"H-he's flying!"
"That boy…he can actually fly!"
"A ninja who can fly? That's incredible!"
"Neither of those two looks easy to deal with. This match might be even fiercer than the last one!"
…
Seeing Izayoi effortlessly lift off the ground—without any visible wind barrier or obvious jutsu to negate gravity—the spectators froze for a few seconds before exploding into a chorus of exclamations. Gasps, chatter, excited shouts…all filled the air.
But while regular citizens stared in awe and ignorance, many ninja were simply stunned.
"A flying ninja? Could that kid have learned the Hidden Stone's Light-Weight Earth Release?"
"Is it ninjutsu, a secret technique, or a kekkei genkai?"
"Wait, that must be the top rookie this year—the one who's mastered five elemental transformations! If I recall, he also reworked the Fourth Hokage's Rasengan and fused two natures into a Storm Release ultimate move."
"Don't tell me he developed this flight jutsu on his own, too? That's incredible talent!"
Such remarks echoed among the ninja crowd. Even elite jōnin like Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy looked rattled.
"So awesome… Onii-chan can actually fly," Hanabi murmured, slack-jawed.
Her father, Hiashi Hyūga—looking just as startled—focused his Byakugan toward the competitors' gallery. Veins bulged at his temples. Yet when he saw that every other candidate wore the same astounded expression except for Hinata, who simply gave a faint smile, he quietly turned off his Byakugan, unable to calm down.
Apparently, Izayoi and Hinata had known for a while that they were under surveillance. Otherwise, why would the intel gap be so enormous? Five elemental natures, a self-created Rasengan, a Storm Release ultimate, and now flight…
Neither their bodyguards nor Hiashi himself knew any of this. Those two kids had really kept things under wraps!
…
"No wonder Konoha is called the cradle of geniuses," thought Orochimaru, disguised as the Fourth Kazekage in the VIP box. "They've even got a rare flying ninja."
Hiruzen Sarutobi said nothing, just took another puff of his pipe. But his eyes gleamed with delight.
Truly…outstanding! Lord Hashirama, Tobirama-sensei, your decisions were right! The Senju became part of Konoha, and the village's future is brimming with hope.
An Uchiha survivor, the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, a mysterious bloodline prodigy…Konoha will rise again with this generation.
All eyes were on Izayoi as he slowly descended near Genma Shiranui's right side. Genma gave him a long, hard look, then raised his arm:
"Second match: Izayoi vs. Gaara… Begin!"
He swung his arm down, then immediately flickered backward, away from the two contenders. Even the commoners could tell this was about to be intense—let alone Genma, a Special Jōnin who had once guarded the Fourth Hokage. Both Izayoi and the gourd-carrying boy gave off an almost oppressive aura of colossal chakra.
When the match started, Gaara merely stood with folded arms, his face blank. He showed no reaction to his opponent's flight. It wasn't that his mental fortitude was unmatched—rather, he was protected by a shell of sand armor, so the face everyone saw was effectively a "mask." Beneath that shell, his real expression was twisted, bloodthirsty. Feeling Gaara's intent, the gourd on his back popped its cork open on its own, letting a mass of sand float upward—defying gravity—to swirl around him, awaiting his order.
An instant later, Gaara spread his folded arms wide, launching his assault. But instead of sending out the sand drifting around him, he targeted the ground on Izayoi's left and right. Two surging waves of sand shot up like giant hands, attempting to trap Izayoi in between.
"Sand Binding Coffin!"
His voice rang out, and the twin sand waves merged, twisting like a rope in midair. Countless people had died from the combination of this move and Gaara's Sand Burial. But this time, the sand remained free of blood.
Gaara looked up, spotting Izayoi hovering overhead in his white robe, having disappeared the instant the sand emerged. From his vantage in the sky, Izayoi murmured just loud enough for himself to hear:
"I can't afford to play any 'ninja games' with you right now, not in my current state."
