In the center of the wrecked arena, Naruto lay at the bottom of the crater, completely enveloped by a dense, red Chakra that bubbled like boiling foam. The color was deeper and darker than before, radiating an even more ominous aura.
"Again?" Mamoru looked at the writhing red energy and scratched his hair helplessly with a soft sigh.
The red Chakra acted like a living thing, manipulating Naruto's body to stand straight up in a way that completely defied human common sense and joint movement, before dropping onto all fours like a true beast.
The feral characteristics on his face became more pronounced, his teeth grew sharp, and the crimson Chakra surged violently on his skin, gradually taking shape until it finally formed a tail composed of pure Chakra.
"Roar!"
A roar that sounded nothing like a human's squeezed out of Naruto's throat. He raised his right hand, which was now completely covered in red Chakra and resembled a hideous claw, and swung it forward violently.
Whoosh!
A massive airwave formed from high-density Chakra surged toward Mamoru, tearing through the air.
Mamoru stood his ground, his eyes showing no ripples of emotion. It wasn't that he didn't have time to dodge, he simply had no intention of doing so.
As the violent airwave was about to strike his body, it seemed to hit an invisible wall. Its energy structure was instantly dismantled, quietly dissipating into nothingness.
Meanwhile, the residual energy that brushed past him slammed into the wall behind with a muffled "Thud," causing the entire structure to shake violently and shower down dust.
Immediately afterward, a claw made of red Chakra instantly condensed and struck through the air again, clawing toward Mamoru's head.
Mamoru merely raised his hand and waved it casually to the side. A burst of invisible 'Blue' precisely intercepted the path of the Chakra claw.
Pop!
The energy claw was like a punctured balloon, instantly collapsing into scattered Chakra fragments and vanishing.
Failing the strike, Naruto dropped to all fours and began to run rapidly around Mamoru. His speed increased until it kicked up a whirlwind of red Chakra in the arena. His figure became a blur, leaving only a red circle visible around the silently standing Mamoru at the center.
Mamoru remained standing still, his eyes not even following the movement of the red ring, as if everything was under his control.
Suddenly, a figure shot out from a point in the red circle like a pouncing leopard, attacking Mamoru from a very tricky angle behind his back.
Just as Naruto's hand, covered in the Chakra claw, was about to succeed and touch the back of Mamoru's neck—
Mamoru suddenly reached back and, with his right hand like an iron vice, unerringly seized Naruto by the neck of his Chakra Cloak.
"Ugh?!"
A flash of bewilderment crossed Naruto's beast-like slit pupils.
In the next moment, Mamoru's arm exerted force, and with a twist of his waist, he swung Naruto high into the air before slamming him ruthlessly into the ground.
Bang!
The muffled thud of his back making intimate contact with the ground was enough to make one's teeth ache. Naruto let out a painful scream, his body struggling violently in the crater as the red Chakra jumped like enraged flames.
Mamoru's fingers slowly tightened, feeling the incredibly tough texture beneath his fingertips.
Looking at Naruto, who was still struggling madly beneath him and trying to tear at his arm with claws, he thought to himself, 'This Jinchuriki's body is simply too tough, this will be endless if it continues like this.'
'Now with only one tail, he already has this kind of defense and recovery power. If this goes on, the arena might actually be torn down by the two of them. I must finish this quickly.'
With his mind made up, Mamoru released his grip and prepared to leap backward to create distance and end the match.
However, at the very moment he relaxed his strength to retreat, Naruto's claw, enveloped in red Chakra, struck toward his face from point-blank range.
Naruto's attack missed again, tearing through only a few afterimages.
"That was close, I almost got disfigured."
Mamoru's figure appeared out of thin air in the middle of the sky.
"Naruto, you are indeed very strong." Mamoru's voice spread calmly across the arena, carrying a hint of faint recognition.
But then it turned into absolute confidence. "Unfortunately, your opponent... is me."
He stood in mid-air, looking down from above at the crater below. The bright lights from the ceiling shone directly on him, outlining a dazzling halo around his body as if an angel had descended, forming a sharp contrast with the wreckage and violence below.
"Blue."
The whisper fell as if the Shinigami had tolled the death knell.
In an instant, centered on where Naruto was, an incredibly intense gravitational field exploded. The ground let out groans of being overwhelmed as if trampled by an invisible giant foot, and then suddenly collapsed downward. A dazzling azure light erupted like a cage, swallowing everything.
BOOM!!!
The terrifying roar echoed throughout the arena half a second later, making everyone's eardrums buzz.
As the light faded and the dust settled, a massive deep pit over ten meters in diameter with irregular edges appeared in the center of the arena. It looked as though it had been struck by a meteorite.
Naruto's figure was completely buried in the deepest part of that wreckage and dust. This time, he was unable to immediately stand up relying on his tenacious vitality or the Nine-Tails Chakra.
Mamoru took a light breath, and his figure flashed, appearing next to Hayate in the next second as if he had teleported.
"This time, you can announce it." His tone was flat, as if that earth-shattering strike just now had nothing to do with him.
Hayate looked at the shocking crater in the center of the field, then at the steady-breathing Mamoru beside him. He was stunned for a good while before reacting. He waited for several seconds, and after confirming there was no movement at the bottom of the pit, he suppressed the shock in his heart, coughed lightly, and announced loudly.
"The winner, Uchiha Mamoru!"
At this moment, no one at the scene cared about the victory itself.
Everyone was still in a state of extreme shock from that final blow, unable to recover for a long time.
Was this really a battle between Genin? Are you kidding me?
The faces of all the Jonin present showed horror and solemnity. This kind of range control and this level of destructive power...
Few among them could confidently claim they could achieve the same.
Moreover, seeing Mamoru's calm and composed manner, he clearly still had strength in reserve.
If the Jonin were like this, not to mention the Genin—except for Gaara, whose eyes burned with the will to fight, the others had no will to fight whatsoever.