Chapter 218: Shikamaru vs. Kabuto, a Battle of Throwing the Match
At this moment, Ino, who was occupying Zaku Abumi's body, stood still, a look of confusion in her eyes.
She was used to using her full spiritual power to control an enemy. Even when she had sparred with Akiyama Makoto, she had needed to use her full strength for the technique to be effective.
But now... she had only used a part of her spirit, and she had successfully taken control of Zaku?
This had to be mentioned: after he had raised the upper limit of her talent, and with her family's own spiritual training methods, her spiritual power had rapidly increased and had long since surpassed that of other ninja in her age group.
In terms of spiritual power alone, perhaps only Jōnin who specialized in genjutsu could surpass her. It was no wonder she had been able to control Zaku in an instant.
She quickly came to her senses, a triumphant smile on her face. She controlled Zaku's body to do a handstand in front of everyone. As a girl, she couldn't normally do such a thing.
Everyone also realized that she had succeeded and showed appreciative smiles. They had all thought there was no suspense in this battle, and that she would inevitably be the one to lose. But she had proven that the Yamanaka clan could also have their own combat power.
After her simple display, she manipulated Zaku to the edge of the arena, did a few warm-up exercises, and then smashed his head straight into the wall.
Just as he was about to hit it, she withdrew her spirit.
With a loud thud, Zaku, who had just regained control of his body, slammed his head into the wall. After a tragic cry, he was rendered unconscious.
On the other side, Ino had been on guard, in case he hadn't lost consciousness after that one hit and she needed to do it again. Only after Gekkō Hayate went over to confirm that Zaku had fainted and lost the ability to fight did she turn triumphantly to look at Sakura, giving her a peace sign.
Of course, in the end, she didn't forget to blow a kiss in Makoto's direction.
This scene made many jaws drop. Asuma even covered his face, exasperated.
Kurenai, however, was looking at him with a half-smile, which gradually turned playful, as if she was anticipating what interesting things were about to happen.
"Yamanaka Ino wins."
Hayate calmly announced the result. Her execution of her clan's secret technique had shown great skill, but unfortunately, compared to the wide-open battle between Sasuke and Yoroi, this match had been much less interesting.
The crowd then looked up at the big screen, awaiting the next match.
Makoto also looked at the screen, and his expression immediately became strange.
Nara Shikamaru vs. Yakushi Kabuto.
A "slacker king" who hated trouble versus a spy who had to lose and couldn't advance. This was great. Were the two of them going to compete to see who could throw the match harder?
The facts were just as he had predicted. When the two of them got on the field, they began to face each other with serious expressions, but neither had any intention of making a move.
At first, their staring contest attracted everyone's attention. But when it exceeded three minutes, someone finally got impatient.
"What are they doing?" Naruto asked Chōji curiously. Ino had already gone to the stands to rest, so Chōji was the one who knew Shikamaru best.
"If I had to guess... Shikamaru's waiting for a chance to surrender."
"Then what about Kabuto-senpai?"
"I don't know... Maybe he's also looking for a chance to surrender?"
Chōji had said it casually, but he had exposed the truth.
Seeming to realize that this couldn't go on, Kabuto finally made a move. Although he tried his best to make his movements look fast and sharp, he still disguised it as being at the genin level. At this time, Kabuto's strength was no less than Kakashi's—at least, that's what Orochimaru had said. One could imagine how hard he was trying to disguise himself.
Unfortunately for him, he had run into Nara Shikamaru.
Shikamaru's original plan was to just surrender in the finals and coast through the preliminaries. However, Kabuto's actions made him change his mind.
The thought that this considerate "senpai" had taken the exams for several years and had never even made it to the finals... Shikamaru felt this was a good opportunity to befriend him.
And so, after "struggling" to trade a few blows, he jumped back and, at a snail's pace, performed the Shadow Imitation Technique. But because the lights in the venue were too bright, his shadow wasn't long enough.
Kabuto, who had been ready to be "controlled," had his mouth twitch. He could only pretend to be startled and quickly retreated, then casually threw a single shuriken.
