Rout

"Why?" Hyuga Akiha was now curious. This was different from Shuichi's usual style; it seemed like an unnecessary prank. Could it be that he was acting like a child again?

Shuichi felt his intelligence had prevailed again, and after a mysterious smile, he explained, "Judging from the two Sunagakure Squad we encountered earlier, do you think the Sunagakure teams participating in the Second Stage will cooperate?"

"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, definitely." Sarutobi Kohei replied immediately after hearing this.

"So, if a Sunagakure Village team quickly gathers Scroll, like the one we encountered before, and they want to help their village's team increase its size, where do you think they would gather?" Shuichi asked again.

"Near the Central Tower! I see!" Sarutobi Kohei realized.

This Joint Chunin Exam was proposed by Sunagakure themselves, and they wouldn't miss this opportunity to showcase themselves. They certainly hope to have as many of their own teams as possible in the Third Exam.

At this moment, Sarutobi Kohei thought that if he were the Jonin Sunagakure Ninja Jonin, he would definitely try to band together and take advantage of their numbers.

Konoha has a numerical advantage in participating teams, but Sunagakure Ninja has sent its most elite squads this time. They will definitely try to meet up in the Forest of Death and then use their local numerical advantage to obtain more Scroll and eliminate more teams.

"The Sunagakure Ninja group we just encountered was clearly heading towards the Central Tower. Do you think they'll go inside as soon as they get there?"

"Definitely not," Hyuga Akiha chimed in. "They can wait there for the other Sunagakure teams to arrive, so when intercepting teams from other villages, it'll be two teams against one, or even three teams against one. That way, if they run into them, it'll be difficult for them to even escape, and the snowball effect will just keep growing."

"So if we don't drive this Konoha Squad away, they'll be essentially handing the Scroll to Sunagakure for free, and their lives will be in danger. Wow, Captain, your mind is so different from ours! You're only seven years old, right?" Sarutobi Kohei said with admiration. This captain clearly looked like a child, yet his intelligence completely surpassed theirs.

Shuichi replied nonchalantly, "It's nothing, just standard procedure."

"Let's teach this team a lesson and show them that this Chunin Ninja Exams is no joke. Without enough strength, they should give up the idea of becoming Chunin as soon as possible." The three of them had already arrived within 100 meters of Sōsuke's team, but they hadn't noticed them at all. It seemed that their role as bystanders was basically confirmed.

As the sun completely set, visibility in the Forest of Death dimmed. The calls of insects and birds echoed from the jungle on both sides of the river, bringing a vibrant atmosphere to Konoha's summer.

Although the starry sky was beautiful, Sōsuke and the others began to feel down.

After squatting in the grass for more than two hours, they were no longer in the same condition as before. In addition, the visibility was very poor, making it much more difficult to deal with the various insects around them.

"Captain, why hasn't a single team arrived yet? Don't they realize they can intercept someone near the Tower?" One of the Genin stand the silence any longer and whispered to Sōsuke.

"How is that possible!" Sōsuke was speechless at his teammate. "Do people's IQs drop?" "Are you stupid? How could the other teams not have thought of something so obvious? Either most teams have already encountered their opponents, or something unexpected happened in the Second Stage exam."

"What unexpected situation?" His teammate panicked upon hearing this.

"For example, if teams that know each other meet first, but the Scroll are duplicates, then they are very likely to join forces, especially those from Sunagakure." Sōsuke is not stupid to become a squad leader, but his experience is relatively limited. Now he is beginning to realize that his battle plan is not perfect.

"We should find a base in the middle of the river and set a trap next to it. Although the effect would be much worse than what we're doing now, the chances of encountering people would be much higher." Sōsuke was now starting to regret his decision; he realized that leading the team to the center wasn't such a good idea after all.

A better approach is to walk along the river for a while, set up a simple outpost, and then use that as a base to search for people on both banks. This way, if you encounter an enemy, you can take advantage of the terrain, and if you can't win, you can retreat along the same route.

Because most teams will consider the issue of water supply, but in reality it is impossible to run to the center. Even those teams whose entrances are perpendicular to the river line will take a longer route to a safe place to collect water.

Therefore, their team was in a very awkward situation. They were reluctant to give up the traps they had spent a lot of time setting up, but now they no longer had the advantage of searching for people. Instead, the other team was waiting for them by the river. They were caught in a dilemma.

Just as Sōsuke was feeling frustrated, a faint sound came from one of the traps they had set up, as if someone had touched it.

"Someone's coming!" Sōsuke and the other two suddenly felt a surge of excitement. Even the worst strategy is a good strategy if it succeeds.

They crouched down, staring intently in that direction, and slowly made their way there, following the terrain they remembered.

When they were halfway there, a similar sound suddenly came from behind them.

"What's going on? Could it be that two teams arrived at the same time? What do we do now?" Sōsuke realized something was wrong and stopped abruptly.

"Clang, clang..." It sounded like someone was smashing things everywhere. At this moment, various sounds came from all directions.

"Our traps are all destroyed! What happened?" The three of them were dumbfounded. Were they surrounded by enemies? Why were they being surrounded?

"Whoosh..." Amidst the cacophony, the faint sound of objects flying rapidly could be heard, but they couldn't make it out.

When Sōsuke suddenly turned around, relying on his ninja instincts, he saw a large flash of silver light in the air. Upon closer inspection, he realized that a large number of Senbon were being shot towards them.

"Watch out! Someone's attacking us from behind!"

"Sizzle sizzle sizzle..."

"Ah..."

By the time they realized what was happening, it was too late. All three were hit; except for their heads, their upper bodies, hands, and feet were covered in Senbon, making them look like three hedgehogs.

At that moment, two figures suddenly attacked from behind them, and the three of them were punched and kicked repeatedly like human targets. After falling down, they could not get up.

Shuichi jumped to the scene of the fight, grabbed Sōsuke by the arm, pulled the Scroll from his body, and then walked towards a more open area by the river. Sarutobi Kohei Hyuga Akiha picked up one person and followed behind.