Hey guys, here is the new chapter hope you will liked and read thru everything.
Big fights coming and it will be spicy
Don't forget to leave your power stones along with your comment if you have any ideas or opinions that could help me, as well as a review to continue showing your support.
Enjoy the chapter!
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The crowd, still shaken by the crushing conclusion of Kimimaro's match, barely had time to process the Sand's victory before the central arena display revealed the names of the next two competitors. A massive murmur rippled through the stands, spreading from the civilian seats all the way to the reserved boxes for the ambassadors and nobles of the Five Great Nations.
In the combat ring, the Jonin supervisor stepped to the center of the arena, raising his right hand to request silence before making the official announcement.
"Attention to all present!" the instructor's voice boomed through the structure's loudspeakers. "We will immediately begin the third match of the first round! Representing Konohagakure, Sasuke Uchiha! Against Daiku of Sunagakure! Will both participants please descend to the battlefield!"
From the north tunnel, Sasuke Uchiha advanced at a slow pace. His dark shirt billowed slightly in the warm desert breeze. There was no trace of arrogance on his face; his features were serious and focused. For Sasuke, this match was not merely another elimination round in the Chūnin Exams.
It was an opportunity to settle an outstanding debt—a direct rematch that had been burning inside him for weeks since that fateful encounter during the second phase, where Daiku's bloodline had left him on the brink of death, frozen in an agony of extreme dehydration before Naruto's desperate intervention saved his life.
From the opposite tunnel, Daiku emerged with the same unshakeable serenity that defined him, unlike his sister. The sheath of his katana rested on his left hip, secured by a leather belt. His grey and orange hair moved gently with the breeze while his eyes, calm yet analytical, locked onto the Uchiha's figure as both closed the distance.
When both came to a halt ten meters apart in the center, the tension between them grew so dense that even the spectators in the highest rows fell silent. The rivalry required no words; the air between them seemed to vibrate with a contained electrical and thermal charge ready to detonate.
Daiku silently observed Sasuke's stance. He noted the firmness of his footing and the alignment of his shoulders, ready for action.
'His presence is completely different from the Second Phase,' Daiku analyzed in the quiet of his mind, evaluating his opponent's composure. 'His stance is lower, his center of gravity is balanced, and he leaves no obvious openings. He has trained hard for this moment.'
Sasuke, for his part, clenched his jaw. His black eyes locked a sharp glare onto the pink eye of the Sand youth.
"I've been waiting for this moment since the desert," Sasuke declared, his voice deep and sharp, letting the coldness of his words resonate in the space dividing them. "Back then in the second phase, you had the upper hand because you caught me off guard. But today, things are going to be very different, Daiku. I'm taking back what happened."
Daiku's expression remained unchanged. He kept his right hand resting naturally on the hilt of his katana, watching without the slightest hint of emotional disturbance.
"If the outcome was already proven in the past, words won't alter reality," Daiku replied in a calm, distant voice. "Save your breath for the fight, Uchiha. Victory will speak for us."
The Jonin supervisor evaluated both contenders, gauging the lethal intent beginning to permeate the ring. Without losing a second, he raised his right arm and brought it down with a gust of air.
"Begin!"
The judge vanished in a flash using the Body Flicker Technique, taking position on the containment wall.
Before the echo of the command could fade, Sasuke reached into his rear tactical pouch. In a fluid, dazzling motion, he drew five heavy steel shuriken and launched them in a fan pattern toward Daiku. The projectiles whistled sharply through the air, spinning at lethal speed while tracing curved trajectories designed to cut off all lateral escape routes.
Daiku didn't take a single step back. With a swift, precise motion of his right hand, he half-drew his katana. The polished metal blade flashed as it intercepted the incoming weapons.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
In a fraction of a second, Daiku's sword deflected all five shuriken with a single sweeping arc, knocking the steel stars aside to embed themselves deep into the ground.
Without interrupting his arm's momentum, Daiku's gaze turned completely serious. He extended his right arm out to the side, keeping the katana horizontally aligned, and began raising it slowly in a perfect arc above his head from right to left.
As the blade's edge swept through the air, a visible thermal distortion began to generate along the steel. The surrounding air vibrated violently from the drastic rise in temperature, and the katana's metal began to glow a vivid, intense red, radiating waves of heat that blurred the view of his surroundings.
