Chapter 508

"The ninja of the Rain Country have developed well—this ninja named Nagato looks very strong." The Fire Country daimyo said to the Rain Country daimyo sitting beside him.

The Fire Country daimyo didn't understand chakra nature transformations, but every one of Nagato's jutsu brought massive destruction, and the visual effects were spectacular—clearly not simple.

"Indeed." The Rain Country daimyo nodded with a smile in agreement.

He suddenly felt this Ninja Sect wasn't bad either—at least it could earn him some face.

Even ordinary people could sense Nagato's power, so the participating ninja felt it even more.

"He's also like that with Earth Release—so is it possible that he's also proficient in Lightning Release and Water Release?" Kakashi thought carefully and realized that Nagato might well be proficient in all five elemental natures.

That was because, aside from defeating Hanzo's Fire Release with the opposite element, Ninja Master Sōsuke was most renowned for mastering seven types of chakra nature transformation jutsu.

Since Nagato was now studying under Sōsuke, it wasn't impossible for him to master multiple chakra nature transformations.

When estimating an enemy's strength, you should always aim high—it's better to overestimate than underestimate.

Aburame Shibi raised his sunglasses with a finger and walked silently toward the battlefield.

If Nagato were his semifinal opponent, then Sasori would either forfeit directly or throw the match—he only wanted the Chakra Blade anyway.

If Yahiko advanced to the top eight, his next opponent would be Nagato. Yahiko clearly understood the gap between them, so in his heart he thought that reaching the top eight was already a success.

Although he had never fought Aburame Shibi, Kakashi knew Shibi had also been asked for advice by Hiruzen Sarutobi before joining, so his strength was definitely not weak.

As soon as the referee finished speaking, Yahiko quickly formed hand seals, leaped up, and spat a huge water ball toward Sasori.

The sharp water spear didn't stir any emotion in Sasori. While using one hand to control Hiruko's tail stinger to eliminate the water clone, he took out another scroll containing a puppet, summoned it, and had the defensive puppet block the incoming water spear.

"Match 7: Yahiko vs. Match 8: Sand Crab!"

The originally charging Yahiko immediately stopped—he wasn't confident he could break through the two puppets' defense and defeat Sasori.

This was a Water Release developed by Mugetsu, specializing in penetrating power.

"I'll do my best to win, even if I can't make it to the finals like Obito said—I'll at least push into the top eight. Losing in the first round would be pretty embarrassing." Yahiko laughed and walked toward the battlefield.

The other Iwa-nin who was called up greeted his comrade and quickly followed.

"Yahiko, be careful of his hidden weapons. Puppeteers like using poison." Nagato warned.

"Go for it, Yahiko." Konan encouraged him.

Those eyes—just by sensing them with his Transparent World, Kakashi could feel a lethal threat.

"I have to beat him to reach the semifinals. Bit of a hassle." Sasori glanced over casually and realized Nagato's strength was extraordinary, and he happened to be in the spot Sasori wanted.

"Water Release: Water Clone Technique!"

Yahiko formed hand seals, gathering a swirling water current in his hands. The water spun at high speed and turned into three long-handled water spears, shooting swiftly at Sasori.

The battle quickly progressed to the fourth match of the first round. Hearing the names called by the referee, Kakashi focused his attention.

The best way to deal with a puppeteer is to attack the main body, since the puppeteer's body isn't as tough as their puppets.

If Yahiko hadn't retreated quickly enough, there was no way he could have dodged such fast poison needles at close range.

"Match 3: Aburame Shibi vs. Match 4..." The referee's voice soon reached the waiting area again.

Kakuzu had provided enough information. If he still lost, it would only be because his own strength wasn't enough—no one else to blame.

Yahiko's offense slowed, and Sasori launched a fierce assault. Controlling three puppets with one hand, he used a mix of offense and defense to quickly destroy one of Yahiko's water clones.

"Begin battle!"

Then Yahiko's water clone charged at Hiruko, while Yahiko himself attacked Sasori directly.

But Nagato stood as a roadblock to his semifinal berth, so Sasori had to think about how to defeat Nagato without revealing too much.

Sasori kept his indifferent expression, stepped back a few paces, unsealed a scroll and took out the Hiruko stored inside. While dodging the water jet, he controlled Hiruko to attack Yahiko.

Sasori didn't want to linger with Yahiko. After deploying the second puppet, he took out two more puppets and controlled all four simultaneously.

As it turned out, Yahiko's concern was not unfounded. The moment he dodged, Sasori's puppet opened its mouth and spat out a high-speed volley of poison needles.

