"Don't go disappointing me now, Sasuke~"
Orochimaru gazed at Sasuke down on the arena.
"So that's it… sound, is it? Hmph."
Because it was the second time he'd been hit by sound, this time Sasuke adapted to it quickly.
"He saw through the enemy's attack on the second go—truly worthy of being Kakashi's subordinate." Guy had seen through the move too, but he was a Jōnin, and for Sasuke, a Genin, to see through it on the second try was already very impressive.
After Dosu blocked the Great Fireball, he immediately launched a pursuit, and Sasuke drew a kunai to counter.
Their figures crossed and wove together, the battle growing fiercer.
One sound-wave attack after another came without cease.
Sasuke, for his part, gathered Inferno Style onto the kunai, and every block sent sparks scattering—but it also blocked the opponent's "sound" exactly right.
Sound waves and flame interwove into a dazzling tableau in the air, like a collision of art.
"As I thought—art is an explosion~"
Forget whether it was strong or not, just look at how lively the fight was.
The audience, at least, was satisfied.
Compared to the earlier pure-fistfight animation, this current situation, special effects flying everywhere, fit some of the viewers' mental image of a "ninja" far better.
Even if it didn't earn fans, the popularity was still worth having.
Hanabi and Jingliu's Character Cards would only provide the next trait once they leveled up to LV7, and LV3 to LV4 was a hundred thousand Popularity Points, and LV4 to LV7 each step required another hundred thousand too—meaning, to level up to LV7 took a full one million Popularity Points.
With the fight at its height, a flash of cunning crossed Sasuke's eyes. He retreated quickly, then leapt up, springing to the high point of the statue where Lee had once stood.
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Bullet!"
With a low roar, he spat out a flame gathered even denser and more solid.
"Hm, not good!"
Dosu meant to dodge, but suddenly he discovered there was a sudden mass of fluffy, fibrous material in the air—and the smell of oil!
This Fire Dragon Bullet wasn't meant to deal with him—it was an accelerant!
"Boom!"
The surrounding air ignited in an instant, becoming a burning sea of fire.
Dosu retreated fast, leaping with everything he had to the far side of the arena.
"Resonating Echo Drill!"
Wave after wave of sound ripples spread out from his arm. Sound and flame interwove, forming one grand collision.
"Ugh…! Agh!"
The poor audience members all got caught in the crossfire—Naruto in particular took a ball of flame to the forehead, though luckily the damage was minor.
The whole exam hall really took a beating; quite a few of the floor tiles and walls had already cracked.
"What a pain to deal with."
Sasuke had thought he could wipe the guy out in one shot just now, but he never expected this Dosu would actually defend against it.
"Looks like I can't keep hiding my hand either."
Sasuke sneered, then undid the weights on his body and threw them to the ground.
"Hm?!" Guy looked over at Kakashi with a subtle expression.
—Wasn't this guy just saying a moment ago that he himself was being reckless?
[Classic boomerang]
[Got fooled, huh—the Leaf are all weight-training experts on average]
[Foreign ninja: You Leaf people all love pulling this weight-training thing, huh?!]
[Still hiding more, still hiding more!]
It had never crossed Dosu's mind that Sasuke would have weights on him too.
A moment ago Dosu had gotten used to Sasuke's speed, but now Sasuke's speed suddenly climbed another notch. Dosu was overwhelmed on every side, reduced to passive defense.
It was just that, strong as Sasuke's Fire Style was, Dosu could blow the Fire Style away every time.
"Not good—Sasuke's being completely hard-countered!"
Naruto was anxious on Sasuke's behalf.
True, Sasuke could cancel out a bit of the sound damage, but he couldn't cancel it out completely, so even now he would still take damage.
This damage accumulated inside Sasuke's body, and sooner or later it would cause trouble.
"You saw even that?" Kakashi looked over at Naruto.
"Th-that, that, Sasuke's chakra is really off!" Naruto didn't know how to explain it either.
"You really are… more and more like him…"
Kakashi sighed the words for no clear reason, then turned his gaze back to the arena floor.
Kushina: ...
Kakashi had no idea Kushina was right there on the scene. The self-muttering-prone Kakashi nearly made Kushina squirm out of her skin with that one line.
But after cringing all the way down to the earth's core, Kushina, too, sank into thought.
It was true.
Naruto was becoming more and more like her.
But there was a problem with that.
And what's more, every time she manifested by borrowing Naruto's body, it caused problems.
"So it really is my existence that's affecting Naruto?"
In the moment right after being summoned, the departed could return to the Pure Land simply by refusing; but once fully summoned out, they had to "die" in order to leave.
Just like Toji Fushiguro—he, too, broke free of a possession through suicide.
But the problem was, the instant she left, the Nine-Tails inside her would once again return to Naruto.
The talent Naruto was now displaying was, on one hand, because of Kushina; and on the other hand, it was also because the Nine-Tails' own influence had lessened, letting Naruto manifest more of his own original power.
"You're… not willing to accept it either, are you? This Hidden Leaf Village, it turned him into this…"
"Nine-Tails?!"
The structure of Spirit Descent differed from other seals. The reason the Nine-Tails had been silent all this while was that it had been completely dominated by the "outer shell," Kushina.
Yet just now, the Nine-Tails' voice had come through.
A voice of evil, brimming with hatred.
Except, after that voice, the Nine-Tails' voice vanished once again.
"Now this is a pleasant surprise…" Hanabi had watched the whole thing unfold.
She couldn't see Kushina, of course. But up on the Stage's screen, the scene just now had been broadcast exactly as it happened.
The Nine-Tails had practically become a "battery" earlier.
But the Nine-Tails' essence wasn't a physical body—it was chakra. So as Kushina relied on the Nine-Tails' chakra to fight, the Nine-Tails was finally able to break past its constraints once more.
And it was different from a decade-odd ago.
In a certain sense, the position Kushina occupied right now was actually a little similar to the Nine-Tails'.
"Hm, I wonder if there's some way to communicate with the Nine-Tails."
With a Sharingan, she might really find a chance to talk with the Nine-Tails—but the Byakugan didn't have that kind of capacity.
"If I could get a line through to the Nine-Tails, maybe I could make this world even livelier…"
So Hanabi mused, her gaze returning once again to the match.
Sure enough, the injuries accumulating inside Sasuke's body grew more and more severe. The Sasuke who'd been beating Dosu down now, partway through, flopped over himself.
Don't get the wrong idea—Sasuke hadn't lost yet at this point. He'd merely lost his sense of direction from the dizziness, his whole body gone "numb."
"Heh heh heh heh, I've finally waited out this moment."
The Dosu who'd been getting beaten down the whole way had it rough too.
But now, the chance to win had returned to his side.
The advantage is mine!