"Sand crab versus stone bear!"
Shadow clone Kakashi stared at the battle field.
This is the last round of the qualifiers. After a day's rest after the qualifiers, the knockout rounds will begin.
The sand crab walked into the battle field with the same indifferent expression as before, and did not seem nervous at all.
The sand crab's opponent, the stone bear, looked as if it was facing a formidable enemy.
Although Sand Crab did not use exaggerated large-scale ninjutsu like Nagato, the way Sand Crab always dealt with the enemies with ease made Shi Xiong dare not underestimate him.
"Earth Style: Rock Cannon Technique!"
The stone bear quickly formed seals and spit out stones towards the sand crab, throwing them at the sand crab at high speed. The stones quickly grew larger while flying, like a fired cannonball.
This is the Iwagakure's army ninjutsu. It has enormous power when used together by the Iwagakure ninja troops. It is also a good offensive ninjutsu in single-player combat.
The indifferent expression on Sand Crab's face remained as he took out the scroll while dodging Iwagakure's attacks.
The next moment, an old man with a hunched back and an iron spike like a scorpion's tail appeared on the battlefield and ran towards the stone bear at a rapid speed.
"Puppet master." Kakashi said in his mind with his eyes slightly narrowed.
This method is undoubtedly the puppetry technique developed by the second generation Kazekage.
"Could this guy be a traitor from Sunagakure?" Kakashi felt doubtful.
Although the development of puppeteers is no longer exclusive to the Sand Village, there have been basically no powerful puppeteers outside of the Sand Village who have made a name for themselves, at least Kakashi has never heard of one.
The puppeteer skills displayed by Sand Crab were quite extraordinary. Just by releasing a puppet, he was able to quickly suppress his opponent, Stone Bear.
Even a layman like Kakashi could sense how skilled Sand Crab was in controlling the puppet.
With such a high level of puppetry at the age of no more than eighteen, Kakashi found it hard to believe that the other party was a self-taught person.
For a ninjutsu school that has only been around a short time, the teacher's level is very important.
Of course, since there was no evidence, Kakashi couldn't report the Sand Crab. The most he could do was to keep a closer eye on the other party.
Under Scorpion's superb puppetry, Stone Bear was quickly forced into a desperate situation and lost the battle.
"Sand Crab wins and advances to the knockout round!"
After the referee announced the result of the fight, Scorpion quickly put away the puppet, ignored everyone and walked straight outside.
He had no interest in anything here. The reason Scorpion came here was just because the fourth place had a chakra knife worth tens of millions of taels.
He wanted to melt down the chakra knife and use it for puppet making.
Scorpion doesn't care about other contestants and has no intention of collecting intelligence. His only goal is to be fourth.
In fact, Scorpion felt that if he used his full strength, it would be easy for him to take first place. After all, he was one of the few people in the ninja world who had killed a Kage.
However, Scorpion had no such idea at all. Firstly, the reward he needed was the fourth place reward, and secondly, he might not be able to receive the prize even if he used all his strength.
Scorpio can participate in the competition by using other people's identities.
Although he is not wanted by the Sand Village yet, there are Sand Village ninjas at the martial arts conference. If he takes out the human puppet of the Third Kazekage, the Sand Village will definitely immediately summon the ninjas to hunt him down.
Scorpio does not want to be exposed before achieving his goal.
…
Since the shadow clone had watched Scorpion's battle, Kakashi went directly to the competition area where Nagato was.
Nagato's fighting style is still as simple and unpretentious as ever, using powerful ninjutsu bombardment to force his opponent to surrender.
"Nagato, let's go. Yahiko's situation should be almost finished." Konan said to Nagato.
She and Nagato are from the same division, but her ranking number is higher.
Nagato nodded and went to the competition area where Yahiko was with Konan.
Kakashi showed a thoughtful expression when he saw this. This powerful female ninja should also be a member of the Akatsuki organization.
Because the Akatsuki organization is still harmless, Kakashi didn't think too much about it and went to find several other companions who had successfully advanced.
"The preliminaries have ended successfully." Nohara Lin put her hands together and smiled gently.
Before the fight, Nohara Lin was actually worried that she would not be able to advance to the knockout round.
After spending a long time with Kakashi and the others, Nohara Rin always felt that she was weak and was just a powerless nanny.
After four rounds of the preliminaries, Nohara Lin's confidence returned all of a sudden.
She just felt that those opponents were extremely weak. Even the opponent in the fourth round could not withstand her explosive punch.
"Hey, Xiaolin, you performed very well. Many contestants were surprised."
