Chapter 519: Is the Ninja Master related to Nagato’s darkening? (Double update, please give me a monthly ticket)

Sand Crab versus Stone Bear!

Shadow Clone Kakashi Hatake stared intently at the battle arena.

This was the final round of the preliminaries; after a one-day break, the elimination rounds would begin.

Sand Crab walked into the arena with the same indifferent expression as before, showing no signs of nervousness.

However, Sand Crab’s opponent, Stone Bear, looked as if he was facing a formidable enemy.

Although Sand Crab didn’t use exaggerated, large-scale Ninjutsu like Nagato right from the start, his casual way of dealing with enemies always made Stone Bear wary.

“Earth Release: Rock Iron Cannon Technique!”

Stone Bear quickly formed hand signs and spat out stones towards Sand Crab, which rapidly grew in size as they flew, like launched cannonballs.

This was a military Ninjutsu of Iwagakure; when used together by the Iwagakure Ninja Force, it had immense power, and even in solo combat, it was a decent offensive Ninjutsu.

Sand Crab maintained his indifferent expression, dodging Iwagakure’s attacks while pulling out a scroll.

The next moment, a hunched old man with an iron barb resembling a scorpion’s tail on his back appeared in the arena and rapidly rushed towards Stone Bear.

“Puppet Master,” Kakashi Hatake thought, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Such a technique was undoubtedly the Puppet Jutsu developed by the Second Kazekage.

“Could this guy be a rogue Sand Ninja?” Kakashi Hatake wondered, a hint of suspicion in his mind.

Although Puppet Master techniques were no longer exclusive to Hidden Sand Village since their development, non-Sand Ninja Puppet Masters had basically never achieved great fame, at least not that Kakashi Hatake had heard of.

And the level of Puppet Master skill displayed by Sand Crab was quite extraordinary; just by releasing one puppet, he rapidly suppressed his opponent, Stone Bear.

Even an outsider like Kakashi Hatake could sense Sand Crab’s proficiency in controlling puppets.

With such a level of Puppet Jutsu at an age no older than eighteen, Kakashi Hatashi found it hard to believe that the opponent was self-taught.

For a Ninjutsu style like Puppet Jutsu, which hadn’t existed for long, the teacher’s skill was very important.

Of course, with no evidence, Kakashi Hatake couldn’t report Sand Crab; at most, he would pay more attention to him.

Under Sasori’s exquisite Puppet Jutsu, Stone Bear was quickly forced into a desperate situation and lost the battle.

“Sand Crab wins, advancing to the elimination rounds!”

After the referee announced the battle result, Sasori quickly put away his puppet and walked straight out, ignoring everyone.

He had no interest in anything here; Sasori only came because the fourth-place prize was a Chakra blade worth tens of millions of ryo.

He wanted to melt that Chakra blade down and use it for puppet creation.

Sasori didn’t care about other contestants and had no intention of gathering information; his only goal was fourth place.

Actually, Sasori felt that if he used his full power, taking first place should be very easy, after all, he was one of the few people in the Ninja World who had killed a Kage.

However, Sasori had no such intention; firstly, the reward he needed was the fourth-place prize, and secondly, if he used his full power, he might not even be able to claim the prize.

Sasori was participating in the competition under someone else’s identity.

Although he hadn’t been declared a wanted Ninja by Sunagakure yet, there were Sand Ninja at the Martial Arts Tournament, and if he brought out the Third Kazekage’s Human Puppet, Sunagakure would definitely immediately mobilize Ninja to hunt him down.

Sasori didn’t want to expose himself before achieving his goal.

…

Since the Shadow Clone had finished watching Sasori’s battle, Kakashi Hatake’s main body went directly to Nagato’s bracket.

Nagato’s fighting style was still as simple and unadorned: a barrage of high-power Ninjutsu forced his opponents to surrender.

“Nagato, let’s go. Yahiko should be finishing up soon,” Konan said to Nagato.

She and Nagato were contestants in the same bracket, but her number was very early.

Nagato nodded and went with Konan to Yahiko’s bracket.

Kakashi Hatake showed a thoughtful expression upon seeing this; this strong female Ninja should also be a member of the Akatsuki Organization.

Because the Akatsuki Organization was currently harmless, Kakashi Hatake didn’t think too much and went to find his other successful teammates.

“The preliminaries have concluded perfectly, haven’t they?” Rin Nohara said with a gentle smile, clasping her hands together.

Before the battles, Rin Nohara was actually very worried that she wouldn’t be able to advance to the elimination rounds.

Having spent so much time with Kakashi Hatake and the others, Rin Nohara always felt she was weak, just a powerless healer.

After four rounds in the preliminaries, Rin Nohara’s confidence immediately returned.

She only felt that her opponents were incredibly weak; even her fourth-round opponent couldn’t withstand one Exploding Fist from her.

“Hehe, Rin, you performed really well; many contestants were quite surprised.”

