Chapter 136: I Gave You a Chance, But You Just Weren't Up to It!

Chapter 136: I Gave You a Chance, But You Just Weren't Up to It!

Ino couldn't locate the supposed 359-degree blind spot. Her chakra reserves were so plentiful that she didn't even bother to overthink it.

Neji, however, was struggling. Less than five minutes into the match, his chakra was nearly depleted as he poured everything into maintaining his Rotation.

The spectators fell silent.

Many, including Shikamaru and Choji, had heard tales of Ino's legendary feat of single-handedly taking on the Mist Village's Three-Man Team. But hearing about it and witnessing it were two entirely different things. Ino often joked, "They ganged up on me, three against one," leaving everyone unsure of her true strength. Now, watching her overwhelm Neji with a barrage of ninjutsu, they finally gained a clearer understanding.

Her hand seals were lightning-fast, her chakra reserves vast, her techniques powerful, and her battle timing far surpassed that of an average ninja. Ino's artillery-style fighting once again redefined everyone's perception of her.

The genin, including the two from Sunagakure (aside from Gaara), turned to their jōnin instructors, asking what they should do if they ever faced an opponent like her. The jōnin's answers were similar: either go all out, risking injury to take her down, or run as fast as they could. Those were the only two options.

Neji couldn't run. He had to fight!

Under Tenten's slightly worried gaze, he accelerated the pace of his Rotation. He swayed to the left, deflecting two wind blades, then circled to the right, his hands a blur as he intercepted an earth spear shooting from the side. The Eight Trigrams: Rotation spun like a massive blue top, charging rapidly towards Ino.

This was his last desperate push.

"You lose."

Three Inos formed the same hand seals simultaneously.

Three raging water dragons erupted from the ground, one from the left, one from the center, and one from the right, pinning the advancing Rotation in place. It looked like three dragons playfully batting a pearl.

The three Inos, using Old Man Gen's Water Dragon Bullet technique, held the final "Tiger" seal, refusing to release it. Each time the water dragons surged past the outer wall of the Rotation, they siphoned off a small portion of Neji's chakra.

Old Man Gen's chakra couldn't compare to the Second Hokage's, nor could it match Ino's, whose chakra reserves were an impressive 8, rivaling Tsunade's. So, he focused on weakening his enemies. This technique of using the Water Dragon Bullet to absorb an opponent's chakra was his ingenious solution.

Neji's chakra was already dangerously low. After maintaining the Rotation for so long and now being drained by three water dragons, his reserves were rapidly dwindling. Finally, a flaw appeared in the Rotation, and the three water dragons surged in, intertwining and forming a whirlpool that lifted Neji into the air. He spun for over ten seconds before crashing heavily to the ground.

Neji lay on the ground, coughing up blood. His body was covered in wounds, over thirty cuts from the water dragons. He clenched his fists, struggling to get up, but couldn't.

"Neji, that's enough," Might Guy said, stepping in front of his student, clearly worried that Ino might press the attack.

"I haven't lost yet…" Neji's stamina and mental energy were completely drained. His vision was blurred, and his chakra was nearly gone. At this point, even throwing a punch was a struggle, let alone performing the Rotation.

Guy gently patted his shoulder. "It's okay. You've already proven yourself. You haven't betrayed your hard work. Only through failure can we achieve success."

Guy's pep talk didn't help much. Neji wanted to say more, but he was too exhausted to even speak.

The arena was eerily quiet. Ino dispelled her shadow clones. She wasn't surprised by the outcome. Neji's strength was undoubtedly at the level of a chūnin, but what about her? She was now a bona fide special jōnin. The gap between them was significant.

During the Chūnin Exams, Gaara's sand was nearly invincible, but when faced with Might Guy, a single wave of his hand shattered it. The difference between Gaara and an elite jōnin like Guy was stark.

The Sound Four also seemed formidable, but even with their cursed seals and fighting desperately, they only barely managed to defeat Genma Shiranui and Raidō Namiashi.

Excluding outliers like Naruto and Sasuke, the power gap between chūnin, special jōnin, and jōnin was quite substantial.

In just five minutes, Ino had used over thirty ninjutsu, alternating between water, earth, and wind techniques.

A mage keeping their distance and defeating a shield-wielding warrior wasn't that just how things worked?

After a moment, she coughed lightly and waved to the sidelines.

Hayate Gekkō was momentarily stunned but quickly ran over.

He glanced around. The once-flat arena had been ravaged by water, earth, and wind techniques, as well as Neji's Rotation. The ground was now pockmarked with craters, making it nearly impossible to find a flat spot to stand.

He and Ino were somewhat familiar, so he quipped, "You've wrecked the arena like this. Are you planning to pay for the damages upfront or in installments?"

Ino immediately bristled. Asking me for money? This wasn't my doing! Don't slander me!

She pointed at the massive craters and started deflecting blame. "This was clearly caused by Neji's spinning technique"

Hayate coughed and corrected her, "Eight Trigrams: Rotation."

Ino smacked her right fist into her left palm, feigning sudden realization. "Right, the Rotation! All this damage was caused by his spinning."

She went all out with the blame-shifting, pointing at the walls. "We're friends, but you can't go around accusing me. Look at these marks. They might look like they were caused by my ninjutsu, but in reality, they were all deflected by the Rotation! If you put a rock in front of your house, and a kid throws it to break Yugao's window, can you say you broke the glass?"

Hayate was speechless. Why bring up his girlfriend out of nowhere? And why would anyone break her window? Still, her explanation did make a strange kind of sense.

Since he and Ino were acquaintances, he instinctively glanced towards Neji.

Under Guy's enthusiastic encouragement, the Hyūga prodigy was trying to stand up. But upon hearing such shameless words, he spat out a mouthful of blood and passed out completely.

Ino shrugged, looking at Hayate as if to say, See? I know you were stalling, trying to give him a chance to stand up and concede gracefully. But I gave him the opportunity, and he couldn't take it!

Ino forcefully shifted the blame, adding another half a "blame point" to Neji's tally. Combined with the one she'd already offloaded onto Temari, she now had two blame points.

Ino stood in the crater-filled arena, waiting.

Hayate coughed loudly. "Ahem!"

Noticing that Guy was still standing there, looking around as if waiting for the medical team, he coughed again.

Finally, he had to remind him, "Guy, this is the Chūnin Exam preliminaries!"

The ever-enthusiastic Guy suddenly realized his mistake. Nodding and bowing repeatedly, he dashed back to the spectator stands.

Hayate raised a hand and announced loudly, "Winner: Ino Yamanaka!"

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