"Are you glaring at me? What a scary look."
"So this is how you got the title 'Wicked Eye' Fugaku?"
Yagyu spoke with a smile, his finger tapping repeatedly, firing one golden laser beam after another.
Fugaku Uchiha consumed too much stamina constantly dodging. Every escape from the brink of death wore down his energy.
Seeing Fugaku gradually showing signs of fatigue, Yagyu said with a smile,
"Do you want to surrender? Young man of the Uchiha clan~"
Although Fugaku knew he had already lost, Yagyu's mocking tone triggered his rebellious spirit.
"In your dreams!"
Fugaku spoke hatefully, declaring his determination to resist to the end.
"Is that so? Then I'll just finish you off now!"
Yagyu spoke in an eerie tone, raising his hand and firing a laser beam that pierced straight through Fugaku's shoulder, causing him to fall to the ground screaming.
"How is this possible?"
Fugaku looked shocked. The attack point predicted by his Sharingan wasn't there.
"Surprised? You really disappoint me."
"Did you think you were the only one with the ability to predict movements?"
Yagyu looked at Fugaku with mockery.
"You should have realized it long ago, right? I haven't been fighting seriously at all."
Prediction ability wasn't exclusive to the Sharingan; Yagyu's Observation Haki could also predict others' movements.
Fugaku predicted Yagyu's moves, Yagyu predicted Fugaku's moves...
Given that both possessed predictive abilities, whoever had the stronger prediction would win.
"Predicting your prediction..."
Yagyu muttered to himself. The cross-flash appeared at his fingertip once again.
"Since you refuse to surrender, allow me to finish you off!"
Yagyu spoke nonchalantly, and the cross-flash shot out violently.
Whoosh!
At the critical moment, a white light flashed.
Konoha's White Fang, Sakumo Hatake, suddenly appeared, slashing Yagyu's cross-light bullet away with a single stroke.
"Oh my, oh my!"
"Are you joining the competition too? Konoha's White Fang—Sakumo Hatake!"
Yagyu looked lazily at the White Fang, speaking in a casual tone.
"Of course not. I will not participate in this kind of competition."
"The reason I intervened is that today's match is not a fight to the death."
"If this continued, someone would have died. So, this match ends here!"
The White Fang spoke in a low, serious voice.
"Oh... the match ends here? I have no objections." "But who won and who lost this match? Surely it's not a draw?"
Yagyu looked at the White Fang with a smile, speaking with a lazy expression.
The White Fang said,
"You won this match! However, you have not achieved final victory yet, because there is still one Konoha contestant you haven't defeated."
The corner of Yagyu's mouth hooked up. He whispered,
"Minato Namikaze? I look forward to fighting him."
Yagyu transformed into light particles and returned to his seat, where Terumi Mei giggled and congratulated him.
The contestants for the fourth match were decided: Yagyu vs. Yagura.
"Wanting the Hidden Mist to fight among themselves? How despicable!"
"Yagura, forfeit this match!"
Genji huffed unhappily, expressing indignation at Konoha's behind-the-scenes manipulation.
However, he didn't question the Third Hokage openly.
This was a competition between two ninja villages. Pitting contestants from the same village against each other was indeed excessive, arguably violating the rules.
But both Genji and the Third Hokage knew that the outcome of this specific match was irrelevant.
They were using this competition between young people to demonstrate the potential and future strength of their respective villages.
Flexing muscles was their main objective; the Third Hokage's actions were understandable (in the context of politics).
Yagura nodded gently, not showing much dissatisfaction.
He could now calmly judge the gap in strength between himself and Yagyu. The current him really wasn't Yagyu's match.
"Did he forfeit? Doesn't matter!"
"Expecting Hidden Mist ninja to fight each other in Konoha's stadium was indeed wishful thinking."
"Fortunately, I never intended for them to fight here anyway. Eliminating Yagura was our goal."
"Although Minato is confident he can defeat Yagyu, wasting stamina and chakra on Yagura before fighting Yagyu would be unwise."
The Third Hokage muttered to himself, then ordered the announcement of the final contestants.
In the Stadium.
A special kunai was stabbed into the center of the stadium. Minato Namikaze appeared instantly beside it.
Yagyu's entrance was even flashier. Countless light particles condensed opposite Minato, reforming into Yagyu's incomparably radiant figure.
"As expected, my final opponent is indeed you!"
"I just didn't expect Konoha to be shameless enough to pit me against Yagura."
"Just to ensure you had enough strength to face me, Konoha really threw away its dignity!"
Yagyu spoke with a smile, making Minato feel a bit uncomfortable.
"Forget it!"
"It won't change the outcome anyway, so you don't need to stress about it."
"Do you know why we didn't raise any objections? Because the result won't change."
Yagyu spoke nonchalantly, looking at Minato with a calm expression.
Minato's expression became much more solemn. He spoke somewhat unhappily, "You mean to say, you're guaranteed to win?"
Yagyu drawled slowly,
"Of course! I know you've prepared some means to deal with me, but that is completely meaningless."
Without a word, Minato pulled out a large handful of special kunai and threw them in all directions, scattering them across every corner of the central stadium.
Minato spoke seriously,
"Such pale words have no meaning. We won't know who wins or loses until we fight!"
Yagyu shrugged and cried out in an exaggerated tone,
"Such confidence! A man full of confidence... Ooh, how terrifying~"
Minato's face darkened. After getting hit by Yagyu's taunt skill, he didn't hesitate to teleport behind Yagyu.
He grabbed a special kunai used for positioning and threw it at Yagyu without hesitation.
Yagyu neither dodged nor evaded, allowing the kunai to pass straight through his body.
"Useless! You should have seen the previous battles, right? This kind of attack is ineffective against me."
Yagyu looked calm, completely unconcerned about Minato's attack.
"Is that so?"
Minato remained calm and composed. He moved, appearing beside the special kunai, arriving directly behind Yagyu.
He was going to find the weakness in Yagyu's ability!