Chapter 247: Selection Stage II

After Kankurō's victory, something interesting finally began. Shikamaru opened his eyes and narrowed his eyes. At the same moment, the names flashed on the screen: Ino Yamanaka vs. Sakura Haruno.

And so the moment of the long-delayed battle between the two arrived. Noticing their belligerent looks at each other, Shikamaru could only shake his head with a bitter grin. As a last resort, he was going to intervene, but already now he understood that regardless of the winner, these two clearly would not stop conflicting. The point here is not only Shikamaru - Ino and Sakura simply considered each other to be the main rivals. Even if Yamanaka had surpassed Haruno in the past, nothing had changed. They wanted to fight, there was nothing to be done.

The female rivalry had spilled over into the relationship with the guy, but that didn't matter now. Sakura and Ino entered the arena with fighting intent, followed by Hayate announcing the start of their fight. Shikamaru began to watch intently.

Unlike the possible battle that would have happened without his intervention in the fates of these two, things were different now. First of all, the girls have become much stronger, especially Ino, who has been developing since childhood, thanks to an enhanced pedigree. Sakura also had an innate talent, and after that, enhanced control and chakra indicators with the help of pills. Her combat potential should also increase thanks to them. That is why it is difficult to understand who will win this battle. As far as Shikamaru knew, Ino had never learned how to use Elemental Ninjutsu in general, but even without it, she was a dangerous opponent for an untrained shinobi. Sakura, on the other hand... She knew the basics from the academy and it's not clear what else. How will control and reserves of chakra help her? It's hard to guess...

The fight of the girls lasted almost an hour. At this time, Shikamaru had already stood up and looked at the situation below in the arena in surprise.

“What the hell…” Although he didn’t arrive in a state of shock, he was genuinely surprised. He expected everyone, of course... She even bet on Ino to win, and not without reason. Still, sometimes talent can not cross out several years of training. In the future, Sakura would definitely surpass Yamanaka, but now...

Here are just a reality showed an amazing picture. Like some kind of fateful meeting - these two, many times stronger than possible versions of themselves from the past, demonstrated a very spectacular fight. A truly ruthless duel between two kunoichi! But it ended as if predetermined by someone - these two seemed to be trying to reach this moment themselves. Marvelous...

— ... a draw. No one goes by the rules,” Hayate finally announced. Shikamaru shook his head in bewilderment, looking at the bloody footprints in the arena, as well as a couple of defeated girls. They lay a couple of meters apart, with no way to get up. They beat each other so hard that they simply lost consciousness. Unfortunately, sensing their determination, he just couldn't intervene.

Shikamaru sighed softly and abruptly moved into the arena, being next to Ino, which immediately attracted the attention of everyone present. Ignoring it, he crept up to the blonde and touched her head. At the same moment, the emerald energy dissipated throughout the girl's body, and all her wounds began to regenerate at an amazing rate. Everyone watching this stared at Shikamaru in shock and eyed Yamanaka in disbelief.

"Damn it, how did he do that..." Anko stared at the situation in bewilderment and looked back towards the Hokage.

Kakashi nodded gloomily, and many couldn't believe what they saw. None of them had ever seen anyone able to heal with just one touch. Of course, many Jonin weren't as surprised as the juniors, but even they found it hard to believe that. Few of them had seen the Uzumaki in action, and even if they had, they knew full well they couldn't heal with a single touch. Even the best Iryonin were not capable of such a thing!

Only Orochimaru watched the situation with a worried gleam in his eyes. He had already seen something like this and knew how everything worked... He already assumed the reasons, and this Shikamaru seemed even more suspicious to him.

“Who are you… Where did you get this power?!”

Shikamaru quickly did the same to Sakura and touching both of them quickly teleported upstairs, straight to the very mark where he had been sitting not so long ago. Once again, shocking everyone who is sticking. Rookies and ordinary Chūnin-to-genin might chalk Shikamaru's actions to some strange ability. But those who have seen this technique before...

“Flying Thunder God…” Hiruzen said with a slight grin. He didn't seem to be surprised at anything anymore, but just looked in the direction of Kakashi, whose expression was just the most shocked:

"This is Jutsu! Where did he get it from?

All this did not last long, the next battle came immediately. Temari confronted Tenten. The attention of many quickly turned to them. Although, of course, those who knew about the Flying Thunder God still couldn't react calmly. Seeing this technique again is still not easy. Shikamaru stood out so much from everyone present - that the possession of this technique only emphasized his strangeness. The aura of danger it spread seemed to be stronger now. Even Orochimaru thought hard about how things would go now. The situation was already dangerous, especially after he ran into Shikamaru in the forest. Now it turns out that he uses the technique of the Fourth without any problems, and this despite the fact that his chakra and body are abnormal in themselves. A very dangerous enemy! Who knows how the attack on Konoha will turn out now...

Only, even so, Orochimaru wasn't about to back down. Gritting his teeth, he glared furiously at the Hokage and immediately turned away with a snort - there's no turning back!

Then there was the battle between Temari and Tenten. In her spirit, the cute blonde girl from Sand provoked the opponent, and then simply suppressed her with her techniques. In that situation, it was not even worth doubting Temari's victory. It just so happens that she is the worst opponent for Tenten. In addition, her character was not conducive to a cute girlish fight ...