(A.N: I hope you guys liked the new cover ^~^)
...
Even though most of the crowd was thrilled to see su intense aertaining fight, having literally watched two people flying and throwing fireballs at each other, far more spectacur than any fireworks they’d seen, this was not the case for everyone.
Some people who had bet on Deidara were unhappy, as he had su obvious advantage—a small army, no less—and still lost. Those people cursed their luck, regretting not betting on Itachi even though the return would have been lower.
Especially in the VIP room iadium, where the Daimyos were enjoying the match, a gloomy atmosphere spread. Both the Lightning ah Daimyo were in bad moods, having lost 30 million Ryo each.
Though this amount of money wasn’t much to them, the feeling of losing was hard to ignore, especially sihe person as stantly gloating in front of them.
“Oh hohoho, 100 million Ryo! With this much, I should build a new pace by the sea. What do you guys think?” the Fire Daimyo asked.
“That is quite a nice idea, actually,” the Lightning Daimyo replied, though his thoughts were, 'I hope it gets flooded with you i.' The Earth Daimyo felt the same. When Deidara had flown into the air, a triumphant expression had emerged on his face.
How many ninja could actually fly? In his eyes, victory was nearly certain for Deidara. He hadn’t expected the Uchiha brat to be this skilled, but the se of Itachi jumping into the air, surrounded by dozens of fireballs, had captivated even a Daimyo who had witnessed hundreds of fights in his lifetime.
---
For the Konoha team, there was no choice about whom they had to bet on—it was just a matter of how much they were going to win.
“Damn, we really made a fortuhis time!” Kaida excimed.
The betting ratio this time was 1:1.8 for Itachi. Kaida, Shisui, and Kabuto had each bet 5 million Ryo, ing a total of 27 million Ryo in their ats. An amount this high was astonishing even for Jiraiya, who had also made around 13 million from his own 5 million. While they were celebrating, Itachi returned.
“How much did you make?” Itachi asked.
“Around 1.2 million Ryo on this match,” Kaida replied with a silly grin.
“Fine, how much is my share?” Itachi asked.
“Your share? You don’t have one. If you want, bet by yourself,” Kaida replied.
“But you gave Kabuto his. Why not me?” Itachi asked.
“Because you’re a damn prind easily bet on your own,” Shisui said.
“Fair point. I’ll bet on the match.”
Before they could discuss further, the proctor returo the stadium.
“As we all know, luck is also an important skill for a ninja. Sinly three partits remain, we will now select a chit to determine who will advance directly to the finals while the other two must fight for the position.
I would like to ask Lord Daimyo to pick a chit,” the proctor said as a ninja brought a gss bowl before the Lightning Daimyo, who stepped out of his for this.
After building a little suspehe Daimyo picked a chit and announced, “Kaida Uchiha.”
“The person going to the finals is Kaida Uchiha. As for the other two, they’ll have to fight to decide who will go to the finals,” the proctor announced.
“So, the match is between Itachi Uchiha from Konoha and Kabuto Yakushi from Konoha.”
The crowd once agaied in cheers. Back-to-back matches were never hated by the audience, and after the earlier dispy, Itachi had bee somewhat of a favorite, especially among the girls—though he shivered a bit when he heard a middle-aged man shouting his name, likely due to the money he’d made from betting on Itachi.
“Now you’re quite famous in Kumogakure as well, huh?” Kaida said as they heard people shouting Itachi’s name.
“Let’s just go,” Itachi replied, maintaining his usual demeanor. Kabuto was silent, giving o look to Jiraiya before following Itachi to the stadium.
---
Itachi and Kabuto stood fag each other, both wearing serious expressions. Seeing that both were ready, the proctor raised his hand.
“Begin!” he shouted.
Just as Itachi was about to make a hand sign, Kabuto raised his hand.
“I surrender,” he said.
“…”
“…”
“…”
Everyohe audience, proctor, and even Itachi—was stunned.
“Are you sure?” the proctor asked.
“Being on the same team for so long, I know I don’t have a single ce against him. So, rather than making a fool of myself, I would like to surrender,” Kabuto said.
Although some viewed this as cowardly, the judges, who had been noting everything from the start, nodded approvingly. Knowing which fights to engage in and which to avoid was a critical skill for any ninja. You could always fight again after gaining enough strength, but you couldn’t get your life back. Kabuto’s surrender was seen in a positive light by the judges.
“Fihe winner of the match is Itachi Uchiha,” the proctor announced. But there were no cheers from the crowd this time—only pints about wasted ticket money, whieither Kabuto nor Itachi paid any attention to.
---
“Was it really alright? Wasn’t oal to show off Konoha’s might?” Kaida asked, looking toward Jiraiya. He had noticed Kabuto looking to Jiraiya before the match, so Kabuto must have asked for permission to do something so drastic.
Jiraiya smiled, seeing that Kaida had caught on by himself.
‘And we’ve already achieved that goal. Konoha is the winner, not just in first pce, but all three positions now belong to Konoha. It doesn’t matter who among you takes which position. When I was training Kabuto, he was sure he couldn’t match either of you one-on-one, so he asked if he could surrender, as he’d get third pyway,’ Jiraiya expined.
“Does that mean I could also just surrender aachi win?” Kaida asked.
“I would like to request you not to do that,” Itachi said.
“Yes, this is the final battle everyone’s been waiting for. It would be disappointing if it ended anticlimactically,” Shisui said.
“Fi’s not like I was going to do that. I was just asking if I could,” Kaida replied, shaking his head.
“The match will start in one hour,” the proctor announced, giving the partits time to recover their chakra and stamina for the final battle.
“I have something to do, then,” Itachi said, heading toward the crowd.
