Asuma's Test (3)

Asuma's eyelids flicked open, tilting his head towards the forest as Shinji sped into the clearing. "Oh, pretty quick. You're earlier than I expected."

Shinji ignored the jounin's comments and unsheathed the wakizashi strapped to his back.

"But it doesn't seem like you're in the mood for talking. Alright, let's begin then, shall we?" Chuckling the Sarutobi added before readying himself.

The genin infused chakra into his legs, speeding up before acquiring yet another boost of speed with [Whirlwind Steps]. Right before he reached Asuma however, he unexpectedly veered to the left and sent a handful of chakra infused shuriken at the Sarutobi instead.

Asuma slipped through the volley of shuriken, however, as he did, he realized that the obvious opening through which the jounin had went through was left there on purpose by the thrower. Just as Asuma evaded the thrown projectiles, Shinji vanished and reappeared where he knew the Sarutobi was going to and swiped at the older man with his wakizashi.

The jounin whose face was still calm and collected, though now tinged with a hint of amusement, narrowly leaned away from Shinji's slash, letting the blade swing barely an inch away from his chest ineffectively.

Shinji didn't relent and continued his kenjutsu combo, guided by the techniques of [Myriad Armament Fiend] as well as the [Intermediate Kenjutsu Mastery] skill which had been created after the boy read through some kenjutsu scrolls stored in the Uchiha Clan's jutsu depository.

Those skills did not serve merely as damage boosting effects, there was also an auto-correction that steered the movement of his sword. In terms of individual agency in manipulating his blade, it was a ratio of 8:2 between Shinji's control of his movements versus the system's guidance of his kenjutsu forms. That is to say, Shinji contributed roughly 80% to the expertise shown in his kenjutsu techniques, whereas the remaining 20% could be attributed to the system's auto-correct functionalities.

His sword parted the air repeatedly and harmlessly, with every attempted slash or stab effortlessly evaded by the more experienced jounin. Asuma watched Shinji's movements carefully – not out of necessity as if he needed to pay full attention to the techniques of a genin to avoid being cut. Rather, he was focused on analysing the extent of Shinji's displayed skill; mentally evaluating and wondering just how the boy in front of him had been capable of taking down a chuunin.

Asuma could see how the Rookie of the Year truly deserved his position. Compared to the baseline combat capabilities of an average genin, Shinji exceeded that standard with ease. Yet, it was still a far cry from the abilities of an elite chuunin like Mizuki. Which could lead to two assumptions:

Either Shinji was a natural born assassin capable of eluding the honed senses of an elite chuunin in a heightened state of awareness and thus managed to deal a crippling blow that severely debilitated said chuunin's own combat capabilities; or the boy was still holding back even during his own graduation exam. Which didn't really make sense to Asuma since the man assumed Shinji had to have known that the Sarutobi, as his jounin squad leader, would definitely have been informed about the Scroll of Seals incident.

'Unless, the kid just wants to lure me into a false sense of security…?" Asuma concluded, just as Shinji's movements was suddenly turned up a notch. The genin's movements blurred, even in the eyes of an elite jounin like Asuma, and the wakizashi that had thus been evaded suddenly pierced through the jounin flak jacket of the Sarutobi.

Shinji showed no expression of any emotion, not fooled by the last minute kawarimi the jounin had employed to fool him. Even without the Sharingan that could see through illusions, his [Heightened Senses] perk informed him of the minor henge illusion layered over the log.

As expected, the 'Asuma' he had stabbed disappeared in a plume of smoke and in its place was a log.

The real Asuma reappeared behind Shinji. "Don't get complacent," he commented before delivering a solid chop to the back of the genin's neck, only for Shinji to similarly be replaced with his own respective log.

"Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu!"

From a distance away, Shinji expelled out a stream of orange-yellow flames that formed a large sphere of fire, shooting at the jounin who looked slightly surprised at the advanced ninjutsu being performed by a genin. He might have been aware of Shinji's capabilities with physical combat involving his blade, but no one told him about advanced ninjutsu.

