Seeing Kurozawa injured, Inuzuka Midori fell down contentedly.
If her strength allowed, she would have liked to do better, but this was all she could do for now.
"The outcome is decided, Kurozawa wins!" Hiruko declared the result of the battle just in time.
Kurozawa glared at Inuzuka Midori but didn't dare to make another move.
"What a hassle, having to fight that kind of monster in the second round." The victory didn't excite Kurozawa, as winning against a Genin as a Chunin wasn't much to be proud of.
More important than this victory, he needed to think about how to minimize his injuries in the second round because his next opponent was Might Guy.
The heavily injured Inuzuka Midori was quickly taken away by medical ninjas, while Kurozawa went to a special place for candidates to receive treatment.
Seeing Kurozawa win the battle, Yuan Shi's facial expression relaxed a little.
So far, there had been three battles between Konoha and Hidden Mist, with Hidden Mist winning two of them, giving them the upper hand.
"The fifth match, Uchiha Obito versus Sarutobi Asuma!"
"Sarutobi Asuma, isn't that the son of the Third Hokage? He's of age to participate in the Chunin Examination now."
"Uchiha Obito, never heard of him; the Third Hokage's son should win, right?"
The majority of the audience favored Asuma, not because they knew about his Ninjutsu or how strong he was, but simply because Asuma was the son of the Third Hokage.
As the son of the Third Hokage, Asuma's victory was expected, losing would be strange.
"How could they underestimate our Uchiha?" Uchiha Inabi disapproved of these remarks.
He, having been defeated by Obito, knew best how strong Obito was. He wasn't just strong for a Genin; even among Chunin, he was considered one of the stronger ones.
"No matter, Obito will prove Uchiha's excellence through his strength," Uchiha Yashiro said indifferently.
In his view, Obito might not be able to defeat Kisame or Might Guy, as they were true monsters, but defeating Asuma should pose no problem.
The reason was simple: if Asuma possessed such powerful strength, with his identity as the Hokage's son, his genius reputation would have spread throughout Konoha long ago.
Uchiha Inabi nodded, looking toward the center of the venue, ready to focus on the battle.
In the battle field, it was hard to hear the discussions from the audience, which was mostly the domain of sharp-eared and clear-sighted ninjas.
While he couldn't hear clearly, Asuma could guess what the audience was discussing above.
It was nothing more than how the Hokage's son should win; he was too familiar with this because it was something he had heard since childhood.
If he won, it was expected, as that's what the son of the Hokage should do. If he lost, it meant he hadn't trained well enough, as the Hokage's son couldn't be at such a level.
"It sounds easy to say, but Obito isn't easy to deal with," Asuma thought as he looked at Obito, who was grinning and waving to the audience.
He had no confidence in fighting Obito; the Fire Release that Obito used during the preliminaries was still vivid in Asuma's memory. Now, a month had passed, and who knew what improvements Obito might have made; Asuma truly had no idea.
Not winning the battle as those people wished wouldn't make Asuma sad, and he might even find joy in it.
But Asuma wouldn't intentionally lose the fight because there were people on the field he cared about.
Asuma didn't want Mokgetsu to see him lose easily and think his teachings were in vain. Asuma didn't want Sarutobi Hiruzen to see him lose easily; he wanted to prove himself with his strength.
Asuma looked up at the audience; although it was hard to distinguish because of the distance, he imagined there was a blond figure watching with a gentle smile.
"That kid's fight, huh, he's definitely gonna get hammered by Uchiha Obito," Tsunade said upon hearing Asuma's name.
"Why?" Mokgetsu turned to Tsunade and asked.
"Haha, because Asuma can't talk to women, calls them 'auntie'," Jiraiya laughed heartily, answering on Tsunade's behalf.
Mokgetsu's expression was somewhat subtle. In a way, Tsunade was right, there was a certain gap between their strengths at the moment. For Asuma to win was indeed difficult; all the stars had to be aligned in his favor, and Obito had to perform poorly for it to happen.
