__________ POV Narration __________

The two assassins squared off in silence, waiting for their opponent to crack and make the first move.

Morita had a rather large advantage, he was considerably stronger than Bull in most aspects besides physical strength.

"It feels a bit strange to watch a fight that's already been decided... They are quite literally called out by their numbers." Yorihhiko seemed a bit bored when looking at the match-up.

In his mind, it was already over. One was Number 2, and the other one was Number 4.

What he failed to account for was that the rankings within the brotherhood didn't instantly constitute a difference in overall strength.

They were, at the end of the day, assassins.

Morita was far superior to Bull as an assassin. But in a frontal confrontation, Bull was bound to have some advantages over Morita.

Maybe he lost out when it came to speed, agility and skillfulness, but he did have one rather substantial advantage... And that was physical strength.

Of course, managing to use it all depended on how skilled Bull was. It wasn't going to be easy, at least not in Ken's 'eyes'.

Morita was always serious when it came to his ranking and fighting power. He was going to be even more serious now that Ken was observing their spar directly. There was no catching him off-guard.

But there was still one slim chance that Bull got the better of him. And he needed to do one thing in order to succeed... And that was to catch a hold of Morita.

But of course, Morita's condition for a win was also relatively simple, and it was something that he was trained in the most...

Turn the fight into an assassination.

After a few more moments of silence, the first one to make a move was Morita. But he didn't approach, instead, his wrist flickered and he sent a few dozen shurikens towards Bull.

The Number 4 Assassin huffed some pressurised air from his nostrils and scoffed, with one hand, he swung his large two-handed mace at the air in front of him.

The shuriken were immediately blown away by the strong gust of wind created by Bull's strike, dust immediately rose up and Morita used that opportunity to jump into action.

'Using a smokescreen is always an effective way to go about things when facing a stronger opponent... But I'm afraid it won't work in this situation...'

Ken smiled as he leaned forward slightly, his 'eyes' firmly planted on the two contestants.

Morita approached Bull through the smoke in a very skilful manner, he moved with such a speed that it was almost as if he was flowing through the air, his feet gliding through the smoke almost as if they were sliding on it.

Before anyone knew it, Mortia was already behind Bull, his blade swiftly thrust toward the muscular young teen's lower back.

But just as that happened, Bull thrust the handle of his mace backward intercepting his blade in a skillful manner and batting it to the side with excessive force, almost forcing it out of Morita's hand.

The Number 2 Assassin's eyes widened for a moment as Bull seemed to turn at a rapid speed, his shoulder bending at an odd angle, and his burly arm hurtling towards Morita like a whip.

His speed seemed to have increased exponentially in that split second, and it managed to take the Number 2 Assassin by surprise.

Morita's eyes widened for a moment, his eyebrows furrowing as the world seemed to move in slow motion for a few seconds. He acted immediately putting his guard up, raising his dagger and bracing for impact.

A boom was heard through the arena as the smoke cleared and Morita was sent flying to the side, crashing into the wall without much grace.

"Hah..." Morita panted a bit as he patted the dust off of his shoulders. Looking down, his blade was bent, its edge completely broken and ruined.

Morita had turned the blade at the point of impact, hoping to injure Bull and use the momentum of his strike to back off without much injury. But he failed to account for the thick layer of scales that now covered Bull's arm.

Sage Mode, something that all of the children within the top 5 of the Brotherhood had mastered already. The Number 4 Assassin's strength reached an entirely new level, going far above those achievable by normal humans.

"I didn't think you'd have time to use that..." The Blonde Assassin narrowed his eyes before reaching for his wrist, and taking out another blade. as well as a kunai.

"I can't afford to go easy on you brother! I'm serious about winning this!" Bull huffed as he took on a half-perfected sage mode.

His strategy had been a gamble. He banked on the fact that Morita wouldn't use Sage Mode from the start, and that he'd be able to gather enough Nature Energy during the start of the match and while 'waiting' in the smoke screen he had purposefully raised.

The dust he had raised helped a lot in hiding his transformation. Of course, he had forced himself to enter an imperfect sage transformation, allowing the natural energy within his body to overwhelm his chakra momentarily.

While it was a dangerous tactic, it at least provided him with greater strength and durability.

"Huh. I guess I was a bit fast to rule this off..." Yorihhiko smiled as he observed Bull's body, which was now looking like a half-human half-lizard hybrid, with only the right part of his body being covered in scales.

