Lee and Shira entered the arena, and while Lee had an excited smile on his face, Shira’s facial expression was neutral.
“Shira, right? Honestly, I’m a little excited to fight someone who had to overcome the same hardships as I.”
Shira shook his head when he heard Lee’s words but answered him nonetheless.
“There is no point in bothering about past hardships. As long as you keep walking forward, your past does not matter. The only important thing is that your determination will never betray you.”
Lee chuckled in amusement when Shira finished his speech.
“Although I agree that one shouldn’t dwell on past hardships, what is truly important is youth! As long as my youth burns brightly, I will never lose!”
As soon as Lee finished speaking, he disappeared and reappeared in front of Shira with his fist already reeled back.
A Yellow aura started coating Shira’s body as he crossed his arms to block the strike. When Lee’s fist landed, Shira slit back a little but successfully blocked the attack, just for Lee to appear behind him and kick towards him.
Shira gritted his teeth, and moments later, the yellow aura surrounding him got stronger as his muscles became more defined. This time, he managed to block Lee’s attack without getting pushed back, and so the two started a high-speed close-combat fight.
Meanwhile, Yuna was looking at the technique Shira was using with some interest.
‘Oi, Kurama, you think he can transform into a giant monkey?’
[Why in the world would he do that?]
‘Oh? So you haven’t watched that memory yet.’
[Please spare me your depravity.]
‘Geez, don’t be like that, Kurama. That is a normal memory and involves no depravity.’
[I somewhat doubt that, but fine.]
Just when Yuna finished her conversation with Kurama, Gaara started speaking.
“This is a technique Shira developed himself. By forcefully taking in more oxygen, he can significantly increase the strength of his body for a short duration.”
Tsunade listened to Gaara’s explanation, and after thinking about it for a short moment, she nodded her head.
“I see, an interesting technique, but it will put a considerable burden on the body.”
“Indeed, but despite that, it won’t be enough to defeat the current Lee.”
After Tsunade finished talking, Yuna added something as well, causing Gaara to nod in acknowledgment.
“That seems to be the case. I didn’t expect him to have grown to such a massive degree throughout the last few years. It’s a pity, but Shira will probably lose.”
Tsunade couldn’t help but chuckle in amusement when she heard Gaara’s words.
“Hehe, doesn’t that mean that this is Konoha’s victory? If Shira loses, then only Konoha’s shinobi will be left.”
Gaara widened his eyes in surprise, and even Mei, who was still a little sluggish, responded by clicking her tongue in annoyance.
“That’s only because we are in the middle of the desert. If we do this in Kiri the next time, Kiri’s shinobi will show their true power.”
A small smile appeared on Tsunade’s face as she nodded her head.
“I see, so we will hold the next chunin exam in Kiri, huh? Naturally, Konoha will participate.”
“Suna as well.”
And just like that, the location of the next chunin exam was chosen.
At the same time, Shira had an ugly expression on his face.
‘He is not only strong and fast; his combat-experienced and skill seemed to be higher than mine as well. I guess I have no choice but to go all out.’
“[Third Activation]”
“Boo, don’t leave away the good part of the name!”
Shira thought he had just heard something weird from the audience but concluded that it was just his imagination. Moments after activating the third part of his technique, his skin turned red, as his strength increased even further.
Shira shot towards Lee far faster than he previously did, and his fist was just about to impact Lee’s face when Lee vanished from his sight. A foot slammed into his stomach before Shira could understand the situation and sent him flying vertically into the air.
Lee appeared behind him in mid-air, and the bandages around Lee’s wrists started wrapping themself tightly around Shira, causing his eyes to widen in surprise.
‘He has a technique like mine as well!? In that case, I never stood a chance!’
“[Initial Lotus]”
The duo started descending at high speed while they began to rotate around their own axis. A short fall later, Lee slammed Shira into the ground, resulting in a loud explosion.
When the dust settled, Shira was revealed lying on the ground, conscious but unmoving, while Lee was standing next to him, breathing a bit heavy but otherwise fine.
A few seconds later, a sigh of defeat escaped Shira before he gave up the match, causing Lee to lift his arms in high spirits.
“YOSH, MY YOUTH PREVAILS!!!”
Meanwhile, Yuna flinched a little but managed to hide it from the other people in the room.
