Kurenai intercepted Might Guy before he could tear through the rest of the defensive line.
The Kurenai of a month ago would never have dared to challenge him in close combat. Guy's speed, stamina, and raw physical power placed him far above most academy students, even those born into established shinobi clans.
But Kurenai was no longer the same fighter she had been.
Under the combined guidance of her father, Shinku Yūhi, and Ren, she had strengthened her footwork, corrected the weaknesses in her guard, and learned how to blend subtle genjutsu feints into her taijutsu. She could not defeat Guy in a straightforward exchange, but she did not need to.
She only had to delay him.
Guy attacked with a rapid combination of kicks, each one cutting through the air with frightening force. Kurenai retreated across the platform, deflecting what she could while evading the strikes that would break through her guard.
A roundhouse kick passed inches from her face.
Kurenai ducked, swept one leg toward Guy's ankle, and simultaneously flicked two senbon toward his shoulder. Guy leaped over the sweep and twisted in midair, allowing the needles to pass beneath him.
He landed in a crouch, eyes blazing with excitement.
"Excellent movement, Kurenai!" he declared. "Your flames of youth have grown even brighter!"
Kurenai answered by throwing three shuriken at his face.
Guy was enthusiastic, but he was not reckless. This was still a graduation examination, and everyone on the field was a classmate rather than an enemy. He controlled his strength enough to avoid causing serious injuries.
That restraint gave Kurenai the narrow margin she needed.
Obito arrived several seconds later, sliding to a stop beside her.
"Kurenai, I told you to wait!" he complained. "I'm the one who's supposed to deal with him!"
"Then stop talking and help me," Kurenai replied.
Guy grinned at the sight of two opponents.
"Two against one? Splendid! Come, and let our youth collide!"
While the three of them fought on one side of the platform, Ren stood near the center and surveyed the entire battlefield.
He did not allow Guy's spectacular charge to distract him. The true danger was not a single powerful attacker—it was the way the enemy team had positioned its strongest members.
Homon was advancing from the right with two students supporting him. Asuma remained partially concealed near a stone barrier, while Nara Shinen stayed farther back, carefully observing the battle.
Their positions were too deliberate to be accidental.
Ren immediately understood what they were planning.
Homon would engage him directly. Asuma would wait for an opening to attack from the flank, while Shinen used the chaos to extend his shadow unnoticed. It was a simple pincer formation, but each member possessed an ability that complemented the others.
If the Gentle Fist restricted Ren's movement for even a moment, Shadow Possession would end the fight.
Ren reached into his weapon pouch.
Instead of steel kunai, he drew several wooden practice weapons approved for the examination. He spread them between his fingers, calculated the distances around Homon, and threw them in a wide arc.
The kunai spun through the air.
One passed above Homon's left shoulder. Another struck the earth behind him, while the remaining weapons scattered across the surrounding battlefield.
Homon's Byakugan tracked each of them.
He had already heard about Ren's unusual Substitution Jutsu from Hizashi. During their spar, Ren had exchanged positions with a deflected kunai and appeared directly behind the Hyūga Chunin.
Homon had no intention of falling for the same tactic.
Ren vanished from the platform.
Swish!
Without forming a single hand seal, Ren exchanged positions with one of the airborne kunai and appeared directly in front of Homon.
His body materialized above the Hyūga, already rotating.
"Konoha Great Whirlwind!"
Ren's leg tore through the air like a whip. The sheer speed behind the kick produced a deep, explosive boom.
Homon did not panic.
His Byakugan had followed the chakra movement from the instant the substitution occurred. He lowered his center of gravity, planted both feet firmly against the ground, and raised one elbow in a curved defensive posture.
Ren's shin crashed against his guard.
Bang!
The impact rippled through Homon's body. His sandals scraped across the earth as he was driven backward, carving two shallow trails into the ground.
Ren used the force of the collision to flip away. He rotated once and landed lightly several meters ahead, one hand touching the earth to steady himself.
Homon stared at him in shock.
He had anticipated the attack and blocked it properly, yet his arm had gone numb from the impact.
Ren was stronger than before.
Much stronger.
High above the battlefield, two figures watched from the rooftop of the academy building.
One was Hiruzen Sarutobi, dressed in the white-and-red robes of the Third Hokage. A pipe rested between his lips, and smoke curled lazily around his weathered face.
The young shinobi beside him wore Konoha's flak jacket and had bright blond hair. Minato Namikaze leaned forward slightly, his eyes fixed on Ren.
The moment Ren appeared before Homon, Minato's relaxed expression changed.
"What was that?"
His surprise was subtle, but Hiruzen noticed it.
The Third Hokage removed the pipe from his mouth.
"What do you think?" he asked.