Obito couldn’t help but laugh as he recalled Rin Nohara punching the ground and the stunned faces of the onlookers.

Obito felt that it wasn’t the other contestants’ fault for being unknowledgeable; who would have thought that Rin Nohara, who looked soft and cute, possessed such monstrous strength?

“It’s alright, I still have a long way to go compared to you guys; I need to keep working hard,” Rin Nohara said with a wave and a smile, not getting carried away by her dominant performance in the preliminaries.

Rin Nohara felt that only when other disciples no longer instinctively protected her and excluded her from their internal sparring would her strength truly be something to be proud of.

With the preliminaries over, Ninja from the same Ninja Village began to exchange information, and Konoha was no exception.

“This Youth Martial Arts Tournament has quite a few strong Ninja; it’s normal to not advance if you have bad luck,” Asuma comforted Kurenai Yuhi, who had been eliminated in the fourth round.

Only Asuma from their squad had advanced; the other two had been eliminated.

“Indeed,” Raido Namiashi sighed.

He was a typical case of bad luck, encountering a monster like Nagato.

“Perhaps only Kakashi Hatake and the others have a chance to defeat that Nagato,” Raido Namiashi thought to himself.

In Raido Namiashi’s mind, only a monster could defeat a monster; although Asuma was also a genius, he was clearly no match for Nagato.

“Asuma, Oily Girl Shibi… so Konoha has ten Ninja who advanced, almost occupying one-third of the spots in the elimination rounds,” Kakashi Hatake listened silently, calculating the total number of Konoha Ninja who advanced.

Kakashi Hatake estimated that in the first round of the elimination matches, some people would probably encounter Ninja from the same village, as too many Konoha Ninja had advanced.

When the Konoha Ninja returned to the inn as a group, Kakashi Hatake exchanged information with the other Konoha Ninja, sharing the intelligence they had gathered.

After all, this was a Ninja World-wide competition, and the Lord Daimyo of Fire Country and the Rain Country Daimyo would be watching; the more Konoha Ninja advanced, the more prestige Konoha would gain, and it would also be easier to extract money from the Daimyo.

At the same time, Nagato and his group were also listening to intelligence.

“Many talented Ninja from Konoha have arrived, including Kakashi Hatake, who is skilled in Lightning Release sword techniques; throughout the entire preliminaries, all of Kakashi Hatake’s opponents were instantly defeated with a single blow.”

“There’s also Uchiha Shisui, who is skilled in Genjutsu and Fire Release, and Might Guy, who is skilled in Taijutsu…” Kakuzu said, relaying the information collected by the Shinobi Sect referees.

“Leader Kakuzu, isn’t this a bit unfair for us?” Yahiko said, scratching his head.

Although gathering intelligence was part of Ninja combat, using the referee’s information always felt a bit like cheating.

“What’s unfair about it? It’s all just gathering information; what’s the difference? That Kakashi Hatake is a good example; he runs around everywhere as soon as his battle is over. He watched all of Nagato’s battles completely,” Kakuzu replied nonchalantly.

Nagato’s expression remained unchanged; the intensity of the preliminary battles was too low, and he hadn’t even used one Rinnegan ability, so it didn’t matter if Kakashi Hatake saw it.

“Nagato, you can still be casual, but Yahiko and Konan, besides the Konoha Ninja I mentioned, you also need to be careful of Mei Terumī and Hohzuki Mangetsu from Hidden Mist, as well as Kisame Hoshigaki, Iwagaki of Explosion Release, and Sand Crab who uses Puppet Jutsu…” Kakuzu continued.

Although Yahiko and Konan were strong, there were indeed many formidable characters among the Ninja who entered the elimination rounds; Kakuzu estimated that Konan and Yahiko would probably struggle to even reach the top eight.

“There truly are always people stronger than you,” Yahiko sighed.

Before the competition started, he thought he would definitely get a good ranking.

But now, after hearing Kakuzu’s intelligence, Yahiko felt that reaching the top eight would be a success, the top sixteen would still be acceptable, and a first-round exit would just mean bad luck.

“I will take first place,” Nagato said in a deep voice.

Even if his opponents were other disciples of Muzuki, Nagato would absolutely not concede first place.

The more talented Ninja that came, the more it would prove the value of the Youth Martial Arts Tournament; he not only wanted to take first place but also wanted to do so with a strong presence, letting those Ninja Villages and Ninja Organizations know that the Shinobi Sect was not just Ninja Master Sōsuke, but his disciples were also excellent.

In the future, if anyone wanted to cause trouble in the Land of Rain, they should first weigh their own strength and see if they could withstand the combined forces of the Shinobi Sect and the Rain Ninja.

…

The morning of the second day after the preliminaries ended, the Youth Martial Arts Tournament elimination rounds officially began.

This was very different from the preliminaries.

The elimination rounds’ battles took place in the Martial Arts Tournament arena specially built by the Shinobi Sect for the Youth Martial Arts Tournament.

The Martial Arts Tournament arena was a circular arena that could accommodate tens of thousands of spectators.

