Chapter 524: Invincible Path

mayiwsk

Hearing his friends' words, the Charizard snorted two streams of white air from its nostrils, held its head high and chest out, and strode confidently toward the battle arena.

"Battle begin!"

As Kakashi called out the start, both Charizard and Lucario rapidly gathered chakra and unleashed their respective techniques.

'Smokescreen!'

Charizard quickly flapped its wings to take flight while gathering chakra in its mouth and spewing out a black-gray smokescreen.

It had also watched the previous battle; most of Lucario's combat methods were close-quarters body techniques, and its own flight advantage could largely render the opponent's body techniques ineffective.

Coupled with the smokescreen that could obscure vision, Lucario wouldn't be able to determine its position and use ranged attacks.

'Quick Attack!'

Lucario gathered its full strength and dashed out at high speed, but couldn't land a hit before Charizard took off.

At this moment, the black-gray smokescreen continuously spewed by Charizard enveloped the open space, making it impossible to see the specifics inside.

"It seems Obito and Charizard still don't know that it has sensing abilities," Kakashi said, shaking his head at the sight.

It wasn't that there were no ninjutsu that could hinder sensing abilities—Kirigakure's Hidden Mist Technique could—but Charizard's smokescreen clearly wasn't that kind of ninjutsu.

However, Kakashi could understand this; Charizard had never fought Lucario before, and Lucario's usual training was similar to Might Guy's—all kinds of physical conditioning—so it really wasn't obvious that it had sensing abilities.

If it weren't for Kakashi's thorough understanding of Lycanroc's Shadow Clone technique, combined with his meticulous observation of the previous battle, he probably would have had difficulty discovering this information.

'Aura Sphere!'

With its eyes losing visibility, Lucario simply closed its eyes and sensed the aura force.

Lucario gathered an Aura Sphere on its claw while sensing Charizard's aura.

Sensing Charizard's offensive intent, Lucario, with eyes closed, sidestepped to dodge the oncoming fire pillar and released the Aura Sphere toward the sky.

The Aura Sphere struck Charizard, causing its flight to become unsteady.

Since Charizard stopped using Smokescreen, the gray mist dispersed at that moment, revealing Charizard's somewhat disheveled figure.

"Awoo?" Charizard was somewhat surprised—both at being hit and at the power of the Aura Sphere.

It had watched Lycanroc get knocked out by a single Aura Sphere and thought this attack was very strong, but it turned out to be only moderately painful.

"Looks like I really am strong!" Charizard grew even more confident in its heart.

It felt that even if it took two more Aura Spheres, it wouldn't fall.

Roughly speaking, wasn't that equivalent to it being able to defeat three Lycanrocs?

The confident Charizard regrouped, quickly flapped its wings to circle around Lucario, looking for an opening to attack.

'Aura Sphere!'

Lucario, unchanged in expression, continued to gather aura force.

If one Aura Sphere couldn't take down Charizard, then two, three, four!

After all, there was no way Charizard could dodge Aura Spheres by flying.

'Flamethrower!'

Seeing Lucario launch another Aura Sphere at it, Charizard opened its mouth and spat flames at the incoming Aura Sphere.

While it wouldn't cause serious injury, being hit by an Aura Sphere still hurt.

Boom!!

The thick, deep pillar of flame swallowed the blue energy sphere; an explosion sounded, the Aura Sphere vanished, and the fire pillar also dissipated in the air.

"Ao!" Charizard let out a dragon roar.

The Aura Sphere that defeated Lycanroc was nothing special—offense is the best defense!

'Air Cutter!'

Charizard gathered a large amount of chakra on its sharp claws and flung several wind blades at Lucario in one go.

Shwoosh shwoosh!!

The Wind Blades were extremely fast, and since Charizard was releasing them while flying around Lucario, it blocked Lucario's dodge paths from multiple angles.

Lucario maintained its previous calm expression, swiftly extending its claws, and a metallic gleam appeared on them.

"Metal Claw!"

Lucario swung its metal-coated claws, forcibly dispersing the incoming Wind Blades.

Whoosh whoosh!!

Charizard's attack didn't end there; immediately after, a stream of hot air accompanied by flames rushed toward Lucario.

"Heat Wave!"

This time, Lucario failed to dodge perfectly, leaving a scorched mark on the fur of its chest.

