Kuroi ripped the shuriken from his back and jumped far away from Kaito, gaining distance and recollected himself. He took out some knuckle dusters and wore them, it was the kind which allowed the wearer to weave handsigns while wearing it.
Kaito weaved handsigns and used fire style homing ember, several fire balls formed and hovered around Kaito, their heat already made Kaito sweat. He moved his arm and two of them flew straight to Kuroi.
Kuroi quickly dodged one of them and threw a smoke bomb before the other could hit him. 'If he doesn't know where to aim then he won't be able to use this jutsu! The smoke screen will also buy me time.'
Kaito made the fireballs move wildly in the smoke cloud, he understood what he was trying and if he couldn't hit him without seeing, he might as well make Kuroi's life hell.
'What are the smoke out of again? Will using that work...I'll do it.' Kaito thought, throwing more smoke bombs and rejuvenated the cloud which was dispersing from the wind.
He weaved handsigns and exhaled out black smoke into the cloud, confusing everyone. Some people wondered what he was trying and others were thinking if the entire match will occur obscured from their view.
Kuroi didn't notice this new foreign gas but wondered why did the fireballs stop and why did Kaito throw more smoke bombs. He grew weary and looked around
'This is a trap! I'm sure of it...If I stay, I'll lose.' Kuroi thought as he rushed out of the cloud from where it was the least dense.
"Fire style: exploding ash smoke" Kaito stopped exhaling the smoke and smacked his teeth causing a spark, igniting the entire smoke cloud.
BOOOM!!!
A massive explosive shook the entire stadium as Kuroi barely was able to escape the cloud. He heat scorched his back and the shockwave sent him flying ahead into something.
He didn't realize it but his toolkit containing all his kunai and shuriken blew off from the explosion. Leaving him weaponless besides the the knuckle dusters.
Kuroi's eyes widened as he saw a fireball heading toward him. He tried to maneuver mid-air, but whatever movements he made had no result as the fireball came dangerously close.
'I'll punch it and brace the explosion. I've seen it before, it's not lethal if I protect myself with chakra, will still hurt though.' Kuroi steeled his resolve and cocked his arm back and sent out a lightning coated fist straight at the fireball.
'Dumbass! That's not a fireball.' The moment the punch hit the fireball a second explosion rocked the stadium, but this time it hit point blank.
Kuroi was launched like a rocket into the boundaries of the stadium, making a crater into the wall. He looked to be out cold.
'That wasn't homing ember, it was flame bomb, I used about twenty percent of my entire chakra to make it that powerful, it should end this...or at least bring it close.'
Kaito ran towards Kuroi to check his condition, kunai in hand. He observed and saw his arm was burnt and bent in an unnatural way. It was broken at the wrist and forearm while the shoulder was dislocated.
He slowly walked closer and placed a kunai to his neck and looked at the proctor.
His eyes caught sight someone else in the stadium. Suddenly the ground beneath him turned to spikes. Kaito grabbed Kuroi and jumped away before it could impale him.
'Am I holding a clone? Or is that the clone?' Kaito thought, he used the kunai to lightly cut Kuroi and check if he would dispel, but he didn't.
'So he is the clone. I could take the original hostage and make him surrender.' Kuroi wiped off the blood off his kunai on his pants and dropped Kuroi to the ground.
The clone weave some handsigns, but after the handsigns were completed...nothing happened.
Kaito threw the kunai to destroy the clone, but he responded with a shuriken. Metal hit metal before Kaito spoke. "Give up and dispel yourself! I have already won, if you don't I'll break his fingers one by one!"
The clone weaved once again, "lightning style lightning arrow" electricity surged from him and coalesced around his arm and formed a bow and arrow.
He aimed and launched an arrow at Kaito, who ran towards the clone with his fireballs in front of him. The arrow clashed with the fireball and exploded.
Kaito was able to cover the distance between them and threw a jab at Kuroi, who ducked and picked up a handful of sand, throwing it straight into Kaito's eyes.
Kuroi landed a powerful kick and pushed him away, gaining distance and began preparing for a jutsu. Kaito cleared his eyes from sand using a bottle of water, the moment he looked at Kuroi, he regretted using water on his face.
Kuroi had charged up a powerful lightning jutsu and aimed it straight at him. It crackled with power and flew to Kaito. The menacing power took the shape of a dragon, heading straight to devour everything in its path.
Kaito ran to evade the dragon, but it...chased him. He took several turns and the dragon took the took the turns, never leaving his trail. Kaito quickly created more fireballs and threw them at the dragon.
The dragon quickly dodged the fireballs and used small lightning strikes to detonate the one it couldn't. "It is sentient or something? Why is moving with intelligence?"
Kaito began running, dodging each time the dragon tried to chomp down or blast him with a wave of electricity using his fireballs as a foothold. He instantly began running towards the original body of Kuroi.
the dragon got close and bit down on Kaito, making Kuroi smirk. The dragon opened his and released out not Kaito...but a burnt doll.
