Chapter 8

And so, before he knew it, Hyto was standing in the middle of the Konoha arena that he remembered from the chunnin exams on the show, standing against both Kayama and Nawaki. Not only that, word had somehow gotten out, (definitely Tsunade bragging), so all of the major players of the village, like the Hokage and all of the clan leaders, along with a growing number of citizens were starting to pile into the seats.

Watching what a big spectacle this was turning out to be, Hyto was starting to feel emotionally drained. Did all of these people have nothing better to do than to come watch a few kids fight each other with potentially deadly weapons and magic? Well, when it was put like that, it did actually make the concept somewhat interesting.

Hyto saw something somewhat familiar out of the corner of his eyes, and saw Midori and Amagi, along with the rest of the clan cheering him on. Seeing the clan come to support him over something so trivial made Hyto break out into a small smile, not that anyone would see it with his mask on.

As the last of the seats were starting to fill, Hiruzen stood up and tapped his cane, gaining everyone's attention.

"I would like to thank you all for coming out here on such short notice. This event alone goes to show that the will of fire is strong with the next generation, and their drive to get stronger for their village is indomitable!" Hiruzen said, earning a cheer from the crowd.

Hyto was starting to wonder if this event was truly as random as it seemed, as not only did they get everything ready so quickly, they gathered every major shinobi in the village as well. No, something told Hyto this event was about to cause him a bigger headache than he initially thought.

"Down in the field you have on the right with the light brown hair, Nawaki Senju! He loves ramen, his grandfather was the great Lord Hashirama himself, and his dream is to one day become the Hokage!" Hiruzen said with a cheer from the crowd, suddenly sounding like an announcer for a boxing match.

"His partner on the right with the white hair is the ever cool, Kayama Senju! They love chocolate covered bananas, their grandfather was my teacher and the second Hokage, Tobirama, and their dream is to do whatever they can to make the village a better place!" Hiruzen said, earning an even louder cheer from the crowd.

Sure Hashirama founded the village, but it was Tobirama that made the village what is was today, going so far as to heavily influence the other villages as well. It wasn't a stretch to say that Tobirama was more popular and well know than Hashirama was.

Listening to Hiruzen introduce Nawaki and Kayama, and then to name drop the first two Hokage, Hyto was starting to feel a little underwhelming in comparison. Hyto was trying to figure out what Hiruzen's aim was, as something like this didn't seem like his MO.

"And to the left, it is my pleasure to introduce to you all, Hyto Rasugi! Not only is he the youngest graduate of the Shinobi Academy in history, he is the new patriarch of the Rasugi clan, making him the youngest clan leader in history as well! Having been raised as a citizen his whole life, Hyto also finds himself being the nephew of the 3rd Raikage as well as the next heir to become the Land of Frost Daimyo!" Hiruzen said, making the crowd gasp and go wild, as Hyto already heard a few men trying to marry their daughters and sisters off to him.

Hyto was confused and angry as to why Hiruzen would just completely oust his secrets like this, then it dawned on him. The truth was bound to come out one day, this way, at least they could come out ahead and steer the narrative as they'd like. Honestly, it was a bold and genius idea that came with it's own set of risks, but a least they were risks they could predict and prepare for rather than leave it to fate.

Hearing Hyto's credentials, the crowd started murmuring about all three kids, the word eventually getting out to the rest of the city and spreading like wildfire.

Though Hyto doesn't act like it, the fact the he was related to the 3rd Raikage and the heir to the Land of Frost throne was a big deal. Hyto was essentially a prince at this point. And though the Raikage title wasn't necessarily "hereditary", it is a fact that all of the Raikage were related.

The first Raikage passed the title to his brother the 2nd Raikage, who eventually passed it to his son, the 3rd Raikage, who was Hyto's uncle. Even in the future, the 3rd gives the title to his son, the 4th, and even he gives the title to his son, Durai.

With the introductions done, there was nothing else to do but to get to the spar. Suddenly feeling a lot more pressure from the fight with children who were related to legends, Hyto took a deep breath and got into his Rasugi stance, which resembled a feline about to pounce.

"This will be a friendly sparring match with Nawaki and Kayama both facing off against Hyto at the same time. The fight will end either by knockout, surrender, or the judges and I deem the fight to be over. With nothing else further, fight!" Hiruzen said as the crowd let out a frenzied cheer.

As soon as the signal was given, Nawaki and Kayama took off, stunning Hyto with how fast they were.

'Well, they may be blessed with god-like Senju blood, but I was blessed by an actual god! I guess I better show off a little bit to make my clan look good. Wouldn't want to embarrass the Rasugi name by getting clapped right away.' Hyto thought to himself as his eyes flashed golden, stunning everyone, including Nawaki and Kayama but they still ran at full speed.

As the two were getting closer, Hyto took a heavy step, causing the ground to cave in just as Nawaki and Kayama was about to step down. At this, the two Senju had very different reactions. While Nawaki was caught off guard and fell in, Kayama put extra strength into the leg that was still on the ground, allowing them to leap clear over the chasm.

Predicting this, just before Kayama was able to set their foot down, Hyto swept his leg across the ground, making a bunch of tiny jagged rocks be moved right into Kayama's landing zone. Just as Kayama landed on the uneven rocks and stumbled, Hyto sought to capitalize on this.

Taking out his bow, stunning the crowd, Hyto shot an arrow as it landed just before Kayama. Just as everyone, including Kayama were feeling underwhelmed from the arrow missing it's target, they got a big surprise as the little arrow released a powerful explosion, knocking Kayama backwards.

"This should be cheating! Who the hell just opens the floor up out of nowhere! Huh?" Nawaki said as he finally finished climbing up the side of the deep chasm, only for Kayama's body to fly into him, sending them both tumbling back to where they both started.

