"Both sides, prepare. Begin."
The two teams for the fifth preliminary match entered the training ground simultaneously. At Proctor Taruī's command, the battle commenced.
"Explosion Release: Exploding Shuriken!"
The Rock ninja possessing the Explosion Release Kekkei Genkai, named simply Shō, took several shuriken from his tool pouch, infused them with Explosion Release chakra, and threw them towards the Cloud ninjas' position.
"Lightning Release: Beast Mimicry - Mystic Tortoise Shell!"
The eldest of the triplets, the Cloud ninja with the character Sea tattooed on his arm, stepped forward.
He formed hand signs, and violent Lightning Release chakra enveloped all three, gradually shaping into a spinning turtle shell.
The Explosion Release shuriken struck the lightning shell and immediately detonated.
The iron shuriken shattered into over a dozen fragments, causing the lightning tortoise to shake violently and significantly reducing its rotation speed.
"Lightning Release: Beast Mimicry - Lightning Python!"
The second Cloud brother, with the character Mountain on his arm, glared. Lightning Release chakra condensed into a lifelike giant lightning python that charged straight at the nearby Rock team.
Though massive, the lightning python was a chakra construct and incredibly fast. In the blink of an eye, it reached the Rock ninjas, opening its lightning-wreathed maw to bite the nearest one, Shō.
Seeing the python attack, a trace of disdain appeared on Shō's face. He moved, evading the strike, and coated his right hand with Explosion Release chakra.
"Explosion Release: Blazing Fist!"
A powerful punch directly struck the lightning python's critical point, followed by a violent explosion that blew the python in half.
However, the bisected python didn't dissipate. Instead, it transformed into a dense mass of lightning that tightly surrounded Shō.
Poof!
The surrounded Shō turned into a substitution log. His real body appeared next to his teammates.
The first exchange seemed long but actually lasted only seconds. After briefly testing each other's abilities, the true battle began.
The Cloud triplets were ninjutsu specialists, using a beast-mimicry Lightning Release similar to a secret technique.
The eldest specialized in mimicking sea creatures, defense and containment.
The second specialized in mimicking land creatures,frontal assault.
The youngest, with the character Sky tattooed on his right arm, specialized in mimicking aerial creatures, finding enemy openings and delivering lethal blows using Lightning Release's high speed.
Compared to the purely ninjutsu-focused Cloud team, the Rock team's capabilities were more well-rounded.
Shō, possessing the Explosion Release Kekkei Genkai, was responsible for powerful explosive attacks.
Kōya, possessing the Steel Release Kekkei Genkai, was defending against physical attacks and disrupting enemy formations with taijutsu to create opportunities for his teammates.
The final Rock ninja, Natsumi, not only summoned an elite chunin-level leopard summon but also caused significant trouble for the Cloud ninjas with her skilled genjutsu attacks.
Both teams were ones Uchiha Kazuhiko paid close attention to.
Their strength was evenly matched, resulting in a back-and-forth struggle with no clear advantage, nearly turning the fight into a war of attrition.
Thus, victory would depend on which side could outlast the other or which possessed a powerful trump card to crush their opponents.
After another inconclusive exchange, both sides retreated to a safe distance.
They rested briefly while glaring predatorily at each other, their eyes beginning to gleam with bloodlust.
Clearly, neither side intended to prolong the fight and prepared to use their trump cards to decide the outcome.
The Cloud brothers each created a shadow clone to guard them. Their main bodies formed an equilateral triangle formation, pushing their Lightning Release chakra to the limit as they synchronously began forming hand signs.
"Lightning Release: Beast Mimicry - Thunder-Winged Qilin!"
As the hand signs completed, their chakra converged above the center point of the formation, gradually merging into a fierce beast resembling a Qilin with wings made of lightning.
The Thunder-Winged Qilin let out a roar towards the sky. Over a dozen basketball-sized lightning spheres formed in its gaping maw and shot towards the Rock team.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
The three Rock ninjas' expressions changed drastically. Unanimously, they used their strongest defensive ninjutsu. Three earthen walls erupted from the ground, blocking the path of the lightning spheres.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The spheres collided with the walls, causing a series of explosions. The earth turned to dust, shrouding the entire combat area.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Cloud ninjas gave them no respite. They controlled the Qilin to charge recklessly, attacking them with its massive body and lightning power.
"Captain, I'll hold it off! Steel Release: Adamantine Body!"
Seeing Natsumi kicked flying by the Qilin, Kōya's eyes immediately reddened. He activated his Steel Release secret technique and charged at the Qilin.
"Kōya!" Seeing Kōya being electrocuted and trembling violently, Shō cried out.
He didn't waste the opportunity Kōya created for him.
Using an Explosion Release secret technique that harmed the enemy a thousand at the cost of eight hundred to himself, he created three Explosion Release shadow clones that pounced on the Cloud brothers' location.
"EXPLODE!!!" Shō roared. The three shadow clones instantly detonated. The violent flames destroyed the Cloud shadow clones and continued towards the Cloud brothers, who were immobilized maintaining the Qilin.
Swoosh!
A Cloud Jonin appeared in front of the Cloud brothers. With a Water Release technique, he extinguished the oncoming flames.
"Preliminary Match Five: Rock Team wins. Medical team, treat the examinees quickly."
The moment the Jonin intervened, the Cloud team was judged defeated. Proctor Taruī immediately announced the result and called the waiting medical-nin to treat the injured examinees.
With the preliminaries over, the list of those formally qualifying for the third exam was finalized.
Cloud - Samui's Team
Cloud - Nin-Taijutsu Team
Rock - Kekkei Genkai Team
Rock - Ninjutsu Team
Sand - Yomi Team
And Uchiha Kazuhiko, participating solo.
Gathering all qualifying examinees, Proctor Taruī produced sixteen cards with identical backs.
"The third exam will be held in the Cloud Arena one week from now. It will be individual matches. Now, come forward one by one to draw a card to determine your opponents."
The examinees drew in order. Uchiha Kazuhiko drew a card with the red number three.
"You hold cards of two colors, red and blue. Those with the same number are opponents for the first round."
"The second round is divided into two groups. Numbers one to four are Group A; numbers five to eight are Group B. Number one fights number two, number three fights number four, and so on, selecting four to advance to the third round."
"In the third round, the two winners from each group fight. The victors advance to the final match."
Taruī explained the third exam's bracket rules to the examinees. After confirming everyone understood, he dismissed them.
With matters concluded here, the shadow clone dispelled itself, transmitting the memories of the preliminaries back to the main body.
Just as Uchiha Kazuhiko received the clone's memories and prepared to review them, the system's notification sounded again.
Surprisingly, the system had refreshed with a new round of tasks.