Chapter 989: Uchiha Sasuke vs Shion-hime
Standing in the arena, Uchiha Sasuke and Shion faced each other with similar determination in their eyes, with the determination to win, neither of the two wanted to lose.
No words were spoken between them yet both understood each other’s intentions to win and made the seal of Confrontation with their dominant arms.
“Begin!”
As soon as the referee signaled the start of the match, Sasuke threw four Shuriken toward Shion with his right arm at several tricky angles and leaped back to distance himself from Shion while weaving hand signs for the next Jutsu, ‘Ox -> Rabbit -> Monkey.’
At the same time, Shion activated her Dōjutsu to ‘see’ the points at which the four Shuriken would ‘hurt’ her, ‘left pectoralis muscle, left shoulder, right shoulder, right thigh,’ and defended against them with her Kunai using some flexible body movement, all while peering into the incoming future.
In the time Shion took to defend against the four Shurikens, Sasuke landed at a distance and completed weaving the hand signs for Chidori.
Chiiiirrrrrpppppppppppp!
As the sound of the chirping of thousands of birds resounded in the arena, high-voltage lightning Chakra covered Sasuke’s left hand.
Looking into the incoming future, Shion hurriedly cut her palm with the Kunai in her hand instantly drawing out blood, then weaved the hand signs, and pressed both her hands on the surface of the arena. The surface of the arena glowed orange as the blood transformed into hundreds of Kanji symbols that said ‘explode’ and scattered throughout the surface of the arena before disappearing.
“You!?” Sasuke was takenaback as he realized what Shion’s plan was.“Well, haah… I intend to win no matter what!” answered Shion while taking deep breaths and looking at Sasuke daringly. She has essentially filled the entire arena with hundreds of land mines. Wherever the symbol of ‘explode’ had appeared, that part would explode if it were to come into contact with anything from the top.
The landmines Shion has created are different from the ones usually created by Deidara of Iwagakure, while his landmines are the result of his clay creatures sneaking inside the ground, the landmines created by her are the result of Fuinjutsu symbols with a specific meaning covering the ground. She has followed the approach of creating exploding tags. Essentially exploding tags are nothing more than scraps of paper that are marked with Kanji for ‘explode,’ and Shion has done the same thing, just with the surface of the arena instead of scraps of paper.
“Have it your way!” screamed Sasuke as he dashed toward Shion full speed intending to attack her with his Chidori.
The moment he took a step forward, the ground beneath his feet exploded, BOOM!
However, Sasuke instantly noticed the changing Chakra reaction on the surface with the help of his Sharingan, so he was able to avoid being affected by the explosion in due time, but he also realized that he couldn’t approach Shion in a straight line as he had initially planned because that way he would end up injuring himself due to countless explosions before he reaches her.
He looked at the area covered with landmines in front of him, then at the area behind him that was surrounded by walls and had no landmines at all. Immediately an idea came to his mind as he turned around and ran toward the wall, climbing it all the way to the top in one go, then using the surface of the wall, he pushed himself toward Shion standing in the center of the arena as well as the landmines. He leaped at her with lightning crackling in his left hand, “By creating those landmines, you have restricted yourself too…!”
Shion looked down as she heard Sasuke’s words. Certainly, the landmines are spread in all directions with her as the center, however, the only place safe was the small piece of ground she was standing on. If she were to take more than a single step forward, or backward, or left, or right, she would become prey to her own landmine, despite that, Shion wasn’t afraid, rather, her lips had arched into a smile as if that was exactly what she wanted.
Clink! Ding!
The two bells tied to her Priestess Clothes clinked and produced a melodious symphony as Shion raised her head and looked straight at Sasuke, suddenly, several Senbons appeared in her hand and she threw them at him.
It’s rather difficult to dodge Senbons, Shurikens, or Kunais while in the air. Although it’s not impossible to maneuverer the body in mid-air, however, that can change the landing point resulting in the failure of the attack, and Sasuke knows that if he fails this single attack, he will hardly have any more chakra left for the next attack and end up losing the fight, therefore, in the face of the incoming Senbon, Sasuke had no choice but clenched his teeth and bear the pain.
