Chapter 538: The Martial Arts Tournament Ends
Nagato rose first and walked toward the arena, with Obito following close behind.
The moment the two finalists appeared, the atmosphere in the venue grew even more heated.
Spectators all across the stands began comparing their strength and arguing over who would win the championship.
"A match without suspense," Kitsuchi said flatly, convinced that Nagato would definitely win, and probably without too much difficulty.
He had watched every elimination match in the Youth Martial Arts Tournament.
In his mind, the strength ranking of the contestants was clear. Nagato was first, Might Guy second, and Sasori third.
As for the rest, Kakashi could perhaps be placed fourth, but after that, the order became much harder to judge.
For example, Obito, who had managed to reach the finals, would likely have been eliminated by Kisame if the two had met. Kisame was simply his natural counter.
Even in the semifinal, Obito's victory over Shisui had been extremely hard fought, which already showed that the two were on a similar level.
"Obito fighting Nagato… sometimes being too lucky isn't entirely a good thing," Asuma thought to himself, silently mourning for Obito for a second.
Obito had drawn an excellent bracket. That good fortune had practically handed him a direct pass into the top eight, and even after that, his opponents in the quarterfinals and semifinals had been relatively balanced. Between luck and skill, he had successfully made it all the way to the finals.
But in the championship match, even the best luck in the world would be useless.
Nagato possessed absolute crushing strength.
In Asuma's eyes, Obito was about to become nothing more than a stepping stone, a second place finisher who would be overwhelmingly defeated by the champion and then talked about as being inferior even to the other semifinalists.
Compared to ending up like that, Asuma felt he would rather have been eliminated in the top eight.
"No matter what, second place is still second place. He'll still get to commission a Ninjutsu from Ninja Master Sōsuke," Raido said with a trace of envy.
He himself had not even made it to the elimination rounds. He had truly just been there to fill a slot.
"I really didn't expect Obito to make the finals. Doesn't that make me look a little bad?" Yahiko joked at his own expense.
When the elimination rounds had first begun, he and Obito had even chatted about how reaching the finals would greatly boost one's reputation. In the end, Obito had really done it, while Yahiko had been knocked out in the very first round.
"You had bad luck. The opponent you drew was too strong. Even if Obito had faced him, he probably would have been eliminated too. Other than Nagato, maybe only Might Guy had a real chance to beat him," Konan said, offering a quiet word of comfort.
Yahiko's luck had only been average. He had run into Sasori, whose overall strength could be ranked among the top three, right in the first round.
"No matter what, a loss is a loss," Yahiko said with an easy smile as he turned his gaze toward the arena.
At that moment, Nagato and Obito had already taken their positions, and the battle was about to begin.
"Charizard, I sacrificed so much yesterday, so you absolutely have to be powerful today!" Obito took a deep breath, desperately hoping Charizard would show the same momentum in today's final that it had shown in their fight the night before.
Obito knew himself well.
Trying to defeat Nagato with his own Fire Release alone was just wishful thinking. It was the kind of dream that wouldn't come true even with superhuman effort.
If he wanted to win, his only option was to rely on perfect teamwork with Charizard and catch Nagato, who knew nothing about Charizard's abilities, off guard.
"Begin!" the referee shouted as soon as he saw that both fighters were ready.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
The instant the referee's voice fell, Obito formed hand seals without hesitation and slammed his hand onto the ground.
Bang!
A burst of white smoke exploded, and Charizard's huge body appeared within it.
"Water Release: Great Waterfall Jutsu!"
Nagato had watched several of Obito's matches and knew that Obito's greatest strength was Fire Release. So his opening move was naturally Water Release, the attribute that restrained it.
A massive sphere of water formed in front of him and surged toward Obito and the newly summoned Charizard like a flood.
Whoosh!
Charizard suppressed the instinctive urge to blast Obito with fire the moment it appeared and instead quickly beat its wings, rising into the air.
