"You two, catch!"
The medical ninja, who clearly enjoyed watching the excitement, threw his and Yuya's ninja tool pouches to Gojo Yoru and Namikaze Minato.
After catching them, the two put them on with practiced ease.
"Please advise!"
Gojo Yoru and Namikaze Minato once again formed the Seal of Confrontation towards each other.
Immediately, without waiting for Yuya to announce the start of the battle again, they simultaneously reached for the ninja tool pouches at their waists, took out three shuriken, and threw them at each other.
At the same time, they held a kunai in a reverse grip, chasing after the shuriken, their eyes locked onto each other through the flying projectiles.
Reflected in their eyes were the images of shuriken colliding and grazing past.
Gojo Yoru and Namikaze Minato were like mirror images, raising the kunai in their hands simultaneously to deflect the incoming shuriken.
Clang—
Two sounds of metal clashing almost overlapped.
From the students' perspective, Gojo Yoru and Namikaze Minato, who were still meters apart, suddenly turned into black blurs after deflecting the shuriken and crashed into each other.
Once their figures reappeared, a series of intense and dazzling close-quarters combat ensued.
While students from first to fourth grade were still prohibited from using kunai, Gojo Yoru and Namikaze Minato not only wielded them as extensions of their arms, but their dynamic vision also seemed like the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan, accurately capturing every movement of the opponent and the trajectory of the kunai attacks.
Relying on their terrifying reaction abilities, their blocking, dodging, and attacking appeared so effortless, as if it weren't a ninja deathmatch but a contest between samurai.
The medical ninja, who hadn't taken this no-rules duel seriously at first, had long since replaced his amused expression with a serious one, his eyes filled with shock.
Are you kidding me? Such agility and reaction speed—are they really just two fourth-graders?
If one didn't know better, they would think two Uchiha with awakened Sharingan were fighting!
Yuya's body was even more tense, ready to use the Body Flicker Technique to intervene and stop the fight at any moment.
He didn't want his negligence to lead to any accidents for these two students he was so proud of.
High-intensity close-quarters combat tested one's concentration immensely.
A moment of distraction could allow the opponent to seize an opening and decide the outcome instantly.
And in this aspect, Gojo Yoru undoubtedly held the advantage.
Within just a few exchanges, Gojo Yoru created an opportunity.
With a diagonal upward strike, his kunai clashed with Namikaze Minato's again. Gojo Yoru's index finger seized the chance to slip into the ring at the end of the handle, using the momentum to switch his grip from reverse to forward, and then slashed fiercely towards Namikaze Minato's chest.
Anyone else would have been caught off guard by Gojo Yoru's sudden change in move.
But Namikaze Minato, with his astonishing reaction speed, had instinctively gathered Chakra in his feet the moment he saw Gojo Yoru change his move.
Before Gojo Yoru's kunai could land, Namikaze Minato turned into a blur and disappeared.
Gojo Yoru didn't seem surprised.
The moment Namikaze Minato disappeared, he turned and threw his kunai towards the eight o'clock direction.
With a clang, two kunai collided and bounced away, landing on the ground.
Then, bang bang bang sounds rang out as Gojo Yoru and Namikaze Minato switched from kunai combat to a Taijutsu duel.
This time, Gojo Yoru gained the advantage even faster.
Because the difference in their physical fitness was simply too obvious.
At this age, girls often developed faster than boys.
Gojo Yoru, who had already grown to 1.6 meters, was only about a head taller than Uzumaki Kushina, roughly twenty centimeters.
But he was more than a head taller than Namikaze Minato, about twenty-five centimeters.
The gap brought by this height difference was an absolute suppression in strength.
Just by blocking a whip kick from Gojo Yoru with a side block, Namikaze Minato felt his entire arm go numb. His body tilted to the side, and he was nearly kicked to the ground by Gojo Yoru.
Namikaze Minato's eyes were filled with shock. Clearly, he hadn't expected Gojo Yoru's strength to become so powerful after just one year without fighting.
