Gradually, Hozuki Mitsuki felt his consciousness growing hazy. He wanted to form Hand Seals and use the Reverse Summoning Technique to escape, but he could no longer even sense where his hands were.
The main reason was that Touma, trying to better suppress his Hydrification Technique, had instinctively driven quite a few arcs of electricity from his Thunder Motion Fist into his body.
After the uncontrolled arcs entered his body, they wreaked havoc along his meridians and pressure points, and even disrupted his nervous system. He could feel that his arms were ruined.
Touma seized the chance to disarm him of his Twin Blades: Hiramekarei and swiftly placed a Contract Sealing on them.
Since Touma had read the original, he knew that the Hozuki Clan possessed a Summoning Scroll capable of summoning all seven Mist Village Ninja Blades.
Touma didn't want to pass up such a valuable research subject. After all, in the original, Chojuro, the Sixth, used Hiramekarei to perform a technique that gave chakra physical form.
It was a technique called Blood Mist Sword Style: Bone Extraction. By swinging Hiramekarei, its user could produce a barrage of solid bone needles and pin an opponent in place.
Touma was certain that Hiramekarei's ability to give chakra physical form came from either its special materials or some unique internal structure.
In fact, Touma's own black rod had similar abilities: Magaku Style, Arahabaki Form, and Tsumugari Form all relied on some of the rod's inherent properties.
However, the black rod wasn't just his weapon; it was also an heirloom from his adoptive father. He didn't dare take it apart to study it. Besides, the rod didn't have a single scratch on it, and Touma doubted it could be disassembled by ordinary means.
Only after getting his hands on the Twin Blades: Hiramekarei did Touma realize that the control center for the Reversal Barrier above his head was inside the sword.
Touma surmised that Hozuki Mitsuki had used Hiramekarei's ability to absorb and store chakra. Otherwise, the chakra reserves of a single adult Jonin wouldn't have been enough to completely reverse the barrier above the arena.
To end the barrier reversal, all he had to do was release the chakra stored inside Hiramekarei.
Touma grabbed one hilt of Hiramekarei in each hand. His chakra surged, and he tore the two blades apart, though they had been stuck together fast.
Recalling how Hozuki Mitsuki had used Hiramekarei moments earlier, Touma compressed chakra into his hands, crossed the blades, and slashed at the arena's domed ceiling.
Amplified by Hiramekarei, Touma's chakra extended the two slashes to dozens of meters in an instant, as if he were trying to cut open the sky.
Of course, he didn't cut open the sky. But Hiramekarei, having exhausted its stored chakra in an instant, did slice through the barrier ceiling.
The slashes inside combined with the atmospheric pressure Sarutobi Hiruzen controlled outside, creating a terrifying explosion in the sky above the arena.
Fortunately, the barrier had reverted, protecting the spectators outside from the blast. Otherwise, the exams would probably have ended right there.
The audience fell into a stunned silence after the violent explosion. Then they noticed Touma still standing in the arena, Twin Blades: Hiramekarei in hand. Realizing the match had a winner, they began cheering loudly.
Once the barrier had been restored, a large number of medical ninja and Anbu ninja rushed in through the entrance for the competitors in the rear area, and began checking Touma for injuries.
Fortunately, before Hozuki Mitsuki had revealed his identity, he had mostly used small-scale Water Release Ninjutsu, so he hadn't done much damage to Touma.
It was only after he showed his true appearance and summoned the Twin Blades: Hiramekarei that he managed to leave Touma with some serious cuts. Touma hadn't been able to accurately predict the trajectory of the blade.
Fortunately, Touma had prepared the Medical Ninjutsu Yin Healing Wound Destruction beneath his skin before entering the arena. By now, only faint white marks remained on his skin.
Seeing that Touma was all right, Sarutobi Hiruzen finally let out a sigh of relief.
He valued Touma not only because of his father, but also because he had recently learned that Orochimaru had privately taken Touma on as a younger brother.
And judging by how frequently Orochimaru had been sending messages through a one-way intelligence channel lately, he cared more about this younger brother than he did about his own teacher, the Hokage!
Worse still, one of the encrypted messages just delivered by a Ninja Hawk was from Orochimaru, asking about Kamikawa Ryuhei's identity.
After learning that his younger brother had been randomly matched against this Chunin, Orochimaru had used his authority as acting commander on the Kikyo City front to look into Kamikawa Ryuhei's background and movements.
There was nothing suspicious in his background. He was a thoroughly loyal Konoha ninja, and his father had undergone multiple identity checks when Konoha was founded.
What's more, the Kamikawa family had been an affiliated clan of the Senju Clan during the Warring States period. Kamikawa Ryuhei's grandfather had even served under Senju Butsuma!
His movements, though, were far less clear.
By cross-referencing the movements of Kamikawa Ryuhei's teammates, Orochimaru had discovered that Ryuhei had repeatedly disappeared near the Land of Hot Water over the past two weeks. Each time, he had been gone for roughly the same amount of time: about thirty minutes.
He had claimed to be buying local specialties from the Land of Hot Water, but according to Orochimaru's investigation, no one at the specialty shops on the nearby commercial street remembered seeing Kamikawa Ryuhei.
And two weeks ago was exactly when Cloud Village had publicly demanded compensation from Konoha for its wartime losses. It was also when Touma, Minato, and Kushina had been publicly exposed by Cloud Village!
After reading Orochimaru's detailed investigation report, Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't know how to respond.
If he told Orochimaru that the Intelligence Division and Anbu under his command hadn't detected a Hozuki Clan Jonin from Mist Village infiltrating Konoha, his prized student would surely question his judgment. That was unacceptable.
But if he simply told him that Touma was fine and had defeated a Hozuki Clan Jonin one-on-one despite the reversed barrier, his already fragile relationship with his student would grow even more distant. Then there'd probably be no chance of having him inherit the Hokage Position.
Yes, Sarutobi Hiruzen had always intended to groom Orochimaru for the role of Hokage. He had kept him in Kikyo City for five years, promoting him from quartermaster at the front to acting commander, all to cultivate his leadership and management skills.
Sarutobi Hiruzen wasn't a fool. He had foreseen the Second Shinobi World War long ago, so he had put Orochimaru in charge as acting commander of Kikyo City early on. He had even allowed him to appoint trusted subordinates, giving him complete control over the garrison before the war began.
Then, as long as Konoha won the war, Orochimaru would surely be the commander with the greatest military achievements. Sarutobi Hiruzen could then promote him to Hokage's assistant, and when the time came, his succession to the Hokage Position would follow naturally!
But in the original, a string of coincidences had set things off: first, a friend of Orochimaru's had died before his eyes; then a teammate had developed hemophobia; later, another teammate had given up on himself; and finally, his teacher had backed a puppet to cling to power.
It was only to be expected that Orochimaru's outlook would stop developing normally and swing from one extreme to another.
But now Touma was here, and he didn't want the timeline to continue down that path. There was still plenty of time before Sarutobi Hiruzen grew too old, enough for Touma to make plans for his sister, Orochihime!
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