"Round four, Dosu versus Choji Akimichi."
Just as in the original, Dosu took Choji down in one move.
Hongshi: "Dosu, where are you putting that arm of yours!"
"Round five, Temari versus Tenten."
Just as in the original, Temari easily defeated Tenten.
Hongshi: "Temari, if it weren't for the fact that you'll be a Konoha resident someday, you wouldn't even make it through this round!"
"Round six, Shikamaru Nara versus Kin."
Just as in the original, after Shikamaru took control of Kin, a backbend knocked her unconscious on the spot.
Hongshi: "..."
Lord God: "Go on, keep talking!"
"Round seven, Shino Aburame versus Zaku."
Much like in the original, Shino Aburame plugged Zaku's hands with insects and blew both his hands clean off.
Hongshi: "A flamer..."
"Round eight, Naruto Uzumaki versus Sakura Haruno."
"∑(❍ฺд❍ฺlll) No no no no no no!"
"ԅ(✧_✧ԅ) Naruto!"
"Multi..." While Naruto was still hesitating over whether he should keep fighting, Sakura had already charged right up to him. "Nani!"
"You can't hesitate in a fight!"
"Cherry Blossom Impact! o(#￣▽￣)==O))￣0￣")o ."
Naruto's body turned into a streaking meteor and slammed into a corner of the arena, embedding half his body in it and knocking him unconscious on the spot.
"Yay!"
Up in the stands, Kakashi clutched his head. "What an idiot!"
The Third: "..."
Naruto was dragged over beside Hongshi, and the two lay face down on the floor together.
Naruto opened his eyes. "(͡°͜ʖ͡°)✧ Yo, you're pretending to be unconscious too?"
Hongshi: "(͡°͜ʖ͡°)✧ Yo, what a coincidence."
Nine-Tails: "Two idiots."
Lord God: "Nine-Tails couldn't be more right!"
"Round nine, Kankuro versus Kiba Inuzuka."
This time, things differed from the original. Kiba Inuzuka's keen nose detected the location of Kankuro's real body, and he kept a move in reserve throughout. After Akamaru used Man Beast Transformation to restrain the puppet clone, Kiba used Fang Over Fang on the real body and ended the fight.
Kiba Inuzuka won.
"Round ten, Gaara of the Sand Waterfall versus Neji Hyuga."
Kakashi: "Oh! Now this should be good."
Rock Lee: "Go, Neji! Take him down!"
Gaara and Neji stood facing each other. Gaara spoke first. "I heard you're the strongest of this bunch."
Neji: "I didn't expect to face you in my first match."
Gekko Hayate: "Cough, cough, cough. The match... cough, cough... begins."
The Third watched the two with some concern on his face. "Isn't this Gaara the One-Tail's jinchūriki? Neji's in trouble this time."
"Byakugan!"
Neji activated his Byakugan first, only to see a layer of chakra-filled sand covering Gaara's body. The gourd on his back also contained an enormous amount of chakra, making it impossible to see his body's pressure points. "This is going to be tricky."
Gaara gave a cold smile. "Sand is my absolute defense. How will your Gentle Fist deal with it?"
With that, sand began drifting out of the gourd behind Gaara and flying toward Neji.
Neji had no intention of going straight into hand-to-hand combat. Instead, he backed away, pulled out several shuriken, and threw them.
As expected, the sand easily blocked them all.
While Neji and Gaara fought, Yuhan moved to stand beside Shikamaru in the stands. "Shikamaru-kun, do you think Neji can win?"
Shikamaru shook his head. "Neji's strong, but this Gaara is a real pain. I can't think of what his weakness could be."
Yuhan shook his head. "Shikamaru-kun, actually, as I see it, Gaara has one very fatal weakness."
Shikamaru looked puzzled. "Oh?"
Yuhan smiled. "Water Release. Think about what would happen if sand came into contact with water."
Shikamaru was already very clever. "It'd get heavy! I see!"
Yuhan continued watching the two in the arena, who were still testing each other. "But even knowing that weakness, Neji has no way to exploit it."
Neji dodged a long-range sand attack, then shifted his footing and charged toward Gaara. "Gentle Fist: Air Strike!"
He thrust his right hand into empty air, sending out a blast of wind from his palm. Gaara seemingly didn't know how this move attacked, and the blast struck his chest.
"An air cannon?" The blow didn't do much damage to him; it merely pushed him back a few steps.