A murmur of awe swept through the crowd as they witnessed the display. Everyone in the colosseum knew exactly what that incandescent glow signified: Daiku had begun channeling his Scorch Style directly through the metal of his weapon, transforming his katana's edge into a conduit of concentrated heat capable of vaporizing matter upon contact.
Sasuke gritted his teeth as the heat radiation reached his position, recalling the searing pain of their first encounter. Without losing control, he reached behind his back with his left hand and retrieved a medium-sized sealing scroll. Unrolling the strip of paper in a swift motion, he pressed his palm against the written formula.
POOF!
In a small cloud of white smoke, a long, high-density steel sword with a dark leather grip and a straight blade appeared in his right hand. Without pause, Sasuke began weaving hand seals single-handedly at a dizzying speed.
"Chidori!"
A deafening screech, resembling the chatter of thousands of birds echoing in unison, resounded across the arena. Dense blue sparks and high-frequency lightning erupted from Sasuke's hand, instantly cloaking the straight blade of the sword. Electricity coursed through the metal from tip to hilt, extending the blade's reach with a thin layer of Lightning plasma vibrating at a destructive frequency.
At the same time, Sasuke's eyes shifted drastically. His black pupils dissolved into a brilliant red iris where three well-defined tomoe began spinning with calculated precision. The three-tomoe Sharingan was active.
Both swordsmen locked eyes for a millisecond through the heat haze, marking the tempo of the engagement.
SWOOSH!
They lunged toward the center of the ring simultaneously. The clash between Sasuke's Lightning-boosted speed and Daiku's fluid footwork closed the gap in the blink of an eye.
CLASH!
The initial impact between the Scorch Style katana and the Chidori-infused sword produced an explosion of blue sparks and orange heat flares that illuminated the front rows of the stadium. The sound of the collision was not the dull thud of metal against metal, but the furious crackle of high-frequency electricity attempting to disperse the extreme heat radiating from Daiku's blade.
Thanks to the Sharingan, Sasuke could predict the exact trajectory of Daiku's slashes milliseconds in advance. However, the margin for error was virtually zero.
Although the Chidori's electrical layer kept his sword's steel from instantly melting under the Scorch Style's heat, the temperature of Daiku's katana was so intense that its mere proximity scorched the fabric of his clothes and dried out the air he breathed.
Daiku thrust swiftly toward Sasuke's torso. The Uchiha dodged by leaning his body back, feeling the blade's radiant heat graze his neck, and immediately countered with an ascending slash aiming for Daiku's throat. The Sand ninja parried the attack with the hilt of his katana, spinning on his heel to throw a low kick that Sasuke blocked using his chakra-reinforced forearm.
The sword exchange continued at a frantic pace. Daiku's slashes didn't need to land directly to be dangerous; every movement of his katana unleashed small heatwaves that eroded Sasuke's endurance. However, the Uchiha utilized the visual perception of his three tomoe to maintain perfect balance, responding to every attack with high-precision electrical thrusts that forced Daiku to stay constantly on guard.
Neither managed to gain a decisive advantage in the clash of blades. After a lock of swords where both pressed with their full body weight, Daiku decided to alter the dynamic of the duel. Capitalizing on the recoil momentum, he leaped backward, gaining ten meters of separation from his opponent.
Upon touching down, Daiku gripped his katana's hilt with both hands, raising it above his head in a flawless vertical stance. The orange glow on the blade intensified dramatically as Scorch Style chakra began concentrating heavily at the tip of the sword.
Seeing that posture, Sasuke felt an icy chill run down his spine. His mind instantly flashed back weeks prior, reliving the sensory memory of searing steam enveloping his body and the agonizing sensation of his muscles losing all moisture within seconds.
The memory of near-death triggered a burst of rage and pure focus in the Uchiha's eyes. He shook his head violently to dispel the ghost of the past and grit his teeth, letting out a defiant smirk.
'It won't happen again...' Sasuke told himself. 'This time, I'm the one in control.'
Without breaking his guard, Sasuke's left hand flared once more with a concentrated discharge of blue Lightning chakra. However, rather than forming the amorphous mass of the standard Chidori, Sasuke altered its chakra nature through advanced shape transformation, molding the electricity into a fine, highly refined spear of plasma.
"Chidori Sharp Spear!"
