(After 1 week)
"Oh, e on, go for at least 10 meters," Kaida grunted, once again failing to use ephemeral genjutsu.
"You’re close, just focus on the amount and the speed. Also, the stop you’re having in your wrist and abdomesu points should be a little lohink of it as loading a spring—the more you force it backward, the farther it will go," Shisui said.
"Okay, brother," Kaida replied, trying again. Even after his best effort, he only reached 12 meters at best.
"It will bee simpler if you let your Sharingan do the work, rather than doing everything on your own. Use your Sharingan to mold your chakra," Itachi said from the side. He was resting since he had already learhis jutsu to a satisfactory level, even reag 30 meters e, and that too in just 1 week.
‘I so fug want to be a genius,’ Kaida thought, then once again resumed practig. He only had one more week left.
---
(After 1 week)
"Let’s go, Kaida. Today the matchups will be announced. We ’t be te," Shisui urged Kaida to wake up, as Itachi was already ready to leave.
"Urgh, I’m really tired. There will be no match today, right?" Kaida asked.
"No. Matches will start tomorrow. You’ll have enough time to rest when we reach there," Shisui replied.
Relutly, Kaida woke up and followed Shisui and Itachi baogakure.
"I thought something had really happeo you guys. They were just about to annouhe matches. Let’s go," Jiraiya said, standing in front of the gate.
"Sorry for being te, Jiraiya-sama," Shisui said.
"It’s alright. At least we still have some time. Let’s go," Jiraiya said, and he and Shisui went inside an official-looking building.
"I don’t get it. If we don’t have to fight now, why the hell do we o attend today’s event?" Kaida grumbled.
"So that we make sure the sele is truly random, and they aren’t trying to make certain matchups to push their teams to the final," Kabuto expined.
"Oh!"
...
"Wele, everyone. Since you’re already familiar with the event, we’ll now proceed with the process. To make this as fair as possible, every partit will take a chit from this bowl. Then we’ll use this puter to decide matchups with numbers. After that, you will open your chits and find out who you are up against in the first round of the third stage."
Sihe instrus were clear, none of the partits had any doubts. They simply went and took out one paper from the bowl each.
"Let’s start," the ninja responsible for the event said. All the Senseis of the teams were present to eheir students weren’t tricked.
The overly rge puter s began showing random numbers oer ahey started shuffling on their own. After a minute of strange animation effects, six pairs were shown on the s.
"Now you open your papers, everyone, and theurn them here," the ninja said as he started noting dowchups for the round. The matchups were:
- Darui vs. Shima
- Kaida vs. Shiro
- Kabuto vs. Suiren
- Ren vs. Kuro
- Itachi vs. Ayami
- Deidara vs. Naoki
"You’re really lucky. Otherwise, you would have died in the first round only. Now you’ve got some more hours, but I’ll make sure the explosion of your death will be the perfect explosion," Deidara said to Kaida.
"I’m sorry, who are you again?" Kaida asked, ign Deidara as he walked toward his team.
"Youuuu!" a shout echoed in the background.
‘Guy’s teique to annoy oppos is truly amazing,’ Kaida thought.
...
"Why do I have the tough oppo in the first round while you guys got easy ones?"
"What do you mean tough oppo? He specializes in Water Release, and with your Earth Release, you should have the upper hand," Itachi said.
"How could you tell?" Kaida asked, looking toward Itachi, only to notice his Sharingan was activated.
"Oh! I get it. You guys don’t know. Those three who came here were orained by Hanzo himself, and their leader Suiren is especially skilled with poison in bat. They fought two teams who attacked them simultaneously in the sed stage and won. One of the teams even had to drop out of the exam due to the severity of the injuries they received," Kabuto said.
"And you know this because...?" Kaida asked.
"I talked to that team," Kabuto said with a big grin on his face.
‘I totally fot this guy was one of the, if not the best spy in the world,’ Kaida thought.
"Still, I’m sure you’ll do fine," Itachi reassured.
"You guys have already done everything you could. There’s o worry anymore. Take this day off to cool down a little," Jiraiya advised.
"Yes, I hat. I’m going to sleep in my room. Unless it’s really important, don’t wake me up," Kaida said.
"Why is he like that?" Jiraiya asked.
"He’s been using 20–30 shadow es for 2 weeks to train isu. I’m surprised he’s still holding up this well. The Senju bloodliruly is something else," Shisui said, shaking his head.
"But don’t worry, Jiraiya-sama, it’s just some mental fatigue he’s feeling. He’ll be fiomorrow," Shisui tinued.
"Okay."
...
( day)
The stadium was filled with thousands of people. Some were ninjas, but most were civilians. In a world where there were few sources of eai for the general public, the in Exams were very popur.
Along with the public, there were also stalls for everything—food, drinks, aing. This time, the betting was authenticated by the Lightning Daimyo, meaning there would be no fraud. As for who could bet? Everyone. Literally anyone could pce a bet, from as little as 100 Ryo to millions of Ryo. Everything ted.
Three Daimyo were sitting in their exclusive seats, enjoying some drinks and snacks as they chatted.
"Looks like I’ll win this time, hohoho," the Fire Daimyo said, c his mouth with a fan.
"These are just the results of the two initial stages, and they mean nothing. I’m sure we’ll win this time too, just like st time," the Lightning Daimyo said.
"Last time was just a fluke. The result may not be the same this time," the Earth Daimyo ented, c his mouth with a fan as well.
"Then why don’t we raise the bet a little if everyone is so sure?" the Fire Daimyo suggested, a glint in his eyes that disappeared before aiced.
"Fine by me. 30 million Ryo," the Lightning Daimyo agreed.
"30 million," the Earth Daimyo added.
"Let’s make it a plete 40 million Ryo," the Fire Daimyo cluded.
A total of 100 million Ryo was bet on the exam, and that too casually. Even S-rank ninjas would risk their lives for that amount, and the Daimyo had bet it like it was nothing—truly the real kings of the tries.
...
(A.N: I am going to work extra hard from now on, please provide you support to maintain my motivation ^~^)
