Chapter 18: Phantom Body Flicker Technique
"You two, catch!"
The medical ninja, clearly enjoying the spectacle, tossed his and Yuya's equipment pouches to Yoru and Minato.
Both caught them with practiced familiarity and strapped them on.
"Please teach me well!"
Yoru and Minato formed the Seal of Confrontation toward each other once more.
Immediately, without waiting for Yuya to restart the match, they simultaneously reached for their waist pouches. Each extracted three shuriken and hurled them at their opponent.
At the same moment, they gripped kunai in reverse hold, pursuing behind their shuriken while their gazes locked onto each other through the flying projectiles.
Within their vision appeared images of shuriken colliding and passing each other.
Like mirror reflections, Yoru and Minato simultaneously raised their kunai, deflecting the incoming shuriken.
CLANG—
Two blade-collision sounds overlapped almost perfectly.
From the classmates' perspective, Yoru and Minato—initially several meters apart—deflected the flying shuriken before their bodies suddenly transformed into black blurs charging toward each other.
Their forms materialized into an intense, dazzling series of kunai exchanges.
While first through fourth-year students remained prohibited from using kunai, Yoru and Minato not only wielded them with perfect control—their dynamic vision seemed to rival the Uchiha clan's Sharingan, precisely tracking every movement and kunai trajectory.
Through terrifying reaction speeds, their parrying, dodging, and attacking appeared effortlessly fluid—less like shinobi combat than a samurai duel.
The medical ninja who'd initially dismissed this no-rules match had his casual expression replaced by seriousness, his eyes filled with shock.
Was this some joke? Such agility and reaction ability from mere fourth-year students?
Without context, one might think two Sharingan-wielding Uchiha were fighting!
Yuya's body tensed, prepared at any moment to use Body Flicker and interrupt the battle.
He refused to let carelessness cause these two students—his greatest source of pride—to suffer injury.
High-intensity blade combat severely tested concentration.
The slightest lapse could let opponents exploit openings, immediately deciding victory.
In this aspect, Yoru undoubtedly held the advantage.
After mere exchanges, Yoru created an opportunity.
With an upward diagonal strike meeting Minato's kunai again, Yoru inserted his index finger into the ring at the handle's end. Using the collision's force, he switched from reverse to forward grip, then slashed fiercely toward Minato's chest.
Against anyone else, Yoru's technique change would have caught them completely off-guard.
Minato—possessing remarkably exceptional reaction ability—saw Yoru's technique shift and instinctively gathered chakra in both feet that very instant.
Before Yoru's kunai could connect, Minato vanished in a blur.
Yoru showed no surprise.
The moment Minato disappeared, Yoru turned and hurled his kunai toward eight o'clock.
CLANG! Two kunai collided mid-air, deflecting to the ground.
Then rapid THUD THUD THUD sounds erupted as Yoru and Minato transitioned from kunai combat to taijutsu exchanges.
This time, Yoru gained advantage even faster.
Because their physical difference was simply too obvious.
At this age, girls typically developed faster than boys.
Yoru, now 160 centimeters tall, stood nearly a full head—about twenty centimeters—taller than Kushina.
However, he exceeded Minato by slightly more than a head—approximately twenty-five centimeters.
This height difference brought absolute power dominance.
Merely deflecting Yoru's whip kick, Minato's entire arm lost sensation as his body tilted sideways, nearly kicked to the ground.
Minato's eyes filled with shock, clearly not expecting that after just one year without fighting, Yoru's strength had grown so tremendously.
Without hesitation, Minato leaped backward, creating distance from Yoru.
Simultaneously, before even landing, his hands began forming seals.
Seeing the first seal's represented element, Yuya and the medical ninja's expressions changed dramatically.
Yoru—whose cultural course grades also ranked top three in the year and who'd memorized all hand seals thoroughly—likewise immediately recognized which elemental technique Minato intended to use.
Therefore, he too rapidly formed hand seals.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
Two voices rang out nearly simultaneously.
Minato's cheeks puffed out upon landing as he expelled a distorted air current.
The next second, this airflow expanded and magnified, transforming into an invisible tidal wave roaring toward Yoru.
Just as the gale was about to engulf Yoru, the earth before him suddenly raised a massive rectangular stone slab.
The gale struck the slab but failed to topple or shatter it. Instead, the wind scattered in all directions, kicking up massive dust clouds that forced watching classmates to shield their eyes.
"As expected, both can already use elemental techniques. Truly worthy of being called geniuses."
Yuya and the medical ninja sighed softly.
Since the gale hadn't yet dissipated, even Minato—skilled in Body Flicker—couldn't exploit the moment to teleport behind Yoru for a sneak attack.
Yoru, however, seized this opportunity to form hand seals again.
POOF POOF! Two white smoke clouds materialized from nowhere.
When wind dispersed the smoke, two clones identical to Yoru appeared on his left and right.
Seeing these clones, Yuya and the medical ninja felt no surprise.
From Yoru's hand seals, they knew these were merely the most basic Clone Technique.
Those two "Yorus" were just intangible phantom clones.
If Yoru had created Shadow Clones, they wouldn't remain so calm.
However, the following scene made their eyes widen in shock.
After the gale dissipated, Yoru and his two phantom clones charged together from behind the stone slab, running toward Minato.
Minato's pupils contracted. He quickly extracted three shuriken from his equipment pouch and hurled them at the three Yorus, attempting to confirm whether these were basic Clone Technique phantoms or the more advanced Shadow Clone Technique.
Watching the incoming shuriken, Yoru's real body dodged sideways while the other two Yorus let the shuriken pass through them.
Seeing Yoru had only used Clone Technique, Minato secretly breathed easier before fearlessly engaging.
Perhaps because Yoru was too close, Minato lacked time for deeper analysis.
Consequently, he overlooked a critically important detail.
Clone Technique could only create intangible phantom clones.
Moreover, these phantom clones dispersed into smoke clouds upon the slightest contact.
Yet Yoru's phantom clones, despite being pierced by shuriken, hadn't disappeared.
Clearly, these weren't ordinary phantom clones.
However, Minato soon realized this fact.
Engaging forward, he dodged Yoru's suddenly sluggish straight punch while simultaneously delivering a backhand strike rapidly toward Yoru's chest.
However, this punch didn't transmit the sensation of striking solid flesh but instead passed through Yoru's body.
Yet the earlier shuriken-piercing scene had clearly confirmed this was Yoru's real body.
Could all three be phantom clones, with Yoru's real body hidden elsewhere?
Just as Minato considered this while remaining alert to his surroundings, his vision suddenly filled with a rapidly enlarging fist.
Seeing the phantom clone's incoming punch, Minato's expression changed dramatically as he finally understood.
Unfortunately, too late!
THUD! A massive impact struck. Minato's cute face deformed under the punch.
The tremendous force not only distorted his handsome features but sent his body flying through the air, demonstrating Yoru's punch's tremendous power.
Moreover... this was merely the combo's beginning!