In battles between shinobi, if both sides were evenly matched and possessed massive reserves of chakra, the fight could last quite a while.
Monsters like Hashirama and Madara were capable of fighting nonstop for three days and three nights.
But most people didn't possess chakra reserves on the level of those two. And among the contestants in this tournament, the differences in strength were fairly obvious.
As a result, the preliminary rounds progressed rather quickly. The strength displayed by Konohagakure's genin had greatly exceeded the expectations of the other villages, filling them with growing unease and a sense of urgency.
The battles continued one after another, and everyone remained focused on the matches.
The eighth match: Aburame Shino vs. Kankurō.
This was a battle between Konoha's insect user and Sunagakure's puppet master.
In the end, Shino decided to be a good person. Worried that his opponent's puppet joints might not move smoothly enough, he generously added a bit of lubricant free of charge.
The lubricant just happened to be made of bugs.
The cramped arena was actually ill-suited for both types of shinobi. They were both the kind who preferred to hide their real bodies in the shadows while manipulating external tools to kill their enemies.
Once forced into direct combat, a puppet master's fragile real body became their greatest weakness, while Shino himself wasn't weak in taijutsu either.
Still, he didn't recklessly approach his opponent, wary of being poisoned by the puppet master's traps. Instead, he simply had his insects drain all of Kankurō's chakra and claimed victory.
The ninth match: Kurama Yakumo vs. Haku.
This was a terrible matchup for Yakumo.
Although she had recovered enough to live as a normal shinobi after receiving treatment from Makoto, she was still young, and taijutsu remained her greatest weakness for the time being.
Within Team 9, she formed a perfect combination with Sai and Shin.
Aside from her own Kekkei Genkai genjutsu that manipulated the five senses, her teammate Sai specialized in Super Beast Imitating Drawing, while Yakumo could take things one step further by temporarily turning the ink beasts from his paintings into real living entities.
As for Shin, he excelled in both ninjutsu and taijutsu, acting as the team's MT standing in front of the other two.
Together, the three of them formed a perfect squad capable of intelligence gathering, mobile support, and overwhelming combat power.
But now, Yakumo was fighting alone.
Although the Kurama Clan had long since declined, Kirigakure was still fully aware of their expertise in genjutsu.
Haku never gave her any opportunity to cast an illusion. From the very start of the battle, he spread Ice Release across the battlefield while hiding within it to launch sneak attacks, never facing his opponent head-on.
Yakumo also possessed the ability to materialize illusions through her paintings, but she never even had the chance to use it before being defeated.
At her current stage, she simply wasn't suited for one-on-one combat without prior preparation.
No one had expected the preliminary rounds to begin immediately after the second exam ended, so she truly hadn't had time to prepare.
...
Preliminary Round, Match Ten: Sai vs. Hōzuki Suigetsu.
Suigetsu's arrogance was backed by real ability. He had mastered the Hōzuki Clan's secret technique, the Hydrification Technique, which completely countered Sai's Super Beast Imitating Drawing.
And taijutsu was useless against Suigetsu.
What he feared was internet addiction treatment therapy.
With this, Kirigakure's team advancing into the third exam surprisingly managed to secure two spots in the finals.
After all, aside from Konoha, Kirigakure possessed the greatest number of bloodline and secret technique clans among the major villages. Even after the village leadership had ruined things once already, if they dug around in the forgotten corners long enough, they could still uncover a few geniuses.
Makoto felt that Minato's deliberately obvious matchup choices were probably intended to give Konoha's younger generation a few setbacks and temper their overly arrogant mindset.
At the same time, it also made the third-round finals more entertaining.
After all, it would be pretty boring if the entire tournament turned into a Konoha civil war.
The eleventh match: Hyūga Hinata vs. Omoi.
On Konoha's side, Kiba shouted excitedly, "Eh? A Kumogakure ninja? Hinata, our team's second victory is counting on you."
"That guy doesn't look as old as Atsui. He's about the same age as us. Just do what Neji did and you'll definitely beat him."
Shino quietly added, "I'm afraid it won't be that easy. And the reason is precisely because of Neji. The opponent will definitely be on guard now."
Hinata nervously replied, "I-I'll do my best."
Tokuma shot the two of them an annoyed glare.
"You two know perfectly well what your teammate's personality is like, yet you're still piling more pressure onto her. Are you trying to sabotage me on purpose?"
"Hinata, don't overthink things. Just show your true strength. Believe in yourself—you're very strong."
As her squad leader, he addressed her directly by name instead of calling her "sama."
Meanwhile, over on Kumogakure's side, Omoi suddenly felt like the lollipop in his mouth wasn't sweet anymore.
"Hey, hey, what's going on here? Konoha's definitely doing this on purpose, right? Why do they keep assigning Hyūga Clan opponents to us?"
"How about I just forfeit instead? You guys won't blame me, right?"
Karui snapped angrily, "Idiot! Your opponent's just a girl. If you dare forfeit, I'll kill you right now."
