Evolution of Takamagahara

On the battlefield ravaged by Shinra Tensei, Kanna stared blankly at his own chest.

Even though he had tried his best to restrain the intensity of the ninjutsu, Shinra Tensei was, after all, an unconventional technique. Those struck by it would suffer repulsion from both the outside and the inside of their bodies. Long, having lost his monitoring equipment and ninjutsu due to the destruction, was unaware of the aftermath, but Kanna saw it clearly: Yetsuki and the others were now like puddles of mud, lying limp on the ground. Every bone in their bodies had been ground to powder, and their flesh, blood, and internal organs were completely pulverized. There was no possibility of survival.

This combat result exceeded Kanna's imagination. The chakra quality of Genin like Yetsuki simply could not resist the repulsive force Shinra Tensei exerted within their bodies, leading to their instantaneous death. In truth, Kanna had not intended to kill them; it was simply that this was his first time using Shinra Tensei on human bodies, and he had failed to gauge the intensity correctly.

However, Kanna was not stunned because it was his first time killing; he had long been prepared for this, and he was not a person prone to indecision. What shocked him was that after killing those examinees, the Highland on his chest suddenly emitted an inexplicable fluctuation, as if something was about to happen.

Pulling open his collar, Kanna watched with expectant eyes as one ring after another emerged on his chest. Complex and obscure runes were born, traveling along the rings until they finally formed a pattern familiar to Kanna.

Highlands! Twelve new Highlands!

Gently touching his skin, Kanna naturally understood the purpose of these new Highlands: to load ninjutsu of C-rank or below!

So, new Highlands appear after killing, Kanna thought silently. Although the rank of ninjutsu they can analyze is inferior to the original Highlands, it seems I can still do this.

Following the mysterious information that appeared in his mind, Kanna closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and pressed his palms together.

With a swish, three small Highlands gradually disintegrated, splitting into individual lines. Then, these lines fused together to form a Highland one size larger.

"Every three can fuse into a Highland of a higher rank," Kanna thought, a smile appearing at the corners of his mouth as joy filled his heart.

"If I can now load B-rank ninjutsu, then next..."

Using the power of three as a base, the Highlands began to fuse one by one. Finally, only one large, one medium, and one small Highland remained on Kanna's chest.

Unlimited! A-rank and below! B-rank and below!

Without a second thought, Kanna bit his finger and began to draw on these two blank Highlands.

A-rank ninjutsu, Human Path: Mind Reading! B-rank ninjutsu, Mayfly Technique!

Both of these ninjutsu were not particularly high-ranked, but their practical effects were extremely powerful. Human Path: Mind Reading used chakra, will, and soul to suppress the enemy, forcibly searching their memories and then stripping away their souls, ignoring physical defenses to kill the enemy instantly. Of course, this move was not invincible; in the original work, Naruto Uzumaki had once resisted this technique from Pain for quite some time. As for the Mayfly Technique, it could be called the strongest of all stealth techniques. Aside from environments like fire, lightning, or storms, one could infiltrate soil, trees, rocks, rivers, and oceans. For instance, the White Zetsu army had once emerged from the ocean to attack the Allied Shinobi Forces.

The heart-sickness that had troubled Kanna for so long was finally resolved today, but a clichéd problem followed in its wake.

Chakra. If he wanted to use many ninjutsu simultaneously, his current chakra was far from enough.

Compared to his peers, Kanna's chakra far exceeded theirs. The Shikotsumyaku strengthened his body, and the refining techniques of the Third Mizukage's school constructed a near-perfect chakra circulatory system, so Kanna's chakra accumulation speed was definitely not slow, yet he was still unsatisfied!

And in the short term, the only thing that could significantly increase his chakra was that one thing...

Tailed Beasts!

Calculating the time, Utakata was eleven or twelve years old this year; at this age, he seemed to have already become the Jinchuriki of the Six-Tails. Tailed Beasts involved the village's secrets, so Kanna could not judge if this was correct. However, the other Tailed Beast possessed by Kirigakure, the Three-Tails, was definitely in a sealed state at this moment!

In the original work, the first Jinchuriki of the Three-Tails was Rin from Konohagakure, who was implanted with the Three-Tails by Kirigakure in the year 47, during the Third Shinobi World War, in an attempt to use this "Tailed Beast bomb" to attack Konohagakure. After Rin died, Yagura became the successor. Therefore, if one wanted to target a Tailed Beast, it could only be the Three-Tails for now!

Additionally, Kirigakure possessed another weapon: Samehada, one of the Seven Ninja Swords. This blade could absorb a massive amount of chakra from those it touched, and could even hack a partially transformed Jinchuriki back into their original form with a single strike! If he could obtain this blade, it would also be a good choice.

Finally, if both paths failed, Kanna would have to rely on himself. Among the Six Paths of Pain, the Preta Path's Absorption Seal could also absorb chakra. The Preta Path Pain and Madara Uchiha had both used this move to absorb Naruto Uzumaki's S-rank ninjutsu, Wind Style: Rasenshuriken, which was extremely powerful. However, it was hard to say when he would be able to draw this ninjutsu, so it could only serve as a backup.

The Three-Tails is the primary target, Samehada is secondary, and whether I can obtain the Absorption Seal depends on fate. I'll think carefully about how to act after I return, Kanna thought silently, walking to the corpses of Yetsuki and the others to begin collecting relevant items.

Just as he finished collecting, Kanna's vision blurred, and Long appeared beside him.

Looking at the corpses scattered everywhere, Long's eyelids twitched, and he said expressionlessly, "Is it over? Then report your results."

"Launched one attack, obtained twelve identity tags and two coordinate locators," Kanna said without hesitation.

Long was silent for a moment before saying, "Adding the five points for survival, that's a total of 105 points. Deducting the ten points consumed in advance, the final score is 95 points. You have far exceeded the standard; you have completed the exam and may choose to leave the exam site early."

Leave? Kanna frowned slightly and fell into deep thought.

Having just learned how to enhance the power of the Highlands, he began to covet life. If he stayed in this exam site, it seemed he could openly kill other examinees to evolve the Highlands...

But soon, Long's words dispelled his thoughts.

"End it, Kanna. I don't know if you did this on purpose or if you couldn't hold back, but have you forgotten the bloody graduation exam from the year before last? The exam has been reformed! Stop killing people!"

"They would have been your future teammates, wouldn't they?" Long said softly at the end. "Zabuza chose to kill all the examinees of his year, and Amayuri chose to kill the defenseless Hayashinaka Shigure. Now, it is your turn to make a choice. You must think clearly about whether you should let the desire for slaughter in your heart cover your reason and make you the kind of person you hate."

"Is that so..." Kanna raised his head to meet Long's gaze, his expression calm as water, and said slowly in a peaceful tone: "However, sometimes, even if you know the choice you make goes against your heart, you have to go through with it for certain reasons. Perhaps because of temptation, perhaps because of pressure. In short, since a choice is made, there must be a corresponding reason."

Turning around, Kanna threw all the number tags, coordinate locators, and the communication device onto the ground, then walked step by step toward the jungle.

"Of course, I also agree with your words. I do indeed need to calm down right now; otherwise, I fear I really might kill everyone."

As he walked, Kanna's lower body suddenly "sank" into the ground.

"Since the exam is complete, I will leave early. Notify me to hear the results when the exam officially ends in seven days."

Kanna's entire body submerged into the ground and disappeared. Although Long was somewhat surprised by the brilliance of his escape technique, he just watched quietly without taking any action.

Normally, according to procedure, examinees who finished the exam early were supposed to stay with the proctors until the exam ended. At that time, all passing examinees would listen to the staff explain the final project of the exam. This location was in a high tower hidden by genjutsu on the coast, which was also where the monitoring room was located; that place could not be entered without a map or a dedicated guide. Now that Kanna had left alone, it was technically a violation, but Long allowed him to leave without stopping him.

After Kanna left, a group of medical ninjas in white robes rushed out of the jungle.

"Check them," Long said, rubbing his temples and pointing at the corpses on the ground.

The medical ninjas busied themselves, and soon, the results were out.

"A total of twelve people. Every one of them has 80% of their bones pulverized; their blood vessels, muscles, and internal organs are almost all ruptured. There is no saving them."

Sighing softly, Long waved his hand: "You handle the bodies here; I am going to write the casualty report."

"Yes."