Chapter 112 - A Little Warm-Up
As soon as Genma declared Yuna as the winner of the match, an oppressive silence descended onto the stadium. Moments later, however, it was replaced by cries of outrage.
"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!"
"HOW COULD UCHIHA-SAMA LOSE TO THAT DEMON!?"
"SHE MUST HAVE CHEATED SOMEHOW!!!"
Yuna couldn't help but smirk when she saw how the audience was getting angrier and angrier. Yet again, Yuna spread her arms wide to welcome the "cheers" of her "fans".
"HAHAHA!!! Thank you for all the support. I couldn't have done it without you! Only my determination to see you get even angrier could give me the push necessary to defeat Sasuke!"
This, naturally, made the people even angrier, but before things could escalate further, Hiruzen decided to intervene.
"SILENCE!!! Yuna won this match fair and square. Does anyone have a different opinion!?"
A lot of people wanted to say a few words, but when they felt Hiruzen's aura press down on them, they quickly decided not to do so. Seeing that no one was saying anything, Hiruzen gave a satisfied nod.
Kakashi, after seeing how easily Yuna dealt with the Chidori, really didn't know what to say. He thought that she might simply dodge the blow or direct it away from her, but Yuna actually caught it head-on and neutralized it. Considering that Yuna still seemed to be breathing calmly, it didn't look like it took her much effort to do so either.
'Seems like she is an even bigger monster than I thought she was. Perfect control over two different chakra natures is no joke. Especially at such a young age.'
While Kakashi was deep in thought, Yuna was still standing inside the arena with a smirk on her face, while Genma was giving her a weird look.
"You can return to the candidates' waiting room now. Why are you still here?"
Yuna chuckled when she heard that and looked towards Hinata and Naruto who appeared inside the arena next to each other.
"Well, I might be participating in the next fight, so I thought I might as well wait to see how it goes."
Naruto and Hinata both had wry smiles on their faces when they heard that.
"So, you were already expecting this, huh nee-san."
"Guess we shouldn't be surprised that Yuna figured out our intentions. She has always been good at stuff like this."
Naruto nodded his head and looked up to the Hokage stands.
"Hokage-sama, we have a little request. Since either Hinata or I would have to fight Yuna in the next round, we would like to fight her in a two-on-one battle, right now."
Most people in the stadium would probably call Naruto's request completely shameless, but considering Yuna had an excited smile on her face, that notion seemed to be incorrect.
Hiruzen gave Naruto a weird look, before looking at Yuna who gave him a nod to indicate that she didn't mind. Next, he turned towards the Kazekage, or rather Orochimaru, who currently looked like the Kazekage, and started to speak.
"What do you think, Kazekage-dono?"
Orochimaru pondered for a moment and then nodded his head.
"It sounds interesting, so why not?"
'This should be a rather interesting spectacle. All three of them were involved when my blood clone was killed. Maybe I can get a hint of how they did it from this fight. Additionally, all three of them are quite powerful and it would be good if they had as little time as possible to recuperate their strength before the invasion starts. But to think Sasuke would be beaten this easily, truly a shame. Oh well, he is just a little boy after all. After I take control of his body it shouldn't take me long to master the Sharingan properly.'
Hiruzen nodded his head and stood up to make the announcement.
"I have discussed your request with Kazekage-dono, and we both agreed to it. The next fight will be changed from Naruto Uzumaki vs Hinata to Yuna Uzumaki vs Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata. If Hinata and Naruto win this battle, their fight against each other will simply be postponed to the semifinals. If Yuna wins, she will be automatically qualified for the finals."
Inside the arena, a happy smile appeared on Naruto's face when he heard Hiruzen accept his request.
"Haha, thanks, old man Hokage."
Hiruzen almost fell down the Hokage stand when he heard Naruto also discarding the "sama" within moments after his request was met, but Naruto ignored that.
"Good job, Naruto. This will be a lot of fun. How about a little warm-up before we get this started properly?"
Two swords appeared in Yuna's hands as she crouched down and got into an attacking position.
"Haha, of course, nee-san. After all, I am the only one of us three who didn't have a warm-up fight, yet."
Naruto took out two knuckle dusters and put them on his fingers. He usually fights barehanded but doing so without Kurama's chakra against bladed weapons is not a good idea.
Naruto's words, however, caused another uproar in the audience seats. After all, Naruto just called Yuna's and Hinata's matches a warm-up.
"Well, my fight can't exactly be called a warm-up either, so let's go Yuna."
Hinata pulled out a thin sword and activated her Byakugan, which she didn't bother using against Neji.
