113. Tenten vs Hinata

The 2nd match is between Shino and Shikamaru. Their match is quite interesting because both of them aren't the type to rely on brute strength and use their brains more.

Shino dominates the match quickly by spreading his insects into many small groups so Shikamaru can't bind their shadows at once. Shikamaru still can't bind multiple targets at the same time at his current level and Shino knows that.

So Shikamaru is forced to move around to avoid the insects. He runs around while grumbling because he works too hard. But he still does it despite all his complaints.

The gears in his brain also keep spinning to find a way to win. He also needs to think of ways to block Shino's insects from swarming him.

His current solution is by using paper bombs and smoke to block them whenever they get close enough to him. Then he will get away with body flicker or body replacement technique.

He also tries to attack shino by throwing kunais and shurikens. Some of them have paper bombs attached to them too. Shino doesn't want to block them with his insects because the bombs will kill them, so he chooses to jump away from his spot to dodge them.

This kind of battle keeps going for a while until it suddenly changes. Shino suddenly can't move his body after dodging Shikamaru's attacks many times. He doesn't know what happens because he has kept watching Shikamaru's shadow all the time.

But then he realizes that both of them are standing on the stadium wall's shadow. Shikamaru has planned his attacks to make Shino move into the area that is covered with the stadium wall's shadow which is not too big because it's almost noon.

That's why it takes a rather long time for Shikamaru to succeed without Shino realizing it. Now he can bind the shadow of this whole area that has Shino's and his shadow merged into it. His shadow is also merged in it, so Shino can't see it and fails to anticipate the attack.

Without waiting, Shikamaru moves the shadow to wrap Shino's neck. Unable to do anything to stop Shikamaru, Shino is forced to surrender, making Shikamaru the winner of the match.

The next match is between Hinata and Tenten who both have trained with Zoro. They tested their skills against Zoro a few days ago to get some more advice before the final.

Their progress for the last month was good and Zoro was honestly impressed. That's why he is very curious about how their fight will run. It will be interesting to see how they'll use his advice against each other.

When the match starts, Tenten throws multiple kunais with paper bombs attached to them. Hinata activates her byakugan and gets away to dodge the kunais that explode shortly after hitting the ground where she stood before.

Tenten has predicted where Hinata will move and throws a rather big kunai that has some red feathers attached to it. The kunai flies in an arc and it comes toward Hinata from the opposite sides of her escape route.

Hinata sees the kunai comes very clearly with her byakugan. She even sees the very thin wire tied onto it. The wire isn't visible to the naked eye because it's thinner than normal wires, but Hinata's byakugan can see it.

She throws a kunai to counter Tenten's big kunai instead of trying to dodge or using her gentle fist. It's a correct decision because Tenten's kunai suddenly jerks and changes its direction, avoiding Hinata's kunai.

Tenten can control her kunai's direction slightly using the wire. So if Hinata tries to dodge or blocks it with her palm when it's very close to her, then Tenten will change the kunai's direction and Hinata won't be able to dodge on time because it's too close already.

But now that she knows Tenten can change the kunai's direction using the wire, Hinata decides to ignore the kunai and runs toward Tenten who quickly pulls the wire to flick the kunai towards the running Hinata.

The kunai flies fast toward Hinata, but she reaches Tenten first before the kunai reaches her. Tenten is forced to get away even though it makes her unable to control her wired kunai anymore. It has reached its length limit too, so she just runs away to avoid Hinata's attack.

Tenten takes out a bo-staff from a scroll while escaping from Hinata's chase. After taking out the bo-staff, she stops escaping and starts fighting Hinata's palm attacks with it.

Their close combat skills are quite equal but their styles are very different. Hinata's movements are simple and precise without a lot of variations while Tenten's movements are more complicated and acrobatic.

Tenten moves around all the time with her acrobatic movements at a rather high speed while Hinata mostly stays on her spot, making it look like Tenten is the one attacking while Hinata defends.

But both of them are attacking and defending all the time. They just can't break through each other's defense which makes the battle look even more intense. It really impresses the strong ninjas that watch this because it's rare to see young kunoichi with their level of taijutsu and bukijutsu.

Then after a while, Hinata breaks Tenten's wooden bo-staff in half, making it unusable, so Tenten changes her weapon to a nunchaku. Her attacks are faster and more unpredictable now, but Hinata still can handle them.

Their intense battle keeps going for a rather long time and both of them only get hit a few times. It becomes a battle of endurance now because whoever gets tired first or makes a mistake will lose.

After waiting for so long, one of them finally shows a sign of fatigue. It's Hinata who runs out of energy first. Most likely because she needs to keep using her chakra and Tenten has more physical stamina than her because Guy always trained his team's physiques.

She's tired, but Hinata still tries to defend Tenten's attacks with her hands. Seeing Hinata gets tired and starts to lose focus, Tenten takes out another weapon. She summons a chain from a scroll and throws it at Hinata's legs.

Hinata sees it, but she's too tired to escape, so her legs get tied by the chain, making her fall on her back. Tenten quickly gets on Hinata and points her nunchaku at Hinata's face.

"I surrender." While deactivating her byakugan, Hinata finally gives up the match, making Tenten the winner.

Tenten smiles as she stands up and Hinata also smiles at her. Both of them have trained together for a while before the Chunin Exam and have gotten closer. So there is no hard feeling between them no matter the result.

The spectators are clapping at the only 2 girls in the final round. They didn't expect these 2 girls to show such an intense battle. Both of them don't use flashy ninjutsu, but their battle is the most intense so far, that's why everyone is watching it very seriously.

Though now someone feels a little complicated about this. Neji has started changing his perspective about fate, talents, and those nonsense things. So he already doesn't think that Hinata is talentless and timid.

But seeing Hinata being defeated by Tenten makes him weaker than Tenten too. Both of them are teammates and Neji is used to being the strongest after Guy in the team. Now it seems his position has been taken by Tenten.

Meanwhile, Hiashi finally can see the result of Hinata's training if she trains with the correct method that suits her. He never expected her to reach this level with her talent that he deemed to be lacking.

Hiashi looks at Zoro who sits quite far from him because he remembers what Zoro told him after the preliminary round. Zoro feels his gaze and smirks at him, making Hiashi turn his head away in embarrassment.

"What's wrong, father?" Hanabi asks because her father looks rather strange.

"Nothing. I just saw someone annoying." Even Hiashi needs to admit now that the Hyuga's method isn't suitable for everyone and they need to revise it if they want to grow better as a clan.

Meanwhile, Zoro is very proud of Tenten and Hinata. He didn't teach them much, but it was him who helped them find their paths. So they are still like his students and they've used his advice to reach their current level.

Honestly, both of them received better advice from him than Shino and Kiba. It's not that they are his favorites or something like that. He simply can help them better because they fight with their bodies and weapons, something he knows much better than ninjutsu.

Maybe that's also why they achieve more than Shino and Kiba when being trained by him, because Zoro can teach them more. They've shown great results from the short training they did with him and soon they will show even more.

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Chapter: 163. Zabuza's Last

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