The Preliminaries Begin

The names on the electronic screen continued to flicker.

Mori Takuma vs. Tsurugi Misumi.

Takuma loosened his shoulders and walked toward the center of the arena.

Under the lenses of his Neo sunglasses, the world appeared as a pale blue aura of Chakra. Every spectator radiated a faint glow, resembling a sea of stars.

Sound ninja, huh, he muttered to himself.

Tsurugi Misumi was already standing on the arena floor.

His gaze, fixed on Takuma, held the cold indifference of one surveying prey.

"A substitute from Konoha," Tsurugi Misumi's voice came from beneath his mask, muffled. "To think someone from a single-man squad could make it to this stage; it seems Konoha is truly scraping the bottom of the barrel."

Takuma didn't respond, merely pushing up his sunglasses.

Through the lenses, the flow of Chakra within Tsurugi Misumi was clearly visible.

Chakra permeated his entire meridian system, yet the distribution pattern was peculiar.

In a normal person, Chakra would have natural breaks at the joints, as the meridians inevitably created gaps where bones intersected.

But there were no such breaks in Tsurugi Misumi; his Chakra flowed like water, evenly coating every inch of his meridians.

This meant his body could bend in any direction.

The proctor, Gekko Hayate, stood between the two, coughing twice with a pale complexion.

"Third match of the first round of the preliminaries, Mori Takuma versus Tsurugi Misumi." His voice was listless. "There are no rules. The match continues until one side concedes or is rendered unable to fight. Is that understood?"

Takuma nodded in confirmation.

Tsurugi Misumi let out a laugh from his throat.

"Begin!"

Takuma leaped back three steps, creating distance while launching three Shuriken in a triangular formation.

He needed to gauge Tsurugi Misumi's attack range.

Tsurugi Misumi's body twisted.

It was a movement no normal human could achieve.

His waist bent at a ninety-degree angle like a snake, his entire upper body parallel to the ground, allowing all three Shuriken to graze past his clothes.

Immediately after, he slid across the ground in a bizarre posture, his speed astonishingly fast, instantly closing the distance Takuma had created.

Takuma dodged to the side.

Tsurugi Misumi's fingertips grazed his collar, but the hand suddenly shifted in mid-air.

The wrist rotated one hundred and eighty degrees, the arm folding back as if it had no bones, reaching once more for the back of Takuma's neck.

Spider-Sense warned him.

Takuma ducked abruptly, the five fingers brushing through the hair on the back of his head.

He used the momentum to roll away, dropping to one knee and looking back at Tsurugi Misumi.

Joints that could rotate at will.

In that last strike, Tsurugi Misumi had rotated his wrist and elbow simultaneously, turning his arm into a rotating hook that no normal person could form.

If not for the warning from his Spider-Sense, the back of his neck would have been seized.

"Nice reaction," Tsurugi Misumi said, slowly turning around. "But how many times can you dodge?"

He lunged again.

Both arms struck like whips from the left and right, palms open to clamp onto Takuma's shoulders.

Takuma leaned back to avoid them, but Tsurugi Misumi's arms crossed midway, wrists locking together to form a closed, circular snare that aimed directly for his neck.

This guy wants to turn the whole fight into a strangulation match.

Takuma made an instant decision. Instead of retreating, he stepped forward, crashing into Tsurugi Misumi's chest.

This choice caught everyone by surprise—facing a strangulation-type enemy whose joints could move at will, closing the distance voluntarily was practically suicide.

A flash of surprise crossed Tsurugi Misumi's eyes, but he didn't hesitate, his arms tightening rapidly as he coiled around Takuma like a python.

Takuma's left arm was locked.

A massive crushing force surged, as if he were being tightened by iron bands.

Tsurugi Misumi's body began to wrap around him completely, his legs leaving the ground as he prepared to lock down Takuma's lower body.

"Got you," Tsurugi Misumi's voice sounded in Takuma's ear, carrying a cold, certain tone. "My body has undergone soft-tissue modification; every joint can move at any angle. Once I have you wrapped up, even the hardest bones will be crushed. Give up and save yourself the pain."

Takuma didn't answer.

Under his Neo sunglasses, the flow of Tsurugi Misumi's Chakra was laid bare.

Even in this state of total entanglement, the Chakra remained evenly distributed, with no obvious weak points.

But Takuma noticed a detail—the hand Tsurugi Misumi used to lock his left arm had its wrist bent to the limit, and the Chakra flow at that pivot point had slowed slightly.

