Kamikawa Ryuhei

After Shibi dispersed the Hardening Technique covering his body several times, Kizashi Moku no longer dared to keep taking the hits head-on.

He quickly formed Hand Seals, then crouched and slammed both hands against the ground. In an instant, connected earthen walls rose across the arena.

This was the C-rank Earth Style: Earth Corridor, which could temporarily create a rammed-earth maze across a wide area!

But these fragile earthen walls couldn't slow down Shibi, the Insect Sage. Using the Natural Energy sensing granted by his Sage state, he locked onto Kizashi Moku's direction and charged straight toward him.

After smashing through more than a dozen earthen walls with his body, Kizashi Moku no longer dared to hold back. He was genuinely afraid the kid might lose control and kill him!

So when Shibi charged at him, Kizashi Moku quickly formed Hand Seals and used Earth Style: Earth Flow River followed by Earth Style: Earth Dome, hoping to slow Shibi down.

Unfortunately, despite their impressive appearance, these two Ninjutsu barely hindered Shibi at all.

The Senjutsu Chakra cloak around Shibi alone was enough to disperse the rushing mudslide, allowing him to keep his footing on solid ground.

And even though the Earth Dome was enormous, Shibi caught it steadily with one hand, despite its head start.

Kizashi Moku hurriedly changed tactics. He formed Hand Seals in succession and used Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet and Earth Spear in combination, trying to rapidly wear down Shibi's Chakra with ranged attacks.

However, he'd miscalculated.

Chakra depletion in Sage state followed a completely different logic from depletion in a normal state.

In a normal state, a ninja's Chakra was mainly limited by their stamina. When their stamina ran low, their Chakra reserves dwindled at the same time.

But in Sage Mode, the rate at which Senjutsu Chakra was depleted had almost nothing to do with stamina. It depended solely on the rate at which Natural Energy was absorbed.

And Shibi, in Insect Sage Mode, didn't need to absorb Natural Energy himself. He only had to keep the number of Sage Destruction Bugs inside him above a certain level!

In fact, this idea of using an external method to maintain Sage Mode hadn't come from Touma.

When training their successors, the Three Great Sage Lands all initially used external methods to help them sense Natural Energy and maintain its absorption.

Those with good talent could maintain the absorption of Natural Energy on their own once they adapted, while those with lesser talent couldn't do without outside assistance.

The clearest examples were Minato and Jiraiya. Minato could enter Sage Mode on his own, while Jiraiya needed help from the two sages Fukasaku and Shima of Mount Myoboku.

Orochimaru could also enter Ryūchi Cave's Snake Sage Mode on his own. However, he could only maintain it for a short time, and he didn't consider it very useful in battle, so he rarely used it.

Orochimaru was more interested in the sages' bodies. His laboratory held scales from three snake maidens and the White Snake Sage. He wanted to figure out how the sages had gained such powerful bodies by training in Sage Mode!

Those three minutes felt agonizingly long to Kizashi Moku. He had no idea how he managed to endure them. Only when he heard the bell from the stands did the weight hanging over his heart finally lift.

When Shibi heard the bell, he also hurriedly released Sage Mode and expelled the Sage Destruction Bugs inside him, which were on the verge of entering their withering stage.

Earlier, to emphasize how dangerous Natural Energy erosion was, Touma had gathered a bunch of small animals and demonstrated it in front of him. As a result, Shibi hadn't slept well for several days. He'd even been afraid to keep the jar containing the Sage Destruction Bugs near him.

Fortunately, the Sage Destruction Bugs were quite safe when they weren't absorbing Natural Energy. In fact, without Chakra being fed into them, they remained dormant, making it easier for the Aburame Clan to preserve them by other means.

Not long after the Sage Destruction Bugs left Shibi's body, they crumbled into a pile of dust and lost all their value.

Among the spectators, the person most interested in this Insect Sage wasn't the Third or any of the Aburame Clan ninjas. They already knew how powerful the Sage Destruction Bugs were and had prepared themselves for what they'd see.

The most interested person was Shimura Danzō, the leader of Root. The main reason was that Root already had an Aburame Clan ninja among its ranks.

That ninja was Aburame Ryoma, who had joined Root when it was first established. He was now the leader of Root's Third Squad.

Root's Third Squad handled missions such as infiltrating behind enemy lines and sabotage. The fact that Aburame Ryoma had risen to become its leader showed just how exceptionally talented he was.

However, Aburame Ryoma was an orphan from the Aburame Clan, and his relationship with the clan was neither good nor bad. Danzō knew there was almost no chance he could use Ryoma's connections to ask the Aburame Clan for these Sage Destruction Bugs.

So he wanted to approach Shibi, a younger member of the Aburame Clan, and see if Ryoma could somehow trick him into handing over the Sage Destruction Bugs.

Unfortunately, just as Ryoma was preparing to intercept Shibi outside the arena, Touma spotted him from a distance and used a Xiao-Destroying Bug to warn Shibi first. He told him to go watch the matches in the stands with Uncle Shishin and leave with him after his own match was over.

Touma had recognized Aburame Ryoma solely because the purple mark on his face was so conspicuous. It was a communication Cursed Seal used exclusively by Root operatives, and it only appeared on the faces of Root's mid- and upper-ranking members.

Touma had seen it in one of Orochimaru's research scrolls. He'd even commented that the Cursed Seal was of little practical use: aside from encrypting messages, its communication quality and range were both poor.

Orochimaru had even redesigned the Cursed Seal's structure and developed a more practical version that could also conceal the mark when it was exposed.

However, that advanced Cursed Seal technique was still a bit too complicated for Touma, who hadn't yet studied Sealing Jutsu in depth.

He figured he'd understand it once he had a chance to wander around the Security Department's Sealing Squad and Barrier Team office buildings and collect enough Sealing Jutsu traits.

Two matches separated Touma's match from Shibi's. The two contestants before him were a graduate from the Yamanaka Clan and a graduate from the Akimichi Clan.

The Akimichi Clan contestant was actually Torifu Akimichi's child. Despite his young age, he could already use the complete Multi-Size Technique, and he won the match with ease!

Touma had also gathered information about his opponent well in advance. According to the message Orochimaru had sent back, his opponent was a Chunin named Kamikawa Ryuhei, who served in the Sixth Action Squad of Kikyo City's Third Defensive Line.

Because he excelled at Water Release Ninjutsu, he'd been assigned to a front line closer to the Land of Rain. During his three years stationed there, he'd recorded fifty-two kills, more than half of them against Chunin-level opponents.

Of course, the public information about Kamikawa Ryuhei also revealed a weakness. All fifty-two of his kills had been made from a distance, so his Taijutsu was clearly a potential shortcoming.

So as soon as the match began, Touma quickly closed in and attacked, testing Kamikawa Ryuhei's Taijutsu. But to his surprise, despite Kamikawa Ryuhei's extremely thin-looking frame, he could unleash such terrifying strength!