‘Damnit, Kurama, why are you yelling like that?’
[YOU KNOW THAT FULL WELL, YUNA!!! YOU SAID THAT THERE WOULD BE NO DEPRAVITY IN IT, BUT THERE IS PLENTY!!!]
Yuna tilted her head in confusion when she heard Kurama’s words. As far as she remembered, that wasn’t the case at all.
‘Really, I don’t remember there being anything like that in that show?’
[That’s probably because there isn’t, but how about you remember what happened around you while you were watching parts of it!]
Yuna was even more confused by those words but nonetheless started rifling through her memories to see what Kurama was talking about, and moments later, she saw a scene with a lot of nacked women staring at a massive screen while a few others were doing…other activities.
‘Oops.’
[OOPS, MY ASS!!! YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS, DIDN’T YOU!?]
‘Haha, nope. This one was an honest mistake. Sorry about that.’
[Damnit, I don’t believe you for even a second!]
While Kurama was rampaging around in Yuna’s mindscape, Karin and Hisoka entered the fighting arena. While Karin had a confident smile on her face, Hisoka could only smile wryly. Her close-combat-heavy fighting style had horrible compatibility with Karin’s style, so this match will be tough for Hisoka to win. But for now, the only thing she could do was give it her all and see where it goes.
As soon as the fight started, Hisoka shot towards Karin at high speed to close the distance between them as fast as possible. Before she could travel half the distance, she had to dodge to the side to avoid one of Karin’s chains, and before she could adequately stabilize herself, she had to dodge another one.
This was precisely what Hisoka feared would happen. Unlike Yuna’s chains that could freeze people or Kushina’s that had very potent sealing power, Karin’s focused purely on destructive physical power. Hisoka wasn’t strong enough to block them, was barely fast enough to dodge them, and the few long-range jutsu she knew were not strong enough to faze Karin. This was pretty much how all their spars went if Karin was allowed to use her chains.
Meanwhile, Karin was pulling a Gaara and stood unmoving in the middle of the arena. Two of her chains were constantly attacking Hisoka, while another one was staying close to her so that she could use it to defend herself. Very few noticed that the third chain that was seemingly protecting her was stealthily drawing seals in mid-air.
The audience couldn’t help but be surprised by Karin’s domineering display of power. After all, what she showed in her first fight was…less impressive.
The cat-and-mouse game continued a bit longer before Hisoka decided that she had no other choice but to take a risk. Since she learned the [Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms], she hadn’t fought Karin, so she made a gamble that it would make her fast enough to reach Karin.
Hisoka changed her stance and shot towards Karin at a much higher speed than before. The first chain came sweeping at her, which Hisoka managed to dodge by lowering her upper body, and moments later, she avoided the second one with a sidestep.
By now, Hisoka was very close to Karin, and after dodging Karin’s last chain with another sidestep, an expression of glee appeared on Hisoka’s face. At the same time, Hisoka could clearly see the nervousness on Karin’s face.
“Two.”
Hisoka’s two hands shot forward in an attempt to seal Karin’s first two Tenketsu, but moments later, an ugly expression appeared on Hisoka’s face as she felt that she had just stabbed her two hands into glue.
The nervousness on Karin’s face vanished as a dome of seals appeared around her in which Hisoka’s hands were stuck.
“Tricked ya, you know.”
*BOOM*
Karin’s fist smashed into Hisoka’s stomach, resulting in her coughing out some blood and being sent flying into the arena wall. When the dust settled, Hisoka, who had a pained expression on her face, was revealed sitting on the ground.
“*Cough* Damnit, Karin, couldn’t you have gone a bit easy on me?”
However, Karin only rolled her eyes when she heard Hisoka’s complaints.
“I’m still a medical ninja. I know how hard I have to punch to defeat someone without dealing any severe damage.”
“*Urgh* It still hurts. I’m giving up, by the way. Can I get a healer that didn’t just rupture my organs with a punch?”
Karin chuckled at Hisoka’s antics, and moments later, she was declared the winner of the match. Additionally, after questioning Lee and Karin about their current condition, it was decided that there would be a half-hour break before the final fight. After all, Lee had just opened the first of the eight gates, while Karin had something else to prepare for the last round.