Whoosh!
Obito had already activated his Sharingan and immediately used Body Flicker to dodge as well.
"So he really did have a Nin Beast he never revealed before," Hanzō said, genuinely surprised.
Obito's road to the finals had not been an easy one, and Hanzō had never expected him to still be hiding such a trump card. If he kept it hidden any longer, he might have ended up hiding it all the way into the audience.
"Could it be that he was holding back this whole time?" Hanzō suddenly became more interested.
He had originally thought Nagato would take the championship in a one sided victory, but Obito now seemed a little less simple than he first appeared.
"Bansho Tenin!"
Although Charizard's appearance was unexpected, it hardly caused a ripple in Nagato's emotions. He extended his right hand toward Obito and released a burst of attraction.
In his perception, Charizard's strength was not even on Obito's level, so there was no need to pay it too much attention for now.
"This is seriously unreasonable," Obito grumbled inwardly as he felt his body being pulled forward against his will.
Compared to Nagato's Shinra Tensei and Bansho Tenin, his own Fire Release suddenly felt like child's play.
But Obito had already anticipated this. At the very start of the match, he had pushed his breathing to the limit, ready to enter Flame Breathing Chakra Mode at any moment.
"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu!"
Just before he was dragged all the way in front of Nagato, Obito entered Flame Breathing Chakra Mode and exhaled two scorching fire dragons in rapid succession.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The orange red dragons, blazing with high temperature flames, twisted through the air under Obito's control and lunged at Nagato.
In previous matches, Obito had already shown that he could enter Flame Breathing Chakra Mode and use Ninjutsu without hand seals, so Nagato had been on guard for it from the beginning.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Nagato's Rinnegan trembled, and a powerful repulsive force burst from his body, instantly sending both the twin fire dragons and Obito flying backward.
At the same time, Charizard made its move from the sky.
Before the battle, Obito had already discussed the opening plan with it. The moment Nagato used Shinra Tensei, Charizard was to attack no matter what, forcing Nagato to reveal the cooldown on that technique.
[Wind Release: Air Blade!]
Charizard chose the fastest Wind Release it had, slashing several sharp blades of wind toward Nagato with enough force to tear the air itself.
"Yang Release Breathing, Full Concentration!"
Nagato's Rinnegan caught the incoming attack immediately. He then concentrated his breathing, strengthened his body, and burst forward with high speed, narrowly dodging the wind blades while opening more distance from Charizard.
[Fire Blast!]
Charizard refused to let up. It gathered chakra in its throat and spat out a thick pillar of fire.
"Water Release: Water Formation Pillar!"
After making some distance, Nagato rapidly formed hand seals and expelled a massive amount of water from his mouth, snuffing out Charizard's fire with brute force. The torrent hit so hard that Charizard's flight posture wavered violently, as if it might drop from the air.
Whoosh!
At that moment, Obito circled around to one side and quietly closed in. Chakra gathered in his palm, and he hurled a flaming spear toward Nagato.
"Shinra Tensei!"
The repulsive force erupted again and instantly knocked Obito's fire spear away.
"His observation is too sharp. I still didn't make it in time. Exactly eight seconds…" Obito exhaled, forcing himself to stay calm.
The pressure Nagato put on him was completely different from the pressure of fighting Might Guy.
It was not just because Nagato was stronger, but also because Nagato's methods were far more overwhelming.
Against Might Guy, there was actually nothing mysterious about it. Guy simply broke through everything with absurd physical force and crushed him in close combat.
Nagato was different.
He had high level mastery over multiple chakra natures, frighteningly sharp perception, and powerful instant cast techniques.
It felt as if Nagato possessed everything Obito had, only stronger and more refined, while also possessing completely unfair abilities that Obito didn't have at all.
It was infuriating.
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
With the enhancement of Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, Obito exhaled a vast sheet of fire.
Although Fire Dragon Flame Bullet was his second most chakra intensive technique, he had no better choice.
