Chapter 153: Chapter 155: Kankuro: Can’t Handle Hanabi or Sasuke, but I Can Sure Handle You, Blondie!
"That person... isn’t a ninja? But it looks like they can use chakra?"
The Third had noticed Hikari too.
"Outrageous. Bringing an unaffiliated party into the venue for the Chūnin Exams."
The later rounds would all be opened to the public, true—but for now, the Chūnin Exam events here still couldn’t have just any random outsider wandering in.
"...Wait."
The Third suddenly sank into thought.
"Hanabi isn’t a child who’d bring someone in carelessly. What she means to say is... that an unaffiliated party has long since slipped into the Chūnin Exams?"
Looked at from that angle, the whole affair snapped into clarity all at once.
[666, that’s the Hokage for you]
[The Third: I’ve eaten more rice than you lot have eaten salt]
[Honestly I strongly suspect the Third’s tangled with her before]
[The person above—what do you mean?]
[Doesn’t the Third have that telescope crystal ball? I strongly suspect he once peeked through it and walked away with some lasting psychological damage courtesy of Hanabi]
[Grass (a type of exclamation), that’s actually plausible]
[The Third’s an LSP too—otherwise there’s no way Naruto one-shotted him]
The audience tossed remarks back and forth, and the Third somehow became a favorite topic among them.
And just then, the next group’s match began.
This round was Ino versus Hinata.
Naturally, there wasn’t much to say about it.
Both were female ninja, but Ino simply wasn’t a "combat-type" shinobi, whereas Hinata had been training hard all along.
After getting locked down by one set of Hinata’s Gentle Fist, Ino just called GG.
Only, Hinata’s mind didn’t seem to be on the match.
Even while fighting Ino, Hinata kept glancing toward Hanabi’s spot up on the second floor...
[Love-triangle senses tingling]
[No way—can a show like this actually go there?]
[Bend her—anyone can be bent!]
[Feels like Hinata’s got an inferiority thing, not too sure of her own strength. If she were strong, she really would charge right in]
[Because she can’t win, so she’s got no confidence, yeah?]
[Dying, ninja fights aren’t exactly the hair-pulling kind]
[No strength means you can’t even pull off a heel turn—you can only be small fry]
There is, admittedly, the saying that going dark triples your power—but the ninja world is just that cruel. Without strength, you can’t even manage a heel turn; you can only be eye candy—pure set dressing—and then you either get force-fed a cheat code or simply cease to exist as a character.
Hanabi was actually a little troubled, too.
Her dear big sister was indeed billed as having the purest Byakugan, but the girl herself didn’t seem to display anything particularly special.
If anything, it was in the Boruto era that Boruto and Himawari pulled off all sorts of busted feats. One a child prodigy; the other a "super-perfect jinchūriki" who could awaken the Byakugan while still a toddler.
Hinata quietly returned to her team. Ever since Hikari had appeared, she’d seemed weighed down by something.
The group after that was Choji versus Inuzuka Kiba. After Fang Passing Fang collided with the Human Bullet Tank, Choji came out slightly ahead in the end.
By this point, those confirmed to advance were Hanabi, Sasuke, Temari, Shino, Hinata, and Choji.
Neji and Rock Lee had both come through their matches in one piece, while Naruto and Gaara still hadn’t faced off.
"If this version of Naruto ran into Gaara right now, I wonder what would happen?"
How interesting.
If Gaara met Naruto here and got knocked straight out here in the preliminaries, then what would the Sand ninja do with their plan in the end?
Hanabi was awfully curious.
But what a pity—the next round was Gaara’s turn.
Gaara vs. Misumi Tsurugi.
Misumi Tsurugi—the one on Kabuto’s squad with the knack for a "soft physique." The budget... ah, the dollar-store Luffy of ninja. Like Kabuto, this man was also a spy from the Hidden Sound.
Another battle that needs no elaboration.
A taijutsu-type ninja running into Gaara—and not even one at Rock Lee’s level—was basically fated to get thrashed.
"Hikari, what do you make of this guy?" Hanabi asked Uchiha Hikari beside her.
"Hm, some unusual moves there. That sand defends on its own, doesn’t it? Well, no matter—just burn it away with Amaterasu." Hikari analyzed. "If the opponent can keep feeding chakra to control the sand defense endlessly, then I’d just wrap myself in Amaterasu and charge in. Or break through from range with Kagutsuchi..."
Hikari was about the slickest there was at playing with Amaterasu—she could wrap the black flames around her own body and use them as an absolute defense.
And unlike most absolute defenses, this one of hers carried plenty of offense, too.
"Apart from this Gaara, everyone else is only genin-level, really. Making chūnin within two or three years would already count as solid progress." Hikari delivered her verdict.
These few matches counted as the more "normal" sort of Chūnin Exam bouts—only, being too normal, they sometimes came off as a touch boring.
The Stage seemed to have taught itself the original’s trick of padding time and stretching the plot: ten minutes of actual match, and by cutting back and forth, it somehow squeezed out a full twenty minutes of content.
"Oya, oya, padding the plot is a no-no, you know."
Hanabi tilted her head.
Once she got to be the director, every last bit of this time-wasting filler was getting the axe!
Thankfully, she’d dragged Hikari over to leech some screen time, so at least there’d been a bit of everyday interaction.
Luckily, the next match’s lineup was out, and the Stage’s BGM turned rousing.
Uzumaki Naruto vs. Kankuro.
"It’s here, it’s here, it’s here!"
Even though Hanabi and Sasuke had finished their fights ages ago, his own turn had kept him waiting this long.
"I, Uzumaki Naruto, am taking the stage~"
Naruto bounced down into the arena, brimming with energy.
"That idiot."
Sasuke was a little speechless.
Having seen Kankuro before, Sasuke had already guessed at the kind of abilities he might have.
He’d meant to use this moment to remind Naruto of a few things to watch for—only Naruto had jumped straight down below.
"That brat!"
A cruel smile surfaced on Kankuro’s face, too.
Come to think of it, this brat was one of the people who pissed him off most.
Back when he’d first arrived in Konoha, he’d run smack into this kid, and it had kicked off a whole pile of trouble—left Kankuro thoroughly traumatized, in fact.
Mm, that’s right. The one and only Hyuga Hanabi.
As for her classmate Uchiha Sasuke—this one was the surviving orphan of the Uchiha clan, said to be a genius as well.
And this blondie—sure, he could throw out some chains, but it seemed he couldn’t keep them up for long, only burst them out for an instant. Beyond that, no impressive ninjutsu to speak of; the type who could only flail away with wild haymakers.
According to the intel Kankuro had gotten from a certain information broker, this Squad Seven had balanced out its strength so that the blondie’s power and the other two’s weren’t on the same level at all.
Kankuro unslung his puppet, Karasu.
"Come on, then! Blondie brat!"
I can’t handle Hanabi or Sasuke—but you think I can’t handle one blondie?!
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