A streak of blue and white lightning shot from Sasuke's left hand at a devastating speed, extending like a laser of pure energy directly toward Daiku's position.
Daiku, mid-channeling to release his Scorch Style wave, saw the plasma attack coming. He attempted to abort his stance and dodge sideways, but the extreme speed of the lightning beam left him no time to complete the evasion.
THUMP!
The lightning spear pierced straight through Daiku's right shoulder, drilling through flesh and tactical vest with the precision of a white-hot scalpel. The electrical surge accompanying the puncture immediately traveled through the nervous system of his arm, leaving his muscles completely paralyzed and causing his grip on his katana to slip for a moment.
Sasuke saw the effectiveness of his strategy and was unwilling to grant his rival a single second to recover. With a swift snap of his left arm, he fragmented the lightning spear into dozens of tiny electrical senbon that shot toward Daiku in a hail of high-frequency projectiles.
"Chidori Senbon!"
Daiku grit his teeth against the sharp pain and numbness in his right shoulder. Driven by supreme willpower, he used his left leg to launch himself sideways, dodging most of the lightning needles, which embedded themselves deep into the stone ground behind him, shattering it. Executing three consecutive rolls across the ground, Daiku established a safe twenty-meter gap between himself and the Uchiha to catch his breath.
Daiku rose slowly. He placed his left hand over his injured right shoulder, feeling the tissue cauterized by electricity and the temporary paralysis threatening to disable his dominant arm. Far from showing panic or frustration, a faint smile of acknowledgment formed at the corner of his lips.
'Incredible...' Daiku thought to himself, remembering his father's lessons. 'You were right, Dad. I got arrogant because of what happened in the desert. If I let a past victory get to my head and underestimate an opponent who has been training to surpass me, I'll pay a heavy price.'
Daiku's gaze transformed completely. The warmth vanished from his eyes, replaced by a cold, surgical, and absolute focus. He understood there was no more room for probing attacks or prolonged battles of attrition.
Daiku relaxed his shoulder stance. He let his arms drop naturally to his sides, closed his eyes for a moment, and consciously shifted his breathing pattern, filling his lungs with air.
"Seven Heavens Breathing: First Phase!"
A rush of air flooded Daiku's lungs. His body's chakra accelerated exponentially, instantly restoring blood flow to his right shoulder and neutralizing the electrical paralysis through muscle hyper-stimulation. His eyes snapped open, blazing with an intense light that reflected his amplified physical capabilities.
'Even with this speed, his three-tomoe Sharingan can anticipate my movements if I attack in a straight line,' Daiku analyzed internally, feeling power surge through his limbs. 'To completely invalidate the Uchiha's visual perception, I have to take my body to the next level.'
Without dropping the breathing technique, Daiku forced his lungs even deeper, expanding his capacity to further boost the technique's output.
"Seven Heavens Breathing: Second Phase!"
The shift was immediate and terrifying. A dense shroud of pink steam and chakra began emanating from Daiku's body, enveloping his figure in a translucent aura that made the ground beneath his feet vibrate. The atmospheric pressure around him surged, kicking up arena dust in a perfect circle.
Sasuke, sensing the drastic shift in his opponent's energy, tightened his grip on his sword. The relaxed stance and pink aura surrounding Daiku were unsettling, but his confidence in his three-tomoe Sharingan and the superiority of his Chidori held firm.
'It doesn't matter what kind of technique he uses,' Sasuke thought with determination, channeling a massive amount of Lightning chakra into his right hand. 'My eyes can see the chakra flow and trajectory of any movement. It's over.'
The Chidori in Sasuke's hand roared once more with devastating power, filling the colosseum with the thunderous sound of electrical discharges.
BOOM!
Sasuke propelled himself forward with the full strength of his legs, transforming into a blue streak of lightning that crossed the arena at incredible speed, targeting his loaded Lightning strike straight at Daiku's chest to finish the duel in a single hit.
Daiku stood motionless until Sasuke's Chidori-laden hand was mere centimeters from his face. At the exact moment the attack appeared to connect, Daiku's eyes opened wide, locking a sharp gaze directly onto the Uchiha's Sharingan.
SWOOSH!
Sasuke's hand passed straight through Daiku's body... but there was no impact against flesh or bone. The Sand ninja's body dissolved into thin air like an afterimage generated by the sheer speed of the Second Phase.
