Dark Phoenix of Konoha by White Angel of Auralon

Part 3 - Skills Test

Asuma assumed he was talking about ROOT and the council that liked to manipulate young talented ninjas to their liking.

"Okay, what kind of test do you want to have? An all out fight or going by disciplines?" Asuma asked.

"I think we should go by disciplines. Is that okay with you, Dark Phoenix?" The Hokage asked.

"Of course, Hokage Sama." Naruto answered. "With which part should we start?"

"I think I would like to see how you work with weapons first. Asuma himself is a skilled weapon user, so that would be a good starting point."

Naruto nodded and unsealed both his tanto and his bo staff. The tanto went on his shoulder and the staff stayed in his hand. Asuma took out his knuckle knives. They watched each other, assessing the stance of their opponent. Then Naruto sprang into action and raced at Asuma. The Hokage was surprised by the speed Naruto showed. That was definitely jonin level speed. The only jonins to be faster would probably be Gai and Kakashi. Asuma was ready and blocked the strikes of the bo staff with his knives and fought back. Both weapons clashed time and again. Naruto tried to swipe Asuma's legs with his staff, but he jumped over it without problem. Both opponents evaded and blocked each others attacks for five more minutes before jumping apart.

"You're definitely good kid, but let's take this up a notch." Asuma said and channelled wind chakra into his blades.

Naruto, knowing that his staff wouldn't hold against wind enhanced blades, quickly put his staff away and drew his tanto. He channelled his own wind chakra into it.

"So you are a wind element too. Interesting. Let's see how far you have come." Asuma said and attacked.

Tanto and knuckle blades crashed and the more experienced jonin managed to get a cut on Naruto's arm. Naruto returned the favour by spinning around his axis, disconnecting their weapons and nicking Asuma's pants.

"Not a bad counter to my attack." Asuma commented.

This kid was really good. Judging by his height and stature the boy was about twelve to fourteen. To be that good with two different weapons and being able to manipulate wind chakra was really something.

Naruto returned with a new attack but was forced back by the stronger Asuma over the next minutes. Finally Asuma managed to disarm Naruto and crossed his blades close over his throat.

"My win." Asuma said and stepped back.

Naruto nodded. He hadn't expected to be able to defeat an elite jonin in one of his strongest disciplines, but he had held out better than he thought he would.

"That was an impressive start. Next would be taijutsu." The Hokage said.

Asuma nodded and put his knives back in his hip pouch. He took his stance and saw that the boy was in a stance he didn't know and hadn't seen around the village before. He couldn't know that Naruto was in the opening stance of the Namikaze style, the cheetah style. The style was based on speed and fast attacks to vital points. It wasn't made for long exchanges like the animal it was named after. After Naruto had read all the anatomy scrolls in the secret room, he could utilize the style really well. And with his bastardised version of gentle fist and chakra scalpels mixed into the style it was deadly if Naruto wanted it to be.

This time Asuma attacked first, but Naruto dodged his kick and went around him in a split second and tried to attack the spine. Asuma though was too experienced and jumped to the side. Naruto followed him and looked for openings in Asuma's guard. His smaller stature now was an advantage for him as he could use openings easier as a bigger opponent. He brought in some painful hits to Asuma's biceps and upper thigh. Asuma was too good to let him hit vital spots after feeling what a hit did to his muscles.