Hayate announces the next contestant, and it was none other than Menma Uzumaki Namikaze, the child of Minato and Kushina, and his opponent is Omoi from the Village Hidden in the Clouds.
"Go, Menma! You've got this, sweety," Kushina cheers with her voice resounding throughout the underground area while Menma waves his hand.
Omoi's teammate also cheers at him, but he ignores it as he focuses on the match.
The moment they were at the arena and faced each other, imaginary sparks suddenly appeared between the two of them. Their eyes were currently burning with battle intent, and it was clear to everyone watching that the two wouldn't back down easily.
"This fight might be going to be more intense than the previous one," Kakashi muttered.
"Indeed." Might Guy and other Leaf Jonin nod their heads in agreement.
They heard about Menma, Mito, and Yayoi's skills for a long time since Minato and Kushina didn't hide the fact that they focused their attention on training the trio to make them stronger as fast as possible.
In fact, no Jonins are surprised to find out that Kushina returned from retirement and became the Jonin sensei of the three.
In Jonin's mind, it was a logical decision since the three are prepared to handle the power of the Nine Tails Fox that is sealed within the three of them.
In the history of the Ninja World, aside from Madara Uchiha, no one has been able to control the Nine-Tails Fox and use its incredible power.
The Nine-Tails Fox, the strongest Tailed Beast in the world, and the Nine-Tails Fox's power are already capable of overpowering the other Tailed Beasts combined.
Everyone knows the difficulties that Minato and Kushina faced when training their three children, and right now was the perfect opportunity to see the results of their training.
Keimei is also interested in the match since it will be her first time seeing the prowess of a Tailed Beast, and with their infamous prowess, she is using this match—if Menma uses the Nine-Tails Fox power—as a reference to see if she has a chance of winning if she goes all out.
Without the Nine-Tails Fox's strength, Keimei believes she can easily defeat Menma and his siblings without much difficulty, but with the Nine-Tails Fox's power involved, it would remain a mystery if she can win—until now, that is.
'I hope this Omoi can force Menma to use the Nine Tails Fox power,' Keimei thought as her eyes flashed for a moment.
Mikoto, who was secretly observing Keimei, noticed it, and a small smile appeared on her face. Mikoto knows that deep within Keimei there was a great battle lust hidden within her that only appears if Keimei finds a strong opponent.
Yet even though she had such intense battle lust, Keimei still manages to control herself and make logical decisions.
'I wonder if Menma and his siblings can force Keimei to go all out. 'Mikoto thought to herself.
Mikoto already deduced the fact that Keimei suppressed herself, but the reason behind such suppression still remained unknown to her.
What Mikoto knows, though, only a few people know this fact since Keimei had great acting skills. If it weren't for that day, Mikoto wouldn't learn this information.
Of course Mikoto didn't inform others about what she learned since she respects Keimei's desire for privacy.
Keimei's action also isn't really strange since most of the ninjas throughout the world always hide their own strength and only show it during emergency cases.
Hisateru also had the same idea as Keimei. While he knows that he can defeat Menma and his siblings—with the exception of Naruto since he hasn't had any concrete info about his strength—when they wouldn't use the Nine-Tails Fox power, but if they used it, it would still be up for debate if he could win.
Danzo already receives the intel that Menma and his siblings are already capable of channeling a portion of the Nine-Tails Fox's strength on themselves.
The intel, though, didn't provide how much strength the three teenagers were capable of controlling.
'The old man should be interested in this information,' Hisateru thought with a small smile on his face.
Hayate announces the start of the match, and both Menma and Omoi slam their feet to the ground, leaving cracks, and push themselves towards each other.
Omoi already unsheathes his sword and raises it horizontally before pushing it downwards with great force, but Menma, who brought out and held a kunai in both hands, redirects the sword using one hand while at the same time using the other hand to attack Omoi.
Omoi quickly shifted his sword to defend himself and also noticed Menma throwing a kunai towards him, which he easily blocked with his sword.
Omoi once again launched attacks one after another, which Menma easily defended and dodged, but he also didn't remain in a defensive position and launched his own attack toward Omoi.
Both of them clash with great intensity; the sounds of metal hitting each other echo throughout the area, and sparks from the clash between the sword and kunais can be seen flying in the air.
Neither had any intention of using any ninjutsu yet at this moment and focused on trying to test each other's limits before going all out.
Even though Omoi had greater range than Menma thanks to his sword, Menma had experience fighting someone who was skilled at swords, especially his mother, who was far more skilled than Omoi.
But it doesn't mean it was easy for Menma since Omoi is a skilled swordsman, no doubt about it, and it forced Menma to focus all its attention just to avoid any injury.
"Go, Menma! Beat that Cloud Ninja!" Ino cheers as loud as she can, causing Keimei and others who are near her to stare at her with great hostility, causing Ino to have an apologetic expression on her face while scratching her head.
Ino knows that her excitement causes the displeasure of the Cloud Ninja and her loud voice causes displeasure for those who are near her.
Ino's fear, though, wasn't because of them but because of Keimei, who was staring at her intently.
"Both of these youngsters are promising, especially that Cloud Genin. I didn't expect someone from the Cloud to produce such outstanding swordsmen," Zabuza commented while staring at the fight with interest flashing in his eyes.
"Is he really talented with the sword?" Haku asks in curiosity.
Haku rarely sees Zabuza praise someone so openly, and the only time he saw Zabuza praise someone is when he was talking to Naruto, which she understands.
"Of course. If he was born in the Mist, he had high chances to become part of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Of course, he is still far away from reaching their level, but he has potential."
"What about comparing him to Naruto?"
"It wouldn't really be a match." Zabuza slightly shakes his head.
"From what Naruto previously showed back then, he already had a skill far higher than the members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. In fact, I even had a feeling that even if we teamed up together, we wouldn't be able to compare to him in swordsmanship," he added.
Hisateru, who secretly listened to the conversation between Haku and Zabuza, had his eyes flash in interest.
'It seems the mystery surrounding Naruto is far more deep than I realize.' A small smile appeared on his face, and for the first time he started to get excited about learning everything about Naruto and satisfying his curiosity.
Kushina, who happens to have heard Zabuza praise Naruto, is slightly shocked about it. While she was proud to be a master swordsman, praise her son, but she didn't expect such praise from Zabuza.
Kushina had under the impression that Naruto, who fights Zabuza, managed to win due to Zabuza's injuries suffered at the hands of Fugaku. While she did hear that Naruto was skilled, she thought it didn't reach master swordsman level yet.
Who trained you about swordsmanship, Naruto? ' Kushina thought while feeling sad the fact that she didn't learn such an accomplishment from her son.
After clashing for several minutes, both Menma and Omoi decide to step back a few steps to take a breath and analyze while keeping an eye on each other.
'This fight is far more troublesome than I could ever imagine,' Menma thought with begrudging acceptance.
Menma originally wanted to end the fight by overpowering his opponent and showing everyone that he wasn't any less than anyone, especially against him.
Yet reality gives him a wake-up call. His opponent isn't ordinary and is an incredibly skilled person, especially in his swordsmanship.
He hasn't gone all out yet, and with his parents he should learn their techniques. He might never be able to master it, but it's definitely going to be an annoyance to do.' Omoi's eyes slightly shrunk.
'No... I can't let my imagination run wild again, especially this fight. I don't know what kind of techniques he learned, but I just had to end this match quickly before he could go all out.