Central Lake
"Is that a Jutsu?" Boruto looked at the scene in front of him in shock. From the entrance of the lake, a water bridge hundreds of meters long led to a huge Colosseum made entirely of water. People were walking towards the Colosseum with the help of the bridge, but the more shocking thing was that even civilians were walking on water.
"Indeed, Lord Itachi used Water Style and Ice Release to make this structure. Although it looks like it's completely made of water, the entire structure is surrounded by a thin layer of hard ice. Though, you will not feel any freezing coldness from sitting on it and will even feel more comfortable than sitting on the most comfortable sofa." Minato explained with a smile.
"Such high chakra control...." Looking at the magnificent structure, even Tobirama, who prided himself on his knowledge of Ninjutsu, was ashamed.
Hashirama was even more impressed. Creation is many times more difficult than destruction. He could also make a forest this huge, but converting that forest into this... he couldn't do it.
---
Ten Minutes Later
Itachi looked at the filled Colosseum with satisfaction. This was the first time, and because of the location of Mizumori within the Demon Forest, the number of people was less. Next time, with greater preparations, it wasn't impossible to host hundreds of thousands.
"Next, we will invite Itachi-sama, the organizer of this grand event, to start the event."
With the call of the anchor, Itachi disappeared from his position and the next moment appeared in the center of the Colosseum. At the same moment, he appeared on the giant water screens around the Colosseum and on the thousands of big screens throughout the entire Ninja World.
"KYAAA!!! ITACHI-SAMA!!!!" "THE STRONGESTTTT!!!" "MOST HANDSOME!!!!" "KAMIII!!!!"
With the appearance of Itachi, the entire stadium burst into cheers. Well, most of his fans were from Mizumori, Kinmori, Amegakure, and Sunagakure, where he had the most influence.
Three Minutes Later
"Ahem, I would like to thank everyone present for making the journey to attend this event. Many of you have traveled thousands of miles to be here, and I truly appreciate the effort. I also apologize for any inconvenience you may have faced along the way. However, I am confident that none of you will regret coming here today.
Now let's head to the competition details. The event will hold two different categories of competition, with Dawn Competition for geniuses below the age of fifteen and Twilight Competition for the elites of the Ninja World.
Dawn will be held first with three rounds, each held on a separate day. As for Twilight, it will take place in two rounds.
Now, let's invite all the participants of Dawn to the stage with cheers...."
With that, the four doors of the Colosseum opened as more than a thousand participants stepped onto the stage with the cheers of the audience. Seeing them arrive, Itachi turned into water and merged with the stage, disappearing.
"I thank Itachi-sama for the wonderful speech. Now, without wasting time, let's introduce the first round of Dawn, which will take place here.
For a Ninja, the basic requirement is mobility in all terrains and adapt to all situations so that they are not limited by them. So the first round is Adaptability.
You have to remain above water for one minute to pass this round but, it can't be that simple, can it?
For every minute you hold, you get the square of its points, but the gravity inside the arena also increases simultaneously with the passage of time. Additionally, after every minute spent, a water elemental creature will attack you and you have to defeat it or hold it off for as long as you can.
I advise all the candidates to try their best, as just qualifying the first round with low scores can reduce your chances in further rounds. Now, there is still some time to withdraw from the competition if you haven't trained your chakra control to walk or stand on water."
---
"Hmm, this is an excellent way to test the newcomers perfectly. First, it tests chakra control. Next, after one minute, the difficulty increases further with the increased gravity, and then fighting creatures every minute tests physique and skills." Hashirama, hearing the rules of the first round, became interested as well as impressed.
'If this type of training is available every day, then Ninjas can become stronger much faster.' Tobirama also thought of the benefits of this.
---
One Minute Later
"Since no one has left, then I would respectfully summon Lord Sagittarius's projection."
With that, the Uchiha Jonin bit his thumb and formed a Summoning Circle as the next moment a purple-black spear floated in the center of the Colosseum.
"Brother, it's that presence." Tobirama, seeing Sagittarius, said quietly to Hashirama.
"Even just seeing the projection, I can feel the threat from it. As expected of the weapon equal to that." Hashirama, feeling the power from Sagittarius, commented.
---
"Then, the competition begins."
The moment the Uchiha Jonin started the competition, he dissolved into water, merging with the Colosseum as the stadium screens started the timer with the faces of many famous candidates displayed on them.
Ten Seconds
Ripples started forming on the calm lake, though all the participants were still able to balance themselves.
Thirty Seconds
By now, small waves were starting to form as the first candidate from Hoshigakure (Land of Stars) fell. The moment he fell, he was teleported to an audience seat at the bottom of the arena.
"Is this another Space-Time Jutsu of the Uchiha Clan?" Seeing this, Tobirama frowned even more.
Fifty Seconds
By now, the entire platform was filled with big waves nearly a meter high as more than hundred participants had been disqualified, with the majority of them being from small Ninja Villages.
