Kamikawa Ryuhei

Having had his Hardening Technique shattered by Shibi several times, Kizashi Moku no longer dared to take the hits head-on.

He quickly wove hand seals, then crouched down and slammed his palms heavily into the ground; in an instant, a series of interconnected earthen walls rose up across the arena floor.

This was the C-rank Earth Style: Earth Corridor, capable of temporarily creating a rammed-earth maze over a large area!

However, these fragile walls were completely unable to delay the speed of Shibi, an Insect Sage. Relying on the natural energy perception granted by his Sage state, he locked onto Kizashi Moku's position and charged straight through.

After smashing through over a dozen earthen walls with his bare body, Kizashi Moku dared not hold back any longer; he was genuinely afraid that the boy might accidentally kill him if he slipped up!

Therefore, as Shibi rushed toward him, Kizashi Moku rapidly wove seals, unleashing Earth Style: Earth Flow River and Earth Style: Earth Dome in quick succession, hoping to restrict Shibi's speed.

Regrettably, while these two ninjutsu appeared grand in scale, their ability to restrain Shibi was like trying to put out a forest fire with a cup of water.

The Sage chakra cloak on Shibi's body alone was enough to disperse the rushing mudslide, allowing him to plant his feet firmly on the solid ground beneath.

As for the massive Earth Dome, even with the head start it had gained, Shibi caught it steadily with just one hand.

Kizashi Moku hurriedly changed tactics, weaving seals in rapid succession to combine Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet and Earth Style: Earth Rising Spears, attempting to drain his opponent's chakra through long-range attacks.

However, he was slightly off in his calculations.

The chakra consumption logic for the Sage state is fundamentally different from that of a normal state.

In a normal state, chakra is primarily limited by the ninja's physical stamina; when stamina is depleted rapidly, the chakra pool is consumed alongside it.

But in Sage Mode, the consumption rate of Sage chakra has almost nothing to do with physical stamina; it depends solely on the absorption rate of natural energy.

As for Shibi in Insect Sage Mode, he didn't even need to actively absorb natural energy himself—he only needed to ensure the number of Sage Destruction Bugs within his body remained at a certain level!

In reality, this concept of using external means to maintain Sage Mode was not something Touma had proposed.

When the three great sage regions trained their successors, they all initially used external methods to assist the successors in sensing and maintaining the absorption of natural energy.

Successors with high aptitude could maintain natural energy absorption autonomously after adapting, while those with relatively lower aptitude remained dependent on external assistance.

The most obvious examples were Minato and Jiraiya; Minato could enter Sage Mode autonomously, while Jiraiya required the assistance of the two sages from Mount Myoboku, Fukasaku and Shima, to enter the state.

In fact, Orochimaru was also capable of entering the Snake Sage Mode of Ryūchi Cave autonomously, but he could only maintain it for a very short time. In his eyes, it lacked high tactical value, so he used it very rarely.

Orochimaru was more interested in the bodies of the sages; his laboratory contained scales from the three snake princesses and the White Snake Sage, and he wanted to explain exactly how the sages cultivated Sage Mode to master such formidable physical forms!

These three minutes felt incredibly long to Kizashi Moku; he didn't even know how he had endured them. When he finally heard the bell from the podium, the massive stone hanging in his heart finally fell.

Hearing the bell, Shibi hurriedly deactivated Sage Mode and expelled the Sage Destruction Bugs from his body before they could enter their decay cycle.

Previously, to emphasize the terrifying nature of natural energy erosion, Touma had demonstrated it with a bunch of small animals in front of him, which had caused Shibi to lose sleep for several days, to the point where he didn't even dare keep the bug jar containing the Sage Destruction Bugs near him.

Fortunately, the Sage Destruction Bugs were quite safe when they weren't absorbing natural energy; if no chakra was injected into them, they remained in a dormant state, making it easy for the Aburame clan to preserve them using other methods.

Not long after leaving Shibi's body, the Sage Destruction Bugs turned into a pile of dust, having completely lost their value.

Among the spectators outside the arena, the person most interested in this Insect Sage was neither the Third Hokage nor the various Aburame clan ninjas, as they had already learned of the power of the Sage Destruction Bugs and had prepared themselves mentally in advance.

The person most interested was none other than the Root leader, Shimura Danzō, primarily because there were already Aburame clan ninjas within Root.

This Aburame clan ninja was Aburame Ryoma, who had joined when Root was first established and was now the leader of Root's Third Division.

Root's Third Division was responsible for behind-enemy-lines infiltration and sabotage, and the fact that Aburame Ryoma had risen to become a division leader showed his extraordinary talent.

However, Aburame Ryoma was an orphan of the Aburame clan, and his relationship with the clan was neither good nor bad. Danzō also knew that trying to use his connection to demand these Sage Destruction Bugs from the Aburame clan was almost impossible.

Therefore, he wanted to start with Shibi, the young Aburame, to see if Ryoma might have a chance to trick the Sage Destruction Bugs out of his hands.

Unfortunately, just as Ryoma prepared to intercept Shibi outside the arena, Touma, who had spotted him from afar, used his Xiao-Destroying Bugs to notify Shibi in advance, telling him to go to the podium to watch the matches with Uncle Shishin and leave together after his own match concluded.

Touma was able to recognize Aburame Ryoma solely because the purple mark on his face was too conspicuous. This mark was a communication curse seal exclusively for internal Root personnel, appearing only on the faces of high-ranking Root members.

Touma had seen this in one of Orochimaru's research scrolls, and he had even commented that the utility of such a curse seal was quite poor; aside from encrypting communication information, both the communication quality and range were very poor.

Orochimaru had even reconstructed the curse seal model, developing a more practical version that could also actively hide the mark when exposed.

However, such cutting-edge sealing techniques were still a bit too complex for Touma, who hadn't yet fully studied the knowledge of sealing.

He estimated that once he found an opportunity to wander around the office buildings of the Security Department's Sealing Squad and Barrier Squad to pick up enough sealing technique entries, he would be able to understand them.

Touma's match was two bouts after Shibi's; the two people before him were a graduate from the Yamanaka clan and one from the Akimichi clan.

The one from the Akimichi clan was actually the child of Torifu Akimichi, and despite his young age, he was able to use the full Multi-Size Technique and easily win his match!

Touma had also collected intelligence on his opponent early on. According to information sent back by Orochimaru, his opponent was a Chunin named Kamikawa Ryuhei, a member of the Sixth Action Team of the Third Defense Line at Kikyo City.

Because he excelled in Water Style ninjutsu, he had been assigned to the front lines closer to the Land of Rain. During his three years stationed there, he had accumulated a record of fifty-two kills, more than half of which were Chunin-level opponents.

Of course, judging from public intelligence, Kamikawa Ryuhei was not without flaws; all fifty-two of his kills had been achieved using long-range methods, so it was clear that he likely had a weakness in taijutsu.

Therefore, at the start of the match, Touma quickly closed the distance to launch a fierce attack, testing the level of his taijutsu. However, to his surprise, Kamikawa Ryuhei's seemingly frail body was capable of erupting with such terrifying power!