Chapter 324: The Pressure of the Hokage’s Son (4k)

“This must be the genius Ninja of our Land of Fire.” Seeing Might Guy instantly defeat the Mist Ninja, the Land of Fire official smiled.

Although Kisame also won easily, Might Guy’s one-kick instant defeat was undoubtedly more impactful.

“As expected, Konoha’s Ninja are superior. He must be the strongest among all the contestants,” an audience member exclaimed.

From the perspective of ordinary people, Might Guy just charged, and Might Guy instantly defeated his opponent. They didn’t even know when Might Guy got in front of Noguchi Nobuhide; Might Guy’s speed was too fast.

Without a doubt, Might Guy, with such a strong performance, was considered the strongest in this Chunin Exams.

“That perennial Genin’s son is actually this strong?” Some Ninja who knew Might Duy rubbed their eyes, looking bewildered.

Although they didn’t know why Might Duy, that perennial Genin, had been promoted to Chunin, those who looked down on him before still looked down on him. In this situation, they naturally couldn’t believe Might Guy would be very strong.

But groundless speculation would eventually be slapped by reality. Might Guy used his strength to tell them that he was strong, super strong, capable of defeating an opponent in less than half a minute.

The smile on Genshi’s face disappeared. Noguchi Nobuhide lost too quickly, not even managing to block a single move, which was truly a disgrace for Hidden Mist.

At this moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled faintly, remaining silent.

Looking at the excited green figure in the audience, Might Guy deactivated his Eight Gates and Breathing Technique, returning a brilliant smile.

He wanted to make his father proud of him today.

“The fourth battle: Kurosawa versus Inuzuka Midori. Contestants, please enter the arena as soon as possible.”

When Might Guy returned to the resting room, Hiruko announced the names of the next battle’s contestants.

“Now Midori is the only hope, come on!” Inuzuka Midori cheered herself on mentally.

Aburame Nao had fallen in the preliminaries, and Nara Shiosui had also lost to Rin Nohara in the second battle. Now she was the only remaining examinee from her team.

She had also fought Kurosawa and knew that this Mist Ninja was difficult to deal with, but Inuzuka Midori didn’t want to fall here. Since two of them entered the third round, at least one should enter the second round, right? If all of them fell in the Top 16, wouldn’t it make them seem very weak?

Kurosawa stood up calmly and walked towards the arena, not paying much attention to this battle.

He wasn’t really a Genin. Apart from monsters like Kisame and Might Guy, Kurosawa didn’t believe he would lose to anyone else.

“Little Midori, go for it!” Because they had fought side by side, Obito also cheered for Inuzuka Midori.

“Either call me Inuzuka or call me Midori, ‘Little Midori’ sounds too awful,” Inuzuka Midori retorted, turning her head.

“Okay, Little Midori,” Obito answered subconsciously.

If she couldn’t beat him, Inuzuka Midori really wanted to punch Obito.

Without continuing to correct Obito, Inuzuka Midori quickly walked onto the battle arena.

“Why don’t you surrender? It’ll save you from getting hurt, and you’ll lose anyway,” Kurosawa said calmly.

Listening to Kurosawa’s words, Inuzuka Midori immediately gritted her teeth and glared angrily at Kurosawa. Adding the old grudge from the Death Forest, Inuzuka Midori’s rage instantly maxed out, and she swore inwardly that even if she couldn’t win, she would bite a piece of flesh off Kurosawa.

Bai Maru, on Inuzuka Midori’s shoulder, seemed to sense Inuzuka Midori’s anger and bared his fangs at Kurosawa.

“Battle start!”

As soon as Hiruko’s voice fell, Inuzuka Midori immediately performed Medical Ninjutsu and crouched on the ground, while Bai Maru also transformed into Inuzuka Midori’s appearance and stacked on Inuzuka Midori.

“Meaningless struggle.” Seeing that Inuzuka Midori had no intention of surrendering, Kurosawa began to form hand signs.

“Hidden Mist Technique!”

A large amount of thick mist suddenly enveloped the arena, obscuring Kurosawa’s and Inuzuka Midori’s figures.

Many spectators were dumbfounded; they were completely covered by the mist. What were they supposed to watch?

“Come on, guess: heart, thigh, head, arm. Which part will I attack first?” Kurosawa’s voice echoed like a ghost in the mist.

Although she couldn’t see Kurosawa, Inuzuka Midori was not flustered at all. Others might be afraid of this Ninjutsu, but her Inuzuka clan’s secret technique happened to be the bane of such Ninjutsu!

“Attack your big head, ghost! Take this punch first!” Inuzuka Midori sniffed with her nose, confirmed Kurosawa’s location, and immediately rushed out with Bai Maru to attack.

Bang, bang!!

Although it was a two-on-one, the experienced Kurosawa calmly took the attacks.

“What’s going on? Is it a coincidence, or something else?” Kurosawa didn’t expect Inuzuka Midori to find his location so quickly and accurately.