Although it had sensed the incoming attack, Heat Wave's range was far larger than the previous move, so it couldn't evade completely.

"Flamethrower!"

Seizing the advantage, Charizard immediately spat a thick pillar of fire at Lucario.

Knowing it couldn't contend head-on, Lucario instantly mustered all its strength to dodge.

Charizard's expression grew cocky.

Since Lycanroc was crushed by Lucario, and now Lucario was being easily suppressed by it, that meant Charizard > Lucario > Lycanroc.

Now Charizard only wanted to say: Lucario, you're nothing but a challenger.

Even if Charizard was at a disadvantage in information, even with an extra deadweight like Obito, it could never be defeated.

Once Charizard realized it had the upper hand, it wanted to end the battle in one go.

Just like how Lucario had beaten Lycanroc.

Charizard could already imagine Milotic's admiring expression—after all, it would definitely look cool by then.

To make it easier to hit Lucario, Charizard lowered its flight altitude.

A high flight altitude kept Charizard safe from Lucario's physical attacks, but it also made its own attacks harder to land.

A large amount of Chakra was gathered in Charizard's throat, and a pillar of fire thicker than before was spat out.

But Lucario, noticing this, actually had its eyes light up.

"Bone Rush!"

Lucario grasped the air, and Earth-type Chakra condensed in its hands, forming two Chakra sticks shaped like bones.

Whoosh!!

At that moment, the blazing pillar of fire from Charizard rushed toward it.

However, Lucario had already planned everything in its mind.

It abruptly leaped backward to a tree behind it.

Charizard maintained its flame, sweeping it toward the tree behind Lucario.

Crash!

Lucario pushed off the tree with all its strength and leaped up.

Charizard panicked at Lucario's move, but at this point it couldn't instantly climb to a height out of Lucario's reach, so it could only dodge sideways.

However, what Charizard didn't expect was that Lucario's move was just a feint—it didn't leap toward Charizard but instead onto another tree.

Having successfully tricked Charizard, Lucario lunged again, swinging the bone clubs and slamming them hard into Charizard.

Charizard's eyes widened; the immense force from the impact instantly made it understand why Lycanroc had been knocked down in two hits.

Struck by the blow, Charizard could no longer stay airborne and crashed heavily to the ground.

At that moment, the flame on Charizard's tail burned fiercely.

"Flamethrower!"

The Charizard, having crashed to the ground, had no time to think and immediately spewed a massive stream of flames to stop Lucario from continuing its attack.

If Lucario had an impatient temperament, Charizard's tactic might have worked wonders.

But Lucario did not rush in recklessly; sensing Charizard's intent with its Aura, it chose to gather an Aura Sphere on the spot.

The moment the flames stopped and Charizard took off, the blue energy sphere once again slammed into Charizard.

Charizard fell to the ground again, and this time its eyes directly turned into spirals as it fainted.

"Whew." Lucario let out a relieved breath.

Defeating Charizard was much harder than defeating Lycanroc.

If Charizard hadn't given it an opportunity by actively lowering its flying altitude, Lucario would have found it very difficult to inflict major damage on Charizard in one go.

Because Lucario's most effective move against Charizard at the moment was Bone Rush, but if Charizard flew high enough, it simply couldn't hit.

"Lucario wins!" Seeing that Charizard was unable to continue fighting, Kakashi announced the result of the battle.

The process of this battle once again confirmed some of Kakashi's earlier conjectures.

The chakra type matchup between Pokémon had a significant impact on the outcome.

Based on Kakashi's understanding of Charizard and Lycanroc, the two were not far apart in terms of raw strength.

In the actual battle, however, Lycanroc was dominated by Lucario, while Charizard was able to suppress Lucario in turn and only lost because of carelessness.

"It did its best. Even though it lost, it still dealt quite a bit of damage to the opponent." Obito said with a pitying look.

Lycanroc:??

"You keep talking - why do you keep looking at him and Kakashi?"

Seeing Lycanroc's displeased expression, Obito felt delighted inside.

Although it felt a bit uncomfortable to praise his own silly dragon against his conscience, as long as it could strike at the evil white-haired faction, it was worth it.

"Another victory. I was right, wasn't I? The body you train day and night will respond to you." Might Guy laughed heartily, happy for his Pokémon.

