“Yosh! Asuma! Kurenai! You have such youthful students! Your teaching prowess is unparalleled!” Gai gave them a thumbs-up followed by his trademark sparkling smile, “But I shall surpass you! If I don’t, I am going to do five thousand laps around Konoha using only my nose! I will climb the Hokage monument with only my pinky fingers! And I shall drag my students into it so we can all grow stronger together! Hahahahaha!”

Asuma’s expression faltered, and a part of his mind gave a small prayer for the kids who were going to be tortured, but most of his attention was on the match going on in the arena.

Despite his utmost focus, Hinata still blurred in his vision as she moved at speeds that made him feel pressured. He could barely follow her as she appeared near Ino and swung her fist.

She wasn’t even using her Gentle Fist anymore.

She simply smashed her knuckles against the ground as she missed Ino, and the ground dented into a small crater. Asuma shuddered as his mind was reminded of Tsunade.

Worse yet, if Hinata was a slight blur in his vision, then Ino… he didn’t even notice when she moved. She was so fast that even his Jonin-level perception was having a hard time keeping up!

Asuma glanced at Gai, noticing that the man didn’t seem to have problems tracking either Hinata or Ino with his eyes, and that only made him feel worse.

At least, Kurenai also looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here.

“I am sorry, Gai, but I don’t think their prowess can be attributed to our teaching methods.” Asuma dryly said with a deadpan expression, feeling like he truly needed a smoke right about now.

Seriously. He didn’t even understand how most of the wind release techniques Ino had shown so far worked! Did he look like he could teach them to her!?

As for Kurenai? Did she look like a shining example of a taijutsu expert who had the know-how on how to train somebody into a second coming of Tsunade Senju!?

The prowess of these girls clearly had nothing to do with them!

Ugh. Every teacher hopes that their students will surpass them. But this was too fast even for somebody as open-minded and lazy as he was!

…

Pulling her fist back from the newly created crater, Hinata felt the displacement of the air behind her and stomped her foot down onto the ground at just the right angle to cause it to shatter and send debris shooting behind her at a lethal velocity.

Ino had to abandon her slash and disappeared again in a burst of speed before the debris could make her into a Swiss cheese.

Hinata blurred, giving chase to Ino, but she was not as fast without her lightning chakra enhancements. So, she used her exploding needles to steer and slow down Ino’s movement as she forced her to dodge or deflect.

Thanks to that, two seconds later, Hinata reached Ino as several explosions happened within the arena due to the dozen needles she had used…

But Ino was prepared. The wind chakra around her sword shifted, her blade shimmering before it became invisible, leaving only the hilt in Ino’s hand visible. Like a coiled snake, Ino’s hand sprang forth, swinging the hilt at Hinata, whose eyes widened in alarm.

She could see the chakra with her Byakugan, so the invisibility was not an insurmountable issue. But that was not normal vision. And Ino knew that. She had increased the ‘volume’ of her chakra coating, making the invisible sword look like some sort of bloated club in Hinata’s chakra vision.

Telling where the actual blade was inside that club as Ino swung it was pure guesswork. Hinata had to start pulsing more chakra out of her hands and using her Heavenly Shield in a wider area to have any hope of catching the blade with it.

The two started exchanging blows, not unlike previously. Except, this time they didn’t stay stationary and blurred around the whole arena, smashing the ground, shattering the surface of the walls, and creating craters everywhere they went.

The normal audience sat on the edge of their seats, watching in disbelief as they witnessed what high-end ninjas look like. They could not even see them as they moved. They could only perceive the loud noises of the surroundings being damaged and see the results as they happened. As for the girls themselves?

They might catch a blurry figure here and there when they slowed down at times. But other than that? To most of them, this seemed like magic.

Naturally, many could not raise their jaws from the floor. This was nothing like the genin kids they usually witnessed at the Chunin Exams!

Even the ninjas watched with bated breath, evaluating if they could even put up resistance against somebody that fast. Most chunin had a gloomy look, while the Jonin also showed a trace of conflicted expression underneath their serious exterior.

While Maito Gai shouted about youth, cheering on the two girls and shouting at them to go faster.

Ino jumped back, evading yet another of Hinata’s pulverizing punches, and she started feeling a bit tired. Pursing her lips, she decisively threw her sword into the air while controlling her hair to make her ponytail catch it as her hands joined in hand seals.

“Dodge this for mommy!” Ino shouted at Hinata, who rushed at her in a straight line, “Vacuum Shotgun!”

She spewed small balls of vacuum that flew in different directions in front of her, gaining size and intensity as they sucked in the chakra from the surroundings.

Hinata’s eyes widened, and she realized she could not just bulldoze her way through them. Not even with her durability and healing. More needles appeared in between her fingers, and she threw them at the enlarging balls.

The second the needles met them, the whole arena rocked under the several earth-shattering vacuum explosions that sent dust into the air and made the wind sweep through the audience, causing them to clamor as their hair swayed, and many instinctively tried to cover their eyes.