"Well, it was a smart move. One that I would also make in his situation... A gamble sure, but it had the opportunity to reap a lot of benefits..." Ken craned his neck as he observed the situation from a rather critical point of view.

"Had the opportunity? You may want to get your lack of eyes checked Ken. Number 2 appears to have taken quite a bit of damage." Mifune smiled and stroked his beard, getting a bit fired up watching such an interesting match-up.

"No, it failed. 2 was hit, but most of the damage was mitigated, and although overwhelmed, he didn't even get any broken bones." The Hokage squinted a bit, also noticing what Ken was referring to.

He didn't know the children of the brotherhood that well, but he was called 'The Teacher' for a reason. His analytical ability was unmatched when it came to fighting styles and techniques.

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"Indeed. That type of strategy only works once, and Number 4 just lost his chance at landing a critical blow." Yorihhiko smiled as he crossed his arms, the two blades on his back clanking against his cushioned seat.

Mifune would have likely noticed that as well had he not been overtaken by the youthful excitement of the two contestants before him. But for now, he was just left mumbling a few apologies to Ken and continuing to observe the bout, this time more closely.

Morita had already stood up and seemingly recovered from the strike, but Bull was not about to give him any breathing room.

Within seconds, he was already in front of Morita once more, both hands on his large mace as he swung it down towards his cornered opponent.

Morita, however, didn't seem too panicked. He immediately rolled to the side dodging underneath Bull's mace and leaving a gash on his scaleless leg as he passed by.

Bull's mace still hit the ground and caused a large enough bang that most of the contestants were forced to cover their ears.

The arena itself trembled, the wall in front of him cracked and the ground underneath him splintered. Web-like cracks spread throughout the arena as Morita and Bull dashed from side to side, exchanging blows.

Each time Bull moved, his mace thundered through the air, breaking the sound barrier and causing even more damage to the almost collapsing arena.

Each time Morita moved, his blades whizzed through the air at speeds that were difficult to follow with the naked eye. Each strike left a new wound on the scaleless parts of Bull's body.

In each exchange, blood would splatter onto the broken ground, new wounds would open up and old ones would deepen.

Eventually, it all came to a close, not with a loud bang, but with a metallic clang and bone-chilling silence.

The one that fell in the end was none other than Bull. In the very centre of the broken arena, with one knee planted firmly on the ground and his mace dropped by his side, he stood with bloody wounds covering most of his body.

He was already out of Sage Mode, but only one half of his body seemed to be injured, as Morita had not aimed for the part with scales at all.

Morita stood in front of him, bloody tanto and kunai held firmly in both of his arms. He was mostly unscathed, the arm that he had used to block the initial attack was swelling up a bit, and he had some odd few bruises here and there, but he was otherwise just fine.

"It was a good fight!" The Number 2 assassin spoke to the unconscious figure of his sibling.

Although Bull's back was still straight, and his muscles seemed to still be flexing and contorting, he was already passed out. The light in his eyes was gone.

Morita simply turned around and walked away, as the Jonin in charge announced the winner, albeit a bit slower than expected.

"W-winner of the match is Number 2 of the Dark Brotherhood!"

He was somewhat shaken up by the scene, as medical-nin all rushed towards Bull, who looked as if he was in critical condition.

"That was a lot better than I expected! There are a lot of monsters in this Brotherhood of yours, Red Dot!" Yorihhiko was truly entertained by that fight, and Mifune seemed to nod in agreement.

"Well, they both worked extremely hard to get where they are at now. I would lie if I said I am not proud of the men they are slowly turning into." Ken just smiled warmly underneath his mask. The Hokage and the Uzukage were both a bit taken aback by Ken's caring tone.

They had not expected to hear such a thing from him.

"Hmm... Still, Number 4 was injured quite badly. I figured you'd be a bit more worried." Yorihhiko commented as he waved one of his palms around with a cheeky smile on his face. His eyes tracked the Medical Shinobi that were currently carting Bull away towards the nearest hospital.

"No need to be worried. Bull is strong. And Number 2 did avoid hitting vitals. If this was a fight to the death it would have ended a lot sooner..."

Ken shook his head internally as he pictured some other ways a battle between Morita and Bull could have ended. A fight to the death would have ended sooner if Bull had used the same strategy to fight a Morita who was gunning for his head. But that was unlikely.

Bull had used his strategy with this being a spar in mind. It would have been drastically changed if they were to fight to the death.

"Normally the chunin exams are meant to be fights to the death... To get the genin used to this type of life.