Shinra Tensei alone could already repel attacks. On top of that, Nagato himself had excellent reflexes and movement speed. If Obito wanted to force out Nagato's real Shinra Tensei timing, he needed to use a technique that Nagato could not simply sidestep.
Compared to his other Fire Releases, Fire Dragon Flame Bullet had the advantage of wide area coverage. It could also split into multiple streams, sealing off several possible angles at once.
"Two, three…"
As he attacked, Obito silently counted the seconds since Nagato's last Shinra Tensei.
[Heat Wave!]
Charizard adjusted its body in the air, took a deep breath, and exhaled a whirlwind packed with flames, further limiting Nagato's room to evade.
"Preta Path!"
Nagato calmly raised both hands, forming an invisible absorption barrier around himself.
This was a new Rinnegan ability he had grasped after fighting Might Guy. After testing it, he found that it could absorb Ninjutsu. Not just one type, but all of them. Fire, Lightning, Water, it made no difference.
Obito could only watch helplessly as his flames seemed to vanish into thin air, as if they had never existed at all.
"No, what kind of Ninjutsu is this? It's already the finals and he's still hiding another ability?" Obito screamed inwardly.
He had thought that once he figured out Shinra Tensei's cooldown, he'd at least have a path to fight. But before he could even confirm that, Nagato revealed another absurd ability.
At that moment, Obito genuinely wanted Mugetsu to descend from the heavens and fight in his place.
Nagato could repel Ninjutsu and erase it.
Meanwhile, all Obito could do was spit fire in different shapes. How was he supposed to beat that?
"He was still hiding something…" Kakashi frowned faintly.
Originally, Obito's chance of defeating Nagato had already been vanishingly small. Now that Nagato had shown a second heaven defying ability, that chance had become almost zero.
Kakashi mentally replayed Nagato's previous matches and quickly realized why this ability had not shown up until now.
The two strongest opponents Nagato had faced were Sasori and Might Guy. One was a puppeteer, and the other was a pure Taijutsu specialist. In both cases, a Ninjutsu absorption ability was basically irrelevant.
"No, Rin and Mugetsu-sensei are still watching, and Guy is waiting for good news from me."
Obito condensed a large amount of chakra into his fist and charged again.
Even if his opponent was overwhelmingly powerful, he still had to fight until the end. Otherwise, he would be disgracing Mugetsu's teaching and Might Guy's goodwill.
If Nagato could nullify Ninjutsu, then he would beat him with fire and fists.
"Fire Release: Flame Fist!"
Whoosh!
A blazing fist, wrapped in compressed high temperature flames, smashed toward Nagato with a sharp whistle.
Nagato maintained the Preta Path absorption shield.
After all, Ninjutsu might begin with the word nin, but at its core it was still chakra plus nature transformation.
The flames around Obito's fist were continuously swallowed by the shield, but the fist itself tore straight through the invisible barrier and continued toward Nagato.
Bang!
Nagato blocked it with his palm, but was still driven back several meters.
Although Nagato was older than Obito, he had not received serious physical training before meeting Mugetsu, and his body had never been fully tempered.
Obito, on the other hand, had practiced Breathing Techniques for years, trained his body constantly, and was now in Flame Breathing Chakra Mode. In terms of raw strength, he was far superior to Nagato.
Nagato looked visibly surprised. He hadn't expected Obito's Taijutsu to be this strong. Obito's previous tournament performances had not shown this so clearly.
"Chance!"
Obito's eyes lit up. He shouted and immediately rushed in with a whirlwind kick.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Bang!
The repulsive force exploded outward, and this time Nagato used even more chakra, sending Obito flying all the way into the outer wall of the arena.
Yet Obito didn't care in the slightest.
His eyes were fixed on Charizard, which was already diving in on Nagato's position.
Nagato's Shinra Tensei had happened exactly when Obito expected it to.