With that, he raised both hands. A large blue-white ball of energy formed. Then, the ball's white interior abruptly turned a deeper shade of blue. Without even calling out a move name, Izayoi lobbed the energy sphere downward.
"Air Sand Protective Wall!"
Sensing the Water Release nature in the plummeting sphere, Gaara instinctively crouched and pressed his hand to the ground, burning through a massive chunk of chakra to liquefy the earth around him into sand. It rose up, forming a towering shield that blocked the falling sphere.
BOOM—
A thunderous crash resounded. The sphere sank only a third of the way into Gaara's barrier before exploding into a giant swirling vortex of water. It spun like a drill against the sandy wall, spitting torrents of water and soaking the sand, making it heavier. Izayoi never expected a single shot to finish Gaara, so even as he hurled that ball, he was already forming a second one.
This next sphere was smaller—about basketball size. Inside it, two ping-pong-ball-sized cores appeared, each changing from blue-white to one white and one blue. The exam participants and jōnin who'd watched the prelims recognized it at once: that S-rank Storm Release technique now famous among Konoha's jōnin. Most assumed Izayoi was about to unleash "Judgment" again.
But instead, as the ninja looked on with wide eyes, a third orb formed inside his giant swirling sphere. Initially also blue-white, it turned bright orange-red within two seconds.
Even laypeople who didn't grasp shape or nature transformation could see it was infused with flames. Electric white, oceanic blue, fiery red—three "dango" spun wildly inside the sphere. Some in the audience stands began flashing covert hand signals. Hiding at the back, Kabuto—disguised as a Konoha Anbu—quietly prepared a jutsu.
The three colored orbs whirled clockwise, like tomoe in a Sharingan. After several spins, the blue orb suddenly reversed direction, slamming into the white one. The red orb followed close behind. As the orbs collided, they broke the "glass ball" that contained them, letting loose three swirling liquids. They merged, gradually becoming a new color—a deep teal threaded with fiery streaks.
"Ultimate Move… Maser Light Cannon!"
Izayoi murmured the name as he hurled it down. By then, the water drill below had dissipated, leaving a massive dent in Gaara's floating sand wall. Like a homing missile, the teal energy sphere plunged into that dent. As it fell, it accelerated. Its basketball-sized form ballooned outward like a water-filled balloon, shifting from a sphere into a cylindrical teal pillar of light.
It was also a beam attack, but whereas "Judgment" had been a diffuse electrical torrent, this teal pillar contained traces of orange-red flame. Anyone with sensory jutsu could sense the raw destructive force inside.
"You've got to be kidding! That could kill somebody!"
Genma, standing outside the sandy shield's perimeter, recoiled and flickered onto a tall wall. Gaara, too, felt the chill of death—as if "Mother" was whispering a warning in his ear. Wasting no time, he formed a seal and uttered: "Feigning Sleep Jutsu."
Closing his eyes, he instantly sank into a deep slumber. The gourd and his body alike dissolved into sand, merging with both the ground and the remnants of the floating barrier.
BOOOOM—
The teal pillar smashed into the swirl of sand. The deafening blast echoed through the entire Konoha center. The massive arena trembled violently. Spectators nearest the impact clamped their hands over their ears in anguish, feeling as though their hearing had been stripped away. Outside the plaza, onlookers fell to the ground in terror.
All around Konoha, residents dropped whatever they were doing, turning to see a towering mushroom cloud. Before they could start asking questions, countless shadowy figures leapt out from hiding, attacking patrolling ninjas.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Somewhere in the chaos, a voice rang out. Thick white smoke billowed, revealing a gargantuan three-headed serpent that barreled through the village from the main gate, destroying everything in its path.
Back in the arena, while many spectators were still half-deafened, they suddenly noticed white feathers drifting down overhead. A powerful drowsiness overtook them, sending them toppling to the ground in slumber.
The Konoha Crush had officially begun.
~~~
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