As soon as Haneda admitted defeat, Seimei pulled the edge of his ninjato from Haneda's throat and cancelled the Genjutsu, Bringer of Darkness.

One second later, Haneda, who could see nothing but pitch black darkness, was finally able to see the world around him again.

He touched his throat for a second and then sighed in relief. Honestly, the complete loss of vision frightened him more than the blade to his throat.

Experienced ninjas might have tried to retreat as soon as possible after being affected by that terrifying Genjutsu to have even a little chance of survival.

But suddenly losing your eyesight completely was still a difficult situation to adapt to.

Unless you were a sensor ninja, if someone launched a soundless attack after trapping you in the Bringer of Darkness Genjutsu, you would certainly die without even knowing how you died.

Your soul would directly ascend to the Pure Land.

Haneda looked at Seimei with a complicated look and said, "Your strength is so off the charts now that I can't even compete with you."

"All the training and hard work I did now feels like a waste of time."

Seimei shook his hand and responded in a comforting tone, "Don't sell yourself short."

"You already have enough power to contend with a full-fledged Konoha Jonin and even defeat them."

"And you're only eleven this year."

"If the ninjas who have forever been stuck in the Chunin rank all their lives heard you, they would gang up to beat you black and blue."

"And you have the potential to become a Kage-level Shinobi."

"How many ninjas do we have in Konoha? More than 240,000."

"And how many Kage-level Shinobi do we have? Probably less than 30."

"You have the potential to reach or even surpass the level that 99.99% Shinobi could only dream of, but you still think you're not good enough?"

Hearing this, Haneda was momentarily dumbfounded. Then, he let out a chuckle, and his mood relaxed.

Seimei was right.

If he wasn't strong enough, he just had to train more.

He was still young. And he had the talent that even most clan ninjas could only envy, but never attain in reality.

As long as he worked hard, he could surpass his current self a hundred times.

His eyes began to burn with renewed vigor.

After a few moments, he was about to tell Seimei something, but then he suddenly stopped.

He just remembered something.

He asked while pointing toward Yuto, who was still lying down on the ground, "By the way, Seimei. Why is Yuto still lying down over there?"

"Just how hard did you hit him?"

"Haha…" Seimei let out a dry, nervous laugh. "Well, I probably hit him a bit too hard. It was an accident, really."

"But no need to worry. My shadow clone is treating him now. He will be as good as a well-polished kunai with zero chips after ten minutes."

However, Seimei began to grumble in his mind.

You can't blame me.

I have been sparring with my father, uncle, and even my aunt Mito. I had also been through countless Taijutsu battles with Senju clansmen.

Due to their powerful physique, the usual physical strength I exert usually doesn't cause them any harm.

That's why I momentarily forgot that most ninjas are simply glass cannons.

Unless they have the physical strength and resilience of Uzumaki, Senju, or Uchiha, most ninjas are simply too fragile.

I need to adjust my strength during sparring matches in the future.

I don't want to break the bones of my classmates with a casual chakra-reinforced punch.

Seimei complained inwardly before shaking off his random thoughts.

He looked at Haneda and then at still lying Yuto before saying, "Alright."

"Let's go and check on Yuto's condition."

Haneda nodded, "Agreed."

With that, both of them walked toward Yuto, who was still receiving treatment from Seimei's shadow clone.

Seimei asked mischievously, "Hey, Yuto. Are you feeling alive now?"

Yuto turned his gaze toward Seimei, gritting his teeth, and responded, "You bastard. Did you really have to kick that hard?"

"The moment that kick connected, my soul almost ascended to the Pure Land. Fortunately, I reinforced my torso with more chakra than usual before your damned kick hit me."

"Otherwise, at least a few of my ribs would have cracked right there and then."

Seimei held his hands up in the air and added, "Alright. Alright. It was my fault."

"But don't worry, you will be fine within a few minutes."

The shadow clone also nodded seriously.

Yuto sighed in relief and murmured, "At least this guy learned medical Ninjutsu. Otherwise, I would have to rot in the hospital beds for who knows how many days."

After that, they waited until Seimei's shadow clone was done treating Yuto.

Once they saw that Yuto was fine, they came out of the forest and walked toward the riverbank, where they had met each other earlier today.

There, they saw Reina, Keiko, Touma, and Shikamo chatting with each other while waiting for their arrival.

Everyone looked fine except for Nara Shikamo. This guy had a deep black panda eye on his left eye.

Seimei didn't know what had happened. But he knew that this lazy Nara must have used his trapping tactics, which had annoyed Reina enough to give him a black eye.

And from the spotless conditions of Keiko and Touma, it was clear that Reina dealt with them within a few moments with clear, precise strikes.

She had probably just trapped them in Genjutsu and placed the edge of her blade on their necks to end the battle quickly.

Meanwhile, Reina turned her head toward Seimei and raised an eyebrow.

She asked, "What took you so long? We have been waiting for ages here."

At her question, Seimei, Yuto, and Haneda exchanged gazes with each other before Haneda and Yuto looked at Seimei.

Next, Seimei looked at Haneda before both of them turned their head and looked at the left side of Yuto's torso.

Watching this awkward scene, Reina, Keiko, Shikamo, and Touma got confused. Imaginary strings of question marks began to appear over their heads.

Yuto coughed and explained, "Nothing major. We just had an accident in the forest, which occupied our time."

Shikamo, who looked funny with his pineapple haircut and panda eyes, asked, "What accident?"

However, Reina didn't want to waste any more time.

She decisively interjected, "Never mind. Let's finish our battle royale already."

Hearing this, Seimei nodded, unsheathed his ninjato, and moved exactly ten meters away from Reina.

Reina also unsheathed her sword. Her glittering black eyes turned crimson with three pitch-black tomoe slowly rotating in her irises. She had activated Sharingan, which she didn't do while fighting against Keiko, Shikamo, and Touma.

This was enough to show just how serious she was about facing Seimei.

After all, she could feel how much Seimei had grown in the last couple of years. She could feel the dormant power, the enormous amount of chakra sleeping silently within Seimei's body, ready to erupt like an exploding volcano.

As if feeling the escalating tension, the other five friends of Seimei and Reina quickly distanced themselves. They didn't want to get caught in the crossfire.

Seimei said in a low voice, "It's about time we have our rematch, Reina. May the strong one win."

With that, Seimei channeled an enormous amount of lightning chakra to his ninjato, causing the blade to vibrate at a high frequency. Arcs of deep purple lightning could be seen snaking around the blade.

The residual lightning bolts from the blade scorched the ground around Seimei. Cracks appeared in several places on the ground.

Reina didn't say anything, but she revealed a bloodthirsty smile. She channeled Fire Release chakra into her ninjato, causing the blade to turn bright white. Tongues of blue flames flickered around her blade, causing the air around her to distort in extreme heat.

And then, both of them moved.

Lighting Release: Thunder Body Flicker

Crackle~ Crackle~

Thin, purple lightning bolts arced around Seimei as he vanished from his spot, leaving only a trail of lightning.

Fire Release: Exploding Body Flicker

Booom!!

Reina gathered fire chakra under her feet and produced a controlled explosion, causing her figure to vanish from her spot, too, leaving behind a scorched crater.

When they both reappeared, they swung their blades at each other. Metal met metal. Purple lightning and blue fire intertwined with each other.

And what followed them was a loud, ear-shattering explosion.

Booooom!!!

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