Obito couldn't help laughing when he thought of Nohara Rin's punch that cracked the ground and the stunned looks on the spectators' faces.
Obito felt that it was not the other contestants' fault for their lack of experience. Who could have imagined that this seemingly cute girl like Nohara Rin had such extraordinary power.
"It's okay. I'm still a long way from you guys. I need to keep working hard." Nohara Lin waved her hand and smiled. She didn't get cocky because of her impressive performance in the preliminaries.
Nohara Lin felt that when the day came when the other disciples would not subconsciously exclude her for protection during a civil war, then her strength would be something to be proud of.
As the preliminaries were over, ninjas from the same ninja village began to communicate with each other, and the same was true in Konoha.
"There are many powerful ninjas in this Youth Martial Arts Association. It's normal that you didn't advance due to bad luck." Asuma comforted Yuhi Kurenai who was eliminated in the fourth round.
Only Asuma from their team advanced, and the remaining two were eliminated.
"Indeed." Bingzu Leitong sighed.
He was a typical person with bad luck, meeting a pervert like Nagato.
"I'm afraid only Kakashi and his friends have a chance to defeat Nagato." Bingzu Leitong thought to himself.
In Bingzu Leidun's mind, only a pervert can defeat a pervert. Although Asuma is still considered a genius, he is obviously no match for Nagato.
"Asuma, Aburame Shiwei..., so Konoha has ten ninjas advancing, which is almost one-third of the positions in the knockout rounds." Kakashi listened silently and calculated the total number of Konoha ninjas advancing in his mind.
Kakashi guessed that someone would encounter a ninja from the same village in the first round of the elimination match, as there were too many ninjas advancing from Konoha.
When the Konoha ninja group returned to the inn, Kakashi exchanged information with other Konoha ninjas and told them the intelligence they had collected.
After all, this is a competition within the ninja world, and the daimyo of the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain will be watching. The more Konoha ninjas advance, the more face Konoha will have, and it will also be easier to get the daimyo's gold coins.
At the same time, Nagato and the others were also listening to the intelligence.
"There are many talented ninjas from Konoha, including Kakashi Hatake who is good at lightning sword techniques. Throughout the preliminaries, all opponents were killed instantly by Kakashi Hatake with one strike."
"In addition, there is Uchiha Shisui who is good at illusion fire escape, and Might Guy who is good at physical skills..." Kakuzu said the information collected by the Shinobi referee.
"Captain Kakuzu, isn't this a bit inappropriate for us to do this?" Yahiko said, scratching his head.
Although gathering intelligence is part of ninja combat, using the referee's intelligence always feels like cheating.
"Why is it bad? They're all collecting intelligence, what's the difference? Hatake Kakashi performed very well in this regard. He ran around after the battle. He watched all of Nagato's battles." Kakuzu answered indifferently.
Nagato's expression remained unchanged. The intensity of the qualifying round battle was too low. He didn't use any of his Rinnegan abilities, so it didn't matter if Kakashi saw him.
"Nagato, you're welcome to do as you please. As for Yahiko and Konan, besides the few Konoha ninjas I mentioned, you also have to be careful of Mei Terumi and Mangetsu Hozuki of Kisame Hoshigaki, Fadobe who uses Explosion Release, and Sand Crab who uses puppetry..." Kakuzu continued.
Although Yahiko and Konan are quite strong, there are indeed many tough guys among the ninjas who have entered the knockout round. Kakuzu estimates that it may be difficult for Konan and Yahiko to even make it to the top eight.
"There is always someone better than you." Yahiko sighed.
Before the competition started, he felt that he would definitely get a good place.
But now, after hearing Kakuzu's information, Yahiko felt that even if he could make it to the quarterfinals, the round of 16 would be okay, but being eliminated in the first round would mean that he was unlucky.
"I will take the first place." Nagato said in a deep voice.
Even if the opponent is Mu Yue's other disciples, Nagato will never give up the first place.
The more talented ninjas come, the more valuable the Youth Martial Arts Tournament will be. He not only wants to win first place, but also wants to win it in a strong manner, to let those ninja villages and ninja organizations know that the Ninja Sect is not only about Master Sosuke, but his disciples are also excellent.
If you want to cause trouble in the Rain Country in the future, first consider your own strength to see if you can withstand the combined forces of the Ninja Clan and the Rain Ninja.
…
On the morning of the second day after the preliminaries, the Youth Martial Arts Tournament elimination round officially began.
This time is very different from the qualifiers.