But I guess it's fine in this case since both Number 4 and Number 2 surpass most Chunin." The Hokage sighed as he slowly waved his hand and ordered some Anbu to start fixing up the arena and fill in the cracks that had spread.

With some Earth-Style Ninjutsu, they were able to do so quite quickly.

"Let's see... The next matchup is also just from the Dark Brotherhood right?" Yorihhiko smiled as he looked over it.

Momo and Ume, the two girls that remained from the Brotherhood were now stuck competing against each other.

Well, the fight between them was not quite as intense as that of Bull and Morita. No Sage Mode was used, and the fight happened mostly through a few Taijutsu exchanges.

Momo seemed to have a slight advantage during those, leaving a few nicks and cuts on Ume.

But she didn't seem to be able to do more than that.

What she did manage to do was to trap Ume a few times using feints, which just showcased that she still had more experience than her younger sibling.

The climax of the fight happened when both Ume and Momo spat out the largest Jutsu they could muster.

"Water Style: Crushing Tides!" Ume spat out an ungodly amount of water, all forming gigantic waves that threatened to crush Momo into the other wall of the Arena.

"Wind Style: Vacuum Breath!" Momo answered with the strongest Justu she had in her arsenal, sucking up all the air around her and blasting it forward in a stream of pressurized air aimed right at Ume.

The wind and water clashed in the middle, at first, evenly matched. But the nature of Ume's Jutsu formed tides, the pressure on Momo's stream of wind became stronger and stronger with each wave, and it eventually led to her downfall.

She was unable to break out of the stalemate or roll to the side, so she was simply crushed under the weight of the tides.

Of course, Anbu rescued her the moment she lost consciousness.

The next few rounds rolled by just as quickly.

Kushina won over her opponent with a bit of difficulty. She did not have to access any chakra from the Tailed Beast within her at all. Not that Ken had any idea if she even could do that without a cost.

The next round was a bit more interesting, however... Yugito Nii, the young Jinchuriki of the Two Tails, fought against Raiden, the strongest that had come from the Land of Iron.

Raiden was surprisingly skilled. Ken easily 'saw' Mifune in his blade, it was clear that the young man was personally trained by the Beheading General.

His chakra blade was sharp and he could even release flying slashes, which he used to scar the arena constantly throughout the fight.

It was just a shame that his opponent happened to be Yugito of all people...

The young girl was agile, matching Raiden in speed. She was able to dodge most attacks, her cold eyes tracking his moves with rather unprecedented talent.

Her fire-style jutsu all were using frames that felt much hotter than regular ones. Only from Mifune's exclamation did he find out that it was blue fire.

It seemed to be a side effect of the Tailed Beast within her, but the young girl's fire-style jutsus were a lot more destructive than usual.

Raiden was able to cut through a few fireballs, but he was quickly overwhelmed by dozens upon dozens of them.

The positions were reversed and he was forced to dodge around to the best of his ability. But the Fire Style that Yugito used was anything but ordinary.

The fireballs that Yugito spat out were small, but they combusted into large explosions when they came into contact with something.

That much was manageable, but what made things damn near impossible for Raiden was the fact that Yugito seemed to be able to remotely control the fireballs.

This ended up being the small detail that won Yugito the fight and almost blew off Raiden's leg completely while he tried his best to send a flying slash toward her.

As it turned out, the explosions of her fireballs could repel attacks as well. And of course, they didn't affect Yugito herself in any way other than forcing her to eat some dust.

Raiden was saved by Mifune interfering technically, but Ken felt that the girl was already manipulating her fireballs to move away from the already defeated young samurai.

In the end, it was a resounding victory for her, and it left the old beheading general quite pissed.

"No need to be too peeved about it. That young lass seems quite strong. I'd even say she's finalist material with that jutsu of hers alone." Yorihhiko shook his head and gave Mifune a comforting smile.

He didn't like the Raikage, but that didn't mean he was not willing to admit it when someone from the cloud was talented.

"Well... I did say finalist material. But she's still not going to win. Keep your eyes peeled for the next fight, the winner is going to show off a bit!... Well, if you have eyes to peel anyway. No offence meant, Lord Ken."

"None taken..." Ken murmured as he remembered the next matchup.

Akio, the sickle-wielding Number 5 Assassin of the Dark Brotherhood was up against the genin that Yorihhiko was hyping up...

Uzumaki Takehiko, the young shinobi that had already awakened the Adamantine Sealing Chains.

'Let's observe how this plays out...'