This made quite a few people in the audience understand why the trio consider their first fight a warm-up. During Hinata's fight, she didn't use her Byakugan at all, something which no one had paid attention to until now. Additionally, she only used the most basic of movements in her fight. Simple punches and kicks. Although Yuna was more active in her first fight, the taijutsu she used clearly wasn't her own.
Kakashi, who knew Yuna and Naruto was, naturally, aware of this. He couldn't help but be a little excited about this fight. He was hoping that Yuna would show off a few more of her moves when she had to fight Naruto and Hinata simultaneously. He had already pulled up his headband and was preparing his Sharingan so he wouldn't miss anything. He also noticed that his Sharingan was working properly this time unlike what happened during the bell test.
The first to make a move was Yuna, she disappeared from where she stood and reappeared in front of Naruto, with one of her swords already cutting downwards. Naruto lifted his arm and smashed his fist into the sword, blocking the strike, while simultaneously punching towards Yuna's stomach with his other hand.
Yuna easily sidestepped the attack and was just about to attack with her other sword, when she had to move it to block the tip of Hinata's sword that was just about to pierce her neck. Yuna noticed that Hinata's chakra-filled finger was already dangerously close to piercing into her stomach which would result in it injecting a rather unhealthy dose of destructive chakra into Yuna's body, so she quickly jumped back to avoid Hinata's attack.
All three of them had calm smiles on their faces like they didn't just throw deadly attacks at each other. They simultaneously crouched down and resumed fighting at the same pace. Yuna would attack with a flurry of sword strikes, Naruto would block them, while occasionally counterattacking, while Hinata was constantly harassing Yuna with deadly sword and finger strikes. Truth be told, this was a rather normal configuration for them during their sparring matches.
The spectators, however, had a completely different interpretation of this match. While Yuna's and Naruto's exchange could still be considered somewhat reasonable. They were absolutely certain that Yuna was Hinata's greatest enemy and that she would do everything she could to kill her. Especially the fact that a glimmer of glee would occasionally appear in her eyes when she managed to get close to actually landing a hit on Yuna made it clear for them that Hinata wanted Yuna dead.
After fighting back and forth like that for a while, all three took a little distance from each other. Yuna was the first to speak.
"Well, that should have been a decent warm-up, right? How about we get this started properly now?"
"Haha, alright. nee-san. But how far can we go?"
Seeing the excited glimmer in not only Naruto's eyes but Hinata's as well, Yuna chuckled a little.
"You already know the answer, don't you? Go all out. Today is the day to show off. The time of holding back is over."
"Yes, nee-san!"
Without another word, overbearing chakra started flowing out of Naruto. It cloaked his whole body and formed fox ears and three tails entirely made out of chakra. The knuckle dusters on his fingers had already vanished as he got on all fours, getting into a foxlike attack posture.
"Hehe, let's have a lot of fun, Yuna."
Hinata also flared her chakra, but unlike Naruto, whose presence became more overbearing, Hinata's presence seemed to almost disappear, making it nearly impossible to notice her when one wasn't paying attention. Additionally, the skin around Hinata's eyes took on a blue hue which was a sign that someone was using natural energy. She might not be able to use much of it yet, but it was still better than nothing.
When Orochimaru saw that, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
'That little girl can use senjutsu!? No, that's impossible. To absorb natural energy, one has to stay still for quite a while, which she didn't do. Additionally, her chakra pool isn't large enough yet to learn senjutsu. Does she have some kind of mutation that allows her to absorb it despite moving? Now I am getting curious, should I collect her as well? While picking up Sasuke, I might as well get her too.'
Hiruzen, meanwhile, was rather close to getting an aneurism when he saw that. As Jiraiya's sensei, he, naturally, knew about senjutsu as well.
'That damn Yuna and her little group. Can't at least one of them be a little normal? First that disgustingly perfect chakra control and now even senjutsu. At least it doesn't seem to be as ridiculous as Jiraiya's version. It doesn't feel like her strength has increased by that great a margin.
Yuna, meanwhile, was looking at her two opponents with a happy smile on her face.
"Haha, that's it! Let's have some fun!"
Similar to Naruto, a chakra cloak started to engulf Yuna, creating three tails of chakra behind her. Unlike Naruto, however, she was still standing on her two feet while getting ready for combat.
"Show me what you got!"
Yuna clapped her hands together and started amassing chakra.
""YES!!!""
Naruto and Hinata mimicked Yuna's gesture and started gathering chakra as well.
"[Wind Style:…]"
"[Water Style:…]"
"[Ice Style:…]"
"[Author Style: Supreme Cliffhanger Jutsu]"
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