Chapter 37: No Excuses for Defeat
In no time at all, Ren Arakawa received fifty or sixty B-rank ninjutsu—an extremely fruitful harvest. The only downside was that some of the skills overlapped, which left him feeling a bit embarrassed. There was no point in keeping duplicate skills!
"Oh well, it's my own fault for not making the rules clear beforehand!" Ren scratched his head and decided to extract all these skills first.
However, just as he began the extraction process, several notifications suddenly chimed in his ears:
"Ding! Detected that the host has already learned [Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique]. Repeated learning of this skill has increased hand seal speed by 5%!"
"Ding! Detected that the host has already learned [Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique]. Repeated learning of this skill has increased ninjutsu power by 5%!"
"Ding! Detected that the host has already learned [Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation]. Repeated learning of this skill has increased ninjutsu power by 5%!"
...
"I never expected that repeatedly learning a skill could randomly increase its hand seal speed and power!" Ren was overjoyed. This duplicate learning mechanism perfectly solved the problem that had been troubling him. He had been wondering what to do if, as more and more people joined the live stream, he ended up with a large number of duplicate ninjutsu skills from donations. Now, he didn't need to worry about that anymore!
During the skill acquisition process, Ren noticed that most of these B-rank ninjutsu were donated by silent, hidden viewers in the live stream. He had never even heard of some of the ninjas' names. However, he was merely curious and didn't pay too much attention to it. After all, so many ninjas had died throughout history. Setting aside the brutal Warring States Period, tens of thousands of ninjas had perished in the Second and Third Great Ninja Wars alone. Among them were many truly exceptional individuals, and there were certainly plenty who could afford to donate B-rank ninjutsu!
After receiving the donations, Ren immediately arranged VIP access for those who had donated through the live stream system. Soon, Uchiha Madara and the others were able to view the scene inside the Soul Arena once again.
But it was a pity—they were ultimately a step too late. By the time they saw the arena footage, the battle between Uchiha Izuna and Senju Tobirama was already nearing its end.
In the scene, Uchiha Izuna was seen kneeling on one knee on the sea. His arm was broken, his Sharingan state had completely vanished, and he was covered in blood, clearly severely injured. On the other hand, Senju Tobirama was only slightly out of breath, with all his injuries healed. Moreover, he was surrounded by more than a dozen shadow clones. The situation was already very clear: Senju Tobirama had defeated Uchiha Izuna with an overwhelming advantage!
"Trash Izuna, do you have anything else to say?" Senju Tobirama stood on the sea with his arms crossed, exuding an aura of dominance. At this moment, his eyes were filled with disdain as he looked at Uchiha Izuna, perfectly showcasing the arrogance of the victor!
Uchiha Izuna gritted his teeth and cursed, "Didn't we agree not to use ninja tools? You actually used explosive tags—that's despicable..."
"Trash! If you want me to not use my signature techniques, why don't you just say you can't handle them? Losing is losing—don't make excuses. I despise you!" As he spoke, Senju Tobirama reappeared behind Uchiha Izuna. No one saw how he moved; it was as if he had always been standing there. "It's over, Trash Izuna!" With a punch fueled by his immense strength, Senju Tobirama shattered Uchiha Izuna into pieces.
The scene ended there, and the two returned to the live stream room.
[Uchiha Izuna: Trash Tobirama, fight me again!]
[Senju Tobirama: I've lost all interest in defeated opponents. You'd better stay as far away from me as possible!]
[Uchiha Izuna: You bastard... If you hadn't chosen the sea as the battlefield, I might not have lost!]
[Senju Tobirama: Excuses are just excuses. A loss is a loss. If you keep arguing, I'll mute you.]
Uchiha Izuna: You...
[Uchiha Madara: Izuna, stop talking. Tobirama deliberately invited you into the arena this time. The challenger can freely choose the battle scene; even if given another chance, he would still choose the sea or a coastal location.]
[Uchiha Izuna: Big brother, how did you know all this?]
[Uchiha Madara: Ahem~ Let's not dwell on that.]
[Uchiha Izuna: Wait… Bro, that VIP badge above your head… You actually became a member? Didn't you say you would never compromise with that Ren kid?]
[Uchiha Madara: Ahem~ Times have changed, Izuna. Don't dwell on this too much!]
[Senju Tobirama: Yeah, Izuna, Madara only subscribed to VIP because of you!]
[Uchiha Fugaku: Second Grandfather, we had no choice but to do that!]
[Uchiha Izuna: You guys?]
Hearing those two words, Uchiha Izuna subconsciously glanced at the front row of viewers in the live stream. Then, he was completely bewildered.
[Uchiha Izuna: Holy crap~ So many VIPs? What on earth happened outside while I was in the arena?]