Seeing Ryoma retreat, the Daimyo's face showed a satisfied expression. Although the samurai hadn't defeated Ryoma, they had only been training for about three months. Under normal circumstances, these samurai would have been knocked down long ago, but now they could last several rounds. With more training time in the future, their strength would inevitably be even more astonishing.
Thinking of this, the Daimyo was increasingly pleased with Iruka's performance. Although he didn't know Iruka's origin, he had solved many of the Daimyo's problems. As long as Iruka could train a sufficiently powerful Chakra Samurai Corps, even if it was only a thousand strong, it would be enough to pose a threat to the Konoha Hidden Village.
At this moment, seeing Iruka invite the Konoha ninja, the Daimyo gently fanned himself and shifted his gaze to the Konoha group, saying with interest, "Don't the Konoha ninja want to challenge them?"
The group exchanged glances and quickly reached a consensus. They were all ninjas with some experience. Although stepping into the arena now was a bit risky, it would allow them to probe the depths of this fellow named Iruka. Compared to the danger this guy posed, this small risk was worth taking.
"I didn't expect that not only is Your Excellency exceptionally strong, but you're also skilled at training samurai, which truly makes us a bit curious." Hinata Hiashi, the eldest among them, spoke on behalf of the group, "Since Your Excellency sincerely invites us, we shouldn't be too impolite."
"Good. Then, who among you would like to try?" Iruka said with a smile, his gaze still fixed on Asuna. "Speaking of which, last time, I was very impressed with Konoha Hidden Village's 'Flash' Miss. I heard she's also the daughter of the Konoha Hidden Village's Hokage. How about 'Flash' Miss gives it a try?"
The others' gazes couldn't help but focus on Asuna. Feeling her companions' gazes, Asuna nodded slightly and said, "Alright, I'll give a try to the strength of the samurai trained by Your Excellency."
"Heh heh, the Hokage's daughter, huh? Then it will certainly be a wonderful battle. I hope you don't disgrace your father's name." The Daimyo said with a forced smile.
Asuna's cheek twitched slightly. She understood that the Daimyo certainly had no good feelings for Konoha Hidden Village, but she didn't expect to encounter special treatment multiple times so soon after arriving here. It truly made her feel a little angry. She looked up at Iruka, her gaze as sharp as cold lightning: "If I win, Guard Ninja Leader, may I have a match with you?"
"What a terrifying gaze, indeed worthy of 'Flash' Miss. For a woman to make a name for herself in the ninja world is truly extraordinary." Iruka feigned being startled, but then immediately changed the subject: "As a leader, besides leadership and training abilities, one indeed needs strength. Alright, if 'Flash' Miss can defeat all the samurai I've arranged, I will accept your challenge."
—Good!
Upon hearing this, the other Konoha ninja immediately cheered inwardly. The strength of the samurai wasn't important; what was important was to see Iruka's true strength. If necessary, they could even choose to severely injure him, cripple him, or something else. Battles always had unexpected outcomes. If they could eliminate this threat this way, even if it angered the Daimyo, it wouldn't matter.
Konoha Hidden Village's judgment was that Iruka was the most dangerous person. All these measures against Konoha Hidden Village were provided by this person. Without Iruka, the Daimyo would lose his helper and ultimately couldn't do anything to Konoha Hidden Village. Even if the Daimyo knew Konoha ninja did it on purpose, what then?
With such a reasonable excuse as "an accident during battle," what kind of punishment could the Daimyo inflict on Asuna? She was the Hokage's daughter, and Konoha Hidden Village now possessed great strength. If they didn't want to fall out, it would be impossible to inflict any severe punishment on Asuna.
Of course, this was only the ideal situation. Although Asuna's strength was great, this guy named Iruka was clearly no pushover either. Last time, when he attacked Asuna and Mizuki on the street, he fought one against two and seemed to be under no particular pressure.
