Little Crybaby vs. Old Senior

The commotion caused by Nawaki's duel had not spread very far before it was suppressed by the Anbu stationed near the arena.

Among those spreading word of Nawaki's achievements, some were indeed villagers of Konoha who held him in high regard, but the majority were ill-intentioned ninjas from enemy nations who had infiltrated Konoha to sow discord before the war.

Inside the arena, the battles continued. Touma and Shibi were not particularly familiar with the next four fifth-year graduates; they were either classmates from Teacher Kato Haruna's Class B or Teacher Kobayashi Kaito's Class C!

The ninth contestant was Hizashi Hyuga, the younger brother of the young Hyuga clan head, who had just finished his match cleanly.

His performance was nothing extraordinary; he executed a complete set of Eight Trigrams Sixteen Palms and easily secured the victory.

The truth was that the genin Hizashi had been randomly matched against was simply subpar, appearing no different from the cannon-fodder genin who had just crawled out of the "Genin Training Camp" like Kenta.

Not only was his combat style disorganized, but he also lacked a trump card. There was no suspense in his duel against Hizashi; the fact that he managed to drag it out until his chakra was exhausted was a testament to his strong willpower.

This match left the spectators feeling impatient, leading many to leave their seats to stretch their limbs in preparation for the next bout.

The ninja in the next match was a classmate of Touma and Shibi, someone they knew very well: Kurama Mion.

Upon seeing this surname, many realized that this young girl was a genius from the Kurama clan, a family renowned for their genjutsu.

The Kekkei Genkai passed down through the Kurama clan allowed them to easily strip a target of their five senses through genjutsu and control their neural responses.

Furthermore, after mastering the nature transformation of Yin-style chakra, members of the Kurama clan could utilize the so-called "ultimate genjutsu," Genjutsu: True Reality.

This technique truly echoed the prophecy left by the Sage of Six Paths, the ancestor of the ninja world: "Yin and Yang create form from nothing, bestowing life upon the form." This statement directly revealed the function and essence of Yin-Yang Release.

Unfortunately, despite this phrase circulating in the ninja world for so long, only a handful of people had been able to grasp even a fraction of its meaning.

As an exceptional young member of the Kurama clan who did not suffer from the bloodline disease, Mion had naturally awakened the "Five Senses Manipulation" Kekkei Genkai.

However, this innate ability to control the five senses of others did not bring her convenience; instead, it left her constantly immersed in the overflowing emotions of those around her.

To combat these external emotions, Mion had no choice but to amplify and strengthen a specific emotion of her own to act as a barrier.

The emotion she chose was sorrow, which was why everyone could see two crimson, tear-stained eye sockets on her face from a distance.

Clearly, in preparation for the upcoming battle, Mion had chosen to start with a good, long cry to purge herself of all external emotions.

Otherwise, if these external emotions were to erupt during the fight, it would easily lead to her genjutsu spiraling out of control.

Mion was not afraid of the backlash from her own genjutsu; she was afraid that an uncontrolled genjutsu would directly interfere with reality, leading to the accidental death of her opponent.

This was a graduation exam, after all; if an examinee were to die from a genjutsu effect, it was uncertain whether the Konoha Hospital would have the means to save them!

Touma was familiar with her because she was close friends with Mebuki Kazamatsuri. Another girl who played with them was Inuzuka Tsume, from the Inuzuka clan—the mother of Inuzuka Kiba, one of the "Konoha 12" during the Shippuden era.

The three of them were not only inseparable, as if joined at the hip, but they had also established a small organization at school during their third year called the "Kunoichi Mutual Aid Group."

The establishment of this group was not for propaganda, but to provide an interest club where female ninjas could learn additional skills outside of their regular coursework.

For instance, Mebuki, who excelled at cooking, taught the girls baking;

Mion, who was skilled in the tea ceremony, taught them how to prepare matcha;

And Tsume, who was adept at raising ninja hounds, taught them the skill of formulating specialized feed for ninja beasts!

The teachers were happy to see this mutual aid group flourish, as many female ninjas might marry and focus on raising a family only a few years after graduation.

Without a specialized skill, even if they married into non-ninja families, they might struggle to make ends meet and see their marriages fall apart.

To a certain extent, this group gave female ninjas a second chance, allowing them to master a skill so they wouldn't have to face a life that felt like a dead end.

After all, not every ninja had the talent to advance to the level of Special Jonin or Elite Jonin. Whether male or female, those limited by their ninja aptitude desperately needed this second chance!

This opponent, Kurama Mion, was not as weak as the previous four, and Touma actually recognized him!

His name was Mitarashi Mochi, a senior who had just graduated last year when Touma and his friends were still in the fourth grade.

As the name suggests, "Mochi" means rice cake, and a very famous traditional Japanese dessert is "red bean paste rice cake," where the transliteration of red bean paste is "anko."

In other words, if there were no surprises, this senior who looked quite old for his age was likely the older brother of Mitarashi Anko, who also loved sweets during the Shippuden era.

However, this senior was only thirteen years old, and it would likely be quite some time before his younger sister, who shared his love for sweets, was born.

Although the Mitarashi clan did not have much of a reputation in the village, their name was quite significant during the Warring States period.

They passed down a special form of self-directed genjutsu within the clan, which allowed them to repeatedly cleanse their minds and greatly enhance their resistance to genjutsu.

It is said that when Senju Hashirama was a child, his father, Senju Butsuma, sent him to the Mitarashi clan to strengthen his resistance to genjutsu, a service for which Butsuma paid a significant amount of resources.

Later, when Senju Hashirama was able to repeatedly gain the upper hand in his battles against Uchiha Madara, it was precisely because of this proud resistance to genjutsu!

Of course, the true core heritage of the Mitarashi clan was a sensory technique based on powerful mental strength, though Touma did not know its specific effects.

Even when Shibi asked the elders of his clan, he did not receive any definitive information; he only knew that the performance of the Mitarashi clan's sensory technique was somewhat similar to the insight of the Sharingan.

While they could not use this insight to copy an opponent's taijutsu or ninjutsu one-to-one, it was enough for a Mitarashi ninja to perceive the gaps in an opponent's moves, seize them, and strike at their weaknesses.

Therefore, ninjas of the Mitarashi clan often used small, hard-to-detect ninja tools like flying needles for long-range attacks.

The most lethal part was that the Mitarashi clan's needle-throwing technique was so subtle that they could pierce a target's body and seal their pressure points without the opponent even noticing.

Consequently, members of the Mitarashi clan were often master assassins, and the names of their most talented members were frequently found on the Anbu recruitment list!

Overall, Senior Mitarashi Mochi's methods were quite a counter to the little crybaby Kurama Mion.

Watching Mion with her brows tightly locked, Touma couldn't help but feel a sense of worry, wondering if this little crybaby had managed to gather enough intelligence on her opponent before the duel!