Minato did not answer immediately. His gaze moved between the scattered kunai and Ren's new position as he reconstructed the exchange in his mind.
"For an instant, it resembled the Flying Thunder God," Minato admitted. "He used the kunai as an anchor and appeared beside it almost immediately."
His eyes narrowed in concentration.
"But it wasn't space-time ninjutsu. I sensed no spatial distortion, and the original kunai disappeared when he moved. It looked more like an instantaneous exchange."
"A Substitution Jutsu," Hiruzen said.
Minato glanced at him.
"You've seen it before?"
"Once. He used the same method during a spar with Hyūga Hizashi."
Hiruzen returned the pipe to his lips, his eyes remaining on the battlefield.
"The technique appears simple, but he has eliminated nearly all of its normal limitations. There are no hand seals, no visible preparation, and almost no delay."
Minato studied Ren with renewed interest.
"Then I'll need to watch more carefully."
Hiruzen smiled faintly.
"That is why I invited you."
Below them, Homon forced the numbness from his arm and charged.
He could not afford to hesitate. Giving Ren enough time to scatter more kunai would allow him to control the entire battlefield.
"I won't lose to the same trick again!" Homon shouted.
Chakra surged through the tenketsu in his palms. He closed the distance and unleashed a rapid series of strikes aimed at Ren's chakra network.
"Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms!"
The first two palm strikes cut toward Ren's chest.
Ren twisted aside, allowing one to pass his shoulder while deflecting the other with the back of his wrist.
"Two Palms!"
Homon stepped forward and doubled the attack. His movements flowed together without pause, each strike targeting a precise point along Ren's arms and torso.
"Four Palms!"
Ren retreated.
Homon's palms pursued him like a storm. Every missed strike was immediately followed by another, and the pressure doubled with each stage of the technique.
"Eight Palms!"
Ren tilted his head as two fingers passed close enough to stir his hair. He shifted his foot, turned his shoulder, and narrowly avoided another palm aimed at his ribs.
"Sixteen Palms!"
The surrounding students could barely follow the exchange. Homon's hands blurred into pale afterimages, while Ren moved between them with increasingly narrow evasions.
To an ordinary observer, Ren seemed trapped on the defensive.
Homon's Byakugan revealed something else.
Ren's chakra was gathering beneath the surface of his body.
His shoulders widened. His torso became slightly taller, and the muscles beneath his white clothing tightened as their internal structure changed.
Transformation Technique: Partial Transformation—Might Guy Physique Template.
Ren had spent considerable time developing specialized forms after discovering that his improved Transformation Technique could produce functional physical changes.
The Might Guy template was designed for direct combat.
It did not grant Guy's experience or reproduce the results of years of relentless conditioning, but it altered Ren's torso and major muscle groups to imitate Guy's explosive build. His strength, balance, and close-range acceleration all increased.
A complete transformation would consume far more chakra, so Ren limited the change to his upper body and core. Even then, maintaining such a precise partial transformation placed a heavy burden on his chakra control.
He needed to finish this quickly.
Homon continued attacking.
"Thirty-Two—"
His breathing faltered.
It lasted for only a fraction of a second, but the rhythm of his assault weakened. One shoulder rose slightly higher than the other, and the next palm strike came slower than those before it.
Ren saw the opening.
He stopped retreating.
His fist shot forward.
Homon's eyes widened. He abandoned the final stage of his technique and crossed both forearms in front of his face.
Ren's punch struck the guard with enough force to rattle Homon's bones.
Before Homon could recover, Ren stepped inside the range of the Gentle Fist. He lowered his body, twisted his hips, and drove his elbow toward Homon's ribs.
It was the same combination that had defeated him during the previous semester's examination.
Homon recognized it.
This time, he managed to drop one arm in time and block the elbow.
But recognition did not erase the difference in power.
The impact knocked his arm into his own side and forced him backward. His newly gathered momentum shattered, and his stance opened.
Ren followed.
His fists descended in a relentless barrage. There were no wasted movements and no dramatic pauses—only compact, brutal strikes aimed at Homon's guard, shoulders, chest, and abdomen.
Homon blocked the first punch.
He parried the second and redirected the third.
The fourth nearly broke through.
By the fifth, his breathing had become ragged. Each collision forced him another half-step backward, and the power behind Ren's attacks seemed to increase rather than fade.
Homon tried to strike the tenketsu in Ren's forearm.
Ren changed the angle of his punch at the last instant and smashed his knuckles against Homon's wrist.
A sharp crack followed.
Pain exploded through Homon's hand as the joint was dislocated.
His defense collapsed.
Ren drove one final punch into the center of his chest.
"Gah!"
Homon's feet left the ground. He flew several meters backward, struck the dirt, and rolled twice before coming to a stop.
For a moment, he could not breathe.
