Chapter 106: Promotion Commotion (Part-7) [Begin. BOOM. Winner.]

Chapter 106 - Promotion Commotion (Part-7) [Begin. BOOM. Winner.] As soon as the proctor shouted "Begin!", Iwa Shiro didn't waste a moment. He immediately formed hand signs and slammed both palms onto the ground. [Earth Release: Tearing Earth Turning Palm!] The terrain between him and Ren began to shift violently. Blocks of jagged earth erupted and charged forward, tearing up the arena floor as they moved. But Ren didn't budge. He stood still, arms relaxed at his sides. A small grin crept across his face. 'They wanted it flashy? I'll make them fuckin' blind,' Then, slowly, he raised his leg straight above his head and brought it crashing down like a hammer. BOOM. The moment his heel struck the ground, a shockwave exploded outward. The terrain quaked. The stone tiles cracked and split like they were paper, and the oncoming blocks of earth from Shiro's jutsu shattered on contact. The shock didn't stop there. The ground beneath Shiro's feet fractured violently, sending him tumbling down into the debris of his own technique. Before he could even react, he was buried under cracked earth and knocked unconscious by the impact. The cracks continued forward until they reached the arena walls and then, finally, stopped. The entire stadium fell silent. Then, in the next breath, the crowd erupted. A wave of wild cheering thundered through the arena, the spectators roaring at the sheer spectacle of it. Cheers, whistles, and claps poured out in an overwhelming storm. The proctor flickered beside Shiro, crouched down for a moment to inspect him, then raised his hand. "The winner of the first match is Ren Takahashi from the Hidden Leaf!" The crowd's reaction intensified. ~~~ In the VIP box, Onoki gave a low snort. "Tch. If you wanted him to be flashy, you might as well have handed him a signboard that said 'I'm here to show off' instead of letting him stomp like some mountain ape." He was clearly irritable, likely because his genin lost in under ten seconds. Hiruzen simply gave a relaxed puff of his pipe and chuckled. "Hoho... Who am I to dictate how the youth express themselves? Flashiness is simply part of youth. Wouldn't you agree?" Onoki scowled but didn't answer. ~~~ In the audience, Utakata, Jiraiya, and Nami were seated together. "Wow, your student is so strong, Utakata!" Nami gasped, genuinely impressed as her eyes sparkled. Utakata nodded calmly. "The first match went as expected." Jiraiya leaned back with a lopsided grin. "I don't think he'd be any less flashy even if you'd told him to tone it down. Flashiness seems to be embedded in his DNA." Utakata shrugged. "Hokage-sama asked me to make sure Ren made an impression." ~~~ Ren returned to the participants' stand with a calm expression, giving a fist bump to both Hitoshi and Yugao. "That flashy enough for a round one opener?" he asked, not even pretending to hide the smug tone. "Definitely," Hitoshi replied with a nod. "Yeah, the audience almost had a heart attack," Yugao added. Ren looked down at the field with a small smile. "Good. Let's keep it that way." The proctor's voice rang out again. "Participants for the second match, Akatsuchi of the Stone Village and Kamiko of the Sand Village. Please come down!" The bulky figure of Akatsuchi and the much smaller, nimbler Kamiko made for a sharp visual contrast. Their fight, however, was standard fare. Akatsuchi used raw strength and earth techniques to control the field, while Kamiko relied on evasive maneuvers and basic wind jutsu. The match lasted a few minutes, with Akatsuchi eventually pinning Kamiko down with a wide-range earth wall, claiming a clean but unremarkable victory. The next match followed immediately. "Third match, Kurotsuchi of the Stone vs. Benjiro of the Sand." This one was faster and more one-sided. Kurotsuchi unleashed her earth techniques with ruthless precision, sharp stone bullets, layered traps, and area control. She barely moved from her position, letting the terrain do the work for her. Benjiro couldn't keep up. The match was over within two minutes. Ren watched carefully and a thought came to him, 'Wait, can she use Lava Release already?' The thought made him frown slightly. 'I remember her using ash, quicklime, and other weird techniques in the future. I don't think she could be already manipulating multiple elements to this degree right now, but..' He leaned over to Yugao and muttered lowly. "Be careful in your match against her. If she uses anything that's not earth, don't hesitate. Treat it as extremely dangerous." Yugao gave a short nod, not asking questions. She could tell from Ren's tone he wasn't exaggerating. The fourth match was announced. "Yugao Uzuki of the Hidden Leaf vs. Daiki of the Sand Village!" Yugao descended into the arena with calm precision. The match began, and she immediately closed the distance. Her katana moved like lightning, sharp, clean and unpredictable. Daiki never had a chance. Within a minute, Yugao disarmed him and left a shallow but clean cut across his shoulder. The proctor called it. At this point the sand team was completely eliminated, but that's just how it is. The sand genin were just ordinary genin, barely at the chunin level, even their teacher was an average jonin with level 63 so they shouldn't have been expected to perform greatly in the first place. Yugao returned to the stands to light applause, but Ren clapped a little harder. "Well done. You held back just enough," he said. She nodded as she wiped the blade clean and sat down. Now only one match remained. The proctor took center stage again and called out: "Fifth match, Hitoshi Aburame and Itachi Uchiha, please come down to the arena!" Both boys moved without hesitation. Itachi landed silently, gaze calm and unreadable as always. Hitoshi adjusted his sleeves, the faint buzzing of his insects already audible to those close by. They stood across from each other, one with a thousand secrets; the other, one of the greatest genius the village had produced. The proctor raised his hand. "Match five... begin!" Itachi dashed forward, eyes glowing red with the three-tomoe Sharingan spinning with uncanny smoothness. He drew two kunai in a reverse grip and closed the distance with practiced footwork. Hitoshi didn't flinch as he stepped back lightly and raised an arm. A swarm of kikaichū burst from his sleeves and surrounded him like a living cloak, intercepting Itachi's first strike. Itachi adjusted mid-motion and spun around to avoid a counterattack, but even as he retreated, several of Hitoshi's insects followed his path. The crowd gasped as the bugs weaved through the air, following Itachi with surprising agility. Itachi leapt onto one of the broken pillars and performed a single seal. [Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu!] A scatter-shot of small fireballs rained toward Hitoshi, each moving unpredictably. Hitoshi remained calm, weaving his own hand signs. [Fire Style: Fire Wall Formation!] A wall of fire erupted in front of him. It caught several of the fireballs, detonating in bursts of flame mid-air. The remaining few curved around the wall, but Hitoshi had already moved. The moment the flames obscured vision, he used the cover to flicker out of the fire zone, emerging behind Itachi. His hand shot forward, and a stream of kikaichu poured from his arm like a wave. Itachi spun with his Sharingan catching every movement, his kunai intercepting the initial wave, but even he had to retreat a few steps, his vision flickering between red-tinted paths of the swarming insects. They moved in erratic formations, but Hitoshi wasn't just releasing them at random. He was manipulating their movements through chakra pulses, forcing Itachi to track dozens of individual vectors at once. It was working. Hitoshi knew that no matter how strong the Sharingan was, overloading it with input was still a viable tactic. He just needed to push it further. Itachi, aware of the trap, performed a sharp backflip and landed further away. Then he activated a genjutsu, his Sharingan flared and for an instant, Hitoshi froze. In that frozen second, Hitoshi was surrounded by crows, his insects scattered and his limbs refused to respond. But Hitoshi had trained for this, the moment he froze several of his insects surrounded him in an instant and bit him. Pain surged through his body, and the illusion cracked. The moment his chakra realigned, the crows dissolved into smoke. "Good thing Sensei's idea worked," he muttered, adjusting his glasses calmly. Itachi raised an eyebrow. That was faster than he expected. He couldn't underestimate Hitoshi anymore. Hitoshi didn't give him a chance to regain control of the fight. A second wave of insects erupted from the ground below. Unknown to Itachi, Hitoshi had been spreading a secondary swarm underground since the match began, smaller, more chakra-sensitive bugs that crept silently along the terrain. They shot upward like needles, bursting through the cracks in the arena, caused by Ren's first attack and caught Itachi from below. Itachi leapt to the side, spinning in mid-air and throwing three kunai, but Hitoshi blocked them with a shield of insects, the metallic clang drowned under the buzzing of thousands. Then Hitoshi went on the offensive. He dashed toward Itachi, flickering forward with surprising speed. He wasn't just a sensor or support-type anymore, his taijutsu had reached a sharp, refined edge by fighting that taijutsu monster in his team. Itachi blocked the first strike, but Hitoshi followed up with a palm strike to the ribs, enhanced by chakra flow that burst outward on contact. It forced Itachi to stumble slightly. 