The knockout rounds will be held at a martial arts venue built by the Ninja Clan specifically for the Youth Martial Arts Tournament.
The martial arts venue is a circular venue that can accommodate tens of thousands of spectators.
However, due to the short construction period, the style is relatively rough, with exposed rock walls and mud walls visible everywhere.
Fortunately, house decoration in the ninja world is not very developed at present, which can be explained as the characteristic architectural style of the Land of Earth.
In a sense, this is true, as it was indeed built with the help of the Iwagakure ninja.
A large number of spectators, holding tickets purchased in advance, passed the inspection and entered the venue one by one. Among them were ninjas as well as nobles and wealthy businessmen.
When the ordinary audience entered, the Daimyo of the Rain Country and the Daimyo of the Fire Country were surrounded by a group of noble officials and ninjas and went to the best seats in the first row. Mu Yue's shadow clone was also among them.
At the same time, Mu Yue and Hanzo also began to enter.
However, their position was not in the audience seats, but at a high point where they could observe the entire venue.
It's not that the daimyo doesn't deserve to sit there, but if the daimyo sits there, he can basically only pick his fingers and can't see the game clearly.
"Teacher Sosuke!" A ninja who had attended his class before greeted Mu Yue loudly.
Many ninjas who passed the course came to the martial arts tournament, if for no other reason than to support Mu Yue.
"But these front seats are really expensive." A ninja sighed.
"Just think of it as paying for a course from the top ninja masters, and getting a free ticket to a ninja-level tournament." The ninja next to him answered.
The ninja who complained about the high price thought about it carefully and realized that it was true. The money was not wasted instantly.
Mu Yue smiled in response to the ninja who greeted him.
"Lord Hanzo." Some Rain Ninjas also shouted out because they thought that they could not let their leader lose his reputation.
Hanzo kept a stern face and said nothing. He just wanted to quickly walk to where he was sitting and watch the game until it was over.
He didn't want to hear anyone discussing him being beaten by the first reward or anything like that.
The battle had not yet begun at this time, and the contestants were also at the venue. When they heard that Ninja Master Sosuke and Demigod Hanzo had arrived, they all looked towards Mu Yue.
"This is the ninja master. He looks older than Teacher Muyue. As expected, Teacher Muyue is stronger." Obito opened his Sharingan and took a closer look before coming to his conclusion.
Kakashi's initial focus was on Sosuke, until he noticed the expressions of Nagato Yahiko and others not far away.
Kakashi discovered that Nagato, Yahiko and the others looked at Sosuke with extreme respect, just like Obito looked at Mu Yue.
"Could it be that there is some connection between the Ninja Clan and the Akatsuki organization?" Kakashi wondered.
Kakashi has always wondered why the Akatsuki organization, which cares about peace and seems to be extremely positive, would become an evil terrorist organization in the future.
He felt that perhaps the Ninja Clan might have played some unknown role in this.
"We still have too little information. We should let Yamato write down everything that will happen in the future." Kakashi wanted to deduce, but found that the amount of information was not enough.
He didn't know what the fate of the Ninja Clan was, nor did he know what happened to the ninja master Sosuke in the future, so naturally he had no way of inferring the relationship between the Ninja Clan and the Akatsuki organization.
Kakashi decided to train Yamato well after returning to Konoha. He was so ignorant that he unconsciously wrote down his entire future.
Looking at Yahiko and then at Obito, Kakashi came up with an idea.
Kakashi secretly poked Obito, who was chatting with Nohara Rin, with his finger.
Obito, who was interrupted, looked at Kakashi with an unhappy expression.
Kakashi glanced at Yahiko, then at Sosuke on the podium, and finally at Obito.
"You really know how to order people around. Why don't you just ask yourself?" Obito couldn't help but complain.
Kakashi's meaning was very clear. He asked him to ask what the relationship was between Yahiko and the leader of the Ninja Clan, Sosuke.
But now Kakashi doesn't have any vice-captain status, so how could Obito possibly listen to Kakashi's orders? Obito likes to say no to the self-righteous Kakashi the most.
Kakashi didn't say anything, but silently took out a photo from his ninja tool bag.
Obito's face changed instantly and he grabbed Kakashi's hand and pushed it back. There were so many people at the scene. If this got out, it would be a disgrace to the ninja world.
"Oh my god, I love asking people questions the most." Obito could only curse Kakashi in his heart and then agreed.
Kakashi then put the photo back into the ninja tool bag.
Fools have their uses, and Obito's innocence can sometimes work wonders. Once in the Rain Country, Yahiko had a very pleasant conversation with Obito.
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