In a certain Naruto game, Dosu was a C-rank ninja—the kind of character who'd be an R-rarity card—but because of an absurdly overpowered skill kit, Dosu at one point bloodily stomped all manner of "SSR" and "UR" units, becoming a "must-ban, must-pick" character. Hence the affectionate nickname "Six Paths Dosu."
But in reality… in the original story, Dosu got one-shot by Gaara—Gaara being the one with "Mom-sanoo," after all.
In truth, this Dosu Kinuta's ability wasn't actually that high to begin with.
In the original story's Official Databook, even the "vanilla" Sasuke surpassed Zaku's 32 stat-points with a data score of 37.
Incidentally, Rock Lee was 34, and Neji was 42—and if you stripped out ninjutsu and genjutsu, the two of them had equal stats.
Gaara, meanwhile, was slightly below the original Neji, at 40 points.
So the data in the Databook only represents a character's mastery of technique and their personal qualities—it can't represent their level in "actual combat."
Otherwise Dosu and Haruno Sakura would be a fifty-fifty matchup.
The Hidden Sound Village's body-modification technology was outstanding.
Every one of them was like they had a "Scientific Ninja Tool" installed in their body, one capable of performing "seal-less jutsu."
"Heh heh heh, Uchiha Sasuke, this time I will wash away my disgrace."
Neji and Lee had both been carried off by the Medical Team, and then Dosu walked to the center of the arena.
"Wash away your disgrace?"
Sasuke didn't get it.
But proud as he was, he couldn't be bothered with it.
Just a nobody.
Sasuke used the Body Flicker too, arriving in the arena.
Hanabi, on the other hand, knew what Dosu meant.
His Sound trio had come for Uchiha Sasuke in the first place.
When Hanabi had gone on her wild taunting spree at the start, she'd actually been trying to deal with these three. And now this exam was exactly the moment for "paying off the foreshadowing."
But what Hanabi never expected was that Orochimaru had gone and sent out Yakushi Kabuto directly.
—So, sorry about that. One-shotted. One-shotted, what can you say.
The Sound trio had no idea Sasuke had reached the Central Tower in just an hour and a half; the three of them had searched the wilds for ages before finally having to admit their mission was a failure.
And now, here in the arena, this was Six Paths Dosu's—oh, Dosu Kinuta's—chance.
Being in the arena meant the other party wouldn't simply flee, and on top of that, even if he "accidentally" killed his opponent right now, it wouldn't be a problem.
This was practically an assassination carried out in broad daylight!
"Lord Orochimaru, just watch closely!"
An opportunity this good—Dosu would absolutely not let it slip.
But the Orochimaru he was calling out to had his eyes, at this moment, fixed on Uchiha Sasuke.
From the moment Sasuke was about to step onto the stage, Orochimaru's gaze never left him.
"Now then, fourth preliminary match—begin."
At Gekko Hayate's command, the fourth match at last got underway.
Sasuke said nothing, just charged straight in and threw a punch at Dosu.
"Naive!" Dosu immediately raised his arm to block.
"You're the naive one!"
A sliver of a sinister smile hooked at the corner of Sasuke's mouth.
When other people pulled off that cocky, villainous smirk it was honestly a bit much to watch, but on an Uchiha, Hanabi felt it… was actually pretty fitting.
Dosu blocked with one hand, swinging his other arm toward Sasuke—but it was already too late, for in the very next instant, Sasuke's fist made contact with Dosu first.
"Boom!"
Dosu's entire body burst into flame.
[Arakami?]
[That's not Arakami, I'll eat my monitor]
[I had my suspicions back during Hanabi's fights, but thinking about it now, The Ninja's Path really does have a ton of moves paying homage to King of Fighters]
[Mai Shiranui is from Art of Fighting, thank you.]
[The hell, Mai Shiranui is from Fatal Fury!]
"Boom!"
Dosu was blasted flying by the punch, the fur on his body nearly catching fire, giving off wave after wave of a scorched stench.
"A seal-less jutsu?" Guy looked over at Kakashi, and Kakashi in turn looked over at Hanabi.
"It's a further variation of Inferno Style [TERM?: 炎天]," Hanabi said. "In the instant of contact, you make the flames burst open—just like that."
"Well, it's a jutsu my subordinate came up with on his own." Kakashi scratched his head.
Compared to Guy, who just handed his ultimate techniques right over, he was a bit of a slacker.
"Sasuke, nicely done—you're only a tiny bit worse than me now, hahaha!" Naruto was happy for Sasuke.
"As expected of Sasuke, one-shotting the enemy outright!" Ino of Team 10 cheered for Sasuke too.
"Hm?!"
But the very next moment, Sasuke himself dropped to his knees, while over there Dosu climbed up off the ground with a cold sneer.
"What's going on…? Could I have been attacked…?"
Sasuke suddenly felt a touch dizzy.
"No way—what happened to Sasuke?" Naruto hadn't caught what just happened either.
"It's sound waves. To be precise, ultrasound."
Hanabi couldn't see, so her other senses were sharper than an ordinary person's.
"Sasuke must have been hit by the vibration. He may not have noticed it himself, but that doesn't mean he's immune to the damage."
Cocky smirk one second, his cool collapsing the next…
Even Hanabi didn't know how to describe it.
—This couldn't possibly be my influence, right?
"My turn!"
Dosu reset his stance early, then came at Sasuke.
Sasuke raised his hands and began to defend.
"Hmph!" But Dosu let out a cold snort—this was exactly what he wanted. "Hm?!"
Yet in the next moment, when the two attacks made contact, there came a bursting blast.
Fire Style chakra exploded at his side.
"I don't know what your attack is about… but as long as I block it, that's fine, right!"
Sasuke still didn't know what was going on, but his combat instinct told him: don't make contact with this guy.
He didn't even need to use Inferno Style—he could deliberately let the jutsu fail and make the chakra burst, and that "walled off" the opponent's attack too.
"Damn it, a lucky fluke worked out for him…"
Dosu's attack came from sound waves, and Sasuke's move had unintentionally let most of his own attack be blocked.
And at that very moment, Sasuke kicked Dosu away, then raised his hand: "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
"What—don't tell me he completed the hand seals while we were fighting hand-to-hand?!" No one had seen Sasuke weave any seals, so the only possibility was that he'd done it during that close-quarters exchange just now!
Sasuke abruptly raised his hand, and a blazing flame howled forth, churning like a great dragon, baring its fangs and claws as it lunged at Dosu.
It was a Fireball, but this Fireball was completely different from the Fireball back when he'd just graduated. The jutsu itself had been folded into the rhythm of the attack, becoming a part of his combo rather than a standalone technique.
Scorching heat filled the area, making it hard to breathe.
But Dosu, though startled, did not fear Sasuke. He raised his right hand. On that hand was a ninja tool made specifically to amplify sound waves.
"Resonating Echo Drill!"
Sound waves bloomed instantly from his right hand, forming a vortex-like field of force that shattered Sasuke's flames one by one. A violent gale of sound whipped up, a deafening roar shaking the entire exam hall.
And sound itself was "penetrating" damage. Sasuke, who'd been showing off just a second ago, was immediately struck by this move—and with a great boom his whole body crashed to the ground once more…