Could he be a Jinchūriki?

Only then did the spectators gradually recover from their terror, having clung to one another, cowered motionless in their seats, or covered their heads with their hands. All of them turned fearful eyes toward the boy slowly descending into the Arena.

At that moment, several "spectators" in the Commoner Spectator Area whose appearances differed somewhat from the locals were already drenched in sweat.

They were spies from Kumogakure, Iwagakure, Sunagakure, and Kirigakure. Faced with the unbelievable sight before them, they swallowed hard.

H-how was this possible? How could a child possess such tremendous power?

The Iwagakure Spy's heart pounded wildly as he struggled to work out the reason. Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind!

Could he be the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki!?

That had to be it! Mito Uzumaki hadn't appeared at this tournament!

Judging by this boy's performance, could he be the next Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Mito Uzumaki's successor?

And seeing how effortlessly he handled everything, could he already have perfect control over the Nine-Tails' power?

The spy from Kumogakure reached a similar conclusion. He glanced around, then quietly left the Spectator Area. He had to write a letter and send this vital intelligence back to his village as quickly as possible!

"Th-this... this is a second-year student?"

Jiraiya's mouth had been hanging open the entire time. What had he just witnessed?

This was outrageous. The boy had taken on over eighty opponents without losing ground—or rather, he had utterly overwhelmed them in a one-sided thrashing!

And then there was that enormous, wide-ranging ninjutsu that seemed capable of destroying heaven and earth!

He admitted the kid was a genius, but wasn't this a little too powerful?

Now Jiraiya finally understood where Tsunade's inexplicable confidence had come from. Even he would struggle to figure out how to approach a fight against this unfathomable boy.

And what was the deal with those eyes?

Since when had such a terrifying dōjutsu kekkei genkai appeared in the Shinobi World?

Wait!

Jiraiya suddenly remembered something crucial: the Child of Prophecy the Great Toad Sage had spoken of.

With eyes no one had ever seen before and such extraordinary strength at his age, who else could be the Child of Prophecy!?

Judging by how he had voluntarily used the Mystical Palm Technique to heal his opponents, he was undoubtedly a kindhearted child.

Although unleashing ninjutsu on such an enormous scale had been a little extreme, everyone had been young once, hadn't they?

If Jiraiya had possessed that kind of strength at his age, he would have been even more arrogant than Eiji!

Considering that Eiji had only now been willing to show his true abilities, Jiraiya felt the boy could go straight into a monastery and become a monk. His restraint was truly remarkable.

That put Jiraiya at ease. It would have been trouble if the Child of Prophecy had turned out to be a bad kid.

He planned to find a suitable opportunity to approach Eiji. If possible, he hoped to take him to Mount Myōboku to meet the Toad Sage and confirm whether he was the child from the prophecy.

But there was one problem he couldn't figure out. Now that Eiji had become Tsunade's disciple, how was he supposed to convince her to let Eiji study under him instead?

He shot Tsunade a sidelong glance. If he told her that Eiji was the Child of Prophecy and asked her to give him up...

Jiraiya shuddered. He felt he might lose his life if he actually said that.

"Damn it!!!"

Inside the Arena, Uchiha Yo had collapsed into a sitting position. Seething with frustration, he clenched his fist and slammed it into the ground.

"Damn iiiit!"

He struck again, his knuckles turning red and swollen from colliding with the hard earth.

He couldn't accept his own weakness.

It would have been one thing if he had fallen in defeat. But when he witnessed Eiji unleash that indiscriminate attack of such overwhelming power, his legs had begun shaking, leaving him unable to stand as he collapsed to the ground.

To him, this was the ultimate humiliation!

Having lost even my dignity, what right do I have to call myself a proud Uchiha?

But I couldn't even fight back. How could I possibly withstand an attack like that?

They weren't even on the same plane.

A genius of the Uchiha Clan?

What a joke. Ever since I was little, I've been taught that the Uchiha were the greatest clan in the Shinobi World. And even among the Uchiha Clan, I've been called a genius. Yet in front of him, I was nothing but an ant.

Frustration and humiliation kept building in his chest, almost suffocating him!

Am I really suited to becoming a ninja?

Come to think of it, when I was little, I dreamed of becoming a pastry chef. But once my talent for ninjutsu was discovered, I put that dream behind me.

Uchiha Yo looked down at his hands and flexed his fingers.

He could feel the many emotions coming from the Uchiha Clan in the Grandstand. Their gazes held a mixture of regret, resentment, frustration, and more.

Now that I've lost my pride, what do I have left?

Forget it. It's not too late to pick up my dream again. At worst, I'll change careers and become a pastry chef!

"Cursed Technique Lapse?"

Orochimaru lowered his head in thought.

Why would he give such terrifying ninjutsu that strange name?

Dōjutsu kekkei genkai truly were wondrous powers. First came the Sharingan, which could read an enemy's intentions, and the Byakugan, which could see through the human body. Now an even stranger pair of eyes had appeared.

"Tsunade, do those eyes have a name yet?"

"The higher-ups haven't settled on a name yet, but the kid named his own eyes the Six Eyes. I'd like to respect his wishes," Tsunade said frankly.

"I see. The Six Eyes."

Based on Ryuuzaki Eiji's earlier performance, he possessed several abilities: preventing outside objects from approaching him, instantly drawing people toward him, flying, seeing meridians and acupoints, and copying ninjutsu.

Were those abilities independent, then, or was there some connection between them?

Orochimaru pondered in silence, then broke into a delighted smile.

So that was it. This was truly fascinating!

Orochimaru was beside himself with delight. Coming here today had definitely been the right decision.

For now, he set aside the abilities to block outside objects, see through the body's meridians, and copy ninjutsu.

Attraction and flight ought to be connected. After all, if Eiji pulled himself into the air, that would become flight.

Then there was the enormous area-of-effect ninjutsu he had unleashed at the end. That, too, was an attack using gravity, only a somewhat more brutal one.

Since he already had gravity, could that defensive ninjutsu he called Limitless be repulsion?

Orochimaru felt that wasn't quite right. Otherwise, Eiji wouldn't have given the ninjutsu that name.

Limitless...

What extraordinary talent. No wonder Danzo was so desperate to get those eyes.

In truth, Orochimaru hadn't left his laboratory because he was bored. It was because Danzo had been sending people to contact him frequently of late.

Danzo wanted him to seize Ryuuzaki Eiji's eyes, offering vast sums of research funding in return.

Orochimaru hadn't immediately agreed. After all, Tsunade was an old friend, and he had no desire to provoke her unless it was necessary.

Still, he had become intensely curious about Eiji's eyes. What sort of power had stirred such desire in Danzo that he was willing to expose his ambitions to Orochimaru to obtain them?

Although obtaining Eiji's eyes was unrealistic, and Orochimaru had no wish to go to such extremes, acquiring a Genetic Sample from Ryuuzaki Eiji ought to be possible.

Simply asking for one would be rather rude, though. As a personal interest, he was collecting Kusanagi Swords from across the Shinobi World. If he could trade one for Eiji's genetic material, Orochimaru wouldn't mind giving away a sword as a favor.

After all, building a good relationship early with a genius like Ryuuzaki Eiji could never hurt. As for Shimura Danzō's proposal?

Orochimaru scoffed at it. In his eyes, it was a deal that would leave him losing out in every possible way.

Hadn't losing his position as Hokage Advisor over the Six Eyes been enough for Danzo? Now he wanted to drag me down with him, too? Did I, Orochimaru, look like an idiot like Jiraiya?