Hiashi vs. Pakura

As the display screen above lit up,

photos of Pakura and Hyuga Hiashi were projected onto everyone's faces.

It had to be said, Uchiha Yato had a knack for picking photos. At the very least, he had not chosen the kind that looked terrible under the light. That was already a virtue.

Uchiha Yato would not miss any chance to harvest emotional points.

He called out to Hyuga Hiashi, "Go, Hiashi! Win this, and you'll have yourself a wife."

And that line was especially good at stirring things up.

Hyuga Himawari below instantly turned red with rage.

Who said only a young man's blush could conquer everything?

At that moment, Hyuga Himawari's flushed face said it all. He was extremely dissatisfied with Uchiha Yato's attitude.

Years ago, clan heads would often mention the outstanding juniors of their clans during their exchanges.

Hyuga Himawari had been quite pleased with himself then, since both his sons were exceptionally talented.

Uchiha Kei would often use this to needle him. No matter how outstanding your sons are, they still can't beat Uchiha Yato.

The two unconvinced men made a bet on the spot. In that match, Uchiha Yato won all by himself through all sorts of flashy ninjutsu, movement techniques, and a foul mouth.

Hyuga Himawari had been so furious that he stayed bedridden for three days. Then Uchiha Yato found out about it.

He loudly spread the news everywhere, saying Hyuga Himawari could not get it up.

Good grief, Hyuga Himawari instantly became the laughingstock among the clan heads. Whenever he saw Uchiha Yato, he wanted nothing more than to swallow him whole.

Back to the present.

Hyuga Himawari was still especially annoyed by Uchiha Yato. Stirring up trouble so openly was indeed something Uchiha Yato would do.

Chiyo's expression was not pleasant either. The match had not even begun, yet he had already decided Konoha would win?

Everyone was watching the match with their emotions stirred up. It had to be said, Uchiha Yato had earned quite a few emotional coins with this move.

Soon, after both sides entered the arena, the spar officially began.

Thanks to Uchiha Yato's earlier teasing, the two had little trash talk to exchange and began fighting immediately.

Pakura made the first move. She formed two enormous fireballs in her hands and charged forward.

Uchiha Yato thoughtfully explained, "This is Pakura's bloodline limit, Scorch Release."

"These fireballs are extremely dangerous. If they touch you, you could be vaporized into a dried corpse."

"The Hyuga Clan primarily uses taijutsu based on Gentle Fist. Hiashi's conditions for attacking will be extremely poor."

Chiyo was somewhat shocked that Uchiha Yato understood Pakura in such detail.

A ninja's intelligence could be said to be extremely important. Sometimes, insufficient intelligence could very well cost one their life.

Yet Uchiha Yato had revealed Pakura's basic abilities and attributes, and saying it so openly before such a large crowd carried a different meaning altogether.

Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura's expressions changed at once. The higher-ranking ninjas should all have known some of this information.

But they would not state it outright like Uchiha Yato had. Doing so was not only extremely rude, but also a leak of intelligence.

Uchiha Yato's actions were nothing more than a way to earn emotional coins and tell them something in an entirely new manner.

Intelligence came easily to him. They had better not entertain any thoughts they should not have.

Hiashi's disadvantage against Pakura immediately became apparent. Uchiha Yato was not the only one who knew that intelligence.

Hyuga Hiashi had learned some information about Pakura long ago, so he was also wary of those enormous fireballs.

This forced Hyuga Hiashi to use the throwing ninja tools usually used by genin—kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, and the like—to intercept her.

Enhanced by the Byakugan, these throwing tools had extremely high accuracy and disruptive power, causing Pakura quite a bit of trouble.

Growing somewhat impatient, Pakura had no choice but to use the advantage of her fireballs to engage in close combat.

And this close-range battle allowed Hiashi to find an opening while disrupting her.

With the Byakugan's abilities, as long as he could seal several vital acupoints and prevent his opponent from using chakra,

no matter how powerful Pakura's Scorch Release was, she would be unable to use it.

Then Uchiha Yato began messing around again.

Acting as commentator, Uchiha Yato said, "Our contestant Pakura seems very anxious and has already chosen to attack at close range."

"Contestant Hiashi is also gathering all his strength and preparing for close combat."

