The waiting room erupted into another commotion.
It was the second time since the rules had been announced.
The reason was simple: Shimura Danzō's good looks, which weren't far behind Xingzhuo's, had caught the attention of plenty of girls.
But the sight of him being carried out like a dead dog had shattered the illusion. Many of the girls looked disappointed, as if their fantasies had just fallen apart.
The next match was now underway. One of the contestants was an old acquaintance of Xingzhuo's, his junior fellow student, Sarutobi Hiruzen. His opponent was a Uchiha boy who looked cocky.
Sarutobi Hiruzen vs. Uchiha Kaede.
The big screen was still showing the next match announcement: Please proceed to the staging area, next contestants. Senju Yuto vs. Nara Harumiko.
Xingzhuo frowned as he read the results.
Why did it have to be someone from the Nara Clan?
As far as he was concerned, Yuto was great in every way except that he wasn't very bright.
If he fell into the hands of the Nara Clan, would he really come out on top?
With that thought in mind, Xingzhuo saw Yuto jump excitedly to his feet, seemingly unaware of what it meant to be nervous, and hurry toward the staging area. He quickly called out a warning. "The Nara Clan are all clever. Besides their secret Shadow Imitation Technique, watch out so they don't trick you."
Senju Yuto clearly hadn't taken his warning to heart. "I know, Xingzhuo! I'll win in style!"
The black-haired Uchiha girl in the front row stood up and glanced around.
When she saw Yuto heading toward the staging area, she shot him a withering glare. Then she looked toward Xingzhuo, gave a snort, and sat back down.
Her behavior left Xingzhuo confused, but the fight on the electronic screen soon caught his attention.
Compared to half a year ago, Sarutobi Hiruzen had improved a lot.
At the very least, he'd quickly beaten a Uchiha Chunin with a single Tomoe.
He was still using the same moves as in their last fight, but the way he combined his techniques was much smoother.
After he won and left the arena, Yuto soon took his place.
His opponent was a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girl with a wild shock of hair.
On the field, Senju Yuto wore a confident smile.
The girl opposite him, Nara Harumiko, studied him intently, especially the color of his hair, as if it had given her something to think about.
When the referee called for the match to begin, Nara Harumiko suddenly formed hand seals and created a clone.
Rather than rushing toward Yuto, the clone watched its original with interest.
Its gaze seemed to ask, Can you handle the opponent in front of you?
The answer was no.
Nara Harumiko's Shadow Imitation Technique had barely touched Yuto and interrupted his hand seals when he broke free of it.
Just as Yuto was about to form hand seals and use Water Style, the girl across from him suddenly dispelled her clone and raised her hand to surrender.
Yuto had to interrupt his technique again. He was left frustrated, and his victory made little sense to him.
Xingzhuo stared blankly from the waiting room, then finally understood.
Whether Yuto was smart or not was beside the point.
The Shadow Imitation Technique had a clear weakness.
If the target had far more chakra than the caster, the technique was useless.
The girl from the Nara Clan was still young and probably knew no other ninjutsu besides her clan's secret technique. So when she realized her opponent possessed the Uzumaki Bloodline, her clone had reacted that way.
But Yuto didn't just possess the Uzumaki Bloodline. He also had the Sage Body he'd inherited from his father.
At only seven years old, he already had nearly a hundred thousand points of chakra.
That amount of chakra had absolutely carried him over the threshold of Kage Level.
How was Nara Harumiko supposed to win?
Realizing that his concern had gotten the better of him, Xingzhuo couldn't help but laugh at himself.
Since Yuto wasn't going to die young, what was he worrying about? Even if his body were cut in half, the Sage Body could heal him on its own, couldn't it?
On the screen, Yuto left the field, still bewildered by his victory. Soon, the next match announcement appeared: Hyuga Hoshishaku vs. Utatane Koharu.
Xingzhuo's mouth twitched at the result.
His junior fellow student, who was five years older than him and had started training a year earlier, was a handful.
Ever since he'd pinned down Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō and beaten them, Utatane Koharu seemed to have grown distant from their group. Instead, she'd gotten closer to Kagami Uchiha and Torifu Akimichi.
She also often lingered near the Hyuga Clan's grounds, trying to engineer chance meetings.
To be honest, at twelve or thirteen, Koharu was quite pretty.
Xingzhuo could vouch for her looks being every bit as good as Ino's in the original story.
The problem was, he had no interest in Koharu—and he was only seven!
Utatane Koharu was a real brute, going after even a seven-year-old child!
On top of that, the old, stubborn image of the pair from the original story had left him with no desire at all to develop a romantic relationship with Koharu.
So he'd always gone out of his way to avoid her.
And now they had to fight?
As Xingzhuo walked toward the staging area, he irritably considered his options.
Should he just beat her by force and make her understand that he was a cold, heartless man?
The match on the field soon ended, and Xingzhuo was called up.
Utatane Koharu came toward him, her face full of joy.
The stands around the field were packed with people from the village. There had to be more than a thousand of them, by a rough estimate.
Losing too badly in front of such a crowd would put him in a terrible mood, wouldn't it?
He gave up on the idea of dealing Koharu a crushing defeat and quickly settled on a new goal: beat her like a gentleman.
The Jonin referee on the field suddenly called out, "Begin!"
The next moment, Koharu, who had been smiling brightly, threw four shuriken and began forming hand seals.
Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!
Xingzhuo brushed away the incoming shuriken with his Ink Secret Technique. When the Fire Dragon Flame Bullet came roaring at him, he didn't take any chances. He pulled out a blank Sealing Card and absorbed the attack into it.
Seeing that her attack had failed, Utatane Koharu continued forming hand seals and released another ninjutsu:
Fire Style: Ash Pile Burning!
A huge mass of scorching ash billowed from her mouth and swept toward Xingzhuo.
It was a wide-area Fire Style technique, and Xingzhuo couldn't be sure that his Sealing Card could seal all the burning ash.
So, with little choice, he used the Unsealing Technique, aiming the Fire Dragon Flame Bullet he'd just sealed at Koharu and releasing it again.
To be clear, he wasn't going to use the Fire Dragon Flame Bullet to counter Ash Pile Burning. He planned to use the wind he'd sucked in while sealing the Fire Dragon Flame Bullet to blow all the oncoming Ash Pile Burning back at her.
Meanwhile, Utatane Koharu had kept her eyes on her opponent while spewing out the ash.
Having seen Xingzhuo's abilities before, she knew exactly how powerful his Unsealing Technique could be.
So she decisively stopped maintaining the Fire Style technique and ran to the side, dodging the two attacks she'd unleashed herself.
Only after she'd reached a safe distance did Koharu realize that her junior fellow student seemed to be going easy on her today. He was only counterattacking, not taking the initiative to attack.
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