The First Match

"Begin!"

The jonin waved his hand down, announcing the beginning of the fight, before leaping onto the platform, leaving the two genin to begin their clash.

Genma made the first move, as he used a simple clone jutsu in order to create two duplicates of himself, all of whom spit a senbon out of their mouths.

Mizuki lept back in order to create some distance between the two, before simply throwing three kunai of his own with pinpoint accuracy.

As expected, two of the of the kunai simply faded through the illusions of both the senbon and the two clones before imbedding themselves in the ground.

Leaving the original genma, the one to the far left, to defend himself, by pulling out a kunai of his own and deflecting Mizuki's.

Seeing this, a wide grin emerged on Mizuki's face as he created the snake hand seal with his right hand as all three kunai produced a hissing sound.

Mizuki had wrapped explosive tags around the kunai's handles as part of his preparation for this match.

<BOOOM!!!>

The three paper bombs all exploded in tandem, producing their respective explosions along with creating a massive smokescreen, which obstructed vision.

Mizuki wasted no time at all, using the body flicker to enter the cloud.

The crowd waited tensely to see something. Anything, however nothing came, as the smokescreen cleared naturally, only to reveal the winner of the match.

Mizuki was standing behind Genma, with his kunai reaching around and pressing against the boy's throat.

Mizuki: "I think it's safe to say you admit defeat?"

Genma slowly nodded, weary of the knife pressed against his throat.

Mizuki: "Proctor?"

Doto nodded, clearly surprised that the round had been settled so quickly.

Doto: "I decree this match officially over, Mizuki will be the one progressing to the next round"

With that, Mizuki simply sheathed his kunai and collected the other three that he had thrown before forming the seal of reconciliation with Genma and proceeding back up the stairs to where he previously sat.

However, he was stopped by a shout from Genma.

Genma: "Hey, Mizuki!"

Mizuki: "Yes?"

Genma: "How did you do that, How did you predict where I was going to be in the smokescreen."

Mizuki gave an exaggerated pondering posture before simply turning to Genma and replying.

Mizuki: "A magician never reveals his secrets."

Although Mizuki maintained an outwards appearance of a mix of mystery and confidence, his thoughts were anything but.

Mizuki: {I BIG BRAIN. 200 IQ Play right there, take notes Deiji, THAT is Dumb High IQ. Rick Can Suck My-}

However, due to the author's whims, Mizuki would never finish these thoughts.

With a quick wink towards his irritated opponent, he ascended the stares and sat down next to Anko, who offered him a quick congratulations before observing the next match casually.

Meanwhilst, the jonin were all thinking about the strategy used by Mizuki, internally applauding it as a relatively smart plan.

Hiruzen: {I see, by having the smokescreen cover the entire general area of Genma, you forced the boy to head to his left, as the explosions were coming from the right, which allowed you to position yourself for the perfect ambush.}

Whilst this plan was indeed relatively clever, it was certainly not the work of an evil genius. But it didn't have to be either.

In the intensity of a battle, a plan didn't need eighty fail safes or require eight dimensional chess moves.

It was simply required to work.

Which Mizuki's did splendidly.

Mizuki next turned his attention towards the current match, which was just about to begin.

The winner of this match would be who he faces for his next fight, and it would be somewhat wise to gather information on his opponent, even if it is necessary for his victory.

After all, Mizuki did have some fear of a sort of dark horse appearing, like Lee in the prelims of early Naruto.

However, After fifteen minutes of fighting, Mizuki was happy to report that no such thing was occuring.

The possibility of one of them holding back was always present, but Mizuki always did have an eye for actors, a skill which he inherited from the original Mizuki when he transmigrated.

And neither of the two genin in front of him were holding back in the least.

For genin, their skill was certainly above average, with them both using the basic three academy jutsu to relatively decent effect.

With each of them also having a somewhat nuance skill, with Ibiki being able to cast strategic genjutsu, although they were relatively weak, being even worse than Kurenai's.

Aoba on the other hand, had trained his kunai throwing accuracy to an impressive degree.

Again, still being weaker than feets that were achievable by other members of their generation, such as Anko.

However, it was not so much the kunai throwing that was impressive so much as it was the fighting style which was associated with it was.

In a unique combat style, two of Aoba's kunai were attached to his wrist via a long wire, which he used in order to retract the kunai after they were throw, or even to create a sort of whip.

This sort of unpredictable combat style served him well, as Ibiki struggled to keep up with it.

Only surviving through casting genjutsu at opportune moments in order to dodge or draw closer to his opponent, although he could never full close the distance.

Eventually, Ibiki made a slip up, and one of the kunai ended up scratching his cheek, drawing blood.

Whilst this sort of injury would normally be easy to shrug off and continue fighting, there was something special about this one.

As the kunai scratched Ibiki's face, Aoba used his signature technique, which caused paralysis to those who came into contact with the knife.

Aoba used the opportunity granted to him by his opponent's paralysis to gain the upper hand, which soon caused Ibiki to admit defeat.

The boys formed the seal of reconciliation, the score was noted, and soon the next match was on.

Doto: "May Anko Mitarashi and Rin Nohara both please descend to the stage for the Third Match of the Exam?"