Chapter 49: Next Rounds

"Hmm, they were both exceptionally strong for Genin. At least at a high Chunin level of strength," analyzed Hiruzen, very impressed by the progress he saw in Tekku, especially his Fuinjutsu understanding, which stood out. The boy seemed to be even more talented in the art than he had imagined.

Hiruzen didn't think that even Minato was at that level at such a young age. Tekku might be the most talented Fuinjutsu user since the destruction of the Uzumaki Clan. He was already at the level of a sealing master, and it was only a matter of time until he would apply for it. A seal to absorb a specific type of Ninjutsu repeatedly and reuse the chakra was something completely new, but it didn't seem to be perfect yet.

After all, why could that puppet only absorb Explosion Release and use it? Not another chakra type or even the base elements of Lightning and Earth. But the Third Hokage was sure that the boy would overcome these troubles. Right now, what he needed was time to grow up.

Taking a glance at his fellow Kage, who were deeply in thought, staring at the entrance that Tekku used to leave the arena, he realized that it was time he didn't necessarily have. Maybe Danzo's idea wasn't that bad. The question is, is this another scheme of Danzo or his genuine concern for what he believes is best for the village?

No, back then Danzo still thought that Tekku was a useful shinobi but with a limited ceiling of strength. That's why he suggested for Tekku to join the ANBU. He was, after all, well-suited for the unit—logical, analytical, quiet, and efficient, all fitting criteria for the black ops missions the ANBU usually undertook.

But now, that should have changed. Danzo must have realized that Tekku wasn't just a talented puppet user who may reach low Kage level one day. No, his potential is higher with his true talent in Fuinjutsu. He will try to recruit the boy to his Root, and Hiruzen will lose another talented ninja.

The Hokage was aware that the Root was only disbanded in name, but he couldn't do anything against it. If he acted against them, this would only end up in a civil war, and the Uchiha massacre would have been for naught. He would have to act quickly.

"You are right, Hokage-san, and I believe both of them are a good fit to become Chunin," nodded the Kazekage after a while. His face was neutral and unreadable, but Hiruzen could tell what kind of things must be going through his head. He seriously was considering how he could eliminate Tekku, even if they were allies.

Alliances were just a fancy piece of paper these days. If it benefited their own village, it would be broken. And they also had ways to act secretly. It wouldn't be hard to send an assassination squad and blame another village, as these exams were public.

"Oh, I agree, Kazekage-san. But I would still like to hear your reasoning," boomed the voice of Ay, the Raikage, from the side.

"Well, let's start with Deidara. He showed strength beyond most Chunin. Only the most elite ones could fight on equal grounds with the boy. And that is just his pure combat power. He has an exceptional analytical mind and a very good combat IQ. If Tekku hadn't created such an effective counter against Deidara's main attack method, the fight would have gone differently," explained the Kazekage calmly.

"Yes, I have to agree. His only downside would be his explosive personality. But he seemed to be good at control. If he learns some more powerful techniques and other elements, he has the potential to become a Kage-level shinobi," nodded Hiruzen, putting emphasis on the Kage level, as he was trying to shift the focus a bit away from Tekku.

"As for Tekku, his puppeteering is very impressive. I would say he has even reached the level of a Jonin in that area, while also being a well-rounded fighter in the other areas we saw in the fight, all of them also at the high Chunin level. His strategic mind and battle intelligence are no less. Both of them are good fits to become Chunin."

The other two Kage had to agree with the analysis, while the Raikage looked thoughtfully at Samui, who was standing beside him. What was going through his head wasn't clear.

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The rest of the tournament wasn't as exciting as the fight between Deidara and Tekku. The next fight, between the loud Iwa Genin Yosuke Nochia and Akemi Akamichi, a big brown-haired girl from the Akamichi Clan, ended quickly with Akemi knocking the foolish Genin out with her enlarged fist. He was more focused on the audience than the actual fight against his opponent.

After that, Akatsuchi from Iwagakure fought against a Genin from Sunagakure called Montezuma. That Genin also used wind techniques like Oboro, but this time he was clearly weaker than his opponent and quickly lost against Akatsuchi, who dominated with his Earth Style.

Hana defeated the other wind-style user Oboro from Suna, as her fire techniques were a significant advantage against him. She easily won as he wasn't really her opponent, as she dominated him in the other aspects of their abilities as well.

Tekku's own fight against Akemi wasn't that bad as she was a solid opponent. She had the advantage that her previous fight wasn't that hard, and she was almost full on chakra thanks to that.

Instead of fighting directly with a chakra-intensive puppet like IronBlast, he chose a more subtle tactic of hiding in the trees while using ten simple Crashtest Dummy Puppets that he controlled with the help of their central control units, allowing him to use ten at the same time.

Akemi put up a decent fight, but against such a large number of puppets, it was hard to win for her. Crashtest Dummies were built in such a way that they could be taken apart into singular parts to dodge destructive attacks like her fists and later be put together again, which made it hard for her to take them out.

Being attacked from all sides made it even harder for her to keep up in this fight since Tekku was hiding and dodging the whole time and used backstabbing attacks with his puppets attacking from all sides. Akemi simply became exhausted after a while and lost since she couldn't continue to fight, as Akamichi techniques were quite chakra-intensive.

Meanwhile, Tekku chose this kind of method to fight to recover and conserve his own chakra. He had quite a lot of charged Crashtest Dummies that had their own chakra stored inside seals, so he didn't have to use his own. He simply fought with numbers instead of quality, as it was the best method to take such a brute force opponent out of commission, as most of them had limited stamina.

And with that, Tekku advanced to another round, and it became time for another exciting fight of the tournament, a fight that would determine who his opponent would be in the final.

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