Hey guys, here is the new chapter hope you will liked and read thru everything.
If we hit 100PW I post a extra chapter.
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The metallic display panel vibrated with a sharp hum before its characters lit up in glowing gold:
Sunae (Sunagakure) vs. Karui (Kumogakure).
In the balcony reserved for the Cloud shinobi, the air instantly turned heavy. Omoi, arms crossed and eyes fixed on the screen, grit his teeth as he chewed on his lollipop with unusual force.
The defeat he had suffered in his own previous match still burned like an open wound, and knowing Karui was the last representative of their team left in the arena added a crushing weight of pressure.
"Listen, Karui..." Omoi began, trying to sound cautious.
"That girl from the Sand isn't an ordinary genin. She's the Kazekage's daughter... don't make the mistake of rushing in headfirst without testing the waters first. If you drop your guard for even a second"
"Shut your mouth, Omoi!" Karui cut him off sharply, turning around with her eyes burning in suppressed anger.
She adjusted the strap of the long katana slung across her back and clenched her fists.
"I don't need your defeatist speeches before going down there! The Cloud isn't leaving this exam empty-handed. I'm going to crush that Sand kid and bring home our first victory, got it?!"
Without waiting for a reply, Karui vaulted over the stone railing and leaped downward, landing squarely in the center of the arena with a resonant thud of her military boots against the stone.
On the opposite side of the balconies, Suna's Team A observed the scene with refined composure. Guren, as the team's sensei, leaned against the stone wall with her arms crossed, analyzing the red-haired kunoichi who had just leaped into the ring.
Beside her, Daiku watched the leisurely pace at which Sunae began descending the stone steps walking with an almost lazy ease, yet radiating absolute confidence.
"That Cloud girl has guts, but the victory is already decided," Guren remarked, lightly adjusting her collar.
"The Kumo girl might put on a bit of a surprise show. But Sunae... Sunae is a monster in close-quarters combat. There's no possible match-up where a sword specialist can break someone with her level of mastery."
"Agreed," Daiku added serenely, watching his sister's relaxed shoulders.
"Sunae has skill sets that make her remarkably versatile as a ninja. Plus, her unique style is going to catch Karui completely off guard."
Down below on the arena floor, Malenia positioned herself in the neutral space between both competitors.
The proctor raised her hand, sensing the opposing spirits of the two kunoichi: Karui's fierce, impetuous rage versus Sunae's cool, eager serenity.
Sunae stopped a few meters away, calmly cracking her knuckles. Her pink eyes sparkled with a spark of genuine anticipation.
"Eighth match!" Malenia announced, her voice echoing into every corner of the subterranean colosseum.
"Sunae versus Karui!"
The proctor's hand dropped in a swift vertical slice.
"BEGIN!"
"Don't think I'm going to give you room to breathe!" Karui roared.
In one fluid motion, Karui drew her long katana. The metal gleamed beneath the arena lights as a current of Lightning-style (Raiton) chakra danced along the blade, emitting a sharp crackle.
Propelling herself with breathtaking speed, Karui blurred into a streak of blue, closing the distance in a fraction of a second and delivering a horizontal slash straight toward Sunae's neck.
The strike was flawless, designed to decapitate or force a frantic retreat. Yet Sunae didn't take a single step back.
With a subtle tilt of her head, Sunae leaned her torso back just a couple of centimeters. The lightning-infused blade sliced through the air millimeters from her face, leaving a trace of ozone in its wake. Without breaking momentum, Karui instinctively shifted the angle of her katana, converting the miss into a downward slash aiming directly for her opponent's shoulder.
Sunae reacted with razor-sharp precision: she raised her left forearm armored with a thick fabric and metal guard deflecting the blade with a hard impact that set off a shower of electrical sparks.
CLANG!
"Good start!" Sunae exclaimed, a wide grin spreading across her face.
"But you'll have to move a lot faster if you want to make me sweat!"
Sunae slowly exhaled the air trapped in her lungs, taking a deep breath in her throat.
The Sand kunoichi's body temperature began to rise sharply as she settled into her fighting stance.
"First Heavenly Breath," Sunae uttered in a low voice.
Suddenly, the flow of chakra inside Sunae's body accelerated into a rhythmic surge. Her muscles tightened slightly, and a current of compressed air burst from her pores.
When Karui lunged again with a rapid barrage of three consecutive thrusts, Sunae was no longer just blocking: she began dodging the strikes with minimal movements, weaving side to side as if dancing through the electrical sparks.
Karui grit her teeth, increasing the flow of Raiton into her arms to pick up the pace.
