As Itachi moved to collect his weapons, heated arguments and conspiracy theories erupted amongst the ninja in the stands and the genin in the VIP area.
"What the fuck was that?" exclaimed the Kusa-nin that fought Suimi. He would be up against Itachi next and he had definitely been right about needing a good match. Akio wasn't sure if he would have a shot at promotion from his match against Suimi.
Most of the genin seemed to agree with the Kusa-nin's statement. But out of all the teams, the Kiri team seemed to have the easiest time accepting what had just happened.
"I guess insane geniuses are real." shrugged Suimi. "Not that the Nara bitch gave me any reason to doubt that."
"That's impossible!" The Iwa kunoichi seemed incredibly unnerved. "How old is he? 11? Jounin-level is explainable, but S-ranked? At 11? That's insane!"
Akio snorted. "For your information, the bastard's 9-years-old and almost a third as insane as Michiko-chan. He'll be legendary by the time he's old enough to shave."
At this, Umihiko, the silent Kiri-nin, walked up to Akio. He leant in uncomfortably close and his voice dipped into a whisper. "Chibi assassin, Nara mastermind. Who are you?"
It took Akio a few seconds to understand what he meant. Right from the start of team 11, Akio had always been the filler. Someone who was thrown into a world of monsters and maniacs on the whim of higher powers he could never hope to beat. Surrounded by Itachi, Michiko and Noa, Akio was often an afterthought when one spoke of Team 11. Not a day passed where he wasn't reminded of it and after 3 years together, Akio had accepted it. He was the filler. Next to them, he was practically useless and everyone knew it.
But for the first time ever, someone was questioning that.
Umihiko and Akio stared at each other for a few seconds, their faces almost touching before the Iwa kunoichi interrupted.
"UCHIHA! Answer when people are talking to you!"
Umihiko backed away and Akio turned to the annoying Iwa kunoichi who was trying to get his attention. "How many times do I have to tell you? It's not Uchiha."
"Whatever. So? Is it true?"
"Is what true?"
The kunoichi growled. "Did the chibi use a seal to set his kunai on fire?"
Akio blinked. "What are you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb! An S-ranked 9-year-old is impossible! But the Uchiha are genjutsu types and genjutsu users are sneaky, cheating bastards. A seal that causes fire is simple and can be activated easily without suspicions. Having the Nara rig all his weapons would be easy."
Akio snorted in amusement. "Whatever floats your boat. I guess that's much easier to believe, but it doesn't matter. You'll never beat him. No one here can expect for Michiko-chan."
Most looked at Michiko skeptically, though the looks were now accompanied by wariness and uncertainty. Michiko ignored everything around her and continued going through piles of work at unthinkable speeds.
"Is the girl really that strong?" asked the remaining Kusa-nin.
Suimi rolled her eyes. "Is it really that hard to believe? At a time like this, of course Konoha has to bust out the big guns in front of Iwa."
"Looks like you aren't as dumb as I thought, clan cunt." Ian jabbed.
"Shut up, slummie. I'm surprised you even know how to think."
"Is that the best you've got? You're stupid and you know it. That's why you have to resort to insults on social status."
"Tsk. Hypocrite. Half of your problems with me is because of my status. That's why you can't think of anything better than 'stupid' or 'clan cunt'."
"You-"
The Suna chuunin by the door cleared his throat very loudly and glared at them. "As a gentle reminder, I would like to point out that your combat ability isn't the only thing evaluated. I suggest you clear up your dispute swiftly and check the display screen."
Those who hadn't been paying attention glanced at the screen. It was Ian vs. The final Kusa-nin.
Akio looked at Ian. "Let's hope you're stronger than your teammate."
Ian laughed. "Suimi's a spoilt brat. I'm not as careless as her."
Ignoring the silent glare from Suimi, Ian and the Kusa-nin left and the crowd got louder as the announcer tried to encourage them to place bets.
"We have another Kiri versus Kusa match-up! How will this match turn out? Please be sure to place your bets!"
Akio sighed. Suna had jacked the prices of the tournament up after the recent disaster and did everything it could to encourage the rich nobles to gamble. Since only rich civilians, nobles and VIPs attended, the increase in price didn't affect them that much and many of nobles even bought extra tickets to increase public image by helping Suna's economy. Most were here to donate and show their support in the wake of the invasion. Naturally, Suna was doing whatever it could to suck the nobles dry with high stakes gambling and ultra expensive souvenirs. But Wind Country nobles weren't that rich so they focused on Fire's nobles with exotic foods and lots of sparkling golden shit. All this political stuff gave Akio a headache, but he had to keep up or he'd never make sense of Michiko's conversations.
