The Mental Realm

Most of their battle took place on a mental level, so it should have been completely uneventful to watch.

What they didn't know was that the arena's defensive barrier had been modified before the match. It could project the effects of their mental genjutsu directly onto the dome overhead.

This kind of barrier, which projected illusions onto a dome, was nothing new. It had already seen widespread use in wars between the ninja clans of various nations during the Warring States Period.

It was said that the Tsuchigumo Clan had developed these dome-projection barriers during the Warring States Period. In its early years, the clan had used the illusions projected across the domes to intimidate and absorb many smaller ninja clans.

But when faced with the Uzumaki Clan's more comprehensive Sealing Jutsu and vastly greater chakra reserves, the Tsuchigumo Clan's methods had completely lost their deterrent power. The clan had gradually been driven out of the Land of Fire's core resource network.

Of course, remnants of the Tsuchigumo Clan still existed. Aside from the scattered Tsuchigumo clan members living throughout the country, there were also quite a few villages that bore the Tsuchigumo name.

In fact, if one traced their lineage closely enough, most of the staff in the Sealing Squad and Barrier Team under Konoha's Defense Department could also be connected to the Tsuchigumo Clan by blood.

Sealing Jutsu was, in fact, a supernatural ability native to this planet. Before life on the planet's surface awakened chakra, people could only draw on Natural Energy. The Sealing Jutsu of that era was known as onmyōjutsu.

However, after Ninshu and chakra were widely spread by the Sage of Six Paths, onmyōjutsu was incorporated into the so-called ninja arts system and became one of its branches.

Naturally, the descendants of sealing clans with onmyōji bloodlines were also young seedlings with considerable talent for Natural Energy.

This wasn't something Touma had figured out himself. It came from Orochimaru's excavation of the History of the Ninja World and his logical deductions.

Ever since Touma had left the "Blood Contract" in Orochimaru's laboratory, he'd been able to read all of Orochimaru's research without restriction.

At first, Orochimaru's research had likely been based on the projects and theories left behind by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama. But after gradually discovering the joy of research, his interests had expanded beyond uncovering the potential of ninjutsu. He had begun studying knowledge on a deeper level.

The sheer scale of Orochimaru's research and the breadth of his knowledge made Touma realize that neither the manga nor the TV series in his previous life had shown even one ten-thousandth of Orochimaru's true abilities.

After all, with no obvious clues to go on, Orochimaru had still hypothesized that the formation of chakra within the human body wasn't simple. He believed there had to be a special organ that ordinary methods couldn't detect.

Only with this special organ could spiritual energy and physical energy be combined into chakra.

Orochimaru believed that if this organ couldn't be found by ordinary means, it was most likely located within the soul. That was why he had begun researching the soul so early.

But that was beside the point. Back on the arena dome, Mion and her senior, Mochi, had already reached the climax of their mental clash.

The two of them had fought hundreds of rounds using Taijutsu in the mental realm.

What surprised Touma, though, was that Mion hadn't used Konoha-style Taijutsu. Instead, she had used a style he'd specifically developed to complement Haruno Kizashi's ninja tools during his pre-match training.

Touma had borrowed concepts from the internal martial arts of his previous life, blending them with the fist techniques he remembered seeing and the Taijutsu experience he'd gained from converting entries. The result could be considered a style that combined the qualities of both Strong Fist and Gentle Fist.

Unlike Konoha-style Taijutsu, which favored lower-body movements, this style, called "Jidoryu: Fist Style Four," focused on the upper body.

By fully developing every joint in the arms and strengthening their hardness and resistance to impact, it turned the fingers, palms, fists, elbows, and shoulders of the upper body into weapons that could all be used to attack an opponent.

Touma had also drawn on Orochimaru's research into "Senju Super Strength" and "limb softening" to develop four special chakra force-generating modes called "Collapse," "Pierce," "Coil," and "Circle."

These could be paired perfectly with the four unconventional ninja tools Haruno Kizashi usually used—"hammer," "spear," "chain," and "sickle"—to form four combat templates for dealing with different opponents.

When Touma had trained Zhao, the trio of sisters—Mebuki, Mion, and Tsume—had watched from the sidelines. He hadn't hidden anything from them; when the three sisters asked questions, he'd even explained everything in detail.

What Touma hadn't expected was that Mebuki and Tsume already had a solid foundation in Taijutsu, so picking up a little of Jidoryu's essence had been enough for them. But Mion, who was usually unremarkable at Taijutsu, had managed to remember almost all of it.

Her movements were still noticeably rough in places, but the style was more than enough to deal with her senior Mochi's Konoha-style Taijutsu.

Compared with the two Strong Fist forms, Kurama Mion was better at the two Gentle Fist forms. Of the two, "Coil" was used to restrain an opponent's movements and dispel the force they sent her way, while "Circle" was used to defend against and reflect an opponent's techniques.

With the two working in tandem, Mochi, despite taking the initiative to attack, suffered repeated setbacks. Every senbon he fired from tricky angles was blocked by "Fist Style: Circle."

Worst of all, Mion had taken control of the battle's rhythm in the mental realm, and Mochi's stamina was rapidly dwindling.

The expenditure of energy in the mental realm was also directly reflected in the physical body. If his stamina was completely depleted, his body would start breaking down the chakra within him and converting it into physical energy to maintain a minimum level of stamina.

And once his chakra reserves fell noticeably below Mion's, no matter how high his resistance to genjutsu was, his five senses would still fall under her control!

So Mochi quickly detonated his mental clone in the mental realm to return to the real world. Then he swiftly tossed several smoke bombs between them, creating a thick cloud that covered half the arena.

Smoke bombs and flash bombs might rarely appear in the original story, but these cheap, simple-to-make utility ninja tools were actually consumed in considerable quantities by Konoha every year.

Take Manten-do, the largest ninja tool shop in the center of the village. In the first six months of the year alone, its sales of smoke bombs and flash bombs had exceeded 1.2 million ryo.

Both items were quite cheap at Manten-do. A pack of six smoke bombs and six flash bombs cost 60 ryo, only 10 ryo more than a bowl of tonkotsu ramen loaded with extra chashu.

And if you bought them together with a throwing-tool set, you could get another 10 ryo off, bringing the price down to exactly the same as a bowl of tonkotsu ramen.

Even without discounts, sales of 1.2 million ryo meant that Manten-do sold at least twenty thousand smoke bombs and flash bombs every month.

Fortunately, these two items could already be mass-produced industrially. If Manten-do still had to make them entirely by hand like in the Warring States Period, who knew how many skilled workers it would have had to hire to keep up with such a high output?

Touma thought Mion probably had no experience dealing with smoke-bomb tactics, and that Mochi could easily defeat her with a strategy that used smoke bombs alongside a perception technique based on keen observation.

But when the smoke finally cleared, the scene in the arena left even Touma a little stunned.

The one still standing in the arena wasn't Mochi. It was Kurama Mion, bent over with her hands on her knees as she gasped for breath. Mochi had already collapsed on the ground, his eyes rolling back as he lost consciousness completely!