Kurenai Yuhi
Sato had stood up from his seat; he was ready to go down and begin his match with Naruto, but there was one small problem.
"Can you stop massaging my head now? I am about to go for a match."
Sato speechlessly asked Kurenai to stop messing around; she was still squeezing his head without a care.
"Ooh sorry."
Kurenai quickly let go and apologized gently. Sato once again felt her behavior was outrageous.
Even if she wanted to get into his good books, her performance lacked any kind of subtlety.
"Is this how you usually please important people, Kurenai Jonin? Is this your go-to technique?"
"It's a bit on the nose."
Sato spoke dryly, but Kurenai didn't seem to mind. She maintained her gentle smile and replied softly.
"No, I only do this for very special people."
The overly sweet voice made Sato shudder a bit; maybe this shamelessness was what allowed her to use nepotism to her advantage.
Hell, even Shino felt his teacher was acting a bit too shamelessly, so he chimed in.
"Teacher usually doesn't act like this; do you know why she is acting like this today? It's because she is a bit sick."
"She even failed to show up for our team meeting yesterday; Asuma Jonin was searching for her all day-"
Suddenly Shino stopped talking and fixed his glasses, Kurenai had chopped him on the head just now. She patted Shino and gently scolded him.
"Sato has to go for his match, Shino; we can talk about this later. Besides, I am alright now."
Sato blinked. Kurenai was right; he was wasting time here; the referee was already glaring at him.
Waving at Shino and Kurenai, Sato directly jumped down from the sitting area.
Thump
And landed on the ground with a superhero landing; this got the entire audience cheering. Sato smirked and stood up.
Wobble
But weirdly, Sato somehow lost his footing and stumbled a bit.
"Hahahaha!"
The audience laughed loudly; it was funny seeing Sato stumble after such an amazing landing. The contrast was hilarious.
Sato meanwhile was frowning. What was that just now? It seemed like his feet didn't move for a split second.
"Am I under attack?"
Sato muttered. He sniffed the air and looked around for a bit, but he didn't notice anyone in the area.
This was upsetting; he might have been attacked, but he couldn't see the attacker. Wait, did Naruto do this?
"Naruto.."
Sato stared at Naruto, who blinked in confusion, before grinning at Sato. Okay, that doesn't answer anything.
This was a problem; Sato was on the battlefield, he didn't have time to investigate what happened in detail.
"Are both contestants ready? Begin."
The referee didn't give Sato any more time and simply began the match.
Sato frowned before taking his stance; he still couldn't smell anyone but Naruto here.
Maybe this was Naruto's prank, or he might have stumbled by mistake. Sato thought before focusing on the fight.
"Big brother Sato, I have become a lot stronger since the last time I saw you."
Naruto grinned and made a handsign, the famous handsign of shadow clone jutsu.
"Shadow clone jutsu!"
BANG
A massive amount of smoke erupted within the battlefield, when the smoke cleared after three seconds, hundreds of Narutos were standing before Sato.
"The good old multiple shadow clone. It feels weird being on the receiving end of this jutsu."
Sato smiled then vanished from his position. He appeared before a shadow clone and slashed at him with his tanto.
Bang
The shadow clone popped and burst into a bunch of smoke.
"One down, hundred more to go."
Sato laughed and then he rushed into the crowd, he had began a bloody massacre.
Naruto's shadow clones were jumping, kicking, and punching him from all directions, but Sato smoothly danced through them all.
His attacks were smooth, and his moves were like a graceful dance. Sato looked like Madara in his battle against the Shinobi alliance, a one-man army.
And Sato did all of this without turning on his lightning release chakra mode, even once.
Bang
Bang
Bang
"Dammit, Rasengan."
Naruto clenched his teeth and created a rasengan with the help of two more clones.
More Naurto clones followed his example, and created their own Rasengans, all of them started running towards Sato at once.
'Rasengan? It's another jutsu I feel werid fighting against; this is supposed to be the main character's jutsu in most stories.'
Sato shook his head and took a deep breath. His smooth dance-like movements somehow changed into simple strength-type moves.
"Naruto, what you saw just now was inspired by the hyuga's gentle fist."
"And what you are about to see now is a Raikage's fighting style. This is my main battle style."
Sato smiled and gave Naurto a warning, just to put some mental pressure on him.
"Bring it on!"
But Naurto didn't understand the concept of mental pressure; he exclaimed with confidence and rushed towards Sato with a Rasengan.
"That's more I like it, Lightning armor!"
"Rasengan!"
Sato turned on his lightning-style chakra armor, and Naurto pushed forward his Rasengan.
WIZZZZZZ
The audience was shocked. Naruto's Rasengan which was strong enough to generate large gusts of wind, was firmly blocked by Sato with one hand.
Sato laughed. The Rasengan was still spinning in his plam; it was trying to crack his lightning-style chakra armor, but it didn't move an inch.
"Big brother, are you okay?!"
Naurto quickly turned off his Rasengan and asked with concern. Which made Sato twitch his eyes.
"Do I look hurt, Naurto? Your spinning chakra ball can't even break by defense."
Sato showed Naruto his hand, but Naurto still had a concerned look on his face.
"But on your forehead, it has purple veins all over it."
Sato frowned. What was Naruto talking about? He wasn't hurt at all.
Drip
Sato heard a subtle dripping noise around him, and his nose smelled blood pretty much immediately.
"Blood, where is that coming from?"
Sato subconsciously touched his nose, which felt wet, and then his eyes shook.
His fingers had turned red; the blood was his, and it was coming from his nose.
"But I wasn't hurt..?"
Sato's eyes shook more, then he stopped talking immediately. Not because he didn't want to, but because with each word, blood was spilling out of his lips.
"Big brother, big brother, are you okay?!"
Naruto trying to support Sato's shoulder, but Sato face planted onto the ground.
"Stay away Naruto; ahem, somebody poisoned me."
Sato coughed blood then shakily raised his body; Raikage's do not fall to the ground, not even in death, he will not stay down.
Sato forcefully stood up once again, maintaining the pride of Raikage, his dark eyes were scanning the whole area.
'Where, where is the poison, is it from a trap? When was I poisoned?'
Sato was thinking fast; his mind went to all the times he could have been poisoned.
He was looking around everywhere on the battlefield, trying to find something, anything, that could have done this to him.
But he was coming in blank; there was nothing there; there were no traps; nor was there any foreign smell on his body.
Sato paused when he thought of this, then his eyes became scary.
"No, there is one. There is one foreign smell on my body."
"Kurenai."
Sato gritted his teeth and searched for Kurenai on the stands, but she was gone. As for Shino, he was lying on a seat with his head tilted sideways.
Sato was now sure Kurenai was behind this, but it didn't make sense. Konoha had no business poisoning him; Kurenai wasn't Orochimaru's thug either.
So was this her independent action? Did she have some kind of grudge against him? Did she hate him so much that she would poison him with the excuse of a massage.
Many things made sense to Sato now, Kurenai's strong desire to get close to him, her weird choice to please him, her one track focus on massaging him. It was all done to posion him.
But even if these things made sense, the reason behind her actions did not.
'Whatever the reason is Kurenai, if you think this is enough to put me down, you are mistaken.'
'I am Sato Nii, a half-tailed beast, putting down a tailed beast is not so easy.'
Sato's Raikage pride kept him going, and his tailed beast vitality helped him solve the posion at a quick pace.
The second he heals from this, someone was about to get unlucky.