Chapter 555: Speculations About Zorua's Failure to Evolve
Listening to its friends' encouragement, Charizard snorted two streams of white smoke from its nostrils, puffed out its chest, and strode toward the battleground.
"Battle start!"
The moment Kakashi gave the signal, Charizard and Lucario immediately began gathering chakra and launched their respective moves.
[Smokescreen!]
Charizard rapidly flapped its wings and took to the air while gathering chakra in its mouth, releasing a cloud of black gray smoke.
It had watched the previous battle carefully. Lucario's combat style was mainly centered around close range taijutsu, and its own advantage in flight could greatly weaken that. On top of that, with the smoke obscuring the field, Lucario should have an even harder time finding it and using long range attacks.
[Flash!]
Lucario poured power into its body and burst forward at high speed, but it still failed to reach Charizard before it got airborne.
At that moment, the black gray smoke Charizard kept spewing out spread through the open space, making it impossible to clearly see what was happening inside.
"It seems Obito and Charizard still don't know Lucario has sensory abilities," Kakashi said, shaking his head.
It was not as though there were no techniques capable of interfering with sensory perception. The Hidden Mist Technique from the Hidden Mist could do exactly that. But Charizard's Smokescreen clearly was not that type of ninjutsu.
Still, Kakashi could understand. Charizard had never fought Lucario before, and Lucario's usual training was very similar to Might Guy's, focused heavily on physical conditioning. Under those circumstances, it was indeed difficult to notice that Lucario possessed a sensing ability.
If Kakashi had not observed Rockruff's Shadow Clone feint closely during the previous battle, even he might have missed it.
[Aura Sphere!]
With its vision blocked, Lucario simply closed its eyes and began sensing aura.
At the same time, it gathered an Aura Sphere in its paws while locking onto Charizard's aura.
The moment it sensed Charizard's intent to attack, Lucario kept its eyes closed, dodged the incoming Fire Blast, and hurled the Aura Sphere upward.
Boom!
The Aura Sphere struck Charizard and made its flight sway unsteadily.
Since Charizard did not continue using Smokescreen, the gray haze quickly began to disperse, revealing its somewhat bedraggled figure.
"Char?" Charizard looked a little surprised, both because it had been hit and because of the Aura Sphere's power.
It had watched Lycanroc get knocked out by Aura Sphere earlier, so it had assumed the move was terrifyingly strong. But after taking it itself, it only found it moderately painful.
"It really does seem like I'm super strong!" Charizard's confidence rose even further.
It felt that even if it took two more Aura Spheres, it still would not go down.
Roughly speaking, that meant it was worth at least three Lycanroc.
Now feeling full of confidence, Charizard regained its composure and rapidly circled Lucario in the air, searching for the right moment to attack.
[Aura Sphere!]
Lucario kept the same calm expression as it condensed aura once more.
If one Aura Sphere could not bring Charizard down, then two would. If two did not work, then three, then four.
As long as Charizard kept flying, there was no way it could dodge Aura Sphere forever.
[Fire Blast!]
Seeing Lucario fire another Aura Sphere, Charizard opened its mouth and blasted flames directly at the incoming sphere.
Even if it would not be seriously injured, getting hit by Aura Sphere still hurt.
Rumble!!
The thick, dark pillar of fire swallowed the blue energy sphere whole. An explosion rang out, the Aura Sphere vanished, and the fire column scattered into the air.
"Awo!"
Charizard raised its head and let out a dragon's roar.
So the Aura Sphere that had defeated Lycanroc was nothing special after all. Offense truly was the best defense.
[Wind Release: Air Blade!]
Charizard gathered a large amount of chakra onto its sharp claws and, in a single motion, flung several wind blades at Lucario.
Swish! Swish!
The wind blades were extremely fast, and because Charizard launched them while circling in the air, they closed off Lucario's room to dodge from several angles at once.
Lucario remained just as calm as before. It swiftly extended its claws, and a metallic sheen spread over them.
[Metal Claw!]
Lucario swung its claws, now covered in metallic luster, and forcibly shattered the incoming wind blades.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Charizard's attack did not stop there. Immediately afterward, a hot current mixed with flames surged toward Lucario.
[Heat Wave!]
