https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-556-Finalizing-the-Backup-Hidden-Chakra/12558830/
Chapter 555: Speculations about an Un-evolved Sorua
Chapter 555: Speculations about an Un-evolved Sorua
Listening to his friends' words, Charizard snorted out two streams of white mist from its nostrils, proudly striding towards the battlefield.
"Begin!"
With Kakashi's shout, Charizard and Lucario quickly gathered their chakra, each preparing their techniques.
'Smokescreen!'
Charizard flapped its wings rapidly as it took to the air, exhaling a cloud of dark gray smoke from its mouth.
It had observed the previous battle and knew that most of Lucario's combat methods involved close-range taijutsu. By taking to the skies, Charizard could largely negate the effectiveness of Lucario's physical techniques.
Coupled with the smokescreen obscuring Lucario's vision, it would be difficult for Lucario to pinpoint Charizard's location and employ long-range attacks.
'Agility!'
Lucario channeled its full power and lunged forward with incredible speed, but it was unable to strike Charizard before it took flight.
The black and gray smoke billowed, shrouding the training ground and making it difficult to discern what was happening within.
"It seems that Datou and Charizard are unaware of Lucario's sensory abilities," Kakashi remarked, shaking his head at the unfolding battle.
There were ninja techniques that could hinder sensory abilities, such as the Fog Hidden Technique of the Kirigakure, but Charizard's smokescreen clearly didn't fall into that category.
However, Kakashi could understand this oversight. Charizard had never fought Lucario before, and Lucario's usual training regimen was similar to Maitokai's, focusing mainly on physical conditioning. It was indeed challenging to discern any sensory abilities without prior knowledge.
If it weren't for Kakashi's extensive understanding of the Shadow Clone technique used by the Mightyena and his keen observations during the previous battle, discovering this intelligence would have been a difficult task.
'Bullet Seed!'
With its eyesight obscured by the smoke, Lucario closed its eyes and relied on its aura sense.
While channeling aura spheres into its claws, Lucario also sensed Charizard's aura.
Perceiving Charizard's offensive intent, Lucario, with its eyes closed, sidestepped an incoming fire pillar and released the aura spheres toward the sky.
Boom!
The aura spheres struck Charizard, causing its flight to become unsteady.
As Charizard ceased its use of the smokescreen, the haze dissipated, revealing a somewhat disheveled Charizard.
"Roar?" Charizard was taken aback, surprised both by being hit and by the power of the aura spheres.
It had seen the Mightyena being knocked out by a single aura sphere and assumed it to be extremely powerful. But now, it realized the damage was rather ordinary.
"I guess I'm really strong!" Charizard's confidence grew.
It felt that even if it took two more aura spheres, it wouldn't go down.
Rounding up, it felt like it could take on three Mightyena without breaking a sweat.
The confident Charizard regrouped and swiftly flapped its wings, circling Lucario as it searched for an opening.
'Aura Sphere!'
Lucario continued to channel aura into its claws, its expression unchanged.
If one aura sphere couldn't take Charizard down, then two, three, or four would do the trick! Besides, there was no way Charizard could dodge the aura spheres in the air.
'Flamethrower!'
As Lucario fired another aura sphere, Charizard opened its mouth and unleashed a torrent of flames at the incoming attack.
While it might not suffer severe injuries, being hit by the aura sphere was still painful.
BOOM!!
The thick, deep fire pillar engulfed the blue energy ball, and as the explosion rang out, the aura sphere vanished, and the fire pillar dissipated into the air.
"Roar!" Charizard lifted its head and let out a dragon's cry.
The aura sphere that had defeated the Mightyena was nothing special. The best defense was a good offense!
'Air Slash!'
Charizard concentrated a large amount of chakra into its sharp claws and, in one swift motion, sent out several wind blades toward Lucario.
Whoosh! Whoosh!!
The wind blades were incredibly fast, and with Charizard circling Lucario, the wind blades attacked from multiple angles, limiting Lucario's ability to dodge.
Lucario maintained its previous calm expression. It swiftly extended its claws, and a metallic gleam appeared on them.
'Metal Claw!'
Lucario swung its claws, coated in a metallic sheen, and forcefully dispersed the incoming wind blades.
Hoo! Hoo!!