Atsui added, "Just pay attention to the direction of her strikes and don't make the same mistake I did. Go."
Soon enough, the two equally unconfident contestants stood facing each other.
The difference was that Hinata genuinely lacked confidence, while Omoi was simply pessimistic out of habit. Once the fight actually started, though, it wouldn't affect his performance at all.
Watching his opponent activate her Byakugan, one palm drawn to her waist and the other aimed toward him, Omoi felt goosebumps rise all over his body. He really did want to forfeit, but that would be way too embarrassing.
So he decided to fight anyway.
Drawing his longsword, he used the Body Flicker Technique to instantly close the distance.
Cloud-Style: Deceptive Slash!
The blade swept and slashed in an unpredictable motion, making it impossible to tell where the attack would land.
The moment Omoi attacked, Hinata stepped backward and countered with a strike of "Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm."
But her attack missed.
Omoi's Deceptive Slash really was meant for deception. In the middle of his high-speed movement, he suddenly withdrew his blade halfway through the attack and changed direction. At the same time, he secretly formed hand seals and created two shadow clones.
Shadow Clone Technique wasn't exclusive to Konoha. It was simply too useful. After so many years, the technique had long since spread across the shinobi world, and plenty of ninja knew how to use it.
Cloud-Style: Reverse Slash!
Omoi moved extremely fast. Together with his shadow clones, he launched another assault. As they approached Hinata, their speed suddenly increased again, and they switched positions with one another, making it impossible to tell where the attacks were coming from.
Or whether attacks were coming from everywhere at once.
Faced with this unconventional sword style, Hinata—who lacked real combat experience—had no idea how to respond.
So she simply used Rotation directly, blowing away every incoming attack.
Omoi's shadow clones exploded apart, while his real body was sent flying backward.
Not wanting to remain on the defensive, Hinata immediately launched a counterattack. She dashed toward Omoi just as he regained his footing and unleashed a rapid barrage of palm strikes.
Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms!
But she was too impatient.
The Eight Trigrams Palm relied on precise timing and surprise attacks. The idea was to wait until the opponent let their guard down, then suddenly burst forward at overwhelming speed and strike before they could react, completely dismantling any chance of resistance.
If the opening strikes failed to land, however, the technique became far less effective.
After all, opponents wouldn't just stand there like training dummies.
Omoi reacted quickly. Instead of retreating, he pressed forward and launched a relentless series of sword attacks.
He had a weapon.
Against an opponent fighting barehanded, that naturally gave him an advantage.
To avoid getting injured, Hinata was forced to turn her Eight Trigrams Palm into a defensive taijutsu style, using her palms to deflect the flat of the blade and neutralize the incoming slashes.
From beginning to end, she remained trapped on the defensive. Even when she tried to attack proactively, she still ended up reacting passively instead.
That was the consequence of lacking experience.
Omoi noticed it immediately.
And once he did, he mercilessly exploited it.
After finishing one round of attacks, Omoi continued pressing forward without pause. He once again launched a sudden forward slash, only to withdraw the blade midway through the attack. While rapidly shifting positions, he created two shadow clones.
Cloud-Style: Reverse Slash!
Everything looked exactly the same as before.
Hinata had no choice but to use Rotation again to repel the indistinguishable attacks.
But this time, she guessed wrong.
What Omoi used wasn't Reverse Slash.
It was "My Style: Reverse Haze Slash — Modified."
The moment Hinata began spinning with Rotation, Omoi created another shadow clone to remain in front while his real body leapt into the air.
By the time Hinata realized what had happened, it was already too late.
Omoi had perfectly timed his descent. He landed beside her, his blade resting against her neck.
This method could only work once.
It relied on using two identical attack patterns in succession to create conditioned thinking and deceive the opponent.
Against the Byakugan, he might not normally get even a single chance to pull it off.
But unfortunately for Hinata, he had already discovered her lack of combat experience.
No matter what, the winner was him.
Hayate announced, "Winner: Omoi."
The dark-skinned boy finally let out a long sigh of relief.
At least now, he could report back without problems.
Hinata felt utterly dejected. As she walked back, she kept her head lowered the entire time, feeling as though she had disappointed everyone's expectations.
As she passed Team 7, Naruto suddenly comforted her.
"Hinata, it's fine even if you lost. Omoi's tactics really were pretty good. Just remember this lesson. Next time, there's no way he'll be able to trick you again."
"I-I understand. Thank you, Naruto-kun."
The little girl immediately felt much better.
Even the thought of being scolded by her father when she got home no longer seemed so frightening.
Tokuma let out a sigh.
The future head of the main family had no problems when it came to talent.
But personality-wise... she really was troublesome.
Hopefully, one day, she would meet someone capable of changing her.
Meanwhile, Makoto realized that this wiser version of Naruto no longer possessed Talk no Jutsu.
Instead, he vaguely seemed to have the potential for Light Release.
At such a young age, he already understood how to warm people's hearts with his own light.
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