A C-rank Fire Style: Flame Bullet technique—average by most standards, but in this heap of junk, it's undoubtedly a top-tier reward.
What's more, this jutsu closely resembles the Great Fireball Technique. Given your developed bloodline power and your innate skill with Fire Style, you manage to master it with just a single glance.
More importantly, this gives you a legitimate reason to use Fire Style in battle without raising suspicion!
Just then, some clueless fool steps over the corpse of the previous fighter. He sees the scroll in your hand and, knowing he's no match for you, immediately shouts at the top of his lungs.
In an instant, you become everyone's target.
"Well then, it's all yours."
Since you've already memorized the jutsu, you toss the scroll into the crowd. Seeing you voluntarily give it up, the others go wild and rush toward it, redirecting their attention away from you.
After all, in an environment this brutal, having a usable jutsu is far more valuable than a pile of scrap.
Watching the chaos erupt, you chuckle.
"Too many competitors..."
Silently, you slip to the edge of the battlefield and raise a finger. With your refined control over Fire Style transformation, a tiny flame flickers to life at your fingertip. You bring it close to your mouth.
Then—fwoosh—you blow hard.
A fireball, the size of a human head and burning at high heat, shoots into the frenzied crowd!
Boom!
The fireball explodes on impact, leaving behind scorched limbs and a few survivors writhing in agony.
Just then, a whistle pierces the air.
Everyone immediately freezes, halting all attacks. Even those with blood in their eyes and blades mid-swing are forced to stop and line up.
You glance around—only seven or eight people remain standing beside you. These are the ones who survived the culling of nearly thirty participants.
The cruelty of Root's selection process... it's nothing short of terrifying.
The closer one is to the top, the more brutal the battles become—unless you can claim one of the top three spots!
However, in the next phase—the so-called "Deathmatch Training"—those top three will face enemies even more formidable than the rest.
...
Deathmatch Rules:
Participants must fight designated practice targets prepared by Root within a single day and eliminate at least ten enemies to complete the training.
① The top three ranked participants must face two opponents simultaneously and must accept at least one challenge from another trainee.
② Ranks 4–30 will face specific opponents designated by Root. They may accept challenges from other trainees, but can also choose to refuse.
③ All other participants are free to choose whichever practice targets they feel confident about defeating.
Additionally, those who exceed the target number of kills will earn rewards after training—these may include new jutsu, advanced ninja tools, or even one-on-one guidance from a Root ninja with a code name. Occasionally, the top performer may be selected as a Root apprentice and sent out of the village on missions for real-world experience.
During the rules briefing, the so-called "practice targets" are revealed before your eyes.
Each is locked in a cage of varying size, sealed with restraints of different levels depending on their threat level. The most common targets are wild beasts, followed by death row convicts shipped in from across the Land of Fire, and everyday bandits and thieves.
Then come various types of puppets—useful for being repairable no matter how badly damaged.
More difficult targets follow: captured enemy village spies and shinobi who've been interrogated to the point of no intelligence value, rogue ninja, infamous bounty targets, and even wild summoned beasts too dangerous to tame.
Rumor has it that some of these creatures have seven legs, eight arms, multiple heads, and other freakish traits—true monsters in every sense of the word...
Of course, anyone who fails to eliminate ten targets will become a practice target themselves the next day.
...
Soon, the top three ranked participants step onto their own circular arenas, each ten meters in diameter. Their designated practice opponents are led up two at a time under the watchful eyes of Root operatives.
You activate your Sharingan, carefully observing the battles.
First up is the top-ranked contestant—someone from the Aburame clan. His opponents: an iron puppet remotely controlled by a Root ninja, and a one-armed wandering swordsman.
On the arena, the swordsman makes the first move. He raises his blade and charges in a flash, almost like a Body Flicker Technique, instantly closing the distance and swinging downward.
But the Aburame ninja remains calm. He draws a kunai and easily deflects the strike to the side, using the force to dodge and leap back while slipping off his glove.
The one-armed swordsman suddenly drops to his knees, groaning in agony. His only arm has turned a deep purple, and the color is spreading rapidly toward his head.
It won't be long before he's reduced to a pile of bones, devoured by kikaichū.
You recognize the toxin—one not typically used by standard kikaichū. That confirms it: this Aburame is most likely Aburame Torune, one of Danzo's future personal guards.
Naturally, the orange-haired Yamanaka standing nearby must be his partner—Yamanaka Fū.
Though the swordsman is dead, the iron puppet continues lumbering forward under Root control, each hand wielding a spinning buzzsaw, steadily narrowing Torune's space to move.
No matter how many kikaichū swarm and bite or release toxins, they can't penetrate the puppet's hardened metal armor.
But someone destined to become Danzo's guard isn't a pushover. It doesn't take long for Torune to discover the puppet's weaknesses—its sluggish movement and inability to attack targets behind it. He circles around and jams a kunai into the joint mechanism, disabling it.
Meanwhile, Yamanaka Fū uses the clan's signature Mind Body Switch Technique to quickly possess one opponent. Using the man's body, he deflects a hail of poison darts launched by a wooden puppet while closing in to attack it.
Though he fails to destroy the puppet outright, he does manage to knock it off the platform, successfully passing the first round.
You quickly deduce that Root has tailored each opponent to exploit your group's weaknesses.
Kikaichū are powerful against living targets, so Torune is given an iron puppet.
Mind Body Switch leaves the user's real body immobile, so Fū is matched with a ranged, agile wooden puppet.
Luckily, both of them are rising stars in their respective clans. These matches were merely warmups for them.
But the one who ranked third... wasn't so lucky.
He's a big guy—obviously a Strength-type fighter. He only reached third place because he benefited from Yamanaka Fū eliminating the original third-ranked candidate.
Lacking experience fighting multiple opponents, he's immediately swarmed by a wild wolf and a sword-wielding wooden puppet the moment he steps onto the platform.
He does manage to strangle the wolf to death with brute force, but not before the puppet slashes his back multiple times.
Then, for some reason, he tries to brawl with the puppet.
Though he has a slight edge in raw power, the puppet feels no pain, and its wooden frame is far too tough to break with bare hands.
In the end, he's forced to waste an Explosive Tag just to scrape through the first round... barely.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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