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!
Chapitre 304: CH_8.39 (304)
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón @
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The link is also in the synopsis
———
.
The ANBU had set up a temporary camp to house the candidates. It was a bunch of tents around a campfire and was located near a small stream. After Takuma had passed through the woods, the ANBU-nin he'd escaped showed him the way to the camp. Instead of immediately going to the camp, though, Takuma first went to the stream to clean up a day's worth of sweat and grime and wash his gear before making his presence known to his fellow candidates.
He changed into the clothes he had purchased on his detour and headed to the camp. He was spotted before he could even say anything. The candidates were sitting on logs around a campfire when they noticed him walking in. Everyone except bar one had their faces covered. Most either had the balaclava or the hard front mask on, but the only woman on the ground had one bandana covering her lower face with another one tied in her hair; it looked much more comfortable than the thick balaclava or the hard Scars mask Takuma had on. Then there was the Hyuga with his bare face, but covered eyes; the balaclava and mask wouldn't hide his eyes, which gave away his identity.
"Oh, we have another," said one of the candidates. He wore a mask with a blue ocean wave pattern, but Takuma knew what he looked like underneath it because it was the same candidate who had been stalking the inn's pub at the first checkpoint town. "Come, sit down. You must be hungry. They gave us a stash of field rations."
The candidate with the big afro hairstyle tossed a field ration at Takuma.
"Thank you," he replied.
"Don't mention it," said the tall and buff guy with the afro. "You can dry your clothes over there." He pointed at a couple of somewhat-occupied makeshift racks hanging near the campfire. Takuma would've refrained from leaving his clothes in the open, but the ANBU-nin had informed him that the camp was a 'safe zone' until the task's deadline and that the candidates were barred from sabotaging each other while they were there.
That was the reason why he had chosen to wash his clothes in the first place.
"We're going by our numbers, so introduce yourself to the group. I'm Five, nice to meet you."
"...I'm Thirteen," Takuma replied as he hung his clothes on the rack.
One by one, everyone around the camp introduced themselves by their numbers.
"You had the bad luck of arriving at the cabin at night, huh," said Sixteen, who Takuma noted had lengthy limbs. "I don't think I could've escaped them if they had the advantage of darkness."
"It worked out well, fortunately," Takuma said humbly. However, the truth was that not only had he planned to arrive at the final location at night so that he was in perfect condition every day, but he also preferred his odds in the dark.
The darkness narrowed the view of the ANBU team; the moment they found the clone, they stopped looking for anything else. Moreover, the Water Clone Jutsu had the flawed quirk of a clone's body where affected parts of it would momentarily distort when taking a substantial hit. In the daytime, that would've alerted the ANBU team that they were chasing a clone.
"So you've been sitting here since you arrived?" asked Takuma as he took a seat.
"Pretty much," said Three, the woman.
That meant he had one whole day to recover and relax. Three days on the road wasn't much for him, and he had been getting regular rest at night, but fatigue built up regardless; a free day would reset his condition, which was important since he wanted to be on top of his game.
"We've been discussing what the ANBU will make us do next to pass the time. Any thoughts?" asked Three, resting her chin on her palm as she gazed at him in interest.
Takuma considered the question. They could throw many challenges at them; he tried to think about what he would do if he were in ANBU's shoes. However, it was difficult because he had no idea what they were looking for in the candidates.
"I... think we'll be moved to a place with people next," he started. "Activity happens in a settlement with people rather than in the middle of nowhere. You wouldn't find bigwigs of a criminal group in a base inside a forest but in a city with luxury. Even thugs lower on the ladder need common amenities like food, water, and other stuff that make living tolerable. While you can get them in a mountain somewhere, it's difficult and costly... so if they're going to send us on the field as agents, then they need to test how we perform in a village, town, or a city."
He had spent two months in Yu, so he understood the attractions of a city, its people, and its economy. People wanted control, and there was nothing to control in untouched nature away from civilization—it was among droves of people that could be controlled. Humans were social animals; being stuck with the same handful of people with nothing to do would seem like a dull hell for many people.
"That's an intelligent take," said Seven, the Hyuuga, giving Takuma a nod.
"We've been thinking that they would either team us up or pit us against each other—openly, this time," said Five.
"Or both," said Ten, the afro guy.
"Teamwork and competition. Makes sense," Takuma nodded as he opened his field ration pack.
The lack of tension among the candidates stuck out to him like a paper cut. They were all competitors aiming for the same job, yet there they were, acting all buddy-buddy. There was nothing wrong with being friendly, and he liked the fact that none were being assholes, but seeing every single one of them chatting at the campfire felt off.
He expected at least one to keep to themselves, and yet everyone was present.
As he poured the curry rice pack into the pot provided in the backpack, he discerned something he hadn't put a finger on till now. Even though he was being cautious in the company of strangers, he couldn't sense an iota of danger from his competitors—all of them were hiding behind a friendly facade and were doing it beautifully.
They managed to make him feel comfortable enough to have him give a real answer to a question, which revealed his thought process and thus gave them insight into him. It was a team effort that started when he stepped into the camp. They were strangers, competitors, and yet they had worked with each other perfectly.
He was in admirable company.
"I must say, this is nice," said Takuma, pulling up a facade to join the team with a slow nod.
"I totally get what you mean," said Three with a joyous giggle.
———
.
The task's deadline passed without fanfare except for a large explosion in the woods caused by one of the candidates. After Takuma, three more candidates tried to make it through the woods. Only two of them—Number #4, a man, and Number #14, a woman—survived the forest and reached the camp.
On the sixth day, Leopard, Ant, and the ANBU team arrived at the camp for the first time.
