Placing the Piece

In the dim forest, a profound silence hung in the air.

Tall shrubs and tangled undergrowth sprawled everywhere. Even in the afternoon, most of the sunlight was still blocked out.

The three members of Team 7 walked through the dim forest, maintaining the vigilance a ninja should possess.

Sasuke and Hinata constantly scanned their surroundings, using the Sharingan's insight and the Byakugan's detection abilities to investigate the area.

This forest did not give them a particularly pleasant feeling. Especially after learning what kind of people were in it, they always felt as though a pair of eyes was watching them.

"Someone's lying in ambush for us." Hinata suddenly spoke. "Look at their Forehead Protectors. They should be from Takigakure. There's only one team."

"Oh?" Naruto's eyes lit up slightly. "Can you see what kind of scrolls they have?"

"Sorry, Naruto-kun, I can't." Hinata shook her head. "They must have set up some kind of restriction. I can't observe those things."

"It doesn't matter. Let's deal with them first." Sasuke spoke directly. "This is a good chance to test ourselves. Since graduating, we've learned so much from Teacher Kakashi, but we've never had an opportunity for real training. I don't intend to let this chance pass."

Sasuke's words made Naruto curl his lips, though he agreed inwardly.

Since graduating, they had trained for so long, but the problem was that they truly had not taken on any higher-level missions.

As for combat, they had practically only engaged in sparring, and that level of confrontation was truly not enough for them.

Most importantly, they did not dare to go all out, so they could hardly bring out their full strength.

In this exam, nearly everyone they faced was an enemy. Not only were those enemies not from their own village, they would