Chapter – 22 Resuming the Tournament (Patreon)

It was almost time for the next round of the tournament, as the apprentices of the Sandaime Hokage had returned to the Konoha Ninja Academy.

Orochimaru was standing at the center of the podium with his characteristic cold and pale face, meanwhile, Tsunade-hime was standing on the side with a few twitch marks on her forehead and veins popping out. Although she was trying hard to smile, for some reason it was twisted and scary. As for Jiraiya… he wasn’t present on the stage at all!

The white-haired Ero-Sennin had disappeared!

Minato couldn’t help but wonder, “Huh? Where did Jiraiya-sama go? Is he not coming for this round?”

“I don’t know…” Tatsumi shook his head, then he mumbled some strange words, “Maybe undergoing treatment at the Konoha Ninja Hospital… It’s also possible that he has already been buried at the Konoha Cemetery, and his name is about to be carved at the Memorial Stone.”

“……” Minato was speechless upon hearing Tatsumi’s wild conclusions.

At this time, Orochimaru addressed the crowd of excited children, “Alright, we are already running a bit late, so let’s get straight to the second round. The rules have already been announced, but I will repeat them just in case. Although three trainees have been selected, however, fights will still be one-on-one… the added aspect is that the winner can continue to fight the next member of the losing team if they want, similarly, the injured trainees can receive treatment from Tsunade-hime. Now, as for the matchups, the first year will fight against the second year, the third year will fight against the fourth year, and the fifth year will fight against the sixth year… Finally, the last remaining three trainees who remain standing will have the opportunity to receive our mentorship.”

After Orochimaru finished speaking, he glanced at ashen-faced Tsunade-hime for confirmation, and seeing that she hadn’t raised any objection, Orochimaru no longer wasted any time and weaved the hand signs then pressed his hands on the ground as a new bigger arena appeared on the ground.

Orochimaru knew better not to mess around with the current Tsunade, the pathetic state of Jiraiya had scared even him, and unlike Jiraiya, he didn’t want to end up in the ICU undergoing surgeries.

Once the arena was complete, Orochimaru spoke, “Alright then, let’s start the first match of the final round, and just to be on the safe side, I will be the referee.” Then with a quick body flicker, he appeared in the arena, meanwhile, Tsunade-hime retreated to a corner.

Since the first round is the first year’s vs the second year's, so Tatsumi’s team will be fighting.

After a moment of contemplation, Tatsumi asked Minato and Mikoto, “Should I go first?”

Minato was about to step forward as he was a little eager to fight, but when he heard Tatsumi’s question, he couldn’t help but ask, “You want to fight first?”

Mikoto also looked at Tatsumi in surprise.

Tatsumi nodded, “Yes, the two of you should try to save your strength for future matchups against the seniors…”

Minato and Mikoto pondered over Tatsumi’s words then nodded, “Alright, this would be best.” It’s not that the two of them were afraid to come forward, rather, it’s better for them to conserve their strength for future matchups against the seniors.

“Win it,” said Minato as he raised his fist which Tatsumi responded with a bump, “You got it.”

Mikoto also said, “All the best Tatsumi-kun.” Of course, she didn’t really doubt that Tatsumi would lose either way.

Tatsumi shook his turtle neck and stepped on the arena with a cool backflip, style is the most important, and naturally, the moment Tatsumi appeared on the arena, exclaims, moans, and cheers resounded throughout the field. As the guy who dominated the entire first year and performed even better than the grandson of the Shodaime Hokage, Tatsumi is naturally extremely famous.

In the secret list of ‘Want to be his girlfriend,’ Tatsumi occupies the number one spot, closely followed by the little sun Minato, almost all the girls in the academy have a crush on Tatsumi, and the admirers of Uchiha Tatsumi are constantly increasing, heck, even some ‘quirky’ boys have started to see Tatsumi with hearts in their eyes making the young Uchiha shiver in fright.

“Haaah… Tatsumi-kun is so handsome…!”