This battle would not end in one or two rounds like the last time, but no one could yet conclude whether Asuna's strength was greater than Iruka's.
"Asuna, be careful." Before Asuna walked out, Mizuki grabbed her and whispered in her ear, "This guy is very strange."
"Ah, I understand." Asuna nodded, then entered the training ground, stretching her hands while looking at Iruka not far away.
Iruka had the samurai present retreat, then clapped his hands again, and more than a dozen samurai emerged from both sides. Their gait, posture, and aura were exactly the same as the previous ones. This uniformity was the advantage of samurai. They surrounded Asuna as before.
"Come, 'Flash' Miss, let me witness your strength. That previous strike left a deep impression on me." Iruka smiled.
"Then please watch closely, Your Excellency." Asuna said, drawing the sword she brought from its sheath, then throwing the sheath to the ground.
The other samurai also drew their swords.
"Mr. Hiashi, what do you think of the strength of these samurai?" Mizuki quietly asked Hinata Hiashi.
"It's not easy to use the Byakugan now, but I think their physique is similar to the previous samurai. Next is their chakra level; the quality should be similar, but the attribute might be different." Hinata Hiashi said.
"Are you saying that Iruka might have chosen chakra attributes that counter Asuna?"
"Exactly. Before, it was said that Ryoma's chakra attribute was unknown, so samurai of every chakra attribute were arranged. But the fact that Asuna is a wind-style ninja is no secret. Even if Iruka didn't know at first, he would have known from yesterday's battle." Hinata Hiashi replied.
"In other words, the chakra attribute of those samurai might be fire-style?" Fujimura Yuuki interjected.
"That should be the case. There might be other chakra attributes, but most of them should be fire-style." Hinata Hiashi nodded.
"With Asuna's strength, she won't lose, it just depends on whether she can fight beautifully." Uchiha Ken said silently, "If she struggles a bit, then she won't have the face to challenge that guy named Iruka."
On this point, everyone agreed. Although these samurai had cultivated chakra, ninjas started cultivating from a young age. If they struggled against these samurai who had only trained for about three months, then challenging Iruka, who trained these samurai, would truly be a loss of face.
Therefore, although Ryoma could have won against these samurai, he still chose to concede.
Although it wasn't impossible to challenge shamelessly, ninjas were originally a profession without much dignity. But ninjas are different now. With the popularization of the new ninja philosophy, self-respect and self-love have permeated the ninjas of the new era. Moreover, Asuna is Fumori Masaki's daughter; she cannot disgrace her father. If it takes her some time to deal with these samurai, then even if Iruka would also find it troublesome to deal with these samurai, as the one who trained them, everyone would implicitly consider him superior to these samurai, and challenging him then would make it seem like she couldn't accept defeat.
"Go, Asuna!" Mizuki clenched her fists, watching Asuna in the arena intently. "With your strength, you can definitely knock these guys down in minutes."
At this moment, with Iruka's command, the battle began. The samurai, as before, rushed forward from all directions to attack Asuna, who leaped out almost at the same time. In everyone's eyes, only a white flash remained, sweeping around at an astonishing speed, and the samurai were sent flying one after another.
When Asuna's figure reappeared, the samurai on the ground groaned in pain. Most of their samurai swords were broken, and besides the broken swords, there were bloodstains seeping through various parts of their bodies. Asuna hadn't aimed for vital points, but it was enough to prevent ordinary people from standing up.
However, three samurai still got up. They were the ones whose samurai swords hadn't been broken, indicating they were the three strongest among them. One of the samurai charged forward, swinging his sword at Asuna.
Asuna felt the fire-style chakra wrapped around the sword. If she used wind-style chakra, the large amount of oxygen would cause it to burn rapidly, turning it into a "flame sword."
The other two samurai didn't stop either. One provided support from the side, while the other, with a few sharp turns, swept behind Asuna. It seemed he was using lightning-style chakra, as only lightning-style chakra stimulating the body could create such movements.