'That wasn't a simple palm strike, he's also using chakra-enhanced strikes,' Itachi thought, his sharingan showing him all the details, so he started adjusting quickly. They exchanged blows rapidly, fists, knees, elbows. The sounds of flesh meeting flesh rang out as the two danced across the arena. Each time Itachi dodged, a cloud of insects tried to box him in. Each time Hitoshi struck, the insects moved to fill in the blind spots. But Itachi adapted quickly. His Sharingan allowed him to read patterns, and slowly, he began to decipher the rhythms of the bug formations. Then, it happened. Itachi feinted to the left, stepped inward, and went for a leg sweep but instead of completing the motion, he vanished. A shadow clone. The real Itachi dropped from above, trying to strike down with a kunai but Hitoshi raised both arms and unleashed a cloudburst of insects upward. The clone dispersed instantly under the swarm, and Itachi landed nearby, exhaling slowly. 'He's faster than I expected, and these insects, I can't give him time to coordinate.' But Hitoshi wasn't giving him time at all. The moment Itachi hit the ground, Hitoshi triggered a prepared tag under his sleeve. [Fire Style: Scorch Bloom!] It was a custom technique, he had developed with the help of his clan elders. A ring of fire exploded outward from his position. Not a full-circle dome like traditional fire styles, but a burning arc in one direction, cutting off Itachi's escape path. Itachi moved left. But it was a trap. A swarm of black insects waited there, the same ones that had been underground earlier. 'He herded me,' Itachi realized, but it was too late. The insects crashed into him. Itachi formed the Ram seal in an instant. Poof. Another shadow clone. From behind, the real Itachi moved. But Hitoshi had already anticipated that too, his insects swirled backward as if predicting the clone would be bait. It was a fight of tactics and deception now. Strength and ninjutsu were secondary. Both sides paused momentarily. Sweat beaded on their brows. Their breathing a little heavy, Hitoshi's more so than Itachi. Neither had landed a decisive blow, but both knew they had exhausted more chakra than expected. Then Hitoshi made his move again. He raised both hands, and with a chakra surge, released his largest swarm yet. Thousands of kikaichu poured out, not in coordinated waves, but in chaotic, unpredictable spirals. They moved like a cyclone, an organic, living tornado of chakra-draining terror. Even with the Sharingan, Itachi struggled. The movement was too erratic. The swarm moved in such high density that visual tracking became meaningless. The crowd gasped as the field was swallowed in black buzzing fury. Hitoshi's voice cut through the noise. "This is the end!" He vanished into the swarm. Itachi's eyes darted, left, right, up. Too many signals. Too many trajectories. Then he sensed it. Behind him. He spun with a kunai in hand. But it was too late. Hitoshi lunged from the chaos, kunai raised, aiming for the pressure point in Itachi's neck. Just as the blade was about to land, a soft click echoed in his ear. Itachi stood behind him, kunai pressed gently to his neck. His voice was calm, as if he wasn't the least bit tired. "It's over. Please give me the antidote otherwise I'll have to take extreme measures." Hitoshi froze. Then slowly, he smiled, a small Aburame smile reserved only for special moments. Then, he raised both hands in surrender. ~~~~~ {It was the first time I wrote a proper fight including Hitoshi, so tell me how did it go. Also, if it might have looked like Itachi struggled, he did. That's right, when thousands and thousands of insects come towards you even the Sharingan could be overloaded, but still, this is Itachi we're talking about he is built different.} {Join my pat-reon to read another one of team 1's shenanigans} { h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / / Z e e n o n } {You can just search for my name too, it's the one with tom's pic (from tom and Jerry)} {You know what else to do.} {Don't be stingy with the stones we got to enter the top 50's during the Chunin exams arc.} {STONES!!!!} {And