[MATCH 9: Naruto Uzumaki vs. Kabuto Yakushi vs. Ryota (Kusa)]
As I made my way down towards the arena floor, a translucent blue screen suddenly materialized in my line of sight.
[NEW QUEST GENERATED]
[ASSERT YOUR DOMINANCE: DISPLAY YOUR STRENGTH FOR POTENTIAL ENEMIES]:
Objective: Win the Triple Threat Match.
Bonus Condition 1: Take 0 damage from all threats for 60 seconds.
Bonus Condition 2: Ryota cannot hit the ground before Kabuto is knocked down.
Bonus Condition 3: Win using only Taijutsu (No Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, or Shadow Soldiers).
[REWARDS: 75,000 Ryo, [A-Rank Skill Scroll]]
I nearly tripped over my own feet reading the prompt. What the fuck are these conditions?! I thought, staring at the screen in utter disbelief. I have to keep the Kusa ninja from hitting the ground until Kabuto drops?! Ain't this about a bi—
Before I could even properly complain to the System, the murmurs from the spectator balconies drifted down to my ears. It was the eliminated Genin, whispering amongst themselves with thinly veiled bitterness.
"That's him? The one they call the '200-Man Slayer'?" an Iwa Genin scoffed.
"They call him the 'Phantom of the Frost' too after that mission in the Land of Spring," a Kumo ninja muttered. "But they must have been exaggerating. He doesn't even look that strong."
"I bet the Copy Ninja and the Uchiha definitely carried him through those missions."
"Yeah, he just got lucky in the Fatal Fours," another added. "Anyone could have dominated a quadrant with weaklings like that."
Suddenly, the shadow under my feet flickered.
"My Liege," Beru's voice rasped, echoing darkly against the inside of my skull. "These insects... they look at you with such arrogance. Their breathing annoys me. Shall I emerge and rectify their misjudgment? I can harvest their heads before they even blink."
"Tempting, but no. It's quite alright, Beru," I replied internally, keeping my expression perfectly neutral. "We'll be very busy after this little exhibition. Don't waste your energy on appetizers."
"As you wish, my King. I shall wait."
I pushed the whispers out of my mind and focused on my two opponents walking down the stairs. The Kusa Genin, Ryota, looked nervous. But Kabuto looked as calm as ever.
As Kabuto reached the floor, he shot a subtle, split-second glance up toward the balcony, locking eyes with the disguised Orochimaru.
Hmm, now what could you two be planning, I mused as the three of us came to a halt, forming a triangle in the center of the ring.
"Are the combatants ready?" Hayate questioned with a cough.
Hayate had the three of us confirm our readiness, signaling the proctors to shift the arena once more, transforming the flat stone ring back into a sparse, rocky terrain.
Before the battle began, Kabuto immediately flashed me a warm, highly convincing smile, casually pushing his round glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"Since we're both from the Hidden Leaf, it only makes sense that we show some village solidarity," he suggested smoothly, his tone perfectly matching that of a helpful senior. "How about we team up to eliminate the Kusa ninja first, and then settle things between us?"
"Hmm, that's not a bad idea," I said, putting a hand to my chin in mock contemplation. "It'd make complete sense. Two Leaf Genin squaring off to move to the finals.
"Exactly," Kabuto smiled, taking a step forward. "So if we just—"
"But, nah," I replied, my voice carrying effortlessly across the silent arena. "You're both getting belt to ass. Believe it."
Kabuto's friendly smile slightly twitched. While Ryota scowled, visibly insulted as he pulled out a kunai.
Hayate raised his hand. "Begin!"
Ryota looked between me and Kabuto and immediately charged at me. He unleashed a frantic, desperate flurry of slashes aimed at my vitals with a reckless battle cry.
To my [DEX]-enhanced perception, he looked like he was moving underwater.
I kept my hands loosely at my sides and simply tilted my head, letting the first horizontal swipe breeze past my nose. He spun into a reverse-grip slash; I ducked fluidly, the blade clipping nothing but the air above my hair. He let out a frustrated grunt, launching a rapid volley of stabs. I swayed my torso left, right, leaned back, and side-stepped in a rhythmic, effortless dance.
Seeing an opening while Ryota had thrown himself completely off-balance, Kabuto rushed in. He threw a roundhouse kick directly at the Kusa ninja's exposed blind spot, intending to dispatch the fodder quickly so he could focus entirely on me.
Nah, can't let that happen, I thought.
Moving in a blur of pure speed, I grabbed the back of Ryota's collar and violently yanked him backward, pulling the Kusa ninja out of the way of Kabuto's incoming strike. Kabuto's foot sailed through empty air.
Ryota stumbled, whipping his head around to look at me in wide-eyed confusion. "What are you—?!"