To test this, Kurosawa tried to use Body Flicker Technique to go to other places, but Inuzuka Midori immediately found him again.

Kurosawa didn’t waste any more Chakra and directly canceled the Hidden Mist Technique.

If he didn’t cancel it soon, the Hidden Mist Technique would instead become an aid to Inuzuka Midori.

Then Kurosawa fought Inuzuka Midori using Water Release and swordsmanship.

Although Inuzuka Midori was the strongest in one-on-one combat within her team, facing Kurosawa, who was a Chunin participating in the Chunin Exams, she was clearly struggling.

Blood marks gradually appeared on her body, but Inuzuka Midori did not give up. As she had sworn in her heart, even if she lost, she would not let Kurosawa off easy.

Inuzuka Midori adopted a trade-damage fighting style. She no longer dodged Kurosawa’s attacks but instead launched her own attacks when Kurosawa attacked her.

Although Kurosawa was very cautious, facing Inuzuka Midori’s reckless fighting style, he eventually got injured.

Inuzuka Midori held Kurosawa’s sword with her hand, while Bai Maru took the opportunity to use Fang Over Fang and injured Kurosawa’s right leg.

Seeing Kurosawa injured, Inuzuka Midori fell down, satisfied.

If her strength allowed, she would have wanted to do better, but this was all she could do for now.

“The winner has been decided! Kurosawa wins!” Hiruko promptly announced the battle result.

Kurosawa glared at Inuzuka Midori but didn’t dare to continue attacking.

“This is troublesome. I have to fight that kind of monster in the second round.” Victory didn’t make Kurosawa excited. What was there to be happy about a Chunin defeating a Genin?

Compared to the current victory, what he needed to consider more was how to get less injured in the second round, because his opponent for the second round was Might Guy.

The heavily injured Inuzuka Midori was quickly taken away by medical Ninja, and Kurosawa also went to the designated area for examinees to heal his injuries.

Watching Kurosawa win the battle, Genshi’s expression softened a bit.

There were three battles between Konoha and Hidden Mist, and Hidden Mist had won two, so they still had the advantage.

“Fifth battle: Uchiha Obito versus Asuma Sarutobi!”

“Asuma Sarutobi, isn’t that the Sandaime’s son? He’s also reached the age to participate in the Chunin Exams.”

“Uchiha Obito, I haven’t heard that name. The Sandaime’s son should win, right?”

The vast majority of the audience favored Asuma, not because they knew what Ninjutsu Asuma had or how strong he was, but simply because Asuma was the Sandaime’s child.

As the Sandaime’s son, it was only right for Asuma to win; losing would be abnormal.

“They actually look down on our Uchiha,” Uchiha Inaho strongly disapproved of these remarks.

Having been defeated by Obito, he knew best how strong Obito was. Not to mention Genin, he was among the strong ones even among Chunin.

“No matter. Obito will prove the excellence of the Uchiha with his strength,” Uchiha Yashiro said calmly.

In his opinion, Obito might not be able to defeat Kisame or Might Guy—those two were truly monsters—but defeating an Asuma would definitely be no problem.

The reason was simple: if Asuma had such powerful strength, with his status as the Hokage’s son, his genius would have spread throughout Konoha long ago.

Uchiha Inaho nodded and looked towards the center of the arena, preparing to watch the battle intently.

On the battleground, it was difficult to hear the discussions in the audience. Most Ninja were sharp of hearing and sight.

Although he couldn’t hear clearly, Asuma had already guessed the content of the audience’s discussion above.

It was nothing more than how he, the Hokage’s son, should win. He knew this too well because he had heard it since he was a child.

If he won, it was taken for granted; this was what the Hokage’s son should do. If he lost, it meant he hadn’t trained well; how could the Hokage’s son be at such a level?

“It’s easy to say, but Obito isn’t easy to deal with,” Asuma thought to himself, looking at Obito, who was grinning and waving to the audience.

He wasn’t confident in fighting Obito. Asuma was still deeply impressed by Obito’s Fire Release in the preliminaries. Now, a month later, Obito would have improved even more, and Asuma truly had no idea what to expect.

Not winning the battle as those people wished wouldn’t make Asuma sad; in fact, he might even secretly be pleased.

But Asuma wouldn’t deliberately lose because of this, as there were people he cared about on the field.

Asuma didn’t want Muzuki to see him lose easily and think that his teaching was in vain. Asuma didn’t want Hiruzen Sarutobi to see him lose easily; he wanted to prove himself with his strength.

Asuma looked up at the audience. Although it was hard to distinguish from a distance, he imagined there must be a blond figure looking at him with a gentle smile.

“That kid’s battle, he’s definitely going to be crushed by Uchiha Obito,” Tsunade said when she heard Asuma’s name.

“Why?” Muzuki turned to Tsunade and asked.

“Haha, because Asuma can’t talk, so he calls her Auntie,” Jiraiya laughed loudly, answering the question for Tsunade.

