Rasa also saw Jiraiya and invited him to sit down.
"It's been a while, Kazekage." Said Jiraiya with a small smile.
"It indeed has been a while since we last met, I heard you were roaming the world to write a book, what brought you back?" Said Rasa wanting to know the situation that made him come back.
"Oh, it's nothing I was just bored so I decided to come home." Jiraiya lied with a straight face.
"Is that so? Well, since you're back and have come here instead of the Hokage, I assume I'll be able to talk business with you?"
"Of course, since I came in his place you can take it that the old man is here himself."
"Good, then we'll have to talk after the tournament." Rasa nodded towards him and turned his head to the arena where the proctor was just going on the stage.
~~~
The proctor stood inside the arena and addressed the crowd and participants.
"I am the proctor of the final stage, my name is Maki, a Jonin of Sunagakure. This stage is very straight forward, you will be fighting in an elimination one on one tournament. Winning does not ensure that you will be promoted to Chuunin.
A panel of judges will rate your performance and judge if you deserve to be promoted. The rules for the fights are simple if your opponent can't continue the fight, surrenders or you subdue them then the match ends. There are absolutely no fatal strikes, if you kill someone you will be disqualified and dealt punishment by your village.
Now let's begin, first match, Uchiha Itachi VS Kuramoto Hikaru!"
After her announcement, Itachi and his opponent each came out from one side of the stadium and stood opposite each other. "Begin!" Shouted Maki and Itachi immediately activated his Sharingan and trapped his opponent, who was looking straight at him, in a Genjutsu.
His opponent was stuck in place and didn't move at all while Itachi came close to him and put a kunai on his neck. 'His Genjutsu abilities are terrifying!' Thought Rasa as he looked from above. "Winner, Uchiha Itachi!" Announced Maki to the crowd.
Itachi released his Genjutsu and his opponent started looking around him before he realised that Itachi was behind him with a kunai. He back was filled with cold sweat at the realisation that he was under a Genjutsu the entire time.
After Itachi's match, the other matches proceeded the same way, with the shinobi focusing on showing off their abilities. Finally, it was the final match of the first round.
"Next match, Uchiha Raiden VS Matsuzaki Rokuro!" Maki announced as the two came out from opposite sides of the stage. "Begin!" Unlike Itachi, Raiden decided against using his Sharingan. He took out a sword that looked like a Tanto but was longer, around 50cm.
He dashed towards his opponent who took out a kunai to block and started clashing with him. Three minutes later, his opponent was on the ground and Raiden's sword was pointed at him. "Winner, Uchiha Raiden!" Announced Maki, and the crowd cheered at the absolute slaughter that happened to the Suna Genin.
After the first round, the thing that generated revenue the most during the Chuunin exams began. People got a chance to see the skills of each Genin and started to bet on them.
~~~
After a ten minute break, most likely to allow people to gamble, the second round began. "First match, Uchiha Itachi Vs Nishimura Yoshiro!" Unlike the first round where people were excited moderately, this time they had money on them so they were going crazy.
Itachi faced his opponent and used the same way to defeat him in under a minute. The crowd went absolutely crazy over this and started gambling even more.
"Second match, Hatanaka Akihiko Vs Uchiha Raiden!" Raiden, who was getting a chance to see the level of his Kenjutsu against actual ninja, didn't hesitate to do the same as the first round, but it seemed this one was a bit more skilled as it took five minutes to beat him instead of three.
Finally, it was the final round. There was a 30-minute break to prepare for the finals.
Rasa was astounded at the level of the two and looked to Jiraiya before talking.
"It looked like Konoha's future is secured if you have individuals like these."
"Haha, you must be kidding, they are just above average. They still have a long way to go."
'This guy, above-average my ass, they're both worthy of becoming Jonin!' Rasa thought to himself before looking towards Raiden who was leaving the arena.
~~~
30 minutes later, it was finally time for the final stage. "Final round, Uchiha Itachi Vs Uchiha Raiden." Both of them came onto the stage and looked at each other. "I guess playtime is over." Said Raiden while taking out his sword.
