From the stands, the experienced and powerful high ranking individuals of Konoha, were easily able to tell how everything went down.
The most basic of basics, elevated to the level of perfection.
A perfectly planned combo with each attack leading his opponent into the perfect position for the four year old boy to end the match with a single decisive blow.
'Using to shurikenjutsu to guide the opponent into a compromising position, closing the gap with body flicker, feinting with a simple, avoiding a final counterattack with substitution, all the while maneuvering into the perfect position and ending the fight with a well blacked blow.'
The Third Hokage revived the short battle in his head, if it could even be called that. The boy had systematically crushed his opponent in record time.
'All he showed were basic jutsu learned at the Academy and his tactics were a perfect textbook example on how to approach combat . . .' Hiruzen pondered.
'But that's all in theory.'
'Executing that "simple" battle plan in practice with such precision . . . Forget about Academy students or even genin, most chunin can't pull that off and those who can only show that capability when fighting less powerful opponents.'
'Leading someone who is your equal or surpasses you in power in such a way . . . Only the best of the best can pull it off.'
But despite this incredibly high evaluation, one echoed by many of the experienced shinobi there, neither the Hokage, nor Danzo, nor the two big clan heads of the Hyuga and Uchiha, feared Shiki's perceived potential.
They saw in him the pinnacle of the ordinary man. At the most, he would become a figure on the level of the Third Hokage who perfected ordinary shinobi skills to such a high standard that he became a Kage level powerhouse.
Sarutobi Hiruzen could not inspire fear in them, so Shiki was not considered a dangerous element to be feared but an opportunity to shift the balance in their favor.
The Third Hokage's thoughts were in a similar vein.
He saw himself as the best example for Shiki to follow and from the boy's prowess, it was evident he had a very intense focus on training and perfecting his abilities.
That being the case, gaining the boy's favor by guiding him and teaching him jutsu and in doing so, bringing Mito back to his side of the fence, did not seem that hard.
Danzo, on the other hand, had different thoughts.
'This level of talent . . . I've never heard of the name Ryumon but regular shinobi cannot achieve this level, even Hashirama-sama was not as powerful at four years old.' The bandaged man pondered.
'It is possible he has some hidden bloodline advantage, even if not kekkei genkai specifically not to mention he seemed to have avoided using any real jutsu on purpose. There is no way that bothersome hag did not teach the brat more advanced jutsu.'
'With such talent, learning more powerful techniques would be no challenge so he is likely hiding them on purpose . . . But for what exactly?'
Danzo's paranoid mind that suspected everything and everyone of anything and everything had gotten him to the truth funnily enough.
'It seems I'll have to prepare a test or two in order to draw out his true capabilities. My pieces are already in place, arranging for this should not be too difficult.' The bandaged man concluded and faded back into the shadows leaving the venue entirely.
*
After Shiki's marvelous showing, the other matches were comparatively lackluster.
In order to ensure the safety of the students, only elite chunin were chosen for the examiner role as the difference in strength and experience should be more than enough to give breathing room in order to safely evaluate the students.
As such, with the exception of Hyuga Yuno who, much to his patriarch's appreciation, managed to push his examiner quite far until the boy ran out of gas and lost, the other students just made a good showing of their skills.
Shiki's own goals of attracting the attention and nurturing of the higher ups while avoiding scaring them off with too much prowess was extremely successful with a single paranoid exception so the white haired boy was quite pleased with how things turned out.
Results would be announced the next day so after saying his goodbyes to Mei as well as Ryuuto and Yuno, who actually approached him to introduce themselves while tossing challenges his way, Shiki went home for the day with Tsunade and Nawaki following him to Mito's residence.
If the white haired boy was to say he paid any attention to the challenges levied his way . . .
He would be lying.
*
Once they were out of the Academy grounds, Nawaki couldn't contain himself anymore and launched into a tirade of questions.
"What the hell were those moves!? You totally owned that Elite Chunin.'
"Why did you never go all out in our spars?"
"How do you train to get that strong!?"
"You must have some secret training methods, right?"
"How about sharing them with your nii-chan here?"
Shiki just gave him a look.
"If I start sharing then they are no longer secret are they?" He said.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow in response
'That brat rarely speaks randomly so he actually has some sort of secret method?' The blonde internally questioned.
"C'mon you can't be like that!" The brown haired boy protested.
"As a matter of fact . . ." Shiki paused dramatically with a smirk.
"I most definitely can." And with a self satisfied smile, he ignored Nawaki's protests and grumblings about not being respected as an older brother for the rest of the trip home.
'This kid is finally being more open and relaxed.' Tsunade thought as she observed the interaction.
'He used to be far more distant and speak with an annoying monotone though . . . The replacement smug or sarcastic tone is not very much to my preference . . .' The Senju princess thought.
Unfortunately, Shiki seemed to enjoy targeting her with his politely worded, factual statements that cut deeper and were far more irritating than any insult.
Her own grandmother seemingly enjoying the blonde's suffering sure did not help either.
*
While Shiki went home, as did the rest of the students, the Hokage remained behind to speak with the Jonin instructors about the teams they would be handling from tomorrow onwards.
Several Jonin would be testing the other graduates as a formality but the three teams on track to become Elite Genin under Jonin supervision were already decided barring any unforeseen circumstances.
"Uchiha Go, Yamanaka Inori, Sarutobi Dokko. You have been entrusted with the next generation of our village, the most talented seedlings in the Academy." Hiruzen started.
"With input from the clan heads, the following team arrangements were decided by me after some deliberation with my advisors."
"Uchiha Go, you will be in charge of Uchiha Ryuto, Izuno Amagi and Minazuki Yuki."
"Sarutobi Dokko, you will be in charge of Hyuga Yuno, Inuzuka Enko and Akimichi Ganyu."
"Yamanaka Inori . . ." Hiruzen paused and the two other Elite Jonin looked towards their fellow kunoichi.
"You'll take care of Aburame Shinka, Uchiha Mei and . . . Ryumon Shiki."
The announcement was a formality.
All of them already knew which team they would be in charge of and who would be on it but that was before they saw Shiki in action.
Young prodigies of Shiki's caliber tended to be extremely hard to handle.
'But maybe that's why this woman was chosen . . .'
'But maybe that's why THE Yamanaka Inori was chosen . . .'
Uchiha Go and Sarutobi Dokko thought simultaneously.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -