Naruto: Rebuilding the Hidden Sand

Guy went completely serious.

He opened the Fourth Gate of the Eight Inner Gates and produced his weapon, a pair of nunchucks.

Then with the force of lightning he deployed his taijutsu techniques, like a Konoha gale, repeatedly breaking through the puppet user's defensive formations with raw force and precision.

Landing strikes on the puppet user one after another.

Facing the threat of puppet mechanical arms and toxic mist, Guy pressed forward without fear, maintaining his attack momentum and fighting spirit.

The outcome was predictable. Against Guy's overwhelming speed and taijutsu assault, even the puppet user's iron will to hold out could only last so long before his eyes rolled back and he completely lost consciousness, sent flying to the ground by a nunchuck strike.

"That is..." Shimizu's expression shifted slightly, genuine surprise showing.

What had surprised him was the terrifying chakra energy this young man named Guy had released. And he could also see that this powerful taijutsu still appeared to have room to grow further.

Although the opponent was still only a Chunin, his actual combat capability was likely something even an ordinary Jonin would struggle to handle. Because with this level of taijutsu enhancement, the young man's fighting strength had undergone a qualitative transformation.

Shimizu also noticed that Guy understood the power behind his own strikes, because even when landing hits on the puppet user he had been visibly holding back his force.

With enormous chakra being activated throughout his body, Guy appeared to have developed a brief resistance to the toxic mist.

At this level of performance, Konoha's win in this match had been a dominant one.

"Konoha's Might Guy wins!"

The referee announced the result.

The crowd erupted in cheering.

Konoha's villagers showed intense excitement. Seeing a Sand Village fighter defeated was deeply satisfying for many of them.

However, after releasing the Eight Inner Gates, Guy could barely stay standing. He had still been affected by the toxic mist and was carrying some external wounds, and was helped off the floor by Asuma.

Then came the final match of the Chunin division.

This was also the match that seemed to have no real suspense on the surface, because Uchiha Shisui was simply too young. He appeared to have no business being in this second-tier division at all. It was like a middle school student bullying an elementary school student.

From Shimizu's perspective, Fuma Josam had a significant advantage. At this age, the Uchiha clan's young prodigy most likely had not yet awakened his Sharingan.

Even with extraordinary innate talent, an awakened Sharingan at the Genin level would provide real assistance. But at the Chunin level, as long as Fuma Josam was careful, he should be able to handle the situation.

Furthermore, Fuma Josam had mastered the Fuma clan's spider secret techniques and was himself one of the village's priority cultivation prospects. His strength was genuinely not bad.

But what Yuji was paying attention to was not this.

He was watching the audience's reaction to Uchiha Shisui's entry onto the floor.

Compared to the enthusiastic cheering that had greeted Asuma and the other three competitors before him, when the Konoha villagers saw Uchiha Shisui walk out, the reaction was strikingly subdued. Only scattered and sparse applause. A clear and visible contrast with how the previous three had been received.

Clearly also a Konoha person. And yet the Uchiha clan was being treated as though their presence brought no joy.

"It has already reached this level," Yuji thought quietly.

Shisui was only a child. And people should naturally be more forgiving toward young children. Yet Konoha's people were directing all of their attitudes and pressures toward the Uchiha clan squarely onto this small boy.

Not a shred of generosity.

Yuji did not believe for a moment that Danzo had not been quietly stirring anti-Uchiha sentiment within the village.

But looking at Shisui's reaction, his psychological composure was extraordinary. Even without the crowd's cheering behind him, he remained completely calm.

And he was extremely polite, greeting Fuma Josam who stood across from him with proper courtesy first.

By contrast, Fuma Josam carried himself with obvious arrogance, giving Shisui barely a glance.

Of course, this arrogance did not reflect a flawed character but rather the confidence of a Sand Village member, combined with the absolute determination to defeat the small opponent in front of him.

The match before his had seen the puppet user at least fight Might Guy hard before losing. If he himself lost to a seven-year-old child, that would simply be deeply humiliating.

Furthermore, like Uchiha Shisui, Fuma Josam also came from a clan with standing in the ninja world. The Fuma clan was now a recognized name within the Sand Village.

In short, no matter what, he had to win.

Two wins and two losses. At minimum, he needed to bring the Chunin division to a draw for the Sand Village.

The referee's whistle sounded. Fuma Josam's pupils contracted sharply and he struck first, immediately forming seals and pressing both hands to the ground.

"Earth Style: Ant Hell Technique!"

He called out with a quiet shout.

The ground beneath them instantly transformed into a spiraling vortex of flowing sand, pulling everything toward the deep pit forming at its center.

Shisui appeared to have been caught off guard. Both feet sank into the flowing earth as he was pulled toward the deepening spiral, on the verge of being swallowed.

At that moment, several fireballs shot in from a distance and cut through Fuma Josam's attack.

In the moment of danger, Shisui activated Fire Release to break free.

Fuma Josam spun through the air and landed back on the ground. With a shake of his sleeve, a large mass of dense white spiders crawled out and fell across the arena floor.

These spiders rapidly spread out in Shisui's direction.

And the moment these white spiders appeared, the air immediately filled with countless swaying threads of webbing, refracting the sunlight into shimmering lines in every direction. Silk sprayed from the spiders' bodies and seemed to be carried by the wind, instantly filling the entire space around them.

Fuma Josam allowed himself a satisfied smile.

In reality, the fight had already ended the moment it began.

From where Yuji and the others were watching, Shisui had made eye contact with Fuma Josam during their opening exchange, and Fuma Josam had been caught in a genjutsu from that instant onward.

Shisui had then simply used a single Body Flicker to appear behind Fuma Josam, pressing a kunai against his throat.

Fuma Josam had not even had a single opportunity to make a move.

What made it even more striking was that unlike Sakamoto's match against Kurenai, where Sakamoto had at least realized he had been caught in a genjutsu and attempted to dispel it even if a step too slow, Fuma Josam's expression and the chakra movement patterns within his body showed that he had not even realized he was in a genjutsu at all.

His entire consciousness was likely still trapped inside an illusion in his mind, possibly still experiencing what felt like an intense back-and-forth battle against Shisui with no clear winner.

"This child," Shimizu could not help drawing a sharp breath.

He himself now carried a Sharingan, a three-tomoe one at that. His understanding of the Sharingan's nature and capabilities far exceeded any outsider's.

So he could clearly see just how terrifying Shisui's eye technique was, and the scale of this young man's potential.

A massacre.

Fuma Josam had been made into a complete embarrassment by comparison.

The Sand Village's performance in the Chunin division had been genuinely difficult to look at. Only Yashamaru had managed to win a match.

"Konoha's Uchiha Shisui wins!"

The referee called it.

Only at this moment did Fuma Josam wake up.

He had not broken the genjutsu himself. Shisui had released it.

Looking at Fuma Josam's dazed expression, it was clear he himself did not fully understand what had just happened.

Yuji narrowed his eyes slightly, watching Shisui bow to his opponent and turn to walk off the floor.

Without any question, Shisui understood clearly what the village's senior leadership had wanted to see. Whether it was Konoha's senior figures in general or Danzo specifically, what they wanted was a dominant and overwhelming victory over the Sand Village. Not a hard-fought win after an extended exchange.

Konoha hoped this gathering would make the Sand Village recognize just how powerful Konoha's newer generation was, while simultaneously using the occasion to lift the village's morale and release the pent-up resentment from being suppressed by the Sand Village throughout the Third Great Ninja War.

So the intelligent Shisui had delivered a perfect performance. He had dismantled his opponent without giving Fuma Josam even the smallest opportunity to act, making the Sand Village lose face comprehensively in the process.

In doing this, Shisui was not only answering Konoha's senior leadership's expectations. He was also proving his own value. And on behalf of his clan, he was trying to use his personal strength to improve the Uchiha clan's current difficult standing within Konoha.

"The future wielder of the most powerful genjutsu, Kotoamatsukami. Still so young, and already showing the first signs of that terrifying eye ability."

"An eye like Shisui's absolutely cannot be allowed to fall into Danzo's hands."

Yuji rested one hand against his chin and turned this over quietly in his thoughts.

"Your Konoha truly is a blessed land. Talent keeps emerging one after another," he said, glancing at Minato beside him with a light teasing tone.

...

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