Chapitre 302: CH_8.37 (302)
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———
.
ANBU-nin codenamed Leopard reclined on a patio chair inside the cabin deck with a thin, gauze-like cloth spread over her face. She hated wearing her mask when relaxing and, even though she was at work, it felt like a vacation because all she had to do was 'supervise'.
"Ma'am."
Leopard didn't bother to pull the cloth down as one of her subordinates for the duration of the assessment process appeared beside her. He was dressed in green-and-brown robes and his gear and ANBU mask were painted in dark forest colours to disguise them further into their surroundings.
"Oh, is it over?" she asked, mundanely.
"Six's stamp paper has been destroyed."
"Unfortunate. How did he do?"
"He was too exhausted to survive past the halfway mark."
The task asked the candidates to cover the distance under an allocated period. The ANBU expected the candidates to race for the first position in an attempt to showcase their ability, and there was nothing wrong with that. However, all candidates had been told that the assessment process would last around two weeks, so the ANBU expected them to realise that they needed to be ready to face challenges during that time.
Exhausting themselves to come first even though the passing criteria simply asked them to be there before a deadline was an illogical move. If the entire assessment had been considered a mission, Number #6 would not have been able to complete it due to poor decision-making. They were testing the candidates' decision-making abilities when given limited information. The candidates didn't know what would happen after they reached the final location or if they would be given a rest after completing the task—they needed to be in a condition to continue and face anything that was thrown at them.
Even though getting a stamp at the four checkpoints was as easy as finding the person with the stamp—it didn't mean they shouldn't be prepared for the unexpected. The task wasn't meant to be a puzzle where the game dropped hints regarding what was coming. It was intended to be similar to an actual mission where things often went wrong without notice, and agents were required to be prepared to handle them.
"He asked if he could bring another stamp paper for another try," said the subordinate.
"Show him the way out and send him home," she said. The candidate had to enter the woods immediately upon reaching the cabin, and there was no going back once they entered.
Leopard enjoyed half an hour of silence and peace until another candidate arrived at the cabin. She groaned as she put her mask on before pulling herself off the patio chair and walking down the steps to greet the new arrival.
Number #7, Hyuga Kojuro.
According to the file, he was nearly eighteen years old and had been a chunin for almost four years. He had the typical pale Hyuga skin, white Byakugan pupils, and shoulder-length seaweed green hair. He wasn't wearing his balaclava mask because it was useless; his eyes gave him away instantly anyway—but he wore a sash around his forehead to hide it.
Even with his eyes hidden, his face looked like he hadn't smiled in a decade and had lost the ability to do so somewhere along the way.
"Welcome, Seven," she said. "Congratulations on reaching the final destination. Show me your stamp paper to confirm that you stopped by the checkpoints." Kojuro presented his stamp paper with four stamps. "Excellent. However, there's one more stamp remaining that you need to get. That stamp is across the forest. It will take ten minutes to pass through the woods, so go and get that stamp."
The Hyuga didn't ask her any questions and gazed at the forest for a few seconds before silently heading inside.
"Not a talkative one, is he." She sighed before returning to her chair to rest. It was tough work being an ANBU-nin.
Fifteen minutes later, a subordinate came over to notify her that Hyuga Kojuro had successfully passed through the woods.
———
.
At the fourth checkpoint town, Number #1 and Number #9 sat together in a restaurant for a midday meal. The two shinobi had teamed up and promised to look after each other for the task's duration. They had arrived at the town two hours ago and were resting before proceeding to the final location.
"I bet there's going to be some catch at the final location," said Number #9 as he set down his chopsticks over an empty bowl.
"Absolutely. This entire thing's been too easy," replied Number #1.
"I looked at the stamp paper carefully. The stamp isn't complete yet. I think there's going to be some twist with that."
"There's a town nearby, but the final location is some distance away." Number #1 pointed on the map sitting between them on the table. "Maybe getting the final stamp won't be as easy as walking up to the person. There's a pocket of woods beside the location. I reckon it will be something like finding the final stamp bearer in those woods—or something like that, anyway."
"Hmm," Number #9 nodded. "We should scout the location in secret before openly showing ourselves. It'll be better if we know something before walking into whatever the ANBU has planned for it."
There was silence on the table. Number #9 looked up when he didn't get a reply and saw Number #1's eyes swimming over the map with a furrow between his eyes.
"Something wrong?" asked Number #9.
"Uhmm, no, nothing. I was just thinking about something," Number #1 leaned into his chair with a sigh before standing up. "I'll go wash my hands."
"Sure, I'll pay up," said Number #9. He waited until Number #1 was out of view before looking at the map to see if he had missed something. Even though they had allied with each other, they were still competitors, and he didn't want to be at a disadvantage by not knowing something the other guy had found.
As Number #9 poured over the map, Number #1 walked over to the washing sinks in the corner, but instead of washing his hands, he patted around his body and reached into the pockets and pouches until he found his stamp paper.
"Found it," he whispered with an elated smile—before ripping the stamp paper into a few pieces and slipping them back into the same pocket.
He washed his hands and then returned to the front of the store, where Number #9 was waiting for him after he had paid their bill.
"Ready to leave?"
"Yes, let's go."
They left the store and were walking when Number #1 suddenly stopped in the middle of the road.
"Huh, h-how did we..."
He looked bewildered, immediately taking out a kunai while looking at the townsfolk as though they were in danger. Mostly to scare the hell out of them as being near a shinobi fight was equal to forfeting their lives.
"Woah, what are you doing?" asked Number #9, stepping away.
Number #1 immediately reached into one of his pockets, panic gripping his face, only to freeze for a moment before pulling out ripped pieces of his stamp paper with a shaky hand. He looked up at Number #9. "...What d-did you do?"
"Come on, man. I didn't do anything," said Number #9, but he took out his kunai because he knew it wasn't going to end well.
"You will pay!" Number #1 yelled as he charged at Number #9, triggering panic in the street as the townsfolk scattered.
Inside the teashop across from the restaurant, a girl dressed in a long skirt and a plain top rested her head in her arms on the table as though she was sleeping. She opened her eyes and sat up with a soft sigh before picking up the warm cup of tea to take a sip.
A moment later, a mischievous smile along with a giggle appeared on Number #3, Yamanaka Amami's face as the commotion broke out
———
.
The sun was about to set on the third day, and Number #17, Orikashi, was on his way to the fourth checkpoint town. He was a chunin in his late twenties who had participated in the Third Shinobi World War and had been posted at the Hidden Leaf Village during the Nine-Tails incident. He had been through a lot during his career, so when the ANBU showed interest in him, he knew he deserved an offer. To ensure that the ANBU didn't make a mistake by missing out on him, he decided to help them out by eliminating undeserving candidates.
He started by stalking one of his prey straight from the Hidden Leaf Village. On the second day, he caught them in a trap before ripping their stamp paper and destroying most of their gear. On the third day, he laid ambush on two separate candidates and jeopardised their positions by freeing them of their stamp papers.
It prevented him from being first in the task. However, he considered this an acceptable trade-off as it was still early in the assessment process, and he would have other opportunities to showcase his abilities to the ANBU. As he made his way to the fourth checkpoint town, he planned on finding one more prey in the town to hunt and take out of the game.
In truth, he wanted to target more, but he didn't actually have the time to do so if he wanted to reach the final location with some contingency time in case the ANBU had something planned.
I could cut out other undeserving ones in future tasks, thought Orikashi. There were young shinobi among the candidates who weren't good choices for the ANBU due to their lack of experience. He had already done three of them a favour by eliminating them early so they wouldn't get their hopes up.
As Orikashi was running along the road, he looked back when he heard a noise and saw a candidate closing in on him at a quick pace. He didn't know the candidate's number but recognised the mask with the red and yellow swirl pattern. He had seen the man from close at the office building in Hidden Leaf Village, and he was absolutely enormous.
His instincts told him that interacting with this man would be bad, so he picked up the pace to put some distance between them—but the man had closed the distance between them in five minutes and was only a few dozen metres behind him.
Orikashi realised that the man was trying to catch up to him, and seeing that he couldn't outrun him, he decided to face the guy to see what he wanted.
"I notice you trying to catch up to me. May I know how I can help you, friend," he asked, noticing the massive afro on the man's head, which wasn't noticeable before because of the balaclava.
"I have been—"
Orikashi didn't give him a chance to speak and rushed him with his kunai to gain an advantage with an element of surprise. The man dodged the kunai strike, but Orikashi pushed on stringing one strike after another, leaving no opportunity for a counter. Not a single one made contact. The large, muscle-bound man was light on his feet and gracefully dodged all his attacks with minimal movement.
Orikashi switched tactics by pulling back to attack with ninjutsu—but the moment he tried to do so, the man shifted into an offensive stance to launch a palm strike to the chest within the span of half a second.
Orikashi crossed his hands to block the palm strike only to feel a bestial strength assault his body, sending him flying to the woods lining the road. He barely regained control of himself as he smashed through a tree and immediately hid in the foliage, abandoning the idea of facing him head-on. He erased his presence and patiently waited for the man to walk into the woods to launch an ambush.
A few seconds passed, but there were no signs of the man, which made Orikashi nervous from not having his opponent in his view. Just as he thought about moving, he heard the leaves shuffle behind him and looked back to see the man jumping at him.
When did he get behind me?!
The man stabbed Orikashi just underneath the shoulder blade and left a kunai in his back. Orikashi turned around mid-air and launched a volley of shuriken, thinking the man would be coming after him, but he was absent.
When Orikashi landed on the ground, he realised their positions had changed. He was now on the ground, and his opponent was in the position to attack from stealth. He bit back a groan as he pulled out the kunai that was digging into his back and made a quick decision to abandon the fight and flee.
A part of his brain told him to take care of the situation because it was sure to become a problem later on—but seeing how their fight had turned out till now, he was at a disadvantage and would fare better under other circumstances. He also didn't want to get injured to the point where he could no longer compete in the assessment.
Orikashi took out the smoke bombs he had stolen from his prey and threw them to the ground to create a smokescreen to create an opportunity to escape. He immediately ran in the opposite direction from the fourth checkpoint town because anyone would assume he would go toward the town—and it seemed to work as he ran without any sign of the man for a full couple of minutes.
However, as he jumped toward a tree branch, his eyes caught the glint of a kunai stuck in its base. The explosive tag attached to it was already burning, and exploded when he stepped onto the branch. He lost his balance and was blown away at the same time, crashing head-first into a tree, the impact of broke against his skin, causing him to bleed.
Orikashi realised that in an attempt to avoid the fight to not get injured, he had gotten even more hurt. As he ran, he had a decision to make—continue to flee or take the fight. The man stepped out from behind a tree Orikashi was running toward.
Hiss fists were glowing with a yellowish-red tint that looked like some sort of Fire Release ninjutsu. Too fast to stop, Orikashi ran right into a body-blow. The man's fist pressed all the air out of his body, but before he could gasp, a compact explosion smashed him into the ground.
"Three people attacked me today to take my stamp paper," said the man, his voice muffled behind his mask. "I asked them how they lost theirs—and they all gave me a description that matched you."
"So wh-what? T-This was w-what—reven-n-ge?" asked Orikashi, finding it absurd.
"Revenge? They attacked me. Why would I take revenge for them," the man scoffed. "This was supposed to be a simple task; there was no reason to mess with others—but of course, there are always people like... I'm not doing this for revenge; I'm doing this because I don't like you, you fuck."
Orikashi opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but the man kicked him in the head, knocking him out.
———
.
Number #10, Sonaba Yazo, burned the three stamp papers he found on the man he had just knocked out. He could've returned the stamp papers to the victims, but that would've required him to travel back to the previous checkpoint towns—and he wasn't going to do that for people who had attacked him, even though he understood why they had done it.
Eliminating competition was all well and good, but only when necessary. There was no need to go after each other during the current task, so it really bothered him when he found that someone had targeted not one, or two, but three candidates for the sake of competition.
It pissed him enough to go after the guy. Yazo looked down and sighed before slinging the prick over his shoulder. It wasn't right to leave him alone in the woods, so he was going to take him to the next checkpoint town and leave him in the care of the ANBU staff member.
Just like he had done with the three other candidates who had attacked him.
———
.
As the third day ended, Takuma laid his sleeping bag in an empty room he had rented inside some guy's house for the night to avoid the inns at the third checkpoint town. He had crossed two checkpoints without any obstacles and was planning to do the same the next day with the goal of arriving at the final location before sunset.
From the village chatter, apparently, someone had dumped three injured shinobi in the town. It wasn't surprising, given how the rules were written, but it was still a matter of concern as he was sure a considerable number of candidates would be looking to recover the stamp papers they had lost by taking others'.
If he didn't play it carefully, he would be pulled into that conflict irrespective of his wishes.
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!
Chapitre 303: CH_8.38 (303)
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The link is also in the synopsis
———
.
Two candidates ran into each other on the fourth day as they left the fourth checkpoint at dawn.
Number #16, Yaya Utamatsu.
Number #5, Igabi Kyusu.
Both of them had their masks on and faced each other cautiously. They subtly put a distance between each other where they felt comfortable enough to react if the other launched an attack. They had seen injured candidates stripped of their stamp papers and didn't want to suffer the same fate.
Utamatsu pulled a kunai from his pouch but raised his hands above his head. "I don't want any trouble, but if you want to go at it, I won't go down easy..." He had survived an ambush on the first day, but he thought himself lucky that he had escaped unscathed.
"Neither do I," Kyusu replied before pointing at the road leaving the town, "but we are going the same way, and frankly, I'm not thrilled about having a travel companion."
"Fair enough. Let's stagger our exits; fifteen minutes is enough. What do you think?" said Utamatsu with a shrug.
"Sounds good, but I want to leave later."
"That's fine with me. I'll go ahead first, but I want at least a kilometre's distance between us if you catch up because of a difference in pace."
Kyusu nodded and gestured for Utamatsu to leave first, who ran along the road while he took cover under a nearby building's shadow to wait out his fifteen minutes. He wanted to be second because he didn't want to have someone at his back, even if they were a safe distance away, as that could change at any moment—and he didn't want to risk it when he was so close to the final location.
He looked at the blue-orange sky. Assuming everything went well, he was to reach the final location around lunchtime. Even if the ANBU tried to pull something, which he absolutely expected, he didn't want to deal with the twist without some visibility.
———
.
The sun had already set on the fourth day by the time Takuma arrived at the final location. It had been a long day. He started at the third checkpoint town at dawn, passed through the fourth checkpoint town at around noon, and finally reached his destination just before it turned dark.
It felt good that the past few days had all gone according to plan, and he had hit his targets without any problems. The entire task had been a long, tiring, but smooth journey. Despite his precautions of staying away from popular inns and boarding houses, using the water clone to get the stamps, and exercising caution while leaving the towns to dodge eyes, he had fully expected to run into other candidates, but to his welcome surprise, it had been an easy road.
He noticed the log cabin with the ANBU symbol painted on the side wall, illuminated by a gas lamp above it. He was at the right place. The lights inside the cabin were on, so he headed to the front door and knocked. The faint murmurs of conversation inside stopped. Takuma stepped back until his back touched the deck railing and gripped the kunai inside his weapon pouch when he heard footsteps from inside.
The door opened, and a masked woman stepped out. If not for the ANBU mask, the combination of casual tank top, hotpants, and not a single weapon on her body made it feel like she was answering the door to collect delivery rather than being part of the recruitment process.
"Oh, congratulations on getting here." She sounded lethargic as she closed the door behind her, stepped out barefoot and asked him to follow her to the gas lamp on the side wall.
Even though it looked like she was the most careless shinobi, Takuma's instinct told her that if he tried to headlock her from behind, she would be able to evade or attempt to turn it around on him.
"Everything looks fine," she said after looking at his stamp paper, "but you need one more stamp, and the person who has it is on the other side of the woods. It only takes ten minutes to cross, so go ahead and get it now."
"I can't go in the morning?"
"You sorta have to go now."
"Fine," said Takuma, choosing not to argue about it. He knew there would be some twist, and if he had to guess, something inside the forest would aim to eliminate him from the running.
"Be careful in there. It's night, and you don't want to... trip," said the ANBU-nin
"Got it," said Takuma before snatching the gas lantern off the nail from which it was hanging. "I hope you don't mind since, y'know... I don't want to trip."
"Not at all. Please help yourself," said the ANBU-nin with a smile in her voice.
"Thank you," said Takuma before heading inside the woods with the gas lantern.
———
.
"We have another one heading inside."
Inside the woods, a group of six ANBU-nin sat around a small fire beneath an earthen half-done created by an Earth Release ninjutsu. It blocked light in one direction so it wouldn't alert the candidates even though they were given hints that something was waiting for them inside the woods.
"And here I thought all of them would be smart enough to time their arrival during the light hours," said the ANBU-nin codenamed Ant, the team leader for the duration of the task, as he sat up on his sleeping bag.
The group was stationed inside the woods as a final obstacle to the candidates before they got their final stamp and successfully completed their task.
"Let's move out," said Ant.
Moving through the woods at night was more challenging as there was no light. Until now, all the candidates had timed their arrival during the day in case there was a twist, which was the type of thinking they wanted to see in the candidates.
"Don't take it easy or go easy on him because it's night-time."
Their objective wasn't to eliminate the candidate at all costs, as that was detrimental to the assessment process. There was no sense in pushing the candidates to a point where they would be unable to participate afterwards, but they had to test them somehow, so the woods section of the task observed how long the candidates took to pass through it while protecting their stamp paper as a group of hostiles tried to keep them in the forest as long as possible.
The team restrained themselves to a level where getting out without entering a fight for life was possible.
"I see light," said one of the ANBU-nin.
An orange-yellow light travelled in the distance. It was the candidate.
"Don't lose track of him," Ant advised his team before giving the order to split up.
Ant skipped from branch to branch and was in range in ten seconds to start the combat situation. To the candidate's credit, he sensed them coming at a fair distance and immediately increased his sprints along with not only throwing zig-zags but also changing altitude by switching between grounds and trees.
He's bold, thought Ant. The candidate continued to carry a lantern. It had the advantage of illuminating his surroundings, decreasing the risk of taking a wrong step, thus increasing his ability to go fast in the uneven forest terrain. The same couldn't be said for the ANBU team, who still had to be careful, making them slower.
However, the lantern had a big disadvantage of constantly giving away their location. If it were an actual mission scenario where the candidate had to shake a tail, the lantern would've acted like a beacon, making it impossible.
An agent charged at the candidate from the side, who dodged the body check by digging his feet into the ground and stopping a step before the collision trajectory. He got going almost immediately afterwards but was stopped by a volley of shuriken at his feet. The previous agent made a grab for a backpack, but the candidate hastily turned his back away just as the fingertips brushed against the fabric.
The candidate tried to run away, but Ant jumped down before him, cutting off his path. The candidate didn't look deterred and threw a haymaker. Ant crossed his arms to block the strike, but his eyes almost popped out when he felt a monstrous force slam into his body and send him flying through a couple of trees.
The stoppage was enough time for the entire team to take position. They saw Ant blown away and adjusted their team strategy without a shared word. An agent unhesitantly entered melee range and was immediately put on the back foot in the face of the candidate's aggressiveness—but it was a planned ruse. As the two engaged in combat, a second agent rushed into the candidate's blind spot with a kunai.
The candidate was taken aback and dropped the lantern on the ground as he stumbled, twisting to face a knife fight with another agent behind him. And if that was not enough, a third agent came in with a sliding tackle, aiming to take out his legs. The lantern sat on the ground, illuminating the area. No one attempted to take or break it, as the agents didn't want to fight in the darkness.
The candidate acted decisively and jumped high to avoid the sliding tackle. As he was in the air, he weaved hands seals. The agents fell back, anticipating a ninjutsu and even prepared themselves for a counterattack. One of the agents threw a triplet of shuriken in an attempt to disrupt the ninjutsu, but the candidate showed excellent environmental awareness and body control as he turned his body in mid-air to use his backpack as a shield.
He landed on the ground and slammed his palms on the ground. The earth shook and jumped as a dome rose around him. The agents, who had been expecting an offensive ninjutsu, switched their actions when they saw a defensive ninjutsu. Two agents prepared to hit the dome from opposite directions, while the other got ready when the candidate appeared from within the doom. But before they could attack the dome, a screeching ball of harsh fire struck it. The top blew up before the fire stuck to the wall and melted the remaining structure.
Ant emerged from behind a shattered tree with smoke rising from his mouth and nose.
The candidate couldn't be allowed to have breathing room but because they weren't trying to kill, they needed to substitute the threat of lethality with constant pressure.
"Go in—"
Before Ant could complete his sentence, the light from the lantern dimmed as a thick fog filled their surroundings. Everyone on the team recognised the Hidden Mist Jutsu. It was already dark, but the thickening fog blocked out everything until they were completely blind to anything that wasn't present in their immediate vicinity.
"He's in the same position as us!" Ant yelled, reminding his team that the candidate couldn't see in the fog. However, that didn't change the fact that they had lost track of the candidate; if they didn't find him soon, they'd lose him.
Fortunately, they had a member who could counter the Hidden Mist Jutsu. A moment later, a strong gust of wind swept through the area, forcefully taking away the thick mist.
"I have eyes on the target!" yelled another member.
It took the team less than a minute before they had firmly caught up with the candidate, who had already passed the halfway mark—the majority of which was covered before the team had made contact with him. It was a little too far for Ant's preference, but the night had its advantages and disadvantages.
Clang. Clang!
Hmm? Ant heard a metallic sound echo through the forest. It sounded like two kunai striking against each other.
Clang. Clang!
Suddenly, he heard something cutting through the air and skipped down to a lower branch to avoid a shuriken zooming past him.
Two seconds later, two dim spots of light zoomed into their direction, and everyone immediately recognised the explosive tags and immediately dove away from them a moment before they exploded.
Ant felt the force brush him and switched to travelling on the ground as a safety precaution.
Clang. Clang!
He felt his chakra tremble when the suspiciously identical metallic sound entered his ears. Genjutsu! Ant hastily disrupted his chakra to break the genjutsu before it could take hold of him. The same couldn't be said about his teammates. He saw two of them trip and fall to the ground while the nearest to him stopped running and covered his ears while groaning painfully.
Ant slapped the man nearest to him on the back to disrupt his chakra. "Get the others free. I'm going ahead," he ordered before rushing towards the candidate.
He was already impressed by the candidate, but the test had to continue until they exited the forest or lost their stamp paper. Ant took the risk of picking up his speed and closed the gap between them until he was right behind the candidate and returned the favour by throwing an explosive tag tied to a kunai ahead of them.
The candidate halted and jumped back to clear out of the explosion radius. He stayed on his feet but remained uncharacteristically still and even seemed uncomfortable from his body language. Ant saw that as an opportunity to hold the candidate until his team caught up again and attacked him.
He emerged from a bush, swinging at the candidate with a kick, who barely stepped out of the way. Ant dipped both hands into pouches and launched a barrage of senbon and shuriken. The candidate did a perfect job deflecting and avoiding the weapons while closing the distance to enter melee range.
Taijutsu wasn't Ant's proficiency, and he had experienced the candidate's explosive force, so he didn't take any chances by engaging in a head-on fight—and took advantage of the terrain around them and ran between the trees, keeping the candidate chasing. When he realised that Ant wasn't willing to engage and tried to run away, he cast a Fire Release ninjutsu to shoot more than half a dozen small fireballs at the candidate. It was only a D-rank jutsu, lacking any real power, but it produced ten fireballs, which Ant masterfully aimed at and around the candidate to stop him from making a break for it.
Suddenly, the ground beneath the candidate's feet sunk in the shape of a square, throwing him off balance. It was an Earth Release ninjutsu; the rest of the team had caught up. An agent emerged from the darkness and struck the candidate from behind, sending him stumbling forward. Another agent entered combat and slammed his shoulder into the candidate's chest, sending him to the ground.
The candidate quickly got up and put his guard up, but he was already surrounded. An agent threw a chain, which rattled as it wrapped around the candidate's arm, who was taken off his feet when the agent pulled on the chain as hard as possible. To finish the team play, another agent descended from the canopy on top of the candidate, pinning him to the ground and pushing him into the dirt.
It was over.
All they had to do now was to find the stamp paper.
However, just as Ant breathed out and let his shoulder relax, the candidate turned into a mass of water, which splashed and spilt on the forest floor.
"Huh," uttered the agent who was holding the candidate down as he looked at his drenched clothes and hand dripping with water.
The team stood stunned for a few seconds as their brains processed what had happened.
"Water clone," said one of the agents proficient with Water Release ninjutsu. "It can only exist when the user is nearby. He has to be somewhere in the range!"
"Let's go!" Ant barked the order, and the team rushed towards the wood's exit, hoping they would catch him.
Alas, they were too late. They emerged from the forest to find the candidate sitting on a large rock, waiting for them. He stood up when he saw them and asked,
"This counts as a pass, right?"
Ant couldn't help but chuckle at the blase tone, as though everything that had just happened was par for the course. A water clone had baited him and his team, caught most of the team in a genjutsu, and almost gave them the slip—all the while, the real one strolled through the forest, keeping safely away from the combat. Even if they had found out about the clone much earlier, it wouldn't have changed the outcome because the distance between them would've been difficult to cover up before the candidate was out of the woods.
He could feel the mix of frustration, amusement, and begrudging respect coming from his men.
"Yes, that's a pass. Well done Thirteen."
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
200+ Classement
Power Stone 
109 Power
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