Any joint pushed to its limit would create minor resistance to the flow of Chakra.

Tsurugi Misumi's soft-tissue modification only expanded his range of motion; it didn't eliminate this physical law.

The resistance at the limit still existed; it was just that his limit was much wider than a normal person's, making the stagnation points harder to find.

Unable to pull his locked left arm free, Takuma reached into his ninja tool pouch with his right hand and pulled out a Kunai.

Takuma twisted his wrist, aiming the tip of the Kunai at the wrist Tsurugi Misumi had wrapped around his left arm.

He aimed for the point where the Chakra stagnated and drove it in hard.

Skin was pierced, and the tip of the Kunai entered the subcutaneous tissue.

Tsurugi Misumi's arm went rigid instantly.

The spot where the Kunai entered was exactly the pivot point where the Chakra flow was slowest, like dropping a stone into the narrowest part of a stream.

The flow through the entire meridian system was thrown into chaos, and the strangling force slackened for an instant.

Takuma's left arm jerked free from the restraint.

He gripped the Kunai in his right hand with an underhand grip and smashed the hilt into Tsurugi Misumi's right elbow.

Through his sunglasses, he saw the elbow joint bent to its limit, where the Chakra flow lagged by half a beat.

The hilt struck that point with precision.

Tsurugi Misumi's right arm snapped back as if electrocuted, the Chakra flow in the entire arm disrupted, rendering him unable to control his joint movements for the moment.

He let out a muffled grunt, attempting to pull back and readjust, but Takuma didn't give him the chance.

Continuous strikes.

Takuma's Taijutsu style had never been about speed, but about steady, calculated blows.

Every strike landed precisely on a stagnation point—the crook of the left knee, the hollow of the right shoulder, the pivot of the lumbar spine.

He alternated between the tip and the hilt of the Kunai, each strike catching the exact position where the Chakra flow was slowest.

Tsurugi Misumi's movements began to deform.

The greatest advantage of soft-tissue modification was joint flexibility, but once the Chakra flow was disrupted, that flexibility became a weakness.

The meridian chaos led to delayed muscle response, and the inability to precisely locate joints made his body even less coordinated than a normal person's.

"You—" Tsurugi Misumi gritted his teeth and retreated, his right arm hanging limply at his side. His left arm could still move, but after taking three hits to the shoulder hollow, it was visibly trembling as he raised it. "How could you possibly see through my—"

Takuma didn't answer.

The chaotic flow of Chakra within Tsurugi Misumi was reflected on the lenses of his sunglasses.

Tsurugi Misumi roared, no longer attempting to coil around him.

He swung his still-functional left arm, his five fingers gripping a Kunai as he launched a frontal thrust—since the strangulation tactic had been broken, he would end the fight in the most direct way possible.

Takuma dodged the direct thrust of the Kunai, his left hand clamping onto Tsurugi Misumi's wrist, while his right hand brought the Kunai up, the hilt smashing into the stagnation point of the wrist joint.

Tsurugi Misumi's left hand went numb instantly, and the Kunai flew from his grasp.

Takuma took the opportunity to twist his arm, sweeping his foot to kick the stagnation point behind the knee.

Tsurugi Misumi dropped to one knee, still trying to struggle to his feet, but the tip of the Kunai was already pressed against his throat.

Takuma looked down at him.

Tsurugi Misumi's eyes were wide, his pupils filled with disbelief.

"Your soft-tissue modification is strong," Takuma said, his voice calm. "Your joints can move at will, your entanglement is fast, and your strangulation force is sufficient. But when you move to your limits, there are stagnation points in your Chakra. As long as I hit those points, your Chakra flow becomes chaotic."

"You... can see Chakra?"

"Something like that."

Tsurugi Misumi was silent for two seconds, then let out a short, sharp laugh.

"...I concede."

Gekko Hayate appeared between the two in a flash, raising his hand.

"The winner—Mori Takuma!"

Cheers erupted from the spectator stands.

At the entrance to the tunnel, Tenten was already waiting.

She leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, her brow furrowed tightly as she watched him walk over.

"Do you really have to get beaten up just to win?"

Takuma stopped and spread his hands helplessly. "I need to be at close range to see his Chakra flow clearly."

Takuma pushed up his sunglasses. "These glasses can see Chakra, but the closer I am, the clearer it is. Those stagnation points are too subtle; if I stayed too far away, I was afraid I wouldn't hit them accurately."