Standing in a hallway, two people faced each other, hostility clearly visible in their eye.

Popping the pill, Kabuto placed his hand over the wound. A few moments later the hole was gone, covered by skin, as if there wasn’t a hole to begin with.

“Instant healing?” Rubbing the back of his head, Raito looked at Kabuto and shrugged, “Maybe.”

Rather than restoring the health bar, the pill increased Kabuto’s stats, which confused Raito. The penetrating wound was gone but the HP bar remained the same.

“You are so deceitful, Raito-kun.” Removing his glasses, Kabuto smiled, then took a deep breath.

With this deep breath, Kabuto’s body swelled from a lean body to a muscular, puffed up one.

“A power up at the end?” With a raised brow and surprise in his face, Raito looked at Kabuto with interest. ‘Directly increasing STR and DEX stat by hundred with one pill. Pity….’

‘Let’s try this.’ Swing his hand, Raito threw the senbon in his hand, aiming to pierce the vital organs.

“It’s useless now.” Kabuto smirked as the senbons failed to pierce or even make a mark.

Looking at his skin, Kabuto had a weird smile on his face as he started, “Results of my experiment.”

“Hmph, ‘[Pierce]’.”

Earth transformed into finger-thick earth needles and rushed towards Kabuto. Even this earth needles had purple spots, meaning that it was also poisoned.

Kabuto thought he could withstand this attack like before. But to his horror, Kabuto found that these earth needles had an additional nature chakra added to it.

Pupils narrowed as Kabuto disappeared from his spot and appeared on the ceiling, ready to move anytime if those earth needles were to attack him again.

“I knew you were dangerous, but I still underestimated you.” Standing on the ceiling, Kabuto made a hand seal, accumulating chakra on his hands and forearm. Transformation began once more as black snake-like patter gather around on his arms. Kabuto’s hand transformed into a claw with pointed and curved nails.

“You look less and less like a human every minute.” Raito looked at the status page of Kabuto and saw the level increasing, instead of the stats this time, signifying the increase in threat level.

‘[Equip – Fighter Gloves – 1]’

‘[Equip – Inner Guard – 3]’

[Black Half Finger Leather Gloves +11]

(Penetration: 4% chance of ignoring defense.)

ATK: 23-28

Durability: 280

[Imitation Chain Mail +11]

(Rebound: 50% chance of physical attacks getting rebounded.)

DEF: 66

Durability:600

“It’s just my little hobby.” Hearing Raito’s word, Kabuto once again gave a weird smile and jumped towards Raito, and swung his thick arms.

‘[Fast thinking]’

‘Too many openings, but he can just overpower and overrun me.’

‘[Shield]’

The bead attached on Raito’s bracelet transformed into a circular shield, guarding Raito and obscuring Kabuto’s vision.

Red chakra covered Kabuto’s arms as he sliced through the earthen shield.

‘[Earth Release – Rock Fist]’ With an arm covered with black rock and damage multiplier, Raito threw a straight at Kabuto and commanded the earth needles to attack Kabuto from behind. A simple pincer attack, just when the opponent had delivered an attack.

“Heh.” Kabuto’s eye flashed as he wiped his arms around and destroying the earth needles behind and slashing at Raito.

Whoosh, Krii!

Just as Raito backed to guard against Kabuto’s swipe attack, Raito saw a figure pass by him at extreme speed and hear the buzzing, just for a moment. “Sensei.”

Kakashi had been in the shadows for a quite a time, waiting for an opportunity. When he saw Raito was in trouble, Kakashi dashed at top speed with lightning streaking around his fingers, a lesser version of Chidori, with more assassin like feature.

Although its destructiveness was far less compared to Chidori, it was enough to pierce Kabuto’s heart from his back and kill him in one swift motion.

“Kakashi-sensei.” Raito looked in awe and shock as Kakashi’s hand plunged into Kabuto’s body. “You killed him.”

“Yes?” Kakashi frowned as he pulled his hand from Kabuto’s body and looked at his hand.

“We could have captured him.” Another Raito, the real one, appeared from the wall beside and looked at Kakashi unhappily. Then looking at Kabuto’s body, Raito added, “I got nothing from him.”

“It was just empty. There was nothing.” Raito scratched his head and crouched down.

A wave of lightning passed Kakashi’s hand and the blood stains disappeared. Crouching down, he inspected the body. “It’s….”

Puff, Shh!

The room, which was previously filled with the dead bodies, was now filled with chakra smoke.

Kakashi rushed in and took a quick sweep, then said. “Kabuto should have done it.”

Raito looked at the small room with his eyes widened and in disbelief. ‘There was no one, but how?’

Looking back at the body, Raito looked at Kakashi and said, “You just killed Kabuto but…”

Moving towards a corner, Kakashi took out the plastered talisman and said, “That’s a dead body from a few days, maintained to it’s peak condition by chakra, named [Dead Soul Technique]. If you want to confirm, use [Diagnosis Technique] and look at the bones of the face and other places. You will see the artificial modifications to his face and some residual technique. Kabuto must have planned all these beforehand. And those bodies disappearing, it’s probably due to a [Reverse Summoning Technique].”

Raito, still in disbelief, used [Diagnosis Technique] and looked according to what Kakashi said. ‘My gamer powers, it never happened before, so why now?’

“You did a good job using the silencing talisman. Otherwise we would be in a big trouble.” Kakashi said and looked at Raito, who was still in a daze.

Taking out a stasis seal, Kakashi sealed the body. “Kabuto was the chief medical officer’s adopted son so, he was already-”

“That’s not the problem, sensei. I was never wrong before. The height, the face and even the chakra, everything was the same but….”

“…. Don’t think about it too much.” Standing up, Kakashi patted Raito’s shoulder and said, “There are a lot of things that you don’t know. As you grow, you will probably encounter many new things and learn.”

“….” Raito closed his eyes and sighed. ‘There are so many techniques in the world. Maybe there are some that can confuse or even counter my skills… just like I can counter some.’

Raito looked up at Kakashi and pocketed his hands then walked forward. “You sound like an old man, Kaka-sensei.”

“Old man, me?” Kakashi rubbed his chin and went into thought.

“Keep up with this and you’ll be single forever, sensei.”

“Now, now.”

While Kakashi and Raito were taking their sweet time, Shikamaru was already on the stage with Temari.

The shadow stretched from Shikamaru, to the hole, made earlier by Naruto and crossed less than half the stage and came out of the other hole and linked with Temari’s shadow.

“Shadow Imitation Technique – Success”

Shikamaru let out a breath of relief, seeing that his plan was finally successful. Looking at Temari, who was clearly struggling to move, he made another hand seal and strengthened the shadow link and completely paralyzing his opponent.

“Seems like you can’t struggle much now.” Shikamaru stretched his body, and Temari followed.

“So, what are you going to do?” Temari glared at Shikamaru.

“….” There was a period of silence after that, and the rest of the viewers were also a bit agitated, wanting to know what was going to happen. Everything that happened from beginning to end; big wind attacks, hiding all over the stage, mind tricks and finally capturing the opponent was really fun to watch.

“Good old Shikamaru.” Chōji munched on some chips as he looked at the stage.

Beside him, Ino watched the match with interest, but frowned immediately as Chōji spoke. She glared at Chōji and said, “Shikamaru can do a lot of things. He will-”

“Give up.” Chōji interrupted with an all knowing head nod.

“….” Ino looked at Chōji, wanting to say something, but she kept quiet and looked back at the stage.

“Oh, he is going to give up.” Raito walked in and grabbed a bunch of chips from Chōji’s packet.

“Raito? What are you doing here?” Ino spun her head and looked at Raito.

“I was hungry.” Raito shrugged and looked at the stage.

“Liar.” Ino narrowed her eyes, then ignored him.

Down at the stage, just as Raito and Chōji said, Shikamaru raised his hand and surrendered. “Proctor, I give up.”

