_________ POV Narration_________
"So it's just that? That was the plan? To overwhelm the Uzumaki brat with Nature Energy-enhanced jutsu?"
The Raikage's question seemed to resonate with the other leaders as well, as they all looked at Ken for answers.
"Well, I'd say it's better for you to turn your gazes back to the arena... Just using Nature Energy regularly won't win the fight in this case, so my pupil will have to get creative."
Enhancing an attack with Nature Energy was never going to be a big deal for someone who was already considered a perfect sage.
But the actually effective strategy was to overwhelm the Uzumaki prodigy with easy-to-defend attacks, followed by one enhanced with Nature Energy.
It would be hard to tell the attacks apart for anyone who didn't practice Senjutsu.
And Takehiko specifically had 0 training fighting against sages. How could he? Senjutsu users were almost non-existent in the Shinobi World. Hell, the Uzumaki didn't even have 1.
But a simple Water Dragon Bullet wasn't going to be able to take down a Uzumaki.
Takehiko walked out of the broken wall of the arena with a slight limp, and a mad look on his wet face. His soaked clothes and bruises were enough to indicate that he had completely failed to judge his opponent properly.
"That... Won't work twice." The Prodigy's voice now sounded darker, a dangerous tone seeped into it as his gaze promised to take down Ume, his younger opponent.
"..." Ume didn't respond, instead she pointed a hand sign to the sky.
"Hiding in Mist Technique!"
In an instant, the entire arena was covered in a thick mist, making the viewing experience a lot worse for the regular folk present.
The leaders could still track the children's movements within the mist, however. Some had a bit of difficulty, but Ken specifically didn't really have a problem with the mist. Not much of a gaze to obscure for him after all...
Surprisingly, despite being passive most of the fight, the first one to move now was Takehiko.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
In an instant, all of the mist was blown away by a powerful gust of wind which left Takehiko's mouth as soon as his Jutsu was finished.
In front of him were now 3 assassins instead of just one, and they were all rushing towards him.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
"Wind Release: Gale Palm!"
Two of the clones formed a cooperative attack, one spitting out a gigantic fireball towards Takehiko, whilst the other pointed its palm towards the fireball and fanned the flames to a dangerous degree.
The other did not use a technique, instead pulling out a scroll and jumping towards the sky, tracking out a multitude of different weapons and chucking them towards Takehiko from different angles using chakra threads.
Both techniques that the other two clones used were enhanced with Nature Energy, so it wouldn't be that easy to bat them away. But Takehiko didn't even try this time.
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
The Uzumaki prodigy spat out a monumental quantity of mud towards the ground, erecting a gigantic wall in front of him which immediately solidified and started cracking underneath the strength of the fireball.
Despite being a rather basic jutsu, Takehiko had filled it with a lot more chakra than normal, making it both sturdier and bigger in general.
Some hidden weapons were also blocked by the wall, but the ones coming from odd angles still managed to reach Takehiko.
But they were just as easily batted away by the Adamantite chains that were still bursting out of his back.
The hundreds of hidden weapons were now scattered all around the Uzumaki prodigy, as he created a circle-like perimeter which no weapon crossed.
As soon as the flames on the other side of the wall died down a bit, his chains flared up, smashing into the wall in front of him with great force and sending the burning debris flying towards the clones behind the wall.
Like soldiers stepping on a landmine, the two clones were shredded apart by the sharpened rocks. Takehiko then smiled, seemingly remembering something.
"Doing that trick, won't work here!" Immediately, all of his chains plunged into the ground underneath him, and the arena's earth floor started to crack, as his chains slithered and whipped around underneath the earth.
Ume sweated a bit as all of the clones she had placed underground got crushed and were forced to dissipate.
The leaders above also felt that, having paid attention to the ground as well after the last fight had occurred. It was hard not to after all.
Unfortunately for Ume, Takehiko had also been paying attention despite never looking quite engaged or interested during the fights.
With the clones underground dead, there was only one assassin left in the arena...
"So that's the real one..." Takehiko smiled as he looked towards the one that was still in mid-air, trying to throw hidden weapons towards him.
"Unsightly!" With a wave of his hand, a chain shot up at breakneck speeds and pierced the little assassin right through the stomach.
The assassin spat out blood, then her body immediately disappeared in a fiery explosion.
'What?!? That's not the real one?' Takehiko immediately became on guard, his chains entering the ground once more and fragmenting it even further.
Without realising, he had also caused many of the hidden weapons that had been thrown at him to shift their position slightly closer to his, bubble, to the point where some of them were within it...
As soon as that happened, two weapons vanished in a puff of smoke at opposite ends of the bubble, both rushing towards the middle with swords stabbed forward.
Takehiko didn't have much time to react, it was damn near impossible for him to tell which one was real, so he used his remaining energy to muster up two more chains, moving to pierce both.
One chain passed right through not feeling like it hit anything as the clone dispersed into an illusionary cloud of smoke, whilst the other felt like, and actually did hit flesh, as it pierced into Ume's side and passed right through.
The assassin was not deterred though, driven to strike back. Her arm immediately got covered in scales, and her claw extended to rip out a chunk of her opponent's torso.
Takehiko hissed in pain as he whipped his chain with Ume still attached to it, effectively throwing her a great distance away and sending her crashing into the wall of the arena.
He then followed that up by entangling her in all of his chains, pulling on her every limb and seemingly almost wanting to rip her apart then and there out of anger.
"Takehiko of the Uzumaki Clan advances forward!"
The fight got called at that moment, but the prodigy's chains lingered for another moment, wondering whether or not to choke the assassin a bit, as a parting gift for all of the humiliation.
But before he could even seriously consider that he felt a cold gaze on his back, one that made all of the hairs on his back stand straight, looking up, it was none other than the gaze of his mentor.
The look his teacher's eyes gave was quite clear. 'If you do not put her down, I will make sure you suffer.'
It didn't matter how much Yorihikko cared for Takehiko. If the prodigy was not smart enough to understand that antagonizing the Dark Brotherhood was a bad idea, then training him was already a waste of resources and time.
But Takehiko proved that he was at least smarter than a rock, as he placed Ume on the ground this time instead of outright dropping her.
He then limped off, going back to his corner to tend to both his physical injuries and his hurt ego.
The final exchange was something that everyone found impressive. It was clear to everyone that Ume/Number 7 was outmatched, but it was also clear that she had put up a valiant effort.
The sheer grit it took to run towards your opponent whilst grinding your own insides whilst caught in their move was not something many could claim to have, let alone a child Ume's age.
Regardless, the finalists of the Chunin Exams were now decided... And the following fights were going to be even more competitive.
'Let's see... The match-ups are... Huh. It seems like Tatsukio and Morita will be going at each other first. Takehiko will be sitting this one out.'
Ken slowly stood up, his ears perking up before he stood up from his chair.
'Now then... To check on Ume.'