Before reaching Zone 4, Kakashi already heard Obito cheering for Nohara Rin.
Kakashi watched for a moment; Nohara Rin's opponent was at an average Chunin level, and she easily defeated him using basic Taijutsu.
Kakashi wasn't surprised by this; although Nohara Rin specialized in medical ninjutsu, her overall abilities were undeniably at the level of a Konoha Jonin. As long as you don't compare her to someone like Kakashi, she was still quite strong.
After greeting the two of them, Kakashi quickly proceeded to Zone 5 where Shisui was located.
At this moment, Shisui had just finished his battle and was walking off the field when he saw Kakashi approaching and greeted him.
After responding, Kakashi asked, "Shisui, did you notice any ninjas worth paying attention to in Zone 5?"
Kakashi believed that Shisui would have noted down information on the outstanding ninjas.
"There's a Hidden Rock ninja named Nagaishi whose power is not weak, and he has the Explosion Release Kekkeigenkai," Shisui replied.
"However, his number is quite late, so I won't run into him in the preliminaries."
"I suspect that the martial arts tournament's numbering might not be entirely random; they're avoiding having strong ninjas meet before the elimination rounds," Shisui shared his thoughts.
"I've investigated several zones around us; there aren't any battles that are evenly matched, just one-sided victories or similar weak successive battles."
"Your suspicion is probably correct." Kakashi nodded in agreement, then shared all the intelligence he had gathered with Shisui.
"It seems this Ninja Sect has quite a vast intelligence network."
Knowing the strength of the geniuses from local Hidden Villages is normal, but knowing the strength of all the young ninjas in the competition would require superior intelligence skills.
Because a genius might not necessarily have a track record, like Kakashi and the others before they went to battle; even within Konoha Village, their fame wasn't substantial, let alone within the Land of Fire or the entire Ninja World.
Even if they had a track record, unless it was of Mokgetsu's level, it wouldn't make them famous in the Ninja World. At best, the opposing sides would become known, and neighboring countries might circulate the news to some extent.
Kakashi didn't linger long on the battle number topic with Shisui since, overall, this was beneficial for them.
Once he thought Nagato's fight was approaching, Kakashi headed to Zone 7 to watch Nagato's match.
"Round 2, Match 5: Number 17 Namiashi Raido vs. Number 19 Nagato."
Kakashi silently mourned for Namiashi Raido for a split second, knowing there was no way he could win. The point was to see how long Raido could hold out and provide Kakashi with more intelligence on Nagato.
"A formidable enemy." Namiashi Raido took a deep breath, wearing a serious expression as he walked onto the battlefield.
"Raido, hang in there!" Kakashi cheered, hoping Namiashi Raido could endure a bit longer.
"Since you're here to cheer for me, Kakashi, I can't let you down too easily," Namiashi Raido said, slightly surprised by Kakashi's encouragement.
As the battle began, Namiashi Raido immediately retreated, performed hand seals, and created two shadow clones. The shadow clones charged at Nagato from left and right in perfect harmony, trying to create an attack opportunity for the original.
At this point, Nagato also created a shadow clone, both his original and the clone expressionlessly and quickly forming hand seals.
"Fire Release: Headache!"
"Wind Release: Pressure!"
Nagato's original spat out a compressed fireball into the center of the battleground, and upon contact, the fires rapidly expanded, creating a sea of flames.
The shadow clone then exhaled a high-pressure windball, which ignited the firestorm, intensely boosting the fire and engulfing Namiashi Raido's shadow clones.
Namiashi Raido's eyes widened, and he almost couldn't hold his sword steady, nearly dropping it to the ground.
What a superb matchmaking mechanism, letting him face an opponent of this caliber.
"Judge, I forfeit." Before the firestorm reached him, Namiashi Raido decisively raised his hand to concede.
If he could get close to Nagato, his proficiency in Taijutsu might give him a chance, but his speed was clearly not sufficient to reach Nagato before the latter could release his Ninjutsu.