Asuna rushed forward without hesitation, clashing fiercely with the first samurai's sword. The wind and fire chakras immediately ignited flames. Under the illumination of the fire, a hint of surprise appeared on the opponent's face. He clearly hadn't expected the opponent to charge forward even though she knew it would amplify his power.
Asuna's expression remained normal. The moment she blocked the samurai sword, her hands suddenly exerted force, pushing the samurai away. With a turn, the flames on the sword seemed to be guided, flowing along Asuna's blade. And with that turn, the surging flames spread in a circular motion in all directions.
The samurai clearly hadn't expected this move. Generally, flames would cause the user of wind-style chakra to suffer the consequences, but this girl had instead taken control of the flames caused by the samurai's fire-style chakra, turning them into a weapon against them. This ability was truly astonishing.
These samurai were fighting Asuna with the mindset of traditional wind-style ninjas. Traditional wind-style ninjas, when using wind-style chakra, don't have much understanding of indirectly moved air, and can easily suffer backlash. This is why, in chakra attribute counter-relationships, fire-style counters wind-style.
But Asuna was different. She had been educated by Fumori Masaki since childhood and was adept at controlling wind. In a situation of equal strength, fire-style ninjas might not even be able to suppress her wind-style, let alone these samurai who had only briefly touched upon chakra nature transformation.
Indeed, in about three months, these samurai had cultivated chakra and transformed its nature, a speed that was astonishing. However, the gap still existed. Since Asuna wanted to challenge Iruka, she wouldn't hesitate to defeat these people in the most direct and powerful way!
The circularly spreading flames sent the three samurai flying. Besides the initial flames, Asuna had added some fuel to make them burn even fiercer. These samurai had no way to block them, only the lightning-style samurai leaped into the air, attempting to avoid the horizontally spreading flames.
However, in the next moment, Asuna swept past him, severing his samurai sword and kicking him to the ground, leaving him dizzy and disoriented.
The other two samurai were rolling on the ground, burned by the flames. The fire-style samurai was fine, but the other one was in a more miserable state. He seemed to be a wind-style samurai. His previous battle strategy seemed to be that if Asuna didn't intend to use wind-style chakra, he would use wind-style chakra to force her – if she didn't use wind-style chakra, Asuna's sword would break – but he hadn't expected Asuna to face the challenge head-on, and he ended up suffering the consequences.
"Water Style—" At this moment, Fujimura Yuuki made his move, using Water Style to extinguish all the flames on the two samurai. No matter what, these samurai couldn't be allowed to burn to death like this.
Asuna landed on the ground and looked at the samurai lying on the ground. They had basically lost their fighting ability—or so she thought—However, the next scene startled her a little. These samurai, who should have been unable to get up, actually propped themselves up with their hands and began to stand. Not only the others, but even the wind-style samurai did the same!
Because of the burns, the pain should have been very intense, and his expression showed it, yet despite this, he still tried to get up, and indeed, he stood up.
Asuna recalled the samurai who had been knocked down by Ryoma's lightning-style earlier. Although Ryoma hadn't used lethal moves, the paralyzing ability of lightning-style should have been enough to prevent them from standing up. Yet, those samurai could still get up. Even if chakra had the effect of enhancing the body's resistance to blows, it wasn't that powerful.
—There must be some secret in this.
Asuna murmured to herself. The key to this secret must be Iruka. So, her gaze shifted to Iruka, who noticed Asuna's gaze, shrugged, and clapped, "As expected of 'Flash' Miss, your strength is indeed extraordinary, much more impressive than Ryoma's."
Ryoma, who had returned to the Daimyo's side, immediately looked a bit awkward. He was a few years older than Asuna, yet his performance was not as good as hers, which was truly a bit embarrassing.
"Alright, in that case, I will accept your challenge." Iruka stretched his body and glanced at the samurai. These samurai, being very perceptive, left the training ground, and he simply walked forward.