Chapter 42 : Fujin Vs Hoka

Hoka and Fujin were facing each other and were 10 metres apart. Renjiro announced, "You can use everything you know in this spar. Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu and Kenjutsu are all allowed. But don't hurt each other fatally." Both kids nodded.

Renjiro announced, "Fight!" As soon as he said that, Hoka activated his Byakugan and rushed forward as fast as he could to engage Fujin in close combat. However, Fujin just flickered away. On gaining sufficient distance, he prepared one Wind Explosion jutsu in each hand.

On seeing that, Hoka stopped and quickly started using hand signs for Rock Shield jutsu. Fujin recognized the hand signs and threw one wind sphere on Hoka. That put a lot of pressure on Hoka, but he managed to create the rock shield in time. The wind sphere hit the rock shield and exploded, creating a lot of winds. Seeing that his jutsu worked, Hoka sighed in relief, and put his guard down for a moment.

That turned out to be a mistake, as Hoka's Byakugan saw a wind sphere heading towards him from the left. He tried to jump away quickly, but the wind sphere exploded near him. The explosion created more winds, which hit Hoka while he was in the air. The winds threw him off course, causing him to fall badly. Hoka quickly got on his feet, only to see one more wind sphere headed straight towards him. This time, he didn't jump and instead tried running away. However, more and more Wind spheres kept heading towards him. For the next 15 seconds, Hoka just kept dodging. The winds created by the explosion had created small scratches all over his body, and his clothes were in a very bad shape.

Finally Hoka adjusted himself, and began dodging the wind spheres properly. He used his Byakugan to see the wind spheres as soon as they were launched, and dodged in the right directions. Fujin thought, 'Excellent. The rate at which I'm creating the wind spheres is just one fifth of what I'm truly capable of, while their power is one third of their max power. Still he's struggling so badly. Oh well, time to end this farce I guess.'

Fujin halved the number of wind spheres he was throwing. This allowed Hoka to close the distance between him and Fujin. He thought, 'Finally! He slowed down. Time to finish him with my Gentle Fist.' When the distance between the two was just 10 metres, Fujin began moving backwards. Hoka thought, 'It'll be annoying if he creates the distance again' and increased his speed.

However, Fujin quickly made a few hand signs. Seeing Fujin making hand signs, Hoka tried to increase his speed further, however, he quickly realised and panicked. He quickly tried making hand signs for Rock Shield jutsu, but it was too late. Fujin, who was merely a few metres ahead of him, blew strong winds straight at him. The resultant winds blew Hoka back with force. Renjiro, who was planning to jump in, noticed, 'I see. Fujin put a very low amount of chakra in the jutsu. And it seems like he also made it very mild. Had he used as much force as he displayed earlier, that jutsu could have maimed Hoka.'

The winds blew Hoka around 50 metres back. Though Fujin tried to limit its power, Hoka still got dragged along the ground, causing him a lot of scratches which bled. After the winds subsided, Fujin picked up a small pebble nearby and threw it at Hoka. As Fujin had expected, Hoka still got up and wanted to fight more. He noticed the pebble heading towards him and stepped aside. He was about to rush towards Fujin again, however, the pebble suddenly took a hard turn and headed straight at him. Hoka couldn't react and the pebble hit him straight on his chest.

It didn't cause any damage to Hoka, but Renjiro announced, "That's enough. Winner is Fujin." On hearing that, Hoka dropped to his knees dejectedly. Though he didn't want to admit it, he knew that if Fujin had used a shuriken instead of a pebble, he'd have been injured very badly. This loss hit him hard. Fujin expected it, and so did Renjiro. During the 4 years of his academy, Hoka had never lost a fight to any of his classmates. In his 2nd graduation exam, he even beat his seniors. However, this time he was defeated, and he never even had a chance.

Looking at Hoka's crestfallen expression, Renjiro sighed, 'While I expected this result, I didn't think it'd be so bad. He didn't even have a chance.' He then looked at Fujin and thought, 'This kid though. Even though I asked him to maintain distance while fighting, I didn't expect him to do this well. He controlled the flow of the whole battle, and had Hoka moving exactly how he wanted. He even threw a sphere on Hoka's defense on purpose, just to get his guard down. There's a lot more to this kid than we thought. Hehe, it makes me very interested in his future. Perhaps in the next great war, he might be an important figure.'

He then looked at Hoka and said, "So, do you understand now why Ninjutsu is important?" Hoka looked up at his sensei. Renjiro continued, "Your opponent used 2 rank D and 1 rank C jutsu. 1 was a movement jutsu and the other 2 were mid range jutsu. While you only used 1 defensive rank E jutsu. You specialize in Taijutsu, but you didn't even get a chance to engage your enemy in Taijutsu." Hoka nodded sadly.

Renjiro then put up a kind smile and said reassuringly, "I know that you like Taijutsu a lot. And I support your enthusiasm for it. But you need to know Ninjutsu too in order to be able to use your Taijutsu effectively. There hasn't been any ninja who has become strong by only focusing on Taijutsu and neglecting everything else."

While he was saying that, he secretly thought, 'Though there was one ninja who could challenge what I said. Might Duy, he killed 4 Swordsman of the Mist and forced the remaining 3 to run away. Just like Minato was credited for our victory against Iwa, Duy can be credited for our victory over Kiri. They never dared to ever fight us again after that incident. Though, I would still stand by what I said to Hoka. Despite Duy being as strong as he was, he still struggled at completing normal missions. Not knowing any good Genjutsu or Ninjutsu and just depending on Taijutsu is a bad idea. His son, despite preferring Taijutsu and mostly using it, does know a decent amount of Ninjutsu. But if his Taijutsu keeps advancing at the same rate, he might make what I said invalid.'

Hoka nodded his head and said with determination, "Yes sensei. I will work hard on my Ninjutsu too." Renjiro kept his kind smile, and sighed in relief internally, 'Finally, I got another kid on the right track! I have to admit. The old man's tactics in handling kids are the best. No wonder he was able to train 3 Sannins! Anyways, my team is finally set.'

He then looked at all 3 of his students and said, "I hope all of you have realised the importance of rank C jutsus by now." Fujin, Hoka and Mieko nodded. Renjiro continued, "In terms of Ninjutsu, your next focus will be on learning and mastering rank C jutsus. Until I say otherwise, none of you will attempt to learn a rank B or higher jutsu."

He then advised the kids more and ended the day by saying, "This will be your today's assignment. Fujin, you and Mieko will take Hoka to the village hospital and see that his wounds are tended to. And Fujin, meet me here at 2 pm." He then flickered away.

On the way to the hospital, Hoka was walking in an awkward manner. The morning training followed by getting several cuts took its toll. Seeing him wobble, Fujin said, "Sorry about that." Hoka replied, "It's okay. Don't worry about it." Mieko said, "Yeah, it's just a few cuts. Stop wobbling and walk faster." Hoka, however, replied with his usual stoic face, "Perhaps if I slept for over 2 hours during the morning workout, I might have been able to walk properly." Hearing that, Fujin chuckled, while Mieko became very embarrassed.

Fujin and Mieko accompanied Hoka in the hospital. Hoka was asked to go to a ward. First a civilian doctor arrived, and cleaned all his wounds up. 5 minutes after the doctor left, a medical ninja arrived and healed all the cuts on him and advised him to take rest for the remaining day. Fujin observed the entire process, and then looked at Mieko with a hint of jealousy. He sighed thinking, 'If only I had the sharingan. I'd have just copied Mystical Palm jutsu and been done with it.'

They then said farewell to each other and left.