After trying and failing to make sense of Hagoromo's explanation for a solid minute, Kurenai finally gave up. "Maybe you're telling the truth. Maybe you're messing with my head. Either way—you wanted to see my genjutsu, so fine. I'll beat you with the best one I've got."
She dropped the shuriken entirely. Taijutsu wasn't going to cut it either—she knew where she stood on both counts. So she went straight to what she was actually good at.
Her hands began flying through seals.
"Ninja Art: Demonic Illusion—Tree Binding Death!"
A B-rank genjutsu. The highest-level technique she currently had in her arsenal.
Her body seemed to evaporate where she stood. Behind Hagoromo, a great tree began growing in eerie silence. Its branches would coil around his limbs, pin him in place—and then Kurenai would emerge from within the trunk to deliver the finishing blow.
A B-rank genjutsu was flatly beyond what any Academy student should be able to handle. Executed cleanly, even a chūnin instructor might struggle against it.
"Not good—!"
Instructor Abe's shout came too late.
Tree Binding Death was genuinely dangerous. The one condition was that it actually had to work.
Kurenai crept toward Hagoromo. He wasn't reacting. No movement, no resistance. A smile of victory was just starting to form on her face—
Then Hagoromo moved.
The genjutsu hadn't worked. Exactly as he'd expected.
What Kurenai couldn't see: his head had been flickering like a monitor that just took a hard knock—brief flashes of blue-white electrical arc jumping across his vision. That was what had held the B-rank genjutsu at bay.
His right hand shot out and caught the wrist holding her kunai. Then his fingers closed.
Her wrist clamped like it had been caught in a vice. The sharp pain was enough—the kunai clattered to the ground.
He raised his left hand, two fingers pressed together like a blade, and tapped the back of her neck. Lightly.
She folded.
"Match over. Winner: Kamishiro Hagoromo!"
Instructor Abe called it loud and clear. Honestly—when Kurenai had thrown out a B-rank genjutsu, he'd written Hagoromo off. He hadn't expected him to walk through it untouched.
Even now he couldn't work out how. A B-rank genjutsu with no warning—even he couldn't have blocked that clean.
Kurenai, unconscious, slumped softly against Hagoromo's shoulder. The moment the match was called, two medical ninja were already moving. They collected her and carried her off.
The win hadn't been hard. Still, Hagoromo was genuinely pleased. If he could hold that technique, he could hold most standard genjutsu. Good to know.
He followed Kurenai off the training ground. And if he was being completely honest—every time he looked at those red eyes of hers, his mind didn't go to Sharingan. It went straight to Kurapika. Every single time.
He rejoined the spectator area as the class was still buzzing. Nobody had expected him to beat Kurenai—she was one of the top students—and he'd done it in what looked like three moves. Made it look almost boring.
The next match had already started.
Uchiha Obito versus Mitarashi Anko. The dramatic highlight of this matchup was... that there wasn't one. Obito lasted under three seconds before Anko put him down, thereby upholding his title as reigning dead-last with full professional commitment.
After the first round: Kamishiro Hagoromo, Might Guy, and Nohara Rin had all made the top fifteen. Obito had not.
To be fair to Guy—his low ranking was purely academic. Every class that wasn't taijutsu was essentially a zero for him. In actual combat, he was unambiguously first-tier.
"Round two begins. First match: Might Guy versus—Kamishiro Hagoromo!"
"Let's go, Hagoromo! This is it—our destined battle!!"
Guy had already sprinted to the center of the training ground before he'd finished hearing the matchup. When Hagoromo's name followed, he started yelling even louder.
Hagoromo stepped down promptly. If he didn't move fast enough, Guy would keep going indefinitely.
He wasn't particularly fired up, though. Guy's training was unhinged, yes—but he was still eleven. His taijutsu wasn't fully developed. Eight Gates was nowhere near online. He couldn't even pull off Front Lotus at this stage.
"Fight—begin!"
"Konoha Whirlwind!!"
Guy launched the instant the instructor finished speaking. He leapt high, leg sweeping horizontal toward Hagoromo's head.
Jumping into an attack without speed or power advantage was a bad idea. Before the kick landed, Hagoromo had Guy's ankle in one hand. He stepped back, pivoted, and sent Guy flying with his own momentum.
"Again!!"
Guy bounced off the ground like he hadn't felt a thing. Charged immediately.
Hagoromo caught the punch, kicked the back of his knee, and sent him tumbling again.
Guy got up. Charged. Got thrown.
Fourth time. Fifth. Sixth.
Guy was objectively ridiculous. But someone who worked that hard and flatly refused to quit—it was hard to actually dislike him.
Which was exactly why Hagoromo decided to finish it properly.
"Guy. Heads up—I'm going for real now."
"That's exactly what I wanted!!" Guy's fighting spirit broke through whatever ceiling it had previously been operating under.
Hagoromo closed his eyes slowly. Then snapped them open. No hand seals. Lightning Release Chakra moved through his meridians and blue arcs began skipping across his skin.
When Guy charged this time, Hagoromo didn't throw him. He slipped the punch with a slight head tilt, drove a fist into Guy's jaw, and before Guy could process that—brought his right knee up hard.
Guy's body jackknifed. The force launched him a full meter into the air.
Hagoromo wasn't done. In the fraction of a second Guy was airborne, he coiled, leapt, and drove his right foot into Guy's midsection. Guy flew higher.
Both of them were off the ground now—Guy had taken two clean hits with no ability to respond to either.
Hagoromo spun in midair. His left leg, held in reserve until now, came down hard.
Third hit.
He used the recoil to land cleanly. Guy was already six meters up.
Chakra flooded into both legs. His lower body fired at near-maximum output—and in the next instant he was above Guy, looking down.
His right leg dropped like an axe.
"Lion's Barrage!!!"
BOOM.
Guy hit the ground like a falling meteor.
When the dust settled, there was a shallow crater in the training ground, cracks spidering out from center. Guy lay in the middle of it, completely out.
Three full minutes of silence.
Kurenai—who had regained consciousness at exactly the right moment to witness all of this—quietly began feeling grateful she hadn't tried to fight Hagoromo in taijutsu.