CH_2.22 (053)

CH_2.22 (053)

The atmosphere at the training field was like the peak of the cherry blossom season, and people had come together to picnic and view the cherry blossom— just that they weren't here to see the beautiful nature, but people duke it out in combat.

"Almost half of the people in the tournament are from our team," Ai declared, her tone braggadocious. Her nose almost seemed to lengthen from pride. With the Round of Sixteen over, eight genin remained. Takuma, Nenro, and Masaaki were among those eight.

"Now that I'm out of the tournament, can I participate in the festivities," Taro said as he took a bite from his lunch and eyed the chunin who had been betting ryo the entire morning.

Takuma ate the roll he had packed from home and eyed the genin who had remained and were participating in the Round of Eight. He still didn't know the bracket— none of the participants knew, the chunin had kept the bracket from them. He glanced at Masaaki, who was munching down kara-age (fried chicken) with no care in the world. Out of everyone remaining, Takuma didn't want to fight Masaaki the most. The totally one-sided brutal bashing he had dealt to his opponent without breaking a sweat or a crack of his smile had left an impression. Moreover, Masaaki was one of the people who hadn't showcased a jutsu. If Takuma were to fight Masaaki, he would fight him after knowing the jutsu he might face in battle.

As for his other teammate, Nenro was the one he was most willing to fight. Given that they were from the same group and team, he had sparred often with Nenro and was, thus, most familiar with him in terms of combat style. And while he had missed Nenro's fight and hadn't seen the genjutsu used in action, he knew that it was the paralyzing kind. As long as he had a clue, he could make something out of it.

"I wish all of you get to the next round tomorrow," Ai said with a grin. "Then our team would hold three out of four spots in the semifinals. Then the chance of winning the tournament is all but guaranteed."

"Possible if you don't get matched against each other today," Taro commented.

Masaaki laughed. "Bring it on. I'm ready any time, any day," he said, getting a shoulder slap from Ai.

Takuma and Nenro made no comment. The chance of them meeting in the Round of Eight was high. Takuma even thought that the genin weren't shown the bracket because the instructors could arrange the match-ups to be the most interesting for the chunin audience. Whether his conjecture was true, they would know tomorrow.Reêad latest novels at novelhall.com

———

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"Round of Eight, match one— Maki versus Yoshio, represented by Kame and Takuma."

Takuma dapped Masaaki and Ai before jogging to the middle to meet his opponent. Yuhi Kame was a short and petite girl with a long thin ponytail that sat over her shoulder and a distinct pair of ringed red eyes. If not for her eyes, he would've not remembered the one person he 'knew' with whom she shared that trait and family name— Yuhi Kurenai. One of the few characters he knew to have genjutsu as part of their primary skill set— the infamous woman who had tried to use genjutsu against Uchiha Itachi.

Just like her relative, Kame had shown genjutsu in the first round. He didn't know what genjutsu it was, but her opponent did seem to go somewhere else with their unfocused eyes.

He was a tad bit worried. Even though Yuhi wasn't a shinobi clan, they were still a shinobi family. Unlike Nenro, chances of Kame knowing some strange genjutsu he might not even have read about was high.

'Disrupt the chakra and you'll be fine,' Takuma said to himself.

"Let's have a good fight," Kame said to him as the announcer moved away to give them space.

Before she could even complete her sentence, Takuma charged at her, closing the distance. In the last fight, Kame had conformed to the stereotype of a genjutsu specialist being poor at taijutsu. But it seemed she was ready for it as Kame pulled back and flexed her wrist for a senbon to appear from inside her sleeve that she threw at Takuma. Not expecting the hidden weapon strike, Takuma moved his head to get out of the way of the large needle that would've pierced his mouth through his cheek.

Takuma raised his fist faster and decked her in the jaw.

As the Kame hit the ground, the genjutsu broke like shattered glass. The sky returned to blue, birds chirped their beautiful songs, and people's cheers entered his ears. He looked around to find the genin and chunin had returned while the golems had disappeared.

He took out a shuriken and dropped it near Kame's face, making her flinch, ending the match with a supposed death strike.

The announcer came beside him, grabbed Takuma's hand, and raised it as he spoke in his host voice, "Takuma with an excellent, last-second comeback! How he turned the tables on what seemed to be a done fight! And with this, Takuma has secured his place in the semifinals. Give it up for him."

Takuma jogged back to his team amidst the cheers.

"You won!" Ai squealed as she hugged him.

"I did, didn't I..."

Taro, noticing something, asked Takuma, "You don't look thrilled about it? Is everything alright?"

Takuma didn't know what to say. Well, he did. But instead, he said,

"Yeah, I just can't hear in one ear, and my skin burns...."

"Ah, sorry!" Ai immediately separated from him.

Inside, though, he had two thoughts—

One, the genjutsu cast on him didn't seem to work well,

Two, things seemed to be going swimmingly well for him— and for some reason, it made him really uncomfortable.

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Something I wasn't expecting: One of the Patrons, Incraze, drew a FanArt for Takuma. Here it is for everyone to enjoy:

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