One Minute
"All the remaining candidates have passed the first round. Congratulations, and now the gravity is 2x."
With the voice of the Uchiha Jonin, Sagittarius, who was floating midway, shone with a purple light covering the entire arena and the next moment half of the participants fell into the water.
HAKU'S POV (I consider her a woman.... she can't be a man)
'The sudden change in gravity is indeed quite difficult to adapt to.'
Ice Release: Iceberg
The next moment a small meter-wide iceberg formed below Haku.
ROARRR
At the same time, a water beam rushed towards her.
Ice Release: Ice Wall
The water beam collided with the ice wall but couldn't break it.
'Is this the elemental creature... judging by its attack power, it's at most a Genin.'
Ice Release: Ice Breath
The next moment, with an exhale, cold freezing wind passed through the Water Toad, freezing it as it slowly sank into the water, breaking apart in the chakra-rich water.
Two Minutes
3x Gravity
With the brightening of the purple light, the gravity increased once more as the water became more chaotic instead of calming down.
Dead Bone Pulse: Dance of the Camellia
Kimimaro swung the bone sword, slashing the water lion into pieces which fell onto the waves calmly.
'Still too weak...'
With that, Kimimaro patiently waited for the next monster to come.
Three Minutes
4x Gravity
By now, more than 90% of the participants had been eliminated.
Adamantine Chains
The next moment, golden chains connected to Karin pierced the water giant catfish, breaking it apart while sealing the chakra network inside it.
Seven Minutes
8x Gravity
By now, less than three dozen participants were still present in the arena.
Wind Style: Wind Wall
Wind Style: Wind Bullets
Natsuki blocked the water whale nearly ten meters long with a wind wall as multiple bullets, each the size of a cannonball, slammed into the whale. But it couldn't even move it slightly back, let alone injure it.
Under this much gravity, Wind Style was already at a huge advantage, and Fire Style, which was her second strongest affinity, was at a disadvantage in such an environment.
Wind Style: Great Wind Breakthrough
With another Jutsu, Natsuki pushed the whale a few meters back as she rushed to the other side of the arena, trying to create some distance from it.
The strength of the elemental creatures had already reached the Special Jonin rank, making it difficult even under normal conditions for the nearly eleven-year-old Natsuki, let alone in these circumstances.
"Naruto, let's team up." Natsuki, after running tens of meters, spotted Naruto, who was also struggling, and suggested.
"Okay."
Naruto dodged the rapid swordfish as he threw wind chakra nature-coated shuriken towards it.
"Then, let's take care of mine first. Yours needs more time. Let's use a combination Jutsu."
Wind Style: Great Wind Breakthrough
Fire Style: Searing Migraine
Naruto didn't respond to Natsuki as he spat out a hurricane of wind towards the whale while a few shadow clones stopped the swordfish. Natsuki, seeing this, used Kakuzu's Jutsu, spitting out a column of fire which, upon meeting the Wind Style, expanded and covered the whale entirely in flames.
SWISHHHH
"NARUTO, CAREFUL—"
Just when Natsuki was finally about to evaporate the whale to ashes, the swordfish pierced through the defense of Naruto's shadow clone and pierced through Naruto's belly, dyeing the water red as Naruto was shredded to pieces.
Seeing this, Natsuki's eyes turned red as she awakened the One-Tomoe Sharingan. The next moment she felt a foreign chakra injected into her body as she felt a sudden pain as if a truck had crashed into her though she might not know what a truck is.
When she opened her eyes, she was back in the audience seats.
"Narut—"
Opening her eyes in grief and anger, she was stunned as Naruto was slightly rolling in pain on the seat while the Uchiha Jonin was trying to heal him.
"Uchiha Natsuki and Uzumaki Naruto are eliminated.
Uzumaki Naruto Points: 53
Uchiha Natsuki Points: 53."
Hearing the announcement from the loudspeaker, Natsuki subconsciously looked at the huge screen opposite her showing the previous incident.
'So, that whale could perform Genjutsu and I was trapped in it. Naruto, while trying to break my Genjutsu, was slammed by the whale and thus we both were eliminated?'
"Naruto, sorry. Because of me, you got eliminated." Natsuki, understanding the situation, apologized to Naruto immediately.
"Do not worry. I wouldn't have been able to hold that swordfish for much longer anyway. And I got to play the role of saving the beauty, so I benefited from it." Naruto, seeing Natsuki bow, helped her up as he smiled in response while saying it.
"Indeed, you became more popular." Seeing that Naruto didn't mind, Natsuki smiled in response as she looked at the eyes of admiration from the girls around Naruto.
"Hahaha, so don't worry."
---
"Fourth Hokage, you have raised your son well." Hashirama, seeing the interaction between Naruto and Natsuki, smiled and complimented Minato.
"It's his own kindness." Minato was also happy of Naruto's actions and replied with a smile. Naruto could have blocked the swordfish for another minute and continued competing, but he chose to save Natsuki instead. Even after being eliminated, he showed no regret and instead comforted her