Kaito managed to escape to the tail of the dragon and grabbed onto the original, holding a kunai to his neck.
The dragon instantly turned, the head dissolving and the tail quickly turning into the head. Kaito's eyes widened and before he could do anything the dragon swallowed him whole, completely disregarding that Kuroi was swallowed too. The dragon's body contorted and accumulated, turning into a ball of lightning, trapping the two of them into a prison.
BOOM
The dragon exploded with the force which rivaled the earlier explosion made by Kaito. Dust and debris flew outwards and everyone in the audience felt their hair rise like a bad hair day.
Kaito was at the centre of the crater, curled up and uncontrollably twitching in pain. His clothes were tattered and burnt. He was barely able to open his eyes, but when he did...he was shocked.
The original body of Kuroi was also at the centre of the explosion like him. Kaito was baffled to see that not a single injury was present on his body, the now awake Kuroi looked even more energized than ever.
---
"Kaito...Chosuke, both of you. Whenever you get hit by a lightning style jutsu it will leave behind a residual charge which was constantly punish your body in the form of uncontrollable muscle spasms and uncoordination of your body.
You will have to get rid of this charge at all cost before you even think about continuing your fight with the enemy. If the lightning was created using chakra then you can do it by flushing your body with your own chakra and then dump it into another object, letting the lightning chakra leave your body." Shinichi explained to the two of them before taking a sip of his tea.
"Why is it that you are only explaining to both of us and not Satoru? He should be here with us and not be napping like he is right now!" Chosuke complained, watching Satoru sleep with no care in the world while he had to train rubbed him the wrong way
---
Kaito tried to follow Shinichi-sensei's advice and tried to flush his body hoping to get rid of the chakra causing him misery but it remained...it wasn't made out of chakra.
"Back home at kumogakure, we place storage seals next to metal rods during thunder storms so we can contain the damage from lightning strikes, pretty cool right? And the fact that I can travel around with it is a big advantage." Kuroi said while pointing to a seal on his wrist.
'If it's natural then, I'll have to make the electricity leave my body by touching something which can conduct it.' Kaito quickly took out the prosthetic finger out of his pocket catching Kuroi's attention.
He broke it open at the joint and saw the piece of metal used for its durability. Kuroi wobbled to Kaito as he began standing up, free from the spasms and twitches.
"I didn't know you lack a finger! Is that why you didn't start with taijutsu? Riling me up, so you could finish me off before I catch on? Too bad that you cannot as many handsigns as you could anymore."
Kuroi suddenly jumped and landed a superman punch into Kaito's face, making him step back, spitting blood. Kuroi kicked forward but was blocked and Kaito held onto his leg.
He used the sharp broken part of his fake finger to stab into his leg, getting shocked and kicked away once again.
Kuroi winced in pain, he ripped out the finger and ducked to dodge a jab and sweeped Kaito's leg, making him fall.
Kaito tried to burn Kuroi but he quickly slammed his knee into his chest knocking the wind out of him. Kaito tried to crawl away, kicking whenever he came close.
Kuroi grabbed a large rock, coating his chakra into it and rushed to smash Kaito's head in, who just smirked before saying,
"I give up!"
Kuroi didn't care and slammed downwards, the rock inches from Kaito's face. Before he could kill him, he was tackled into the ground by a jonin.
"The winner is Kuroi of Kumogakure!"
The audience had various reactions but the most common one was dissatisfaction. Having a konoha shinobi lose in konoha itself brought shame to the daimyos and the nobles, who now had to face smug and condescending looks from nobles from other nation's nobles.
Kaito simply stood up and walked away, his head was surprising not down in shame. It was as if he knew it would end this way, and had already come to terms with it.
Kaito reached where chosuke was sat down, he could see Satoru also walking towards them, the frown on his face was apparent.
"I'm sorry guys...he was too strong. I'm arsenal was limited and he..."
"It's okay Kaito, you recently lost your finger. You couldn't use all your jutsu even if you had to." Chosuke said, he was always the first to lighten the mood and that's what he tried to do.
"Don't coddle him Chosuke! He's not a kid, he knows what he did and what it meant. But what confuses me... is that why did you smirk before giving up? Chosuke...can I talk to one on one? He might not answer if you are here. I will explain whatever answer he will give, if that helps you."
Chosuke shrugs then walks away, giving one last concerned glance at Kaito before going
"What answer are you talking about? What questions do you have that cannot be asked in front of him. I didn't smirk...I-I didn't..." Kaito tried defending, but was cut off by Satoru.
"You smirked before giving up, I saw it clear as day! In fact, some bet collectors were talking about it too, gossiping that you threw the battle..."
Kaito flinched and it was noticed.
"...I knew it...you threw the match! You..."
Kaito instantly grabs his collar and slam him Into a corner away from people, preventing them from hearing.
"STOP TALKING!!! Just...stop." Kaito's shouts turned to a whisper as it ended.
"You did?" It was a question but for him, it felt like a statement.
"Yes."