174. Shino vs Izumi

Everyone looked at the digital board. Izumi was surprised because the first match was different from what happened in canon. In addition, the first match was…

"...cough…Aburame Shino…cough cough…versus…Miyamura Izumi."

While coughing, Hayate announced the first match.

At that time, Naruto wasn't interested in the match that was announced, but instead, he looked at Hayate and said to Sasuke and Sakura.

"Doesn't the examiner look pale? He's coughing too. Is he okay?"

Before Sasuke or Sakura could answer, someone's hand tapped them from behind. They were surprised.

"Ah, Kakashi-sensei." Three of them exclaimed.

"You guys are good to qualify for this round, I'm proud of you."

"Hehehe, you could say, we're in luck." Naruto answered awkwardly while scratching his head.

"Oh, why did you say that?"

"Because, Izumi saved us when we were attacked by Orochimaru. After they fought for a while, Orochimaru fled." Sakura in turn answered.

"Fled?" Kakashi was surprised. He didn't think Izumi was strong enough to contend against Orochimaru. He thought Izumi planned something else against him.

"Yeah. He is too strong, I saw his fight against Orochimaru. I'm thankful he didn't become my opponent this time." Sakura replied.

When Kakashi wanted to respond to Sakura's words, he saw Kurenai, Guy, and Asuma who were each with their teams, coming in his direction. Kakashi whispered to his team.

"We'll talk about this later, don't tell the others about Orochimaru! Or they'll be worried."

At Kakashi's request, they nodded.

"Hahaha, my eternal rival, I didn't expect your team to make it this far." Guy, with a booming voice said to Kakashi while laughing.

Kakashi didn't look at Guy, he was talking to Asuma and Kurenai instead.

"It doesn't seem like a coincidence that your team made it to the final round, Asuma, Kurenai."

Asuma twitched his cheek and said.

"That should be my line."

"Oh no. My eternal rival ignored me, how cruel."

"Hahahaha."

Seeing Guy whining at being ignored by Kakashi actually made Asuma and Kurenai laugh.

On the other hand, the members from each team who were under the tutelage of Asuma and Kurenai approached Naruto's team.

Well, they were closer than Neji's team since they graduated from the academy at the same time. They naturally knew each other pretty well.

"Yo, Naruto. How is it going?"

The one who talked to Naruto was a guy with a hooded fur-lined coat, and the hood placed on his head. He is Inuzuka Kiba. He approached Naruto along with Hinata.

"Oh Kiba, you qualified for this round as well?"

"What do you mean to qualify in this round as well? That should be my line." Kiba was a little annoyed that Naruto seemed to expect him not to qualify in this round. Meanwhile, Hinata, with a flushed face, spoke to Naruto in a low voice.

"co...ratu..tion."

"Umm, what did you say?" Naruto didn't hear what Hinata said, but Kiba did.

"She said congratulations."

"Oh, thanks. You're weird Hinata. Your voice is too low, I can't hear it, you know. Are you okay?"

With what he said, Ino was the one who looked annoyed because it was obvious when she saw Hinata was interested in Naruto.

"The first match, Shino against that person huh? He had such bad luck." Shikamaru who saw the first match felt that the match would end in no time.

"You think Shino will lose? Hehe, just watch. You don't know that Shino is smart in observing opponents."

Kiba disagreed with what Shikamaru said. Kiba himself understood very well that Shino was so thorough in finding loopholes to take down his opponent.

But, Shikamaru just shook his head while glancing at the arena.

— — — —

Meanwhile, Izumi and Shino were already in the middle of the arena facing each other.

"Start!"

Hayate started a duel between the two. But the two participants did not move at all. Shino glanced at Izumi while saying.

"I know you're strong. But, you can't defeat me."

Izumi curled his mouth as he smirked at Shino.

"How confident. Did you mean these things will make you win?" With his fingers, Izumi was seen catching two bugs. Shino's eyes opened wide while looking at Izumi. Shino secretly ordered his bugs to suck Izumi's chakra, but unexpectedly Izumi caught them. Then he saw Izumi who was about to do something.

"Haah!"

Izumi seemed to be releasing the wind from his entire body and blasting all of the bugs that came to him. Izumi didn't kill those since the match would be boring if he ended it all at once.

"Oh right, I can use those things to learn the preciseness of my sword." When he saw Shino's bugs, he thought of trying something new. Izumi drew the sword from the scabbard, then he closed his eyes while holding his sword.

Tabane slapped her forehead when she realized what Izumi wanted to do.

"Achaaa, he starting again."

"Didn't he think that he looked like looking down on his opponent too much?"

Rori also realized what Izumi wanted to do.

"He probably doesn't care about their thoughts anyway."

Even though Tabane and Rori's conversation was a bit distant from the Hokage, he could still hear them.

"Hmm, what did you mean?"

Warrod, who was not far from the Hokage, answered with a smile.

"I apologize in advance if that boy's behavior seems unpleasant to you. If I'm not mistaken, he is trying to perfect his sword art."

"Oh. Did he use them to perfect his Kenjutsu? He is quite something."

Then the Hokage's gaze focused on Izumi.

"Bousui no Jin."

Shino used his bugs to attack Izumi in a circular motion to stop him from moving.

But with a quick hand movement, Izumi swung his sword while spinning and slashed at the bugs. However, even though Izumi seemed fast, there were still bugs that escaped due to the difference in his range and movement of his sword which was not comparable to the number of bugs that Shino released. His sword flow was right on target, but Izumi's attacks seemed to have no effect due to the large number of bugs attacking him.

Feeling it was useless to only use a pure sword slash, Izumi infused his Devil Fruit power to his sword. The whirlwind circled around his sword and even created small wind blades that could be controlled at will.

The moment Izumi swung his sword against the bugs, the wind blades also launched and created a larger range of his swing.

Some of the bugs were killed, and some weren't.

Izumi hadn't fought seriously, yet most of Shino's bugs already fell. In just a few minutes, Shino had already started to pant.

He used a lot of chakras to control the bugs. But it ended with no good result.

Each swing of Izumi's sword slash was too dreadful. If Shino didn't put more chakra, a lot of his bugs would die instantly. If his bugs got a direct attack from Izumi's sword, they would split in half in an instant.

Feeling that he had no other choice, Shino used several jutsu at once.

"Hijutsu: Mushitatsumaki."

"Kidaichuu: Mushikui"

One of these Jutsu was used to attack Izumi with his bugs that form a tornado. And the other Jutsu was to use bugs to eat the flesh and chakra of his opponent.

Although the Jutsu was indeed dangerous, thanks to his perfect bug control, Shino could stop his bugs before killing the opponent.

After releasing the two Ninjutsus, Shino felt exhausted. The chakra used for both was quite huge. He had already run out of chakra.

Meanwhile, Izumi felt that the Jutsu that Shino had just released was not as dangerous as it seemed. Detecting the bugs by using his Haki, Izumi sensed some bugs crawling from behind, intending to attack him.

With his left hand, he formed a sphere of wind that caught all the bugs. The sphere pulled the bugs into the middle of the sphere and prevented all those bugs from escaping. Then, his right hand swung his sword backward and stabbed at some of the bugs that were behind him.

Shino couldn't believe it, even his strongest attack still failed to take down Izumi.

"I give up."

He was running out of chakra, and Izumi wasn't out of breath at all. There was no way he could defeat Izumi with his depleted chakra.

"The.. cough cough... the winner is Miyamura Izumi."