The rest lasted for another 20 minutes after the new matchups were posted, clearly giving time for the participants to get ready. Then it started as usual.
Just like the first rounds, Sukuna mostly ignored the matches he had no interest in.
But how could he when the very first match was Temari vs Tenten? A canon matchup—but this time around, he had personally told Tenten repeatedly to have a backup plan in case she faced someone who completely countered her fighting style.
So it would be fun to see how the girl planned on facing Temari and her big fan now.
The proctor soon announced the start of the match when both kunoichi were in the ring facing each other.
"Begin."
Temari was confident as usual, and unlike most, she was completely fresh since she didn't participate in the first round of eliminations.
"I'm going to make short work of this." She smirked and, from behind her, took out her huge fan.
"No one has ever seen all three stars of my fan and lived to tell the tale." Temari boasted and only opened her fan halfway, infusing her wind chakra into it like it all came naturally to her—years of practice showing their magic—and sent a powerful gust of wind at Tenten.
The bun-haired girl didn't hesitate, quickly dodging with surprising agility—definitely a student under Might Guy.
Like most who knew Tenten, Sukuna too thought that by now the girl would have thrown an entire shop's worth of weapons at the Sand kunoichi. But to everyone's surprise—and to Sukuna's amusement—instead of throwing weapons, Tenten decided to close the distance instead.
With masterful use of gods-only-know how many scrolls she had hidden inside her dress, she produced a katana and rushed at the blonde.
What followed was Tenten relentlessly staying at close range with Temari while the latter tried to blast the bun-haired girl away with long-distance wind attacks.
Occasionally, Tenten also threw kunai to keep the blonde on her toes.
'What is she trying to pull here?' Sukuna narrowed his eyes.
But then his Sharingan caught what others couldn't.
'Deception.' He smirked.
Tenten was once again thrown back by Temari's wind; closing the gap was increasingly hard. However, the girl wasn't planning to end the fight at close range—she was setting up something.
Once her preparation was complete, everything came to life.
Apparently, all the kunai she threw had seals planted on them. Instead of dangling explosive tags at the ends of the kunai, she wrapped them around the handles. Not to mention, she used paper of the same color as the kunai to disguise the seals.
By no means was this the first time someone had thought of this. It was very similar to Tobirama and Minato's flying kunai, if anything—just explosive tags placed in that order.
But the reason ninja usually didn't do it was because it would surely destroy the kunai when the explosive tags went off. It was highly uneconomical.
And who the hell could burn through both explosive tags and kunai like this in a fight? Perhaps only Tenten. Anyone else who could would either be much stronger and not need petty tricks like this—or would have chosen a much safer occupation over being a ninja.
But right now, the case was that Temari found herself in the middle of a very dangerous laid-out trap—quite literally in the center of a landmine field.
Her face went pale when she realized what she was facing.
The next second, Tenten detonated all the explosive tags.
"Winner: Tenten of the Leaf."
The result was set the moment Tenten laid those explosive tags. However, unlike what most thought, not all of them were real explosive tags. Instead of using all genuine ones, she planted many fakes for intimidation purposes.
What she banked on was the momentary lapse in her opponent's guard when she seemingly set off so many tags.
Tenten had already set up ninja wire around the weapons she had thrown earlier. Once Temari's guard was down, it was rather easy to capture the girl and end the match.
"Needless to say, she used deception and brains for this fight." Sukuna smirked at the girl with approval.
As Tenten came back to her seat, a big smile plastered on her face while Temari was fuming, the proctor continued with the next match.
"Sasuke Uchiha vs Dozu of the Hidden Sound."
The match was as worthless as a Hokage's hat on Danzo's head.
The moment the proctor started it, Sasuke's Sharingan flared up.
The next second, the Sound genin was caught in a genjutsu. As explained earlier, unlike in the anime, Sasuke here indeed had someone to teach him genjutsu. And Sasuke was much more mature—he understood to take the easiest route to victory rather than show off his skills against weak opponents.
Sasuke's genjutsu was no Tsukuyomi or Sukuna's thousand years of blood-soaked memories. But it did stun the boy long enough for Sasuke to end the match.
"Next match: Sakura Haruno vs Suigetsu Hozuki."
"It's finally my turn." Sakura's eyes lit up as her turn finally arrived. She had been dying to test out the gloves Sukuna gave her. Actually, she had tested them on the Sound team—which, by the way, was glaring bloody murder at her right now—but that wasn't enough for Sakura. She wanted to test them against someone else.
Good thing she had a new lab rat now.
When Suigetsu arrived at the ring, he thought his fight would be similar to earlier—simple in execution. The girl hit hard, as he remembered, but she couldn't touch him like that bushy-browed guy.
The match was his.
At least that was the idea.
Until the proctor started the match—and he caught sight of a small fist enlarging in front of his eyes, with what he could only call a built-in lightning effect.
'Wait… lightning?'
It was too late.
By the time Suigetsu realized he had to dodge, his face was halfway deformed, pain rocketing through his body just as fast as he was rocketed backward with a massive concussion.
With a crash, Suigetsu's body collided with the wall, rendering both the wall and the boy useless.
Sakura blinked, looked at the knocked-out boy, and then at her fist.
'Again with only one punch.'
'Come on… at least let me test them.'
"Winner: Sakura Haruno."
Even the proctor seemed surprised, but he did his job.
As for the others, they did theirs—everyone stared at the pink-haired girl with sheer disbelief in their eyes.
"What was that?"
"I don't know."
"Are all Konoha shinobi this crazy?"
"Girls are scary…"
With a bashful face, Sakura returned to her seat between shinobi gossiping about her.
Karin's eyes narrowed at her, silently asking, 'How the hell did you do that?'
Kiyomi, on the other hand, seemed to realize it. Her Sharingan caught those gloves easily enough.
Tenten looked proud. One glance and she knew those gloves were her handiwork.
They were beautiful.
Sukuna felt a sharp pinch on his side. It was Karin, looking at him with grievance filling her eyes.
"You're playing favorites." Karin pouted, having just learned that it was Sukuna who gave those gloves to Sakura.
Kiyomi had an immense urge to show off the Kiba blades Sukuna had given her to pour more grease on that fire. However, one look from the pink-haired boy told her that would not be good for her health.
Amid the bickering, the next match was announced.
"Haku Yuki vs Kankuro of the Sand."
xXx
A/N : Sorry for the smaller chapters, writing while traveling is a bit of an hassle, I'll try to make bigger chapters, once I'm back home. Hope you guys like the chapter.
I'll like the effort if I can get some stones out of it, please. Looking forward to those. Also tell me if there are any mistakes, I'll fix them asap !
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