By then, Neji had charged right up to Gaara. He extended the fingers of his right hand and jabbed between Gaara's brows. "Gentle Fist: Pressure Point Strike!"
Kakashi asked Hoji Hyuga beside him, "Goshi-kun, if I remember correctly, that's the pressure point for Rest, isn't it?"
Goshi Hyuga nodded. As a member of the Hyuga Clan's Main Family, he naturally knew. "But Gaara's Sand Armor contains a great deal of chakra. Even I couldn't pierce it easily. If the chakra can't penetrate the Sand Armor and enter his body, Rest won't take effect."
Kakashi sank into thought. "Neji should know this won't do much, so why is he doing it?"
"Shhh!"
When Neji struck between Gaara's brows, his entire arm passed through his head. Gaara turned into a pile of sand, which slowly flowed around Neji's body. Then his real body appeared behind the Sand Clone, staring coldly at Neji.
With a shout, Neji carried through with the remaining force in his two fingers and successfully struck between the real Gaara's brows. But in his Byakugan's vision, the chakra at his fingertips was canceled out by the chakra in the Sand Armor, leaving only a slight crack.
"Nani!" Neji was startled. "The chakra in the Sand Armor canceled out my chakra. I can't get through!"
By then, the sand had completely enclosed Neji. Gaara smiled cruelly. "Konoha ninja amount to nothing more than this. It's over! Sand Binding Coffin!"
The sand completely enveloped Neji and began contracting, just as everyone thought he was about to lose.
"Gentle Fist: Full Body Strike!"
Bang! An explosion seemed to erupt inside the sand. It swelled and burst apart as Neji released chakra from pressure points all over his body, creating a blast that freed him.
"Then try this!" Neji pulled out a kunai and sliced open his left palm. Blood immediately flowed out, and he flung it onto Gaara's face.
Enduring the intense pain in his palm, Neji sneered. "I heard you go mad at the sight of blood."
Sure enough, after seeing the blood, Gaara began trembling, his whole body stirring restlessly. "Heh heh heh, that's right, but I want to see more!"
Orochimaru stood in an inconspicuous corner. "Trying to provoke Gaara with blood and make him lose his reason? You're playing with fire. Heh heh heh. It would be best if the One-Tail went berserk. Then we'd have a good show. Teacher, I wonder if you could withstand that."
"Die!"
Gaara roared, and all the sand flew toward Neji at tremendous speed.
"So fast!" The sand attacked so quickly that Neji couldn't dodge even with his Byakugan active. "I'm still not proficient at it, but I have no choice!"
"Hahaha, let it rain blood!"
"Eight Trigrams Palms: Heavenly Spin!"
Goshi Hyuga: "He even knows Rotation! That brat from the Branch Family. I'll have to report this to the clan head!"
Neji released large amounts of chakra from pressure points all over his body and spun rapidly, deflecting the sand. At the same time, the rapid rotation sent copious amounts of blood flowing from his left hand, staining the Rotation red.
After several seconds, the sand was scattered, but its resistance also brought Neji to a stop. A great deal of blood floated in the air.
Neji's face had gone pale from blood loss, but his assault still didn't stop. "Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
The air cannon blasted all the blood toward Gaara. By then, Gaara was on the verge of madness, and all the blood sprayed onto his face. "Ha... hahaha... blood! I want more blood!"
Crack. The Sand Armor clinging to Gaara's face turned blood-red as it absorbed the blood.
"Die!" Gaara flung up both hands, and the gourd behind him and the sand scattered across the floor turned into shells that shot toward Neji.
"Sand Shower! Die! Die! Die!"
"Now!" Neji seemed to have found his opening. Instead of retreating, he advanced, using his Byakugan's vision to choose the best route. Even so, he took quite a few hits, and some sand bullets even punched straight through his body. But at that cost, he also managed to reach Gaara.
"Gentle Fist: Pressure Point Strike: Rest!" He extended his right fingers and struck between Gaara's brows. This time, however, Gaara's blood-soaked Sand Armor had grown heavy, and the finger strike actually peeled it straight off, exposing his flesh.
Without the protection of the Sand Armor, the Gentle Fist chakra successfully entered his body.
"Urgh!" Gaara staggered back several steps. He was about to direct his sand into another attack when he discovered that the chakra inside him had gone completely still, impossible to mobilize. The sand scattered across the floor as he lost control of it, and the Sand Armor on his body began cracking and peeling off as loose sand.
"You bastard, what did you do to me!"
By now, Neji was covered in wounds, and blood began flowing from his body. "Without your armor... huff, huff, huff... you're... nothing!"
