[CH-286: Unlucky]
The Genin division concluded, and both Yuji and Yagura offered mutual praise and encouragement for the younger fighters from both villages.
Next came the Chunin division.
To be honest, when Yuji saw the Hidden Mist Village's Chunin roster, he had already anticipated the general shape of the results. Compared to tomorrow's main event, what genuinely interested him more was today's Chunin matches.
The reason was simple. Both Zabuza and Terumi Mei were present. And both were still Chunin.
In the original story Yuji could not recall the exact ages at which they had become Jonin. But based on Zabuza's performance and demonstrated ability during his time at the ninja academy, he was close to Kakashi's level and had not become Jonin much earlier.
However, because of Yuji's own existence, a chain of reactions had followed, particularly the premature death of the Third Mizukage, which had introduced significant variables into the Hidden Mist Village's timeline.
Adding to this the entire course of the Third Great Ninja War, Yagura's rise to power, and the subsequent reforms and restructuring of the Hidden Mist Village, all of it had affected the development pace of fighters like Zabuza and Terumi Mei.
It seemed their promotion examinations had been intentionally postponed or delayed by the circumstances.
Regardless, both were currently Chunin from the Hidden Mist Village. But there was no question they both possessed Jonin-level capability.
Yuji also quietly suspected that Yagura had long been considering establishing diplomatic relations with the Sand Village and had deliberately held back their formal promotions so they could participate in this exchange gathering as Chunin representatives. A tactical consideration.
Though Zabuza and Terumi Mei were the same age, they were very different people. Terumi Mei was fully aware of Zabuza's infamous graduation massacre, though she had not participated in it.
There was also one small matter. An Anbu report had come in the previous day. The Hidden Mist delegation, outside of being monitored near certain sensitive areas and organizations, had been permitted relatively free movement throughout the village, though the Sand Village's Anbu had maintained surveillance throughout.
During this surveillance, an Anbu operative had overheard Terumi Mei's candid private lament.
It turned out the most important reason she had asked for Yuji's portrait was not simply that he was handsome and powerful. It was that he was single.
The Hidden Mist Mizukage Yagura, in Terumi Mei's view, was simply an elder figure, and he already had a family. She respected Yagura, but men like that held no romantic interest for her. The type she liked was precisely the kind Yuji represented.
But the absolute prerequisite was that the man had to be unattached. No matter how handsome or powerful a man was, if he already had a partner or family she had no interest whatsoever.
When Yuji heard this report from his subordinates, he simply let out a quiet laugh.
It seemed Terumi Mei was well on her way to becoming the woman who would famously lament never finding a husband. And now he understood at least part of why.
First Chunin match. Sakamoto versus Terumi Mei.
Sakamoto was considered more of a familiar face in these gatherings. During the Konoha exchange he had been almost completely shut down by Yuhi Kurenai and his performance had been disappointing. He had not been selected this time. In his place was Yashamaru, who had also lost to a Chunin from the Hidden Stone Village in that earlier exchange. Facing his contemporaries from the Hidden Mist Village, he wanted to prove himself.
Just as in Konoha, his opponent was again a female fighter. And she was extraordinarily powerful.
Yashamaru had already heard that Terumi Mei possessed two distinct bloodline limits.
Among the Sand Village's five-person Chunin team, he was the only returning face from previous exchange gatherings. The other four were participating in this kind of inter-village competition for the first time. He was also the team captain.
Going out first, he carried the absolute determination not to lose.
In the arena, compared to Yashamaru's carefully prepared combat stance, Terumi Mei appeared entirely relaxed. Her gaze moved boldly and without hesitation across her opponent.
"Your posture and presence are both quite good. I heard you are a student of the Fourth Kazekage," Terumi Mei said, gesturing lightly with one hand.
With a slight toss of her long reddish-brown hair, her green eyes looking across the distance at Yashamaru.
"You must really want to show off a little in front of your Kazekage right now, yes?"
"Of course," Yashamaru replied.
"Perfect timing then. I also hope to use this match to leave a certain impression on your Kazekage," Terumi Mei said with a smile. "Besides, this match involves the honor and reputation of our respective villages. Even though I have admired the Kazekage for quite some time, I have no intention of losing. After all, our Mizukage is watching from the stands."
She paused.
"And also, I simply do not like the feeling of losing."
"I apologize in advance. I am afraid I will have to cause you some inconvenience."
She offered a slightly apologetic smile.
This caused Yashamaru's expression to darken noticeably.
What did she mean by that? Was this woman looking down on him?
After finishing her words, Terumi Mei's gaze drifted briefly toward the spectator area, landing specifically on where Yuji was seated.
With a wave of her hand, Terumi Mei appeared to be greeting Yagura, though she did not seem to notice anyone else. Yuji found her genuinely interesting. Enthusiastic, direct, and completely uninhibited. But this was only one facet of her true nature. Beneath the surface there still ran a deep and hardened imprint from the era she had grown up in.
