The murmurs in the crowd grew louder as the final matchup was annouhe tension alpable, rippling through the audience like static electricity before a storm.

  Kumogakure’s stadium hummed with anticipation. Kaida Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha. Both had already shown the crowd breathtaking abilities. Fire and precision vs. brute strength and speed—a bo worth watg. While some grumbled over Kabuto’s surrehe thought of a grand finale washed over them, sileng any residual pints.

  Sihere was an hiven to the partits for rest aing ba perfect shape, Kaida was doing just that, sitting in the er of the waiting room meditating.

  ‘My match is against Itachi. If I use Uchiha kenjutsu with a katana asu bo, he’ll win because it’s his forte. As for ninjutsu, let’s not even sider it. That guy learned Gale Palm Jutsu just by watg me perform it, and I literally have 7–8 jutsu under my belt—nothing he would worry about. As for the Mitotic Regeion Seal and strength, even though it’s powerful and fast, the burst is unidireal. He could easily dodge by predig my trajectory. Man, this is tough,’ Kaida was thinking.

  Smack

  “Why did you do that?” Kaida asked, rubbing his head.

  “If you’re trying to meditate, why the hell are you thinking so much? Just calm your mind and give your best. No one is pressuring you to win. If you win, that’s great; if not, you’ll learn somethihere’s o worry so much,” Shisui said, sittio Kaida.

  “I know, brother, but I ’t even see a way for me to win the match. I have two fighting styles, aher of them works against Itachi,” Kaida said.

  “Two fighting styles?” Shisui asked.

  “Yes, one is when I don’t use this seal. I fight like an Uchiha—precise ahal strikes with a mix of genjutsu. And when I use that seal, I use extra strength and speed to win. But Itachi is better than me in Uchiha style and too fast aive to fall for the sed.”

  “HaHaHaHa!”

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You’re talking like there are two people inside you, and when one es out, the other has to wait ihese are both yhting styles; there’s o separate them. Just use them accly. Switch between brute strength and precise attack, react with Sharingan perception, and attack with your most powerful strength. Even I would feel threatened by such attacks,” Shisui expined.

  “Brother, it’s not fair to show favoritism to only one of us,” Itachi said, entering the waiting area.

  “Well, you don’t need any. The only advice I’d like to give you is don’t get overfident. Even though you’re powerful, that doesn’t mean you ’t lose,” Shisui said.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Itachi said, as he sat down to take some rest.

  ---

  As the time for the final battle approached, Itachi and Kaida made their way into the stadium. The crowd went silent, a hush falling over them in reverehese two stood on opposite ends, eyes locked, each sensing the iy of the other’s presence.

  The proctor raised his hand. “This is the final match of the in Exams: Kaida Uchiha versus Itachi Uchiha. Begin!”

  The grouh Kaida and Itachi shook as they both moved right at the start, at astonishing speed, making hand signs rapidly.

  “Fire Release: Fire Stream Jutsu.”

  “Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu.”

  The two fire teiques collided, with Kaida’s fireball blown away by the wall of fire formed by Itachi’s fire stream. Both of them were pushed back from the bst, but her stopped moving. Both vanished from their spots, reappearing in the ter, Kaida wielding a sword while Itachi had drawn his kunai.

  g, g, g, g! Tens of strikes were exged between them in just a single sed. With no one gaining the upper hand, they jumped back.

  “Don’t hold back,” Itachi called out, eyes fshing with a seriousness Kaida hadn’t seen before.

  “Who said I was?” Kaida responded, smirking.

  Kaida formed the Shadow e Jutsu sign, and three identical es appeared beside him. Without hesitation, he sent one e rushing toward Itachi, while he and the sed e prepared a follow-up from different angles.

  Itachi didn’t flinch. He activated his Sharingan, the es’ movements with razor-sharp focus. While one e distracted Itachi, aransformed into a long broadsword—not as heavy as the hammer he usually made, but still much heavier than a normal sword.

  Then he and the st remaining e began running toward Itachi, both from opposite dires, with one e already engaging Itachi in bat.

  Itachi g the two of them before using a Fire Breath Jutsu at cle without any hand signs at all. Caught off guard, the e took the attack head-on. Normally, without hand signs, the attacks bee very weak and slow, but sihe es had a major weakness of not being able to handle even a little damage after a point, the fire stream was enough to dispel one of them.

  But before Itachi could take a breath, the sed e started engaging him in bat. Now vigint against the Fire Stream Jutsu, Itachi fought the e while stantly watg for Kaida’s attack, ielding an unusually long and heavy sword.

  He could also see two red eyes with three tomoe watg his every move closely.

  Not wanting to find out why Kaida was waiting so long before attag, Itachi decided to deal with the e first and then regain trol of the battle from Kaida. Just as he was about to nd the final hit on the e, he heard poof, poof as Kaida made four more shadow es, two of which transformed into swords wielded by the other two es.

  Itachi dispersed one more e before looking toward Kaida.

  “So you want to tire me out before fighting me?”

  “Well, in ninjutsu, genjutsu, asu, you’re better than me in all of these. I don’t want to pete in a field where you have an advantage, so it leaves me with only ohing I’m better than you at, and that too by a huge margin,” Kaida said with a smirk.

  “Chakra.” Even after making seven es, only 30% of Kaida’s chakra reserves were empty, with 70% still remaining, which was more than twice Itachi’s reserves.

  Itachi uood what that meant, and he didn’t like it o. But before he could think of a ter to Kaida’s pn, two of his es started attag him simultaneously.