Chapter 133: The Preliminaries, A Bystander's Perspective
"Sorry for the trouble, Lady Slug."
At the Konoha Hospital, after Ichi was carried inside by the medical staff, Anko thanked the Slug.
"You're welcome. I'll be taking my leave now; I still need to help Lord Haruko deliver a message to his family."
"Is that so? Then let me show you the way..."
"Thank you for your kindness, but Lord Haruko has already told me how to get there." The Slug politely declined Anko's offer and turned to leave.
Once out of Anko's sight, the Slug turned several corners and entered a somewhat secluded alley.
"Alright, you can come out now."
After confirming the surroundings were safe, Karin "slid" out from within the Slug's body.
"Whew... hah..."
Karin lay flat on the cold, damp pavement, gasping for air.
While the environment inside the Slug wasn't suffocating, the sense of being encased and the fear of the unknown still made her feel waves of dizziness the moment she regained her freedom.
"The apartment Lord Haruko mentioned is right next door, so I'll leave you here."
The Slug gestured toward the other side of the wall. "Do you have the key?"
"Y-Yes." Karin fished out a key.
"Then please stay in the room and keep a low profile. Lord Haruko will come over once he finishes handling the selection exams."
Karin lowered her head, looking somewhat uneasy. "Um... will Haruko... really come?"
"You can trust Lord Haruko." The Slug lightly swayed its antennae. "Well then, I'm heading back."
The white smoke dissipated, and silence returned to the alleyway.
Karin took a deep breath and started climbing up the apartment building.
Click.
The key opened the door. The furnishings inside were quite simple: a basic bed, a set of table and chairs, a wardrobe, and enough emergency supplies for a month—this was the apartment Teuchi had bought for Haruko when he became independent.
Since Haruko moved into a detached house, this place had been used as a backup safe house. Aside from Kin occasionally coming to clean, no one had lived here for a long time.
Karin walked to the bedside, hesitated for a long while, and then slowly sat down.
The mattress was soft, unlike the hard wooden boards in Hidden Grass Village. There was no smell of blood, nor the hostile aura of comrades preying on each other.
She was like a startled snail, slowly shrinking into the covers until only her eyes were showing.
...
Haruko strolled back to the arena stands and glanced at the large screen.
[Eighth Match: Ryūzetsu vs. Kazami]
"Oh, it's already the eighth match?"
The battle on the floor was in full swing; more accurately, Ryūzetsu of Hidden Grass Village was unilaterally playing with fire.
"Fire Release: Demon Lantern!"
Red ghost fires floated in mid-air, surrounding Kazami of Hidden Sand Village.
"You're finally back. Um... how is your old teammate?" Hana greeted him, though she didn't seem to remember Ichi's name.
"Ichi's fine; he's on his way to Konoha Hospital now," Haruko replied casually while watching the fight below.
"How did the last match go?"
"Muta Aburame won," Izumi said, crossing her arms as she critiqued. "That Kumogakure guy named Katai was pretty tough; he hardened his whole body with Earth Release, and the Parasitic Insects couldn't penetrate it at all."
"But the cost of hardening was moving slower, and it's like even his brain hardened. Muta just kept releasing insects from the perimeter and ground him down until his Chakra was exhausted. The whole match was... long and boring."
"That does sound boring," Haruko nodded, returning his gaze to the current match.
At this moment, Kazami was trying to blow away the ghost fires with a wide-range Wind Release, but the red fireballs were only pushed back temporarily. They soon closed in again, burning even more fiercely.
"Wind Release: Wind Cutter!"
Getting desperate, Kazami threw out a sharp blade of wind aimed straight at Ryūzetsu.
But the distance was too great; Ryūzetsu had plenty of reaction time and simply dodged it with a couple of steps to the side.
"There's no way that would hit. Is this Hidden Sand Village guy stupid? He just exposed a card for nothing," Haruko couldn't help but criticize.
"Then if it were you, how would you handle it?"
"Me? Those ghost fires don't look intelligent. I'd first use Wind Release to obscure the caster's vision while looking for a chance to close in for melee combat."
"Looking at Ryūzetsu's build, she's likely not good at melee, so she'd definitely try to pull away. When she's desperately retreating, that's when you launch a hidden wind blade; the hit rate would be much higher."
"Hmph... sounds easy enough when you put it that way." Izumi nodded thoughtfully.
As they spoke, the battle below reached its conclusion.
"Aaaagh!"
Because his movement space was completely locked down, Kazami was blasted charred-black by Ryūzetsu's Demon Lanterns.
"The winner: Ryūzetsu," came Gekko Hayate's voice.
As Kazami was carried away by the medical team for treatment, the screen lit up for the final time.
[Ninth Match: Uchiha Izumi vs. Shiseki]
"It's my turn." Izumi took a deep breath, her eyes turning sharp as that sense of pride unique to the Uchiha rose within her.
"Good luck, Izumi~"
"Yeah... odds are probably 80-20 in your favor, as long as you're not careless."
Hana and Haruko offered their respective words of encouragement.
Shiseki was a Hidden Sand Village ninja with somewhat dark skin. Seeing Izumi walk down, a disdainful curl appeared on his lips.
"Begin!"
Following Hayate's command, Izumi immediately began forming hand signs.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique."
Starting with the same type of Fire Release suppression, a volley of fireballs flew toward him.
Shiseki reacted quickly, pressing his hands to the ground.
"Earth Release: Earth Shore Return!"
An entire slab of the floor was flipped up by him like a page in a book, blocking the incoming fireballs.
—And also blocking his own line of sight.
Swish swish swish—Clang! Clang!
The sound of rushing air rang out, followed immediately by the sound of metal clashing from the left and right.
Thud, thud.
By the time Shiseki realized something was wrong, several shuriken had already curved around the blind spot of the earth slab and were accurately pinned into his back.
"Argh!"
Shiseki let out a muffled groan, the pain causing him to stiffen for a split second.
When he regained his senses, Izumi had already leapt over the slab and was above him, her Three-Tomoe Sharingan staring intently at him.
"Not good!"
Shiseki immediately averted his eyes while trying to pull away.
But he was already at a disadvantage in speed, and with the injuries on his back, Shiseki couldn't shake Izumi at all. He was forced to fight back while carefully avoiding eye contact.
Clang clang clang—
The constant sound of Kunai clashing filled the air.
Though she lacked somewhat in raw power, her swift movements combined with the observation and precision granted by the Sharingan left Shiseki with no room to counterattack.
Within a few rounds, several more cuts appeared on Shiseki's body.
"Damn it!"
Seemingly driven to desperation, Shiseki threw a handful of shuriken and the Kunai in his hand as a distraction while retreating backward.
"Hmph." Izumi snorted, her eyes wide. Every attack was evaded or parried.
Shiseki's distracting attacks had almost no effect, and Izumi reached him in a single step.
"It's over." Izumi raised her Kunai, preparing for the final blow—
But Shiseki took a deep breath, his cheeks bulging.
"Earth Release: Rock Bullet."
A fist-sized rock whistled through the air, heading straight for Izumi's face at point-blank range.
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