Before he could finish, Kabuto closed the distance again, throwing a barrage of shuriken aimed at Ryota's back. I pulled a single kunai from my pouch, stepping directly in front of Ryota. My arm blurred into a defensive weave, my blade sparking sharply as it ricocheted every single piece of metal out of the air before it could touch the Kusa Genin.
Kabuto's eyes narrowing at what I was doing. Then, he blurred forward, drawing two kunai of his own and lunging directly at Ryota's chest to force the elimination. I met him halfway. My kunai clashed against his twin blades with a harsh metallic shriek. I parried his left strike, deflected his right, and threw a quick push-kick at his hip to disrupt his balance, keeping myself firmly positioned as Ryota's personal, utterly unwilling bodyguard.
For the next sixty seconds, the entire arena watched in total bewilderment as I kept shoving, pulling, deflecting, and dragging Ryota out of harm's way every single time Kabuto tried to hit him. Kabuto was visibly perplexed too, his analytical mind completely failing to understand why I was actively protecting him. Up in the balconies, the murmurs of confusion grew louder.
"What is he doing?"
"Is he... saving the Kusa guy?"
"Why isn't he attacking?!" Ino yelled down, gripping the railing.
"This doesn't make any sense. Is he toying with them?" Shikamaru muttered, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"He's gonna get himself killed dancing around like an idiot!" Kiba barked.
DING!
[Bonus Condition 1: Fulfilled]
Perfect, I smirked, listening to the beautiful sound of the System notification. Now it's over for you little ninjas.
I finally stopped dodging. In the span of a single heartbeat, I vanished from my idle position and materialized directly in front of Ryota. I moved so fast the air cracked behind me, leaving the Kusa ninja violently flinching at my sudden presence.
"What the?!—" a Kusa Jonin gasped from the stands.
"How did he move that fast?!" Ino shrieked.
I stared up at him for a moment—he was fairly tall—watching as an expression of total, surprised bewilderment etched onto his face.
"Play time's over," I uttered, confusing him even more.
Then, in a single, fluid motion, I dropped my stance and ripped my right arm back. I pulled the limb back with so much explosive force that it created a massive localized pressure displacement—a literal vacuum void in the air. The surrounding atmosphere violently rushed in to fill the empty space, creating a visible, howling whirlwind around my fist. The suction force was so immense that it physically dragged both Ryota and Kabuto forward into my strike zone, leaving them completely unable to dodge or guard.
"What the hell!" I heard some say.
Using that violently gathered momentum, I launched a devastatingly fast uppercut directly into Ryota's jaw.
KRAAAAK!
The kinetic impact was so absurdly powerful that Ryota rocketed skyward like a cannonball. He shot up so fast that he actually defied gravity for a split second, his body hovering in suspended animation at the apex of his launch before the Earth finally tried to drag him back down.
I didn't let the opportunity escape me. I turned to a still-shocked Kabuto and blurred in front of him, delivering a straight punch that he was barely able to dodge by the skin of his teeth.
But Kabuto recovered instantly. Dropping the 'weak Genin' act for just a fraction of a second, his hands became a blur as he tried to target my nerve and joints with calculated, surgical strikes.
I met him blow for blow. I parried a strike aimed at my throat, weaving inside his guard to drive a heavy elbow toward his sternum. Kabuto surprisingly managed to cross his arms to block, but the force still skidded him backward across the dirt. Before he could recover, I pressed the assault, launching a sweeping roundhouse kick. Kabuto ducked it flawlessly, pivoting on his heel to deliver a sharp counter-sweep at my standing leg. I hopped over it effortlessly, and tried to counter with an axe kick that he barely rolled away from.
I chased him down, our fists colliding in a rapid, high-speed exchange of pure taijutsu. Our forearms clashed, the heavy impacts echoing loudly across the arena.
I was going to go in for another exchange, until I felt the air displacing from above. I glanced to my right and saw gravity finally pulling Ryota back down.
Right as he started to plummet back down, I used my ridiculous [DEX] to quickly launch myself into the air. Spinning seamlessly, I delivered a brutal upwards kick right to Ryota's torso, bouncing his unconscious body back up into the sky like a volleyball.
"Oh my goodness!" I heard someone exclaim from the viewing balcony.
Landing gracefully, I immediately slipped right back under Kabuto's guard before he could even react, throwing a heavy left hook that he barely managed to block.
Kabuto's eyes narrowed dangerously behind his glasses. A flicker of genuine anger crossed his usually composed features, clearly insulted by the sheer level of disrespect of treating him like a secondary objective.
I caught his annoyance and flashed him a wicked, mocking smirk as I parried another jab. "What's wrong, four-eyes? Am I not giving you enough attention?"
Kabuto didn't verbally respond to my taunt, but the slight tightening of his jaw told me everything I needed to know. Dropping his friendly facade entirely, he lunged forward, throwing a heavy, perfectly executed right cross aimed straight for my temple.
