"Alright,"
Kurenai nodded in the end.
She still agreed to Kiyohara's ridiculous snack order. After all, he was a civilian, and her father was a genjutsu-specialist jōnin—she was, essentially, a little rich girl.
Seeing that, Kiyohara headed further inside.
He spotted a few familiar faces, and plenty of strangers.
The crowd was roughly split into two circles—on one side, plain-clothed, mostly quiet civilian genin; on the other, uniformly dressed, subtly arrogant clan genin.
Among them, two figures stood out: Uchiha Tekkā in a dark high-collared short-sleeve with the fan crest on his back, and Hyūga Tetsu in loose white training robes, with pure white eyes.
Naturally, each had a few clanmates or allies clustered around them, forming their own little groups.
The proctor was a stern-faced jōnin with a scar at the corner of his eye. He briefly explained the rules.
They were simple: one-on-one matches, stop just short of lethal blows, but killing-power jutsu were allowed.
He'd judge promotions based on performance in battle, tactical use, and overall strength.
"Uchiha Tekkā, huh," Kiyohara thought.
He remembered that in a few years, Tekkā would become one of Fugaku's right-hand men.
For now, though, he probably hadn't joined the Konoha Police Force yet—that required at least chūnin rank.
"In this exam, my toughest opponents will probably be Uchiha Tekkā or Hyūga Tetsu," Kiyohara thought, eyeing them both.
They were heirs of Konoha's two great dōjutsu clans—born with advantages civilian shinobi could only dream of.
"Come draw lots," the proctor said.
Several other proctors brought out a black box for the candidates to reach into.
One by one, they took their slips. Soon it was Kiyohara's turn.
"Unlucky," he thought, looking at his number—4.
And his corresponding opponent?
Uchiha Tekkā.
"I wonder if he's awakened his Sharingan yet," Kiyohara mused, rubbing his chin.
The Sharingan was practically a fully realized evolution tree of a bloodline limit: one tomoe, two tomoe, three tomoe—gaining insight, copying, hypnosis, chakra tracking, and finally… Mangekyō.
Mangekyō came with two random eye techniques, plus a bonus third power—Susanoo.
All he could say was: this bloodline-based world really didn't play fair.
The entire shinobi world was basically the extended Ōtsutsuki family and their descendants fighting among themselves, with all civilians just along for the ride.
Plenty of ordinary ninja would fight their whole lives—and never reach the starting line some bloodline elites were born on.
Naruto started off preaching effort and hot-blooded willpower, and then did a "twist" into the biggest bloodline beneficiary of them all.
Turned out to be a reincarnated god, the "Child of Prophecy," with the Sage of Six Paths as his past-life father and the Fourth Hokage as his current one.
"What, jealous?" Rogue Kiyohara floated out and asked.
"Just thinking again about how important reincarnation tech is in this world," Kiyohara said quietly, shaking his head and pushing the thoughts down.
"But it's not like I have no chance."
If you can't beat them, join them.
With the Willbook, he might one day gather all those bloodlines into one body.
By then, the first match had already begun.
Two ninjas stepped onto the ring.
At the judge's signal, they started.
Kiyohara had drawn number 4, which meant three matches before his turn.
He watched the others fight, quietly gathering intel.
Information warfare was a crucial part of shinobi combat.
The first few bouts were mostly civilian-vs-civilian or clan-vs-civilian matchups.
The fights were fierce, but not particularly flashy.
Civilian ninja were very careful with their chakra—every bit had to be stretched.
Usually they started with kunai exchanges and shuriken feints, saving their ninjutsu as trump cards.
Clan ninja were different. With naturally larger chakra pools, they flung jutsu more often and more extravagantly.
...
Meanwhile, in the stands—
From the stands, a huge board below listed the names, numbers, and pairings of all participants.
"Kiyohara's first match is against an Uchiha… that's rough," Kurenai said as she came back, bag of snacks—his snacks—in hand.
"Yeah, doesn't look great," Genma said around his senbon.
"Have a little faith, Kurenai. We saw how he performed at Kannabi Bridge. That kid's been hiding his true strength—he's not so simple," Genma added, sounding quite confident.
They'd all agreed they were going to coast. Somehow he was the only one who actually did.
Not long after, the first three bouts ended, and the proctor's voice rang out:
"Match four: Kiyohara versus Uchiha Tekkā. Both fighters, to the ring!"
Kiyohara took a deep breath and walked steadily to the center.
Tekkā stepped in at the same time, arms folded, eyes full of the typical Uchiha arrogance.
"I've heard of you. Supposedly you did something on the Grass front. But the limits of a civilian end here. Meeting me is your misfortune," Tekkā said.
Kiyohara didn't respond. He just calmed his breathing and brought his body to peak condition.
"Begin!"
The proctor's hand chopped down.
Almost with the same breath, Tekkā's fingers blurred through seals, his chest swelling.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
The Uchiha clan's signature.
Nearly everyone in the clan learned it.
Heat roared out, and a blazing sphere over two meters wide surged forward, warping the air as it barreled straight at Kiyohara.
"A 'kind' technique that never kills anyone, huh…" Kiyohara thought suddenly, recalling the joking nickname for fire jutsu.
Given the "no smoke, no injury; fire but no death" law in the original story, very few people ever died to Fire Release.
Hence, the "benevolent jutsu" label.
But there was nothing benevolent about a fireball aimed straight at his forehead.
He flew through his own hand seals.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A powerful tornado burst from his mouth.
But instead of slamming head-on into the fireball, it struck from the side.
Wind and flame clashed violently, altering the fireball's path. The huge blazing sphere, which had been charging straight at him, was pushed off-line by the gale.
With a suffocating wave of heat, it screamed past just a few meters from his side and slammed into the arena's protective barrier, exploding into a shower of sparks.
Tekkā's Fire Release was strong—but Kiyohara's Wind Release, inherited from Rogue Kiyohara, was jōnin-level.
~~~
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