"What exactly can that Sage's Eye do?" What Kakashi cared about most was the Rinnegan—the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths—on Nagato.

Worried about the poison on the puppet, Yahiko used the Body Flicker Technique to create distance and then split off two water clones, planning to have them deal with Sasori's puppets.

Upon seeing this, Yahiko had one of his Water Clones that was dealing with Hiruko hold off the newly emerged puppet, while his main body used the Water Body Flicker Technique to speed toward Sasori.

"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"

"We'll have to see if Shibi Aburame and Sand Crab can force him to reveal more of his tricks." Kakashi thought as he glanced at the match list.

"Yeah, I know. After all, he's one of the people that Department Head Kakuzu specifically warned about." Yahiko nodded and said with a smile.

Moreover, there were quite a few skilled ninjas in the Youth Martial Arts Tournament. If he could break into the top eight, Yahiko thought he could treat Konan and Nagato to a celebratory meal.

Shibi Aburame drew number three. If Shibi Aburame could win his next battle, he would face Nagato in the second round.

Sasori was not afraid of turret-type ninjas like Nagato, because Sasori specialized in poison. No matter how powerful your ninjutsu, if you were unlucky enough to be poisoned by Sasori, you would be in a dead end.

He wanted to use the Great Waterfall Technique to create favorable conditions for employing Water Release.

The result of the battle was not unexpected to Kakashi; Shibi Aburame won.

"Water Release: Water Spear!"

At the same time, on the other side, Hiruko also destroyed Yahiko's Water Clone and, under Sasori's control, sped toward Yahiko.

In the blink of an eye, the situation reversed, and Yahiko was surrounded by four puppets.

"What's with this ninja called Sand Crab? With that kind of control technique, there's no young ninja in our village who could reach that level."

Baki, who had been eliminated and was now in the spectators' seats, showed a shocked expression after seeing Sasori's puppet manipulation.

Although he was a ninja specializing in Wind Release, he had often seen his teammates or elders use puppetry and had a fair amount of knowledge about it.

Baki couldn't believe it. After all, Sunagakure was the birthplace of puppeteers, yet here they were being outdone in puppetry by some unknown amateur who popped out of nowhere.

"No, his puppet manipulation—why does it look so much like our village's style? Could he be the disciple of some rogue ninja from our village?"

Baki then noticed something off: Sasori's puppetry didn't seem amateur; it seemed like pure Sunagakure puppetry.

"This Sand Crab is really something. Controlling four puppets simultaneously while keeping them so agile." In the rest area, Kakashi raised Sasori's threat level by one notch.

As a puppeteer, Sasori clearly possessed extraordinary strength.

Kakashi increasingly looked forward to the third round's battle. Between a ninjutsu turret and a puppeteer with numerical superiority, who would come out on top?

"Yahiko." Konan showed a worried expression.

Sasori's true strength was even greater than what Kakuzu's intelligence had predicted.

Under the relentless pressure of the four puppets, Yahiko didn't even have time to form hand seals for a Water Release counterattack. The various hidden weapons on the puppets kept him constantly on the defensive.

"Sand Crab wins!"

In the end, Yahiko fell under the puppets' siege. After the referee announced the result, Sasori immediately put his puppets back into the scroll and walked back to the rest area.

"So I really lost in the first round." Yahiko looked up at the sky and couldn't help scratching his head.

Even though he was a pretty thick-skinned person, his cheeks still flushed a little. Not long ago, he was discussing with Obito about charging into the finals and becoming famous in the ninja world, and now he was out in the first round.

Soon, ninjas from the Ninja Sect carried Yahiko away for treatment, and the referee called out the names of the next pair of combatants.

"Number nine, Kisame Hoshigaki, versus number ten, Yura."

Both Kisame Hoshigaki and Yura quickly walked into the battlefield.

"Now I'm the only Sunagakure ninja left in the elimination round. No matter what, I have to win this battle." Yura thought with determination.

Although Rasa didn't seem to value the Youth Martial Arts Tournament, Yura felt that since Sunagakure had participated, their performance couldn't be too poor.

Yura had good intentions, but he overestimated his own strength and underestimated Kisame Hoshigaki's strength.

After the battle began, even though Yura showed considerable resilience, due to the gap in raw strength, he was defeated by Kisame Hoshigaki within two minutes, covered in wounds from Kisame's water sharks.

After the referee announced the result, Kisame Hoshigaki did not spare Yura another glance and walked straight back to the rest area.

