Chapter 11 - 11: Battling Nawaki

Second Great Ninja War—Senju Nawaki Puppet Master—Elder Chiyo Rebellious Youth—Sarutobi Asuma Chunin Exam—Beautiful and Useless Sakura Seeing these four options, Kazuki's lips curved into a smile. This time, at least there were a few characters he could actually defeat. Sakura during the Chunin Exams was utterly useless. As long as she didn't bring her strongest summoned beast, Naruto, he felt he could easily dominate her. At this stage, Sakura hadn't yet become Tsunade's disciple. At most, she had excellent chakra control and a bit of genjutsu talent. And regarding Sakura's genjutsu, from beginning to end, the only genjutsu she ever cast was on herself—the illusion that she had caught up to Sasuke and Naruto. Sakura had never displayed any other genjutsu. If it were Sakura from the Fourth Great Ninja War, Kazuki certainly wouldn't be her match, but from the Chunin Exams... Of course, calling Sakura beautiful and useless was well-deserved. In his previous life, when watching Naruto, everyone disliked Sakura, but in the original setting, Sakura was indeed a beauty. Rock Lee even fell in love with Sakura at first sight. To be honest, Kazuki wasn't entirely confident of victory against Nawaki from the Second Great Ninja War. After all, he was Hashirama's grandson, Tsunade's brother, and Orochimaru's disciple. His background was even better than Kazuki's. If he hadn't been killed by those strange explosive tags, it wouldn't have been a problem for Nawaki to grow into an elite jonin. As for further advancement, it wasn't impossible either. Against the current Nawaki, Kazuki had a chance of victory. Nawaki and Mikoto were in the same age group, and their strengths were similar, so it wouldn't be too difficult for Kazuki to defeat him. He wondered how much Nawaki would grow in the coming years. As for Chiyo, Kazuki didn't even consider her. She was a Kage-level expert now, and no matter how old she was, she wasn't someone his current self could challenge. As for young Asuma, it seemed he might not be unbeatable. This time, he should be able to get some good items. After a moment of hesitation, Kazuki chose Sakura first and entered the combat arena. Looking at the pink-haired girl not far away, Kazuki immediately threw three kunai without a word. Sakura, in a panic, quickly pulled out her kunai to block, but unfortunately, she encountered the unique throwing technique of the Uchiha clan. After blocking one kunai, she was hit by the remaining two kunai, one in the shoulder and one in the abdomen. Before Sakura could react, Kazuki quickly approached her, drew a short sword from behind, and slashed across her throat. The next moment, Kazuki's consciousness withdrew from the combat arena. [Ding! Congratulations to the Host for defeating Sakura. You have obtained Sakura's chakra control talent. Do you wish to merge?] Merge! After merging Sakura's chakra control talent, Kazuki's lips curved into a smile. He had underestimated Sakura before. Sakura, who could be taken as a disciple by Tsunade and trained with such effort, had some talent. Kazuki had considered his chakra control to be excellent, but after merging Sakura's talent, his chakra control improved even further, by at least a third. This was already a very significant improvement. Next, Kazuki looked at Nawaki. After a moment of hesitation, he decisively chose to start the battle. Entering the combat arena and seeing Nawaki, who was clearly less than twelve years old, Kazuki's thoughts became complex. This must be Nawaki from before his death, meaning he was two years older than the current Nawaki. And his chakra reserve was even larger than his own, even about a third more than Kushina's. This showed how excellent Nawaki's talent was. No wonder some people suspected that Nawaki's death was related to Hiruzen and Danzo. Nawaki's other talents were also very good. It was not impossible for him to grow to Kage-level in the future. However, such an opponent was much more interesting. Kazuki's lips curved into a smile. His single-tomoe Sharingan activated, and he quickly formed hand seals. Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu! In an instant, a massive fireball was spewed from Kazuki's mouth, rushing towards Nawaki. Nawaki calmly formed hand seals. Just as the Great Fireball was about to hit him, he gathered a large amount of chakra in his mouth and spat it out. This chakra quickly formed a rotating circular water wall, blocking Kazuki's Great Fireball. The scorching flames met the water wall, creating a large amount of steam. It was Tobirama's Water Release: Water Formation Wall! A look of surprise flashed in Kazuki's eyes. He hadn't expected Nawaki to have learned this technique. Other people's Water Formation Walls were created by pouring chakra into the ground to form a water wall, while Tobirama's created all-directional protection. No doubt, this was modified specifically to counter the Uchiha's Fire release. Indeed, most of Tobirama's ninjutsu were designed to counter the Uchiha. Thinking this, Kazuki quickly approached Nawaki again, forming hand seals once more. Lightning Release: Wave of Inspiration. Terrifying currents gathered in Kazuki's hand, touching the Water Formation Wall that enveloped Nawaki. Water conducts electricity, and the Water Formation Wall was quickly conducted by the Lightning Release, forcing Nawaki to end the Water Formation Wall and retreat backward. After creating distance from Kazuki, Nawaki looked at him with lingering fear. If his reaction hadn't been fast enough, he would have been affected by the Lightning Chakra. Since when did Uchiha clan youths stop studying Fire release and start researching Lightning release instead? Kazuki, seeing this, showed no impatience. He bit his finger, slid it across the seal on his arm, and a giant shuriken, as tall as a man, appeared in his right hand. He then threw it towards Nawaki. "Damn it!" Nawaki cursed under his breath, pulling out a kunai with his right hand to block the spinning, flying giant shuriken. "Explode!" But before Nawaki could make his next move, Kazuki let out a low shout. Only then did Nawaki realize that the giant shuriken was actually tied with a large number of explosive tags. Are the Uchiha this devious? Boom! A violent explosion engulfed Nawaki. Did he use substitution jutsu? Kazuki quickly pinpointed Nawaki's location. The previous explosion had engulfed Nawaki. Even though his Substitution Jutsu was timely, he was still affected by the explosive tags. He had no time to tend to his injuries and had to face Kazuki's slash, which had already reached him.