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If we hit 100PW I post a extra chapter.
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The scoreboard showed a painful, absolute zero next to the name of their village, while Sunagakure and Iwagakure were already boasting two finalists each, and Konohagakure had just logged its first qualifier.
Omoi remained leaning with his back against the stone wall of the balcony, chewing his mint candy at a frantic, almost maniacal rhythm. His fingers gripped the hilt of his short sword so hard that his knuckles had turned completely white. His small black eyes were glued to the massive screen embedded in the central wall, which had just flickered with incandescent flashes of light to reorganize its text.
The metal panel emitted a mechanical hum and revealed the glowing golden letters: Omoi (Kumogakure) vs. Kimimaro (Sunagakure).
"Listen closely, Omoi," Killer B interjected, breaking the silence with an unusually serious voice, stripped for a moment of his characteristic festive tone and usual rhymes.
The powerful Eight-Tails Jinchuriki stood with his arms crossed tightly over his broad chest, adjusting his dark sunglasses over the bridge of his nose as he watched the opposing platform.
"That Genin isn't normal. I can feel he's much stronger, so be prepared this time. He's also a Kaguya, a clan that originally came from the Land of Water, but Kazekage Daigo recruited them a while back. They're exceptionally good in close-quarters combat and use their own bones to fight."
B paused briefly, letting the murmur of the distant crowd fill the void before continuing in an even more guarded tone.
"However, not much else is known about them. Ever since Daigo recruited several of those clanes, like the Kaguya and the Yuki, he has kept them hidden within the village. He doesn't expose them in minor skirmishes, he doesn't send them on low-profile missions, and he prevents the outside world from measuring their true capabilities. We have no concrete data from their service records. We don't know the true physical and tactical limits of that kid, Omoi. Don't let your guard down for even a fraction of a second."
Killer B's words of warning acted as a potent catalyst on Omoi's hyperactive, obsessive mind, throwing him headfirst into a spiral of catastrophic thoughts and apocalyptic scenarios.
"Bones as weapons...?" Omoi articulated in an imperceptible whisper, while his brain processed a thousand variables per second at a dizzying speed.
"Wait a minute... If his bones can be manipulated at will and possess a density equal to or greater than reinforced steel, it means my chakra-blade will suffer a massive impact on the very first clash. And if my sword gets notched or breaks on contact, I'll be automatically disarmed in the middle of the arena. If I'm disarmed at close range, he won't hesitate to use his Kekkei Genkai to sprout a bone spike and pierce my left lung. What if he drives one of his bones into my throat before I can even finish drawing my blade? Even worse! What if the shockwave from his first strike makes me swallow my candy all at once, blocking my trachea so I choke to death miserably on the ground before the examiner can even announce the start of the match? We're completely finished! Kumogakure is going to be humiliated on an international stage, and it'll be 100% my fault!"
"ZAP!"
A heavy, brutal strike echoed against the back of Omoi's head, rattling his skull and instantly cutting off his frantic internal monologue. Karui pulled back her clenched fist with her brow furrowed in absolute fury, a thick vein throbbing on her forehead.
"Shut your mouth and snap out of your stupidity once and for all, you unhinged idiot!" Karui yelled at the top of her lungs, grabbing him violently by the collar of his tactical vest and shaking him back and forth like a ragdoll.
"Stop inventing a thousand stupid and humiliating ways to die inside your head! I know damn well you're not weak or a coward. You're an exceptional swordsman of the Cloud. Now get down there right now and show all these villages what a real Kumogakure shinobi is made of! I trust you completely to give a great fight and bring that point home!"
Omoi rubbed his neck with a genuine wince of pain, blinking several times to clear his vision. However, as he met the fiery eyes and honest resolve of his teammate, the whirlwind of panic and hysteria consuming his chest slowly began to dissipate.
He let out a heavy sigh, exhaling the warm air trapped in his lungs, adjusted his forehead protector, and nodded with a renewed, serious determination.
"Understood... I'll do exactly what I have to do," Omoi whispered firmly. Right after, he took a step forward and fluidly vaulted over the thick stone railing, dropping down into the depths of the arena.
On the opposite side of the circular venue, in Sunagakure's Team B sector, Kimimaro observed the display board with a relaxed composure. Seeing his name printed on the glowing screen, he showed no arrogance.
He simply offered a respectful bow toward his sensei, Baki, who was the only one present since his other two teammates were currently in the hospital. With a methodical, light movement, he pushed off the wall he was resting against and leapt into the open air, descending with the graceful, ethereal lightness of a falling feather.
