The names shuffled on the screen for a few seconds before stopping.

Akada Yoroi

vs

Uchiha Sasuke

Was displayed on the screen. Yoroi… Who is that? Not one of the rookies or else Shinku would know him. The sand ninja? Or is it Kabuto’s team? He guessed he’ll find out. Either way he’d enjoy watch his brother kick some ass.

“Now then the two displayed on the signboard, come forward.” Sasuke and the sunglasses-wearing teammate of Kabuto stepped in front of everyone else. “For the first battle, Akado Yoroi and Uchiha Sasuke have been selected. You have no objections, yes?” The two answered the question positively with confidence. “Now then, we will begin the first battle. Everyone but the two competitors, please move to the upper area.”

Team seven remained down with Sasuke for the longest, even Kakashi approaching, though by then Shinku was already climbing upwards. Eventually Sasuke’s teammates did as well, Shinku joining the two. Shinku noted that Sakura looked worried, which was strange. She usually had about as much confidence in Sasuke as he did.

“Did something happen?” He called out to her.

“Huh? Oh… No. Nothing. Why?” She answered, Shinku raising an eyebrow at the blatant lie, not even answering her back as he activated his sharingan and watched the fight closely.

The Yoroi guy activated a jutsu immediately with the start of the battle, with his sharingan Shinku could see his hand getting covered in chakra, but he couldn’t guess what for. It wasn’t a chakra scalpel. The chakra was too wild for that, not to mention that those are basically worthless in combat. The incisions they make are so small and precise that even with extensive knowledge of the human body there’s no way you could target a spot on the enemy so precisely unless you’re considerably faster than them.

As Sasuke drew a kunai, Yoroi threw three shuriken at him, which Sasuke knocked away. Everything looked normal, until Sasuke didn’t recover his stance, but rather fell forward on the ground. Shinku’s eyes narrowed. That’s strange. Sasuke would never slip up like that. Did he have some sort of serious injury? He seemed to be low on chakra, but not that low as to be unable to recover from a simple move like that. Yoroi ran at him and smashed his fist down, Sasuke throwing himself out of the way and being blown back by the shockwave, stabbed his kunai into the ground to stop his momentum and tripped Yoroi up with his legs, then caught him in a hold as he fell.

But Yoroi’s chakra-covered hand was only centimeters away from Sasuke now. He simply moved it slightly and grabbed onto Sasuke’s shirt, before Shinku observed as Sasuke’s chakra was drained away through it. What was that? A kekkei genkai? Shinku’d never heard of one like that.

Yoroi punched Sasuke in the chest, Sasuke’s strength having been drained along with his chakra. He tried to get up only for Yoroi to grab his head and start sucking out the chakra through it, Sasuke screaming out in pain and causing Shinku to grab onto the guard rails of the observer area tightly. ’What’s wrong Sasuke? You aren’t even pulling out your sharingan. What happened to you?’ Sasuke seemed helplessly pinned to the floor, his strength gradually leaving him.

“Sasuke! What’s with that pathetic display?! Get yourself together! You’re Uchiha Sasuke aren’t you?!” Shinku called out.

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“That’s right!” Called out Naruto right after “Don’t be showing such a lame display! Do this seriously!”

Sasuke hearing this, struggling, placed his hand on his opponent, before throwing him off with a simultaneous push and kick. Picking himself up, he dodged the next attack, but the opponent still grazed him, draining a tiny bit of chakra. Shinku didn’t know if the pain Sasuke clearly experienced was because of the technique or because of something else. Yoroi rushed at him again, Sasuke dodging the attacks this time, when he suddenly ducked at an incredible speed, so much so that his opponent lost sight of him, before kicking him in the chin and throwing him upwards, jumping up himself right afterwards placing himself in the shadow of his opponent.