He was getting better, but it wasn't enough. Michiko and Itachi would've figured out ten times more a hundred times faster.
Ian and the Kusa-nin took their sides on the battlefield. Both of them took off the moment the match started and clashed swords. It was a heavy, close-ranged combat fight with neither side giving the other any time for hand seals or advanced strategies. It was a, once again, not-so-impressive show of pure skill and reflexes with everything hinging on the combatants' taijutsu skills. Ian wasn't as slow as Suimi and his physical strength seemed to be okay. He was a lot more ninjutsu heavy than his opponent, which was probably why the Kusa-nin kept pressing him. The water from Suimi's fight was abundant and she hadn't saturated it with her chakra, clearly so that her teammates could use it as well. The Kusa-nin would be at a disadvantage in a ninjutsu fight.
But as the battle dragged on, it was apparent that Ian's stamina was a lot better than the Kusa-nin's. Slowly but surely, the Kusa-nin took more and more damage. The match ended rather anticlimactically with Ian slamming his broadsword into the Kusa-nin's neck. It would've sliced the Kusa-nin's head right off, but chakra strings wrapped around both the ninja's blades. Katashi had reacted quickly, but the Kusa-nin still had a deep gash across his neck. Katashi called the match and withdrew his strings as the medics immediately rushed over to the Kusa-nin's side.
The crowd gasped and burst into a mixture of boos and gossipy whispers as Ian exited the arena. Akio wasn't sure whether it was because the Kusa-nin was critically injured or because the Kusa-nin hadn't died. Maybe both.
The Kusa-nin was carried out on a stretcher as the bloodlust from his teammates increased. The VIP area was quickly filled with a hostile atmosphere as Ian walked through the door. The Kusa-nin's teammates gave Ian death glares but couldn't say anything. It wasn't like they could do anything about it. The girl lost horribly to Itachi and the guy was up against Itachi next. Unless they wanted to murder Ian illegally, they couldn't really do anything without being branded as traitors.
The genin waited in tense silence as the announcer wound the crowd down from the fight and hyped them up again. The names flashed and the match would be between him and the Iwa kunoichi.
The Iwa kunoichi crackled and gave Akio a vicious grin. "Looks like I get to beat the crap out of you. Get ready to lose to a girl, Konoha trash."
Why did everyone automatically assume he was a sexist asshole? Okay, so maybe he wasn't the nicest guy around. He insulted girls a lot but he was an asshole to everyone! Not just girls. Between Michiko and Noa, Akio was pretty sure that every gram of sexism that could possibly exist within him had been forcibly removed.
Akio rolled his eyes. "My jounin sensei is a girl and she beats the crap out of everyone she sees, me included. With two stupidly stubborn and aggressive females on my team, I'm pretty sure I've lost to girls more often than guys."
Ian snorted at Akio. "Looks like I'll be fighting you next. Good luck defeating this bitch."
The Iwa kunoichi's eyes flashed as she snarled and leant forward aggressively. "What did you say?!"
The Suna chuunin by the door cleared his throat so loudly it sounded like he was coughing up a dozen hairballs. "In case some of you are unaware, a certain level of diplomacy is expected of chuunin and a lack of tact may have a great impact on your chances at promotion."
The Iwa kunoichi reigned in her anger and stormed past the chuunin. Akio waited a few seconds before following, not wanting to cross paths with her on the way down.
They took their sides on the field. The kunoichi bent her knees slightly and got her hands out in front of her. Akio recalled that her file said she was a ninjutsu type. While the girl seemed eager to start, Akio couldn't really find it in him to give a shit. He didn't really care about the tournament or the promotion. He had just wanted Michiko to get some fresh air and some exercise. His place was beside Michiko and a new vest wasn't going to change anything.
But Michiko's orders were absolute and Akio hadn't gone insane enough to ignore them.
The moment Katashi signalled for the start of the match, the girl began an earth jutsu. Her seal speed was okay, Akio could see everything easily. Her jutsu felt half-assed and he dodged her earth spear by a large margin. Akio's only exposure to earth jutsu was through Noa so he didn't know much. Maybe the girl was just testing him?