"Nagato wins!" The judge announced the match result.
"His Fire Release techniques show no inferiority to his Wind Release, plus he can perform combined Ninjutsu." Kakashi quietly noted this new intelligence, further raising Nagato's threat level.
Subsequently, Kakashi stayed in Zone 7 until the second round was nearly finished before returning to his Zone 1.
He quickly dispatched his opponent as before and then rushed to the sixth zone where Sunagani was competing.
Kakashi had gathered some information on Nagato, but Sunagani remained deeply concealed except for a proficiency with the Chakra Line and basic Taijutsu.
Seeing Kakashi coming to spectate again, Zabuza subconsciously puffed out his chest as he headed toward the battleground.
"Let the match begin!"
"Hidden Mist Jutsu!"
As the match started, Zabuza immediately unleashed a thick mist, obscuring the field.
He had observed Sunagani's fights and was aware of the difficulty, so he immediately gave it his all.
Kakashi frowned slightly; the Hidden Mist Jutsu was a secret technique of The Hidden Mist Village with immense potential and not even Obito's Sharingan could see through it, nor could his Transparent World.
At this moment, Kakashi could not see the fight unfold within the dense mist, instead relying solely on sounds to gauge the situation.
"Are there no means to deal with the mist, or is it unnecessary?" With the mist lingering for over a minute, Kakashi couldn't conclude which was the case.
After another minute, intense battle sounds echoed, and as the mist gradually dissipated, the defeated Zabuza on the ground and an unscathed Sunagani became visible.
With a sense of helplessness, Kakashi realized that gathering intelligence was no easy task; having watched three fights, he had little useful information, only confirming Sunagani's formidable strength.
Kakashi watched a little longer, hoping to glean some valuable information in the fourth match.
The fourth round was the final of the preliminaries, and those reaching it wouldn't be lacking in skills. Based on sequence numbers, Sunagani's opponent would be a Hidden Rock, who wouldn't begin with a mist-shrouding tactic.
Nagato's third-round adversary was also relatively unimpressive, with Nagato swiftly defeating him by using a Wind-Fire Combination Ninjutsu. Kakashi did not gain any new intelligence.
After the third round ended, instead of diving right into the fourth round, there was a three-hour intermission with the last round commencing thereafter.
Kakashi and his team used the intermission to dine together and exchange intelligence.
Kakashi was the first to share all the information he had gathered, waiting for the others to add on.
"So, other Akatsuki members also participated in the tournament. I saw the Akatsuki leader Yahiko in my zone," Obito mentioned following Kakashi's account of Nagato's performance.
"He seems proficient with Water Release Ninjutsu. I only watched one of his matches and didn't get much more detail," Obito truthfully admitted.
Kakashi appeared slightly surprised, expecting Obito to spend all his time in Nohara Rin's area; however, Obito had indeed been gathering intelligence, limited though it was.
After Obito spoke, Nohara Rin and Shisui each recounted the situations in their respective zones.
"In my area, there doesn't seem to be any noteworthy opponents." Might Guy pondered thoughtfully as he stroked his chin.
In Zone 8, Might Guy felt no one could withstand his Golden Horizon move.
If such words came from Obito, Kakashi might think he was boasting; coming from Might Guy, though, there was no denying the truth.
After all, if Might Guy unleashed his full strength by combining the Eight Gates with the Breath of Rock Chakra Mode, he could rival more than four Ninja Blades.
As the fourth round began, Sunagani was in the first match, so Kakashi split off a shadow clone to gather intelligence in the sixth zone while his original went back to Zone 1 to ensure he didn't miss critical information.
PS: Double monthly votes requested, and another 4k chapter will be released around one o'clock.
Upon review, an error was discovered in yesterday's content and has been fixed.
Kakashi had actually met Nagato before but hadn't interacted with him, and Yahiko and Obito had also met him; only Shisui had met Konan.