Konoha: Sage Body

While Kirito was tirelessly improving his own strength and combing through his own combat system, his two good teammates, Chizuru and Nawaki, were also working hard to improve their own strength.

As young ninjas who had reached the rank of jōnin, the two of them already had a lot of potential, but what they lacked was the opportunity to fully tap that potential, and that meant a lot of hard combat.

In the battlefield, nothing can quickly improve a ninja's strength like actual combat. As long as they don't die, they will always gain something.

Chizuru and Nawaki were undoubtedly inspired by Kirito's formidable strength. In order to quickly improve their strength, they both decisively chose to engage in life-and-death battles with their enemies.

Seven or eight kilometers away from the sand castle where Kirito was, there existed a small oasis. This was a war camp of Konoha deep in the Land of Wind. After some remodeling by Konoha ninja skilled in Earth Release, a small earthen city had appeared here.

The most conspicuous building in the sand city is a gladiatorial arena made entirely of sand.

This arena was created by Kirito using Shukaku's sand manipulation abilities. A jutsu called Sand Binding Coffin was used during the construction process, which involved compressing the sand together using immense pressure to form a sturdy arena.

This arena is where Kirito specially uses to enhance the strength of the Konoha ninja on the battlefield.

Here, they can fight against some powerful Suna-Nin captives.

In the past few days, Kirito has not been doing nothing. Relying on his own formidable strength, he has repeatedly charged into the Sunagakure camp single-handedly to cause havoc, forcing the people of Sunagakure to give up the camp and retreat on their own initiative.

In the process, Kirito has conveniently captured some ninjas with decent strength.

Without exception, these ninjas are jōnin.

Kirito did not kill these Sunagakure jōnin, not because he was merciful, but simply because he wanted to use these Sunagakure jōnin to train some of the Konoha ninja under his care.

In the arena, the captives were not restricted in any way, except that Kirito had placed a curse mark on them. Kirito also had the medical ninja heal their injuries and give them handy weapons, so that these captive ninja could fight in the best condition in the arena.

At the same time, in order to motivate these captive ninjas to fight, Kirito gave them the promise that they would be set free if they won ten battles, and also told them that they could kill.

As for whether the Konoha ninja were willing to risk their lives to fight in the gladiator arena, it was entirely up to them.

If they wanted to use actual combat to improve their strength, how could they do so without taking risks?

Kirito became a Kage-Level powerhouse at the age of 11, slaying Ebizo and seizing the First Tail. This news not only greatly inspired the hearts of the Konoha ninja, but also seriously stimulated their competitive spirit.

Therefore, not only were Chizuru and Nawaki keen to enter the arena and fight these captive ninja with Jōnin strength, but also many young Konoha ninja.

For example, Hyuga Hanare and Minato Namikaze, who are also recent regulars at the arena.

Suna Sei, who is over 40 years old, is an old puppet master from the Sunagakure. Although his strength does not reach the elite jōnin level, he is also a leader among the average jōnin.

In fact, the reason why his strength has not reached the elite jōnin level is that he does not have enough wealth to create an outstanding puppet.

If he had a jōnin-class puppet in his hands, he could use the combat abilities of two puppets at the same time to fight at the strength of an elite jōnin.

Unfortunately, he was born a commoner, and it was already very impressive that he was able to stand out from the many commoner ninja of the Sunagakure, learn an outstanding puppet technique, successfully build three elite jōnin-level puppets on his own, and ultimately become a jōnin-level puppet master.

During the war between Sunagakure and Konoha, he had done a great service for Sunagakure. He could no longer remember the number of Konoha chūnin and jōnin he had killed with his puppets, but he had always remembered that he had killed three Konoha jōnin.

Now, the young Konoha brat in front of him, who already had the strength of a jōnin, would be the fourth.

He remembered the name of this Konoha brat, a member of the powerful Uchiha clan from Konoha, called Uchiha Chizuru, who was the teammate of the devil called Kirito Tosaka.

As a person with the blood of Konoha ninja on his hands, of course, Sei did not think that the devil would really keep his promise. His only thought now was to kill as many Konoha ninja as possible before being silently executed by the devil, to drag more people down with him.

"Kid, for the sake of that devil, if you don't want to die, you'd better surrender right now."

Before the battle, while looking at Uchiha Chizuru, who was staring at him coldly from in front, Sei subconsciously averted his eyes and said coldly.

If he could, he would love to kill a few more Konoha ninjas.

Unfortunately, the first opponent he faced after being captured was this Konoha brat named Uchiha Chizuru. Once he managed to kill this Konoha brat, he would surely not survive either.

As soon as he finished speaking, he quietly connected the two puppets beside him with his chakra lines, having them protect him on the left and right, and then a strong sense of self-confidence welled up in his heart.

He dared to threaten a Uchiha Jōnin with such confidence, not because he was fearless even though he knew he was going to die, but because of the two puppets by his side.

These two puppets were lent to him by the devil, and they were both puppets of the Jōnin rank.

It can be said that they are worthy of being created by the devil. Although these two puppets are obviously not as good as the two puppets used by the devil in battle, they are still rare and exquisite puppets.

This is the first time that he, Sei, has used such a high-level puppet, and he never expected the devil to actually lend such a good puppet to him, a prisoner.

Life is truly wonderful.

Before he was captured, his greatest wish was to have a jōnin-class puppet, but after being captured, this wish was easily fulfilled.

As a puppet master, he could clearly feel the difference between his original puppet and these two. The biggest difference was undoubtedly the conductivity of the chakra.

Compared to these two puppets, which apparently use chakra metal in their bodies, the two puppets he built before are simply rubbish.

After using the chakra wire to control these two puppets, he immediately discovered that his chakra could flow very smoothly through the artificial chakra meridians inside the two puppets, greatly reducing the chakra consumption of controlling the puppets and allowing him to more easily and delicately control the puppets in battle.

In addition, the two puppets have outstanding physical strength, comparable to that of a jōnin-level ninja.

Because of this, they can easily withstand his chakra output at various frequencies, thereby erupting with speeds and powers not inferior to those of a jōnin. With full force, they can even reach the speeds and powers of an elite jōnin for a short period of time.

With these two puppets, Sei can confidently say that he is now a veritable elite jōnin-level puppeteer.

Chizuru heard Sei's warning but remained completely unmoved. She silently placed her hand on the hilt of her famous sword, Lightning Strike, at her waist, and then opened her Sharingan.

Sei had seen Chizuru's actions through the mechanical eyes on the puppets and knew that this Uchiha ninja would not back down. A strong killing intent arose in his heart.

At the same time, he couldn't help but marvel at the two puppets he was controlling.

The mechanical eyes installed on these two puppets were really amazing. Not only did they allow him to avoid using his third eye technique and directly face the Uchiha ninja's Sharingan with his own eyes, they also had the function of zooming in and out, allowing him to clearly notice his opponent's movements from a distance.

"Damn, this devil is really rich,"

Sei was jealous of this, and the thought of using the devil's puppet to kill the devil's companion deepened further in his heart.

The next moment, a blue and white flash of electricity appeared in Sei field of vision.

He knew that this was his opponent's move.

But he did not panic. He moved his left index finger, and an instant mechanism popped out of the chest of the puppet on his left, and a blue chakra shield instantly protected him and the puppet.

"Clang~"

A long sword covered in Lightning Release Chakra slashed at the shield behind Sei.

"Little girl, you're not bad, but there's no way you can break through my Puppet Technique: Mechanical Light Shield Block defense. If anything, blame your companion for giving me such an outstanding puppet,"

Sei sneered as he saw the Chakra Shield easily block Chizuru's sneak attack.

As he spoke, the other puppet he was controlling had already burst out with a speed comparable to an elite jōnin using their full chakra rush, rushing to Chizuru's front and using a fist covered in chakra to aim for Chizuru's head and hit it hard.

In order to successfully kill Chizuru, Sei did not hesitate to output the maximum frequency of chakra into the puppet as soon as he started, turning it into a powerful elite jōnin-level ninja of physical techniques in a short period of time.

Chizuru never expected the puppet that Kirito had given to the captive Suna-Nin to be able to explode with such amazing speed. Her eyes widened slightly, and she instantly caught a whiff of death.

But that was exactly what she wanted.