The girl began to throw more earth projectiles at him, occasionally mixing things up with a smokescreen or a trick attack. Nothing really interesting. Noa was a very thorough, very vicious and very creative instructor. During the daily 12-hour training sessions in the last three years, Akio had been continuously exposed to innovative ways of stabbing the shit out of someone and had learned to think on his feet or die. In hindsight, it wasn't surprising that this Iwa girl didn't do something he hadn't been trained to take. Akio was still a little disappointed after all her talk, but maybe she was holding a trump card of some sort. Like that Explosion Release Kusa-nin. But if she was smart enough to hide a major card that Itachi missed, then she should've already won. Maybe she was hiding it because she didn't feel that Akio was worth using it on.
Or maybe Akio was overthinking it and he should just attack instead of dodging and deflecting like a fucking idiot.
Akio created a flamethrower massive enough to engulf the space between them. Caught off guard, the Iwa kunoichi was forced to abandon her jutsu midway. She winced at the chakra recoil as she narrowly dodged the flamethrower, shock and confusion readily apparent on her face.
Akio was already running towards her while throwing stream after stream of fire. The girl created a thick wall of earth to block the fire. Akio paused in his advance. If the girl was blocking off her line of sight, she was probably planning something that she didn't want him to see. To confirm his suspicions, Akio threw an explosive tagged shuriken at the earth wall. The earth wall exploded, revealing no one behind. She could have mastered an invisibility jutsu, but it was more likely that she was hiding under the earth as she was an earth user.
Akio took out his explosive tagged shuriken with no noise. In a swift swipe, he threw them on the ground below him. The ground around him exploded but yielded no results. He unleashed a second wave and this time, the girl screamed and emerged as fast as possible.
She suffered mild burns, mainly on her exposed limbs as her gear protected her torso and thighs. Akio charged at her. She tried to dodge, but the kunai he carried buried itself into her left shoulder. Akio threw a punch with his other hand. It hit her squarely in the jaw and she was thrown back by the impact. The kunai dug deeper and dragged across her shoulder, cutting half of it from her body and severely decreasing, if not removing, her ninjutsu abilities.
The girl stood up and Akio kicked her in the gut. She flew across the stadium and slammed into the wall. Akio had aimed it so she flew right into the crater Itachi had left when he had flung his opponent in a similar way. The girl slid down the wall but landed unsteadily on her feet. Undeterred, she threw kunai with explosive tags at him. Akio could've just dodged it, but he remembered Michiko's orders to show off. With such a trivial opponent, Akio hadn't really had a chance. He took out four shuriken and threw them. They cut off all the explosive tags from the 16 kunai by bouncing off each other. Since the girl had relied on explosive tags, she had just been aiming at his general area. Akio didn't even have to move as all the kunai missed their mark.
The girl clearly had a concussion, but she didn't surrender. Akio sighed. It seemed like he would have to show her that she had no chances of winning. He slipped a small scroll out of his pouch and unravelled it with a flick of his hand. With his other hand, he unsealed the foldable fuuma shuriken. After popping the scroll back into his equipment pouch, he unfolded the fuuma shuriken. The girl gasped as she recognised the kanji '爆' inscribed on it. Even if she couldn't read all the engravings, it signified that the shuriken had an explosive seal carved into it. Specialised weapons like these were crazy expensive, enough to buy three hundred good shuriken. Given that this particular one was a single-use weapon, virtually no one had one.
"There is no way of escaping this attack." Akio proclaimed. "Even if you dodge the shuriken, you cannot get out of the radius of the blast. Surrender."
The girl looked taken aback for a second before her face twisted into a sneer. "Like you'd have the guts to kill. You are just a soft-hearted Konoha baby. You are not a real ninja!"
Akio gaped at her for a second before resisting the urge to facepalm. Why the fuck was everyone in this goddamned tournament so fucking dumb and pathetic? Talking shit about everyone before matches where killing was legal, showcasing team disputes in front of foreign officials with a huge say in your career, outright explaining the inner working of one's jutsu in the middle of a death match and taunting an opponent who could kill you with a flick of their wrist? What the fuck was wrong with these people? How the fuck did they make it to this tournament and why did all of them have a death wish?
Akio let out a frustrated sigh and got into position. Michiko's orders were absolute. "Don't say I didn't warn you. Just so you know, I'm counting this as assisted suicide, not murder."