This time, Lucario could not completely avoid it, and part of the fur on its chest was scorched black.
Even though it had sensed the attack beforehand, Heat Wave's range was far greater than the earlier moves, making complete evasion impossible.
[Fire Blast!]
Taking advantage of the opening, Charizard immediately spat out another thick pillar of fire at Lucario.
Lucario knew it could not overpower this one head on, so it used all its strength to dodge.
A smug expression instantly appeared on Charizard's face.
It was well known that Lycanroc had been utterly defeated by Lucario, and now Lucario was being steadily suppressed by it. That meant Charizard was stronger than Lucario, and Lucario was stronger than Lycanroc.
At this point, Charizard only wanted to say one thing.
Lucario, you are merely a challenger.
Even with incomplete information and even with Obito as dead weight, it, Charizard, was still unbeatable.
Once Charizard realized it had the upper hand, it immediately wanted to finish the battle in one go.
Just like Lucario had done to Lycanroc.
It could already imagine the look of admiration in Milotic's eyes. When that happened, it would definitely look incredibly handsome.
To improve its accuracy, Charizard lowered its altitude.
Flying higher meant Lucario's taijutsu could not threaten it, but it also made Charizard's own attacks harder to land.
A large amount of chakra gathered in Charizard's throat, and it spat out an even thicker pillar of fire than before.
But the moment Lucario saw that, its eyes lit up.
[Bone Rush!]
Lucario clenched its fist, and Earth Release chakra gathered in its hand, forming two bone shaped chakra rods.
Whoosh!!
Just then, the intense fire column came roaring toward it.
But Lucario had already planned everything out.
It suddenly leaped backward onto a tree.
Charizard's sustained flames continued sweeping across the trees behind it.
Crash!
Lucario then threw its entire body into the motion, using the tree as a launch point and leaping upward with explosive force.
Seeing that, Charizard panicked slightly. But at that moment, it had no time to climb back to an altitude Lucario could not reach in a single burst. It could only try to dodge sideways.
What Charizard did not expect, however, was that Lucario's first jump had only been a feint. Lucario had not leaped toward it at all. Instead, it used the first jump to reach another tree.
Bang!
Having successfully fooled Charizard, Lucario launched itself again and swung its bone rod down with full force, smashing it into Charizard's body.
Charizard's eyes widened. The tremendous power behind the blow made it instantly understand why Lycanroc had been knocked down after only two hits.
Once struck, Charizard could no longer maintain flight and crashed heavily to the ground.
At that moment, the flame on Charizard's tail flared intensely.
[Fire Blast!]
Lying on the ground, Charizard had no time to think and immediately spat out a huge burst of flames to stop Lucario from pressing the attack.
If Lucario had been more impulsive, that might have worked.
But Lucario did not act recklessly. After sensing Charizard's intention through aura, it calmly condensed another Aura Sphere in place.
The moment the flames ceased and Charizard tried to fly again, the blue energy sphere struck it once more.
Boom!
Charizard crashed to the ground again, this time entering a true dizzy state, its eyes spinning.
"Lucario wins!" Seeing that Charizard could no longer continue fighting, Kakashi declared the result.
The course of this battle once again confirmed several of Kakashi's earlier assumptions.
The elemental restraint between Pokémon had an enormous impact on the outcome.
Based on Kakashi's understanding of Charizard and Lycanroc, the gap in their raw strength was not large.
Yet in actual combat, Rockruff had been thoroughly dominated by Lucario, while Charizard had even managed to suppress Lucario for a time, only losing because it got careless.
"It did its best. Even if it lost, it still dealt quite a bit of damage to the enemy," Obito said with a face full of regret.
Lycanroc: ??
Say whatever you want, but why do you keep glancing at it and Kakashi while saying it?
Seeing Lycanroc's unhappy expression, Obito felt a burst of satisfaction.
Even though praising his own foolish dragon against his conscience felt a little uncomfortable, as long as it struck the evil white haired faction, it was worth it.
"Another victory! Didn't I say it already? A body honed through day and night of training will always respond to you!" Might Guy laughed loudly, delighted for his Nin Beast.
At this point, Lucario had fought three battles against the other Pokémon, with one loss and two wins, giving it a win rate of sixty six percent, which was already very high.