Kumogakure's swordsmanship was famous for its relentless ferocity, and Karui was executing a flawless series of angled slashes, seeking to wear down the Sand kunoichi's guard.
Swish! Swish! Clang!
Sunae used the bare palm of her hand to strike the flat side of Karui's blade, knocking the sword's momentum straight into the stone ground and driving the tip slightly into the rock.
Seizing the split second Karui spent trying to free her weapon, Sunae drove a knee strike straight toward the Cloud kunoichi's chin.
Karui, displaying impressive flexibility and a survival instinct forged in the mountains of Kumo, released her grip on the hilt for a microsecond, snapping her head back to avoid having her jaw shattered, and planted a flying kick with her boot straight onto Sunae's chest to create distance.
The impact of Karui's boot against Sunae's chest echoed loudly, but Sunae barely receded two steps, absorbing the blow with a firm torso.
Karui reclaimed her katana's handle upon landing, bracing one hand against the floor as she panted lightly.
"She has ridiculous physical strength..." Karui thought, feeling the vibration of the clash still rattling through her leg joints.
"It's like trying to kick a column of solid stone. And that technique... it boosted all her physical attributes."
"That's right! That's why it's my favorite technique! Now keep up that aggressiveness!" Sunae shouted, beaming with overwhelming enthusiasm.
The air around her began to warp subtly under her body's internal pressure.
"Let's turn up the heat!"
Sunae inhaled even deeper, filling her lungs to their absolute physical limit and forcing her heart to pump chakra at a breakneck rate.
"Second Heavenly Breath."
A visible gust of wind exploded outward from Sunae's feet, kicking up a storm of dust in the arena. Veins bulged subtly around her temples and arms, and her physical speed vanished entirely from ordinary sight.
BOOM!
The stone floor beneath Sunae cracked violently as the Sand ninja launched herself forward.
Karui barely had time to cross her katana in a defensive guard before Sunae's fist collided squarely against the center of the blade.
The shockwave of air generated by the Second Breath was so savage that Karui felt the bones in her arms groan under the strain.
The blast hurled Karui backward, her boots sliding frantically across the rock and leaving two deep grooves in the arena floor as she fought to maintain her footing.
Without giving her a single second to recover, Sunae materialized at Karui's right flank, unleashing a sweeping low spin-kick. Karui leaped into the air on instinct, but the air-blade produced by Sunae's kick sliced through the floor beneath her like a physical razor.
In midair, Karui channeled a massive surge of Raiton throughout her body, discharging electrical sparks across a two-meter radius to keep Sunae at bay.
"Don't get close to me so easily!" Karui screamed from above, bringing down a descending slash wrapped in brilliant lightning.
Karui's aerial strike carried her full body weight and the maximum load of chakra she could muster. Sunae smirked, throwing her chakra-enveloped fist upward to intercept the blow.
The lightning-sheathed katana collided with Sunae's fist, sparking a small explosion of light and smoke.
Sparks of Raiton coursed down Sunae's arms, lightly singeing the skin on her knuckles, but Sunae didn't yield an inch.
She held the blade at bay with her fists, taking the brunt of the Cloud technique while looking Karui dead in the eye at point-blank range.
"You handle ranged clashes pretty well," Sunae acknowledged, feeling the electric pulse ripple through her muscles.
"Anyone else would have dropped their sword from exhaustion by now. The Cloud really trains hard."
Karui, landing back in front of her with ragged breathing and arms trembling from the sustained effort, grit her teeth in desperation.
Her muscles burned from prolonged Raiton usage to match the speed, and the physical pressure Sunae exerted was simply suffocating. Every clash with the Sand ninja felt like slamming directly into an avalanche.
"I'm not... done yet!" Karui gasped, readjusting her footing.
"I won't lose here!"
Up in the higher balconies, the spectating audience held its breath. The intensity of the hand-to-hand combat was fierce a pure display of stamina and speed that kept everyone glued to the action.
"Karui is reaching her physical limit," Omoi muttered from the Kumogakure terrace, gripping the railing until his knuckles turned white.
"She's forcing her body just to keep spacing with her blade, but that other girl... that other girl hasn't even started to tire out."
"Shut up, Omoi, I can't focus on the fight with you babbling!" Samui interrupted, her eyes glued to the arena floor.
Down below, Sunae let out a clear, vibrant laugh, thoroughly enjoying her rival's tenacity.
"I love your attitude!" Sunae called out, lowering her center of gravity slightly.
"Out of respect for your resilience, I'm going to show you a taste of this technique's true power!"
Sunae drew her third breath. This time, her inhalation was so forceful that the air rushing into her lungs sounded like the howl of a sandstorm tearing through a canyon.