However, due to the short construction period, the style was relatively rugged, with exposed rock walls and mud walls visible everywhere.

Fortunately, house decoration was not yet very developed in the Ninja World, so it could be explained as a characteristic architectural style of the Land of Earth.

In a sense, it was indeed correct, as it was indeed built with the help of Iwagakure Ninja.

A large number of spectators, holding pre-purchased tickets, entered the arena one by one after inspection, including Ninja, nobles, and wealthy merchants.

When the ordinary spectators had entered, the Rain Country Daimyo and the Lord Daimyo of Fire Country, surrounded by a group of noble officials and Ninja, went to the best seats in the first row, and Muzuki’s Shadow Clone was also among them.

At the same time, Muzuki and Lord Hanzo also began to enter.

However, their seats were not in the spectator stands, but at a high point where they could observe the entire arena.

It wasn’t that the Daimyo weren’t worthy of sitting there, but that if the Daimyo sat there, they would basically only be able to twiddle their thumbs, unable to clearly see the matches.

“Ninja Master Sōsuke!” Some Ninja who had previously attended his classes loudly greeted Muzuki.

Many Ninja who had passed the classes came to the Martial Arts Tournament venue, for no other reason than to show support for Muzuki.

“But these front-row seats are really expensive,” a Ninja sighed.

“Just think of it as paying for a course from a top-tier Ninja World expert, with a bonus ticket to a Ninja World-level event,” a nearby Ninja replied.

The Ninja who complained about the price thought about it carefully and realized it was true; thinking that way, the money instantly felt well spent.

Muzuki smiled and responded to the Ninja who greeted him.

“Lord Hanzo!” Some Rain Ninja also felt they couldn’t let their leader lose face and called out.

Lord Hanzo kept a straight face and said nothing, only wanting to quickly get to his seat and watch the matches until they ended.

He didn’t want to hear anyone discussing how he was defeated by the first-place prize.

At this time, the battles had not yet begun, and the contestants were also in the arena; hearing that Ninja Master Sōsuke and Lord Hanzo had arrived, they all looked towards Muzuki’s direction.

“So this is the Ninja Master. He looks older than Teacher Muzuki. As expected, Teacher Muzuki is stronger,” Obito concluded after carefully observing him with his Sharingan.

Kakashi Hatake’s initial focus of observation was also on Sōsuke, until he noticed the expressions of Nagato, Yahiko, and others nearby.

Kakashi Hatake found that Nagato and Yahiko looked at Sōsuke with extreme respect, just like Obito looked at Muzuki.

“Could there be some connection between the Shinobi Sect and the Akatsuki Organization?” Kakashi Hatake wondered.

Kakashi Hatake had always been very puzzled as to why the Akatsuki Organization, which was dedicated to peace and seemed incredibly positive, would become an evil terrorist organization in the future.

He felt that the Shinobi Sect might have played some unknown role in it.

“I still have too little information. I should have made Yamato write down everything about the future,” Kakashi Hatake wanted to deduce but found that he lacked sufficient information.

He didn’t know the fate of the Shinobi Sect, nor did he know what happened to Sōsuke, the Ninja Master, in the future, so naturally, he couldn’t infer the relationship between the Shinobi Sect and the Akatsuki Organization.

Kakashi Hatake decided to give Yamato a good training session after returning to Konoha; he was truly thoughtless for not instinctively writing down all of the future.

Looking at Yahiko, then at Obito, Kakashi Hatake thought of a plan.

Kakashi Hatake subtly poked Obito, who was enthusiastically chatting with Rin Nohara.

Interrupted, Obito looked at Kakashi Hatake with annoyance.

Kakashi Hatake glanced at Yahiko, then at Sōsuke on the high platform, and finally back at Obito.

“You’re really good at ordering people around. Why don’t you go ask yourself?” Obito couldn’t help but complain.

Kakashi Hatake’s meaning was clear: he wanted him to ask Yahiko what his relationship with Sōsuke, the leader of the Shinobi Sect, was.

But now Kakashi Hatake didn’t have any vice-captain status, so how could Obito possibly obey Kakashi Hatake’s orders? Obito loved nothing more than saying no to the presumptuous Kakashi Hatake.

Kakashi Hatake said nothing, only silently took out a photo from his Ninja tool pouch.

Obito’s face instantly changed dramatically, and he grabbed Kakashi Hatake’s hand, pushing it back; there were so many people present, if it got out, wouldn’t it be a disgrace to the entire Ninja World?

“I’ll go, I love asking people questions the most,” Obito could only curse Kakashi Hatake inwardly and then agreed.

Only then did Kakashi Hatake put the photo back into his Ninja tool pouch.

Fools have their uses; Obito’s naivety could sometimes produce miraculous results. Once, in the Land of Rain, Yahiko had a rather pleasant conversation with Obito.

PS: Double update for monthly votes, Xiao Ju will work hard to update (Gojo Satoru face)