Kankuro looked around in confusion. "What—what's going on?"
"It's a genjutsu! We've been caught in a genjutsu!"
Temari steeled herself, closed her eyes, and bit through her lip, hoping the pain would break the genjutsu. But when she opened her eyes again, nothing had changed.
"Damn it! Damn it! You're dead!"
Agitated, Gaara grew even more unhinged.
The eyes in his dark-ringed sockets slowly lost their human light, filling instead with madness and savagery.
Kankuro looked at Temari in a panic. "What do we do?"
"Run. Run!"
With that, Temari turned and fled without looking back.
"Wait for me!"
Kankuro hurried after her.
On a large tree not far away stood several scattered figures.
There was no doubt about it.
They were the Jonin leading the teams from the various villages.
At first, they had thought this was just a dull Ninja Academy test. The only thing worth watching was how strong Kurama Yakumo, who had mastered Wood Release, really was—or, rather, how powerful the Wood Release that had reappeared in the world would be.
But as the test went on, the surprises kept coming.
First, the Iwagakure team led by Kurotsuchi and the Kirigakure team with Chojuro and Hozuki Suigetsu had both been tied up by two ordinary teams of Konoha Ninja Academy students. It had left many of them astonished.
Then Kimimaro had suppressed the entire Kumogakure team all by himself, leaving their Jonin leader in disbelief.
If all that had merely surprised them,
then the showdown between Kurama Yakumo and Konoha Ninja Academy's three geniuses had truly shocked them.
They stared, dumbfounded, at the jutsu clashing in the distance with earth-shaking force. For a time, no one knew what to say.
After a long while,
the Kumogakure Jonin finally spoke. "Is Konoha crazy, or am I? These