The fireball continued sailing towards Asuma, threatening to burn him to a crisp if he were to do nothing to stop it. In response, the jounin who initially wanted to just move out of the way, weighed his options and decided to show off just a tad. He was a jounin after all and displaying the difference between a genin and himself could also serve as a teachable moment for the promising genin as well as the other two who were presumably watching.

Gathering wind-natured chakra to his palms, an overwhelming amount in fact, Asuma forcefully swung the loosely accumulated bundle of chakra at the approaching fireball. In a display of astounding control over nature transformation as well as formidable quantity and quality of chakra, the gathered wind-natured chakra with just pure force and despite being weak against fire, tore apart the sphere of flames, dissipating it into mere embers upon contact.

Wind and flames met, and instead of strengthening the fires like one well versed in nature transformations and it's circular diagram of elemental weaknesses would assume, the wind instead blasted apart the fireball like it was a candle in a storm.

Even Shinji, who had been preparing for his next move was slack-jawed at the sight. No handseals had been used, nor was it a chakra manipulation technique like the Rasengan; what Asuma did was a demonstration of pure, unadulterated mastery over wind-natured chakra. Or at least mastery at a level of an elite jounin. At the hands of an expert such as he, even wind chakra could triumph over its natural weakness which should have been fire.

Asuma turned to look at the caster of the katon jutsu, with a smile that contained neither arrogance nor humility. It was an expression that conveyed 'look, this is the difference between us' without the need for spoken words, as though such an exchange was as natural as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west – nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Thus was the difference between an elite jounin and a genin, no matter how talented or promising they were, Rookie of the Year or not.

The genin could give a bitter, self-deprecating chuckle, before fixing his gaze right into Asuma's own eyes as a near feral grin emerged. He glanced at the wakizashi he had left behind still embedded into the log Asuma had used for his kawarimi.

Not wanting to take out another weapon from seemingly out of nowhere and revealing his inventory ability, Shinji settled for imbuing more chakra into his hands, strengthening the bones, skins and what little muscle there were in his fingers, before briskly but confidently approaching the jounin in front of him.

Shinji had recognized the opportunity that had been presented before him. The chance to go all out against an elite jounin without fear of fatal repercussions would be an invaluable contribution to develop his own skills and fight IQ. Fighting against a stronger opponent was rare for Shinji. Most of the time he trained against his peers who were of no match to the Rookie of the Year. Thus, much of time he had to hold back to minimize both physical and mental trauma against his opponents.

However, the opportunity to hone his edge against a much stronger warrior were few and far between. Excluding his own personal forays into dungeons and challenges against the bosses or hidden bosses of said dungeons, the only other worthy opponent he had fought was Mizuki - a chuunin who posed little challenge in terms of being pushed to the limit of his ability.

Shinji tensed his hands, fingers straightening and the veins underneath the skin of them bulged, to which Asuma saw and raised an eyebrow. He had never seen such a strange art before and wondered what the genin was planning to do with it. Although he didn't have much time to ponder over it before Shinji charged forward.

Asuma exhaled slowly before settling into a martial arts stance of his own, "Huu, taijutsu now hm? Let's see what you've got."

The genin thrusted a spearhand towards the jounin, batted away with ease, before launching into a series of stabs, chops, jabs, and clawing swipes. Asuma quickly found small cuts and grazes on his own limbs as he blocked or parried away the strikes. His own reinforcement through chakra enhancement, while effective in bolstering his strength and speed, was never really designed to harden his skin.

The Sarutobi felt more and more perplexed by the child before him, puzzled by all the tricks and techniques Shinji was pulling out of his sleeves. One had to realize that the shinobi arts weren't like skills such as painting or cooking. It took years of dedicated training and commitment to even come close to proficiency in just one branch of this discipline. Yet, the genin that was currently doing his utmost to tear out chunks of flesh with just fingers seemed to be accomplished in multiple.

