Chapter 530: Brainstorming
"Number 25, Mei Terumī, versus Number 30, Uchiha Obito!"
As the referee's voice echoed through the waiting room, Mei and Obito quickly made their way to the arena.
I'm already the best performing Mist ninja among us, Mei thought to herself. I can't disappoint the elder, and I have to do everything I can to reach the top four. Only the top four get rewards.
Even the lowest reward for fourth place was a chakra blade worth tens of millions of ryo.
Mei would not even need to sell it. Just the money from that alone would be enough for her to commission every flavor of ice cream in the ninja world.
I absolutely can't lose. There's still one punishment slot left, Obito thought, his face serious.
The rule they had set was simple. The first two disciples eliminated would receive the same punishment as losing an internal battle. Since Rin was no longer participating, only one more disciple needed to be eliminated before Obito could escape the miserable fate of doing extra exercises.
For the sake of his bright and glorious future, he absolutely could not fall here. No matter what, he had to make it into the top four.
With that in mind, Obito looked at Mei, and Mei just happened to be looking at him as well. Both of them saw the determination in the other's eyes and instantly understood.
This was a battle neither of them could afford to lose.
"Mei's Water Release is really strong, and her Hidden Mist Technique can block the Sharingan's vision. She feels like a terrible matchup for Obito," Rin said worriedly from the stands.
"This is the kind of intensity the top eight should have," Kakashi said calmly. "Before this, he was just lucky enough to draw weak opponents."
By the time the tournament had reached the top eight and the battle for the top four, there were no weak ninjas left.
Even Asuma, judged purely by individual strength, could already be considered a decent jonin. The problem was that everyone else remaining was even more monstrous.
Obito had truly drawn an excellent bracket this time. His first and second round opponents had been among the weakest in the knockout stage, and even now, his top eight opponent was not among the very strongest.
Among the eight remaining contestants, Mei's strength was on the lower end, but because of the elemental matchup, she was a far more troublesome opponent for Obito than she would have been for others.
Still, compared to monsters like Nagato or Might Guy, even with the elemental disadvantage, Mei was much easier to deal with.
"Achoo!"
Obito's nose suddenly twitched, and he sneezed. He looked around suspiciously.
He always felt like Kakashi was talking bad about him behind his back.
Right, Kakashi got eliminated too. He's probably up there with Rin right now, watching and criticizing me on purpose!
The thought was so irritating that Obito cursed the hateful white haired bastard inwardly. His face grew even more serious.
Now he not only had to win, he had to win beautifully, so Kakashi would have nothing to nitpick later.
"Begin!"
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Even though he had defeated Mei once before, this was a battle he could not lose, so Obito was unusually steady. He did not immediately enter Flame Breathing Chakra Mode and overwhelm her like he had in the first and second rounds. Instead, he opened with the classic Uchiha move: Fire Release.
The Great Fireball Technique was not always the best opening, but it was almost never a bad one.
"Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique!"
Mei swiftly formed hand seals and exhaled a thick cloud of mist. In only a few breaths, the entire arena was swallowed in dense fog.
Her losses in the Chunin Exams, along with Obito's performances in the elimination rounds, had helped Mei understand his fighting style rather well.
In many ways, Obito and Mei were actually similar. Both were more or less cannon type ninjas. The difference was that Obito's specialty was Fire Release, while Mei's was Water Release.
In theory, since they were both focused on large scale ninjutsu, Mei should have the upper hand because Water Release countered Fire Release.
But Mei could only be a long range ninjutsu fighter, while Obito also had excellent taijutsu, which made him extremely dangerous to her up close.
So Mei's strategy for this battle was simple. Use Hidden Mist Technique to prevent Obito from closing the distance, then bombard him from afar with Water Release.
She could not see clearly inside the Hidden Mist either, but Mist ninja had received special training in fighting within dense fog. They could conceal themselves, move silently, and locate their opponents through sound.
"I don't like this technique," the Lord Daimyo of the Land of Fire complained as he looked at the arena now drowned in white mist.
Even the Sharingan could not see through it, much less an ordinary man like him.
"Me neither. There's nothing satisfying about this at all," the Rain Daimyo agreed at once.
The other officials also began muttering their complaints.
High above, Kakuzu was already considering whether future Martial Arts Tournaments should ban large scale vision obscuring ninjutsu altogether.