Upon landing on the freshly leveled stone floor, Kimimaro didn't adopt an aggressive combat stance, nor did he draw any ninja tools. With extraordinary anatomical control and impressive physical discipline, he leisurely began stretching his shoulders, neck, and upper limbs.
A faint, dry crunch echoed beneath his pale skin as his joints and internal bone structure stretched, adjusting the calcium alignment in his body to prepare for the inevitable battle ahead.
Above, on the main balcony reserved for the tournament, Daigo observed the scene below with his arms crossed tightly over his chest, his eyes fixed on Kimimaro.
Daigo had it completely clear in his mind: if at this very moment he had to bet all his money on a single genin in the entire Chunin Exams, without hesitating for a single millisecond, he would put every coin and resource on Kimimaro's shoulders.
And he wouldn't do it out of blind paternal affection or empty pride, but out of a cold, genuine, and objective tactical certainty. Kimimaro possessed a level of execution, martial discipline, and lethality that far surpassed the rank of an ordinary genin.
The only reason Daigo had deliberately held him back at this administrative rank was precisely to use this international stage. He needed to showcase to the Five Great Nations the devastating military power, sophistication, and invulnerability of Sunagakure through its strongest Genin.
Below, in the very center of the arena, both competitors stood face to face, separated by a distance of just ten meters. Malenia walked between them at a measured pace, silently evaluating the stark contrast in their auras: on one side, the restless, contained electrical energy of the young Cloud ninja; on the other, the icy serenity of the Kaguya clan.
"Sixth match!" the examiner announced in a booming voice that echoed off the rock walls. "Omoi of Kumogakure versus Kimimaro of Sunagakure!"
Malenia raised her right arm, fixing her gaze for a moment on the faces of both fighters, and then brought it down, slicing through the air violently.
"BEGIN!"
In the exact millisecond the command tore through the air, Omoi didn't hesitate. He reached his right hand toward the hilt of his short sword mounted on his back and drew it with blinding speed.
At the same time, he channeled a steady, pure stream of Raiton chakra through his arm's pathway system, channeling it directly onto the metallic blade. The polished steel of the sword was instantly wrapped in a cloak of crackling blue sparks and a sharp, buzzing hum that vibrated in the surrounding air.
Exploding forward with the strength of his legs, Omoi closed the gap in the blink of an eye. He executed a rapid, aggressive, and continuous opening sequence of frontal thrusts and diagonal slashes, attempting to overwhelm his opponent from the very first second through sheer speed and elemental cutting power.
However, Kimimaro responded with a technical fluidity that bordered on the hypnotic. Keeping his spine perfectly straight and his posture flawless, he began dodging every deadly slash of the sword by mere millimeters.
He casually swayed his torso, took subtle steps backward on the balls of his feet, and pivoted on his axis without ever losing his balance, forcing Omoi's electrified blade to cut through empty air.
On the upper balconies, the genin from various villages watched the display without blinking. The way Kimimaro moved across the ground gave the strange and unsettling impression that the Kaguya was floating a few millimeters above the stone, defying inertia and anticipating the trajectory of every attack with perfect spatial awareness and combat instincts.
"He's too fast and fluid... He isn't giving me a clear window to land a hit for even a second!" Omoi analyzed in his mind, gritting his teeth in frustration while maintaining the flow of lightning through his weapon.
Determined not to yield the initiative or let Kimimaro dictate the pace of the fight, Omoi pushed his muscle fibers to their absolute limit. He drastically increased his lateral movement speed, vanishing from plain sight only to reappear on his opponent's right flank, driving a devastating horizontal slash infused with electricity aimed directly at decapitating Kimimaro.
Noticing that the margin for a clean dodge had dropped to zero due to the range and speed of the cut, Kimimaro didn't try to retreat or seek cover. Instead, he raised his bare forearms in a serene motion, crossing them directly in the path of the steel blade.
Many of the genin present on the upper balconies gasped in shock and disbelief, genuinely believing that Kimimaro had just made a suicidal mistake by pitting his bare arms against the Cloud's Lightning Blade. However, the more experienced spectators and those who understood the nature of the Kaguya Kekkei Genkai kept their eyes locked in fascination.
"CLANG!"
A shower of blue and gold sparks erupted violently at the point of interception. The sound echoing off the arena walls wasn't that of tearing flesh or breaking bones, but the deafening, metallic impact of two plates of heavy armor colliding at maximum power.
Omoi felt a sharp, brutal vibration travel down the blade of his sword, transmitting instantly through his wrist, forearm, and shoulder, leaving his joints numb from the force of the rebound. The tactile sensation was exactly like hitting a solid block of high-density steel with all his strength.
