Kaen was escorted away on a stretcher as the medical-nin briefed Shisui calmly. "We have administered the antidote. He will be unconscious for some time, but we will begin treating his other injuries immediately. He should be stable enough to be moved by nightfall." Shisui nodded, offering a quiet "Thank you," as they departed. I watched them go, a faint knot of worry tightening in my chest. Part of me had expected trouble, some quiet retaliation since Kaen had defeated the Hidden Sand's only remaining genin, but neither Shisui nor Sena looked concerned. That alone was reassuring.
Sena's attention was already back on the arena. Attendants moved across the field, repairing damage and resetting barriers for the second match, while late bettors rushed to place their money and others relaxed, eating and drinking as they debated the first fight. I turned toward Sena, unease creeping into my voice. "Sena, this one's dangerous. He's powerful, and he fights without moral restraint. I know you're not reckless, but don't risk your life." She smiled softly and nodded, her gaze never leaving the field. "His first match ended too fast. I'll make sure to expose his techniques and patterns at the very least," she said, a hint of excitement slipping into her tone. "But I'm aiming to win." For a while after that, she did nothing but focus, already reviewing her plan in silence. Then the proctor ushered her forward. As she walked toward the cleared center of the arena, she coated her ears with chakra. My instincts flared, and I did the same without hesitation.
Shisui, meanwhile, seemed distant. His thoughts were clearly still on Kaen, on the awakening, and on the complications it would bring given Kaen's family situation. He offered Sena a brief glance and said, "Good luck. I know you'll do great," before returning to his thoughts.
Soon, the arena was ready once more. The announcer's voice boomed across the stands. "And now for the anticipated second match, Fuyumi of Yugakure versus Sena of the Hidden Leaf." I could feel the crowd's bias immediately. Most spectators favored Fuyumi. He was older, with greater chakra reserves and a history of decisive victories, despite how impressive Sena's earlier performance had been.
The proctor stood between them, anticipation building as he raised his hand. He lowered it and shouted, "Fight," then vanished instantly, retreating as far as possible.
Sena leapt backward and hurled a kunai with an explosive tag attached. An ice mirror formed in front of Fuyumi just in time as the kunai collided with it. The resulting explosion thundered through the arena, loud enough to make some of the audience flinch and cover their ears. The mirror shattered violently, shards flying toward Fuyumi, who jumped back as another mirror appeared between him and the debris. The shockwave rippled across the field, kicking up dust and rattling the arena floor.
My mouth fell open. I knew of explosive tags of that caliber, but they were absurdly expensive. Only seal masters who dedicated their entire lives to explosive arrays could compress that much destructive force into a single tag, refining the seal to pack far more damage than standard designs ever could.
Fuyumi wasted no time. The air around him grew heavy as moisture condensed rapidly, freezing into drifting ice flakes while the temperature plummeted at an alarming rate. Sena was already weaving hand seals when a spear of ice erupted from the crystallizing ground and shot toward her at incredible speed. She ducked just in time, the spear slamming into the arena wall hard enough to make the protective barrier shudder.
Fuyumi had enormous chakra, and his attacks were lethal. One clean hit could kill Sena. I grew even more concerned, eyes locked on the field as Sena barely evaded another spear, twisting aside with almost elegant, dance-like movements that flowed seamlessly into the next.
She hurled a smoke tag at an incoming spear, detonating it and flooding the area with dense smoke. Fuyumi raised a hand, and the smoke began to grow heavy, sinking as frost clung to it, but the effect was too slow. This smoke was specially designed to resist extreme cold for as long as possible and was likely just as expensive as the explosive tag.
Using the opening, Sena reached the edge of the arena, rolled out a scroll, and pressed her hand to it. Chakra surged as the storage seal released its contents in a violent burst. "Wind Release: Piercing Gale Barrage." Multiple compressed wind bullets tore forward, spiraling within cutting wind blades. The wind blades shattered brittle ice formations, while the wind bullets punched cleanly through thicker constructs and slammed into Fuyumi. His eyes widened as his body jerked violently, multiple impacts tearing holes into him in rapid succession.
Sena was already forming another set of hand seals, drawing confused murmurs from the crowd, when the body she had struck shattered into ice. Fuyumi reappeared a short distance away, hands raised as the ice around him responded instantly. Spears and shards erupted forward in overwhelming numbers, forcing even the Kazekage to subtly reinforce the arena walls with golden sand to prevent injury to the spectators. The area where Sena had stood was reduced to devastation, a storm of ice so dense the individual projectiles were barely visible.
Sena emerged elsewhere. She had used an Earth Release jutsu to move underground, the sandy terrain helping minimize chakra loss, and now stood just beyond the edge of Fuyumi's effective range. Her position clearly marked the limits of his control. Fuyumi hesitated. Advancing would allow her to slip underground again and strike from outside his range, but closing the distance also risked exposure to poison. He understood the danger and held his ground, caught in a delicate balance between pressure and restraint.
