Surrendered...?
What? Hearing the words of Konoha's so-called strongest, the newly graduated Genin, who had still been studying Chiba's injuries from head to toe—especially the marks on his neck and face—froze slightly. Their thoughts were abruptly pulled away from the seemingly impossible sight before them and redirected to what he had just said.
Then, a single thought flashed through their minds.
This was something they had never expected. They had thought there would be an even more spectacular battle to come. After all, this was a fight involving the strongest. Though this strongest man looked rather battered now, battered did not mean unable to fight, much less that he could only surrender. Even after suffering such severe injuries, with both arms broken, he should still have been able to fight and win. That was what fit the image of the strongest.
What was with this surrender? They could not make sense of it!
At this moment, that was practically the only thought in the new Genin's minds.
He's bluffing!
He's bluffing!
He's bluffing!
He was probably... bluffing.
And at that moment, after discreetly sizing up the white-haired young man before them, Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai Yuhi, and Might Guy each had nearly identical thoughts pass through their minds.
There was no way Chiba had truly surrendered.
At least, there was no sign of surrender in Chiba's eyes. On the contrary, he seemed rather fired up.
He was clearly brimming with fighting spirit.
That was fairly unusual. Generally speaking, Chiba rarely showed fighting spirit when dealing with his own people. Most of the time, he would just go through the motions and call it enough. This was almost the first time he had appeared to take something so seriously.
"Then... shall we have a second round?"
At this point, the four of