Her muscle mass expanded visibly across her shoulders and legs, and a violent aura of translucent pink chakra erupted from her body, distorting the surrounding air like a desert mirage.
"Third Heavenly Breath."
The sheer volume of chakra bursting from Sunae caused loose pebbles on the arena floor to hover from the sheer barometric pressure.
Karui felt the air grow heavy and stifling to breathe. Before she could even process the terrifying surge of power, Sunae moved.
There was no sound of footwork. She simply vanished.
Karui moved purely on instinct, twisting her body and crossing her katana in a cross-guard before her chest. A millisecond later, Sunae's fist detonated directly against the center of the steel blade.
BOOOOOOM!
The blast wave generated by the Third Breath was so destructive that the gale-force impact sent Karui flying backward.
The Cloud kunoichi tumbled meters through the air, skipping across the hard rock before managing to jam the tip of her katana into the ground to brake her momentum. A trickle of blood oozed from the corner of her lips, her legs shaking uncontrollably.
Sunae was already right in front of her again, unleashing an unrelenting flurry of high-speed strikes.
Sunae executed a seamless combination of straight punches, elbow strikes, and rising kicks. Karui was forced into a completely desperate defense, using the flat side of her long katana as an improvised shield to deflect the blows aimed at shattering her torso.
Every strike from Sunae sounded like a heavy sledgehammer slamming against an anvil; cracks spiderwebbed across the floor with every step they took.
"She's too fast! Too strong!" Karui thought frantically, feeling her wrists on the verge of snapping beneath the brute physical force of the Third Breath.
"If I stay on the defensive, she's going to break my arms along with my sword. I have to gamble everything on a single move!"
Cornered against the side wall of the arena, Karui saw Sunae's right fist driving straight for her face.
Instead of blocking, Karui jerked her body sharply to the left, letting Sunae's fist graze her cheek and embed itself deep into the stone wall behind her, kicking up a cloud of debris.
Capitalizing on that fraction of a second where Sunae's fist was lodged in the rock, Karui poured every remaining drop of her Raiton chakra into her arms and legs. She concentrated every ounce of her willpower into one final surprise counterattack.
"GO DOWN ALREADY!" Karui roared with all her strength.
Gripping the long katana with both hands, Karui executed a lightning-fast upward diagonal slash, aimed straight at Sunae's exposed flank and neck. The streak of blue light illuminated the rock wall a flawless, swift, lethal, and unpredicted strike born from the absolute desperation of a Cloud warrior.
The steel blade sliced through the air millimeters from Sunae's skin.
Yet, Sunae didn't show a single flicker of panic.
As she watched the metal blade approach her neck, Sunae's gaze sharpened, and a confident smirk formed on her lips.
In that precise instant, Sunae activated her Kekkei Genkai.
Without needing hand seals, a flood of super-concentrated, incandescent chakra suddenly erupted from the pores of her right hand.
The skin of her hand and forearm was instantly enveloped in a brilliant orange-red glow, releasing a monstrous heat that raised the surrounding temperature by hundreds of degrees in a microsecond.
Scorch Release (Shakuton).
Sunae snapped her right hand forward with superhuman speed and, rather than dodging the incoming slash, snatched the steel blade directly with her bare palm.
A deafening shriek of instant-melting metal reverberated across the entire arena.
The terrifying heat of the Shakuton concentrated in Sunae's hand didn't just stop the lethal blade cold inches from her face the steel of Karui's prized katana turned glowing red-hot in the blink of an eye.
The current of Raiton coating the blade dissipated instantly, overwhelmed by pure thermal energy. Before Karui's horrified eyes, the metal of her weapon melted away like wax, turning into a liquid orange fluid that dripped uselessly onto the stone floor.
Karui froze, left holding nothing but the scorched wooden hilt of her ruined sword, her guard completely broken and her face distorted in utter shock.
"Nice strike..." Sunae said softly, her right fist still glowing with radiant orange heat.
"...but it's over."
Taking advantage of Karui's paralysis, Sunae took a quick step forward.
With Scorch Release still blazing around her fist, she combined it with the remaining momentum of the Third Heavenly Breath and delivered a clean, brutal, and unyielding blow with her left knuckles straight into Karui's solar plexus.
THUD!
The shockwave tore straight through Karui's body. The air was violently knocked out of her lungs in a single gasp, her eyes rolled back from the agonizing pain, and the sheer force of the blow instantly severed her consciousness.
Sunae pulled back her fist with grace. Karui remained standing for a split second suspended by inertia, before collapsing face-first onto the arena stone, completely unconscious and disarmed, leaving a dark burn mark scorched onto her chest.
Silence reclaimed the arena as the dust cloud and heat vapor settled slowly.