Akio threw the fuuma shuriken. The girl's eyes widened as she saw her death rushing towards her, her mouth desperately forming the words 'I surrender'. Suddenly, the shuriken slowed down mid-flight and chakra strings wrapped around it. Akio briefly registered that Katashi had interfered with his attack. He barely had enough time to think 'Oh SHIT' before the explosion occurred.
Akio was a lot closer to the blast than the Iwa girl and was thrown back by it while she remained mostly unaffected. The heat scorched his skin and he hit the ground hard, bouncing and rolling hard enough to leave small craters in his wake.
Before he had time to assess his injuries, a huge, all-encompassing explosion of unholy bloodlust spread across the field. The chakra insensitive civilians looked on in confusion as every ninja displayed a drastic switch in gear. Weapons were drawn, hands were at the ready and all the newbs shat their pants in terror. Only two were unaffected.
Akio's face fixed into a blend of a grin and a grimace as he recognised the bloodlust instinctively. He glanced at the Iwa girl who was on her knees trembling in terror, her diminutive form emphasising just how dumb and weak she was. If she had just surrendered, none of this would be happening. Why the fuck was everyone here so pathetically weak and suicidally stupid?
As he glanced up at the VIP area, his eyes met Umihiko's. To most, Umihiko probably looked as emotionless as ever. But Akio had seen that look of burning curiosity on Itachi and Michiko's face too many times not to recognise it. The desire to deconstruct a fascinating puzzle and fully understand it.
Umihiko was looking at Akio as if he were interesting.
The realisation struck Akio like lightning. Akio's brain temporarily froze as he attempted to process the revelation. The possibility seemed so inherently wrong that he was left completely dumbfounded.
Could it be… could it be that I am actually pretty strong?
A huge spike of bloodlust erupted from behind Umihiko. He stiffened instinctively and his head snapped towards the direction it was emitting from. While he was put on instant alert, somehow, he was completely calm internally.
Nara Michiko stood up and slapped a barrier onto her table, her face spelling murder and fury. She walked right past Umihiko and jumped over the ledge, landing into the arena. As she stomped towards Akio, she was intercepted by the referee, resulting in a loud argument.
"Nara-kun, you can't-"
"What the fuck were you thinking, Katashi?! Stopping the match was all well and good, but it was perfectly possible to do so without getting Akio hurt! You are one of the best puppet masters around! Controlling distant objects with chakra strings should be second nature to you! Why should he have to suffer damage from his own attack because of a referee's interference?!"
"The engravings on the shuriken indicated a much smaller range than was expected-"
"You're the fucking Head of the Puppet Brigade! That practically makes you the sealing authority of Sunagakure! Anyone with a monkey's brain could figure out that I was the one who created that explosive seal! Since explosive seals are so widespread that even average ninja can deconstruct them, I'd obviously take advantage of that and throw in some tricks!"
Akio slowly to sat up. "Michiko-chan."
Michiko stared at him and Akio stared back. Michiko sighed and her suffocating bloodlust slowly dispersed. She walked over to him and knelt beside him, scanning his body with medical chakra. The medics gained their bearings. Most rushed over to the Iwa kunoichi and two went to Michiko. As the medics tried to take over Michiko's work, she waved them away.
"It's nothing serious. Just a couple of broken bones, heavy bruising and lots of burns. I'm the sole medic to a team of fire-breathing training maniacs with no sense of self-preservation. Nothing I haven't dealt with before."
The medics looked at Katashi and Katashi nodded. The two medics left Michiko to go help the other medics carry the Iwa kunoichi out of the arena. Michiko carried Akio bridal-style up to the VIP area and continued to heal him there.
Umihiko hoped he wasn't fighting Michiko next. Only they and two Iwa genin remained. If he didn't fight her, they would both defeat the Iwa-nin and fight in the second round. Umihiko had been sure she wouldn't kill him. She could've during the second phase. But his nose never lied. She wasn't feeling really charitable.
Luckily, this wasn't the case and Umihiko was paired up with the rational and calm Iwa-nin. It was for the best. Konoha was 'soft' and they encouraged the image. This contributed to Konoha's status as the wealthiest and most tourist-friendly of the Five Elemental Nations. But right now, they needed to show they were ready for war. Between the Uchiha heir's overwhelming strength and Akio's apathy towards violence, the two of them were already set. Michiko's opponent was shaken up by her but had already calmed down by foolishly reassuring himself that a 13-year-old girl couldn't be stronger than him. Umihiko wasn't sure if she would be irritated, but there was a 30% chance she'd kill him. 20% chance that'd sate her, 65% chance she'd calm down enough.