Watching the fast-approaching fist, she subconsciously injected the curse mark chakra within her body into her Sharingan, causing the three magatama in her Sharingan to spin rapidly and connect together.

In an instant, she noticed that the puppet's fist in front of her had slowed down.

Chizuru was very smart. Ever since she discovered that curse marks could fuse chakra with natural energy to form curse mark chakra that could enhance ninjutsu, she had secretly gone through some of the family's books related to natural energy and then understood that these curse mark chakra formed from curse marks were precisely Sage Chakra.

At the same time, she finally understood that the chakra Kirito had infused into her curse mark was Sage Chakra, and she also discovered that Kirito's Sage Chakra was significantly higher in quality than the Sage Chakra she had formed using the curse mark.

Naturally, she was unwilling to accept this, and wanted to make her own Sage Chakra match Kirito's in quality.

To this end, Chizuru began to study the Curse Mark Chakra. After nearly a year of hard work, she was unable to successfully create Sage Chakra on her own, but she discovered that she could use the Curse Mark to create Curse Mark Chakra without opening the Curse Mark.

She also discovered that the Sharingan would continue to strengthen with prolonged nourishment from the Curse Mark Chakra.

This strengthening was not only reflected in the power of the pupil, but also in the Sharingan's observational ability.

If you use the Curse Mark Chakra to open your Sharingan, it will also be temporarily enhanced.

For example, right now.

Her Sharingan has been temporarily enhanced by a large amount of Curse Mark Chakra, and she is confident that her Sharingan's dynamic vision has completely surpassed that of a normal Byakugan, and even surpasses that of a normal jōnin level Byakugan ninja.

She can already see through her enemies' movements.

Next, all she needs to do is improve her nerve reaction ability and movement speed.

Curse Technique: Lightning Stimulation Secret Technique!

A black lightning bolt suddenly appeared on Chizuru.

The puppet of Sei punched, but it ended up hitting the afterimage of Chizuru, who remained in the same place.

"So fast!"

Sei was shocked and realized that Chizuru was even stronger than he had imagined.

Before he could react, the puppet he controlled was surrounded by Chizuru, who had turned into a black lightning bolt, and then its head and limbs were all severed, rendering it useless.

Sword Technique: Thunder Flash!

"Is that all?"

Chizuru stepped on the puppet's remains and stared at Sei, who was drooling furiously inside his chakra barrier, saying with disdain.

A puppet is a reflection of the strength of its puppeteer. For Sei to lose a jōnin-class puppet was equivalent to cutting off an arm.

Soon, Sei was hit by a black, high-temperature fireball and burned to ashes.

Jutsu: Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!

"So weak,"

Chizuru said discontentedly, looking at the ashes on the ground in front of her.

Then her gaze fell on a blonde teenager on the spectator stand, and her eyes revealed a defiant gleam.

The blonde teenager was none other than Minato Namikaze. He couldn't help but feel a strong battle spirit in his heart as he was looked at like this by Chizuru.

He had just watched the entire battle between Chizuru and Sei, and knew that this young girl from the Uchiha clan, who was on the same team as the monster Kirito, was also a monster, albeit not as powerful as Kirito.

However, from the battle just now, it was clear that Uchiha Chizuru's strength had surpassed that of an ordinary elite jōnin.

"What quick speed and reflexes! I wonder if my Flying Thunder God Technique can sneak up on her,"

Minato Namikaze muttered to himself.

Just as he was about to stand up to accept Chizuru's challenge, Hanare, who was standing next to him, stood up. Without waiting for him to say anything, Hanare quickly formed a seal and used the water shunshin technique to instantly appear above the battlefield in the Kakuzu.

"Uchiha Chizuru, I, Hyuga Hanare, want to challenge you."

Hanare looked at Chizuru, who was looking unhappy in the front, took a deep breath, then assumed the starting position for Gentle Fist and said sternly.

As soon as she finished speaking, she opened her Byakugan, and at the same time, a large number of flame-like spells appeared on Hanare's body, causing her breathing to rise and her entire appearance to change rapidly.

"I accept your challenge."

Chizuru saw this familiar scene and her eyes suddenly exploded with a deep murderous intent as she said coldly.