Silence, pin drop silence.

Shishishi, bwhahaha

“Such embarrassment.” said one particular Nara, with his face covered.

“That’s like father like son.” Inoichi laughed as he smacked Shikaku’s back.

Shikamaru withdrew his shadow, freeing Temari from restraints.

Shikamaru’s surrender made Temari confused and angry. She widened her eyes and gritted her teeth in anger. With a forceful stomp, she dashed towards Shikamaru with a kunai in her hand.

“How could she?” Ino stood up in anger and shouted.

“Don’t worry.” Raito looked at the stage with a small smile on his face.

On the stage, Hayate quickly appeared and grabbed Temari’s hand, then said, “He surrendered.”

Shikamaru stood calmly as he looked dead straight at Temari. The kunai was just a few inches away, but the shadow below had already caught her, paralyzing her.

As Hayate pulled Temari’s hand, Shikamaru also released the Shadow link.

Hayate looked at Temari, then at her team instructor, Baki, then announced.

“Shikamaru versus Temari, Temari wins.”

“Tch.” Temari clicked her tongue and pulled her hand forcefully before walking back to the box.

‘What’s the point?’ Temari gritted her teeth and punched the wall in frustration before walking upstairs.

“Uchiha Sasuke and Gaara, to the stage.” Hayate covered his mouth and called the participants.

Sasuke, on the participant’s box, looked around then jumped to the stage.

Gaara stood quietly, looking at the talisman on Baki’s hand.

“Kazekage-sama’s order.”

“….”

After giving a doll stare, Gaara manipulated the sand to grab the talisman.

“Participant Gaara.”

Hayate called once again.

Gaara looked at Temari, who just walked upstairs then disappeared in sand gust.

Baki looked at his empty hand, then turned to look at the top, at the Kage box. ‘Kazekage-sama….’

Hayate raised his hand and looked at the two.

“Fight!”

Just as Hayate disappeared, sand jetted out of the gourd and made a straight line towards Sasuke.

Dodging the first attack, Sasuke started his attack. He stepped off with a chakra burst and appeared behind Gaara with a wide kick, straight towards the head.

But before the kick could connect, a wall of sand interrupted Sasuke and trapped his foot before throwing him off to the wall.

Sasuke quickly balanced himself on the wall and looked at Gaara, who still had an expressionless face.

Taking out a couple of kunai, Sasuke ran towards Gaara, throwing one kunai after another, every time aiming for the gaps.

But Gaara’s sand defense was really powerful as one after another, the kunai got interrupted.

Pushing chakra to his feet, Sasuke leaped off the ground, directly on top of Gaara. Taking out a bunch of shuriken, he again threw them towards Gaara.

Gaara didn’t even look at Sasuke above him. The sand formed a wall once again and interrupted the shurikens.

The sand moved around and the shuriken and kunai fell on the ground around Gaara.

Half hand seal “[Explosion]”

BOOM!!

‘Now’s my chance.’ Sharingan blazed into action as Sasuke jumped back to the wall and sequenced through a series of hand seals.

The sand protected Gaara from the explosion, as not even a scratch was seen on his body. Chūnin and Jōnin were amazed by that fact and looked at each other uncomfortably.

Gaara flew directly opposite to Sasuke and his sand armor was blasted everywhere on the stage.

Directly opposite to Gaara, Sasuke was on his knees as his hand was holding a mass of lightning chakra. The streaks of lightning made a very annoying noise of the birds chirping.

Just as Gaara landed on the ground, Sasuke dashed off, supplemented by the lightning chakra, which increased his speed, like an arrow towards its target.

Gaara raised his hand for the first time as the sand gourd behind his back broke down, half of it forming a cushion and half forming a shield.

Sasuke looked like a blue streak of light, his hand just about to pierce the sand shield and then Gaara. ‘I can do it.’

“You won’t.” Gaara’s cold voice alerted Sasuke as tendrils of sand appeared from everywhere towards Gaara.