Ninja Pot Shadow

He remained calm and had not made any mistakes in the battle so far. Faced with an overwhelming barrage of B-rank ninjutsu, even a Jonin would not be able to outmaneuver him. However, his decline was becoming increasingly apparent.

Chapter 136 I was given a chance, but you were useless!

Ino couldn't find the so-called 359-degree blind spot; her chakra was plentiful, so she didn't bother to figure it out.

In order to maintain his resurrection, Neji ran out of chakra in less than five minutes of the match.

The people outside the venue grew increasingly quiet.

Many people, including Shikamaru and Choji, knew about Ino's feat of fighting the three members of Kirigakure single-handedly.

But that was just talk; without personal experience, there was basically no real understanding.

Ino often says things like "the three of them are beating me up," so everyone's understanding of her strength has always been vague. But seeing her use a lot of ninjutsu to easily defeat Hyuga Neji, they finally have a clearer understanding of her abilities.

With her fast hand seals, abundant chakra, strong ninjutsu, and superior timing in battle, Ino's turret-like fighting style has once again refreshed everyone's impression of her.

The genin, including the two other genin from Sunagakure besides Gaara, all asked their jonin leaders what to do when they encountered this kind of enemy.

The Jonin's answers were similar: either they would launch a full-scale attack, risking injury to kill their opponent, or they would run as far away as possible. They only had these two options.

Neji Hyuga cannot run away; he can only fight!

Under Tian Tian's slightly worried gaze, he quickened his pace to return to Tian Tian.

He swayed to the left, knocking away two wind blades; then circled halfway to the right, and with a quick twist of his hands, he severed a clay gun that was fired from the side.

The Eight Trigrams Return to Heaven was like a giant blue spinning top, rushing rapidly towards Ino's direction.

He attempted a final assault.

"You lost."

The three Ino seals are the same.

Three surging water dragons rose from the ground, from the left, center, and right, fiercely resisting the ever-advancing Bagua·Huitian from three directions, like three dragons playing with a pearl.

The three Ino used Kosuke's Water Dragon Bullet technique, holding the last "Tiger" seal tightly, and lingered for a long time. Each time the water dragon rushed over the outer wall of the Eight Trigrams Rotation, it would absorb a small portion of Neji's chakra.

Kosuke's chakra was not as good as the Second Hokage's, nor as good as Ino's "essence" of 8 points, which was comparable to Tsunade's. So he tried to weaken the enemy, and this technique of absorbing the enemy's chakra with the Water Dragon Bullet was his brilliant idea.

Hyuga Neji didn't have much chakra left. He had been maintaining the Rotation Technique for a long time, and now he was being absorbed by the three water dragons. His chakra was being rapidly depleted, and finally the Rotation Technique had an opening. The three water dragons rushed in together, then intertwined with each other, turning into a tornado that lifted Hyuga Neji into the air. He spun around for more than ten seconds before crashing heavily to the ground.

Neji lay on the ground, coughing up blood repeatedly. His body was covered in cuts from the water dragon, with more than thirty dense wounds. He clenched his fists and struggled for a long time but could not stand up.

"Neji, that's enough." Might Guy was indeed a good teacher. Worried that Ino would continue her attack, he stepped in front of his disciple without saying a word.

"I haven't lost yet..." Neji's physical and mental strength were completely depleted, his vision was blurry, and his chakra was almost exhausted. At this point, let alone turning the tide, he could barely even throw a punch.

Matt Kay patted him on the shoulder: "That's enough. You've proven yourself. You haven't let your hard work go to waste. We can only achieve success through failure."

Might Guy's motivational speech was useless. Neji wanted to say something more, but he was too exhausted to even speak.

The arena was quite quiet. Ino deactivated her Shadow Clone Technique. She wasn't surprised by the result. Neji's strength was definitely that of a Chunin, but what about her? She was now a standard Special Jonin, and there was a considerable gap between them.

Gaara's sand was nearly invincible during the Chunin Exams, but when facing Might Guy, it was shattered with just a wave of his hand. The difference between Gaara and elite Jonin like Guy is obvious.

The Sound Four also seemed very strong, but it was only through a four-on-two battle, the activation of their cursed seals, and a desperate all-out effort that they managed to defeat Genma Shiranui and Raido Namiashi.

Excluding overpowered characters like Naruto and Sasuke, the strength gap between Chunin, Special Jonin, and Jonin is actually quite large.

In just five short minutes, Ino used more than thirty different ninjutsu techniques, including water, earth, and wind.

Isn't it normal for a mage to create distance and defeat a warrior who has activated Shield Wall?

After waiting a while, she coughed and waved to the audience.

Moonlight Gale paused for a moment, then quickly ran over.

He looked around and saw that the originally flat arena had been washed three times by Water Release, Earth Release, Wind Release, and Eight Trigrams Return to Heaven. Now the arena was full of potholes and there was basically no place to put his feet.

He was fairly familiar with Ino, and at this moment he directly retorted, "You've damaged the venue like this, are you planning to pay compensation directly, or postpone payment?"

Ino was furious when she heard this. "You want money from me? I'm the one who ruined this? Don't slander good people!"

Pointing to the large crater in the ground, she began to shift the blame: "That's clearly Neji's spinning attack..."

Moonlight Gale coughed, reminding her: "...Eight Trigrams - Return to Heaven".

Ino punched her left palm with her right fist, looking as if she had just realized something: "That's right, Bagua·Huitian! This is all the damage he caused by using that Huitian rotation."

She frantically shifted the blame, pointing at the wall: "We may be close, but you can't slander me. Look at these marks. They look like they were made by my ninjutsu, but what's the truth? They were actually thrown out by the 'Returning Heaven' technique! If you put a rock in front of your house, and a child uses the rock to smash Xiyan's window, can you say that you broke the window?"

Moonlight Gale was speechless. Why did you bring up my girlfriend out of the blue? And why did you smash her window? But after explaining it this way, it does seem to make some sense.

After all, he was acquainted with Ino, and after hearing this theory about smashing the glass, he subconsciously looked towards Hyuga Neji.

Encouraged by Might Guy's passionate words, the Hyuga clan genius was trying to stand up when he heard such shameless remarks. Enraged, he spat out a mouthful of blood and fainted completely.

Ino shrugged and looked at Gekko Hayate, meaning, "Look, I know you're deliberately stalling for time, rambling on and on with me, trying to get him to stand up and admit defeat gracefully. But you gave him the chance, and he's useless!"

Ino forcefully shirked responsibility, and then managed to get half of the blame from Hyuga Neji.

Including what she threw at Temari, she now has two pots.

Ino stood waiting on the bumpy, uneven playing field.

Moonlight Gale coughed forcefully: "Cough cough—!"

Upon noticing that Might Guy was standing still, looking around as if waiting for the medical team's ninjas, he coughed again.

Finally, I had to remind him, "Kai, this is the preliminary round of the Chunin Exams!"

The incredibly passionate Kai realized that it was indeed inappropriate for him to be standing there.

He nodded and bowed repeatedly before running back to the stands like a gust of wind.

Gekko Hayate raised a hand and shouted, "Yamano Ino Katsu!"

Chapter 137 The Preliminaries End

After the referee announced Ino's victory, the medical team immediately rushed onto the field to treat Neji. The medical ninja examined his injuries and immediately carried him away on a stretcher. Tenten was also sent to the hospital along with him. She had been beaten up by a strongman who wished to remain anonymous, but she was still holding on because she wanted to watch Neji's match.

After the match, he naturally went to the hospital for treatment.

First Hinata, then Neji; the two heroes of the Hyuga clan were both hospitalized one after the other.

There are two more matches to go.

The scene reeked of blood. Ino's ninjutsu completely stirred up Gaara's killing intent. He forcefully crushed Tosu of the Sound Village with "Sand Coffin". Afterwards, with the constant comforting from Temari, Kankuro and his sister, and Jonin Baki, he finally managed to suppress the violence in his heart.

The final match was between Rock Lee and Kiba Inuzuka. Both were extremely fast ninjas, but in the end, Rock Lee prevailed and secured the last spot, becoming the only genin from Team 3 led by Might Guy to advance to the official tournament.

One student from Class 3 advanced, two from Class 7, two from Class 8, and two from Class 10. The competition was incredibly fair...

Sasuke, Shino Aburame, Kankuro, Hinata, Temari, Shikamaru, Naruto, Ino, Gaara, and Rock Lee—ten of them advanced to the official tournament. Seven were from Konoha, and three were from Sunagakure. All the smaller ninja villages were eliminated, which is quite fair.

Next comes the drawing of lots.

Ino drew number one right away.

The final match order is Ino vs. Temari, Gaara vs. Shino Aburame, Naruto vs. Rock Lee, Shikamaru vs. Hinata, and Kankuro vs. Sasuke.

Due to the tournament format, it was impossible to determine the top four from ten people. The Third Hokage and Maki, the Jonin leading the Sand Village team, had a brief discussion and decided that the winners of Shikamaru and Hinata's team, as well as Kankuro and Sasuke's team, would play an extra match on the day of the tournament to determine the top four.

Maki nodded in agreement. "Whatever, we'll agree to whatever you say..."

The official competition is in a month.

The Third Hokage began his long speech with the words, "Make good use of this month to enrich yourself and present your strongest form during the competition."

A month later, the ten of them will compete under the watchful eyes of famous figures, wealthy merchants, and political leaders from various countries to determine the ultimate winner.

"How boring."

She doesn't mind competing against people from the same village, and she can even accept a life-or-death battle against an enemy ninja. But Ino really dislikes this kind of monkey show competition. As someone who possesses great strength, she doesn't have to be arrogant in front of ordinary people, but she should at least have some respect for them.

Why should those weak-willed politicians watch them fight? It's not like in the past when culture and sports were inseparable. Ninjutsu isn't a form of entertainment for everyone; it's about killing. Is it really necessary to let those stupid, pig-like politicians come to watch and use these ninjas as a gamble? If we're talking about deterrence, wouldn't it be more intimidating for a Jonin to unleash two large-scale ninjutsu?

The sight of ninjas fighting fiercely below, while a group of people sat above, commenting and observing, made her uncomfortable; she felt like she was some kind of exhibit.

Shikamaru glanced at her and whispered a warning: "Hey, hey, I can say these things, but you, the genius, can't say them..."

"I was just complaining a bit."

The Third Hokage spoke ramblingly for an hour and a half before announcing the disbandment of the group, telling everyone to go home and prepare.

Naruto ran outside shouting. He had just witnessed Ino using Wind Release ninjutsu and had a sudden inspiration. He had finally completed the development of Wind Release chakra. He rushed to find Kakashi, hoping that the other party would teach him two Wind Release ninjutsu. It didn't matter if he couldn't learn them for a while, he could use five hundred shadow clones to practice!

Class 10 walked out of the central tower together and encountered Asma.

Ino and Shikamaru both made it to the official tournament, while only Choji was eliminated by Naruto, which shows that Asuma's teaching was effective.

He readily agreed, saying, "You all played well. It's on me. Let's go eat ramen."

Choji was somewhat dejected after being defeated by Naruto, and upon hearing this, he exclaimed, "What? Ramen? What happened to the grilled meat?!"

He swayed his shoulders and pushed with his hips, forcibly shoving Shikamaru and Ino aside, his tone tinged with disappointment: "Asuma-sensei, haven't we been eating barbecue all along?"

Asuma chuckled dryly. The mutual explosion tags were really causing a lot of trouble! Eating barbecue? He even borrowed the money for this ramen from his friend Jiroku! He's now reduced to borrowing money from monks, how pathetic!

"Eating barbecue all the time is bad for your blood vessels. It's good to change things up. Ramen is actually quite delicious!" He forced himself to come up with a reason.

Class 10 ended up having a meal at Ichiraku Ramen, and I have to say, it was pretty delicious.

After finishing her ramen, Ino said goodbye to Asuma and her friends and strolled home.

Orochimaru's appearance at the Chunin Exams kept the village's Jonin very busy, and the intelligence system was even busier. Inoichi didn't even go to watch Ino's match; he only asked about it after dinner that night.

She didn't say much. After all, Neji was a member of the Hyuga branch family, and defeating him would not bring as much prestige as defeating Chojuro.

Haiyi simply asked a few questions. Neji was hospitalized, while his own daughter went home for dinner as if nothing had happened. The outcome was self-evident.

He asked about the arrangements for the next month. The village wouldn't assign any tasks to the participating genin for that month, so Ino naturally had to leave the village to continue learning from Tsunade.

Tsunade's whereabouts are too elusive; without the support of an entire intelligence system, finding her would be quite difficult.

The next day, Ino picked two flowers by the roadside and then went to the hospital to visit the two heroes of the Hyuga family.

Hinata was mainly exhausted, but she'll be fine after a night's rest.

Neji's injuries were all superficial; as a master of taijutsu, these kinds of injuries were nothing serious.

Tenten is talking to Neji in the hospital room, while Lee and Might Guy, the master and apprentice, are jumping rope in the courtyard outside the hospital building.