Chapter 135: Another Muda Muda Muda!

Konohamaru, thrilled to be recognized by Senshi, started jumping around excitedly, looking just like a miniature Naruto.

During a brief conversation, Senshi learned why Konohamaru called Karin "Boss."

Not long ago, Karin had engaged in a fierce battle with Gaara in the Forest of Death, summoning that towering Susanoo giant—which Konohamaru had witnessed. He had also gathered some intel from his clan members; discovering how unbelievably strong Karin was, even able to beat down a Tailed Beast, he decided on the spot that he wanted Karin as his "Boss."

After chatting briefly with Konohamaru, Senshi began teaching him Wood Release. Under the curious eyes of Konohamaru and Hiruzen Sarutobi, Senshi pressed two fingers gently against Konohamaru's forehead.

Though Senshi often used his system's abilities in ways like this, Itachi had never seen it happen. Otherwise, that person might have exclaimed, "Hey, that's the technique I was going to use on my otouto!"

The moment Senshi's fingertips touched Konohamaru's forehead, Konohamaru's whole body jolted as a mysterious force instantly permeated him. Then he realized…

"This teacher is the real deal—absolutely top-notch!"

Senshi-sensei was far stronger than Ebisu, his other private tutor.

Once Konohamaru absorbed the knowledge that had just flooded his mind, he quickly formed a few hand seals and suddenly roared out loud,

"Wood Release: Silent Strangling Binding Technique!"

As soon as he spoke, the ground beside him cracked apart on both sides, and the very next moment, a wooden stake broke through the soil, soon growing to Konohamaru's own height.

Konohamaru: (ΩДΩ)!!!

Hiruzen Sarutobi: (ΩДΩ)!!!

Seeing this, both Konohamaru and Hiruzen were astonished!

Konohamaru thought that Senshi's skill level must be incredibly high to teach him jutsu this way.

Hiruzen, who had lived so long, felt it was the first time he had ever seen someone gain a kekkei genkai in such a manner.

But once he confirmed that Konohamaru truly had awakened Wood Release, Hiruzen couldn't have been happier. He no longer held any doubts about Senshi's teaching. If Senshi could give Konohamaru a Wood Release kekkei genkai in such a short time, then as time went on, Konohamaru might well rival Lord Hashirama himself!

Feeling completely at ease, Hiruzen left Konohamaru in Senshi's care and went off to handle other village affairs.

Once Hiruzen was gone, Konohamaru spent a while merrily playing around with his new Wood Release. Seeing Konohamaru's boundless energy, Senshi felt gratified. It was clear that once Konohamaru got a bit older, he would be another talent on par with Naruto or Sasuke.

After messing around with his Wood Release for a bit, Konohamaru settled down. Smiling, he walked up to Senshi and asked curiously, "Senshi-sensei, where did Karin-boss and the others go?"

Senshi answered casually, "Karin and the others have already moved on to the next stage of training—they're not in the village."

Konohamaru: (O_O)???

Konohamaru tilted his head. "Senshi-sensei, what do you mean by the next stage of training?"

Senshi laughed and explained, "A higher stage of training means sharpening yourself in every way through missions so your strength can advance rapidly. They went to take on missions in the Land of Fire's black market."

The moment Konohamaru heard that, he piped up, "Senshi-sensei, I want to go do missions in the black market too!"

Senshi shook his head. "No, no. You can't go to the black market yet. You need to stay here in the village for a while, do some simpler tasks, build up experience, and only then can you tackle black-market missions."

Though it was a bit disappointing not being able to go right now, Konohamaru found the idea of doing smaller tasks in the village appealing too. He said excitedly, "Senshi-sensei, let's go to the village mission hall and pick up some tasks!"

Seeing his enthusiasm, Senshi grew even more fond of the kid. No question about it—Konohamaru was a natural for grinding out missions.

Meanwhile, at the black market in the Land of Fire:

Naruto, Sasuke, and Musen's group had just received mission assignments from the hall once again. As Naruto and Sasuke headed out on their next job, they glanced over toward Musen and his friends, noting how astonishingly fast they were improving—especially Musen, who had previously lagged far behind them. Now he was gradually closing the gap. By the time they finished a mission, Musen's group often wrapped up theirs soon after. Naruto and Sasuke couldn't help feeling a bit of pressure, though for them it was probably unnecessary—both of them tended to grow stronger as time went on anyway.

At that moment, Naruto held a stack of mission request forms, heading off to work. Deep inside, the Nine-Tails spoke to him:

"Hey, kid! I don't think that teacher of yours is any good. For some reason, he's been capturing a bunch of Tailed Beasts!"

Such a sudden mental voice no longer frightened Naruto. Under Senshi's guidance, he had already made contact with the Nine-Tails and could partly use its power. Hearing the fox speak, Naruto just kept moving, replying inwardly:

"Nine-Tails, what are you even talking about? Senshi-sensei is definitely a good guy!"

"Whatever his reasons for capturing Tailed Beasts, he must have his own logic—don't overthink it!"

Nine-Tails: (O_O)!!!

The fox felt utterly exasperated. It had laid out a warning as plainly as possible, and "Narudo" just wouldn't listen. Seeing Naruto continue happily going about his missions, it couldn't help feeling both pity and annoyance. In the Nine-Tails' eyes, if this went on, sooner or later Senshi would sell Naruto, and Naruto would still be cheerfully helping him count the money.

What the fox didn't know was that it wouldn't even have to wait for "sooner or later"—Naruto, that "hotshot," had already been working under Senshi's system for half a year, contributing plenty of "points."

While these eight youngsters did mission after mission, Kakashi was following them around. Having witnessed Musen and the others display ever-growing prowess through tasks, Kakashi began doubting himself again.

He'd been supervising Naruto and Sasuke since they first applied to graduate from the Academy early. From that point on, he noticed that neither of them ever truly trained, yet their power kept climbing at an alarming rate. After carefully observing them, he came to a conclusion: aside from resting, Naruto and Sasuke spent all their time doing missions, growing stronger by "farming tasks."

The longer he watched them, the more convinced he was. Yet his own attempt at adopting this "very special training method" yielded nothing but exhaustion, with negligible gains. That once made him doubt his assessment of Naruto and Sasuke. But their steadily increasing strength forced him to trust his earlier reasoning was correct—maybe that crazy mission-based approach only worked for them.

But now, after seeing Uzumaki Musen, Lanyu, and Lanwu experience a drastic boost in power, Kakashi was completely baffled. He had been watching those three closely between the preliminaries and the finals of the Chunin Exams, so he knew exactly how strong they were. Yet in such a short time, they had soared in skill. From his investigations, he knew they weren't doing heaps of normal training—just the needed sparring—and spent the rest of their time on assignments. By following that "unbelievable" approach, they too had taken a huge leap in power—right after Naruto and Sasuke.

Kakashi felt like a detective staring at a nearly completed puzzle—one piece was out of place, but he couldn't immediately tell which one. The more he looked, the more the picture seemed both complete and fundamentally wrong at the same time.

Though he couldn't figure out the reason behind this bizarre phenomenon, the massive jumps in Musen's group's ability left him more certain that steadily doing missions to level up was definitely possible. If he himself hadn't made comparable progress, perhaps it was because he was already stuck at a bottleneck. To break through, he might have to take on even more missions. Possibly the same for Raimon Yukika and Raimon Hayate.

That realization comforted Kakashi a little.

…

As time passed, the second round of the Chunin Exam finals began. Sixteen ninja would fight in eight matches. The winners would continue in a "two advance, one falls" format until the strongest genin was determined in the end.

After watching the first round, people had a better grasp of the abilities of these sixteen finalists. If a ninja lacked any further hidden trump cards, the audience could often predict the result just by seeing that ninja's opponent.

The proctor remained Shiranui Genma for the second round. With a senbon in his mouth, he addressed the sixteen contestants directly:

"I'm Shiranui Genma, proctor for the second round of the finals. As before, you'll be placed in random matchups and fight in a two-advance-one-falls format. I hereby declare the second round of the Chunin Exam finals officially open!"

"This match: Uzumaki Naruto from Konoha vs. Gaara of Suna!"

The moment the matchup was announced, the crowd exploded in excitement. Those who didn't know the full story just saw two strong competitors squaring off—it was going to be a spectacular duel right from the start. But the few who did know were even more stunned. They had intel that Naruto was Konoha's Tailed Beast host and Gaara was Suna's. A head-to-head Jinchuriki showdown right away! They were thrilled to have come.

Meanwhile, the expressions on the Konoha and Suna sides weren't quite so cheerful. After all, there were four knockout stages total—16 to 8, 8 to 4, 4 to 2, and 2 to 1. Ideally, Naruto and Gaara would only meet in the 4-to-2 bracket; if not, the 8-to-4 bracket would have been acceptable. No one expected that of the sixteen names drawn for the first match, these two Jinchuriki would end up paired.

Knowing Naruto's true power, Hiruzen only frowned slightly but said nothing, considering that besides Naruto, Konoha also had Sasuke and Kabuto, both very strong. Should Naruto lose, the village wouldn't be entirely out of hope. Actually, Hiruzen felt Naruto had a decent shot.

Rasa, by contrast, was tense. Standing with arms folded, he frowned deeply. This year's Chunin Exams had been fiercely competitive. Even his daughter Temari and son Kankuro hadn't reached this round. If Gaara lost to Konoha's Jinchuriki, that would leave Sunagakure with nothing.

In the arena, Gaara stared blankly at Naruto, who in turn did not let his guard down. He said nothing about perseverance, friendship, the ninja way, never giving up, or "bonds." At this stage, Naruto handled everything by physical force.

When the match officially began, Gaara wasted no time in attacking first. From all directions, spectators started buzzing:

"These are two tigers fighting. Both Naruto from Konoha and Gaara from Suna are really powerful!"

"Yeah, from what we've seen, it might well end in mutual harm—they're both that tough."

"From what I've heard, that genin from Suna might be stronger. He's the one who fought that armor-wearing, invisible giant in the Forest of Death. It caused a massive commotion!"

Hearing this, people around turned wide-eyed at Gaara. They hadn't known he was the one who had traded blows with Karin's Susanoo. That revelation made many believe Gaara was favored to win. With Karin having withdrawn from the competition, they assumed no one else could possibly match Gaara.

Rasa's aide Baki also thought so. Relaxedly, he said, "Kazekage-sama, from the previous matches, it looks like Konoha's Jinchuriki can't really use the Tailed Beast's power effectively. Gaara has a good chance."

Rasa sighed. "Let's hope so." From his own observation, Naruto hadn't needed to rely on the Tailed Beast to handle his past opponents. It didn't necessarily mean he was incapable of drawing on it.

In the arena, Gaara's gourd unleashed steady streams of sand, which he manipulated with precision to attack Naruto. Sand claws lunged from all directions, but Naruto, with his remarkable speed, dodged freely around the battleground. Compared to Sasuke's speed, Gaara's was slower. His constant sparring with Sasuke was paying off now.

After several exchanges without landing a blow, Gaara continued attacking but couldn't help frowning slightly, thinking, "This guy is even faster than that green-clad ninja. My sand can't keep up!" It was the first time Gaara had ever faced such a situation, but he wasn't fazed. He planned to use the sand claws to restrict Naruto's movement, predict Naruto's next dodge, then trap him with Sand Coffin and finish him with Sand Burial.

Everything progressed smoothly. Gaara used intense pressure to confine Naruto's range of movement to a small area, carefully watching every step Naruto took so he could deliver a perfect preemptive strike.

Swish, swish, swish!

Huge claws of sand kept slamming down, but Naruto managed to slip away easily each time. In that short exchange, Naruto had already assessed Gaara's level. He hadn't even gone all-out, and Gaara's attacks were still lagging behind him. But from the perspective of many spectators, Naruto appeared to be pinned down, unable to close in on Gaara.

Up in the stands where Kakashi was, Might Guy, Rock Lee, and Neji were watching. Seeing the current state, Might Guy said with some regret, "Kakashi, it looks bad. If Naruto doesn't have any other trump cards, he's gonna get worn down by Gaara's long-range offense."

Kakashi shook his head. "Naruto will definitely win. He's stronger than most people realize."

Guy, hearing that, immediately got fired up. "Kakashi, my eternal rival, let's make a bet! If Naruto wins, I'll do five hundred handstand laps around the village. If Gaara wins, I'll do five hundred handstand laps around the village—together with you!"

Kakashi: (O_O)???

Over the years, Kakashi had grown used to Guy's antics, but he was still somewhat taken aback by this sudden proposition. Clearly Guy just wanted an excuse to do those five hundred handstand laps.

Before Kakashi could respond, Rock Lee raised his hand enthusiastically. "Guy-sensei, please let me join this passionate test of youth! Additionally, could we make it five thousand laps instead of five hundred? I believe our youth should burn even brighter!"

Guy was ecstatic when he heard that. Beaming, he gave Lee a thumbs-up. "Lee, it seems you've completely bounced back from defeat—your youth is blazing! I'm proud of you!"

Lee, deeply moved, burst into tears, hugging Guy and sobbing. Guy too was overcome with emotion, tears welling up as he shouted, "Lee, our youth has no price—train until you drop!"

Lee nodded determinedly, striking a "fighting spirit" pose. "Guy-sensei, I'll definitely complete this training!"

While the two of them discussed their exuberant plan, Kakashi's attention never left the fight below. He was used to their routine by now. Because the pair had so many similarities, and since nothing was known of Rock Lee's parents, many in the village assumed Lee was Guy's son.

As Kakashi idly mulled over these things, the match suddenly shifted. Gaara's extended planning finally came together. Once more he controlled the sand claws to attack Naruto. Based on his earlier observations, he had deduced Naruto's evasion pattern. Right at the moment Gaara launched Sand Coffin in anticipation, Naruto dodged straight into its range. In the blink of an eye, thick streams of sand coiled around Naruto.

