A Kumogakure shinobi charged at you like a beast—or more accurately, like a mudslide—using both hands and feet in a wild assault that came faster than lightning.
You immediately activated your Sharingan, but every attempt to unleash a basic ocular technique was torn apart by the violent chakra turbulence within your opponent's body.
You were a bit shocked. You hadn't expected this—at its peak, the Lightning Release Chakra Mode was actually damaging his internal organs and burning through his very life force, just like the Eight Gates technique, all to push beyond the body's natural limits!
"Yamero!"
A ROOT shinobi lunged toward the rampaging Kumogakure ninja in a panic. The sheer intensity of that chakra had already far exceeded the bounds of your training!
If left unchecked, the ROOT's carefully cultivated human-testing grounds would truly become a living hell.
Seeing this, your evaluation of the Kumogakure shinobi rose yet again—he was definitely someone to take seriously.
You pulled two modified kunai from your sleeve, one in a forward grip and the other in reverse.
Scarlet chakra flowed steadily into the kunai, heating them from the inside out until they glowed red-hot. You had to admit—biological materials fused with chakra far better than ordinary metals. But their structural integrity was poor. You suspected these kunai would be useless after this battle.
You moved in quickly, chakra reinforcing your footwork as you sped past the ROOT shinobi attempting to block the attacker.
Clang!
A heavy, metallic crash rang out as one of the kunai shattered into countless fragments, and you were knocked into the air by the brute force of the Kumogakure shinobi.
But the enemy paid a heavy price as well—his only undamaged hand was pierced clean through by the remaining kunai. The Lightning Release Chakra Mode failed to defend against your attack, which carried a Fire Release attribute. Instead, the clash of lightning and fire caused the arm to explode into a bloody mess!
And you weren't finished yet!
While still airborne, you grabbed the last few shuriken from your waist and launched them at your opponent. Once again, you used the same technique—two pale-blue chakra threads woven from dozens of strands tightened around his neck like a garrote.
Now handless, the Kumogakure shinobi couldn't break free. Even activating Lightning Release Chakra Mode again didn't help; he couldn't muscle his way out of chakra threads wrapped around an area without much muscle to begin with.
You yanked hard, pulling yourself toward him mid-air.
Seeing your relentless approach, he gathered all his Lightning chakra into his forehead and leapt upward, aiming to end it all with a lethal headbutt—the hardest strike he could muster.
You, in turn, heated your last kunai to a glowing red, tightly wrapping chakra threads around its outer surface to keep the fragile kunai from breaking on impact.
Die!
Flames and lightning—two of the most volatile forces in existence—collided at a single point. The resulting explosion blinded everyone in the entire training ground for a moment.
When their vision returned, you were already seated on the arena floor, rubbing your reddened wrist.
Below the platform, the upper half of the Kumogakure shinobi's body—charred pitch-black—stood frozen like a statue.
"He… is actually dead…"
"He was a formidable opponent!"
"I wonder how much longer he could've lasted?"
...
On the other side, Aburame Torune and Yamanaka Fu had already completed their challenges with ease. Watching you finish off the rampaging Kumogakure ninja, they gave a small nod of approval before casually selecting new opponents.
You stretched your wrist and turned to the ROOT shinobi still frozen on the stage.
"Let's continue."
The fifth match—another puppet.
But this time, the puppet was clearly far stronger than the last. Though its main body was still wooden, its joints and key mechanisms were reinforced with iron plating, completely eliminating any chance of you invading its systems via chakra threads.
But since you'd already been forced to reveal part of your true strength by the Kumogakure shinobi, you saw no reason to hold back.
You unleashed three consecutive fireballs, blasting apart many of the puppet's soaked mechanisms in fiery explosions.
Then, you activated your Sharingan and formed an unusual hand seal—controlling the lingering flames still burning, you created several fire serpents. These slithered around the puppet's iron-plated joints, melting them and locking the joints in place. The immobilized puppet was then dismantled, and you hurled its primary weapon—a longsword—off the platform.
...
Next came the sixth match.
Your opponent was a fully armored samurai who claimed to be the personal guard of a powerful noble family. He begged you to let him go, promising that he'd plead with his lord to pardon your crimes.
Judging from his ornate armor and the elegantly engraved tachi at his waist, he probably wasn't lying.
Among ordinary shinobi, no matter how powerful they are, nobles demand subservience. They bow to this strange, illogical social hierarchy.
But ROOT shinobi are different. In ROOT's eyes, there are only two kinds of people: the living and the dead. Valuable or worthless. The only real difference between a human and an animal is that an animal's worth is fixed—while a human's can vary wildly.
To someone so oblivious to the nature of ROOT, you simply tested and copied his swordsmanship, then slipped your blade through a gap in his armor, killing him with a single thrust. You stripped him of his equipment.
Unfortunately, the armor didn't fit your body type, and its weight would hinder your combat ability. You only kept the gauntlets and greaves, leaving the rest as loot.
...
The seventh battle arrived almost immediately.
This time it was just a leopard.
Fighting a beast was far easier than dealing with puppets that couldn't be genjutsu'd or cunning shinobi who adapted on the fly.
...
Your eighth opponent was a Sunagakure spy.
But because he was trained for espionage, not direct combat, he fell quickly. After you seized control of his puppet, all he could do was fire off a single, basic Wind Release: Gale Palm technique.
You dodged the attack by gaining distance, copied the jutsu using your Sharingan, and then brought him down with one clean slash.
...
Ninth match.
The penultimate challenger was a rogue bounty ninja—hunted for killing too many from Konohagakure and ultimately captured and interrogated, deemed useless, and handed over to ROOT for recycling.
These wild shinobi had no village, no formal training—just civilians born with chakra talent, who happened upon fallen ninja gear and jutsu, and taught themselves by chance.
They were the biggest headaches for the major villages—completely unpredictable, following no institutional logic or standard tactics. They were unstable elements hidden in every territory.
That also meant they had top-tier combat instincts and intellect.
Unfortunately, they also lacked foundational knowledge of the shinobi world. After the trauma of interrogation, your Sharingan rendered him utterly harmless.
...
The final match.
Your last opponent turned out to be a rhino—at first glance, it looked like just an ordinary wild beast.
Thankfully, you stayed cautious and probed it with your Sharingan, only to discover it was a wild summoning beast, captured by ROOT after losing its summoner.
Though tough-skinned and nearly impervious to slashes, charging around like a tank, it wasn't from any sacred summoning clan, nor from a legacy like the Ninja Cats. It was simply a lucky mutation.
With no master and limited battle intelligence, its jutsu repertoire was minimal.
You locked it down with ocular genjutsu, then roasted it with Fire Release to restore your stamina.
...
Having cleared all ten rounds, you sat atop the arena, savoring the taste of fresh rhino meat.
For the first time, victory had never tasted so good.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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