It didn't make sense! Someone who had only begun training just four years ago shouldn't have had the time to be as adept as Shinji was with everything he had thus far displayed. Even medical ninjutsu, a discipline that required years of devotion and commitment to study was what seemed like just a side project to this person.

If there were truly no other explanation for this ridiculous speed of comprehension, then this Rookie of the Year had a frighteningly monstrous talent. A talent that was on par with equally monstrous individuals like Hatake Kakashi or Uchiha Itachi. Even then, those individuals were never as well-rounded as this boy when they were his age.

Furthermore, the boy was smiling. He found this entire exchange enjoyable. It took a real hunger for battle for such an expression. It was a look Asuma had seen many times before – on men who thought too highly of themselves and too eager to seek death.

And as Shinji continued swinging and swiping ineffectively, what Asuma truly felt was… 'a pitiable waste.'

Asuma had enough of Shinji's demonstration and gripped his wrist before taking it and twisting it behind the genin's back. The genin refused to capitulate and tried to deliver a back kick, only for the jounin to grip the very same leg and throw Shinji to the ground before pinning down his back with one knee.

"You're good. Too good to just have graduated from the Academy." He praised.

Shinji, who was lying face down in the grass, smiled and cranked his neck to look back at his captor, "You still got me, Asuma-sensei."

Asuma in return frowned, "However, you have a strange way of fighting. You came at me as though you were trying to predict my movements, which isn't wrong. But… what was puzzling was that you weren't fast enough to be able to react to my movements, yet you still moved like you could. That, to me, screams inexperience. You have always fought against people who you have been able to see through, so it has never been an issue for you trying to predict another's movements. As a result, when you fought me, you tried doing the same thing but ultimately failed because of the simple fact that I am just that much faster than you. At least, that is my theory."

The jounin had no idea how close he came to the truth, Shinji thought as he tried his best to remain unperturbed, "I never realized I had such a habit…"

"Not only that, your natural strength and speed is superior to possibly anyone your age. You have either worked extremely hard on physical conditioning or you were naturally blessed with a heaven-sent physique. Or a third possibility is that your chakra is just incredibly potent and thus chakra enhancement for you has double the effectiveness that it has for everyone else; but I'm no sensor nor am I a Hyuuga like your teammate, so I wouldn't be able to confirm that." Asuma continued.

"You are already at a level very far ahead of your peers, which I commend you for. However, don't get complacent. You are still far from the strength you need to be able to look down on the world. Other than that, you did well, Shinji." It was a mixture of criticism and praise, but what was left unsaid however, was the frustration Asuma was feeling.

Asuma dearly wanted to shake the genin's head, and yell at him, 'why are you wasting your talents!?'. Not because Shinji was at all disappointing – not at all. Shinji had already more than demonstrated his prowess and prodigal talent. What Asuma found frustrating was that Shinji had seemingly been content wasting this genius in the Academy.

The jounin was no proponent of early graduation, especially at the young age of 5 or 7 like Kakashi and Itachi respectively graduated. Nevertheless, even if Shinji didn't have to graduate at age 8, he could have at least revealed his talents to the Academy instructors and sought personal apprenticeship while still remaining in the Academy.

Instead, the boy spent four years in the Academy, learning how to use the Bunshin technique when he was already able to throw around C-ranked fire jutsus.

Asuma was vexed, incredibly so. Simply because after exchanging blows with the genin, he realized that had he been the one in charge of Shinji's growth from the get-go four years ago, the heights the genin could reach would have been ludicrous. High chuunin level or even low jounin level at age 12 would not have been a farfetched accomplishment under his tutelage.

Yet, the Sarutobi also understood, rather contradictorily, how important mental health was to a shinobi; especially one as young as the boy he had pinned down. They say the brightest candle also burns the fastest. As such, the jounin could recognize what an impossible predicament it was.