Caught "off guard," Shikamaru was pierced in the arm by the shuriken, and then, with a cry of pain, he fell to the ground, looking as if he were at death's door.
This scene left everyone in the venue silent.
Apart from him, everyone in the audience was a ninja. Any one of them could see that Shikamaru was acting.
Kabuto also looked at him, speechless. He then secretly glanced in Orochimaru's direction, afraid that he would be angry that he had advanced. Fortunately, Orochimaru wouldn't blame such a capable subordinate for such a small matter. He just nodded slightly, and Kabuto finally breathed a sigh of relief, deciding to just let nature take its course.
"Nara Shikamaru is injured. Yakushi Kabuto wins."
Hayate announced the result, exasperated. He helped Shikamaru up and whispered in his ear, "That's enough. Don't overdo it."
Shikamaru gave an embarrassed laugh, clutching his arm as he left the field to receive treatment. He didn't know yet that Kabuto was a spy. If he found out later that he had messed up Kabuto's plans, who knew what his expression would be.
Makoto calmly recorded the match results, while also predicting the next ones. The matches were already completely off-track from his memory. Even in his several simulations, he had never had this result. This meant that the final round of the Chūnin Exams would have a considerable margin of error... He just hoped the situation wouldn't become too ugly.
Then, the third match began, and he perked up.
Haruno Sakura vs. Kin Tsuchi.
He looked at her with interest. She was a Sound-nin, one of Orochimaru's subordinates, and had some skill. Most importantly, he remembered that in the original story, she was the one who had grabbed Sakura's hair, forcing her to cut it short and begin her counterattack.
But now, because he had improved Sakura's strength, she had managed to keep her hair during the exam. She still had her cute, long-haired image.
And as someone who had slept with her in his arms, he knew that her hair quality was excellent, almost the best of all the girls. This had clearly aroused Kin's jealousy.
"Hey, Konoha ninja. If I were you, I'd surrender now."
"Otherwise, I'll grab your hair and cut it off. It's something I've been wanting to do since the Forest of Death."
At this time, Sakura had already experienced the battle in the Land of Waves and had twice successfully restrained Zabuza. Her mindset was naturally no longer comparable to that of an ordinary genin.
Faced with Kin's provocation, she ran her fingers through her hair, and then, with a toss of her head, said, "It's a good thing you brought that up. At that time, we almost defeated you. It was all Naruto's fault..."
"Who's fault?!" Naruto complained from below. "There were three of them! It's normal that I couldn't beat them!"
He received a glare from Sakura in return, which scared him into shutting his mouth. Sakura had proven her strength more than once, and even he hadn't realized that he was, faintly, a little afraid of her.
"Hmph. You overestimate yourself. You just got lucky with a sneak attack genjutsu last time. I won't give you the chance to cast one now."
Kin's figure moved, and the bells on her body rang, directly releasing her own genjutsu, Bell Sound Senbon.
Amidst the ringing of the bells, many afterimages of her appeared in front of Sakura, each one holding a handful of senbon. Then, she and her illusions began to throw them, using this method to suppress Sakura and prevent her from forming hand seals, while she herself rushed in, wanting to overwhelm her with taijutsu.
This was a strategy she had come up with after she knew she would be fighting Sakura again. Once a genjutsu user was suppressed, what could they do?
Unfortunately for her, she had completely misunderstood Sakura.
The moment she got close, Sakura's powerful fist slammed into her, almost making her vomit up her stomach.
Although Sakura hadn't focused on taijutsu during this period, her Strength 9 talent was more than enough to make her punch's power no less than that of a Chūnin.
And the most crucial thing was, she hadn't even used the technique for Chakra Enhanced Strength. It wasn't that he didn't want to teach her, but that you couldn't bite off more than you could chew. They, in the end, couldn't learn everything as quickly as he could in a simulation.
Then, taking advantage of the opening that Kin had exposed from the punch, Sakura unceremoniously showed off her ultimate skill of forming different hand seals with both hands.
Water Style: Water Hail!
Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death!
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