What was there even to watch?
That annoying technique again.
Seeing Mei disappear into the thick mist, Obito sighed inwardly.
At that moment, he felt that not only was Fire Release the bottom of the barrel, but the Sharingan also seemed strangely unreliable. Ordinary people could not see through Hidden Mist, and even his Three Tomoe Sharingan could do nothing about it.
"Water Release: Water Formation Pillar!"
After slipping past the Great Fireball, Mei quietly appeared on Obito's right and unleashed a huge sphere of water that crashed toward him.
Whoosh!
Mei was concealing herself, but a wide range Water Release like that was too loud to hide completely. Obito heard it in time and used Body Flicker to avoid the incoming torrent.
Seriously, if Charmeleon were a dog, that would be perfect.
Obito could not help thinking of his own Nin Beast and immediately felt annoyed at how useless it was in this situation.
If it had been Rockruff, it could at least have relied on its sense of smell to track Mei through the mist.
But Charmeleon did not have a dog's nose, and on top of that, it only knew Fire Release, which was countered by Mei's Water Release. Summoning it would only mean letting Charmeleon suffer with him.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
Mei did not care that her previous attack had missed. She continued firing Water Release toward the sound of Obito's movements.
Her chakra reserves were solid. She was not going to run dry after just a few techniques.
What do I do now?
Obito dodged while thinking rapidly.
His long and miserable career of doing extra exercises had taught him one thing very well. Complaining constantly was useless. No matter how much he whined, the problems in front of him would not solve themselves.
Letting out a little emotion was fine, but only a little.
He thought of Mugetsu.
If Teacher Mugetsu were in my position, how would he deal with this?
The answer came almost instantly.
He'd definitely blast away all the mist with some ridiculously strong Wind Release.
Obito immediately shook his head.
That was far too far removed from reality. The methods Mugetsu could use were not methods he could use.
Since thinking like Mugetsu got him nowhere, Obito switched to another target.
Kakashi Hatake.
His most familiar rival.
Based on what Obito knew of Kakashi, Kakashi probably would not be able to disperse the mist either. Transparent World likely was not much better than the Sharingan against Hidden Mist.
"If I can't see the enemy, then the enemy can't clearly see me either."
Obito's mind moved fast, and suddenly he knew exactly what kind of jutsu he needed to use.
"Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Boom!
White smoke burst out, and twelve shadow clones appeared around him.
Half of them sprinted toward the direction the Water Dragon had come from, while the other half charged toward different areas of the arena.
A large number of shadow clones could create two advantages at once.
First, the many footsteps would interfere with Mei's ability to identify Obito's real body by sound alone.
Second, the arena was only so large. With thirteen Obitos searching at once, unless Mei hid underwater or flew into the sky, one of the clones would definitely find her within a minute.
Mei had intended to continue forming hand seals for another Water Release, but suddenly the footfalls around her became chaotic.
Did he use Shadow Clone Technique?
She paused for only an instant before continuing her hand signs and gathering Water Release.
Since she could not tell which one was the real Obito, then she would deal with all of them.
"Found her, over here!"
One of the clones shouted loudly after only ten seconds of searching, having already spotted Mei.
"Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
Because of that shout, Mei was certain it was not the original. Rather than retreat, she launched another Water Dragon and blew the clone apart.
Immediately afterward, she tried to slip away into another position and resume her bombardment.
But every Obito clone understood how precious this chance was and rushed straight toward her from all directions.
Mei's head began to ache.
She could not identify the real Obito among them, so she did not dare stop moving. If they got too close, she could easily be caught and eliminated.
"Lava Release: Melting Apparition Technique!"
Mei had wanted to reposition, but too many Obitos were closing in. She had no choice but to attack, otherwise they would swarm her.
The highly corrosive acid of her Lava Release was terrifying. Any shadow clone it touched dispersed almost instantly.
But the returning memories did their work.
Through his clones, Obito immediately locked onto Mei's exact position.
He pushed Flame Breathing to the limit, entered Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, and exploded forward at unprecedented speed.
"Blaze Impact!"
Wrapped in blazing flames, Obito shot through the mist like a fireball.
Mei's expression changed sharply.
Realizing she could not dodge in time, she cast Water Release at her fastest possible speed.
Hiss!
Streams of water crashed over Obito's body, extinguishing some of the flames around him, but they could not stop his momentum.
Bang!
A dull sound rang out, and Mei flew backward like a broken kite before crashing six meters away.
It hurts so much. How do these people balance ninjutsu and physical strength so absurdly well?
Mei gritted her teeth and endured the pain, barely stopping herself from crying out.
She truly did not understand how Obito and Kakashi trained.
Did their days have forty eight hours?
Even after all their chores and missions, they still seemed able to spend ten hours training ninjutsu and another ten hours training their bodies.
Among the ninja her age in Kirigakure, Mei's taijutsu was not considered outstanding, but it certainly was not bad either.
Yet compared to Kakashi and the others, it simply was not enough.
Since Mei could no longer maintain Hidden Mist Technique, the fog rapidly thinned and disappeared, finally revealing both fighters.
"Uchiha Obito wins!" the referee announced after confirming that Mei had lost the ability to continue.
Obito puffed out his chest and looked toward the stands.
This time, he had not relied on the overwhelming destructive power of Flame Breathing Chakra Mode.
This time, it had been a victory of strategy and intelligence!
Kakashi, let's see you call me brainless now!
He nearly burst out laughing on the spot.
This battle had happened under a terrible elemental disadvantage, against a bloodline user who also countered him. It was a deeply meaningful victory, one born from pure intelligence.
Then a horrifying thought suddenly struck him.
Wait. The whole arena was covered in mist the entire time. That means Kakashi and the others couldn't actually see any of it!
Obito's battle instincts had barely faded before this devastating realization hit him.
Although he had just brilliantly defeated Mei through superior wit and courage, no one outside could have properly seen how he did it because of the Hidden Mist covering the arena.
At that moment, Obito truly wanted to march over to the Shinobi Sect staff and request permission to go straight into the stands and personally explain every step of the battle, including his thought process, to Rin and Kakashi.
This had been a battle in which he had been countered both by element and bloodline.
How could such a meaningful victory go undocumented?
But then he realized he was already walking back toward the waiting room.
And he was walking with the posture of a victor.
How could he possibly turn around now?
In the end, Obito chose to keep acting cool all the way back.
"Being a ninja really isn't easy," he sighed to himself.
If he turned around now, his entire aura of victory would collapse.
But if he did not, then he could not immediately show off to Rin and Kakashi.
Shisui looked at Obito with a puzzled expression.
How had fighting a match turned into a revelation about life itself?
In the stands, Rin let out a relieved smile.
"Even though I couldn't see the whole process, judging by how slowly Obito is walking back, it must have been a very difficult battle."
Kakashi thought for a moment.
"Walking slowly doesn't necessarily mean he's tired. It could also mean he's inventing ways to make his victory sound more impressive."
Rin covered her mouth and laughed softly.
"The way you two understand each other is amazing. You can tell all that just from seeing his back."
"Rin, don't misunderstand," Kakashi said flatly. "It's just that Obito is too easy to read."
…
At 3:20 in the afternoon, the top four matches of the Ninja World Youth Martial Arts Tournament were about to begin.
The remaining contestants were already waiting inside the resting room.
"It's finally starting," Might Guy said as he rolled his neck, his eyes blazing with fighting spirit as he stared straight at Nagato.
By the top four stage, everyone's strength was more or less out in the open.
Even Might Guy himself had gone all out against Kakashi in the previous round.
Among the remaining three opponents, the one he most wanted to fight was naturally Nagato, the strongest one besides himself.
At noon, Kakashi had already analyzed all the information they had gathered on Nagato in great detail.
The terrifying amount of chakra inside Nagato allowed him to unleash high level ninjutsu freely and without restraint, and every one of his techniques was formidable. Even Might Guy in Rock Breathing Chakra Mode did not dare take them head on with his body.
However, what made Guy the most cautious was Nagato's control over attraction and repulsion.
Those two abilities were also simple, direct, and terrifyingly powerful.
Might Guy was not sure he could defeat Nagato.
But precisely because of that, the battle excited him even more. Exploring the unknown was one of the most interesting things in the world.
Guy, you've got this! It all depends on you now!
Obito silently cheered him on.
At present, three of the top four contestants were Mugetsu's disciples, and among them, Might Guy was clearly the strongest.
If Might Guy lost, then first place might truly slip through their fingers.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Soul Land, NBA, and more — all in one place.]