Ooo, he's mad now, I thought, ducking smoothly underneath his strike.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ryota's unconscious body reach the apex of his bounce and began to descend once again.
It's time to end this, I thought, gripping Kabuto's fully extended arm tightly.
In a single motion, I used his arm to pull myself upwards and attempted an upward kick to his jaw, but Kabuto tilted his head backward, causing my kick to breeze past him. Using the momentum from the attempt, I spun his arm and sent a knee strike towards the side of his temple, but he tilted his head again.
Hmm, slippery bastard, ain't ya? I mused, my momentum still spinning me. Then how about this.
I pushed off his arm, vaulting myself forward into the air and spun in a drill-like fashion in front of him. Then, I tucked my knees into my chest and snapped both of my legs out at the exact same time.
BAAAM!
He wasn't able to dodge this time as my feet planted squarely into his jaw with a devastating, double-footed dropkick. The impact lifted the silver-haired spy entirely off his feet, sending him violently skipping backwards across the rocky terrain before he crashed into a heap of rubble.
At that exact same second, Ryota finally dropped into range.
Using my momentum from the dropkick, I landed softly on my feet, dashed directly underneath the falling Kusa ninja, and shot my right hand up.
CRACK!
Ryota's downward momentum was halted instantly as I caught his unconscious body. The air displaced upwards and the rocky terrain shattered beneath my feet as he dangled helplessly from my single outstretched hand like a discarded ragdoll. I held the pose for five full seconds for all to see what I had just displayed.
A/N: He's Holding Him Like How Goku Held Nappa In The Saiyan Saga.
Up in the balconies, the mocking whispers of the eliminated foreign Genin had completely ceased. Ino and Sakura had their mouths hanging open in disbelief, Kiba was stunned into wide-eyed silence while Akamaru whimpered inside his jacket, and Shikamaru looked like his brain had just short-circuited.
Sasuke was gripping the railing so hard his knuckles were white, his Sharingan spinning frantically as he tried to process the physical strength it took to accomplish everything I just did. Neji stood perfectly still, the veins bulging around his Byakugan in disbelief. Even the Sand siblings were rattled—Kankuro was sweating through his makeup again, Temari's eyes were wide as saucers, and Gaara's sand was writhing violently around his feet, his bloodlust spiking to match my display of dominance.
Even the veteran Jonin were caught completely off guard. Kakashi's visible eye was wide with calculating pride, while Might Guy was practically vibrating, literal tears streaming down his face at the sheer 'power of youth' radiating from my pure Taijutsu display. Kurenai and Asuma exchanged bewildered looks. Across the way, the disguised Orochimaru leaned heavily against the railing, a sickeningly intrigued smirk stretching across his stolen face.
Once I was satisfied with the utter bewilderment running through the arena, I casually tossed Ryota's unconscious body to the side like a sack of potatoes.
[QUEST COMPLETED!]
[ALL BONUS CONDITIONS FULFILLED.]
[REWARDS GRANTED]:
75,000 Ryo.
A-Rank Skill Scroll: Shisui Uchiha's Body Flicker.
Oh shit! I thought, looking at the reward. That's ridiculously cool. Totally worth it.
Over by the rubble, Kabuto was laid out on his side.
Suddenly, the atmosphere in the arena floor grew suffocatingly heavy. A sharp, incredibly dense spike of Killing Intent radiated directly from him. It was a cold, venomous pressure—the kind of bloodlust that only belonged to an elite Jonin. He was furious, his pride bitterly bruised from being treated like an absolute joke.
Oh, how cute, I mused, turning to face him.
I raised my fists loosely at my sides. A dark smirk stretched across my face as I actively released a low, concentrated pulse of my own [Bloodlust] right back at him. My aura pressed against his, asking a silent, threatening question: You really want to go there? Show them who you really are. I dare you.
Kabuto froze.
From the ground, he discreetly shifted his eyes upward, shooting another split-second glance at the balcony to lock onto Orochimaru.
Ah, so that was your objective, I thought, watching the silver-haired ninja's movements. To push me into unveiling something else for ya. But you can't do that without revealing yourself as a spy, now can you?
In an instant, the terrifying Jonin-level Killing Intent vanished into thin air.
Kabuto pushed himself up from the rocky ground, coughing weakly as he dusted off his clothes. He smoothly defaulted back to his mediocre Genin persona. He raised both of his hands in the air, offering the proctor a nervous, shaking smile as a bead of sweat rolled down his cheek.
"I give up!" Kabuto yelled, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "He's way out of my league!"
Hayate looked between the unconscious Ryota in the dirt, the surrendering Kabuto, and me standing in the center of the ring without a single scratch on my clothes. The sickly proctor let out a long, raspy sigh.
"Kabuto Yakushi surrenders, and Ryota is incapacitated," he announced, his voice echoing over the completely stunned arena. "Winner of Match 9... Naruto Uzumaki."