Quickly pushing Nawaki away and standing up, Kayama saw Hyto running towards them with a large fireball in his hands as he was about to throw it. Not wanting to be taken down so easily again, when they saw Hyto pitch the fireball at them, Kayama quickly went through the hand signs and spat out a decent-sized water bullet to counter it.

When the fireball and the water bullet met, a big explosion took place and steam spread everywhere, clouding the whole field in a thick mist.

"Ugh! I can't see a thing! That's it, I've had enough playing around!" Nawaki yelled loudly.

Gathering massive amounts of chakra that showed off his Senju bloodline, Nawaki quickly went through hands sign and released, Gale Fan, a powerful stream of wind from his mouth, and used it to blow all of the mist away.

"Stop, you idiot! You're getting me caught in the attack too!" Kayama yelled, doing their best to not get blown away by using chakra to stick to the ground.

As most of the mist cleared, the crowd, as well as Nawaki and Kayama were shocked to now see two Hyto's standing behind each of them. But, before they could react, both of Hyto's clones punched both Nawaki and Kayama, only for both of the Senju to poof away leaving the crowd stunned, as there weren't many other places for them to be.

Then out of the remaining mist on both sides of the field, hundreds of kunai and shuriken flood the sky as they all rain down on the two Hyto's. But, instead of blood being spilled and flesh being cut, chunks of rock started falling to the earth, showing everyone that both of the Hyto were fake.

The truly distressing part though was the fact that the clones didn't disappear like normal clones would, instead moving towards Nawaki and Kayama as best as they could even with parts of their bodies chipped away. Just before the clones reached them, the clones exploded, bursting into a jagged pieces of ice.

In a show of great prowess, both Nawaki and Kayama deflect each deadly piece of ice with minimal effort, which impressed many of the veterans in the crowd.

'Damn, these guys are good. This is hard as hell, since most of my moves are lethal, I have to be careful not to kill some of the last living Senju in a simple spar. Hmm, lets see if I can wrap this up quickly. I can't risk Sakumo dying, as if I wasn't here, Tsunade and her team would probably already be there.' Hyto thought as he resolved to use one of his simpler but overpowered moves.

From the dregs of the still remaining mist on the field, hundreds of arrows made of ice shot straight towards Nawaki and Kayama, Kayama looking disappointed.

'Seriously? All of that buildup, the promise he had, only to pull a simple move like this? This was a waste of time.' Kayama thought to themselves as they moved to block the arrows.

But, as Kayama and Nawaki began blocking the ice arrows, something happened which shocked everyone who saw it, even someone like Hiruzen got chills when he saw it. As the arrows were being blocked, the ice the arrows were made of exploded and some small pieces landed on them, got stuck, and began expanding.

Though it sounds simple, very quickly, Nawaki and Kayama started panicking as first the hands that held the kunai they blocked with would be encased in ice, then it spread, slowly covering more and more of their body.

Within just a few short moments, everything was over. Nawaki and Kayama were both completely stuck in their ice prison, only their faces remaining free so that they remain alive. There was complete silence around the entire arena, as no one knew what to say or even think.

It was such a simple and unassuming move, yet it was scarily overpowered. Even veterans found themselves wondering if they could ever make it out of such an overwhelming jutsu.

Suddenly, the silence was broken with the sound of the ice and ground cracking. Looking to the sound of cracking, the crowd looked to Hyto who just came out of the ground in between both Nawaki and Kayama.

"Well, I guess this is my win. It was a good match, we'll have to spar again some other time, cutie." Hyto said as he lightly tapped Kayama's nose, making them blush heavily.

Hyto still wasn't sure if Kayama was a boy or a girl, but at this point, he just put Kayama in the same category as Haku. They were both cute and girly enough that they gain automatic waifu status no matter what extra equipment they had.

After that, the crowd cheered madly, some even calling Hyto, The Huntsman, as they have never seen anyone using the bow and arrow like Hyto does. At first Hyto wasn't a big fan of the nickname, but he quickly warmed up to the sound of it. At least it sounded better than, Yellow Flash.

After ignoring Nawaki's constant complaining about Hyto "cheating" with the ice, Hyto was brought before Hiruzen for a reward, which surprises Hyto, as this was supposed to be nothing but a simple spar between teens, but now it was drawn out to whatever this was.

"Hyto Rasugi, I think I speak for us all, when I say that you have impressed us all and have made the Rasugi clan proud. As a reward for a match well fought and for showing such amazing talent that I'm sure we were all impressed with, I hereby promote Hyto Rasugi to a Chunin!" Hiruzen declared, the crowd cheering madly as a result.

Hyto was seriously stunned as this whole event somewhat blindsided him and he has yet to figure out Hiruzen's motives for all of this. Resolving that he'llm never figure it out on his own, Hyto figured he should just ask. Leaning in closely, Hyto lightly tugged on Hiruzen's robe.

"Old man, what game are you playing at? I just graduated from the Academy!" Hyto whispered loudly so Hiruzen could hear him over the cheering.

"Old?! I see Tsunade is already rubbing off on you. I know this is all very sudden and confusing, but know that it was all necessary. You are now the head of a clan, with you yourself having a lot of political ties. It wouldn't be good for a clan head to be a simple genin, nor would it be good for others to question your strength. To keep yourself and you clan safe, you must have a strong image along with the power to back it up. Today, you have demonstrated both." Hiruzen said with a smirk.

As Hyto feared, this old man was truly more crafty than he thought. But there was no time to dwell on that, as a thought just occurred to him. Now that he's a Chunin, when the war comes, he'll be forced to have a leadership position if something else doesn't come up.

Before he could fully dive into a full state of panic, he was brought back to reality by Tsunade giving him a proud nod and a gesture to follow her. It seems the time to go to a small war and save Sakumo has come.