A fierce gale buffeted the area as Guy launched a low, sweeping kick with his right leg, moving as if to cleave Ui in half at the waist.
Now, this was a highlight worth watching.
Ui didn't panic. His physique was—ahem—his footwork was flexible. He leaned his upper body back until he was nearly folded in half. It was a high-level technical maneuver; if you don't "fold" correctly, you end up "folding" your life permanently.
Guy's attack naturally whistled through empty air. Ui slammed his hands into the ground, pushing himself into a handstand, and hooked one foot around Guy's shoulder. With his limbs tensed like a bow, he pushed off the ground to create distance.
The most annoying part of fighting Ui wasn't necessarily his lethality, but the sheer inconvenience of his proximity. Once you got close, his Lightning Style ensured you couldn't attack on your own terms. You had to endure a "prescribed course" of paralysis first.
Guy had to use raw, explosive strength just to force himself out of Ui's immediate radius.
The Draw
By now, the moon had begun to climb into the sky. The lightning armor on Ui's body flickered; his chakra was running low. If the fight continued, he'd have to switch modes—or perhaps plug himself into a heavy-duty battery.
Since this was a spar, Ui couldn't use lethal force. Thus, the battle had devolved into a war of attrition. During the exchange, Ui had seen countless openings where a Chidori or a Chidori Sharp Spear could have ended things, but Guy wasn't an enemy. He even had to consciously limit the output of his Chidori Current.
"Can you open the Fifth Gate?" Ui asked.
Guy blinked, his brain catching up to the question. "I can open it, but I can't open it."
In a duel between comrades, the Fourth Gate was the absolute safety limit. Opening the Fifth Gate, the Gate of Limit (Dumen), was strictly forbidden in this context. In truth, the current Guy could probably force open the Sixth Gate to use Morning Peacock, but those were "kill moves." Using them against Ui would be no different from Ui using a Raikiri on him.
"Then how about we call this a draw? I don't see much point in continuing... and my chakra won't hold much longer," Ui suggested.
Ultimately, the measure of a ninja is who can kill whom first. Friendly spars always feel a bit like a performance because, by definition, a ninja is a professional killer who prefers a silent assassination over a loud, public brawl.
They had been fighting with their hands tied. Ui couldn't overcome Guy under these restrictions, but he had gathered enough data to understand Guy's current ceiling. For Guy, reaching the Primary Lotus was his limit here. He had achieved his goal: proving that his path of extreme Taijutsu was effective against even a high-tier ninja like Ui.
One was out of chakra; the other was at his physical breaking point.
Ui retracted his lightning, and Guy "closed shop" for the day.
"It's still your victory, Ui. You didn't use any other Ninjutsu," Guy said, wiping sweat from his brow. He was obsessed with winning, but only if the win was fair.
"Don't say that. We both held back and fought within specific limits. A draw is a draw. You didn't use all of your Eight Gates either."
Ui didn't want to look down on him. He genuinely respected the effort. He quickly shifted the subject. "But the Chunin Exams are starting soon. With the damage this forbidden technique does to your body, you probably won't be able to give it your all during the test..."
He realized he'd said the wrong thing immediately. Guy's confident, "youthful" smile returned, and he struck a pose.
"Youth is—!"
Yep, I saw that coming.
The Professor in the Shadows
After enduring a lecture on the "Principles of Hot-Blooded Youth," Guy finally departed. Because the Eight Gates damage the user as much as the opponent, Guy's exhaustion was on a different level than Ui's. He acted normal, but the physical toll was immense. Ui didn't have high hopes for Guy's performance in the upcoming exams.
Ui began the tedious process of using his magnetism to collect the iron sand scattered across the field. The training ground was a wreck. He hoped the maintenance crew who saw this "Taijutsu-only" destruction would still believe in the beauty of life tomorrow.
Once the sand was back in the gourd, Ui didn't leave. He turned toward a specific patch of shadows.
"Third Hokage, you can come out now."
An old man with a pipe and a kage hat stepped out. "Ho ho, I've been discovered," Hiruzen Sarutobi said with a chuckle.
Lord Third, you're so busy with the war, yet you have time to watch the show? Is that really okay?
Ui's eyes couldn't quite convey that much nuance, but he'd sensed a presence early on. If two high-level ninjas were clashing and no one noticed, Konoha would have a serious security problem. He guessed the Hokage was there to intervene if someone got seriously hurt.
Hiruzen didn't mention the fight. "The information you brought back... after deliberation, we've decided to inform the Hidden Sand."
So, they were treating it as established fact. Ui nodded; his report hadn't been in vain.
But then, Ui did something unexpected. He held out his arm toward the Hokage.
"Um, Professor..."
Hiruzen looked confused. Then he remembered that "The Professor" was one of his titles, given his mastery of almost every ninjutsu in existence.
"Do you know medical ninjutsu? I think I have a bone fracture."
Ui wasn't being polite. If the Hokage knew it, he likely knew it at a master level.
He stared blankly at the Third Hokage. Sarutobi was thin and relatively short. Wait, isn't that technically 'petite'? Ui's imagination, fueled by his previous life's tropes, began to wander. He looked at the Hokage's hat and found himself wanting to swap it for a Florence Nightingale nurse's cap.
Control your imagination, Ui!
He failed. In his mind's eye, the Lord Third was now wearing a pink nurse's uniform.
And then...
Blegh...