'What!? It's an afterimage!' Sasuke's mind entered absolute shock.
The three tomoe of the Sharingan spun frantically against the red backdrop of his eyes, trying to track the movement. Sasuke's sensory instincts picked up a lethal threat approaching rapidly from his left flank. Driven by pure survival instinct, Sasuke twisted his torso and brought up his steel sword to block the incoming attack.
SLICE!
Daiku's Scorch Style katana cut through the air at a physics-defying speed. Upon contact with Sasuke's blade, the extreme heat combined with the force of the Second Phase sliced through the Uchiha's steel sword like soft butter, splitting the blade in two, which clattered to the ground.
Sasuke's eyes widened in horror. Before he could retreat or attempt to channel Lightning chakra to defend himself, Daiku had already repositioned behind his back with footwork imperceptible to the human eye.
SWISH!
A swift slash from Daiku's katana carved a diagonal line across Sasuke's back, tearing his tunic and leaving a second-degree burn that made the Uchiha cry out in sudden agony.
Sasuke tried to turn around in desperation, preparing his right hand with his remaining Chidori for a blind final counterattack. However, the moment his eyes sought Daiku's figure, his Sharingan processed a vision of the immediate future: a terrifying mental image where any attempt to move resulted in his total destruction. The visual sensory overload and extreme stress prevented Sasuke's body from reacting in time.
Daiku gave no quarter. He stepped forward and delivered a direct frontal slash across Sasuke's chest.
The glowing blade infused with Scorch Style did not sever his torso, but the direct contact of the heatwave with the Uchiha's skin caused Sasuke to experience a sensation identical to being submerged in the center of hell itself.
"AAAAAGGGHHH!" Sasuke's scream of agony echoed throughout the stadium.
The skin on his chest began drying and dehydrating at an alarming speed under the Scorch Style's effect, losing all moisture. Sasuke, attempting to stay upright out of pure pride, tried to step back, but Daiku executed a low sweep with his katana that carved a precise cut into the muscle of his right leg.
The severe dehydration in his tissues, combined with the deep slash to his leg, caused Sasuke's leg to give out completely. The Uchiha collapsed to his knees on the stone floor, breathing in ragged, convulsive gasps.
Before he could attempt any further maneuver, Daiku's figure appeared beside him.
The incandescent edge of the Scorch Style katana rested with absolute firmness millimeters from the skin of Sasuke's neck. The heat emanating from the sword was so extreme that small droplets of blood welling from scratches on the Uchiha's neck evaporated instantly upon contact with the air, rising as thin wisps of white steam.
Sasuke remained motionless, feeling death brushing against his throat. The glow of his Sharingan flickered until it extinguished completely, leaving his black eyes filled with a mix of shock and defeat. The physical agony and the nightmare of dehydration forced him to close his eyes, awaiting the final blow.
However, no further pain came.
The silence that had gripped the colosseum was broken by the firm voice of the Jonin supervisor, who appeared beside both competitors, extending his hand in a stopping motion.
"Enough!" the judge declared loudly. "Participant Sasuke Uchiha is in no condition to continue fighting! The winner of the third match is... Daiku of Sunagakure!"
Upon hearing the official verdict, the tension in Sasuke's body dissolved instantly. The toll of pain, extreme chakra depletion, and the psychological weight of defeat shattered his final energy reserves. With eyes closed and faint breathing, his body gave out entirely, collapsing onto his side unconscious.
Daiku immediately deactivated the Seven Heavens Breathing: Second Phase. He exhaled a long gust of hot air as the pink aura surrounding his body fully dissipated. He sheathed his katana with a crisp, elegant motion, feeling the pain in his right shoulder return to a moderate ache as the chakra stimulation ceased.
The Jonin supervisor raised his arm toward Daiku as medical ninjas from both Konoha and Sunagakure rushed onto the field with a stretcher to treat Sasuke's burns and dehydration.
In the stands, the Sunagakure crowd erupted into a thunderous roar of applause and cheers, celebrating the Kazekage's son's victory in a top-tier duel.
In the VIP box, Daigo observed the outcome from his Kazekage throne. With a subtle nod and a look of proud fatherly and professional satisfaction, he watched his son remove his hand from his katana's hilt, recognizing the growth, tactical maturity, and adaptability Daiku had displayed on the battlefield.