10 seconds passed by. But none of them had made any move yet.
Unless a Shinobi had overwhelming strength, one mistake or hasty action could mean instant defeat in fights between two Shinobi.
Heck! Even the Kage-level ninjas could die if an Elite Chunin could push a kunai through their hearts. Of course, whether they could actually pull it off was up for debate.
In a nutshell, a Shinobi should always be cautious, look out for deceptions, and must not take hasty actions.
Otherwise, they wouldn't even know how they died when facing another Shinobi of similar caliber.
So, both Ishimori Haneda and Yamamoto Fuji were waiting for the other party to show some kind of weakness or opening.
The moment they find an opportunity, they would strike decisively.
At that moment, a gentle breeze blew, causing the leaves of the trees to rustle and several dry leaves to fly in the air.
A few stray leaves passed between the two of them, partially obscuring their visions.
And this was the exact moment they chose to act.
Yamamoto Fuji quickly formed a few hand seals and slammed the ground with both hands.
Earth Release: Flying Thrown Stones
Fuji molded the ground with his powerful Earth Release chakra, causing the earth in front of him to spit out a multitude of high-speed stone projectiles toward Ishimori Haneda.
Haneda was also quick on his feet. He dodged as many stone projectiles as he could before deflecting the unblockable stones with his kunai.
Seeing Haneda occupied with his Flying Thrown Stones Ninjutsu, he immediately formed a few more hand seals in less than a second, slammed his right hand on the ground, and flooded the ground with a large amount of Earth Release chakra.
Earth Release: Bottomless Swamp
The ground about 20 meters around Fuji suddenly started to change, creating a sticky, muddy swamp.
It was a simple yet effective C-rank Earth Release Ninjutsu that would pull anything, including living beings, into it like quicksand, trapping them inside.
Anyone trapped in it would be drowned neck-deep, making it hard for them to move.
Fortunately, Haneda already felt something was amiss when he sensed a huge amount of foreign Earth Release chakra flooding the ground around him.
So, he quickly activated the Body Flicker Technique to flicker away and retreated 40 meters back.
"Phew! Almost got trapped there," murmured Haneda while wiping away the metaphorical cold sweat from his forehead.
However, his hands weren't idle.
He quickly formed a set of hand seals and gathered tons of Lightning Release chakra.
Crackle~ Crackle~
Lightning Release: Lightning Beast Tracking Fang
A lightning beast, as big as a hound, was formed in front of Haneda, which was connected to the condensed lightning chakra in his right hand.
Haneda used his right hand and guided the lightning beast to quickly dash toward Yamamoto Fuji.
Seeing this, Fuji's pupils contracted. He tried to dodge and run away from the beast's pursuit. But the lightning beast was too fast.
Before Fuji could even activate the Body Flicker Technique, the lightning beast slammed into him.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Fuji let out a scream as he was electrocuted by Haneda's lightning Ninjutsu.
However, at the next moment, his screams suddenly stopped.
Fuji's entire figure turned into a statue of Earth before it crumbled into dust by the Lightning Release chakra.
"An Earth Clone?"
Haneda said under his breath and tried to locate Fuji.
Suddenly, he activated the Body Flicker Technique to flicker away from his location.
He quickly glanced at his previous location, only to find a 2-meter hill of solid rock.
"So, it was Earth Release: Reverse Antlion Jutsu, huh? If I stayed there, I would have been trapped by the rock formation."
"Still hiding and relying on sneak attacks?"
"Very well."
"Let me just flood everything then."
Haneda couldn't find Fuji, who was hiding and attacking him from time to time.
He still didn't know any sensory techniques that could help him precisely feel and locate the chakra of a living being.
But he didn't want to stay in such a passive position.
So, he needed to drag him out in the open.
With this in mind, he quickly started forming hand seals and gathered a large amount of Water Release chakra around him.
Haneda didn't hesitate and poured as much as 10% of all his chakra into this Ninjutsu.
That's as much as 650 units of chakra.
He formed his final hand seal and clapped his hands. As soon as he did that, a huge amount of water condensed and created a high-speed, spiraling vortex around him.
Water Release: Water Colliding Wave
Suddenly, a huge amount of water exploded out of the vortex, moving in all directions like waves of tsunami.
The entire area around Haneda was flooded.
The all-consuming water slammed onto the surrounding trees and rock, uprooting them from their positions and carrying them with the resulting flood.
Yamamoto Fuji had no choice but to come out of his hiding position.
He used the Earth-style Wall Jutsu to protect himself from the fierce tsunami, but the wall couldn't hold out for long and crumbled under the pressure of colliding water, trees, and debris.
He used the Body Flicker Technique to run far away. But the tsunami-like waves soon reached and dragged him away.
Fortunately, his defensive Ninjutsu reduced the power of the water waves significantly.
Otherwise, the force of the water and the debris inside it would have caused him to suffer from a few broken or fractured bones.
"Still, the impact was no joke."
"Where the hell did he learn such a devastating Ninjutsu?"
"He is from a civilian family, for god's sake!"
When the water wave finally lost its momentum, Fuji was about to get out of the water.
But Haneda had other plans for him.
Before Fuji could even get out of the water, Haneda instantly formed a series of six seals, causing a huge amount of Lightning Release chakra to condense around him.
Lightning Release: Thunderbolt
Haneda pushed his palms into the water, discharging countless high-voltage lightning bolts into it that traveled to Fuji in the blink of an eye.
"Holy Shit." Fuji, who was about to get out of the water, saw this and couldn't help but curse loudly.
The high-voltage lightning struck him, causing him to be paralyzed and suffer from intense pain.
The lighting was literally drilling into his skin, causing him to suffer from severe burns.
Although his life wasn't in danger, he needed immediate medical attention.
"Oops! I didn't expect this Jutsu to be this brutal," murmured Haneda.
"You're right! That was indeed brutal."
A familiar voice rang beside Haneda, startling him.
He immediately jumped into the distance and glanced at the source of the voice before patting his chest in relief.
"Can't you appear like a normal person? I almost had a heart attack just now," said Haneda, who was visibly exasperated.
"Hehe! Sorry. Occupational hazard," said Seimei, who appeared beside Haneda like a ghost a few moments ago.
Seeing Seimei like this, Haneda sighed.
He couldn't do anything.
He had always been like this.
No one other than Uchiha Reina could put him in line in the whole class 1-S.
So, he shifted his focus to a different topic.
He said, "By the way, that Fuji guy has been incapacitated. It's a perfect time to take his special sealed scroll and destroy it."
After all, the fewer opponents they had in the second round, the better.
Seimei shook his head and replied, "No need."
Haneda suddenly tilted his head in confusion. Metaphorical question marks were swirling above his head.
Seeing his friend like this, Seimei explained, "Your last Lightning Release Jutsu has inflicted severe external and internal burns to that guy."
"Now, he can no longer continue to participate in the tournament. He must be hospitalized immediately."
"I can already sense the patrolling ninjas coming."
Just as his words fell, two patrolling ninjas came to check the condition of Yamamoto Fuji.
They inspected his condition and whispered something to each other before pulling out the special sealed scroll from Fuji's clothes.
The signal was clear.
Yamamoto Fuji of the Class 4-S team had been disqualified.
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