Your victory drew a quiet gasp from some of the contestants below who had been busy picking out the weakest opponents they could find.
After all, even the top three contenders—known for their overwhelming strength—had either forced their puppets to shut down, cleverly tossed them out of bounds, or resorted to using explosive tags to destroy them.
You were the first to completely obliterate a puppet with nothing but your own power, no tricks, no tools.
At this stage of training, aside from the occasional crippled ninja they throw into the ring, these puppets—immune to pain—are some of the toughest opponents around.
You paid no attention to the cheers coming from the spectators.
Whether it's praise from the weak or their contempt, neither means anything to a true powerhouse.
You came here for one reason only—to grow stronger, to become truly strong.
You didn't rest long before stepping up to challenge your next opponent.
Soon, a Root ninja dragged out a massive white tiger from a cage—this one was even bulkier than the unfortunate beast that had been blown up earlier!
Facing this beast, you decided to use it as a chance to sharpen your close-combat skills. You resolved to conserve your chakra and rely on basic dōjutsu and taijutsu to play with it for a while.
Your strength was increasing too quickly. If you didn't take the time to develop a fighting style that suited you, you'd end up looking powerful on the surface but hollow within—just another guy who bullies the weak.
The moment the chains came loose, the white tiger roared and lunged at you. You instantly drew a kunai and, aided by your Sharingan's reflexes, slid beneath its belly, leaving a deep gash as you passed.
But the kunai was far too worn-out—it couldn't slice the tiger open on the spot.
Howling in pain, the beast whipped its tail at you in a vicious horizontal sweep. A hit like that would've left you as nothing more than a broken half-person!
You ducked just in time.
The tiger turned and raised its paw to crush your skull, but you thrust the broken kunai upward, stabbing into the descending paw. Using the momentum of its own strike, you flung yourself out of its attack range.
The tiger's raw power didn't hit you—instead, it forced the kunai all the way through its paw. It stared you down and let out a furious roar.
But it locked eyes with your Sharingan.
You activated a basic genjutsu—a simple hypnosis—and froze it in place. Then you pulled out another kunai to finish it off. But as you twisted the blade, it snapped inside the tiger's body.
As expected from worn-out tools—completely useless.
With no other choice, you scavenged on the spot. You yanked out two of the tiger's longest fangs and jammed them into the broken kunai handle as makeshift blades.
Then, the third battle began.
This time, your opponent was a mountain bandit skilled in throwing shuriken and wielding a short blade—unlucky for him, he ran into you.
You treated him as a chakra-recovery and ninja tool resupply point. After using him for a quick taijutsu warm-up, you snatched the half-full bag of tools from his belt.
Your fourth opponent finally posed a real challenge.
He was a Kumogakure shinobi who had clearly been through torture. Though tall and sturdy, thick chains pierced through both clavicles, and all the fingers on one hand had been sliced off, making him incapable of properly using ninjutsu.
Obviously, what you should be concerned about was his devastating leg strength—and Kumogakure's signature: the Lightning Release Chakra Mode!
Fire Style: Flame Bullets!
At the start of the fight, you took the initiative, spewing a barrage of flame bullets to try and force him into activating his Lightning Release Chakra Mode early.
Drag the fight on, and he'd close the distance. Once that happened, unless you revealed your true strength, you'd have zero chance of winning.
But this Cloud ninja wasn't some pushover. He infused Lightning Release into his legs and kicked the oncoming fireballs away one by one.
Then, with his lightning-charged legs driving him forward, he weaved between the blazing bullets with near-teleportation speed.
His remaining hand clenched into a lightning-coated fist and rocketed toward your forehead.
You narrowly dodged the blow—but his thick, powerful legs followed up instantly.
You scrambled to evade, trying to meet his gaze—but the difference in height and the lightning radiating from his body left you no room to breathe.
Fortunately, your Sharingan caught a crucial detail: every time he attacked, he coated the limb in Lightning Release, turning it hard as steel. But as soon as the attack ended, he'd strip the chakra away.
Clearly, the Lightning Release Chakra Mode was draining, and he was conserving energy wherever he could.
Even so, his relentless offense had already put you on the back foot.
If you didn't show some of your true power, you'd be overwhelmed in close combat.
Realizing this, you ducked under another savage kick, grabbed a handful of shuriken from your pouch, and wrapped chakra threads around them—then flung them toward his unprotected eyes.
Sensing danger, the Cloud ninja quickly shifted his lightning armor to cover his head. But in that moment, you yanked the chakra threads.
The shuriken twisted midair, scattering in all directions—then converged again, striking from every angle without leaving a single blind spot.
Now that's the Manipulated Shuriken Technique!
Even with his tough hide, the Cloud ninja had no choice but to fully activate Lightning Release Chakra Mode to block every single strike. But doing so drastically increased his chakra and stamina drain.
While he was busy defending, you retreated and quickly reeled in the chakra threads still connected to the shuriken.
Unless one had an extremely heightened sense for chakra, they wouldn't even notice the dozens—no, hundreds—of threads now wrapped tightly around him.
Each individual thread had the strength of iron wire. Alone, even without lightning armor, he could have torn through them easily.
But with hundreds acting at once?
Even he couldn't move.
Veins bulged across his body as he struggled, but it was no use.
With every thrash, new cuts opened. Blood soaked his body until he looked like a creature born from carnage.
At this point, his only option to escape was to activate Lightning Release Chakra Mode again—burning through massive amounts of chakra and stamina.
Boom!
Gritting his teeth, the Cloud ninja reactivated his chakra armor.
In an instant, the countless threads binding him snapped apart.
In a single step, he launched toward you like a bolt of living lightning!
To him, as a shinobi of Kumogakure, being captured by Konoha was a disgrace. Worse, he'd cracked under interrogation and spilled secrets—an unforgivable betrayal of Lord Raikage.
All these years, even though he knew he was just barely clinging to life, the one thing that kept him going was a single purpose:
Konoha had turned him into a whetstone for their rookies. If he could kill a promising newcomer from Konoha, that would be his final comfort in this pitiful life.
He had already worn down countless "blades" from Konoha over the years.
But today was the first time he'd met a fledgling with this level of strength.
And to kill you—Konoha's most promising "blade"—he was willing to stake everything.
Even if it meant shattering his own life...
He would make sure you broke first.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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