Kaito Chapter 97

Kaito Chapter 97

Mangetsu quickly regained his footing and skidded back on the ground before coming to a stop. But before he could react, Kaito flickered front of him, and said, "its is kinda getting bored, ya know. Sorry, but I think it's time to end this."

Suddenly, red lightning crackled and surged from Kaito's body as he called out the jutsu's name - "Red Lightning: Nagashi (Stream)." Multiple arcs of red lightning discharged in every direction from Kaito's body and struck Mangetsu.

The bolts of lightning struck Mangetsu, their effectiveness heightened by his body's water nature. As the Red lightning coursed through him, Mangetsu's body convulsed and contorted, unable to fully dissipate the electricity due to his watery form. He was thrown backward, crashing to the ground in a half-liquid state. Mangetsu lay motionless, knocked out by Kaito's "Red Lightning: Nagashi (Stream).".

….

Kaito stood tall over Mangetsu, still holding the bowl of ramen in his hands. He casually took a bite and slurped it. just then, the sound of Raido landing next to him caught his attention. Kaito turned to face him, raising an eyebrow at Raido who had been watching him intently as he nonchalantly ate his ramen.

Raido muttered "Cocky brat" under his breath before gesturing towards Kaito with a hand and announcing and then gesturing for the medic team, "The winner is Kaito Uzumaki!" The crowd erupted into cheers for Kaito as he continued to slurp down his soup with satisfaction.

Just as Kaito finished slurping down the soup, a blur appeared and tackled him in a hug. It was Hotaru, who quickly let go and bonked him on the head. "Ouch! That hurt ya know. Why is everyone always hitting me?" Kaito exclaimed while rubbing his sore head.

Hotaru huffed and turned her head away, scolding him, "You deserved it for scaring us like that!"

Just then, the medical team arrived to take Mangetsu away on a stretcher.

In the crowd

Mei Terumi sat in the crowd, she watched the fight between Mangetsu and Kaito. "Konoha has some truly promising genin," she thought as Kaito easily dominated the fight. As the fight continued, Mei analyzed the fight, At first, she had thought that Mangetsu had truly won against the Uzumaki kid, only of it to be a shadow clone all along. The real Kaito appeared with a bowl of ramen in hand and effortlessly took down Mangetsu without breaking a sweat.

Watching Mangetsu being escorted away, Mei thought "First he took down Utakata without breaking a sweat, and now even Mangetsu, the strongest genin in the Hidden Mist Village in this generation," What kind of monster will that Uzumaki kid grow up to be? One thing is certain. he will live up to the Fourth Hokage's legacy.

Meanwhile, Kushina cheered for her son from the sidelines, her emotions subdued yet relieved that he was still alive after such a fierce battle.

Naruto's excitement knew no bounds as he jumped up and down, shouting "Woo Hoo Kaito-niisan won!" He then proceeded to shake Shikamaru in his excitement, much to the irritation of the Nara.

Releasing Shikamaru, Naruto turned to hug Hinata in his celebration. However, much to his surprise and concern, she fainted and went limp in his arms. Panic set in as he frantically tried to wake her up while Kushina, Hitomi, and Mikoto laughed at the comical sight.

Shikamaru simply shook his head, mumbling "Troublesome blonds."

Neji, seeing that Hinata had fainted, immediately rounded on Naruto. "Naruto, what did you do to Hinata-sama?" he demanded.

"I don't know! She just fainted like that!" Naruto replied in a panicked tone, not understanding what could have caused her to collapse.

As Hitomi leaned over and whispered to Naruto. "Hinata just fell asleep. Gently place her in the seat and let her lean against you." Naruto nodded in understanding, carefully lifting Hinata and placing her back in her seat. He positioned her so that her head rested on his shoulder, and Neji assisted in adjusting her position to make her more comfortable.

Meanwhile, Hiashi glared with his Byakugan activated, his eyes flickering between Naruto and Kaito. Naruto held a passed-out Hinata in his arms while Hotaru was hugging Kaito tightly on the arena floor. Hizashi pat his brother's shoulder and commented with a smirk, "It seems you will have two Uzumaki's in your family in the future."

Hiashi shot his brother a sharp look before telling him to "shut up." At the top of the bleachers, Kakashi stood beside Tenzo, calmly flipping through pages of his beloved 'Icha Icha Paradise.'

Tenzo let out a low whistle as he observed Kaito's performance. "That Hozuki kid didn't even stand a chance against him. And that trick with the clone? Brilliant, it probably fooled everyone. I know I would have fallen for it too."

Kakashi hummed nonchalantly, still engrossed in his book. "That was just a clone for the beginning. I wouldn't be surprised if Kaito was actually eating during the match. The clone may have even won if it hadn't gotten too cocky."

On the field

Kaito rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish grin. As he explained why he had sent a clone "I was hungry, ya know. And I couldn't let all that delicious food go to waste, so I sent my clone to fight in my place,".

As the medic-nin escorted the unconscious Mangetsu away, Raido turned towards Kaito and Hotaru. "If you two are done with your flirting," he interrupted them, " I'd like to move on to the next match."

Hotaru blushed and stammered, "We weren't flirting!"