Capitalizing on the rebound force generated by the clash, Omoi executed an acrobatic mid-air backflip, taking a safe distance of five meters to catch his breath.
With his breathing growing progressively heavier, he locked his eyes on his opponent's arms. From beneath the skin of Kimimaro's wrists and forearms, hyper-dense, polished, and gleaming white bone plates had sprouted, completely absorbing, blocking, and dissipating the physical force of the sword and the high-frequency Raiton charge without sustaining the slightest scratch.
Without giving him a single second to process the defense or reorganize his strategy, Kimimaro decided to take the offensive for the first time in the match. He extended his right arm backward, and with a dull, wet, and chilling crack that resonated through the quiet arena, the skin on his back opened slightly at the shoulder blade.
Kimimaro gripped the exposed structure and calmly extracted a massive, dense, and extremely sharp bone from his own body, which instantly molded and hydrated with his chakra to become a bone spear.
Kimimaro spun the large bone spear in the air with astonishing speed, precision, and mastery, slicing through the wind with a sharp, menacing whistle before settling into a classic, flawless combat stance.
Both warriors locked eyes for a fraction of a second. Amidst the silence of the arena, they shared a slight, imperceptible nod of mutual respect, and immediately afterward launched themselves at each other in a fierce clash of sword against spear.
The underground arena turned into a stage of continuous impacts, electrical flashes, and metallic resonances. Omoi bet on extreme agility and the versatility of his swordsmanship, employing quick feints, sudden shifts in rhythm, flank attacks, and acrobatic spins with his blade to locate a blind spot in his rival's impenetrable guard. He traced brilliant arcs of blue light with his lightning-infused blade, launching direct thrusts toward Kimimaro's exposed joints.
However, Kimimaro met every assault with cold precision. He used the hand holding his spear to parry the trajectory of Omoi's sword with subtle yet firm touches, leveraging the superior reach of his polearm to keep the Kumogakure ninja outside his comfortable striking distance.
Whenever Omoi managed to breach the defensive distance and slip in a low, close-range slash, Kimimaro sprouted small bone spurs or protective calcium plates at the exact trajectory of the impact, neutralizing any critical damage before the blade could touch his skin.
Suddenly, Kimimaro launched a fluid counteroffensive, executing a rapid volley of continuous thrusts with the bone spear.
The sheer power behind each strike forced Omoi to use both his sword and its scabbard in a desperate cross-block stance. The massive impact of each bone blow drove Omoi back several inches at a time, leaving gouges in the pulverized stone floor.
In the midst of the intense exchanges, as the tension reached its peak, Omoi executed a master stroke: he performed a sudden pivot on his lead foot, dodged a frontal spear thrust by an imperceptible margin, and managed to position himself in the blind spot of Kimimaro's left flank.
Seeing his opponent's back unprotected for a microsecond, Omoi delivered a sharp, powerful, and direct thrust, fully convinced that he had finally overcome his rival's reaction speed.
He even allowed himself to relax for a fraction of a millisecond, thinking that tactical positioning had guaranteed him the winning blow.
But Kimimaro's lips curled slightly into a cold, imperceptible smile.
Without turning his torso or shifting his base, Kimimaro released his grip on the spear with his right hand and whipped the weapon backward using his elbow in a swift, violent motion like the crack of a whip.
The bone spear wasn't meant to block the attack; Kimimaro used it directly as a point-blank lethal projectile.
"THWACK!"
Omoi didn't expect such a tactical counter at all. Before the tip of his sword could even brush Kimimaro's skin, the bone spear cut through the air with devastating force and embedded itself deeply into Omoi's right shoulder. The impact was so brutal that it drove clean through flesh, muscle, and bone structure before lodging itself in his body.
"UGHH!"
Omoi let out a gut-wrenching cry of sharp pain as the massive momentum of the bone projectile lifted him off his feet and sent him tumbling violently across the stone floor of the arena.
After rolling several times over the dust and rock, he managed to push himself up with extreme difficulty, stumbling backward while fresh blood quickly soaked through his tactical uniform and dripped onto the ground.
Gritting his teeth with brutal force until his gums ached, Omoi grabbed the end of the bone embedded in his shoulder with his left hand and, with a harsh, merciless pull, yanked it out of his body. He let the bloody spear hit the ground with a heavy clatter, clutching his open wound as his breathing turned rapid and ragged.
Looking up to see Kimimaro standing a few meters away, watching him with absolute composure and without the slightest intention of dishonorably finishing him off, Omoi understood his opponent's true nature.
"You didn't aim for my heart... or my throat... You could have killed me or permanently crippled me right then and there," Omoi said, his voice raspy and heavy with pain, looking at Kimimaro with a mix of respect and gratitude.
"I appreciate the gesture of honor... but we both know that with an open wound in my dominant shoulder and constant blood loss, my chances of winning this match have dropped to practically zero."
Kimimaro didn't reply with words. He simply maintained his upright, serene posture, acknowledging the dignity and resolve of the Cloud shinobi before him.
"Even so... in Kumogakure, we don't have a habit of surrendering or throwing ourselves on the ground just because things get tough or impossible," Omoi continued, adjusting his footing on the stone with renewed firmness and stability.
"If this is going to be my final move in this tournament, I'm going to make sure you have to work as hard as possible to stop it."
Omoi gripped the hilt of his short sword once more with his only functional hand. He gathered every last drop of Raiton chakra remaining in his system, channeling it onto the blade with desperate control.
The electrical energy didn't just coat the sword; it began condensing into a hyper-dense, brilliant, roaring mass of bluish-white light that shook the surrounding air and threw off sparks across the ground.
He was going to gamble everything on a single, final, devastating thrust at maximum speed.
Kimimaro, sensing the sheer volume of concentrated chakra and the absolute determination in Omoi's eyes, didn't attempt to dodge, fall back, or use evasive maneuvers. Out of respect for his opponent's effort, resolve, and honor, he chose to meet the assault head-on.
Kimimaro brought both forearms together in front of his chest and channeled his Kekkei Genkai. From his arms, shoulders, and torso, a dense and complex network of interlocking bones erupted outward at high speed, molding into a concave shield of hyper-dense bone that completely covered his front.
"AAAAAARRGH!"
With a resounding battle cry that echoed through every corner of the underground structure, Omoi charged forward. He left a trail of blue light and sparks in his wake, launching himself like a lightning meteor straight at Kimimaro's position.
"BOOOOOOM!"
The tip of the sword, loaded with the entirety of Omoi's Raiton, slammed directly into the center of the bone shield. The explosion of electrical energy, heat, and kinetic force kicked up a violent gust of wind that sent debris, rocks, and a thick cloud of dust flying across the entire arena.
The force of the frontal impact was so immense that the inertia began slowly pushing Kimimaro backward, causing his feet to carve two deep, marked grooves into the solid stone floor. Even worse, a series of cracks began spreading across the surface of the bone shield as the high-frequency electricity attempted to pierce the barrier.
"Its penetration power is truly impressive..." Kimimaro analyzed internally, feeling the extreme pressure and thermal vibration against his arms.
"If I don't reinforce my bones right now, the blade will break through the structure."
Without losing his composure, Kimimaro expanded the reach of his technique. From his ribs, sternum, and chest area, a second massive layer of dense, interlocking bones erupted, creating a double armor of absolute density directly behind the main concave shield.
The secondary barrier absorbed, neutralized, and dispersed the remaining kinetic and electrical energy of Omoi's final thrust. The steel blade, unable to penetrate the second layer of hyper-dense bone, lost all momentum and came to a dead stop.
The entire lightning charge coating the weapon dissipated into one last weak spark that quietly faded into the air.
Omoi stood completely frozen for a second, the tip of his sword resting uselessly against Kimimaro's bone armor. With not a single drop of chakra left in his reserves, his body battered by extreme exhaustion, pain, and blood loss, his vision went entirely dark. The sword slipped powerlessly from his fingers, and Omoi collapsed heavily face-first onto the stone arena, passing out from physical and mental exhaustion.
Kimimaro, sensing that the battle had come to a definitive end, smoothly retracted the mass of bones covering his body. The impressive bone structure was reabsorbed beneath his skin cleanly, without leaving a single mark, cut, or scar, returning his anatomy to normal.
Malenia stepped forward with firm strides toward the center of the arena, looking down at Omoi's unconscious body before raising her eyes to Kimimaro, who stood tall, immaculate, and barely breathing heavy.
"Omoi of Kumogakure is unable to continue!" Malenia proclaimed, raising her right arm toward the upper balcony. "The winner of the sixth match is Kimimaro Kaguya!"
On the surrounding balconies, the genin who had secured their spot in the finals watched Kimimaro with extreme caution and deep respect.
They knew full well that no matter who ended up facing him in the next stages of the tournament, fighting that Kaguya clan member would be a monumental test, a battle for survival, and an almost insurmountable obstacle to overcome.