Ino-Shika-Cho

After Shuichi's squad easily passed the test, the Second Stage exam in the Forest of Death was still in full swing.

Under the cover of night, three figures were panting under a large tree, as if they had just been through a fierce battle.

Under the moonlight, their Forehead Protector could be seen to be large downward arrows, but the top of the arrow was hollowed out.

These are three ninja from Takigakure). Because Takigakure is located in a huge, deep mountain and is surrounded by multiple waterfalls, they used this symbol, representing waterfalls, as their village's emblem.

"Captain Mizuho, what should we do next?" a genin from Genin Takigakure.

"There are so many teams around here. Running into two in a row is really bad luck for us. But luckily we have an escape route. Once we've recovered some strength, let's quickly move to another location. This stronghold is no longer safe."

Mizuho was the captain of the team. After entering the examination room, their team moved at a steady pace in one direction and soon found the location of the river.

Just as Sōsuke had anticipated, they set up a small base by the river, then left some markers and simple traps within a few hundred meters, using this as a base to search for other teams in the vicinity.

However, their luck ran out after that, and their team encountered three other teams in the woods, two of which were from Konoha.

The Konoha team immediately revealed their Scroll, which were also Scroll of Earth. Then, in perfect unison, they launched an attack on the Mizuho team. It seemed they intended to keep the Scroll as they were, and any competition would have to wait until after they had them.

This put Mizuho and the other two in a terrible predicament. Seeing the situation was dire, they ran back to their prepared stronghold without looking back.

On their way back, the traps and markings they had prepared in the woods proved to be a great help.

They didn't flee in a straight line in a panic, but instead kept circling through the jungle, thus temporarily shaking off the pursuit of the two Konoha Squad.

At this moment, they could breathe a sigh of relief and were doing their best to recover their physical strength.

However, they did not notice that a dark shadow was slowly approaching from the side on the ground.

As they drew closer, the shadow, which was originally wide at both ends, became thinner and thinner, but gradually spread out to their feet.

Suddenly, the shadow split into three thinner and sharper strands, and its speed suddenly increased, connecting with the shadow beneath the three people's feet.

"Something's wrong!" Mizuho sensed something was amiss, looked around, and immediately shouted, "Enemies are coming!"

"Uh... I can't move my body." The dark figure connected with their shadows, and then they instantly felt themselves lose control of their bodies.

"Shadow Imitation Technique successfully cast!" Under a tree not far away, Nara Rokujin formed a hand seal, and the source of the shadow could be clearly seen beneath his feet.

"Jinsei, Kong, it's time to make your move."

The Ino-Shika-Cho's teamwork speaks for itself; their chakra reserves for each Ninjutsu were already fully prepared.

"Ninja Art: Mind Disturbance Technique!" Yamanaka Sora immediately followed up with the activation of the Yamanaka Clan's unique secret technique.

The Mind Disturbance Technique is considered one of the more difficult secret techniques among the Yamanaka Clan. It allows the user to use Yin Release Chakra to control the nervous systems of multiple enemies, and can even cause them to kill each other.

Yamanaka Sora certainly can't achieve that much effect right now; his main purpose is to temporarily control the three Genin in front of him, so this works just right.

In the instant he disrupted his opponent, Nara Rokujin's Shadow Imitation Technique began to retreat, while Akimichi Jinsei's Expansion Jutsu was already prepared on the side.

"Expansion Jutsu, Super Push Hand!" Akimichi Jinsei's hands instantly expanded to the size of an adult, and then he slapped them towards the three people from Takigakure.

"No!"

"Ah, ah..." Before Mizuho could even beg for mercy, a huge hand slammed the three of them together from both sides, then lifted them up and slammed them to the ground.

"Boom!" A small crater instantly appeared on the ground. When they went over to take a look, they found that Mizuho and the others' limbs were slightly deformed, and they had all fainted with their eyes rolled back.

"Hey, Jinsei, you're using too much force! Be careful not to break the Scroll too!" Nara Rokujin said with a hint of exasperation.

"Ah... I'm sorry, I tried my best to control it, I hope it won't break." Akimichi Jinsei was a little embarrassed; their clan's Ninjutsu was indeed quite noisy.

Nara Rokujin walked to Waterfall Ninja's side, fumbled around on it for a while, and took out a Scroll of Heaven.

"As expected, these people ran away as soon as they saw our Konoha team had the Scroll of Earth. There's a high probability they also had the Scroll of Heaven on them. Now our Scroll are complete." Nara Rokujin breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that his judgment was correct.

"They didn't expect you, Lu Ren, to spot something amiss from their escape route and find us so quickly by following the river. We really caught them off guard." Seeing that their mission was accomplished, Yamanaka Sora began to praise his teammate.

"It's nothing. Although they were circling around while escaping, their general direction was revealed. It's obvious they wanted to go to a pre-prepared place," Nara Rokujin began to explain his judgment.

When Nara Rokujin saw his opponents' escape route, he first walked straight ahead along their left side, quickly making his way to the riverbank. Then he searched along the woods on his right and soon found them. He seized the opportunity to launch a surprise attack.

"Now that we have the Scroll, let's hurry up and leave, lest another team comes and try to snatch it away, which would be troublesome."

To give Waterfall Ninja a chance to catch his breath, Nara Rokujin and his two companions were running at high intensity, and now it's hard to say what would happen if they encountered enemies again.

"You guys did a good job." Just then, a voice came from behind them, startling them.

They quickly turned around and saw the group of Konoha Ninja they had just encountered standing in the tree, arms crossed, watching them.

"Kong, Jinsei, be careful, our opponent is no pushover! Looks like we're in for a tough fight." Nara Rokujin's mood immediately soured. The opponent had arrived so quickly and seemed so relaxed, which was clearly unusual.

Yamanaka Sora and Akimichi Jinsei were also on high alert; handing over the Scroll they had finally obtained wouldn't be so easy.

"You don't need to be so tense," Mokui said calmly, pulling two Scroll from his pocket to show the Ino-Shika-Cho team. "We've already collected all the Scroll, so there's no conflict between us."

Seeing this Nara Rokujin and the other two breathed a slight sigh of relief, then quickly asked, "Then why did you only show us one Scroll, and it was the same as ours? I don't believe you could defeat another team and get here in such a short time."

"We're just here to give you a heads-up," Mokui explained. "You'd better get to the Central Tower as soon as possible, and be careful on the last leg of the journey."

"Because the Sunagakure teams have united, there should be two teams around the center now. As for whether there's a third team, we don't know."

"What?" Nara Rokujin was shocked. He hadn't expected there to be an obstacle before entering the Central Tower, and that he might even be surrounded and attacked by multiple groups of people as soon as he got past it.