Charizard's assault didn't end there. It followed up with a heated stream of air, accompanied by flames, directed at Lucario.
'Heat Wave!'
This time, Lucario couldn't dodge perfectly, and a tuft of its chest fur was singed black.
Although it had anticipated the incoming attack, the range of the heat wave was far greater than the previous techniques, making it challenging to evade entirely.
'Flamethrower!'
Charizard pressed its advantage and immediately blasted another thick fire pillar at Lucario.
At this moment, Charizard wanted to say, "Lucario, you are merely a challenger."
Even with inferior intelligence and an extra deadweight like Obito, Charizard knew it couldn't be defeated.
Once Charizard realized it had the upper hand, it wanted to end the battle swiftly.
Just like how Lucario had defeated Mightyena.
Charizard could already imagine the admiration in Menas' eyes when it emerged victorious, for it knew it would undoubtedly look cool.
To make its attack more likely to hit Lucario, Charizard lowered its flying altitude.
While the higher altitude had kept it safe from Lucario's close-range techniques, it had also made it harder for its own attacks to land.
Charizard gathered a massive amount of chakra in its throat and spewed an even thicker column of fire than before.
However, upon witnessing this, Lucario's eyes lit up.
'Bone Rush!'
Lucario clenched its fist, and earth-attribute chakra condensed in its hand, forming two bone-like chakra sticks.
Hoo! Hoo!!
In that moment, Charizard unleashed a searing column of fire.
But Lucario had already planned its counter.
It leaped backward, landing on a tree behind it.
Charizard maintained its stream of fire, sweeping it toward the trees behind it.
Whoosh!
With all its might, Lucario propelled itself forward from the tree, soaring through the air.
Charizard, realizing Lucario's maneuver, panicked a little. It knew it couldn't ascend quickly enough to get out of Lucario's attack range, so it could only try to dodge by flying sideways.
However, what Charizard didn't expect was that Lucario was feinting; it didn't leap toward Charizard but instead jumped to another tree.
Bang!
Having successfully deceived Charizard, Lucario leaped once more, swinging its bone sticks and landing a powerful blow on Charizard.
Charizard's eyes widened in shock as the force from the blow made it instantly understand why Mightyena had been defeated in just two hits.
Charizard, unable to maintain its flight after the collision, crashed to the ground.
At that moment, the flames on Charizard's tail blazed fiercely.
'Blast Burn!'
Charizard, having just crashed to the ground, didn't hesitate and immediately unleashed a torrent of flames to prevent Lucario from continuing its assault.
If Lucario had been impetuous, this move might have been effective.
But Lucario was not rash; using its Aura, it sensed Charizard's intention and chose to stay put, gathering Aura Spheres.
As the flames subsided and Charizard took to the sky again, the blue energy spheres struck Charizard once more.
BOOM!
Charizard fell to the ground, this time unconscious, with swirling eyes.
"Phew," Lucario exhaled in relief.
Defeating Charizard was much harder than defeating Mightyena.
If Charizard hadn't given it the opportunity by voluntarily lowering its altitude, Lucario would have struggled to inflict significant damage.
Because, at the moment, its most effective move against Charizard was Bone Rush, but if Charizard flew too high, Lucario wouldn't be able to land a hit.
"Lucario wins!" Kakashi declared the outcome of the battle as he saw that Charizard was unable to continue fighting.
This battle once again validated some of Kakashi's previous assumptions.
The chakra compatibility between Pokemon had a significant impact on the outcome of battles.
Based on Kakashi's understanding of Charizard and Mightyena, their raw power was more or less equal.
Yet, in the actual fight, Mightyena was overwhelmed by Lucario, and Lucario, in turn, was suppressed by Charizard. It was only due to Charizard's moment of carelessness that it lost the battle.
"It did its best, and even though it lost, it still dealt quite a bit of damage to its opponent," Obito said with a disappointed expression.
Mightyena: ??
You're talking about yourself again. Why are you always staring at Kakashi?
Seeing the annoyed look on Mightyena's face, Obito felt a sense of satisfaction.
Although it felt a bit uncomfortable to praise his dim-witted dragon, it was worth it to strike a blow to the evil white-haired faction.
"Another victory! I told you, a body honed through day and night will respond to your will." Might Guy laughed heartily, delighted by his Pokemon's performance.
So far, Lucario had engaged in three battles against other Pokemon, losing one and winning two, giving it a win rate of 66%, which was quite impressive.
In Might Guy's first two years at the Ninja Academy, his win rate had been pitifully low, barely reaching single digits. In other words, he would win only once out of several dozen attempts.
It felt the urge to challenge Menas.
Since Maitokai was the strongest disciple among them all, Lucario, as the Pokemon that had signed a contract with Maitokai, naturally aspired to become the strongest as well.
However, Lucario suppressed the urge to challenge Menas.
The battle against Charizard had taken a toll on its mental and physical energy, and it had even sustained some injuries.
If it wanted to restore itself to peak condition, it would need considerable time to rest and recuperate.
As the evening marked the end of their training, Lucario didn't want to delay everyone else due to its own needs.
In the end, Lucario shifted its gaze away from Menas and began to gather chakra.
"It seems fine, but let's still provide some treatment." Yurihana created a shadow clone, intending for her main body to treat Charizard while the clone would heal Lucario.
Menas also moved next to Yurihana to gather chakra and assist in the healing process.
Lucario shook its head and swiftly performed a nature transformation on the chakra it had gathered.
'Aqua Sphere!'
A blue-green sphere of water formed above Lucario.
Immediately, the water sphere burst in the air, showering Lucario and Charizard with droplets of bluish-green liquid.
As the healing droplets landed on them, Lucario's minor injuries rapidly mended.
Menas looked at Lucario in surprise, never expecting that beneath its ruthless warrior exterior, it possessed healing abilities similar to her own.
Yurihana's treatment, combined with Lucario's Aqua Sphere, soon revived Charizard.
Feeling the refreshing and soothing sensation on its body and glancing at Menas nearby, Charizard let out a touched roar.
"Roar!"
"My goddess, your medical ninjutsu is truly remarkable. It says it feels completely healed," Solosia interpreted accurately.
A moment of silence fell upon the group.
"How did I end up hatching it? It's nothing like me," Obito said, covering his mouth to suppress his laughter.
If it weren't for the fact that it was his Pokemon, Obito would have laughed hysterically. After all, it was his Pokemon, so he had to give it some face.
"Roar," Menas finally spoke up, breaking the silence.
"The Aqua Sphere earlier was Lucario's doing. That's what it said, hehe," Solosia translated, unable to hold back his laughter any longer.
He was a professional and usually didn't laugh at his comrades, but sometimes it was just too hard to resist.
Charizard froze, glancing at Menas and then back at Lucario.
Bang! Charizard collapsed again, as if the previous battle had inflicted severe injuries that allowed it only a brief moment of consciousness.
No one attempted to wake Charizard up this time, tacitly accepting its state of unconsciousness. The mental trauma from the earlier events might have been even more significant than the physical blow it had received from Lucario's Bone Rush.
"So Lucario also possesses medical ninjutsu. This means that Maitokai won't have to worry about healing even if he doesn't team up with us in the future," Kakashi mused. He believed that Mu Yue had carefully selected and sent all these Pokemon eggs.
Due to the unique nature of the Eight Inner Gates, Kakashi had always been concerned about Maitokai.
While the Eight Inner Gates made one incredibly powerful, the higher the gate count, the more damage one would sustain, even with a robust body. It merely reduced the harm instead of making one immune to it, hence the frequent injuries.
Without a good medical ninja, it would be easy to develop long-term complications from untreated wounds.
Kakashi had personally experienced the effects of the Aqua Sphere, and it was indeed a high-level medical ninjutsu, sufficient for most situations.
Upon returning home, Solosia hummed a cheerful tune, clearly in high spirits.
Seeing Solosia's cheerful demeanor and considering that all the other disciples' Pokemon had evolved, a speculation formed in Danzo's mind regarding Solosia's previous comments about evolution.
However, he wasn't sure if his conjecture was correct, as Pokemon were vastly different from the ordinary summoning beasts of the ninja world.
"Oh well," Danzo sighed helplessly, knowing that even if he were right, it wouldn't make a difference. He certainly couldn't force Solosia to evolve if it didn't want to.
PS: Two chapters combined make about 8k words. The word count should be fine.
Also, it's the end of the month, so I humbly request your votes.
(End of Chapter)
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