"Your batch started with twenty candidates, and after nearly a week of testing, twelve were weeded out, leaving you eight as eligible prospects," said Leopard. Unlike before, when she wore loungewear, she looked professional and decked in ANBU gear. "Don't mistake this for an achievement. Personally, I don't think the tests were difficult or even sufficiently challenging... These guys went too easy on you," she pointed to Ant and his team.
Ant stood beside her, still as a rock. Either he didn't agree with her assessment or didn't care for her agree with her—either way, her words bounced off him.
"Before we move on to the next stage of the assessment, we will be announcing the results of this task—to be exact, how long it took for everyone to pass through the woods," said Leopard.
Ant stepped forward and listed the numbers in ascending order for how long they had taken.
Number #7 — 8 minutes
Number #13 — 12 minutes
Number #16 — 13 minutes
Number #10 — 14 minutes
Number #14 — 14 minutes
Number #5 — 16 minutes
Number #3 — 17 minutes
Number #4 — 19 minutes
———
.
Ant observed the candidates and how they all had glanced at Seven, the Hyuga, when they heard his time. He was the only person to take the single-digit minutes for a distance marked as ten minutes to travel. It showcased the terrifying gift of Byakugan that the illustrious Hyuuga clan possessed.
During Seven's turn, Ant and his team had failed to spot Seven, much less catch up to and engage with him. He had undoubtedly used his Byakugan to not only avoid them completely but also use the power of his eyes to pathfind a route of least resistance through the dense woods to traverse it in record time.
The team had no chance of catching or slowing him down from the very start.
Thirteen came second by fooling the team with the water clone gambit while he made it through the woods without ever engaging with them, much like Seven. He hadn't completed it sooner because he had to remain within a certain range from the clone or lose control of it. Thirteen had to stop every time he felt his clone on the edge of the permitted limit, which added two minutes.
In many ways, it was more frustrating than not catching the Hyuuga's shadow.
Then there was Sixteen, who the team had trouble keeping up with. Ant didn't know if it was because they were in a forest or if he was always like this, but Sixteen was agile and moved in a way that, even if Ant wasn't holding back, he would still find it challenging to keep up with him. Sixteen had an impressive presence of mind and situational awareness; he made the unknown woods feel like he had been there hundreds of times and knew every tree and branch on the back of his hand.
Ten wasn't good at losing a tail during a chase, but he made it up with his ability to constantly be on the move. The team was always on him, attacking him every ten seconds, yet they could never pin him down for more than a few seconds. He would evade or strong-arm their attacks until he found an opening. From the moment they made contact till the end of the woods, the team always had an 'upper hand,' yet Ten always gave them the slip.
From experience, Ant could tell that Ten was more familiar with hunting than fleeing and used that familiarity in one department to make up for a lack of skill in another department.
It was an appreciable show of adaptability.
Fourteen had started very strong. It took the team a whopping seven minutes to find her, which showed excellent stealth abilities, and even after they made contact, she slipped between the trees, sneaked into the foliage, and travelled with hushed steps that an entire group lost sight of her multiple times—and even though it took her a long time to pass through the forest, to be so elusive for that long was an impressive feat.
The ANBU could use someone like Fourteen on missions requiring high stealth.
Five had a weak performance in the woods. They found him quickly, never lost track of him, and trapped him several times. His backpack got damaged, and he almost lost possession of his stamp paper. While he managed to escape them and exit the woods, Ant and the team agreed that it was barely an acceptable performance but their review would show their opinion when they sent it back to Hidden Leaf Village.
Ant knew, of course, that everyone had their strengths and weaknesses, but Five would have to show some firm strengths to balance his lacklustre performance.
Three was the most bizarre of them all. The team wasn't told about the candidates' identities or capabilities to make it more fair and allow the candidates to surprise the team. So they were utterly surprised that the moment they found Three, two of their members suddenly turned to attack the team with explosive tags, smoke bombs and weapons—essentially emptying their arsenals.
It became clear that Three was from the Yamanaka clan, but at the moment, they were occupied by why the people they had known for years were suddenly attacking them during a recruitment exercise. She created chaos and took advantage of the chaos to make a run for it. Ant and another member caught up to her and gave her a hard time, but in the end, she crossed the threshold without losing her stamp paper.
Three was the only candidate who turned the team against themselves. Even if they didn't like it, the team fairly added her feat to their review.
Four was unfortunate. He was the last to arrive at the final location. He panicked when he lost his backpack, which had a lot of essential gear, and even damaged his weapons belt, which he then had to carry, occupying one of his hands. He was clearly used to the forest terrain, traversing it smoothly, which allowed him to stay in the game.
But then he used a particularly strong Fire Release ninjutsu, burning a patch of trees to char and caused a commotion. If this were a real combat situation, he would have alerted other enemies, making the task more difficult. While the ninjutsu allowed him to break free and escape, the team didn't appreciate it as the correct choice.
They held the opinion that Four could've shaken them off if he had just calmed down and assessed the situation.
———
.
"For the next part of the assessment, we will pair you together," Leopard announced.
The candidates weren't surprised. Takuma and the others had speculated that they would team up for the next challenge, and their speculation was correct.
She continued, "As I said, things have been too easy till now, so we want to add some stakes, some real danger to spice things up. I want you all to have put some skin in the game. If I had a say, I would've shipped you all off to the Land of Earth or made you participate in the Steam-Frost War—but I can't do that because we can't have unproven recruits operating on foreign territory."
Takuma would've quit on the spot if they made him participate in a war he had just returned from.
"Because we can't do that, we're going to do the next best thing. The location for the next challenge is one day's travel north from here—at the seat of the Fire Daimyo, the capital of the Land of Fire: Ember Imperial City."
.
———
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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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