Master of all Trades

Was Renjiro sure he could win this fight? Yes. Did he want to be challenged? No.

Renjiro felt getting challenged was a waste of energy, if he could, he would have already challenged the top rank and gotten done with this. 

But even that would have brought problems because he was sure some stupid genins would have wantonly challenged him just because he occupied the top rank.

'There's no way around this.' He sighed as he resigned himself to his fate. Without any hesitation, Renjiro followed rank 17 to the arena.

Rank 17 was a genin called Tsuji Inuzuka. He had been a genin for three years and this was the second time he was taking the chunin exams.

This time around, he had improved and even managed to qualify for the last stage of the exams. A stark contrast to his first attempt where he never made it out of the Forest of Death with both the heaven and Earth scrolls.

Since Tsuji wanted to make a huge statement, he wanted to challenge a strong competitor. He was doing this to increase his chances of becoming a chunin.

'I only know of one strong person here since he is my teammate, but I can't challenge him since he is way up in the ranks. I could challenge rank 12, but Makoto spoke highly of rank 15, Uzumaki Renjiro. 

She said that he was the strongest while they were in the academy and he even graduated earlier than her, so he should be strong.'

As the two genins stood face to face at the arena, the tension was palpable. The Inuzuka got a weird feeling and decided to feed his ninken a solder pill.

He did not know why he suddenly got the feeling, but being cautious wouldn't cost anything. Meanwhile, Renjiro was just angry.

'He had the option of challenging the twelfth rank, so why did he choose me instead? I seriously do not have time for unnecessary plays. I guess I need to put on a show for anyone who wants to challenge me next.'

As he resolved to make an example out of Tsuji, Renjiro took a long breath and waited for the proctor to give the go ahead to start the match.

The proctor, a seasoned chunin, raised his hand high, his voice echoing across the arena. 

"Begin!"

With the signal given, Tsuji and Shimabukuro, his ninken, sprang into action determined to claim victory. Their instincts guided their movements as they dashed forward towards their target with the astounding speed.

Both Boy and Animal unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks in Renjiro's direction, unfortunately for him, Renjiro was no stranger to close combat.

With lightning-fast agility, he dodged Tsuji's attacks, his movements fluid and precise. In a swift motion, Renjiro retaliated with a series of swift strikes, after reinforcing his body with his chakra.

"Aargh!!!"

Tsuji grunted in frustration as he felt the force of Renjiro's blows, his defences crumbling under his relentless assault. 

"Woof!!"

Shimabukuro barked in encouragement, urging his partner to press on despite the resistance they were facing.

In a desperate attempt to turn the tide of the battle, Tsuji and Shimabukuro unleashed one of their numerous technique, Double Wolf Fang.

"Roar!!!" 

With a fierce roar, they charged towards Renjiro, their combined attack creating a whirlwind of destruction in their wake. 

Renjiro dodged the combined attack, but he did not do so unscathed. He had some scratches and cuts. He was also bleeding, but it was still manageable.

'That's it, you want to play with sharp things, then two can play that game!'

Renjiro retrieved his Bō (staff) from one of his storage seals. He didn't have poison, at least not yet, but the basic form of the weapon would satisfy his intent.

The act of Renjiro retrieving his weapon surprised a lot of people. Only a select few were aware of his staff, that was his sensei, team 15, Kushina, Miwa and of course, Hiruzen. 

His occasional peaking on his shinobi's activities gave him a front seat to one of Renjiro's practice sessions.

'I need to finish quickly, without showing much of my hand. You never know when one of my competitors will surprise me and push me to the wall.'

Renjiro separated his staff into batons. He locked his eyes on his opponent(s) and with a burst of energy, he closed in on them.

Tsuji's instincts flared as Renjiro headed towards him, and he decided to use his final card against Renjiro. 

It was a move that he had prepared for his teammate, whom he was going to challenge, but the recent circumstances forced him to use it against Renjiro.

"Fire Beast Fang!" Tsuji shouted.

Tsuji and Shimabukuro repeated an attack similar to their previous one. It was like a whirlwind of claws was heading towards Renjiro, but the difference was that there was fire accompanied by it.

"The Inuzuka Clan uses elemental Jutsu?" Renjiro muttered in shock but still continued with his attack.

As the two were close to colliding, a voice suddenly interrupted them,

"Winner; Uzumaki Renjiro"

"Huh?"

"What just happened?" Tsuji was confused with his gaze falling to his body. 

As he examined his body, Tsuji noticed slashes all over him and Shimabukuro. They were not really deep, but they were bleeding nonetheless.

"You just stood there as she slashed at you and your dog," The chunin proctor shed more light.

'Was all that in my head? Shit! I should have never looked into his eyes, Tsume told me not to!'

He walked off the arena and headed to the medical-nin around since he needed medical attention. 

'Still, even if part of the fight happened in my head, it was fun. At least now I know that the fight for the top rank would be fun to watch.'

Tsuji continued to delude himself despite being relegated to rank 18. Meanwhile, Renjiro received a lot of questions from his teammates as he returned to the rank 15 platform.

"Was that really necessary, Renjiro?" Hiro asked.

"Yes, making Tsuji a dummy practice for me was necessary for me to stop challenges coming my way. They are annoying and unnecessary, I thought you would understand after your experience."

Renjiro made sense which forced Hiro into a dilemma. Hiro knew it wasn't good, but it was necessary. After a long back and forth in his mind, Hiro relented as they shifted their focus to the fights.

The challenges continued and Renjiro got his chance to challenge someone and he won, moving him to Rank 10. After everyone got their chance to challenge other people, the genins were given a half-hour break. 

'Wierd enough, the first rank has not been challenged. Is he strong, or are they just cowards? Either way, right now between Hiro and Aiko, I am the only one with the opportunity to get the top rank. So it is inevitable I will fight him.'

The second round continued with everyone getting their second challenge option. All members won their next challenges and ranked up. 

After his display against Tsuji, Renjiro never got any challenge thrown his way and was the one dishing them out.

He had fought one of his friends, Inabi, to get to the fifth rank. It was a pure show of skill that lasted far longer than Renjiro expected, but he still came out on top through his stamina.

It was the first time he fought an Uchiha who was closer to his own power level. Inabi copied all his moves whether it was ninjutsu or taijutsu. Renjiro could also not use Genjutsu for obvious levels.

It also made Renjiro reflect on his actions ever since he transmigrated. From the very start, he always had a lot of paths that he could follow with the mixed Heritage he had. 

Because of his greed, and overall excitement of transmigrating, he become impulsive and tried to be a jack of all trades.

That was why some people (Cough Some readers Cough) may think that he was not tapping into his full potential. Renjiro was aware of this and knew if he wanted to stand against foes coming in the future, he had to become a Master of all Trades.

Fortunately, he had time to do so. He just had to pace himself as he knew this was a marathon and not a sprint. 

Renjiro didn't know, but his actions in the chuunin exams finals would have a huge ripple in time, causing one of the Konoha eleven to have a whole different life. For the change that was to come, we will just have to wait and see.

By the time Renjiro got his final chance to challenge someone, Renjiro was in rank 5, Hiro in rank 6 while Aiko was in Rank 9. Something that made Riku boast to his colleagues. Not only were his genins in the last stage of the exam, but they were potentially going to finish among the best 10.

With all eyes on him, Renjiro finally expressed his choice for the final challenge.

"I want to challenge Rank 1".

=====

Bless me with your powerful Power Stones.

Your Reviews and Comments about my work are welcomed

If you can, then please support me on Patreon. 

Link - www.patreon.com/SideCharacter

You Can read more chapters ahead on Patreon