Sena hurled multiple explosive tags toward Fuyumi. He was visibly irritated by her fighting style and raised several ice mirrors in response. The explosions detonated in rapid succession, the mirrors shattering into thousands of razor-sharp shards as shockwaves rolled outward. More spectators began covering their ears in pain, some bleeding slightly from the pressure, including Fuyumi himself, who was closest to the blasts. He winced, clutching his head as the ringing intensified.
I silently thanked the gods that I had coated my ears with chakra just like Sena, and it seemed Fuyumi had done the same, wary that this might be a tactic she would rely on again.
Even through the chaos, part of my mind was running numbers, tallying the cost of the tools she had already used. The total was approaching a quarter of a million ryo and climbing fast as she drew out yet another ninjutsu scroll. Shinobi were never this wealthy. Some saved their entire lives for a single tool like that, keeping it as a last resort for a desperate moment. Sena was burning through them like a kid in a candy shop with someone else's money.
She slammed her hand against the scroll, pouring an enormous amount of chakra into it and sacrificing a large portion of her reserves while pushing her chakra control to its absolute limit to release the powerful sealed jutsu. The sheer output alone told me this was no ordinary technique. She then struck the scroll against the ground. "Earth Release: Fracture Pulse."
The fighting space shuddered violently, the barrier containing the force as the ground within the arena groaned and tremors surged upward in powerful waves. Ice constructs and formations shattered across the field. Every time Fuyumi tried to rebuild his defenses, another tremor followed, breaking them apart again. The pulses grew stronger, threatening even his footing. Forced to adapt, he moved toward Sena, the area around her having been spared the worst of the effect.
He advanced with impressive speed, kicking shattered ice into the air and sending it flying toward her like glass shrapnel. Sena anticipated it. She finished a short hand seal sequence and slammed her palm to the ground. An earth wall rose instantly, shielding her from the shards. Fuyumi closed the distance and struck the wall, freezing it almost instantly before shattering it with brute force.
His hand, now coated in an ice blade, came down toward her. Sena raised a special kunai etched with glowing chakra seals. The moment Fuyumi's blade made contact, the seal activated, releasing a violent vibration that traveled through the ice. The blade shattered. Sena followed through, slashing across his chest. Blood spilled, and I knew without a doubt the blade was poisoned, and that he most likely didn't have much time left.
She tried to leap away, but in a fraction of a second everything changed. Fuyumi's eyes turned white as he released nearly all of his remaining chakra at once. "Ice Release: White Fracture Surge."
The air froze instantly, so cold it became impossible to breathe. A wave of absolute frost erupted outward, catching Sena mid-motion and encasing one arm and one leg in ice. She lost her balance and crashed to the ground several meters away.
From where she lay, Sena studied him closely. His chakra was raging out of control, and she realized it was freezing him from the inside as well, slowing the spread of the poison. She hurled another explosive kunai, but a surge of freezing chakra stopped it midair, ice crawling over the metal before it dropped harmlessly to the ground. Fuyumi's entire body was pouring out chakra in terrifying waves, freezing even the earth beneath him and sealing off any chance of escape from below.
Sena clenched her teeth, then suddenly raised both hands. "I give up. It is my loss."
Fuyumi did not stop.
The proctor shouted immediately, "Stop! You've already won. If you harm her, you will be disqualified!" He didn't dare approach, wary of the unstable jutsu still radiating from Fuyumi, but the warning never reached him. Fuyumi's mind was lost in that state as he continued advancing.
Sena glanced toward the arena wall, briefly gauging whether she could scale it, before her eyes dropped to her arm and leg encased in ice. A flicker of regret crossed her face. The Kazekage remained still, his inaction unmistakable.
Panic surged through me as I grabbed Shisui and shouted, "Sensei!" His eyes snapped into focus instantly. It took him only a heartbeat to grasp what was happening. Anger flickered across his face, sharp and unmistakably turned inward, and then he vanished.
In the next instant, Sena was gone.
Shisui reappeared beside me with Sena safely at his side. She exhaled shakily and said quietly, "Thank you, sensei." Shisui shook his head. "I apologize, Sena. This is my mistake. I should have intervened earlier." It was rare for him to make such a grave mistake, which spoke volumes about his state of mind.
The proctor and spectators were stunned. Sena had been there one moment and vanished the next. The proctor's gaze locked onto Shisui, and he muttered darkly, "Shisui of the Flicker."
With his target gone, Fuyumi finally began to regain his sanity. The freezing air dissipated, the temperature returning to normal as he collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath. The arena looked like the aftermath of a natural disaster, an ice-ravaged wasteland.
The proctor kept his distance as he announced, "Fuyumi of Yugakure is the winner. However, he will be penalized for disregarding the rules."
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A/N: Another Sena fight, and so soon after the previous one. You lucky ducks XD. Please let me know what you thought of the fight, the tactics, and the conclusion in the comments <3