Without any hesitation, Namikaze Minato leaped backward to open up distance from Gojo Yoru.
At the same time, before he even landed, his hands began forming seals.
Seeing the attribute represented by his first hand seal, Yuya and the medical ninja's expressions changed instantly.
Gojo Yoru, whose academic grades were also in the top three of the grade and who had memorized hand seals thoroughly, also recognized at a glance what attribute Ninjutsu Namikaze Minato intended to use.
Thus, he also quickly formed hand seals.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
"Earth Release: Earth Shore Return!"
Two voices rang out almost simultaneously.
Namikaze Minato, with cheeks puffed out, spat a stream of distorted airflow as soon as he landed.
The next second, this airflow expanded and transformed into an invisible giant wave, roaring towards Gojo Yoru.
Just as the gale was about to engulf Gojo Yoru, a huge square stone slab suddenly flipped up from the ground in front of him.
The gale crashed into the stone slab but failed to blow it down or shatter it. Instead, it dispersed, kicking up a large cloud of dust and forcing the spectating students nearby to shield their eyes.
"Sure enough, they can both use Five Elements Ninjutsu. As expected of geniuses."
Yuya and the medical ninja sighed slightly.
Since the gale hadn't dissipated yet, even Namikaze Minato, who excelled at Body Flicker, couldn't take the opportunity to appear behind Gojo Yoru for a sneak attack.
Gojo Yoru took this opportunity to form hand seals again.
With two poofs, two clouds of white smoke appeared out of thin air.
When the wind blew away the smoke, two clones that looked exactly like Gojo Yoru appeared on his left and right.
Seeing these two clones, Yuya and the medical ninja were not surprised.
Because based on Gojo Yoru's hand seals, they knew this was just the most basic Clone Technique.
Those two "Gojo Yoru" were just intangible phantom clones.
If Gojo Yoru had created Shadow Clones, they wouldn't have been so calm.
However, the scene that followed made their eyes widen in shock.
After the gale dissipated, Gojo Yoru and the two phantom clones rushed out from behind the stone slab together, running towards Namikaze Minato.
Namikaze Minato's pupils constricted slightly. He hurriedly took out three shuriken from his ninja tool pouch and threw them at the three Gojo Yoru, wanting to confirm if the opponent was using the basic Clone Technique or the more advanced Shadow Clone Technique.
Looking at the incoming shuriken, Gojo Yoru's main body dodged sideways, while the other two Gojo Yoru allowed the shuriken to pass through their bodies.
Seeing that Gojo Yoru was only using the Clone Technique, Namikaze Minato secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then fearlessly engaged them.
Perhaps because Gojo Yoru was too close, Namikaze Minato didn't have much time to think.
Consequently, he overlooked a crucial point.
The Clone Technique could only create intangible phantom clones.
And such phantom clones would disperse into smoke with just a light touch.
But Gojo Yoru's phantom clones, despite being passed through by shuriken, did not dissipate.
Clearly, these were not ordinary phantom clones.
However, Namikaze Minato soon discovered this.
Engaging them, he dodged sideways to avoid a straight punch from Gojo Yoru, which had suddenly become much slower, and simultaneously launched a backfist strike quickly towards Gojo Yoru's chest.
However, this punch didn't feel like it hit a solid body; instead, it passed through Gojo Yoru's body.
But based on the scene of the shuriken passing through the phantom clones just now, he could clearly determine that this was Gojo Yoru's main body.
Could it be that all three were phantom clones, and Gojo Yoru's main body was hiding elsewhere?
Just as Namikaze Minato was thinking this and remaining vigilant of his surroundings, a rapidly enlarging fist suddenly entered his vision.
Looking at the phantom clone throwing a punch, Namikaze Minato's expression changed drastically, finally realizing something.
Unfortunately, it was too late!
With a loud bang, Namikaze Minato's cute face was deformed by the punch.
The powerful force not only deformed that handsome face but also sent his body flying into the air, showing just how great the force of Gojo Yoru's punch was.
And... this was just the beginning of a combo!