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"Begin."
At Izuna's command, the barrier rose once more on the high platform.
Inside the barrier, Senju Tobirama and Uzumaki Mito stood facing each other across a vast forest.
Mito's expression was perfectly calm, while Tobirama's face looked exceedingly awkward.
Outside the array.
Kaito hid his schadenfreude-filled grin behind his white folding fan.
Minato beside him was caught between wanting to laugh and not daring to; his face twisted into a complicated expression.
Whether inside or outside the image, every viewer who knew the identities of the two combatants erupted in an uproar.
Even Kushina and Karin, who had been cheering for Mito at the top of their lungs the entire time, stood there dumbfounded.
Yet the camera mischievously zoomed in on Senju Hashirama below the stage.
Hashirama's face was scrunched up like a pitiful, abandoned puppy as he stared up at the platform.
"Pfft—"
The sight made Kaito burst out laughing again.
The view switched back to the two fighters.
"Sister…" Tobirama clearly held deep respect for his sister-in-law.
"I know exactly what you're trying to do, Tobirama." Mito raised a hand and cut him off before he could continue.
"But if you're just planning to throw the match, I won't accept it."
An imposing aura flared around her. The two paper talismans pinned in her hair fluttered in the wind.
"Let's fight for real."
The youthful face she had regained bloomed into a radiant smile.
"For Hashirama's dream, I was bound by too many chains while I was alive—especially after becoming the Nine-Tails jinchūriki."
A small inset window popped up in the broadcast, mercilessly live-streaming Hashirama's face as though he'd been struck by lightning.
Mito cracked her knuckles with a loud crack-crack-crack.
"For decades I've been the Senju clan head's wife, the Hokage's wife, the Nine-Tails jinchūriki… I've had enough of those titles while I was still breathing."
In the inset, Hashirama had already collapsed forward onto his knees in despair.
Mito shot into the air and threw a punch straight at Tobirama.
"Don't you dare forget—I'm a shinobi too!"
Tobirama flashed aside. The spot where her fist landed exploded, shattering the ground into a crater. A few beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
"Not going to fight back, Tobirama?!"
Mito pursued like a storm, another punch pulverizing the earth.
Dust and debris flew everywhere.
Tobirama fled between the leaning, half-uprooted trees, covered in dirt and looking utterly disheveled.
"Here I come, Sister!"
He finally began forming seals.
"Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"
A tremendous torrent of water gushed from his mouth, roaring toward Mito with crushing force.
Facing a wall of water taller than herself, Mito showed no fear. Her hands were already flashing through seals.
"Five Elements Seal!"
The instant her fingertips touched the flood, the colossal mass of water began to disintegrate and evaporate in layers.
The water-nature chakra that Tobirama had meticulously shaped was forcibly unsealed and reverted to raw energy.
Outside the array, Naruto suddenly leapt to his feet, eyes shining.
"That was AWESOME!! Grandma Mito is way too cool!! Hahaha, and the First Hokage's face is hilarious…"
Sasuke glanced at him, then silently took several steps away.
"A fighting style that uses sealing techniques as the core weapon! Ever since the Uzumaki clan fell, the shinobi world has never again seen sealing arts performed at this peak level! Not even Kushina could do it!" Minato exclaimed, just as excited.
"I've read the records—back in the Warring States period, the traditional Uzumaki fighting style was to use supremely advanced fuinjutsu to progressively seal away the enemy's techniques, then finish them off with superhuman physical strength and taijutsu!"
"That's a completely different philosophy from every other shinobi," Kaito nodded appreciatively as he watched Mito on screen.
Right now she was unleashing an endless cascade of exquisite, miraculous sealing techniques, steadily shrinking the area in which Tobirama could safely cast his ninjutsu.
If her opponent had been even slightly weaker, her next step would probably have been to seal Tobirama's chakra pathways from the inside and completely rob him of the ability to mold chakra ever again.
Unfortunately, the man she faced was the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama—the shinobi once known as the fastest in the world.
And that man was finally forced by his sister-in-law's overwhelming sealing arts to bring out his Flying Thunder God Technique.
Even Kaito could clearly see that Tobirama had been purely reactive the entire time. Whenever he did attack, he held back tremendously and clearly wasn't using his full strength.
After all, the man whose lifelong passion was research and who had invented countless forbidden techniques in his lifetime could never be called "bad at sealing arts"—that would be an outright lie.
Of course, Mito herself was no weakling; she was a finalist for a reason.
Against anyone else of Tobirama's caliber, she might have put on an even more dazzling performance.
But Tobirama understood her abilities inside and out, and his own toolbox happened to counter her style perfectly, restricting her from truly shining.
The fight dragged on. Mito's fists turned the entire forest into a wasteland of craters and splintered trees, while Tobirama—now teleporting freely between the Flying Thunder God markers he had scattered everywhere—began to look much more relaxed.
"This is boring."
All of a sudden Mito stopped, clearly losing interest. She glared at Tobirama in dissatisfaction.
"I never managed to make you get serious, did I, Tobirama?"
"Sister…"
Tobirama looked helplessly at her, mouth opening as if to explain.
"Never mind, spare me the excuses!"
Mito waved her hand magnanimously and cut him off again.
"Let's just end it here!"
She raised her hand high.
"Referee! I forfeit!"
The moment the words left her mouth, Tobirama visibly exhaled in relief.
Outside the barrier, a flash of genuine regret crossed Izuna's face, but he still dutifully dissolved the boundary.
"Due to Uzumaki Mito's voluntary forfeiture, the winner of this match is Senju Tobirama!"
When he pronounced Tobirama's name, Izuna's face involuntarily twisted into an expression of mild disgust.
Up on the platform, Hashirama looked like he was about to cry from sheer joy.
"What a pity. It ended just like that," Kaito sighed with real disappointment.
"Indeed, such a waste," Minato glanced at him and nodded.
"I really wanted to see if Lady Mito had any more sealing techniques up her sleeve, or whether she had mastered spiritual power as well."
"I'm certain the Second Hokage has already mastered it," Kaito replied. "Given his personality, he has probably researched something terrifying by now."
"That… does sound very likely, hahaha…" Minato laughed, suddenly remembering Tobirama's track record.
"After all, most of the forbidden techniques still preserved in Konoha today came from the Second's hand."
"Let's look forward to the next round. The battles between the winners should be far more intense," Kaito said, twitching at the corner of his mouth as he watched Hashirama shamelessly circling Mito on screen, acting all cute and trying to get back in her good graces.
Enma really was mischievous. After today, Hashirama's reputation as a hen-pecked husband was going to spread across the entire world.