Referee Baki signaled both sides to prepare and blew the whistle.
The battle began.
But Terumi Mei's gaze remained drifting toward the spectator area as though she had not yet entered combat mode at all. This made Yashamaru hesitate to move first, unwilling to be the one who lost composure.
"Hey. Are you ready?" Yashamaru said under his breath, his voice barely audible.
His expression changed in the next instant.
Because the girl who had appeared completely unprepared, her attention seemingly elsewhere, moved without any warning. Like a predator she blurred forward with explosive acceleration. At the same time her hands flew through a sequence of seals.
"On a battlefield, every second of every minute, you must never underestimate your enemy. Even if that enemy is a lovely girl like me."
Terumi Mei looked back at Yashamaru whose expression had shifted completely.
He exhaled a single word in response.
Then his cheeks puffed out, his mouth opened wide, and a thick cloud of mist erupted from him, rapidly blanketing the entire arena.
Bang bang bang.
The Sand Village spectators could no longer see the fight itself, only hearing the sounds of strikes and kicks landing.
Then in less than two minutes, a massive torrent of water surged out of the mist, crashing into Yashamaru and slamming him against the high wall.
"That much chakra..."
Even the spectators watching from outside the mist gasped.
Although they had anticipated that this Hidden Mist genius would be formidable, Terumi Mei's performance was still genuinely astonishing.
Water Release itself was not the surprise. What surprised everyone was the sheer area covered and the raw power behind it.
This was a sealed indoor arena with no water source anywhere nearby. To produce this volume of water seemingly from nothing was something even an ordinary Chunin could not accomplish.
Completely drenched, Yashamaru had barely pushed himself upright from the water when a second later dozens of water bullets materialized and rained down on his position in a dense and relentless barrage, giving him no choice but to keep moving and dodging.
"It is not just the chakra volume. The control over the technique and the precision of the attacks as well."
Yuji narrowed his eyes slightly.
With nothing but her two hands, Terumi Mei's performance was something even he could not help but appreciate.
She truly deserved to become the Fifth Mizukage.
Bang.
The moment Yashamaru rolled to the side and pushed himself upright again, Terumi Mei appeared behind him as though she had anticipated exactly where he would end up and delivered a kick that sent him flying.
It left Yashamaru, who had only just caught a breath, with no chance to counter.
Simply put, he could not keep up with her combat rhythm at all.
The intensity at which his opponent was fighting seemed to operate on an entirely different level from his own.
...
[CH-287: Defeat]
Bang.
Terumi Mei closed the distance rapidly and drove a kick toward Yashamaru.
This was only a sparring match, not a life-or-death battle. Otherwise she would not have needed to engage in close-range taijutsu. Taking advantage of his inability to react, she could have ended it with her bloodline limit techniques long ago.
But the kick landed and the figure in front of her burst into mist.
A Clone.
"Oh?" Terumi Mei's expression shifted into something thoughtful and amused.
He had managed to deceive her senses in that brief window, using a Shadow Clone to fool her.
This student of the Fourth Kazekage genuinely had talent.
Swoosh.
While she was still processing this, a hand thrust from behind her holding a kunai.
Terumi Mei reacted as though she had eyes in the back of her head.
She leaned to the side and let it pass.
Then she saw Yashamaru forming seals and launching a Wind Release technique toward her. A fierce gust immediately lashed across her face, tearing a corner of her clothing.
She turned fluidly and retreated, creating distance.
After opening the gap, Terumi Mei narrowed her eyes.
Her attacks had been continuously suppressing her opponent, but Yashamaru had still managed some meaningful counterattacks and was defending himself properly. He was not the kind of person who could simply be overwhelmed without resistance. Including that kick she had just landed, Yashamaru had intentionally turned his body to minimize the injury.
This guy seems to have some understanding of the Hidden Mist fighting style, Terumi Mei analyzed internally.
What she did not know was that before the Third Great Ninja War, Yashamaru, Sakamoto, Pakura, and the others had primarily trained on the battlefields of the Land of Wind and the Hidden Mist Village's coastal regions.
Techniques like the Hidden Mist Technique she had just used, employing concealment for surprise strikes and assassinations, were patterns Yashamaru had anticipated. What he had simply not expected was for her concealment technique to be that powerful, and for her to be able to continuously release different techniques in rapid succession, giving him no breathing room at all.
In the center of the arena, Yashamaru was doing everything he could to mount resistance.
But overall the flow of the fight was being dictated entirely by Terumi Mei.
Although Yashamaru and Sakamoto were both experienced students with solid combat backgrounds, reality was harsh. At certain moments in a ninja battle, even drawing on accumulated combat experience to find an advantage became simply impossible when facing an opponent who was too strong. This was the fundamental question of talent.