Muzuki’s expression was a bit subtle. Tsunade was talking nonsense, but she was actually right. The strength gap between the two was a bit large now. It would be very difficult for Asuma to win; it would require him to be at his absolute best in all aspects, plus Obito being extremely off his game, for it to be possible.

“But if you ask me, at Asuma’s age, calling you…” Jiraiya looked at Tsunade’s slowly raised fist and finally swallowed the rest of his words. Tsunade’s punches were seriously without restraint.

“Battle start!”

When Hiruko’s voice echoed throughout the arena, Muzuki refocused his gaze on the arena to watch the battle.

“Flame Breathing, Total Concentration Breathing!” Obito quickly entered a state of Total Concentration Breathing, increasing his Fire Release Chakra Nature Transformation speed.

However, he didn’t immediately enter Flame Breathing Chakra Mode; that consumed too much. He would first gauge Asuma’s strength before deciding whether to activate it.

Asuma also immediately entered a state of Basic Breathing to enhance his abilities.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!!

Asuma took out three Kunai from his Ninja tool pouch, then used Wind Nature Transformation to imbue them with Wind Release Chakra and threw them towards Obito.

“Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!”

Obito gathered Chakra, then quickly completed Nature Transformation in his throat and spewed out a large amount of flames.

The flames formed a huge fireball and shot towards the incoming Shuriken.

The Kunai imbued with Wind Release Chakra were indeed powerful, but they were still a bit lacking when they encountered Obito’s Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique and were directly knocked to the ground.

Asuma did not choose to resist head-on but instead dodged.

Obito hadn’t expected the Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique to hit Asuma, so he immediately burst forth with Chakra and rushed forward.

Although Asuma was far behind Obito in terms of Breathing Technique strength, physique, and other aspects, Asuma hadn’t wasted the past month either. Besides Basic Breathing Technique, Asuma had a deeper mastery of Wind Nature Transformation and, under Muzuki’s guidance, had learned techniques to accelerate himself with Wind Release.

With the speed boost from Wind Release, Asuma didn’t immediately fall into a disadvantage. On the surface, he and Obito seemed to be fighting back and forth, appearing evenly matched.

Of course, that was only on the surface.

“Obito’s strength is actually so much greater than mine! When did his Taijutsu become so formidable?!” Asuma, who had thought he could gain an advantage in Taijutsu with his new techniques, felt a bit confused internally.

After roughly understanding Asuma’s Taijutsu level, Obito directly activated his Sharingan. His eyes turned crimson, and two tomoe spun within them.

With the Sharingan activated, Obito’s perception greatly increased, and many flaws appeared in Asuma’s attacks in Obito’s eyes.

Asuma, who was already somewhat outmatched, immediately fell into a disadvantage and was steadily pushed back by Obito.

A guard, seeing Asuma at a disadvantage, subconsciously glanced at Hiruzen Sarutobi, but Hiruzen Sarutobi’s expression was similar to when he watched previous battles, without much change.

“He actually suppressed the Hokage’s son. This Uchiha Obito is very strong.”

“Could it be that he’s going to win?”

No Ninja would be foolish enough to belittle the Hokage’s son in such a grand setting. Even if he lost, at most they would just complain in their minds or when discussing with friends.

If it were an ordinary person, the Hokage might not care, but you, a Ninja, don’t know your place, do you? And even if the Hokage didn’t care, there would be subordinates willing to do the job.

Uchiha Fugaku watched Obito steadily advance and gain the advantage, nodding slightly. In his judgment, Obito should be guaranteed promotion to Chunin this time.

“As a Chunin, he can directly enter the Police Force. If he could come to the Police Force, he would definitely receive the best guidance,” Uchiha Yashiro regretted Obito’s previous refusal.

He believed that the Uchiha teaching the Uchiha was the best way, after all, no one could understand the Uchiha better than the Uchiha themselves.

Seeing that his Taijutsu was insufficient, Asuma had no choice but to change his strategy. He utilized Wind Nature Transformation to its fullest, sharply accelerating and creating distance.

Although he was even less confident in Ninjutsu, Asuma had to use it now, because if he didn’t use Wind Release Ninjutsu, he would be defeated by Obito’s Taijutsu.

“Those people inside must already be complaining that I definitely haven’t trained well. You guys who only talk, you don’t know how strong my opponent is,” Asuma complained in his mind while forming hand signs.

“So fast. Then I’ll use Ninjutsu.” Realizing he couldn’t catch up to Asuma and that further pursuit would mean taking a Wind Release head-on, Obito also began to form hand signs to use Fire Release Ninjutsu.

Today I wrote 9.2k, which makes up for a bit of yesterday’s. I’ll continue to work hard tomorrow. Also, I’m not deliberately holding back chapters; it’s just too late. Before I knew it, I had written until one o’clock, and when I came back to my senses, I was incredibly sleepy.