Comprehensive Test Roster

When the roster for the final stage test was announced, the atmosphere in the entire classroom seemed to tighten at once.

The comprehensive combat score was no longer based on a single category.

It required students to conduct reconnaissance, seize scrolls, evade pursuit, and recover targets in a simulated forest. The teachers would score them across multiple dimensions at once, including route selection, reactions, teamwork, and individual performance.

Most importantly, it was worth the most points.

The gaps accumulated in the earlier rounds could very well be erased—or overturned—here.

When Iruka posted the roster, nearly everyone crowded around it.

"Ling, Shikamaru, Hinata... they're together again."

"Sasuke's teamed up with Kiba and Ino?"

"Now this is interesting."

Whispers immediately spread through the room.

The grouping was clearly not random. The top students had been deliberately split apart and recombined, ensuring every team had enough competitive strength while allowing the teachers to see more clearly who could truly drive the whole team forward.

Ling glanced over the roster and mentally noted the key points.

His own team was still a steady combination built around observation and planning.

Sasuke's team, on the other hand, leaned more toward direct bursts of power and rapid advances.

The two teams had completely different styles.

"What a pain." Shikamaru sighed as soon as he finished reading the roster. "Now I have to seriously use my brain again."

"It's not like you can't think," Ling said blandly.

Shikamaru shot him a look. "That doesn't sound like a compliment."

Standing beside them, Hinata looked somewhat nervous, but she still asked earnestly, "This time... are we using the same method as before?"

"Not exactly." Ling withdrew his gaze from the roster. "They didn't know us well enough the first two times. This time, they'll target us specifically."

He was absolutely right.

Whether it was Kiba, Sasuke, or the students from the other teams, none of them could still treat their group as an ordinary team. Sasuke's side, in particular, would clearly keep a close eye on him.

"So we do the opposite first." Ling casually sketched a simple diagram on the desk. "At the start, we don't fight for the center. Let them think we're circling around. Once their routes are exposed, we cut in through the second passage."

Shikamaru studied the route he had drawn and slowly raised a brow.

This route was bolder than the one he had originally planned, and it carried a stronger element of baiting. In other words, Ling was no longer simply thinking about how to win. He had started anticipating how his opponents would target him, then turning that to his advantage.

"Say," Shikamaru said, leaning back in his chair, "are you getting more and more fond of making use of other people's habit of predicting you?"

"Anything useful should be used." The answer came naturally.

Shikamaru's mouth twitched.

This guy was becoming more troublesome by the day.

Before the official start that afternoon, each team had fifteen minutes to discuss strategy. Sasuke stood on the other side, quickly discussing routes with Kiba and Ino. Ino had originally wanted to glance Ling's way, but Kiba pulled her attention back with a "Focus," leaving her only able to secretly raise a brow at Ling as if to say, I won't go easy on you.

Ling understood, but showed no reaction.

Once the match began, things unfolded exactly as he had expected. The area around the center point was the first to descend into chaos. Several teams tried to seize the shortest route, only to crash into one another shortly after entering.

"Take the second passage," Ling said quietly.

The three of them quickly moved into the side forest.

Hinata watched for blind spots ahead, Shikamaru memorized the route and possible ambush points, while Ling led from the front and dealt with the first wave of risks. The first half went unusually smoothly—so smoothly that even Shikamaru felt uneasy.

"Did they really all squeeze into the center?"

Ling did not look back. "No. We're almost at the turn."

Sure enough, in the next moment, two wooden kunai suddenly flew out from behind the trees ahead.

"Left!" Hinata called out almost at the same time.

Ling twisted aside to evade them without slowing down. Instead, he used the trajectories revealed by the two kunai to confirm the ambushers' position. At the same time, Shikamaru flung a length of practice rope toward a tree to the side, forcing those in hiding to move early.

"Not Sasuke's team," Shikamaru judged at a glance.

"Then finish this faster." Ling was already charging forward.

After a brief clash, the ambush team was forced to retreat, and the three of them seized the chance to cut into the true core route. Yet after obtaining the target scroll, Ling did not immediately head back. Instead, he suddenly stopped beneath a tree.

"What is it?" Hinata asked.

"Someone's waiting for us on the way back." Ling's gaze fell on the forest path ahead.

Shikamaru froze, then understood as well. It had gone too smoothly. So smoothly that it did not feel like a real final route.

"Who do you think it is?"

"Sasuke."

Ling answered without the slightest hesitation.

This was not a guess.

It was based on what he had learned about that person over this period of time.

If it were him, he would also place the ambush at the narrowest point on the return route and wait for the team most likely to obtain the scroll to walk right into it.

"Go around?" Shikamaru asked.

"No." Ling tightened his grip on the scroll, his eyes calm. "Going around would mean admitting he's controlling the tempo. We go straight through, but not at our original speed."

After a brief exchange of looks, the three of them said nothing more.

They all knew that the moment which would truly determine the weight of this match would most likely come on that forest path back.

And waiting there was not just an opponent.

It was also the other team most like a contender for first place in this round of stage tests.