"Wh-what!"
"The final blow! Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms!"
"One palm, two palms, four palms! Pwah!"
But Neji spat out a mouthful of blood, his legs giving way as he nearly collapsed.
Seeing this from the stands, Goshi Hyuga sneered. "Heh heh heh, reached your limit?"
Neji still had his Byakugan active, so Goshi Hyuga's expression naturally came into his sight. Fire burned in his eyes.
"Don't look down on me!!! Eight palms! Sixteen palms! Thirty-two palms! The final blow-Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
"Pwah!" After taking the final air strike, Gaara slammed into the arena wall like a cannonball and slowly slumped down, falling right beside Hongshi and Naruto.
"No! Impossible!" Gaara's face was filled with shock, blood flowing from his mouth and nose. His Sand Armor had never come off in his entire life, let alone allowed him to be injured. But now his whole body was paralyzed and in excruciating pain. "Is... is this Konoha's power?"
Then he noticed Hongshi and Naruto lying nearby, their eyes wide open. "You..."
"⊙ω⊙ Hongshi, I think we've been found out."
"⊙ω⊙ It's fine. He's paralyzed all over and can't move."
So the two closed their eyes again.
Gaara felt his vision go black and passed out.
Baki: "This is bad! He's fallen asleep!"
Kankuro: "We're done for!"
Temari: "We have to leave right now!"
Yet none of them noticed that, at some point, a Four Symbols Seal formula had appeared on the back of Gaara's hand.
Shukaku: "Who set this Four Symbols Seal!"
Nine-Tails: "Your grandpa."
Shukaku: "You stinking fox! Was it you?!"
Hongshi: "Every cause has its effect, and your grandpa is me. (͡°͜ʖ͡°)✧"
Shukaku: "????"
"Round ten, Neji Hyuga wins."
Upon hearing this, Neji could no longer hold himself up. He collapsed to the floor, bleeding heavily, and stared at Goshi Hyuga with a triumphant smile. "Heh heh heh, I'm not as weak as Hinata!"
"Get the medical team!"
By the time Guy said that, Yuhan had already used the Body Flicker Technique to reach Neji's side. Green chakra lit up his hands. "We can't wait for the medical team. He's badly hurt. Tear his clothes open."
Guy tore open Neji's shirt, revealing at least ten through-and-through wounds. Although they had all missed the most vital areas, he was still severely injured.
"This won't work!" After treating him for a while, Yuhan found he couldn't stop the bleeding at all. He told Kakashi, "Kakashi-sensei, sorry for the trouble, but please wake Hongshi up. He should be able to treat these injuries."
Hongshi: "I don't want to get up. Hmph!"
"In that case... ox, hare, monkey!"
Hongshi: "ﾞ━=͟͟͞͞(Ŏ◊Ŏ‧̣̥̇) Fuck, are you planning to use Lightning Blade?!"
"Lightning Blade!"
A great mass of lightning gathered around Kakashi's hand as he prepared to walk toward the corner.
Just then, however, Hongshi stood up. He walked past Kakashi as though he hadn't seen him and came to Neji's side. "Brother-in-law-oh, no... Neji-kun! What happened to you! Neji, what a terrible death you've died!"
Yuhan: "Boss, if you keep acting, he really will die."
Hongshi: "Oh..."
With that, his right hand shone with an intense blue light, and he pressed it against Neji's body.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Neji really does have great skin!"
Ten seconds later.
The wounds on Neji's body had completely healed, but he remained unconscious.
Beside them, the Third's expression grew increasingly grave as he watched. "That color... could it be One's Own Life Reincarnation, the advanced form of the Mystical Palm Technique? Has this kid learned a forbidden technique from the Ninja Scroll too?"
One's Own Life Reincarnation was a ninjutsu that consumed the user's own life force to heal. Although its healing effect was powerful, its risks were too great, so it had been classified as a forbidden technique.
Hongshi: "No, no, no, this is just the Mystical Palm Technique. My chakra is so vast that it directly triggered a qualitative change, that's all. Ah, being too strong always leads to misunderstandings."
Seeing Hongshi's exquisite medical ninjutsu, Gekko Hayate couldn't help approaching him. "Hongshi, I never... cough, cough... thought... cough, cough, cough... your medical ninjutsu was... cough, cough, cough... this powerful."
Hongshi glanced at Gekko Hayate, who was practically coughing his lungs out. "Hmm... I'll treat you in a bit too."