"Hello."
Zoro revealed a faint smile, his expression appearing calm and harmless on the surface.
But deep down, he understood sothing very clearly—there were no eternal allies between ninja villages. Only eternal interests.
Naturally, he was not stupid enough to casually offend i Terumī either. Right now, he could already be considered to have ford a conflict with Kumogakure.
If he recklessly made enemies everywhere, he would only be digging his own grave.
At the very least, before his strength had fully matured, Zoro had no intention of placing himself against the entire ninja world.
"Oh?"
A trace of surprise flashed through i Terumī's beautiful eyes when she realized Zoro had actually responded to her greeting.
Compared to their previous encounter, his attitude had clearly changed quite a bit.
It seed sothing must have happened recently.
"Even so, I won't go easy on you."
As she spoke, i lightly touched her alluring red lips with one finger. The graceful curves of her mature figure trembled subtly with the movent, drawing the attention of more than a few spectators nearby.
"As it should be."
Toward the future Mizukage, Zoro naturally hoped to maintain a decent relationship if possible.
"Friendship first, competition second. Since both participants are ready… begin!"
The referee's voice rang out from the stands.
The mont the match officially started, the smile on i Terumī's face disappeared instantly.
Her hands blurred into motion as she rapidly ford a complex sequence of hand seals. At the sa ti, she slightly parted her alluring red lips.
Faced with i's speed and intricate hand signs, Zoro remained calm and completely unmoved.
In his mind, dozens of thods had already surfaced—ways to defeat her before she could even complete her jutsu.
But Zoro still understood the importance of tact.
After all, won were creatures who could hold grudges for an incredibly long ti.
If he embarrassed her too badly now, who knew what troubleso things she might do in the future?
"Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique!"
Dense white mist burst from i's mouth like a tidal wave, rapidly spreading throughout the battlefield.
In only monts, the entire arena beca shrouded in heavy fog.
The spectators' vision blurred, and the outlines of the battlefield quickly disappeared beneath layers of drifting mist.
All of it had been produced directly from i herself.
"As expected of the future Mizukage… what terrifying chakra reserves."
In the stands, Fugaku's expression grew slightly serious as he watched the battlefield vanish beneath the spreading mist.
"A ninja with two kekkei genkai…"
Beside him, Elder Setsuna muttered quietly, his gaze fixed intently below.
Kekkei genkai were bloodline abilities inherited genetically through clans.
Strictly speaking, even the Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan belonged to that category.
"Against an opponent like this… does Zoro truly have confidence?"
Setsuna's voice carried a hint of concern.
No one understood the terror of bloodline abilities better than the Uchiha themselves.
"That may not necessarily be true."
Fugaku narrowed his eyes slightly before continuing calmly.
"Even with two kekkei genkai, her overall strength is still only around the chūnin level."
"That's true."
Hearing Fugaku's analysis, the worry on Setsuna's face eased considerably.
He suddenly realized his concerns might have been unnecessary from the beginning.
After all, Zoro already possessed combat ability comparable to a special jōnin.
"Ha… unlucky. He ended up facing… that Mist ninja."
Killer B spoke in his usual rhythmic tone, unable to hide the amusent in his voice.
At the very least, if Zoro suffered a beating here, his big brother's mood might improve slightly.
"It's i Terumī. Looks like soone's about to have a rough ti."
Darui casually leaned against a pillar hidden within the shadows, grinning as he watched the battlefield below.
Even now, he still did not dare appear in front of A.
With A's violent temper, Darui had no doubt he would imdiately get slamd into the ground with a Liger Bomb the mont the man saw him.
And naturally, the unlucky person Darui referred to… was i Terumī.
"Be careful," i said softly from within the mist, her voice echoing faintly through the battlefield. "My kekkei genkai is very hot."
Seeing her Hidden Mist Technique successfully cover the entire arena, a confident smile appeared on her face.
She casually wiped away the moisture lingering at the corner of her lips before rapidly forming hand seals once again.
"Lava Release: lting Apparition Technique!!"
A mass of highly corrosive acidic liquid suddenly burst from i's mouth, surging violently toward Zoro.
The sticky acid spread through the mist like a living wave, instantly occupying the area in front of him.
It was difficult to imagine such a mature and beautiful woman unleashing such a terrifying and bizarre attack.
The acid reacted violently with the moisture in the air, producing sharp sizzling sounds that echoed throughout the arena.
"Chi—chi—chi—!"
Even the ground began lting wherever droplets landed.
Inside the dense mist, Zoro's vision beca heavily obstructed.
He slowly inhaled a deep breath.
Then, without hesitation, he closed his eyes.
By abandoning one sense, the remaining four beca drastically sharper.
At this mont, Zoro had already begun touching the threshold of Observation Haki.
"One-Sword Style: Blackbird!"
A sharp tallic cry erupted alongside the flash of a blade.
In an instant, a violent storm of sword energy exploded outward from Zoro's position.