Ren stepped forward to pursue him, but a flicker of movement crossed the ground at the edge of his vision.
A shadow was stretching toward his feet.
His instincts screamed.
Ren immediately shaped his hands as though beginning a seal. The motion was a deliberate feint, meant to draw attention away from the real activation condition.
His body vanished.
The shadow swept through the place where he had been standing and caught nothing.
Ren reappeared more than ten meters away, exchanging positions with one of the wooden kunai he had scattered at the beginning of the fight.
"Shadow Possession Jutsu!"
Nara Shinen stood at the edge of the battlefield, his hands locked in the appropriate seal. His shadow twisted across the earth like a living creature, changing direction as it pursued Ren.
Shinen's expression remained composed, but a faint crease appeared between his eyebrows.
He had waited until Ren focused on Homon. The timing had been nearly perfect.
Yet Ren had escaped before the shadow could touch him.
As Ren landed, movement erupted from his left.
Asuma charged out from behind the stone barrier and hurled a barrage of shuriken and wooden kunai. The weapons spread across Ren's possible escape routes, forcing him to continue retreating.
"So it really is three against one," Ren muttered.
He had suspected they were forming a pincer attack, but part of him had assumed Asuma and Shinen would preserve some dignity.
Apparently, winning mattered more.
Ren glanced briefly toward his own team.
Guy was overwhelming the defenders through sheer physical ability. Kurenai and Obito were still holding him back, but the remaining students were already descending into chaos.
No reinforcements were coming.
Ren returned his attention to the two attackers closing in from opposite directions.
Shinen's shadow advanced from the right, while Asuma accelerated from the left. Homon remained on the ground behind them, struggling to recover.
Ren's mouth twitched.
He had eliminated one clan heir only to receive the Hokage's son and a Nara strategist in exchange.
Asuma saw Ren's hands begin forming seals.
"The Substitution Jutsu again?" he shouted. "We won't let you escape this time!"
He and Shinen widened their formation. The scattered weapons limited Ren's movement, while the shadow continued crawling across every patch of connected darkness.
Ren's heels struck the ground as he retreated.
His fingers moved faster.
Asuma completed his own sequence of hand seals. He inhaled deeply, causing his chest and cheeks to expand.
Shinen immediately recognized the technique and adjusted his shadow's path. A powerful gust would disrupt Ren's footing, forcing him into the Shadow Possession Jutsu.
Their coordination was excellent.
Unfortunately, Ren had no intention of escaping.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
Asuma expelled a violent torrent of air.
The blast tore across the training ground, lifting dust and loose stones into a roaring wave. The pressure struck the platform hard enough to make several students stagger.
At almost the same instant, Ren finished his own seals.
He drew a deep breath.
Heat gathered in his lungs.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive sphere of orange-red flame erupted from Ren's mouth.
The fireball collided head-on with Asuma's gale.
For one heartbeat, wind and fire struggled against each other.
Then the flames swelled.
Wind Release was vulnerable to Fire Release, and Asuma's Great Breakthrough did not extinguish the fireball. It fed it.
The blaze expanded violently, consuming the rushing air and transforming into a towering wave of fire. Heat rolled across the battlefield as the burning mass surged back toward Asuma.
The sudden inferno erased the nearby shadows beneath a flood of blazing light.
Shinen's technique collapsed.
His shadow snapped backward and returned to his feet before it could connect with Ren.
Asuma's eyes widened.
He had expected Ren to escape with the Substitution Jutsu. Instead, he had unknowingly strengthened Ren's counterattack and sent it roaring back toward himself.
"What?!"
Asuma abandoned the attack and used the Body Flicker Technique. His figure blurred away an instant before the flames swallowed his position.
The enhanced fireball crashed into the stone barrier behind him.
Boom!
Fire erupted upward. The stone blackened and cracked beneath the heat, while burning debris scattered across the dirt.
The battlefield fell silent.
Even Guy paused for half a second and looked toward the explosion.
Asuma reappeared near Shinen, his clothes covered in dust and one sleeve scorched at the edge. He stared at the towering flames with disbelief before turning toward Ren.
The same thought flashed through the minds of nearly everyone watching.
Who had fired a Great Fireball powerful enough to overwhelm the Hokage's son?
Asuma and Shinen exchanged a glance.
The confidence in their expressions had disappeared.
They had prepared a three-person ambush, controlled Ren's escape routes, and attacked with perfect timing.
Ren had still defeated Homon, evaded Shadow Possession, and turned Asuma's own Wind Release against him.
Beyond the wall of fire, Ren slowly lowered his hands.
His partial transformation had ended, but his breathing remained steady. The flames reflected in his eyes as he watched Asuma and Shinen reassess him.
The three-on-one attack had failed.
Now it was Ren's turn to hunt them.