The waiting room was silent.
Aside from Kakashi and Obito, who were well aware of Might Guy's strength, only Nagato and Sasori could remain calm due to their own formidable power. The rest of the contestants were all amazed by Might Guy's prowess.
"Such power and speed, he's gotten a lot stronger!" Hoshigaki Kisame thought to himself, his pupils narrowing in surprise.
"Moreover, how did he just block that explosion?"
What puzzled Hoshigaki Kisame the most was Might Guy's current state.
Despite winning, Might Guy's clothing was only slightly damaged, and his body showed no obvious injuries, as if he hadn't directly withstood an Explosion Release blast.
"Even more monstrous than last time. Fortunately, I won't encounter him before the finals," thought Terumi Mei with relief.
She drew lot number twenty-five, leaning towards the later rounds. She would either avoid Might Guy entirely or face him in the finals.
To be honest, Terumi Mei didn't care who she faced in the finals if she got that far, as she would have already exceeded her initial goal.
Her goal was to reach the top four and secure a ranking reward, whether third or fourth place, making the trip worthwhile.
"He indeed has some raw strength," Hozuki Mangetsu acknowledged Might Guy's impressive Taijutsu.
"But with me here, you'll never surpass the top eight."
The Hozuki Clan's Secret Technique, Water Transformation Jutsu, specializes in countering all forms of physical attacks. No matter how strong Taijutsu is, it is ineffective against the Water Transformation Jutsu, so Hozuki Mangetsu was confident in his victory.
Hozuki Mangetsu was number sixteen, and if he and Might Guy both advanced to the top eight, they would face each other in the quarter-finals.
With that in mind, Hozuki Mangetsu looked at Kakashi, who was number fifteen, his first-round opponent.
Noticing Hozuki Mangetsu's gaze, Kakashi returned a calm glance.
Mokgetsu had already demonstrated that the Lighting Release Blade Technique was an effective counter to the Hozuki Clan's Water Transformation Jutsu. Against ninjas he had an advantage over, Kakashi would maximize his strengths.
"Number thirteen, Nohara Rin vs. number fourteen, Kaigan!"
As Might Guy entered the waiting room, the referee's voice quickly followed.
"Rin, good luck! Believe in yourself; you're really strong!" encouraged Obito to Nohara Rin.
Nohara Rin's opponent was not among the powerful adversaries they had collected intelligence on, just a regular Hidden Rock ninja who had passed the preliminaries. Obito believed Nohara Rin would be fine.
"Thanks for your encouragement, Obito," Nohara Rin replied with a gentle smile as she stood up, ready to head to the battle arena.
Actually, Nohara Rin was not as lacking in confidence as Obito imagined. Four battles in the preliminaries had given her a sense of the tournament's overall level.
While she wasn't among the top tier, she was definitely above average.
"No matter what situation you encounter in battle, stay calm, and everything will be fine," Kakashi advised.
"Thank you for the reminder, Kakashi."
With a smile, Nohara Rin waved to her teammates and then entered the battle arena, adopting a combat stance.
"Begin the battle!"
As soon as the referee announced the start, Kaigan immediately used Instant Body to retreat and threw several shurikens at Nohara Rin.
Kaigan was not deceived by Nohara Rin's gentle appearance. With the intelligence he had, he knew Nohara Rin possessed formidable Taijutsu that belied her size and appearance.
Clang! Clang!
Nohara Rin quickly drew a kunai from her Ninja Pouch to deflect the shurikens.
Besides her medical proficiency, her fundamental skills were solid.
"Earth Release: Rock Pillar!"
As Kaigan formed hand seals rapidly, the ground where Nohara Rin stood began to tremble.
Noticing this, Nohara Rin focused her breathing to enhance her physical strength and leaped forcefully into the air.
The next instant, several rock pillars shot up swiftly.
"Earth Release: Rock Cannon Jutsu!"
Seizing the opportunity with Nohara Rin airborne and unable to dodge, Kaigan spat out a pebble.
The pebble rapidly grew in size during its flight, becoming like a stone cannonball.
"Monster Strength Fist!"
Nohara Rin launched a punch imbued with concentrated Chakra.
Boom!!
Under the immense force of Nohara Rin, the stone cannonball shattered, though her fist was left with some slight blood marks.
Standing on the rock pillar, Nohara Rin used Medical Ninjutsu on herself. Instantly, her slightly injured palm was fully healed.
Kaigan furrowed his brows. This was going to be tough; the enemy was not only a Taijutsu expert but also knew Medical Ninjutsu to heal herself.
As Kaigan quickly contemplated how to fight Nohara Rin, she initiated her offense.
Gathering a large amount of Chakra in her feet, she kicked the rock pillar created by Kaigan, breaking it and sending it hurtling towards him, all the while forming hand seals swiftly as she ran.
"Water Release: Water Turbulence!"
Nohara Rin spat out a massive stream of water nearly a meter wide, propelling both the water and the rock pillar forward.
Although Water Turbulence is a basic Water Release, if the fundamentals of Water Release are solid, it can still have considerable power.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
Kaigan chose not to move recklessly and opted to use defensive Ninjutsu, conjuring a thick wall of earth on the ground.
Boom!
The rock pillar slammed hard against the earth wall, yet still failed to break through its defense.
Then something Graystone never expected happened, the water accompanying the rock pillar underwent form transformation once more under Nohara Rin's control, changing into a water dragon that leapt over the earth wall and hit Graystone.