During the first two years after Might Guy entered the Ninja Academy, his own win rate had been pitifully low, nearly in the single digits. He would only win once after dozens of losses.
When facing geniuses like Kakashi, his win rate had once fallen all the way to zero.
"Luc!"
Lucario smiled back at Might Guy, then turned its gaze toward Milotic.
It had the urge to challenge Milotic.
Since Might Guy was the strongest disciple among them all, then as Might Guy's contracted Nin Beast, it naturally had to become the strongest Nin Beast as well.
But in the end, Lucario suppressed that urge.
The battle with Charizard had consumed a considerable amount of both its stamina and mental focus, and it had also sustained injuries.
To return to peak condition, it would need a proper period of rest and recovery.
And besides, it was already dusk, the end of training for the day. Lucario did not want everyone else to lose more time because of its own wishes.
Finally, Lucario withdrew its gaze from Milotic and began gathering chakra.
"Even if they don't look serious, let's treat them anyway." Rin created a Shadow Clone, intending for the main body to treat Charizard while the Shadow Clone treated Lucario.
Milotic also went over to Rin's side and began gathering chakra as well, preparing to assist with the healing.
Lucario shook its head and quickly began performing nature transformation on the chakra it had gathered.
[Life Dew!]
A blue green sphere of water formed above Lucario.
Then the sphere burst in the air, and drop after drop of blue green liquid fell onto both Lucario and Charizard.
The moment the healing droplets landed on its body, Lucario's already minor injuries began recovering at a rapid pace.
Milotic looked at Lucario in surprise.
It had not expected that Lucario, which looked like such a ruthless close combat fighter, also possessed a healing ability like its own.
With Rin's medical treatment and Lucario's Life Dew working together, Charizard quickly woke up.
Feeling the comfortable, refreshing sensation spreading through its body, and then seeing Milotic standing beside it, Charizard let out an emotional cry.
"Char!"
"Goddess, your Medical Ninjutsu is truly amazing. I feel completely healed, body and soul. That's what it said," Zorua translated flawlessly.
At that moment, the entire scene fell silent.
"How did I raise something like this? It doesn't resemble me at all," Obito thought, covering his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud.
If Charizard were not his own Nin Beast, he would already be laughing uncontrollably. But because it was his own, he still had to preserve at least a little dignity.
"Awo." After a long silence, Milotic uttered a single sentence.
"Lucario was the one who used Life Dew just now. That's what it said. Hehe." Zorua could no longer hold back and burst into laughter after translating.
As a professional translator, it ordinarily would not laugh at its comrades. Unless it really could not help it.
Charizard froze, then slowly turned to look at Milotic, and then at Lucario.
Bang!
Charizard collapsed again, as though the previous battle had left it with severe hidden injuries and it had only just managed to stay conscious for a moment.
No one tried to wake it up.
Everyone silently treated Charizard as though it had truly passed out, because what had just happened had likely hurt it more than Lucario's Bone Rush ever did.
"So Lucario also knows Medical Ninjutsu. That means Guy won't have to worry about healing in the future even if he isn't teamed up with us," Kakashi thought, feeling that every Pokémon Egg Mugetsu had given them must have been selected with extreme care.
Because of the special nature of the Eight Gates, Kakashi had always been somewhat worried about Might Guy.
The Eight Gates were powerful, but the more gates one opened, the more strain it placed on the body. Even with a powerful physique, the damage was only reduced, not negated. Injuries were practically inevitable.
Without a capable Medical Ninja nearby, it was easy to develop lasting side effects from wounds that were not treated in time.
Kakashi had personally experienced the effect of Life Dew before. It was already comparable to a high level medical ninjutsu and was more than enough in most situations.
After returning home, Zorua hummed a little tune, clearly in an extremely good mood.
Looking at the cheerful Zorua, and then thinking about how all the other disciples' Pokémon had already evolved, Shisui recalled Zorua's earlier complaints about evolution.
A certain guess gradually formed in his mind.
Still, Shisui was not entirely sure if it was correct. After all, these Pokémon were very different from ordinary Ninja World summoned beasts.
"Forget it. Let nature take its course." Shisui smiled helplessly.
Even if his guess was right, there was no point in forcing it.
.....
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