From the moment Might Guy opened the Eight Gates, the result of the battle no longer held much suspense.
Even Obito, with his two-tomoe Sharingan, could not keep up with Guy's speed in the Fourth Gate state.
Very quickly, Obito was beaten like a human sandbag, taking seven or eight Konoha Strong Fist strikes, three or four Konoha Great Whirlwinds, and then one Reverse Lotus. By the time the fight settled down, Guy was slightly bent at the knees and panting heavily, while Obito had already collapsed in a crater of shattered stone, unconscious.
The medical team, which had long been on standby, hurried into the field to rescue him.
Nara Shikaku, serving as examiner, announced Might Guy's victory.
The stands were briefly silent, then erupted into heated cries of surprise and discussion. Clearly, the excitement and intensity of this opening match had already exceeded everyone's expectations. Many people only dared to breathe loudly at this point, all feeling dry-mouthed.
At exactly this moment,
several small pushcarts passed through the aisles.
"Sunflower seeds, peanuts, cola—anyone need some? Come on, guests by the side, please pull your legs in."
"…"
Alright, this was indeed arranged by Yuu, but it had already been approved by Sarutobi Hiruzen. Many Konoha villagers, especially civilians, had never truly tasted Raw Cola before and had assumed it was rather expensive. Now that they knew the price, and in this kind of setting, they all took out money to buy some.
As for the visitors who had come to Konoha for the first time, they were even more generous. Very soon, the first batch of goods was swept clean.
In the arena, the matches continued.
Nohara Rin versus Yūhi Kurenai, Hyūga Homon versus Shiranui Genma…
One battle after another progressed in an orderly fashion.
Cheers and applause rose and fell.
At almost the same time,
inside the Konoha Research Institute a few streets away from the arena, the scene was completely different.
The air was filled with the smell of disinfectant. Cold light fell from above, illuminating another "Mikami Yuu" wearing a white lab coat and protective mask. At this moment, he was standing in front of a microscope, fully focused on observing the cell sample before him.
Beside him, Orochimaru was fiddling with a petri dish while casually saying, "The final round of the Chūnin Exam is such an important occasion, yet you only sent a shadow clone to deal with it. Is that really alright, Yuu-kun?
"Could it be that you believe you only need half your chakra to handle the other ninja?"
"…No, Lord Orochimaru, you've got it reversed. The me here is the shadow clone, and I only invested about one-third of my chakra into this clone. Against a mere Iwa ninja, surely my main body with two-thirds of my chakra won't lose, right?"
Yuu, standing in front of the microscope, raised a hand to adjust the focus and spoke lightly.
"Oh?"
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow when he heard this. A low, pleased "heh heh" sounded from his throat.
"What astonishing chakra control. It seems your mastery of the Shadow Clone Technique is already above that of many jōnin."
Yuu said nothing.
He had deliberately displayed this talent in front of Orochimaru, but he didn't dare reveal too much. After all, this man had an extraordinary obsession with "geniuses," and Yuu couldn't stimulate him too much.
After a brief silence,
Orochimaru spoke again. "Let us return to the main topic. I have finished analyzing all the cell and blood samples from Pakura that you brought back. After repeated observation and induction experiments, I can now basically confirm that the core of the Scorch Release kekkei genkai lies in…"
Rustle, rustle—
Yuu picked up a brush and paper, quickly recording the information on a blank scroll.
As early as when he had just returned from the southwestern battlefield, Yuu had already divided Pakura's blood sample into two portions and given them separately to Tsunade and Orochimaru, asking them to help research it. Tsunade's side had not produced much result for quite a while, but Orochimaru's side had made some breakthroughs.
There was no helping it. Tsunade was truly no longer in her prime. Hemophobia affected her greatly, preventing her from even personally analyzing blood samples, the most basic kind of research. So Yuu could only take her interim results and come to Orochimaru.
Now,
as Orochimaru explained and the two occasionally interacted, lines of text were recorded clearly and logically.
"According to observation, the body of a Scorch Release kekkei genkai user contains special chakra meridian nodes, temporarily named 'Scorch Release cores.' These are key to efficiently transforming ordinary chakra into Scorch Release particle streams…"
"The structure of these meridian nodes is… The estimated possibility of artificial induction or separation and transplantation is…"
"Future research direction…"
"The current conclusions are basically these. If we want to conduct deeper research, we still need a sufficient number of experimental samples."
As the final lines were written down,
Yuu blew on the ink on the scroll, then began "reviewing" it from the beginning. As he read, a text box only he could see appeared in his vision.
[Ding! Giftable special item detected — Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: Scorch Release Kekkei Genkai Analysis Report!]
"Eh?"
Yuu was rather surprised. So it wasn't only ninjutsu scrolls—this kind of thing could also be given as a gift?
Then why hadn't the earlier version of the analysis report he had shared with Pakura been recognized?
[Special items of this type must contain sufficiently rich energy or knowledge information related to the corresponding ninjutsu in order to trigger the gift option.]
"…Alright."
So the previous version had not been professional enough.
Yuu calmed down and prepared to copy an extra version of this scroll later to give to Phoenix Sage Fire Technique. Although its affection was already maxed and could no longer increase, with this thing, Light Flame Bullet might be further developed.
After that, Orochimaru immediately began the next dissection experiment without pause, and Yuu continued assisting him from the side.
Meanwhile, in the direction of the martial arena, the most important match was about to begin.
"Next match: Konoha's Mikami Yuu versus Iwagakure's Toki!"
As Nara Shikaku's voice fell, the atmosphere in the arena was quickly ignited. Over a thousand gazes focused on the center of the field, and whispers gathered into a buzzing wave of sound.
"Whoa, Yuu's match is finally here!"
"I heard he's one of the top genin in this batch and made great contributions on the Suna battlefield. I wonder how he'll do against Iwagakure this time?"
"Don't worry. Konoha's ninja are the strongest. Against a mere Iwagakure, victory is guaranteed."
"Shh, stop talking. Look, look, it's about to start!"
~~~
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