Uchiha Yato's commentary was still fairly normal at this point, but once the two in the arena became entangled, his wording began to go off the rails.

Uchiha Yato said, "Contestant Pakura opens with a left front kick, then follows with a right roundhouse kick."

"Our contestant Hiashi refuses to be outdone and immediately answers with a Lightning Five-Chain Whip."

There was nothing technically wrong with it, but Uchiha Yato's style of explanation still made the higher-ups see black.

Unable to stand it any longer, Uchiha Kei ran over to Yato's side and whispered in his ear, "Didn't you see the Third Hokage and the others' expressions?"

"Stop with these pointless little tricks. What kind of commentary even is this?"

Uchiha Yato said innocently, "I'm right, though. Isn't it just one punching while the other kicks? Isn't this explanation more vivid?"

"They're the ones fighting like this. You can't blame me. I've already done my best to liven up the atmosphere."

Leaving aside those outside the arena, the two people inside it were both on the verge of collapse.

At that moment, Tsunade thoughtfully ran over to Uchiha Yato and said, "You've been speaking into that microphone the whole time. Everything you just said was amplified."

That made Uchiha Yato awkward as well. He had merely been making a few private remarks, but now it had turned into public humiliation before the whole network.

But Uchiha Yato certainly could not admit it. He stubbornly forced out another line.

"They're the ones who fight badly. They can't pin the blame on me. I'm not taking this blame."

The entire venue fell silent. There was no helping it—Uchiha Yato was always finding new ways to pull something.

Chiyo looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi with some sympathy and said, "Konoha truly has it hard. Having such a talent must count as a blessing to one side."

Hiruzen Sarutobi replied with a forced smile, "He's the only one like this. Everyone else is fine, so please do not read too much into it."

This was probably the only thought shared by all the higher-ups at the moment.

When will this damned brat finally suffer a loss? He disgusts us every single day.

The battle in the arena had already begun to turn around.

Hiashi caught Pakura making two mistakes, causing her chakra to become somewhat unstable.

Though it was not enough to prevent her from using Scorch Release, two of the fireballs around her had already disappeared.

Seeing this, Hiashi did not give Pakura much chance to catch her breath and continued his fierce assault.

And honestly, just as Uchiha Yato had said, the Hyuga's Gentle Fist really did have a bit of the meaning Yato had described in his commentary.

Hyuga Himawari watching from above blushed somewhat. Watching one match hosted by Uchiha Yato and blushing twice was truly something else.

Just as Hyuga Hiashi was about to use his talk-no-jutsu to persuade Pakura to surrender, Pakura launched another fierce attack.

Though Hiashi did not understand, he showed respect and returned the attack without holding back for her sake.

In the end, just as Hiashi was about to persuade Pakura to give up,

Pakura said, "You lost."

Hiashi was somewhat stunned upon hearing that, but the heat above his head gave him the answer.

That was right. Pakura's relentless attacks had been meant to test the Byakugan's visual blind spots.

She did not have much intelligence on Hiashi, so she could only test it herself, risking injury and having her acupoints sealed.

The final result was good as well. She gathered the fireball formed from her remaining chakra directly above Hiashi's head.

In the end, she turned the tables against the odds.

The people outside the arena could see Pakura's actions quite clearly.

It was simple enough when put into words: she had merely timed it right.

She used thrown shuriken to block his vision, then pushed the chakra fireball into the air.

Finally, all she had to do was let it slowly descend onto Hiashi's head.

Chiyo and the Sand Shinobi representatives were all delighted. Winning the first match—of course they could not say they were unhappy.

Hiruzen Sarutobi and the other Konoha higher-ups, however, were somewhat dissatisfied.

Their plan had been simple: win all three matches and make the Sand Shinobi unable to lift their heads.

Uchiha Yato also readily announced, "Congratulations to contestant Pakura for winning."

Hiashi's portrait on the large screen immediately turned gray.

Meanwhile, Pakura's portrait was surrounded by flowers. If the photo had not been in color, you could have told him this was a funeral and he would have believed it.

Pakura's happy expression instantly disappeared, and she stared at Uchiha Yato with venomous resentment.

A classic iconic scene: from giggling to not giggling.