"Rock!" Rockruff raised its head high and glanced in Kakashi's direction.
Kakashi gave a slight nod in response. Rockruff had applied the tactics he'd taught it very well; Charmeleon was almost completely trapped in Rockruff's attack rhythm and couldn't bring out its full strength.
Then Rockruff looked at the Charmeleon pinned under the rocks. Kakashi had emphasized to it many times that it mustn't start celebrating halfway through a fight; it had to hold on until it truly secured victory.
Right now Charmeleon's expression was twisted, as if it were enduring immense pain and no longer had the strength to fight.
"Charmeleon clearly evolved once already, so why is its body so much worse than Riolu's?" Obito muttered in confusion.
Riolu had smashed Rockruff's boulders with a single punch even while being interfered with, yet Charmeleon looked like it was about to die after taking one hit.
"I'll buy it something tasty to cheer it up later." Obito thought to himself.
Losing a battle even after being one evolution ahead was definitely a bitter pill to swallow; Obito knew that feeling very well.
Because many times he'd had the upper hand in raw strength, yet ended up losing to other disciples due to carelessness, and the moment he lost he'd start doubting his whole life.
"I absolutely can't go down. I absolutely can't let that bastard Obito look down on me!" Charmeleon roared in its heart.
Whoosh!
The flame on Charmeleon's tail suddenly flared up, burning fiercely as it erupted, the blaze doubling in size.
At this moment Charmeleon felt power surging through every part of its body.
Seeing that something was wrong, Rockruff wanted to move in for the finishing blow, but it was a step too slow.
Boom!
Charmeleon exploded with power, heaving the huge rock away and springing to its feet, then spewing a massive torrent of orange-red flames at Rockruff.
Obito stared at this scene in shock. He hadn't expected Charmeleon to have a huge burst after getting heavily injured, just like Kakashi.
"It actually won?" Obito was really surprised; he'd already been planning what snacks to buy to comfort Charmeleon.
With Rockruff's build—almost collapsing from a single slap from Riolu—there was no way it could withstand Charmeleon's over-the-top flames.
Bang!
Rockruff, its body slightly scorched black, suddenly burst out of the flames and slammed into the fire-breathing Charmeleon, knocking it over.
Obito: ???
Was Rockruff holding back and acting last round? How come it looked like a frail little puppy against Riolu, but turned into an iron-rock bruiser dog against Charmeleon?
Not only Obito, even Kakashi was a bit surprised; he hadn't expected Rockruff to force its way through Charmeleon's flames and tackle it down.
After pinning it, Rockruff rudely gathered Chakra in its mouth and blasted Charmeleon once more, completely depriving it of any ability to resist.
"Charmeleon is unable to battle. Lycanroc wins!" After observing Charmeleon's condition for a while, Kakashi announced that the final victor had been decided.
Nohara Rin treated the lightly injured Rockruff, while Mokgetsu treated Charmeleon.
"You're really amazing, Kakashi. It feels like you're really good at raising Summoning Beasts." Nohara Rin praised Kakashi while treating Rockruff.
Compared to Charmeleon, Rockruff's fighting style was undoubtedly more like a Ninja's. It not only brought out each of its abilities very well, it even had several different tactics.
"It's not that big a deal. It's mostly because it works hard." Kakashi said as he tidied Rockruff's fur.
If all the credit were given to him, Kakashi felt that wouldn't be reasonable. If it were some other Ninja Beast, he wasn't confident he could raise it to be like Rockruff.
"Rock." Rockruff happily stuck out its tongue and licked Kakashi's palm.
The defeated Charmeleon kept its eyes tightly shut, as if it had already fainted.
In reality, Charmeleon was still awake, but it felt it was better to stay down. Even someone as evil as Obito wouldn't scold a person who had fainted, right?
"Teacher Mokgetsu." Obito walked over to Mokgetsu, who was treating Charmeleon, and looked down at it.
Hearing that familiar voice, Charmeleon's face didn't change, but its heart skipped a beat.
"Is Charmeleon okay? Its body seems a bit weak, not like Riolu and the others." Obito asked with concern.
Charmeleon: …
For a moment it couldn't tell whether Obito was mocking it or worrying about it.
"It's not that Charmeleon's body is weak. Its Chakra was being countered, so it's very hard for it to withstand Lycanroc's attacks." Mokgetsu explained.
Charmeleon fighting Rockruff was indeed heavily countered, because right now Charmeleon only had two means of attack: fire-type and normal-type moves. In the games, both those types only do half damage to rock-types.
Reality didn't have fixed numerical values like the games, but when the gap in raw strength wasn't huge, the effect was still very obvious.
"Huh?" Obito was dumbfounded. He knew Chakra Nature Changes had type advantages and disadvantages, but now Chakra itself had counters too?
"Everyone's Chakra has subtle differences, and some special kinds of Chakra have unique effects. All of your Ninja Beasts possess special types of Chakra." Mokgetsu explained.
"So Charmeleon can't handle Earth Release?" Obito thought for a bit and asked the question he was most concerned about.
Mokgetsu shook his head. What really hurt Charmeleon was the special localized Chakra of Rockruff's own body, not the Earth Chakra Nature Transformation.
Obito let out a sigh of relief. As long as it wasn't being countered by all Earth Release Ninja, it was fine.
"No, wait, why is it my Charmeleon that gets countered?"
Obito suddenly thought of a very serious problem. If Charmeleon was countered by Rockruff, didn't that mean it would be suppressed by Rockruff for life?
"Is Lycanroc's Chakra countered by Riolu?" Kakashi recalled the scene of Rockruff fighting Riolu and asked Mokgetsu.