But Ino and Hinata didn’t pay much attention to the explosions. Now that the path was free, Hinata pushed against the ground, cratering it as she jumped forward toward Ino.

Ino sensed it and grinned. “If it is a cat-fight you want…” She muttered under her nose, making the sound-amplifying selas do their job and convey it to the audience.

Channeling her wind chakra into her nails, she created wind claws just as Hinata was upon her. Hinata was forced to stop her punch and use Heavenly Shield as she noticed the sharp wind chakra nearing her hand as Ino swung her new claws.

Heavenly Shield met the Wind Claws in the middle with a loud slapping sound, the resulting air wave instantly clearing up the dust that still covered the arena.

Not that the audience was happy about it, as most of it ended on them.

The sword versus hands turned into hands versus hands as the two girls exchanged more high-speed blows, creating intense air waves with every clash.

Many spectators already regretted coming to see the matches as they were constantly airbrushed.

But Hinata had it harder. The still invisible sword in Ino’s ponytail was not for decoration, and from time to time, Ino swung it at Hinata, forcing her to duck or dodge. Slowly but surely, Ino started getting the advantage because of her superior speed.

Narrowing her eyes, Hinata channeled a chakra scalpel into her hands as they were about to come into contact with Ino’s.

Like a scalded cat, Ino leapt back at the last moment, hissing at Hinata, who couldn’t help but chuckle, smirking back at Ino.

One thing was for sure. Ino was not going to engage in close-quarters hand-to-hand combat with her anymore.

Hinata inwardly sighed. It was just a pity she hadn’t fallen for that trick.

Seeing the molding of chakra inside of Ino, Hinata realized what the bimbo was going to use next and didn’t hesitate. Ino’s next technique was more or less instantaneous. She started to mold the seals, and another, much faster, ball of vacuum flew at Hinata so quickly, evading was not an option.

‘Vacuum blitz!’ Ino gleefully sent the name of the technique to Hinata through the telepathy seal, attempting to distract her.

But Hinata was already mid-spin as triple-layered Kaiten formed around her a split second before the vacuum ball crashed into it.

The audience was instantly deafened as the noise akin to lightning striking near them flooded the arena. The ground around the Kaiten was instantly pushed away, creating a massive crater for a dozen meters. Everywhere but where Hinata was spinning.

The shockwave from the vacuum blast and Kaiten meeting swept through the arena and caused a dome of chakra to form above it as the seals registered the need for it, shielding the audience from harm. Otherwise, many of them would no doubt suffer ruptured organs because of it.

The vacuum and Kaiten battled only for two seconds, but it made the arena walls look like a spiderweb due to the following shockwaves cracking them in the process.

Quickly enough, Hinata’s Kaiten prevailed as the chakra from the vacuum technique was partly deflected into itself, causing it to collapse with one last booming explosion.

Hinata stopped spinning… and instantly several shuriken flew in Ino’s direction to prevent her from using the small window of vulnerability after Kaiten to her advantage.

Rolling her eyes, Ino casually flexed her ponytail and swept her sword across the air, deflecting the shuriken with apparent ease while huffing in annoyance at Hinata.

If they had her lightning coating? Yes, these shurikens would have been a threat even for somebody as fast as her. But without it, they were useless.

Using them was kind of insulting.

As Ino thought that, Hinata suddenly substituted with one of the shurikens, her fist was already mid-swing at Ino.

Ino’s pupils constricted, and her breath hitched, but she was already mid-motion to evade when a chakra string from Hinata’s free hand suddenly connected with her abdomen, and she felt herself be flung forward, straight toward Hinata.

Ino’s life flashed in front of her eyes, and her eyes widened as Hinata’s fist was about to ram into her.

Only for one of the leaves slowly falling to the ground behind Hinata to quickly transform back into Ino’s shadow clone and use the substitution technique with her original, swapping places.

Hinata’s punch landed… But it was not a normal one.

For the first time in the match, Hinata used her own version of Tsunade’s enhanced strength alongside her chakra enhancements and physical prowess. Her punch smashed the clone into a puff of smoke before sending a crashing shockwave through the air. It swept the ground, making a ravine before impacting the walls with such a force that the protective seals flared to the surface again.

And while they didn’t go red, the impacted area was way bigger than during Ino’s Getsuga Tensho.

Naturally, the arena shook from the impact, and the audience experienced what it felt like to hold on for dear life as they were rocked alongside their seats.

Ino swayed on her feet as she landed on the ground, barely preventing herself from dropping onto her butt. She let out a few hard breaths as she calmed herself, and a forced smile appeared on her lips.

Heh. The bitch meant that last attack.

Hinata straightened up and turned around, giving Ino an innocent smile as her clearly broken arm in several places cracked and the bones realigned themselves before healing in real time.

They tensed, about to continue with their increasingly more serious showdown, when suddenly, feathers started to fall down in the arena, stopping them in their tracks.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep