Chapter 208: Battle Evaluation

It took a few minutes for Karin to regain her consciousness and after she did, she remembered what just happened and almost lost her consciousness again. Yuna could only roll her eyes when she saw that.

“Stop messing around already, Karin. I have better things to do than to wait for you to regain your consciousness.”

“Yes, Yuna-sama!”

Karin immediately snapped to attention when she heard Yuna’s words and tried to stand up despite still being slightly dizzy, causing Yuna to smile wrily.

“Calm down, Karin. For now, stay seated and just listen to what I have to say.”

Karin nodded her head in acknowledgment and stopped trying to stand up.

“Very well, as I already said, you three will become my genin Team from now on. Congratulations.”

A happy smile appeared on Karin’s face when she heard Yuna’s words, while Hisoka and Sai’s facial expressions didn’t change at all. Yuna could easily see that they were happy about passing as well, but didn’t bother saying anything about it.

“Anyway, next is your battle evaluation and what I will focus your training on.”

The relaxed atmosphere was immediately replaced with a serious one, as all three of Yuna’s genin tensed up.

“Let’s start with Hisoka. Just like everyone from the Hyuga, you focus on close combat, which is not a bad thing but makes you rather inflexible, so I will make sure to teach you at least a few mid-range jutsu in the future. I know that the higher-ups in the Hyuga clan probably won’t approve, but to put it frankly, I don’t give a shit.”

“You have already started developing your own style instead of mindlessly focusing on the Gentle Fist Style, which I approve of and will help you develop further. We might as well have you try out a few weapons and see if there is anything that works well for you.”

“As for your combat evaluation, there is no major flaw for me to point out, except that you changed your combat style too obviously. If you learn to change styles mid exchange, there is a high chance that you can inflict a devastating surprise attack when your enemy least expects it. There were a few minor flaws in your movements in general, but I won’t bother talking about that for now. We still have a lot of time to work on those after all.”

Hisoka pondered on Yuna’s words for a short while and then nodded her head in understanding. She wasn’t sure whether Yuna would actually be a good teacher or not, but now she already had a pretty good feeling about her.

The fact that Yuna clearly wanted her to stop using the original Gentle Fist Style was already a huge plus in Hisoka’s book. She might not be some kind of martial arts genius, but, after almost ten years of learning it, she could at least tell that the Gentle Fist Style didn’t work out that well for her.

What made her even more excited was, that Yuna wanted to teach her a few actual jutsu. Although she never said anything about it and hid it in the depths of her heart, she was genuinely pissed of that she was somehow reincarnated into a world where people could shoot fireballs and wind blades and she was stuck with only using palm strikes. That’s like being reincarnated into a world of sword and magic, and deciding to become a knight that didn’t use magic at all!

Seeing Hisoka acknowledge her words, Yuna’s gaze landed on Sai.

“Alright, you are next Sai. First of all, I assume that the last attack strategy you used was taught to you by Root to take down superior opponents, correct?”

Sai was confused by Yuna’s question but nodded his head in acknowledgment anyway.

“Good, you are forbidden from using that last attack from now on. You probably didn’t notice, but that overly flashy approach made the real goal of that strategy rather obvious. It is supposed to distract the opponent at the cost of your life, so someone else can deal the finishing blow. It’s a strategy where you are supposed to sacrifice yourself to give your allies an advantage.”

This time, even Sai’s usually unmoving face moved, as his eyes widened in shock and his mouth slightly opened. Karin and Hisoka looked at Sai in disbelief as well, but when they saw his expression of surprise, they realized that Sai genuinely didn’t know about this either.

“Anyway, I don’t blame you for using that kind of technique during this mock fight, since you didn’t know about it either. By the way, you should take a lot of things you learned during your time in Root with a grain of salt, since it certainly wasn’t an organization that paid much attention to the lives of its members. If you have some doubt about a technique or jutsu, just ask me.”

“Anyway, your snake ambush was well-timed, but the snakes themselves were a little too fragile. The same goes for the lion, by the way, so we will focus on making your drawings more durable for now. The ability to animate your drawing is a very flexible skill, so there is no need to put much emphasis on anything else for a while. I will, however, train you in taijutsu, simply because it massively increases your survivability and time you can fight your opponent before becoming defenseless.”

Just like Hisoka before him, Sai nodded his head in acknowledgment. He was rather surprised that a combat strategy that he learned very early in Root had that kind of goal behind it, but after thinking about it for a short while, he certainly understood how Yuna came to that conclusion. Approaching an enemy while riding a huge lion does, after all, draw a lot of attention to the person riding the lion.

Next, Yuna’s eyes landed on Karin, and she immediately started talking again.

“Well, your training will continue the same way as it did before you became part of my genin team. Heavy focus on seals and mid to long-range combat. The precision and timing of your shuriken during the fight was rather good, but you, freezing up when I grabbed your chain with my foot and pulled on it was a rather big flaw. In fact, now that I think about it, all three of you didn’t react properly when I pulled that move.”

The trio lowered their heads when Yuna started glaring at them, but moments later she couldn’t help but chuckle a little.

“Well, I guess I can’t blame you too much for it either, since I very much doubt anyone would do that kind of crazy movement during a real fight. Well, anyone but me, at least. Anyway, let this be a lesson for you. You should always be ready for your opponent to do something you didn’t expect him to do. This time, it might have only lost you the sparring match, but an opponent suddenly using an element you didn’t know he had or another person ambushing you mid-combat can easily be the end for you.”

Seeing all three of her genin obediently nod their head, Yuna nodded in approval.

“Always remember: CONSTANT VIGILANCE!”

Yet again, Hisoka raised her eyebrow in doubt.

‘Really? Now she is even pulling out quotes like that? Guess this at least confirms that she is a reincarnated person just like me.’

Yet again, if Yuna had heard Hisoka’s thoughts she would be rather annoyed by them. Somehow, the secret that she was a reincarnated person was “exposed” due to a life lesson she learned in her previous life. How could she not be annoyed by that?