Itachi nodded and took out a kunai. Both of them activated their Sharingan which surprised the crowd a bit since Raiden didn't use his before. Raiden and Itachi both flickered towards each other and clashed.
They both retreated a bit before Raiden did an overhead slash with his sword at Itachi, Itachi dodged the sword by turning his body and retreated a bit. He started doing hand seals so fast that his hand blurred before he shouted "Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu!" Raiden retreated as well before also starting to do hand seals and shouting "Water Release: Wild Water Wave"
The water and fire collided before the arena was filled with steam. The crowd could hear metal clanging and some of the more observant could see sparks coming off the weapons colliding. Raiden retreated a bit before doing hand signs and using "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough"
The steam was all gone which showed each of them on one side of the arena. "It's been a while since we fought like this." Said Raiden and Itachi nodded. "I am going to go all out now." Said Itachi as he started to do hand seals again, Raiden was doing the same before both released their technique at the same time "Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu."
The two of them shot a huge ball of fire at the other. As the fire collided, the heat was getting to the crowd through the barrier laid to protect the crowd. They both continued to supply the technique with chakra, but Raiden had split his chakra in half and started preparing to use the lightning chakra mode.
A few seconds later, Itachi's fireball suddenly gained the upper hand and pushed Raiden's to the walls of the arena, but Itachi immediately turned around and retreated hastily from a blue ball of chakra coming from Raiden, who now had chakra all over his body while lightning was arcing over it.
'Lightning Chakra Mode!' Thought Rasa while looking at Raiden shocked. 'I heard that it was given to them in their deal with Kumo, but for someone to be able to use it and so young at that. This kid is an absolute genius.'
Raiden who was now behind Itachi with a kunai smiled at him "Heh, your reaction time has improved, looks like training with speed type ninja all the time made your reactions very fast. This will probably go on till your chakra bottoms out and I win because of a bigger chakra reserve, so how about this? let's decide it in the next move."
Itachi looked at him and smiled "Give it your all because I'll be giving it mine."
Raiden retreated and looked towards Itachi for a few seconds. Raiden said: "I don't really have good control of this technique, but since you'll be doing your best I'll be doing mine." He looked towards Jiraiya and nodded at him, Jiraiya nodded back.
Itachi started doing hand seals while Raiden used a huge amount of lightning chakra. Itachi was done with the hand seals and shouted "Fire Release: Majestic Flame Destroyer", Raiden was also done preparing as he shouted "Lightning Chakra Mode: Full Power."
A sea of flames was released from Itachi's mouth as Raiden's body which was covered in a couple of lightning bolts was now fully covered with violet lightning that was striking at his nervous system and entire body. Itachi was standing at one of the walls which meant the entire arena was now a sea of fire that Raiden had to go through.
Raiden's body was screaming from the pain as he used his fastest speed to cut through the fire. Unfortunately, the closer he came to Itachi the harder it was for him to cut through it even with his speed that would normally be enough to do anything.
Itachi was still supplying chakra to the Jutsu while Raiden was cutting through, suddenly Itachi started coughing and could no longer support the Jutsu while Raiden, who was fighting against the constant stream of chakra, suddenly felt the resistance of the fire cut down tremendously and couldn't control his speed and hit the wall at his maximum speed.
The crowd couldn't see anything because of all the fire and smoke. Jiraiya used a wind Jutsu to check on both of them immediately and saw that one of them was down on the ground while the other was stuck in the wall, Itachi passed out while Raiden was on the verge of passing out from the hit.
He sighed before looking to the Kazekage who got what he wanted and signalled his aid to get the medic-nin to heal them immediately.
Maki, who was very surprised at the last attack and couldn't do anything to stop either of them finally reacted and said: "Uchiha Itachi has passed out, Uchiha Raiden is the winner!"
The crowd was alternating looks between the two of them, a few seconds later, they went crazy with cheers at the absolutely crazy fight.