"But if you ask me, considering Asuma's age, calling you..." Jiraiya saw Tsunade's fist gradually rise and wisely swallowed the rest of his words. Tsunade's strikes were known for having no restraint.
"The battle begins!"
As Hiruko's voice echoed through the arena, Mokgetsu refocused his gaze on the arena to watch the battle.
"Breath of Flame, Full Concentration Breathing!" Obito quickly entered the concentrated breathing state, increasing the speed of his Fire Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation.
However, he didn't immediately enter the Breath of Flame Chakra Mode; the consumption was too great. He intended to gauge Asuma's strength before deciding whether to activate it.
Asuma also immediately entered a state of Basic Breathing to enhance his abilities.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!!
Asuma took three kunai from his ninja pouch, using wind nature transformation to infuse Wind Attribute Chakra onto them, and then hurled them towards Obito.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Obito gathered his chakra, rapidly completing nature transformation in his throat, and expelled a massive flame.
The flames formed a gigantic fireball, smashing toward the incoming shuriken.
The kunai infused with Wind Attribute Chakra held considerable power, but they were still outmatched by Obito's Great Fireball and were struck to the ground.
Asuma opted not to take the attack head-on but instead dodged swiftly.
Obito hadn't expected the Great Fireball to hit Asuma, so he immediately unleashed his chakra and charged forward.
Though Asuma's breathing technique and physical abilities were considerably inferior to Obito's, the month hadn't been wasted. Besides the Basic Breathing Technique, Asuma had deepened his mastery of wind nature transformation and, under Mokgetsu's guidance, learned to use Wind Release to accelerate himself.
With the speed boost from Wind Release, Asuma didn't instantly fall behind. To onlookers, he seemed to battle Obito back and forth, in a seemingly equal match.
But of course, it was only on the surface.
"Obito's strength was far greater than mine. When did his Taijutsu become so formidable?" Thought the Asuma, who had assumed he could rely on his new technique to gain an edge in Taijutsu.
Having gauged Asuma's Taijutsu level, Obito directly activated his Sharingan, eyes turning blood-red with two tomoe spinning within.
With the Sharingan activated, Obito's perceptive abilities increased significantly, revealing numerous openings in Asuma's strikes.
Already at a disadvantage, Asuma quickly found himself overpowered, forced to retreat under Obito's relentless attacks.
Some observers who noticed Asuma struggling instinctively glanced at Sarutobi Hiruzen, but his expression remained unchanged, just as it had with the previous battles.
"To think he suppressed the Hokage's son. This Uchiha Obito is quite formidable indeed."
"Does that mean he's going to win?"
No ninja would be foolish enough to disparage the Hokage's son in such a grand setting; even if he lost, the most anyone would do is grumble with a friend in private.
An ordinary person's words might be ignored by the Hokage, but a ninja should know better. Even if the Hokage disregarded it, there were always subordinates willing to act on his behalf.
Uchiha Fugaku watched Obito steadily gain the upper hand and nodded slightly, thinking that with his prowess, Obito was sure to be promoted to Chunin.
"As a Chunin, he could directly enter the Police Department. If he joined, he would undoubtedly receive the best training," Uchiha Yashiro lamented Obito's previous refusal.
He believed that having an Uchiha teach an Uchiha was the best approach since no one understood an Uchiha better than another Uchiha.
Seeing his Taijutsu failing, Asuma had no choice but to change strategies, pushing his wind nature transformation to its limits to rapidly accelerate and create distance.
Though he had less confidence in his Ninjutsu, Asuma realized it was his only option; without using Wind Release Ninjutsu, he'd lose to Obito's Taijutsu.
"Those people are probably already thinking I haven't trained properly, blaming me for everything. They don't know how strong my opponent is," Asuma mused as he formed hand seals.
"So fast... in that case, let's use Ninjutsu." Realizing he couldn't catch up and was risking taking a Wind Release attack face-first, Obito also began forming hand seals to use Fire Release Ninjutsu.