“No one is as cool as Tatsumi-kun!”

“Tatsumi-kun is the strongest!”

“As long as I can go on a date with Tatsumi-kun, I don’t care about anything else!”

Tatsumi looked at his fangirls with a smile, instantly knocking them unconscious with a satisfied smile.

Standing opposite to Tatsumi, the opponent is also a fangirl of Tatsumi, “I am Haruki Mebuki, Tatsumi-Senpai, please be merciful.”

Looking at her hair color, hairstyle, as well as her name, Tatsumi immediately identified the girl, ‘Haruno Sakura’s mother.’

Although Haruki Mebuki knows that the situation is hopeless for her, she still wants to give her best and not disappoint the revered Uchiha Tatsumi-senpai with her poor performance, and just like her daughter in the future, she seems to be attracted to a handsome Uchiha.

Once both the participants were ready, and made the sign of confrontation, Orochimaru signaled the start of the fight, “Begin!”

Haruki Mebuki took out a pair of Kunai and rushed to Tatsumi. Looking at the young rushing toward him, Tatsumi snapped his fingers, then…

Then there was nothing, Mebuki froze and fell into sleep.

From start to end, the fight did not even last three seconds, and the whole process was very simple. Tatsumi simply used sound as a medium to put Haruki Mebuki under Genjutsu

The audience froze in surprise. The trainees of the upper grades were still somewhat okay, however, the ones in the lower grades didn’t even understand what happened and looked at each other in confusion.

Some even wondered, “Could it be… there was match-fixing?”

“If not match-fixing, is it possible that Uchiha Tatsumi is blackmailing Mebuki-chan with something, and forced her to fall in such a way?”

The imagination of young children is really wild.

Orochimaru–who is the referee of the match–had obviously expected such a situation, he didn’t say anything just stared at Tatsumi with his serpent-like eyes. He is clearly interested in the young Uchiha, especially after the boy mentioned the ‘Rinnegan,’ and the ‘Sage of Six Path,’ however, now is not the time for that as he still has to announce the result of the fight, “Uchiha Tatsumi vs Haruki Mebuki, the winner is Uchiha Tatsumi!”

After the defeat of Haruki Mebuki, the next participant from the first year stepped into the arena. It was yet another fangirl of Tatsumi. She bowed down to Tatsumi and introduced herself, “I am Inuzuka Tsume, please take care of me Uchiha Tatsumi-senpai.”

Looking at the pair of fang markings on her face, and the wild, spiky, and untamed brown hair along with vertical eye slits, it was obvious that the girl is a member of the Inuzuka Clan. The young girl also had her companion ninken sitting on her head and recalling the name that the young girl had spoken, Tatsumi quickly realized her identity, ‘This time it’s Inuzuka Kiba’s mother.’

Inuzuka Tsume and Uchiha Tatsumi made the seal of confrontation, and Orochimaru signaled the start of the second match, “Begin!”

“Your Genjutsu is indeed very powerful Senpai, but I am not afraid!” said Tsume as she stared at Tatsumi with a serious and dangerous gaze. As a fangirl of Tatsumi, naturally, she has heard a lot about him, however, she is confident that she can deal with it just fine.

Her confidence comes from the fact that she has her ninken sitting on top of her head, so even if she falls into a Genjutsu, her ninken will disrupt her Chakra and help her break free of the Genjutsu.

“Ohh…” muttered Tatsumi with a smile as he once again snapped his fingers. The next moment, Inuzuka Tsume and her ninken, both fell to the ground.

“……” Orochimaru looked at the sleeping Inuzuka girl, and her ninken with a speechless expression. He was wondering if the Inuzuka girl didn’t consider the possibility that Uchiha Tatsumi would put both her and her ninken into a Genjutsu at the same time.

The Snake Sannin shook his head, and announced the result, “Uchiha Tatsumi vs Inuzuka Tsume, the winner is Uchiha Tatsumi!”