The moment Obito threw that kick, eight seconds had already passed since Nagato's last use of Shinra Tensei, so Nagato had no choice but to use it again.
Obito's shout had not been to fire himself up at all. It had been a signal for Charizard.
Charizard poured most of its strength into its claws until their orange yellow color darkened, then beat its wings furiously and burst forward at top speed.
[Dragon Claw!]
Nagato's perception immediately caught the sneak attack, and he burst backward with Body Flicker.
But Charizard's acceleration was too explosive. Even as Nagato retreated, the distance between them kept shrinking.
"Two, three…" Obito counted silently from the moment of the last Shinra Tensei.
"Five."
When Obito mentally reached five, Charizard's claws were only a single decimeter away from Nagato.
"Shinra Tensei!"
The repulsive force erupted once more. Charizard could only watch its claws freeze in midair, close enough to almost touch, yet unable to advance another inch.
The enormous invisible force pressed into its whole body. Even though Charizard unleashed everything it had, it still could not hold its position for even another moment.
Bang!
Charizard was blasted backward and smashed violently into the ground, leaving behind a crater.
"Is five seconds the real cooldown?" Obito's mind raced as he got to his feet and charged again.
After the trick Nagato had pulled on Might Guy, Obito couldn't be completely sure that this was the true cooldown.
But for him, the next move only had two possible outcomes.
If Shinra Tensei's real cooldown really was five seconds, then he still had a very small chance to win.
If this was just another piece of false information and the true cooldown was even shorter, then he was doomed anyway, whether he knew the real timing or not.
Even a difference of a single second would be fatal against an opponent like Nagato.
So Obito made up his mind.
Forget probing further. He would fight under the assumption that Shinra Tensei's cooldown was five seconds and gamble everything on that.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Nagato formed hand seals and created two Shadow Clones.
"Fire Release: Head Hardship!"
"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"
The two Shadow Clones combined their techniques. One created a sea of fire, the other a raging storm, and the wind immediately fanned the flames into a massive inferno.
Charizard endured the pain from the last repulsion and quickly beat its wings, climbing higher into the air.
Obito had originally planned to ride on Charizard, but he quickly dismissed the idea. Nagato still had a whole arsenal of long range Ninjutsu, and if he and Charizard stayed together in the sky, they would simply become a perfect target.
Instead, he covered himself in flames to resist the sea of fire and continued charging straight at Nagato.
"Lightning Release: False Darkness!"
Nagato's main body rapidly formed seals and spat a great spear of lightning toward Obito, who was forcing his way through the flames.
[Wind Release: Air Blade!]
Charizard swooped in from above and slashed out a blade of wind to interfere, buying Obito just enough time.
Although the wind blade could not perfectly stop Nagato's powerful Lightning Release, it disrupted the attack just enough for Obito to dodge and keep moving.
"Bansho Tenin!"
Nagato's main body stretched out his right hand again, and an immense attractive force burst forth, instantly dragging Obito toward him.
At the same time, the two Shadow Clones formed seals again, preparing to bombard the pulled in Obito with more Ninjutsu.
"Great Flame Ring: Flame Emperor, Modified!"
Obito instantly poured all of his remaining chakra outward, and raging flames surged around his body.
Under normal circumstances, Flame Emperor was not a very accurate technique. In terms of landing a direct hit, it was barely better than Great Fireball Technique.
So to improve the hit rate, Obito had come up with an insane variation. He would turn himself into the detonation point.
Thanks to the enhancement of Flame Breathing and the fact that he could protect his own body with chakra, he would be injured, but not crippled, by the close range explosion.
And because no such technique existed in the ninja world, Obito was convinced it would catch Nagato completely off guard.
Sensing the unstable and violent power gathering around Obito, Nagato immediately dropped Bansho Tenin and deployed the absorption barrier again.
Rumble!