Umihiko's opponent sighed in relief. To him, the other options were to fight his teammate or Michiko. Suimi and Ian were clearly specced towards heavy damage. 90% chance the Iwa-nin thought Umihiko was a support type.
He would be correct. But Umihiko had a little more going on.
The Iwa-nin jumped over the railings into the arena while Umihiko chose to take the stairs. Finish quickly or draw it out? Umihiko was better at quick battles, but there was an 85% chance that Michiko was a lot stronger than him. If his opponent was weak, he'd draw it out to show off his skills in case Michiko didn't let him.
The two of them stood opposite one another, sizing each other up. Umihiko yawned, covering the lower half of his face as his nose twitched. He formulated a few dozen strategies and drew a few hundred more from his database. Opponent careful and guarded. 70% chance Ninjutsu type. Control over brute force. 75% chance Taijutsu C-ranked. Emotional control above average. 85% chance has minor killing experience. Overall threat level 2.3/10. Projected outcome: 90% victory. If threat level wrong by 0.3, victory below 3%.
Katashi gave the signal and the Iwa-nin started a lightning jutsu. No surprise. His chakra smelled like lightning and a little earth and wind. Umihiko dodged the bolt of lightning and the Iwa-nin threw a few more bolts of lightning. At this point, the both of them were still sizing each other up with the Iwa-nin throwing a few kunai and jutsu while Umihiko dodged and analysed him.
Slowly but surely, the Iwa-nin's attacks begun to stray off point. He pumped unnecessary amounts of chakra into his jutsu and soon, Umihiko just stood there as the Iwa-nin unleashed killing blows at thin air. The audience murmured in confusion while the announcer hesitated on explaining, not wanting to disrupt the match. Umihiko nodded towards the announcer, allowing the announcer to explain. With Suimi as his teammate, auditory genjutsu was a speciality of his. If he could completely control his opponent's perception of the battle, making sure the Iwa-nin didn't hear the announcer or the audience was child's play.
Umihiko watched on with disinterest as the Iwa-nin continued to fire an exponentially increasing amount of intensive jutsu, wasting chakra, projectiles and energy. He had made the Iwa-nin engage in a taijutsu battle with his illusionary self a minute ago to tire him out physically. The audience was getting bored and it was harder to show off with genjutsu, so Umihiko switched gears.
Umihiko seamlessly blended the transition from a taijutsu battle into a ninjutsu battle so the Iwa-nin didn't notice he had been under a genjutsu. He still kept the auditory genjutsu on so the audience couldn't alert him. By now, he had already gathered enough information on his opponent's habits and combat style to beat him without genjutsu. He made sure all of his water attacks were sleek, fast and efficient, slowly slicing his opponent up without going too far so that the referee couldn't call it. The audience cheered as they finally got some bloodshed after the last few minutes of pure genjutsu.
It wasn't long before his opponent surrendered, realising that he couldn't beat Umihiko and that he would only sustain more damage. Since he didn't know that he had been under genjutsu, he might have thought that his performance was enough for a promotion.
This should be enough to guarantee Umihiko's promotion. Umihiko turned away and headed back to the VIP area. He didn't really want the promotion, but Kaichi's orders were absolute. For now though, Umihiko was more interested in Michiko or 'Akua' as she claimed to be.
The announcer stirred the crowd up as Michiko and the Iwa-nin walked onto the field, though this time, it came with some innocent taunting towards the Iwa daimyo watching.
"And now for the final match of the first round, we have another Konoha vs. Iwa matchup! Will all of Konoha's genin make it through to the second round or will Iwa finally win this time? Oh! Here come the betting results! And with three times the support, Konoha takes the lead! And- ah! But wait! The daimyo of Earth Country has just placed an enormous bet on his ninja! With this, the bets on Iwa are now twice that of Konoha!"
