With narrowed eyes, I focused on the two opponents. Well, more or less. It was a bit difficult to concentrate on the one if one was permanently stared at by another person.

It was one of the chunin who had stood behind the Hokage before. He had long black hair and eerie yellow eyes, which were so narrow that they could have come from a snake. In addition, Gaara was standing right next to him, who had now also caught my gaze and was looking at me with piercing eyes.

Great. The next one who watched me permanently. However, I did not make myself any friends at all. It would be fun when it was my turn to fight. But for now, maybe I should watch Sasuke's first, because that could get interesting.

He was fast, I had to admit. Agile and strong at the same time. Through clenched teeth, I watched the Uchiha fight and vaguely heard Naruto cheering on his teammate. I wonder if anyone would support me like he did. That would be nice. Just to have that feeling that there was one person who believed in me and my abilities and...

I froze. Yoroi had pressed Sasuke's head to the ground with his hand. The hand lit up in a bright blue and Sasuke groaned in pain. The situation seemed hopeless. But the black-haired man's strength was clearly weakening.

My hands began to tremble as I looked helplessly down at the Uchiha writhing in pain. Even if I didn't like him, I couldn't see something like that, especially since his opponent seemed to enjoy inflicting pain on him. He wasn't right in the head anymore. Not a normal person...

Whereby... Here some were not so completely normal, as I had already noticed. Shakily, my hands tightened around the railing, so much so that my knuckles stood out white.

„M-my chakra. It's disappearing. You're taking it away from me," Sasuke groaned exhaustedly, and Yoroi began to laugh. Ice cold chills ran down my spine at that.

Sasuke's hand clenched into a fist, pushing his opponent off of him. I breathed a sigh of relief. At least he still had some of his strength. That was a good sign. The only question was how long he would hold out.

Again, and again, he dodged the attacks of the other ninja. More or less staggering. With his strength he seemed to be pretty much at the end.

„MAN SASUKE. WHAT KIND OF CRAP WAS THAT? AND YOU WANT TO BE AN UCHIHA?", Naruto shouted down from the stands then.

The black-haired boy began to stir and slightly turned his head towards his teammate. Something shone in his eyes. Determination.

Naruto had actually made him develop some will again, and that was a good thing, because Yoroi was about to launch his next attack. As before, he dodged his blows, but something was different.

And then from one second to the next, he had dived away under the blow, braced himself on the ground with one hand, and with a clean slash of the leg, sent Yoroi flying. A maneuver that left me amazed.

The Uchiha leapt after him, but something was wrong. His whole body began to tense up and I noticed that the mark on his shoulder began to spread across his face, arms, and legs. He seemed to be in terrible pain.

But all at once the marks began to recede and Sasuke was able to move again. With purposeful kicks and punches, he carried Yoroi toward the ground and finally knocked his opponent down. Naruto began to cheer.

But something was wrong. Yoroi was beaten, but Sasuke seemed not well at all. Dazed, the Uchiha sat on the ground holding his aching shoulder. Kakashi appeared behind the Uchiha and kept the Medic-Nin at a distance, who wanted to take care of the black-haired boy. Then he helped Sasuke up and disappeared with him in a cloud of smoke.

It seems like he wanted to take care of Sasuke's injury or mark himself. How was a mystery to me. But he would already know a solution.

The next two fighters were Shino and Zaku.

Right at the beginning of the fight it looked bad for the Aburame because his opponent didn't even give him the chance to fight back. But once again he surprised us and came out of the attack almost unscathed.

Then it was his turn. As if at an invisible sign, he let all the little insects come out. Zaku, who was completely surprised by this sudden move, took a few steps back. Shino had already made an impression on him once. Now he only had to win this fight.

He let the insects crawl towards the unsuspecting man from behind. Cleverly done. For Zaku it would be difficult to fight on two fronts. For now, he seemed overwhelmed. Fear dominated his emotions. Made his whole body tremble. No wonder. If I had been in this situation, I would have reacted similarly, knowing the things Shino could do with the bugs.

But all at once, the expression in Zaku's eyes began to change, giving way to a fierce determination that I had usually only seen in Naruto. A will had flared up in them, like a bright fire in a cold night.

