Will You Let People Sleep or Not?

All the teams entered through different entrances.

This also prevented them from starting fights before they had even reached the depths.

Feng An, Yudzuki, and Fūka entered the Forest of Death through Entrance Seven.

After entering the grounds, Feng An led the two of them deeper in, found an unoccupied corner, and lay down to rest.

Yudzuki and Fūka looked at each other, unsure what he was doing.

"Feng An, aren't we going to steal scrolls?"

Feng An lay in the shade with his eyes closed and said calmly, "Rest first. There's no need to rush."

Everyone was full of energy on the first day. Going after scrolls now would be terribly inefficient.

Though Yudzuki and Fūka wanted to seize scrolls, their team's big brother had said they were resting. What could they do?

They couldn't exactly go scavenging for leftovers on their own.

"Let's rest."

After coming to terms with it, Yudzuki leaned against a spot not far from Feng An and lay down as well.

Seeing her sister lie down just like Feng An, Fūka was completely dumbfounded.

"So both of you are just giving up?"

Then I'll give up too!

Fūka huffily sat down not far from them.

She was not going either. They could all give up together.

Meanwhile, after Hinata and the other two entered the Forest of Death, Kiba Inuzuka kept clamoring to find another team and spar with them.

"Let's go find a team to fight!"

Seeing how energetic Kiba Inuzuka was, Shino and Hinata both responded, "..."

Since the other two in the team did not like talking, Kiba Inuzuka naturally took on the role of team leader.

Of course, there was no actual team leader. He had simply appointed himself.

He had long wanted to be the group leader, but Feng An had been around before, and he could not beat Feng An, so he had no choice but to give up on it.

"Since you agree, we'll head in that direction!"

Kiba Inuzuka led the two of them forward a short distance before spotting a red-haired boy holding an umbrella beneath black rain.

"How strange. Why is it only raining over there?"

Sniff, sniff.

Kiba Inuzuka's nose suddenly caught an extremely foul, pungent smell of blood.

His expression changed drastically.

He crouched down behind the grass.

Only then did Hinata and Shino catch up from behind.

"Kiba? What's wrong?"

Hinata saw Kiba Inuzuka crouching behind the grass and asked.

"Shh."

Kiba Inuzuka hurriedly signaled for them to be quiet.

"Byakugan."

The moment Hinata crouched down and activated her Byakugan, she saw that the area around the red-haired boy with the umbrella was littered with severed limbs and mangled corpses. The rain falling from the sky was those people's blood!

Then, when she looked up, she saw the character for "love" carved into his forehead!

He was Gaara, the Sand Village ninja Feng An had mentioned.

She also noticed that the direction he was staring at was the very patch of grass where they were hiding.

What should they do?

Hinata trembled all over and hurriedly covered her little mouth, afraid that her terror would make her cry out.

Sensing something was wrong, Kiba Inuzuka quietly asked, "Hinata, what did you see?"

Feeling chilled to the bone, Hinata said:

"Feng An... it's the Sand Village ninja Gaara that Feng An mentioned, the one with the character for love carved on his forehead."

"He... he killed all three members of a team! And... and he's staring at the grass where we're hiding!"

Kiba Inuzuka's eyelids twitched.

That meant the overwhelming stench of blood he had smelled earlier was Gaara's doing!

The three of them went pale as paper and remained motionless behind the grass.

Kiba Inuzuka had expected people to die, but this was the first time he had truly faced death, and the deaths had been horrifyingly brutal.

Feng An had told them to run, but their bodies seemed unable to obey...

As Hinata kept a close watch on Gaara's movements with her Byakugan, two ninjas appeared beside him.

One of them was a woman with four Naruto-like tufts of blond hair atop her head. She said to Gaara:

"Let's go, Gaara."

Gaara stared at the patch of grass for a second, then turned and followed the two ninjas away.

Hinata continued using her Byakugan until they had gone more than a kilometer away.

Kiba Inuzuka quietly asked, "He... he's gone?"

Hinata nodded.

Only then did the three of them breathe sighs of relief, some color gradually returning to their faces.

The blazing fighting spirit in Kiba Inuzuka's heart had been extinguished by the black rain Gaara had created.

He awkwardly asked, "How about we find somewhere to rest first?"

"Okay."

Hinata and Shino agreed with Kiba Inuzuka's suggestion.

What they had just seen had left a deep shadow over all three of them.

Meanwhile, the three members of the Brave Team, who had been resting, were also awakened by the occasional screams erupting around them.

Feng An angrily sat up and growled, "Will you let people sleep or not!"

Fūka shot him a disdainful look.

Only you would take a nap in the Forest of Death.

Yudzuki, who had been awakened by Feng An's shout, rubbed her eyes.

"Hm? What happened?"

Fūka looked at her sister, pressed a hand to her forehead, and shook her head.

There was an even more unbelievable one here.

By then, the people who had screamed had already passed out on the ground.

Someone was searching their bodies for scrolls when he suddenly heard the shout from the side and jumped in fright.

He looked over and saw a man glaring at him with an unfriendly expression.

His face changed. He grabbed the scroll from that person's body and ran.

At the same time, he shouted at his two teammates, "Brothers, run! There are three sneaky bastards here!"

They only wanted to steal a Heaven Scroll and then head to the tower to turn it in and pass.

Seeing how tactful the three of them were, Feng An did not hold it against them for disturbing his nap.

"Sleep."

He closed his eyes and lay back down.

Fūka angrily walked up to Feng An and kicked him.

"That was such a good opportunity, and you just let them go?"

"They just fought another team. If we put in a little effort, wouldn't we have gotten two sets of scrolls?"

Feng An frowned and rubbed the spot where she had kicked him.

"There will be plenty of opportunities later."

There was a faster way to pass: all he needed to do was go to the tower and wait for people to bring him scrolls.

To others, that might have seemed overly arrogant, but Feng An merely had an accurate understanding of his own strength.

In this Forest of Death, no one could threaten him unless One-Tails Shukaku went berserk.

Feng An was waiting—waiting for an opportunity to show himself and let Hyuga Hiashi see his potential.

That was his true purpose in taking part in the Chunin exam.

For now, all he had to do was conserve his strength. Once the teams had fought each other to exhaustion, he could stand before the tower at his peak and accomplish half of his goal for entering this exam.

"Fūka, it's fine. We only passed the first test safely because of him. I believe he has his own plan for this round too."

Yudzuki shifted her body and adjusted into a more comfortable position.

Fūka rolled her eyes at her. "I think you're just captivated by him."

The three people who had just fled stared blankly at the two Earth Scrolls in their hands.

One of them, a burly man, said dejectedly:

"So we worked for nothing?"

A shrewd glint flashed through another man's eyes. "Why didn't the team back there chase us?"

"There's only one possibility. Even though we're badly weakened, they still aren't strong enough to steal our scrolls."

"They might not have left yet. Let's hurry back right now!"

Following his analysis, the three immediately put away the two Earth Scrolls and rushed back!