‘Dancing leaf shadow? When did he learn that?’ Yet, again he shivered in pain even there, as a strange burning mark spread across his skin. ‘What the hell is that?!’ Shinku thought, gripping the guard rail even tighter, before the marks receded back and Sasuke started his attack. Placing a hand on his opponent he rotated himself and kicked him, the opponent blocking it. He rotated again, going to his opponent’s opposite side while hitting him in the throat with an elbow, then a punch to the stomach, knocking him downwards. Doing a final spin as they’re falling at the same rate he smashed his opponent into the floor with a powerful kick, cracking the tiles underneath as he called out.

“Lion Combo!”

The attack, so powerful that it threw him away from the body, dragging him along the floor and flipping him over, leaving him lying down on the floor. Hayate walked up to the unconscious body of Yoroi as Sasuke stood up from the ground and announced his victory of the first fight, finally allowing Shinku to allow his grip and give a sigh of relief. As Sasuke was about to fall backwards, Kakashi appeared behind him and caught him. The medical team arrived and carried Yoroi off on a stretcher. They offered to take Sasuke as well, but Kakashi said he’d take care of him, before taking him away. Shinku watched this happen and turned to Sakura.

“Those marks that covered Sasuke. What were they?”

She looked down “…I don’t know either…”

Shinku turned to Naruto. “I don’t know either.” At least Naruto looked like he genuinely didn’t know. He was a notoriously bad liar, after all. But if Shinku couldn’t get it out of Sakura he’d have to force it out of Sasuke. With how worried the girl seemed to be, he couldn’t possibly force her to speak about it more. Especially since, knowing Sasuke, he was probably the one to tell her to stay quiet about it.

The screen started going through different names again until it stopped on two.

Aburame Shino

vs

Tsurugi Misumi

“The two of you, come forward.” Hayate called out, Shino and Kabuto’s other teammate, climbing down and meeting in front of him. “Now, we’ll begin the second match.” He pauses for a moment and took a few steps back. “Now then, please begin.”

Misumi instantly rushed at Shino, who simply stood there. He attacked with the back of his arm, which Shino blocked, only Misumi’s arm stretched out and wrapped around Shino’s, the man using the chance to wrap his legs around Shino’s and his other arm around his neck.

‘What the hell is that body? Another kekkei genkai I haven’t heard about?’ Shinku wondered. Were these just not documented? Or had he just not come across them in his reading? Who were these people and why had he never heard of them until now if they could do something like suck a person’s chakra out through a mere touch?

Misumi continued constricting Shino with his limbs, gradually tightening them and explained. “I can dislocate every joint in my body and control my softened body with chakra at will.” Shino didn’t say anything. “That’s why I can squeeze you until your bones break. As long as you don’t give up, I’ll keep tightening. I can even snap your neck whenever I want.” Shino continued saying nothing. “Do you want to die?!” The silence remained. Misumi, seemingly getting pissed, tightened the arm around Shino’s neck and with a snap, his neck hung down. Shinku smiled. This had almost everyone fooled for a moment before that Shino started turning into insects, the real one showing up behind Misumi.

“Behind you.” He said, no better word to describe it than coolly.

“What?!” Misumi exclaimed as he tried to retract his dislocated limbs, but couldn’t do so while he was covered in insects, his chakra being devoured too much for him to control his limbs efficiently. As the whole of the clone turned into insects, Misumi fell down on the ground his limbs, flopping around uselessly, screaming as his chakra was sucked out until he fell unconscious. ‘Aburame… a terrifying clan...’ Shinku noted, hoping not to face off against him in the finals. Checking Misumi’s body, Hayate announced Shino’s victory as the insects returned to their host and he climbed back up to the platform. The medic team arrived, picking up the next victim, before the screen lit up again, shuffling through the names for a few seconds.

Uchiha Shinkumaru

vs

Akimichi Choji

Shinku was overjoyed seeing his name appear at first, then instantly facepalmed reading the one of his opponent. How was he supposed to take this seriously? Put him up against the red-haired sand ninja. Come on. Not… Choji. Of all damned people. He sighed. He supposed it was better than being put up against Sakura or something. Sighing again, he walked down to the arena.