As the projectile reached Takeo's defense zone, he began to spin rapidly, creating a dome around himself. It wasn't as perfect as others Ryo had seen, but it got the job done. As the stone projectile arrived, it was disintegrated by Takeo's rotations.
Ryo wasted no time and dashed toward him, observing as Takeo finished spinning and saw his opponent coming at him. A smile crept onto Ryo's face. "Going to fight hand-to-hand with a Hyuuga! Good luck!" he said, also lunging toward Ryo with a punch aimed at one of the opponent's chakra points.
However, Ryo threw a punch or did he? His hand was partially closed, with the index and middle fingers extended forward, meeting Takeo's arm just moments before the punch hit Ryo. The contact was brief, Ryo tapped the median nerve of Takeo's arm with his two fingers.
Instantly, Takeo's punch lost most of its force and, more importantly, its ability to seal the chakra point. Nevertheless, it still struck Ryo's shoulder, pushing him backward as he placed his hand over it.
"My arm?!" Takeo felt his arm losing strength, a shock running through him. Although he hadn't lost the ability to move his entire arm, he could no longer close or move his hand. The blow he received from Ryo had affected him indeed. moments before Ryo prepared to deliver the blow, he had created a small golden needle at the tip of his finger, subtly piercing Takeo's skin.
On the other side, Ryo smiled faintly as he breathed heavily due to the blow. Even though the chakra point hadn't been sealed, and the punch was weaker, the force still hit him hard. This time, it wasn't a blow he could heal quickly, the most he could do was alleviate the momentary pain.
"My bone didn't break from the punch, but the impact left a slight trauma in the shoulder. The muscles are already strained, I won't be able to use my right shoulder much longer. If I force it, I might tear a muscle, and then there would be a few days where I couldn't train effectively."
However, he didn't want to give up on the fight, not again. He wouldn't give up on the path to becoming stronger. With that in mind, Ryo disappeared from where he was, using Shunshin to appear behind Takeo, delivering a kick to the boy. Takeo defended himself well with one hand.
"Damn it, I can't use my jutsus with one hand yet, and he can already use Body Flicker without seals?!" Takeo cursed Ryo in his mind as the kick hit his arm. The impact was significant, but the worst part was the recurring sensation, a shock ran through Takeo's arm as he was pushed to the ground a few meters away, his arms motionless by his sides.
"Sensei, Takeo can't use his arms anymore," Ryo said, looking at Asuma, who raised his eyebrows in thought. "Don't tell me that old man taught Ryo his technique?!" He then looked at Takeo, who still didn't understand what had happened, and declared Ryo the winner.
"Winner, Ryo!" He then signaled for the medical team to treat both Takeo and Ryo, who had his hand on his shoulder while a slight chakra prevented it from getting worse. On the other hand, Ryo was satisfied. He had even managed to use what he had trained so hard with the clone.
"They were painful days, but it was worth it to serve as a test for my clone," Ryo recalled the last days of training. He had already learned the basics from Kentou about the Paralyzing Sword. However, imbuing chakra into a sword to discharge it at the exact point on the body was too complex for Ryo now. Because of this, Kentou taught him how to do it with a kunai.
A kunai was a small weapon and the chakra didn't have to travel as far along the blade to reach the tip, but it was still complicated. Ryo eventually managed to do it with a kunai, but the chakra cost was too high, something Ryo couldn't afford to use without thinking.
However, a thought had crossed his mind, and that thought was about using the golden coin to shape a chakra-charged needle before the blows. The chakra in the golden metal was extremely easy to manipulate, perhaps because it was already connected to Ryo. He called this the Paralyzing Needle.
The training, however, was not easy. As he couldn't rely on anyone for this, he had his shadow clone control the coins while hitting Ryo, all in a controlled environment and at easy points to break the effect, not that the pain was any less.
Returning to the present, Ryo sat in a chair, finishing reminiscing about this small training saga. He still couldn't hit targets deeply embedded in the body, but he had confidence in hitting larger external targets like arms and legs. However, the effect wouldn't last more than a few minutes, unlike the true technique that lasted for hours.
The fights continued in front of Ryo, one after another, with not many opponents left to fight. Soon, the final battle would begin. The ninja medics had healed Ryo's shoulder and leg, and he was feeling much better, able to move normally.
And finally, he would go for the last duel. Yuuto had defeated one of the Senjus and also advanced to the final. "Hey Ryo, let's go all out, okay!" Ryo nodded as he looked at Maru, Yuuto's dog companion, thinking, "Damn... I haven't studied animal anatomy yet." He wouldn't be able to use the Paralyzing Sword on Maru, especially if he didn't want to really hurt the dog.
"Alright, let's go with good old brute force." He adjusted the glove on his hand, Ryo always fought with gloves, as one of them concealed the coin. Normally, there would be one in each glove, but today he had hidden the other one in his leg, allowing him to kick Takeo with the Paralyzing Sword as well.
After Asuma verified that both students were in condition to continue the fight, he released them. "Begin!" Flickering away, the duel began. Ryo now faced two opponents instead of one. Forming a hand seal, Ryo created a fake clone and repeated the seal again to create another clone.
Yuuto looked at this with a smile. "Looks like he saved some tricks up his sleeve, Maru! Stay alert." Maru responded with a bark, and the two began to run toward the three Ryos. Two of them headed toward Yuuta and Maru to attack them, but Maru barked, causing both to turn toward Ryo who was attacking Yuuta, completely ignoring the other Ryo.
And so it was, the blow aimed at Maru simply passed through him as he was just a shadow clone, dissipating. However, the second Ryo was supposed to be real. Both Maru and Yuuta attacked with their claws. But at the same moment, the attacked Ryo exploded into white smoke.
"Shadow Clone!" Yuuta realized the simple trick of Ryo too late. And immediately after, two stone projectiles came toward each of them, passing through the smoke cloud, hitting Yuuta and Maru in their moment of confusion.
Ryo's strategy had been simple yet effective and quick. Asuma watched the fight ending quickly, thinking, "He used a clone and a shadow clone to create a feint in the duel, and as soon as Yuuta thought he had the victory, he launched the stone projectiles at them. But that alone wouldn't have made him win. The important point was that he positioned himself where he wanted before the start of the fight, and that was against the wind, so neither Maru nor Yuuta could smell him before realizing they fell into a trap!"
Asuma was satisfied with the fights of the day. "Winner, Ryo!" All the students looked at the fight still trying to understand. Ryo had shown to be much more capable and stronger than everyone there expected.
[ Author here!
We already have 35 ! power stones, thank you all ! If we reach 40 I will release another chapter !.
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