attempted to attack Kakashi-sensei's Seventh Class, I chased him away!
I encountered him again trying to assassinate our proctor, and I scared him off in Hanzo-sama's name, but I can't guarantee he won't show up again!
I must hurry to reunite with the Seventh Class and protect them in case of another attack by Orochimaru. I hope after you leave, Mr. Kosuke, you report to the Chunin Examination organizers' executives, stating I did not deliberately violate rules."
"I understand." Kosuke nodded earnestly, given the seriousness of Orochimaru's attack amidst such an exam. Halting the Chunin Examination might become child's play very soon!
Kosuke seriously bowed to Uehara Naraku: "With my strength, I cannot oppose Orochimaru, so the safety of many Genin in the Forest of Death relies on you for now. I will immediately report to the Third Hokage-sama!"
Initially, based on his observations of Uehara Naraku, Kosuke thought of him as a ninja with no particularly bad nature but with a bit of dark humor and a penchant for bullying the weak.
Now it seemed, Uehara Naraku was still a good person.
Simply because Uehara dared to protect weaker ninjas, it indicated that he still had positive energy within him, and it seemed he had a favorable impression of Konoha too.