„That's enough. You've done it. Now I'm really angry."

And with those words, he stretched both arms from himself. One hand aimed at Shino, while the other held the insects at bay. Slightly the Aburame flinched back. Nothing could be read from his face, but it seemed unmistakable that he was as surprised as all of us. No one had expected Zaku to be able to move his arm at all, since it was broken... Or was this just a farce?

With arms trembling with effort and tension, Zaku stood in front of Shino and seemed to concentrate. And then there was a long drawn-out bang, it sounded like air escaping, only much louder. My eyes widened in horror as I took a good look at the scene before me. Blue chakra sprang from Zaku's arms, seeming to burst forth from them. The boy's face was covered with pain, fright, and fear. Then he collapsed.

Then I understood what had happened. Shino had let his insects crawl into the channels on Zaku's hands and thus blocked the exits for the chakra, but since this needed a way out, it had looked for another way and... I felt sick and turned my head away, I could not bear this sight any longer.

„Respect Shino. Well done," Kiba complimented the Aburame, while I just nodded at him. The fight was still in my limbs. Actually, I didn't want to see any more, but I had to, I still had a fight ahead of me myself.

„Hmm. Why don't you take me as an example," Shino replied with satisfaction, turning to the digital board. Something in Kiba's face twitched dangerously. Uh. He didn't seem to like the way Shino had reacted at all. Well, once he started fighting, he could blow off all the steam on his opponent.

A loud bang made me wince. But it was only Kakashi, who looked as usual pretty freaked out.

Immediately Sasuke began to pester him with questions about Sasuke, to which I listened with half an ear. When I heard that the Uchiha was doing reasonably well, I turned away again. That was all I wanted to know. Now I could concentrate on the next fight and...

Misumi Tsurugi against Kankuro.

With a wide grin, the Suna-Nin entered the field. I drew my eyebrows together. He clearly seemed to feel confident of victory. My fingers tightened around the railing. Hopefully, he would survive this fight. Although I detested his arrogance, I still liked the Suna-Nin very much.

Naruto's expression, on the other hand, began to darken more and more. Hands were clenched into fists. With an angry look, the Uzumaki stared down at him, while Hinata inevitably began to tense up next to me. I couldn't blame her, after all, he had almost killed her.

For a brief moment, the Suna-Nin's gaze passed through the spectators and lingered on me. A smirk crept onto his lips before he turned to his opponent.

Piercing. I don't think I could have described Naruto's gaze any other way now as he bore into me. Kankuro. That damned idiot. Even if he didn't know it, he was getting me into even worse trouble than before. Fiercely, I clenched my teeth. Don't get excited. Don't get excited. Breathe in, breathe out, get down. Kabuto would pay for that.

„The first blow decides the victory."

But Kankuro blocked this one without much effort. Once again, I was reminded of the power of the Suna-nin, the other was a lot bigger and possibly also experienced... What was that. In a flash, Misuki's arm had wrapped itself around the puppet master's arm. The same thing happened to all the other limbs of Kankuros body. Startled, I stared at the image that presented itself to me. Fear shot up inside me. The first time I feared for the life of an opponent. But was he really that for me?

There was a short crack and Kankuros head dangled strangely twisted. Silence reigned. No one dared to say anything and Misuki seemed sure of his victory. But all at once the Suna-Nin turned his head and the eyes of a puppet looked at us. I grinned. Now Misuki was lost. Once in the clutches of a puppet, he would not be able to free himself from it so easily.

Relentlessly, their arms closed around the body of the helpless man and held him tight. Misuki began to tremble with fear and pain as the real Kankuro now appeared before him.

Without question. As an opponent, Kankuro was really no pleasure. Everyone would have his difficulties with him. With the last of his strength, the other ninja finally conceded defeat before slumping to the ground along with the puppet.

Kankuro laughed triumphantly and I breathed a sigh of relief. He had not only survived the fight, but also won. Grinning, I nodded at him before turning back to the scoreboard and freezing in motion.

Tora vs. Kabuto Yakushi.