Malenia walked with firm strides into the center of the ring, looked down at the Cloud kunoichi's prone body, and then turned her gaze toward Sunae, who let out a long breath of hot air, allowing the Third Breath to gradually deactivate as she returned to her normal state.
Malenia raised her arm high toward the balconies.
"Combatant Karui of Kumogakure is unable to continue!" Malenia declared in a clear, authoritative voice.
"The winner of the eighth match is Sunae of Sunagakure!"
A burst of cheers erupted from the Sand genin section as Sunae brushed dust off her shoulders with a satisfied smile, tossing a brief wave to the crowd before heading out of the combat area.
In the Kumogakure balcony, Omoi stood frozen, staring at his teammate's motionless body below.
Beside him, the imposing figure of Killer B shifted silently. The experienced Cloud Jinchūriki cast aside his usual rhyming and carefree demeanor; his face carried a profound seriousness as he adjusted the blades on his back.
Without a word, Killer B leaped down from the balcony, landing softly in the arena. He walked up to Karui, knelt down carefully, and lifted his student into his arms with gentle precision.
Slinging her over his shoulder, B gave Sunae a brief, respectful glance before turning around and heading down the lower corridor straight toward the arena's medical bay.
Inside the medical facility, the atmosphere was thick and gloomy.
Karui rested on one of the white cots, an IV hooked up to her arm and bandages wrapping her torso where the final blow and burns had landed.
Off to the side of the room, Omoi and Samui stood in total silence, staring at the floor with their morale completely shattered.
Not a single one of the three had managed to qualify for the finals of the Chunin Exams. The Kumogakure delegation, famous for its military pride and undeniable strength, had been entirely wiped out before reaching the final stage.
The cot sheets rustled slightly as Karui began to regain consciousness. She opened her eyes with difficulty, feeling a sharp pain in her chest and an empty pit in her stomach as the memory of her sword melting flashed through her mind.
"Guys..." Karui rasped, trying to sit up, only for a groan of pain to force her back down.
"I'm sorry... I was an idiot. I promised I'd win and... I got destroyed."
Omoi clenched his fists without looking up. "Don't say that... We all fell. I lost my fight, Samui lost hers... None of us have room to talk."
At that moment, the door to the medical bay opened with a dull thud.
Killer B stepped into the room, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned his back against the doorframe. His imposing presence filled the space, setting a tone far different from his usual antics.
"Master B..." Samui said dejectedly, bowing her head.
"We failed the village. Not one of us qualified for the next phase. We dragged Kumo's name through the dirt."
Killer B remained silent for a few seconds, observing the dim, defeated faces of his three students. Then, he let out a long sigh and spoke in a deep, calm voice, stripped of all theatrical rhythm.
"Raise your heads," B ordered firmly.
The three genin looked up, surprised by the seriousness on their instructor's face.
"This defeat stings, I know," Killer B continued, looking squarely at Karui, then at Omoi and Samui.
"But if you only see this as a disgrace to Kumo, then you really wasted your time coming here. You need to open your eyes and see the reality of what just happened in that arena."
B stepped into the center of the room, gesturing toward the direction of the underground arena.
"The other villages haven't been sitting around waiting for us to stay the strongest," B explained with absolute clarity.
"Suna, Konoha... they are training absolute monsters in this new generation. They have kids mastering legendary breathing techniques, terrifying bloodlines, and chakra reserves that rival our best veteran troops."
Karui gripped her bedsheets in suppressed frustration, taking in her master's words.
"You are the future of Kumogakure," Killer B declared, staring them right in the eyes.
"If you stay trapped in the pride that our village is invincible and fail to build your strength, your speed, and your discipline starting today... in the future, if a real war breaks out, Suna and the other villages won't just beat you in an exam. They will run right over you on the battlefield."
Killer B's words landed with the weight of an unavoidable truth. It wasn't a scolding for losing it was a stark warning about the shinobi world they would soon have to face as adults.
Karui stared down at her bandaged hands and chest, feeling the frustration of her loss slowly turn into a burning flame of resolve. Omoi looked up with fierce determination in his eyes, and Samui nodded with a firm, renewed expression.
"Understood, Master B," Karui said resolutely, ignoring the pain in her torso as she met her instructor's gaze.
"We won't get left behind. We're going back to Kumo, and we're going to train until nobody can ever break our guard again."
"That's what I want to hear," B concluded with a solemn nod.
"Get some rest. Your real battle begins when we get back home."
With those words echoing in the minds of the young Cloud ninjas, the chapter of their participation in the exams came to a close, paving the way for their preparation for the wars and challenges of the future.
End of Chapter