That sight surprised many in the stands. Realizing what had happened, they cheered Gaara's cunning. They could see now that he had orchestrated everything for this final capture. From what they knew of Gaara, once things reached this point, the fight was as good as over. If Gaara didn't care about holding back, he could even kill the Konoha ninja.

However, not everyone agreed. The likes of Hiashi Hyuga saw it differently. Hiashi, employing Byakugan, clearly saw that Gaara had caught only one of Naruto's Shadow Clones. Sure enough, the next instant, "Naruto" simply vanished in a puff of white smoke.

"A clone? That's impossible!" Gaara cried. He had been watching Naruto non-stop—he had no idea when Naruto replaced himself. Nor did he know where the real Naruto was now.

Swish!

While Gaara was searching for him, Naruto sprang out from a mound of sand right in front of him—he'd hidden himself beneath Gaara's own sand flows. The instant he emerged, Naruto executed a fierce upward kick, sending Gaara flying into the air. Then, weaving hand seals, he used his non-signature Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!

Swish, swish, swish!

Several clones burst into the sky one after another, delivering vicious kicks that knocked Gaara higher and higher. Even more clones appeared above Gaara, chopping downward from above.

Seeing Naruto fight Gaara in this style, Senshi wore a satisfied grin. That was exactly the sort of fighting approach he associated with Naruto. It was just too bad Naruto's foes so far hadn't been so formidable; he hadn't needed the "Talk-no-Jutsu" or his "Harem Technique."

Down in the arena, Gaara crashed heavily to the ground under this relentless barrage. His sand armor sported multiple new cracks. Furious, he didn't have time to dwell on it before a fresh wave of Naruto's attacks rained down. Facing such a tough opponent, Naruto gave him no chance to breathe. Clones from all directions converged in a rapid assault. Some got crushed by sand before even reaching him, bursting into white smoke, but others landed solid punches or kicks.

Unable to disrupt Naruto's onslaught purely through offense, Gaara decided to take a step back and then push forward again.

"Sand Shield!"

In a moment, he manipulated the sand in massive quantities, piling up layer upon layer of defense. With his body protected, he could safely control the sand to strike at Naruto; as long as Naruto couldn't get at him, he was effectively untouchable. The swirling sand quickly formed a giant spherical barrier around Gaara. Naruto's taijutsu had no effect on the ball's exterior.

Now that his real body was safe, Gaara launched a counterattack at once.

"Sand Shuriken!"

Inside his hollow sand sphere, Gaara reconfigured the spare sand in the arena into numerous spinning shuriken, launching them at Naruto with incredible speed. The attack came swiftly and covered a wide area, forcing Naruto to retreat without actually injuring him. But that was precisely what Gaara wanted—maintaining distance from a close-combat ninja like Naruto worked best for him.

"Sand Coffin!"

As soon as Naruto landed further away, Gaara precisely anticipated his movement once more and used Sand Coffin. A wave of sand instantly engulfed Naruto. This time Gaara didn't hesitate. From inside his sand sphere, he clenched his hand. "Sand Burial!"

Boom!

The sand contracted violently, and Naruto dissolved into white smoke again—another Shadow Clone. Gaara didn't even have time to consider where the real Naruto might be before a fresh attack arrived.

"Aura Sphere!"

Realizing how difficult Gaara was, Naruto decided to cut loose.

Boom!

A dark energy sphere blasted the surface of Gaara's sand shield but failed to penetrate. Naruto frowned, marshaled his entire chakra, and upped his power. He took a deep breath and bellowed, "MUDA, MUDA, MUDA!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

As he roared, a hail of Aura Spheres pounded Gaara from every angle. Even a Shukaku-level defense might have trouble holding under that. Before long, Gaara's sand shield cracked and fell away into streams of sand.

Boom!

One of the spheres hit Gaara full force, sending him flying like a cannonball. Fortunately, his sand armor kept him from being fatally injured—though he was hurt considerably. While airborne, Gaara seized the moment to try the Sand Coffin technique one more time, stubbornly refusing to yield.

This time, he managed to bind Naruto, who was still launching Aura Spheres. As Gaara slammed into the ground, he spoke coldly, "Sand Burial!"

The instant he activated it, Gaara felt relieved—it was all over now.

"Huh?" But he quickly realized something was off. The Sand Burial wasn't finishing Naruto off. Instead, some kind of orange chakra now surrounded him inside the flowing sand. The immense pressure generated by Sand Burial couldn't overcome that orange chakra.

Boom!

With a resounding noise, the sand coating Naruto exploded outward. He now stood there cloaked in a transparent orange Tailed Beast shroud.

~~~

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