"Number eleven, Might Guy, versus number twelve, Chōseki!"

"Might Guy, you who fought the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist—what progress have you made?" Kisame Hoshigaki's expression turned serious as he watched Might Guy walk toward the battlefield.

Because Kirigakure had concealed the details of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen's defeat, Kisame Hoshigaki, who had always stayed in the Land of Water, did not know the specific outcome of Might Guy's battle with the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. He only knew that under Tsukuyo's lead, Might Guy had fought an encounter battle with the Seven Ninja Swordsmen and won decisively.

"Finally, it's that kid Chōseki's turn." Seeing the Iwagakure genius appear, Akatsuchi showed a simple smile.

Among the ninjas sent by Iwagakure to participate in the Youth Martial Arts Tournament, Changshi was the strongest, and Kitsuchi had considerable expectations for him.

"Running into me is your bad luck." Changshi looked at his opponent and couldn't help but smile.

Iwagakure had a full twenty-one ninjas participating in the Youth Martial Arts Tournament, with Iwagakure ninjas in almost every division, and Iwagakure had basically gathered some information on all the advancing ninjas.

According to the preliminaries intelligence, Might Guy was a ninja specializing in taijutsu, having used no ninjutsu in his four matches.

And Changshi just happened to be the best counter against taijutsu users.

Because the direction he had developed Explosion Release was the same as Kari's—focusing on taijutsu Explosion Release—fighting him in taijutsu would truly get you blown up.

"Fight start!"

"Eight Gates, Gate of Healing, open!"

Might Guy immediately opened four gates of the Eight Gates, and a massive amount of chakra continuously surged forth, strengthening his physical power.

The sudden powerful aura from Might Guy startled Changshi a bit, but he didn't care; ninjas could use type advantages to defeat stronger opponents.

Changshi gathered a large amount of chakra on his fist, then took the initiative and used Body Flicker to rush at Might Guy.

Might Guy had long heard from Kakashi's intelligence that Changshi was an Explosion Release user, so he was on guard and had already gathered a large amount of chakra in his legs.

Boom!!

Changshi's fist, charged with Explosion Release chakra, slammed into the ground where Might Guy had been standing, blasting out a crater.

"If this is all he's got, I should be able to enter Rock Breathing Chakra Mode," Might Guy analyzed inwardly.

Although he was a taijutsu specialist, Might Guy didn't fight purely on brute force.

Given the destructive power Changshi had shown, he could completely rely on the defense of Rock Breathing Chakra Mode plus chakra protection to tank it, at most suffering some superficial injuries.

Breathing Chakra Mode could accelerate injury recovery; superficial wounds were nothing to him, as long as there was no poison.

"Explosion Release: Explosive Fist!"

Changshi gathered chakra again and charged at Might Guy, taunting, "If you've got the guts, come fight a real man's fists-to-flesh taijutsu battle."

Might Guy couldn't help but laugh; he really wished it was Kakashi saying this to him. "Alright, this is youthful! Then come on!"

Without dodging or avoiding, Might Guy focused his breathing to the extreme and entered Rock Breathing Chakra Mode, his aura surging once again.

"Konoha Hand Blade!"

Might Guy gathered a huge amount of chakra onto the palm of his right hand, while diverting some chakra to protect his body, then charged fearlessly at Changshi.

"I win!"

Changshi was overjoyed; he hadn't expected Might Guy to be so easy to bait, taking the hook just like that.

If Might Guy kept running, he really had no way to deal with it, because his speed was indeed much worse than Might Guy's.

Might Guy's running speed was extremely fast, and Changshi was eager to seize this rare opportunity, rushing at full speed towards Might Guy.

Accompanied by a burst of strong wind, the two figures met.

Rumble!!

A huge explosion sounded, mud and rocks splattered everywhere, and thick dust clouds shrouded both figures.

The next moment, a figure flew backward at high speed from the yellow dust, like a cannonball, slamming hard into the sturdy wall at the edge of the battlefield, leaving a man-shaped dent in the wall.

Kitsuchi's eyes widened; from his angle, he could clearly see the figure being sent flying backward.

Kitsuchi stood up in disbelief and checked again to confirm he wasn't seeing things.

"How is this possible? Our Iwagakure genius was just one-punch defeated?"

No matter how absurd Kitsuchi found it, this was the reality that had just occurred—the Explosion Release genius of their ninja village was defeated in one punch by a Konoha taijutsu specialist.

"Might Guy wins!" the referee announced after laboriously pulling Changshi out of the wall.