The Iwa-nin facing Michiko was clearly unnerved by this information. He had probably been told that he had to make a strong showing in front of the Iwa daimyo and the Iwa daimyo had probably been reassured that this was their best and that they would be able to beat Konoha. Itachi had made a show of his god tier talent and proved that he was already better than most ninja at 9-years-old. The Iwa kunoichi made multiple tactical errors when facing Akio, which only highlighted Konoha's strength when Akio didn't hesitate in brutalising her and making her look weak. Umihiko's opponent had been turned into a joke as he spent most of the match fighting air and was exhausted by the time he actually fought Umihiko and made many mistakes. At this point, winning wasn't enough for Iwa. With the daimyo's bet, the Iwa-nin had to humiliate Michiko in the same way Akio did with the Iwa kunoichi or Iwa would be disgraced.
In other words, all of their careers was doomed. With their strict rule abiding policies, there was no way Iwa would overlook their failures.
The announcer continued to rouse the audience as the Iwa-nin tried to keep his cool in the face of Michiko's excited grin.
Michiko stretched his arms. "I'm still really pissed off, but since I can't beat Katashi up and my regular punching bag is unavailable, I hope you don't mind if I use you as a poor substitute. Having anger cloud me when I fight Umihiko isn't ideal."
This seemed to help the Iwa-nin center himself as he returned the trash talk. "I wouldn't be so confident if I were you, girly. I'm no gentleman and I'm not going to give you any leeway. Even if you beat me, you'd be facing the genjutsu dude who beat up my team leader. You have no way of earning your promotion. How about surrendering now?"
Michiko raised her eyebrows and snickered. "Idiot. You think I'm weaker than Umihiko? Whatever, you are weaker than your two teammates. If I surrendered, you'd have zero chance of beating Umihiko, much less me."
The Iwa-nin seemed really irritated. "What? You think I'm weaker than- Okay, let me set you straight, girly. Sure, my team leader is stronger than me, but I sure as hell am stronger than that bitch who taunted her opponent when he could kill her. You'll regret underestimating me."
Michiko gave a neutral smile. She clearly wasn't taking anything he said seriously. "She's an idiot, but you're definitely in greater need of IQ points."
"You bitch-"
Michiko turned to the referee. "This isn't getting anywhere. Please start the match, Katashi."
The instant the referee started the match, the Iwa-nin flew forward. Before he was halfway there, Michiko had flashed through two (or three?) hand seals and a water dragon slammed into him, knocking him back. Umihiko blinked as he registered that Michiko had performed an A-rank jutsu in two hand seals with virtually no chakra. Before the Iwa-nin gained his bearing, Michiko took out two small 5 by 5cm pieces of paper with a weird… storage seal? Holding one in each hand, she activated them. Out of the tiny pieces of paper came a huge flood of water that easily topped Suimi's two large and expensive scrolls in terms of the volume and chakra saturation of the water it could store as well as the rate the water could be released at.
The Iwa-nin was quickly forced onto the walls. There was so much water that it was ankle deep in the large battle field. The Iwa-nin attempted a large earth wall to try and push back the water. Earth was strong against water after all. Michiko rolled her eyes at his effort and with a single seal, she formed a countless number of water needles that filled the stadium. She sent some of them flying into the wall. The wall didn't stand a chance and immediately crumbled. She sent the rest of them at the Iwa-nin, purposely making them a lot slower than the ones she sent at the wall to play with her prey. Each of them slammed into the wall, leaving small indents in the reinforced wall. The stadium tremored and the attacks left the wall with a distinct polka dot pattern, emphasising how Michiko was just playing.
Michiko had already saturated the water with her chakra beforehand so expanding her shadows across the field was child's play. Her shadows climbed up the walls, undeterred by the Suna sun as they formed explosive seals near the Iwa-nin. Michiko set them off. The Iwa-nin instinctively jumped off the wall. It probably saved his life, but he ended up in the water, squarely in Michiko territory.
Michiko smirked and called back her shadows, choosing to focus them on the water. The Iwa-nin could clearly still move so Michiko had purposely chosen not to paralyse him. With the water covering the area, the Iwa-nin couldn't see the shadows properly.
Michiko's smile took off a distinctive predatory edge and immediately all the Kiri-nin jolted in recognition. Kaichi was generally a calm and charismatic leader, but in the heat of battle, he went completely berserk.
Bloodthirsty Michiko looked exactly like bloodthirsty Kaichi.
Even the way she spoke and the way she taunted the Iwa-nin eerily resembled Kaichi. "This arena is mine. I have turned the ground into a minefield. Try not to die."
