"You're not getting close to me!"
Temari smiled as she watched Hinata trying to close the distance, and kept sending waves of Wind Style attacks at her.
Unlike Hinata, Temari wasn't good at close-range combat, so there was no way she was going to let the fight get close.
As long as she kept using her Wind Style well, Hinata losing was only a matter of time.
Hinata knew she didn't have much in the way of long-range attacks, so she kept trying different ways to get close to Temari.
But Temari's wind techniques were nearly impossible to deal with—she had no opening!
Unless...
After clashing a few more times, Hinata finally found a chance and rolled toward Temari.
Temari didn't panic. She used the same move again—another wind attack.
But this time, Hinata didn't even try to dodge. She just pushed through the wind and forced her way in, even if it meant getting hurt!
"What?!"
Temari never expected that this quiet, gentle-looking girl could go so hard.
But... still too naive!
Even with Hinata right in front of her, Temari stayed calm and even smiled a bit.
She folded up her big iron fan and used it as a shield, blocking Hinata from getting any closer.
Then, just as Hinata was caught off guard, Temari grabbed her fan and swung it hard.
Hinata didn't have time to dodge. She threw up her arms to block, but still got smacked and sent flying into the wall!
The fight wasn't over yet, but the winner was already clear.
Even though Hinata had studied Temari's fighting style ahead of time, her strength still wasn't enough!
A month wasn't nearly enough time for her to make a big improvement. Losing was expected.
Hinata kept fighting for a while longer before a few jonin stepped in to end the match and help her.
After the fight, Naruto wanted to go check on her at the medical room.
But since he was up next, he had to head back to the arena instead.
"Hmph. Kid, you looked pretty good in the prelims, but I've already figured out how to beat you!"
Dosu walked up and started running his mouth right away, even raising his sound tube to show off.
Naruto ignored him and turned to look at Shiranui Genma.
"Can we start the fight now?"
Shiranui Genma bit down on a senbon and glanced at Naruto. "Alright, the fourth match begins!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Dosu immediately got ready to move first to deal with Naruto's strange speed.
But before he could even react, a flash of gold pierced straight through his heart.
Instant KO!!
The whole place went silent.
No one expected a ninja who had made it this far to get taken out in a single hit!
"Hey, shouldn't you be announcing the result?" Naruto said to the stunned Shiranui Genma.
"Oh! Right!"
"The fourth match is over! The winner is — Uzumaki Naruto!!"
"YEAHHHHHH!!"
Even though the fight between Naruto and Dosu wasn't exciting, Naruto's power had the crowd fired up.
"So this is a ninja from the Konoha? He's really strong!"
"Yeah, both Leaf ninjas from the first match, and now this one from the fourth match—they're all powerful!"
"Uzumaki Naruto? His last name is Uzumaki? Could he be from that clan?"
...
Naruto's performance caused quite a stir. The Daimyos and nobles were already favoring the Leaf Village, and now they were even more impressed!
Medical Room.
Several people were lying in beds at the moment.
Neji Hyuga, Rock Lee, and Hinata were all there.
Naruto didn't look at Neji or Lee. He walked straight to Hinata's side.
"Feeling any better?"
Hinata clearly didn't expect Naruto to come see her on purpose. Her face turned bright red.
"Y-Yeah… much better." Her voice was barely above a whisper—anyone standing just a bit farther away wouldn't have heard her.
"Hey, Naruto, aren't you supposed to be fighting? What are you doing here?" Kiba looked at him, confused.
"Yeah, Naruto! Wasn't your match against that ninja from the Hidden Sound? You didn't skip the match just to come see me, did you?" Hinata asked nervously.
"He didn't skip it—he already finished it," Kurenai said as she walked in from outside.
"Finished it?"
Everyone looked confused, except Kurenai, who was looking at Naruto with admiration.
"Just now, Naruto beat his opponent with only one move. That's why he got here so fast."
"One move? That's it?"
Kiba was shocked at first. But then he remembered how Naruto performed in the second exam, and suddenly it didn't seem all that strange.
This guy had a move that could take out all the dogs from the Inuzuka clan. So taking down a genin with one hit? Nothing surprising about that.
Once he thought it through, Kiba calmed down too.
"I'm heading out," Naruto suddenly said.
"You're not staying a bit longer?"
Kurenai tried to stop him.
She could tell Hinata liked Naruto. But Naruto… he was hard to read.
If he liked her, he sure wasn't showing it clearly.
But if he didn't like her, why did he come all the way here just to check on her?
"Nope."
Naruto said quietly, then left without even turning around—leaving Kurenai even more puzzled about what was going on in his head.
At that moment—
Sasuke and Gaara were already fighting in the arena!
Unlike before when he focused on speed, this time Sasuke was swinging the Executioner's Blade in wide, heavy strikes, and he actually managed to break through Gaara's Absolute Defense!
If Gaara didn't have the sand armor under his shield, Sasuke probably could've injured him with that giant sword alone.
Realizing that Sasuke wasn't someone to mess with, Gaara also got serious.
Waves of sand surged toward Sasuke like a tidal wave, making it hard for him to move around freely.
The Executioner's Blade was strong, but it could only block attacks from one direction!
It couldn't give Sasuke full protection.
After a few intense rounds, Sasuke activated his Sharingan and dropped the giant sword. Then, he burst out with speed on par with Rock Lee when he opened the gates!
At such high speed, Gaara's sand couldn't keep up, and he was quickly put on the back foot.
Eventually, Gaara realized Sasuke was hard to deal with and sealed himself inside a sand sphere.
Inside the sphere, Gaara could both attack and defend, and he didn't have to worry about Sasuke using tricks with his speed. He could just wait it out.
It was a good plan—except he underestimated Sasuke's power.
When Sasuke saw Gaara hiding inside that shell, he first threw some kunai to test it out.
When the kunai didn't work, he picked up the Executioner's Blade and started hacking at the sphere again.
But even with his current strength, Sasuke couldn't break through the sand ball.
After several strikes, not only did he fail to crack the defense, but he was even cut by spikes that suddenly shot out from the sand.
"Che! Looks like I've got no choice but to use that!"
Sasuke had been trying to hold back a bit, but Gaara's strength was way beyond what he expected. He had no choice now but to go all out.
"Chidori!"
---
Read 40 advanced chapters on my patreon
patreon.com/GustinaKamiya
---