Preliminaries Begin

The names on the electronic screen were still flashing.

Mori Takuma VS Tsurugi Misumi.

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

Beneath his Neo Sunglasses, the world was tinted with pale blue halos of chakra. Every spectator gave off a faint glow, like a sea of stars.

"Otogakure Ninja," he murmured to himself.

Tsurugi Misumi was already standing in the arena.

He eyed Takuma with the cool detachment of someone sizing up his prey.

"A substitute from Konoha." Misumi's voice came from beneath his mask, muffled. "A guy from a one-man squad can stand in this arena too? Konoha must really be out of capable ninja."

Takuma didn't respond. He just nudged his sunglasses up.

Through the lenses, he could clearly see the chakra flowing inside Misumi's body.

Chakra covered his entire network of pathways, but its distribution looked strange.

An ordinary person's chakra had natural breaks at the joints. The pathways inevitably had gaps where they crossed the joints between bones.

But there were no such breaks in Misumi's body. His chakra flowed evenly through every inch of his pathways, like water.

That meant he could bend his body in any direction.

The examiner, Gekko Hayate, stood between them and gave a couple of pale-faced coughs.

"Preliminaries, first round, third match: Mori Takuma versus Tsurugi Misumi." His voice was weak. "There are no rules. The match ends when one side gives up or can no longer fight. Is that clear?"

Takuma nodded.

Misumi chuckled in his throat.

"Begin!"

Takuma leaped back three steps. As he opened up some distance, three Shuriken flew out in a triangular formation.

He needed to find out Misumi's range.

Misumi's body twisted.

It was a movement no ordinary person could make.

His waist bent ninety degrees like a snake, leaving his entire upper body parallel to the ground. All three Shuriken skimmed past his clothes.

Then he slid along the ground in a bizarre posture, moving at astonishing speed. In an instant, he had caught up with the distance Takuma had put between them.

Takuma dodged to the side.

Misumi's fingertips grazed his collar, but his hand abruptly changed direction in midair.

His wrist turned outward a hundred and eighty degrees. His arm folded back as if it had no bones, reaching for the back of Takuma's neck again.

Spider-Sense warned him.

Takuma ducked sharply. Misumi's fingers brushed the hair at the back of his head.

He used the momentum to roll away, then dropped to one knee and looked back at Misumi.

His joints could turn in any direction.

In that last attack, Misumi had twisted both his wrist and elbow, turning his arm into a hooked shape that no normal person could manage.

Without Spider-Sense's warning, he would have been caught by the neck.

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

He lunged again.

His arms lashed in from both sides like whips, hands open as they reached for Takuma's shoulders.

Takuma leaned back to avoid them, but Misumi's arms crossed over each other midair. His wrists hooked together, forming a closed loop that shot straight for Takuma's neck.

He wanted to turn the entire fight into a strangling match.

Takuma made his decision in an instant. Instead of retreating again, he stepped forward and crashed into Misumi's chest.

His choice took everyone by surprise. Against an enemy whose every joint could move freely, charging into close range was practically suicide.

A flicker of surprise crossed Misumi's eyes, but he didn't hesitate. His arms clamped down quickly, and his whole body coiled around Takuma like a python.

Takuma's left arm was trapped.

An enormous constricting force squeezed him, like an iron band tightening around his body.

Misumi began wrapping himself around Takuma completely. His legs lifted off the ground as he prepared to lock down Takuma's lower body.

"Got you." Misumi's voice sounded beside Takuma's ear, cold with certainty. "My body has undergone Soft Body Modification. Every joint can move at any angle. Once I wrap around you, even the hardest bones will be crushed. Give up and spare yourself some pain."

Takuma didn't answer.

Beneath the Neo Sunglasses, Misumi's chakra flow was perfectly clear.

Even while Misumi had him completely wrapped up, the chakra remained evenly distributed, with no obvious weak spots.

But Takuma noticed one detail: the hand wrapped around his left arm had bent its wrist to the limit, and the chakra flow slowed slightly at that turn.