"Boom!!"
The surrounding mist was forcibly torn apart by the pressure of the slash.
Even i's Lava Release attack rushing toward him was effortlessly split in half by the overwhelming sword force.
But Zoro's attack did not stop there.
After cutting apart the corrosive lava, the movent of his arm continued without the slightest pause.
His body twisted into a strange stance as his sword arm rotated at terrifying speed, leaving behind countless afterimages within the mist.
The endless sound of blades tearing through the air echoed continuously across the battlefield.
"Swish! Swish! Swish!!"
The violent slashing force spread in every direction.
Cracks rapidly appeared along the surrounding arena walls.
The ground beneath the battlefield began trembling faintly.
Centered around Zoro, a miniature tornado ford entirely from sword energy slowly began taking shape.
The dense mist was continuously shredded apart by the rotating currents of sword force.
!!!
"That guy's a monster…"
Killer B stared at the sword-energy storm forming inside the mist, so shocked that he unconsciously dropped his rap-like speech pattern entirely.
Even through the obscured battlefield, he could vaguely perceive the terrifying speed of Zoro's sword swings.
As soone gifted in swordsmanship himself, Killer B could not help feeling genuine admiration.
No wonder Darui had surrendered imdiately.
The difference between the two sides was already beyond the level of ordinary comparison.
"Is that guy cheating?!"
"Can a ninja even do sothing like this?"
"As expected of Konoha's number one genius!"
Shock spread throughout the spectator stands.
Many of the watching genin had already gone completely wide-eyed, while even several chūnin could not hide the disbelief on their faces as they stared toward the center of the battlefield.
To them, what they were witnessing no longer resembled an ordinary genin-level battle.
anwhile, the representatives from the other ninja villages looked increasingly grim.
Especially A of Kumogakure.
His expression had already darkened to the extre. Fortunately, his naturally dark complexion concealed most of the change.
This brat's strength had already surpassed his expectations by far.
i Terumī was completely being overwheld.
That terrifying sword speed no longer felt like a simple battle technique—it was more like a direct warning aid at every ninja village present.
A silent show of force.
It forced A to reconsider one thing:
If Kumogakure truly chose to move against Zoro in the future… exactly how great a price would they have to pay?
Inside the battlefield, Zoro's sword grew faster and faster.
The violent pressure generated by the endless slashes gradually condensed into sothing resembling a raging tornado. Against the drifting mist, the spectacle beca even more visually overwhelming.
The surrounding Hidden Mist Technique was continuously torn apart.
Bit by bit, visibility across the battlefield returned.
Ever since Zoro began swinging his blade, i Terumī had fallen into complete shock.
Throughout the entire exchange, all she could hear beside her ears was the endless shrieking sound of blades cutting through the air.
"Swish—!"
"Swish—!"
"Swish—!"
Before she could even fully recover from her stunned state, several strands of her hair had already been severed by invisible sword pressure.
Her pupils contracted slightly.
Looking at the half-ter-deep sword trenches carved across the ground behind Zoro, i could already imagine the outco if those attacks landed directly on her body.
She would probably be sliced apart instantly.
"One-Sword Style: Thirty-Six Pound Phoenix!!"
A terrifying sword pressure suddenly condensed.
In the next instant, a massive crescent-shaped slash burst forward like a roaring storm.
The surrounding airflow exploded violently.
The battlefield shook.
The sword wave surged through the arena with overwhelming montum, forcibly splitting apart the remaining mist along its path.
"BOOM!!"
The earth cracked open.
The walls trembled violently.
Even the spectator stands seed to shake faintly beneath the terrifying impact.
Then—
"Clack."
Zoro calmly returned his sword to its sheath.
The sound itself was not loud.
Yet for so reason, that crisp sheathing noise echoed clearly throughout the entire arena.
Silence followed.
Everyone stared blankly at the devastated battlefield before them.
Deep trenches covered the arena floor. The stone walls were filled with countless slash marks.
The entire battlefield looked as though it had just been ravaged by a violent storm.
It was difficult to believe that this level of destruction had been created by soone who had not even officially beco a chūnin yet.
"Um… referee…"
Only after a long silence did i Terumī finally recover her senses.
A trace of disappointnt appeared in her beautiful eyes as she slowly raised one hand.
"I lose."
Her voice was calm, but inwardly, her emotions were anything but peaceful.
She looked toward Zoro in the distance.
A thin layer of sweat was visible on his forehead, proving that the attack just now had clearly consud a considerable amount of stamina.
But i understood one thing very clearly.
If Zoro had truly gone all out from the very beginning—
She probably would not even have had the opportunity to complete a single sequence of hand seals.
***
Note: Blackbird is an original one sword style of Uchiha Zoro, though not fully developed yet. It's final form would probably be a combination of genjutsu akin to itachi, where all the opponent would be able to see is his red eyes and crows before instant death. Cool, huh? Though that skill is still under consideration.
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