So far, Lucario had fought a total of three battles against other Pokémon, with one loss and two wins — meaning a win rate of 66%, which was quite high.

In the first two years after Might Guy entered the Ninja Academy, his win rate was pitifully low, almost in single digits — meaning he only won once out of dozens of attempts.

Against geniuses like Kakashi, his win rate had hit rock bottom — zero percent.

"Lu-oh!" Lucario recalled Might Guy with a smile, then turned its gaze to Milotic.

It felt an urge to challenge Milotic.

Because if Might Guy was the strongest among all disciples, then Lucario, as the Pokémon contracted with Might Guy, naturally had to become the strongest Pokémon.

But Lucario suppressed the desire within it to challenge Milotic.

The battle with Charizard had drained its mind and stamina considerably, and it had even been injured.

To return to peak condition, it would need considerable time to rest and recover.

It was now dusk, the training session over, and Lucario didn't want to waste any more of the others' time because of itself.

Finally, Lucario averted its gaze from Milotic and began to gather chakra.

"Although it seems there's no major issue, let's treat them anyway." Rin Nohara split off a Shadow Clone, preparing to treat Charizard with her main body and Lucario with the clone.

Milotic also came to Rin's side, gathering chakra to help Rin with the treatment.

Lucario shook its head and rapidly performed a nature transformation on the chakra it had gathered.

"Life Dew!"

A blue-green water sphere formed above Lucario.

Then the sphere burst rapidly in midair, and one by one, blue-green droplets fell onto Lucario and Charizard.

When the droplets imbued with healing power landed on their bodies, Lucario's already minor injuries recovered rapidly.

Milotic looked at Lucario in surprise, never expecting that Lucario, who seemed like an emotionless warrior, also possessed a healing skill like its own.

With Rin's treatment combined with Lucario's Life Dew, Charizard soon woke up.

Feeling the cool, refreshing, and comfortable sensation spreading through its body, Charizard looked at the Milotic beside it and let out a moved cry.

"Awoo!"

"The goddess's healing ninjutsu is truly amazing. It feels like both body and mind are completely healed in an instant—that's what he said," Zorua translated precisely.

At that moment, silence fell over the scene.

"How did I end up hatching this one? It's nothing like me at all." Obito covered his mouth, worried he might laugh out loud.

If it weren't his own summoning beast, Obito would have been laughing hysterically. After all, it was his summoning beast, so he still had to save some face.

"Ao." After a moment of silence, Milotic opened its mouth to explain.

"The Life Dew just now was actually cast by Lucario—that's what it said, hehe." After finishing the translation, Zorua couldn't help but laugh.

It was a professional; normally it wouldn't laugh at a brother—unless it couldn't help it.

Charizard froze, glanced at Milotic, then glanced at Lucario.

Charizard fell over again, as if the battle just now had left it severely injured, allowing it to remain conscious only for a brief moment.

No one tried to wake Charizard up; they all tacitly agreed that Charizard was now unconscious. After all, the damage from the incident just now might have been greater than the bone club Lucario had smashed onto it.

"So Lucario has also mastered healing ninjutsu. That way, even if Gai doesn't team up with us in the future, we won't have to worry about treatment." Kakashi felt that all the Pokémon eggs given out by Muyue were the result of careful selection.

Due to the special nature of the Eight Gates, Kakashi had actually been quite worried about Might Guy.

The Eight Gates were powerful, but once the number of gates increased, even with a strong body, it only reduced damage, not immunized against it; so getting injured was a common occurrence.

Without a good medical ninja, it was easy to leave sequelae due to lack of timely treatment.

Kakashi had personally experienced the effect of Life Dew; among healing ninjutsu, it was considered high-level, and absolutely sufficient for most situations.

After returning home, Zorua hummed a little tune, looking in a very good mood.

Watching Zorua looking so cheerful, and then thinking about how the other disciples' Pokémon had already evolved, and recalling Zorua's earlier complaints about evolution...

A conjecture arose in Shisui's mind.

However, he didn't dare to be sure whether his conjecture was correct, after all, Pokémon were very different from ordinary ninja world summoning beasts.

"Let it be." Shisui smiled helplessly. Even if he guessed right, what use would it be? Was he going to force Zorua?

Also, it's the end of the month, so I humbly ask for votes.