Whenever a joint reached its limit, it created a tiny resistance to the flow of chakra.

Misumi's Soft Body Modification had expanded his range of motion, but it hadn't erased this physical law.

The resistance at his joints' limits was still there. His range was simply far greater than an ordinary person's, making the points where chakra slowed harder to find.

Unable to free his trapped left arm, Takuma reached into his weapon pouch with his right hand and pulled out a Kunai.

He twisted his wrist, aiming the Kunai's point at the wrist wrapped around his left arm.

He aimed for the spot where the chakra flow slowed and drove the blade in hard.

The skin split, and the Kunai's tip pierced beneath it.

Misumi's arm went rigid at once.

The Kunai had struck exactly where the chakra flow slowed at the bend, like a stone lodged in the narrowest part of a stream.

The flow through the entire pathway immediately fell into disarray, and Misumi's grip loosened for an instant.

Takuma wrenched his left arm free.

Gripping the Kunai backward, he smashed its handle against Misumi's right elbow.

Through the sunglasses, he saw the elbow bent to its limit, the chakra flow slowing for a fraction of a second.

The handle struck the spot precisely.

Misumi's right arm jerked away as if electrocuted. The chakra flow throughout it was disrupted, leaving him unable to control its movement for a moment.

He grunted and tried to pull away to regroup, but Takuma gave him no chance.

A series of strikes followed.

Taijutsu had never been Takuma's strong suit when it came to speed, but he fought with steady precision.

Every blow landed on a point where the flow slowed: the bend of Misumi's left knee, the hollow of his right shoulder, the turn of his spine.

Takuma alternated between striking with the Kunai's point and its handle, each blow landing exactly where the chakra flow was slowest.

Misumi's movements began to warp.

The greatest strength of Soft Body Modification was the flexibility of the joints. But once the chakra flow was disrupted, that flexibility became a weakness.

The disorder in his pathways delayed his muscles' reactions, and his joints could no longer move precisely. His body became even less coordinated than an ordinary person's.

"You—" Misumi gritted his teeth and backed away. His right arm hung limply at his side. His left arm could still move, but after three blows to the shoulder, it trembled when he raised it. "How could you see through my—"

Takuma didn't answer.

The lenses of his sunglasses reflected the chaotic flow of chakra inside Misumi's body.

Misumi roared and stopped trying to wrap around him.

He swung his still-functional left arm, gripping a Kunai in his fist as he launched a direct thrust. Since his strangling tactic had been countered, he would end the fight in the simplest way.

Takuma sidestepped the thrust, caught Misumi's wrist with his left hand, and raised his own Kunai. He slammed the handle against the chakra-slowing point in Misumi's wrist.

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

Takuma twisted his arm with the momentum and swept his foot through, kicking the chakra-slowing point behind Misumi's knee.

Misumi dropped to one knee. He tried to struggle back up, but the Kunai's point was already at his throat.

Takuma looked down at him.

Misumi's eyes were wide, filled with disbelief.

"Your Soft Body Modification is strong," Takuma said calmly. "Your joints can move any way you want, you can wrap around someone quickly, and your constricting force is strong. But when you move your joints to their limits, your chakra flow slows at certain points. I just have to strike those spots to throw your chakra flow into disarray."

"You... can see chakra?"

"Something like that."

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

"...I give up."

Gekko Hayate used the Body Flicker Technique to appear between them and raised his hand.

"Winner—Mori Takuma!"

Cheers erupted from the stands.

Tenten was already waiting at the entrance to the passage.

She leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. When she saw him coming, her brow furrowed.

"Do you really have to get hit before you can win?"

Takuma stopped and spread his hands helplessly. "I need to get close to see his chakra flow clearly."

Takuma nudged his sunglasses up. "These sunglasses let me see chakra, but the closer I am, the clearer it gets. Those points where the flow slows are tiny. I was afraid I'd miss if I tried to hit them from farther away."