Chakra Backflow

It would take at least three days to travel from Sunagakure to Konoha. This exam tested endurance and willpower—the ninja world's equivalent of a marathon.

Fighting between participants was forbidden. The original intention was for examinees to complete the test using their own physical abilities, but rules always had loopholes. The rules only said they couldn't fight; they never said they couldn't set traps.

Today, Moriyue would show those ninja just how treacherous the world could be. Did they know the pain of Teemo planting mushrooms?

"Captain, we're currently in first place. I haven't sensed any other ninja ahead of us." Kazeki closed her eyes, and her sensory field spread out from her in all directions. Fluctuations of lightning traveled outward, clearly projecting the surrounding terrain into Kazeki's mind.

"However, there's a squad following closely behind us. That person should be from the Hyuga Clan." Kazeki relayed the intelligence around them in real time, while Moriyue and Ando kept running without slowing for even a step, doing their best to widen the gap.

Moriyue's body was stimulated by the intense exertion. Electricity crackled across his skin, and he charged forward like a machine.

"Ando, when I fought Karui before, I learned that she had an interesting ninjutsu. Do you know it?" Moriyue was light on his feet and didn't feel tired in the slightest. The physical enhancements from his first use of the Life-Burning Forbidden Jutsu were showing their effects now. His physique was exceptionally strong.

Ando had some difficulty keeping up with Moriyue. Upon hearing his question, he seemed to realize something.

"You mean... Zanrai Sen's lightning traps? Captain, you're really full of dirty tricks." The corners of his mouth curled upward. He was more than happy to do something this underhanded.

Kazeki also guessed that the two of them were about to get up to no good. Moriyue was the captain, so she couldn't say much, merely reminding Ando of one thing.

"Indeed. Don't forget that you still have a hundred pounds of sand to eat. Someone said he'd eat sand if the captain's predictions came true..."

"Ahem... You're right. So let's hurry up and make some lightning traps."

The atmosphere became awkward for a moment. Ando's old face flushed red, and rather than argue further with Kazeki, he immediately began setting up lightning traps.

Lightning traps were very simple to make. All they had to do was inject lightning into the ground and form a circular lightning net in place. The advantage of these traps was that they could be made quickly and easily, while their drawback was equally obvious: they didn't last very long. But with everyone desperately racing forward, that flaw could practically be ignored.

Thus, Moriyue and Ando kept "laying eggs" along the road they passed like two old mother hens. One lightning sphere after another was openly placed on the ground. Either force your way through or take the long way around—the choice was theirs.

Ando was a natural when it came to doing bad things. He had even learned to disguise the lightning spheres with sand and dead leaves. Under normal circumstances, the camouflage could be seen through at a glance, but at a time like this, who would pay attention to ordinary-looking sand?

The two of them handled the trap-making, while Kazeki continued to conserve her Chakra. The traps were easy to create, but they consumed an enormous amount of Chakra. After happily burying "mushrooms" for a while, the two had almost run out of Chakra.

Moriyue even had to stop keeping Lightning Torment activated at all times. Yet once the torment Lightning Torment inflicted on his body ceased, another burst of strength erupted from within him. Without Lightning Torment suppressing him, his physical strength was unleashed once more, like an athlete taking off several hundred pounds of weights.

"Holy shit, what the hell is the captain made of? That's fucking insane!" Ando couldn't hold back his curse. Ordinary people would also run low on stamina when their Chakra was depleted. He could tell Moriyue was out of Chakra too, but he hadn't expected him to still have so much strength left for running.

"Captain! Recover some Chakra! I'm afraid you'll just drop dead while running if you keep this up."

"No problem. I feel fine right now. I can keep running for a while." Moriyue wiped the sweat from his face. It felt great. Without Lightning Torment constantly torturing him, it felt unbelievably good.

Ando was too embarrassed to admit that he was out of strength. By all rights, his captain had been a ninja for far less time than he had, yet Moriyue was like a monster, improving at an astonishing rate. Even knowing he was a forbidden-jutsu practitioner with little time left to live, Ando still admired him.

Kazeki rescued him from the awkwardness. She knew Ando's stubborn personality, and she was also worried about Moriyue's physical condition, afraid that he really would collapse and die while running, just as Ando had said.

"Captain, replenish your Chakra. Your body won't be able to take this kind of drain."

Hearing Kazeki's reminder, Moriyue could only nod. Fine, his teammates couldn't keep up, so he would slow down.

Kazeki ran from the back of the group to the front and tightly grasped Moriyue's hand. While Moriyue was still a little confused, streams of pale blue warmth flowed through his arm and into his body. Kazeki was transferring Chakra to him.

But then a sudden change occurred. After entering Moriyue's body, that pale blue Chakra did not merge with his own. Instead, it was immediately enveloped, eroded, and assimilated by the residual Chakra inside him, eventually becoming completely transformed into Moriyue's own Chakra.

That wasn't all. The Chakra flowed back up through their tightly clasped hands and directly entered Kazeki's body, extracting her Chakra with even greater force in return.

The Chakra in Kazeki's body was rapidly assimilated by Moriyue. This Chakra possessed a strange nature—only Moriyue could use it. Kazeki also noticed the problem and hurriedly released Moriyue's hand.

"Are you all right?!" Moriyue hadn't expected the Chakra in his body to undergo such a mutation. He hurried forward to ask, terrified that he might accidentally drain Kazeki to death.

Kazeki, who had only just separated from him, looked pale and bloodless. A faint blackish-red mark had appeared in the center of her palm. Perhaps because their contact had been brief, her condition wasn't too bad. Only nearly half of the Chakra in her body had been drained away.

Ando couldn't make sense of it. Could something really go wrong just from transferring Chakra? That seemed impossible. But considering Moriyue's identity as a forbidden-jutsu practitioner, perhaps an accident wasn't out of the question.

"It's nothing. I was just transferring some Chakra to you. Come here." For some reason, Kazeki didn't explain what had happened. After giving Moriyue a deep look, she called Ando over.

"Ow! That hurts, hurts! Why are you choking my neck when you're transferring Chakra to me? That's not fair!"

Ando howled miserably as he was choked, staring at Kazeki with a wronged expression.