Terumi Mei's eyes widened. This was her technique; since when had this Konoha female ninja stolen it?
Whoosh!
Nohara Rin seized the opportunity to use the Water Instant Body to get close to Graystone, resolving the battle with a Monster Strength Fist.
"Nohara Rin wins!"
After Nohara Rin returned to the resting room, before she could share the joy of victory with her teammates, the referee quickly announced the names for the next match.
"Contestant number fifteen, Hatake Kakashi vs. contestant number sixteen, Hozuki Mangetsu!"
Upon hearing his name, Hozuki Mangetsu immediately stood up and walked toward the battle arena with his head held high and chest out.
Terumi Mei twitched at the corners of her lips, feeling that the prodigy from her own ninja village seemed a bit delusional, already acting like he had won before the fight had even started, which was a major taboo.
"Kakashi, good luck." Nohara Rin said with a smile after exhaling a sigh of relief.
Kakashi nodded in response and then walked toward the battle arena.
"My friend, I look forward to facing you in the top eight!" Might Guy encouraged Kakashi with his words.
Even though Might Guy's words sounded quite arrogant, asserting before even half of the first round that he could make it to the top eight, none of the ninjas in the resting room had an issue with it.
No wonder, Might Guy had the capital to be arrogant.
So far, there have been seven battles, and Might Guy was the quickest to end a fight, even Nagato was slower than Might Guy, and this was with opponents that weren't weak.
Kakashi's steps momentarily halted before he continued onward.
Obito couldn't help but chuckle twice, having sensed a hint of Kakashi's current feelings, he felt quite happy.
"Kakashi, oh Kakashi, prepare to face punishment." Obito was very pleased.
Since the schedule for the Youth Martial Arts Tournament closely coincided with the original scheduled internal clash, the internal clash was canceled, with the bottom two contestants in the Youth Martial Arts Tournament receiving punishment instead.
Since Nohara Rin hadn't been involved in the internal clash before, she set a target for herself this time.
The target Nohara Rin set for herself was to reach the elimination matches and not get knocked out in the first round.
Obito was glad that Nohara Rin hadn't set too high of a target for herself, for anything like reaching the top eight, Nohara Rin would have certainly faced punishment.
Terumi Mei focused her attention back on the battle arena, knowing that while Hozuki Mangetsu seemed a bit neurotic, a genius was still, indeed, a genius, making his strength trustworthy.
Standing in the arena center, Kakashi glanced briefly at the high-up tournament host, Sosuke.
"Sosuke, what are your intentions exactly?" Kakashi was very curious about Sosuke's purpose in hosting the Martial Arts Tournament.
Was it because having such an outstanding student like Nagato made Sosuke believe that his ninjutsu couldn't possibly be taken by others?
But if the second custom-made ninjutsu wasn't well-developed, wouldn't it tarnish the ninja master's reputation?
Whenever Kakashi thought of the connection between Nagato and Sosuke, he thought of the evil Akatsuki organization that would later bring chaos to the Ninja World, causing him a bit of a headache as there were just too many problems to deal with, and he knew too little.
Kakashi pushed down the chaotic thoughts in his mind and looked toward Hozuki Mangetsu.
At this moment, his strength wasn't enough to intervene with a ninja master at that level; for now, he should focus on the task at hand.
"The battle begins!" The referee shouted as soon as both were ready.
Whoosh!
Hozuki Mangetsu swiftly drew his weapon, bursting with Chakra, slashing toward Kakashi.
Clang!
Kakashi calmly drew his White Fang Short Blade, blocking the incoming edge; the short blade and longsword collided with a crisp metallic clash.
"Water Release: Great Water Arm Jutsu!"
Hozuki Mangetsu concentrated all the body's moisture into his right arm, which held the blade. The right arm, once enhanced, bulged with muscles, the strength explosively increasing.
Feeling a sudden pressure, Kakashi concentrated his breathing to enhance his strength, then quickly withdrew backward.
"Water Release: Water Cannon Jutsu!"
Hozuki Mangetsu raised his left hand in a gun shape, and a droplet of liquid shot out from his left fingertip, rapidly aiming for Kakashi's chest.
But Kakashi was ever-cautious, entering the Transparent World state during his retreat. All of Hozuki Mangetsu's actions were in his expectations, so he just slightly shifted his body to avoid the bullet-like droplet of water.
"Hmm? Even that was dodged?" Hozuki Mangetsu was surprised by Kakashi's reaction abilities.
Swish, swish!!
While dodging, Kakashi flung several shurikens toward Hozuki Mangetsu.
Seeing the ordinary shuriken, with neither nature transformations nor explosive tags, Hozuki Mangetsu didn't dodge, standing in place intent on luring Kakashi into further attack.
However, since Kakashi knew some intel about the Water Transformation Jutsu, he was not fooled, merely gathering Chakra silently while watching the shuriken pass through Hozuki Mangetsu's body, striking the ground.
"Tsk, how boring."
Seeing Kakashi so cautious, Hozuki Mangetsu took the initiative to attack again.
"Information collection is almost complete, now it's my turn to attack."
Kakashi had gauged the general strength of Hozuki Mangetsu and formulated a battle plan.
PS: I wanted to finish writing Kakashi's battle in one go, but it's too late, couldn't stay up any longer, sorry.