Obito, transformed into a blazing fireball, suddenly exploded. The blast tore open a huge crater at the original point of impact, while high temperature flames and a monstrous shockwave spread in all directions.
Bang! Bang!
Nagato's two Shadow Clones were caught in it, injured, and dispelled instantly.
Nagato's main body remained unharmed behind the absorption shield, though the intense heat still drew sweat down his face.
He looked toward Obito.
Even though Obito had used the technique himself, he looked much worse off than Nagato now. His clothes were tattered, and black soot covered much of his body.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several wind blades suddenly flew toward Nagato.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Nagato spread both hands, and the repulsive force burst outward, batting away the incoming wind blades and also forcing the nearby Obito back again.
"One, two."
Obito counted silently and then burst forward once more.
"Lightning Release: False Darkness!"
Nagato retreated while making hand seals and launched another lightning spear at Obito.
Charizard was too fast and too mobile in the air, which made it hard to hit cleanly, so Nagato once again prioritized the more vulnerable Obito.
At this point, the distance between them was only four meters.
Even though Obito's Sharingan clearly saw the lightning coming, he knew he could not avoid it.
The distance was too short, and Nagato's release timing was too sharp.
[Dragon Claw!]
At the critical moment, Charizard plunged downward and intercepted the lightning with its darkened claws.
Although Ninjutsu could be used to interfere with Nagato, the attack had already been launched. Even just a portion of that lightning was not something Obito could afford to take head on in his current condition.
The immense force of False Darkness drove Charizard back, and burnt marks instantly appeared on its claws.
"Four…"
Obito rushed past Charizard and threw another flaming punch, but just as it was about to land, he mentally counted to five.
Bang!
Repulsive force exploded again, and Obito was blown backward just as expected.
"Roar!"
Charizard's tail flame flared violently.
It shot upward into the sky, raised its uninjured claw, beat its wings rapidly, and dove at Nagato.
"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"
A violent storm rose and blocked Charizard's path, making it miss the window of Shinra Tensei's cooldown.
At that very moment, Obito forced himself up again and charged once more.
Charizard spat a ring of flames around Nagato, trying to restrict his movement.
But Nagato raised the absorption barrier again, took a step, and calmly erased every bit of fire around him.
"Fire Release: Blazing Impact!"
Using the last of his strength and chakra, Obito ignited his entire body in a final all out rush, hoping to create a single opening for Charizard.
By now, he was injured and almost dry on chakra. Charizard, though also wounded, still had more left in reserve.
"The battle should end now."
Nagato bent his knees slightly and began gathering chakra.
He no longer wanted to watch Obito force himself onward and continue injuring himself. He intended to finish the fight cleanly in one move.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Nagato leapt upward to a point even higher than Charizard's current flying altitude and released the same full force Shinra Tensei he had used against Might Guy.
Bang! Bang!
Obito was crushed under the overwhelming repulsive force, and Charizard, still airborne, was slammed violently into the ground as well.
Rumble!
The earth shook, the ground caved in, and even the outer walls of the arena collapsed into ruins.
Thanks to the barrier Mugetsu had prepared, the shockwave never reached the audience stands. Still, the arena that had just been repaired was once again reduced to wreckage.
When Nagato landed, Obito still tried to force himself up again, but found it difficult to even move an arm.
He turned his head to look at Charizard.
Its eyes had already become swirls. It had clearly fainted.
"So I still lost. I couldn't seize that one chance…"
Obito felt a deep sense of regret.
Nagato had actually shown one opening during the entire fight, and that was the moment when he used the absorption ability to deal with Ninjutsu. That was the only time in the entire battle Obito had managed to truly touch him.
"Second place is still second place. Maybe I can commission a Ninjutsu that surpasses Golden Skyline and No Thought Strike," Obito comforted himself with forced optimism.
After all, he had already lost. No amount of pessimism was going to change that now.
"Nagato wins!" the referee declared after confirming that Obito had lost his ability to continue.
.....
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