The four Senbon thrown by Shion penetrated his body at the right pectoralis muscle, right shoulder left thigh, and right thigh. Intense pain coursed through his body, and his eyes became bloodshot, but Sasuke resisted the pain and finally delivered the attack by running his arm through Shion’s left shoulder, zzz…
If not for the fact that Sasuke had controlled the power of Chidori, and intentionally did not aim at her heart, he could have killed Shion with his attack, however, because he controlled the power of attack, and did not aim at the heart, so even though his arm ran through her left shoulder, instantly drawing out blood, it did not kill her immediately.
“Gahaaa…” Shion coughed out blood, but despite being injured and paralyzed by all that lightning coursing through her body, there was a smile on her face and she did not collapse, rather, a melodious sound of bells clinking reached her ears as a pink Chakra hue covered her and gave her the strength to remain standing.
Seeing that Shion had not collapsed or lost consciousness despite being pierced by Chidori, Sasuke was takenaback and he wanted to use his other arm to knock her out, however, he couldn’t lift it… no matter how much strength he put into his arm, he just couldn’t lift the arm, “What?” It was at this time he realized that it was not just his right arm that he couldn’t move, it was also both of his legs that he couldn’t move, they didn’t respond to him, heck he couldn’t even feel them, and it wasn’t just that he couldn’t move or feel his right arm and both legs, he couldn’t even draw Chakra!
Sasuke had felt this feeling before, and it has almost always been when he fought Neji and got his Chakra Network sealed by him, therefore, he understood what Shion had done, and couldn’t help but curse, “Damn you… Those Senbons earlier that you threw…”
With a weak voice, Shion answered, “I have lived within the Hyuga Clan for as long as I can remember, I grew up with Hinata-chan ever since we were little kids, I have watched her train Gentle Fist with Yui-nee time and time again, I have watched her study all the Tenketsu Points and their specific locations in a person’s body time and time again, countless times I have been her sparring partner whose Tenketsu she had sealed during practice… Throughout all this, despite lacking the Byakugan, I also managed to pick up and memorize the specific locations of all the Tenketsu Points in a person’s body… While I couldn’t seal them by using Gentle Fist since I am incapable of expelling Chakra from all my Tenketsu points unlike her, but with Yui-nee’s guidance, I did manage to develop a method to seal them using Senbons that are wrapped with my Chakra… This was the only method I could think of to defeat you, the strongest of our year… while I am the best in our year when it comes to Fuinjutsu, other sensory skills, and Chakra control, at this time, I don’t have anything too flashy or any jutsu that has as much raw attack power or speed as your Lightning Stimulation Jutsu, Chidori, or other Fire Style Jutsu… therefore, I had to use myself as the bait, and create a specific situation where you wouldn’t be able to dodge my Chakra covered Senbon… *Cough-puke* If it was a life and death battle, certainly it would have been you who would have won, but…”
Shion didn’t have to finish her words as Sasuke collapsed on the ground, he tried to get up again, “Damn it, not like this… I can’t… not with Tou-san here… I can’t! I refuse…!” However no matter how much he tried, he failed, and even his Sharingan regressed back into black pupils. He no longer had to continue the fight since he couldn’t even feel three of his four limbs, meanwhile, Shion, although on the verge of death because of all that blood flowing out through the wound on her shoulder, still remained standing and seemed to have enough strength to deliver another blow, albeit a very weak one.
Time passed second by second, and the result was finally clear as the referee announced, “Uchiha Sasuke cannot continue… the winner is Shion-hime!”
As soon as the result was announced, Shion sighed tiredly as she lost all her energy and was about to fall to the ground, however, her back never touched the surface as Kuroto appeared in the arena and caught her. Feeling the familiar warmth, the little girl closed her eyes and muttered with a smug smile, “Heh, I won Kuroto-nii,” then lost consciousness.