In the ninja world there remained a clear and largely uncrossable gap between ordinary ninja and genuine geniuses.
Even with the additional guidance and training Yashamaru had received, his underlying natural gifts had limits that could not be fully overcome.
Terumi Mei possessed not only extraordinary innate ability and an exceptionally sharp combat instinct but also clearly exceptional battlefield analysis and combat thinking. Yashamaru came from a common civilian family in the Sand Village.
By ordinary standards he was considered strong.
But facing someone like Terumi Mei, he was being reduced back to baseline.
In other words, training and skill could only elevate an ordinary person so far. It could not make someone comparable to a genuine genius like Terumi Mei.
Before long, Yashamaru's stamina was spent. He was older than Terumi Mei, yet his physical strength depleted first, his chakra reserves running low alongside it. Every technique he had used in the battle, including the precise timing of when he deployed them, had been read and predicted by the girl.
In the end he was defeated by Terumi Mei in a manner that at least preserved some dignity. He was swept off his feet by the water current filling the arena and could not get back up.
"Hidden Mist Village, Terumi Mei wins!"
Baki called it at the right moment.
Another loss.
Unlike at the Hidden Stone Village, where Yashamaru and his opponent had fought to a near draw before a single missed move and an earth technique binding his lower body had decided the outcome, this match had shown Yashamaru the clear difference between himself and this girl.
Three consecutive losses across three different exchanges.
He had not brought a single win for the village against Konoha, the Hidden Stone Village, or now the Hidden Mist Village.
What made it even harder to bear was that this time, unlike the previous two occasions, he had suffered defeat in front of a large crowd of Sand Village spectators.
His teacher, the Fourth Kazekage, was also in the stands, watching his humiliation from beginning to end.
By contrast, Terumi Mei stood not far away with a bright smile, waving cheerfully to the audience. Looking every bit the winner.
As this thought crossed his mind, Yashamaru lay motionless on the ground, raising one arm to cover his face.
He was crying.
"Stay strong, Yashamaru!"
"You were already amazing. Everyone could see that."
"That's right. For a ninja, winning and losing are both part of the path. To fight this well against the Hidden Mist Village's renowned genius is no small achievement."
From up above in the nearby spectator gallery, the voices of Sand Village civilians drifted down.
Not a single person said anything negative about Yashamaru.
"You there! Get up! Don't embarrass yourself! At worst we find another chance to win it back later. What kind of state is this, crying like that?!"
A shout rang out from not far away.
Yashamaru recognized Sakamoto's voice immediately. He had not been competing this time but had come specifically to watch.
Yashamaru raised his arm and looked in the direction of the shout. He saw his best friend's irritated expression looking back at him.
At this moment Terumi Mei, having already secured her win, walked over to him, bent slightly, and extended a hand.
"Losing to me is quite normal. I've lost count of how many people I've defeated. Your strength is still relatively good compared to most of them and should leave a decent impression."
"You can take some pride in that," she said with a smile.
Yashamaru said nothing.
Was that a compliment to him, or a veiled compliment to herself?
"I also don't like weak men. Handsome men don't cry. Like, for instance, your teacher, the Fourth Kazekage."
Terumi Mei added this casually.
Yashamaru staggered to his feet, shook her hand, and said:
"You are quite different from the Hidden Mist ninja I have encountered before. A loss is a loss. I hope we have another chance to fight next time."
He then turned and walked away.
"If this had been on a real battlefield, Yashamaru would probably have been killed the moment he faced her. This is just a competition and she is clearly not fighting seriously."
Up on the platform, Yuji allowed himself a quiet internal smile at the thought.
Looking at Terumi Mei's baseline performance across every dimension, she was already operating at Jonin level. And she possessed two distinct bloodline limits on top of that. Even an ordinary Jonin might not necessarily hold an advantage against her.
This was the particular quality of the ninja world. Geniuses always shone more brightly than others, and that kind of light was simply beyond the reach of those who were not born with the same gifts.
It was how it had always been. For him and Sasori both, the path had been the same kind of escape from the ordinary.
Half a day later, the second match began.
The Hidden Mist Village's competitor was a member of the Hozuki clan.
Almost identical to the first match, the Sand Village side found itself completely overwhelmed and lost quickly.
The Hozuki clan's secret techniques combined with their individual combat statistics were both exceptional. Their Hydrification Technique in particular, a form of body transformation, was extremely difficult for ordinary opponents to cope with. However their weakness was also clearly defined: they were vulnerable to Lightning Release ninjutsu.
The Sand Village's Chunin clearly did not have Lightning Release available. So they lost.
This Hozuki clan member's Hydrification Technique had not yet reached a particularly high level of mastery. He could not achieve the near-total liquefaction that would later be seen from fighters like Suigetsu in the original story.
But simply being able to render physical attacks ineffective at this level of mid-rank combat was already something approaching a broken ability in practical terms.