Kaito raised an eyebrow at Raido's comment and retorted, "We're nine, turning ten." His expression made it clear that he thought Raido was being weird.

Kaito then turned to Hotaru and wished "Good luck, Hotaru-chan." patting her on the head before walking off to the waiting area. As he walked away, Raido announced "The next match will be between Hotaru Hyuga versus Chojuro of Kirigakure."

Chojuro walked past Kaito as he made his way up the stairs to the waiting area. Chojuro glanced at Kaito and thought, "He beat Mangetsu so easily while eating ramen. If his teammates are as strong as him, I need to be careful with that Hyuga girl."

Kaito's eyes followed Chojuro as they passed by each other. Chojuro then walked onto the field and stood opposite Hotaru, both of them waiting for Raido to start the match.

Raido glanced between Hotaru and Chojuro before asking, "Are you both ready?" After receiving nods from both, he declared, "Hajime!" signaling the start of the fight.

In the waiting area

As Kaito returned to the waiting area, he spotted Itachi leaning against the balcony railing, his eyes fixed on the arena floor. Kaito strolled over and joined his friend's side, receiving a curious look from Itachi. "Where were you?" Itachi asked as Kaito stood beside him.

Kaito simply shrugged in response, letting out a small laugh. "I was eating up in the stands with the others. I wasn't going to let my clone waste the food, ya know," he explained, Kaito pulled out a sealing scroll and unsealed several dozen sweet dango, offering them to Itachi. "Want some?"

Itachi accepted the treat and took a bite, savoring the dango before speaking again. "So, I take it Kushina-san didn't handle it well when she saw your clone 'dying'," he said with a knowing nod.

Kaito let out a sigh and rubbed his face, a hint of guilt crossing his expression. "Yeah, she was pretty upset. She thought I actually died. If only my clone didn't get so cocky at the end," he admitted, taking another bite of dango to distract himself from the memory.

Itachi nodded and hummed. "It's understandable. She is your mother."

A small frown tugged at Kaito's lips as he thought how distressed his mother was. "Yeah, I know. I'll have to make it up to her somehow," he muttered. Their attention then turned to the arena floor as Raido began the match between Hotaru and Chojuro.

On the field

As soon as the radio signaled the start of the match, Chojuro charged towards Hotaru with both of his swords drawn. Hotaru wasted no time and dropped into her taijutsu stance, ready to defend herself.

Closing the distance, Chojuro swung his left sword diagonally at her, but Hotaru was quick on her feet and leaped back to avoid the strike. Chojuro smoothly followed up with his right sword, aiming for her midsection. But once again, Hotaru evaded the attack by ducking under the blade. She retaliated with a palm strike directed at Chojuro's abdomen,

Chojuro jumped back avoiding the palm strike and then quickly charged toward Hotaru, continuing his relentless assault. She used her gentle fist technique to deflect his sword strikes while Chojuro either blocked or evaded her attacks. They continued for the exchange some time until Hotaru found an opening and struck at Chojuro with a palm strike, forcing him to block the blow by crossing his arms in an X formation.

The sheer force behind her palm stroke pushed Chojuro back, causing him to skid across the arena floor. Thinking quickly motion, Chojuro stabbed both of his blades into the ground to stop the moment and as soon as he stopped he made a series of hand signs and called out "water style water dragon jutsu". and the water from the previous fight gathered around him, forming a water dragon that shot towards Hotaru.

Hotaru watched as the water dragon took form, her eyes narrowing. Gathering chakra in her hand, she thrusted her palm forward towards the oncoming water dragon, shouting "Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm." The two Jutsu's collided with an explosion of water drenching the entire arena in its aftermath.

Amidst the chaos, Hotaru felt a presence behind her and instinctively ducked as a sword swung where her head had just been moments before. As she turned to face her new opponent, another Chojuro appeared over her with a horizontal sword strike aimed at her.

Rolling to the side to evade the strike, Hotaru planted her feet and faced off against Chojuro once again. This time, Chojuro lunged at her with a stabbing motion, but she was ready for it. Using the gentle fist, she deflected the stab with her palm and countered with a palm strike to Chojuro's abdomen.

The strike connected with Chojuro and he burst into water that splashed over Hotaru revealing it to be a water clone. But before she react the real Chojuro appeared behind her. While making a few hand signs, he thrust his palm towards her and shouted, "Water Prison Technique."

In an instant, the water around Hotaru formed into a ball with her trapped inside. Breathing heavily from exertion, Chojuro declared that it was over and asked Hotaru to forfeit.

As Hotaru found herself trapped in a water prison, she struggled against the dense liquid that surrounded her. Every movement was restricted, and she could feel her lungs burning for air. Cursing herself for letting her guard down, Hotaru took a deep breath and activated her Byakugan, scanning for any weaknesses in the water prison. "ah, there it is "she thought as she spotted the weak point.

Injecting chakra into the weak spot, the water prison came undone, catching Chojuro off guard. Seizing this opportunity, she swiftly executed the 64 Palms technique. As Chojuro tried to jump back, Hotaru struck him twice calling out "two palms", then "four palms", "eight palms", "sixteen palms" and "thirty-two palms" each strike faster than the last. With one final cry of "Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!", Hotaru delivered the final blow that sent Chojuro skidding across the ground, unconscious.

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