Just like that, she had the Iwa-nin running around like a rabbit, desperately avoiding the explosive seals. Every time he tried to say 'I surrender', she would set off use a variety of seals to silence him, be it by covering him in boiling water, choking him with water tentacles or knocking out half his teeth. The audience cheered loudly at the casual violence and ninja's reactions ranged from impressed to disturbed, mostly depending on experience. Umihiko's own teammates didn't even register this as violence.
A quick glance at Akio revealed his apathy towards the exhibit, hinting that this display of power was typical. But the Uchiha was a different story. While his body language was neutral and his face was void of emotion, his chakra told a different story. He was skilled enough to tame his chakra's feel and given that he was an Uchiha, probably its look as well. Given that Suimi hadn't started taunting him, he was probably even good enough to cover up the sound of his chakra. But few ninja paid attention to how their chakra smelled. There were plenty of ninja with sharp noses, but most were trackers, not sensors and couldn't smell chakra. This was why Umihiko had chosen smell instead of the more common 'sight' and 'sound' variations of the Asaka hiden ninjutsu.
The Uchiha had already displayed a distaste towards violence during his fight, but this cemented Umihiko's deduction. His reaction to his leader's toying around was clear disgust, revulsion, a little guilt, lots of angst but no surprise or shock. Seeing as Akio was apathetic to violence and wasn't surprised by Michiko's display, this hinted that while Michiko's power was expected, the violence behind it was new. Given that the Uchiha had displayed a strong sense of loyalty to Michiko at the Kazekage tower, it was likely that his first exposure to Michiko's violence had been during the second phase. Looking at the sudden change in their team dynamics, this had led to a team falling out with Akio hating the Uchiha and the Uchiha feeling guilty for feeling disgusted by his leader.
It was amazing what one could deduce from the smell of another's chakra and connecting a couple of dots.
But what bothered Umihiko more than anything was how Michiko could control the smell of her chakra. Suimi had confirmed that she could control the sound of her chakra. With her status as a sensor and an Uchiha on her team, she could likely control the look and feel of her chakra as well.
Why would she invest time to controlling the smell of her chakra with so many other skills and a busy schedule? Back when they fought during the second phase, she was completely unsurprised by their team's strength and even seemed to expect it. This wasn't that surprising, she was a sensor and had an Uchiha on her team after all, but she knew of their specific abilities and jutsu.
Outside of their group, no one knew that Suimi's father was from a different clan or that Suimi knew the Ice Release. If anyone found out, it would be grounds for execution. But when Suimi used the Ice Release, she wasn't the least bit surprised and even knew how to counter it. She had anticipated Umihiko's abilities and her trap barrier had been modified to account for his sense of smell. Even if she was Akua, Suimi and Umihiko had joined long after her supposed death. Kaichi could've told her, but if they had established contact, she would have no need to ask them to pass a message.
Umihiko observed as Michiko's excited face quickly faded into boredom and the audience started loudly demanding the Iwa-nin's death. Michiko sighed and her bloodlust seemed to have calmed down a lot. She was still a little pissed off, but it was easily manageable. With no hand movements, she created a showy explosive seal three stories in diameter in midair. The crowd's cheers rose, egging her on and she set it off. The Iwa-nin flew through and slammed into the same crater that Itachi and Akio had slammed their opponents into.
But Michiko wasn't finished yet. The explosive seal shot forward and shrunk down, stopping right before the Iwa-nin. Before the Iwa-nin had time to register his impending death, she set off the explosion.
The Iwa-nin didn't stand a chance. His body was completely ripped apart and he was reduced to nothing more than a bloodstain. The force of the explosion proved to be too much for the heavily damaged wall. Some of the Iwa-nin's organs splattered onto the barrier, right before the nobles and the audience close to the explosion screamed as they watched the body parts fall to the ground with a 'splat'. As the wall exploded outwards, blood and debris rained across the field. With a hand seal, Michiko manipulated the blood so it won't hit her, showing that she was capable of taking over liquid with a foreign chakra signature, a skill reserved for the best water users.
The audience who had been demanding the Iwa-nin's death just seconds ago was completely silent. With a quick sniff, Umihiko confirmed that Michiko had felt nothing from killing the Iwa-nin. Not a single drop of enjoyment. It had been a calculated move. Michiko turned towards the audience and spoke loudly and clearly, making sure everyone heard her.
"What's wrong? Isn't this what you wanted?"
As Michiko walked off the field, Ian gave a low whistle.
"Damn, that girl sure knows how to make a statement."