ANBU Assessment

Ryōken's turn came quickly. He walked straight into the red circle and stood with his hands behind his back, looking perfectly calm.

This was far too easy.

Ryōken shook his head inwardly. Before obtaining the Highlander Bloodline, this might have posed a bit of a challenge. But for the current Ryōken, it was practically a child's exercise.

With a burst of grinding mechanisms, red rock bullets fired out in a frenzy.

Ryōken did not move his feet. His body merely trembled faintly and continuously, while the rock bullets skimmed past him by a hair's breadth, unable to hit him no matter what.

"Is he not even dodging?"

"Why isn't he moving?"

The crowd was puzzled. With Ryōken's previous physical speed, there was no way he should have been unable to dodge.

Soon, time ran out, and Ryōken slowly walked out of the room.

He looked exactly the same as when he had entered.

The Squad Leader gave the completely unscathed Ryōken a deep look, shock flickering in his eyes. He nodded and said, "One minute. Zero hits. Extreme rating!"

Everyone immediately erupted into an uproar, but when they saw that Ryōken did not have a single mark on him, they finally understood.

Those rock bullets had never touched Ryōken at all.

"Hey, he didn't take even one step just now, did he?"

Everyone was instantly stunned, their hearts turning cold.

Hyuga Setsuna had long noticed the trick behind it. He stood there dejectedly, his gaze toward Ryōken filled with deep admiration.

"That's too demoralizing. I shouldn't have come for the test today."

One of the candidates said this, so shocked that he was nearly numb.

The physical test ended quickly. In the end, only Ryōken and Hyuga Setsuna passed.

After the physical test came the ninjutsu test, which was even less of a concern. Ryōken could sever a B-rank ninjutsu with a single sword strike. The barrier used to test ninjutsu strength was easily cleaved in half by him.

He even cut through several walls in succession.

Those were walls covered in Sealing Jutsu Formulas.

Everyone had thought they could no longer be surprised, yet at this sight, they still could not recover for a long while. They looked at one another and smiled bitterly.

As for the ninja knowledge test, it was equally effortless. Hatake Sakumo had taught him all of that back then.

With an ANBU captain personally teaching him, Ryōken had studied diligently at the time. Passing this test was naturally simple.

Once all the tests were complete,

Hyuga Setsuna had received excellent ratings across the board. The power of his Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm was quite impressive.

Ryōken, meanwhile, had received extreme ratings in every category.

Only the White Fang of Konoha, whose name had shaken the ninja world, had ever achieved such results.

And Ryōken was even more outstanding, because everyone could see that he was only a teenager. Hatake Sakumo had not been this formidable at his age.

I wonder how he'll do in the second-stage assessment. Will he reach an extreme rating there too?

The Squad Leader had this thought, then shook his head slightly.

That would be too difficult!

The first stage had ratings, and naturally, so did the second.

But the second stage involved competing with all ANBU candidates of the same intake in a vast forest. Greater combat strength naturally offered an advantage, but once someone obtained a scroll, they could simply hide until the selection ended and still pass. The condition for receiving an extreme rating, however, was gathering every single scroll.

Therefore, obtaining an extreme rating was far too difficult. No one had ever managed it in history.

Seeing that the assessment was over, the others dispersed one after another.

Even as they left, they continued discussing it excitedly, calling friends over and preparing to watch Ryōken's second-stage assessment when the time came.

ANBU selections had to wait for a notice. They would only be held once enough people had gathered.

Seeing that he had nothing else to do, Ryōken headed toward Ichiraku Ramen.

What Ryōken had not expected was that Hiwa Hyuga was also in the ramen shop.

Come to think of it, they had not seen each other for a month.

Konoha Prison was rather remote. The little girl probably could not even find the way there.

Ryōken could not help smiling knowingly.

He quietly entered the ramen shop and made a gesture at the owner to keep quiet.

He sneaked up behind the absentminded Hiwa Hyuga, suddenly pinched her rosy little cheeks, and pulled them to both sides.

"Ow!"

Hiwa Hyuga cried out in pain and turned around angrily, only to see Ryōken smiling at her.

The anger in her heart immediately vanished without a trace. Her eyes stung, her dainty nose grew sour, and she lowered her head, choking out, "It's been so long."

"Uh..."

Seeing Hiwa Hyuga on the verge of tears, Ryōken was immediately at a loss. He hurriedly said, "It's only been a month. Did you miss me that much?"

Hiwa Hyuga's little face instantly turned red. Realizing she had lost her composure, she quickly took several bites of ramen. Her rosy face looked even more adorable amid the rising steam.

Ryōken sat on a high stool, ordered a bowl of ramen, and began eating.

When it was time to part, Ryōken reached out and affectionately patted Hiwa's little head. Then he waved and headed back to his small home.

Watching Ryōken's spirited figure, Hiwa Hyuga's eyes revealed a trace of resolve. She smiled faintly and murmured softly, "I need to work hard and become stronger too. Only then can I keep following by your side."

Konoha ANBU.

Ryōken rushed there early in the morning, planning to properly try out the ANBU ninja training equipment and see whether it might give him some sort of surprise.

Not long after, Ryōken walked out of the training room with a disappointed expression.

The training room had truly let him down. The main problem was that it was too small; there was simply not enough room for him to move freely.

Just as he was about to leave ANBU and find a forest to train in, he suddenly received a summons for the second-stage assessment.

He was slightly surprised. He had only completed the first-stage assessment yesterday, yet he could already proceed to the second stage today. It seemed ANBU had been somewhat short on combat strength lately.

They were in such a hurry to replenish their ranks.

After receiving the summons, Ryōken headed straight for the gathering point.

The gathering point was a spacious hall.

When Ryōken arrived, many masked ANBU ninja were already standing inside.

The moment Ryōken entered, he drew everyone's attention. Although they all wore masks and could not tell who was who, Ryōken's distinctive build exposed his identity at once.

All the candidates watched Ryōken with wary expressions, secretly telling themselves that if they encountered him during the assessment, they should run immediately. That might give them a chance.

Nearly everyone had the same thought. They glanced at one another, and most silently came to an understanding.

"So this is that monster who received extreme ratings!"

"If ANBU selections weren't held so irregularly, I wouldn't want to participate in this intake either."

"If we avoid him and find more scrolls to hide, we might still have hope."

"Sigh."

The candidates whispered among themselves, exchanging helpless sighs.

After a while, nearly everyone had arrived. They were roughly divided into two groups: Ryōken, and everyone else.

Ryōken found this rather helpless. He had not even released any aura, so why did he seem so unapproachable?

At that moment, a ninja wearing a cloak of a different color entered. He was the captain of the First Squad.

In a flash, he arrived before everyone. Seeing such a clearly divided formation, he froze for a moment before remembering that this intake seemed to have a monster among them.

He could not help looking at Ryōken a few more times, but this was not the time for idle conversation.

"This selection will follow the usual rules. The three people with the most scrolls will advance to the next round of assessment."

"The location is the Forest of Death. Follow me."

With that, he turned around and left the hall.

Everyone immediately followed.

"The Forest of Death. That sounds interesting."

A trace of interest flashed through Ryōken's eyes, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

Following an underground passage, Ryōken and the others soon arrived inside the Forest of Death.

After everyone had assembled, the Squad Leader turned around and calmly looked at them all as he began explaining the rules.

"This forest contains a number of hidden scrolls equal to your total number of participants. Every scroll has clues pointing toward it."

"Each of you already has one scroll, and that counts toward the total."