Unexpected Battle

After the three members of Team Guy left in a flurry, the training room fell silent.

Takuma looked down at the vine patterns on his palms, reflecting on the training just now—the reaction speed of the vines had indeed improved, but he still felt something was missing.

"Real combat."

The wooden stakes in the training ground were dead objects after all; the life-and-death reactions in a real battle were the only standard for testing results.

Takuma packed his ninja tool pouch and left the village, heading for the dense forest on the outskirts of Konoha.

He wanted to find a quiet place to use the real vine plants growing in the forest as a reference to study how to improve his mimetic Wood Release.

After walking for about forty minutes, Takuma arrived at a shrubby area overgrown with vines.

He crouched down and reached out to touch a wild vine, just about to feel its texture and flexibility—

His Spider-Sense suddenly triggered.

There was a chakra fluctuation approaching rapidly.

Takuma instantly suppressed his presence, rolled into the nearest bushes, and pressed his body as low as possible.

He pushed his Neo sunglasses onto his forehead, switching his vision to chakra sight.

Three clusters of chakra light were closing in on his position in a triangular formation.

Furthermore, the enemy likely had a sensory ninja, as he saw the head area of one of the chakra clusters glowing abnormally bright—a characteristic of a sensory ninja releasing a detection ninjutsu.

He had been discovered.

"Move!"

A hoarse command came from the left, devoid of any unnecessary chatter.

Three figures broke through the bushes from three different directions simultaneously.

Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear—

Several rock spikes suddenly erupted from the ground, thrusting upward toward the bushes where Takuma was hiding.

Takuma had no time to think; his body reacted on instinct, rolling backward to avoid the piercing range of the rock spikes, though his right calf was still grazed, leaving a bloody gash.

Before he could even steady himself, Wind Style: Wind Cutter Jutsu came slicing toward him with a sharp, piercing sound.

Three wind blades formed a fan shape, sealing off his space to dodge left or right.

He twisted his body at a near-impossible angle, two wind blades grazing his cheek and waist, severing a tree trunk as thick as a bowl behind him.

He didn't fully dodge the third one, and a deep wound that reached the bone was carved into his shoulder.

At the same time, shuriken rained down from the front, precisely blocking his path to stand up after the roll.

Takuma had nowhere to hide; he could only protect his vitals with his arms, taking hits from the shuriken on his left shoulder and the outside of his right leg simultaneously.

The impact pinned him to the ground.

"A Konoha brat."

A low voice came from the canopy, the tone indifferent. "Finish it quickly."

Takuma gritted his teeth and pulled the shuriken from his leg, blood dripping through his fingers.

The coordination of these three was too seamless: Earth Release to lock down movement, Wind Style for frontal suppression, and shuriken for precise follow-up strikes. The entire ambush had proceeded without a single wasted word.

"Second wave." The person in the canopy ordered again.

Wind Style: Great Breakthrough—

A gale mixed with gravel swept in from the front, covering a massive area.

Simultaneously, the ground beneath his feet surged again; Earth Rising Spears thrust from behind to cut off his retreat.

Shuriken were fired from the side, sealing his final escape route.

They intended to trap him in place and let the Wind Style finish him off from the front.

Takuma narrowed his eyes.

The Cursed Seal patterns instantly spread from the back of his neck across his entire body. The blue-black markings snaked over his skin, and a cold yet powerful energy surged into his limbs.

His speed and strength skyrocketed. Instead of retreating, he charged head-on into the Wind Style.

The wind blades tore his jacket, leaving crisscrossing wounds across his chest and abdomen.

A wound near his ribs was so deep the periosteum was faintly visible, and blood drew a red line through the air.

A Wind Style ninja had a brief breathing gap after releasing a ninjutsu; this was his only window of opportunity.

Takuma braced against the impact of the wind blades to close the distance, slapping an explosive tag onto the opponent's chest.

He formed a hand seal and flashed backward.

The explosion blew the man away, slamming him heavily into a tree trunk. His chest was mangled, and he died on the spot.

"Saki!"

Someone cried out in shock and anger.

"Shut up."

The voice in the canopy remained calm, but with an added layer of vigilance. "Be careful, this brat is not normal."

The remaining two reacted quickly, immediately changing tactics.

The Earth Style ninja stopped attacking and switched to full defense, forming a series of hand seals to erect several earth walls around them.

The sensory ninja leaped down from the canopy, landed on the ground, and moved his hands rapidly, expanding his chakra detection range in an attempt to fully lock onto Takuma's position.

Takuma did not give them a moment to breathe.

Under the amplification of the Cursed Seal, his body turned into a blur, bypassing the earth walls from the side as two vines shot out from his palms simultaneously.

This time, the vines did not grow in a rigid straight line—he recalled Guy's words and treated the vines as an extension of his own arms.

The left vine whipped around the Earth Style ninja's wrist like a soft lash, interrupting his hand seals.

The right vine simultaneously wrapped around the opponent's ankle from a completely different angle.

The Earth Style ninja clearly hadn't expected this attack method and froze for a split second as his wrist was bound.

Takuma was already in close quarters, driving a chakra-conducting kunai into the man's shoulder and severing the tendon beneath the scapula.

The Earth Style ninja screamed and fell to one knee.

The sensory ninja immediately released Wind Style: Wind Cutter for support, the wind blade slicing toward the back of Takuma's neck.

Takuma turned and shoved the injured Earth Style ninja into the path of the wind blade.

The wind blade cut into the Earth Style ninja's back, blood spraying out.

At the same time, Takuma slapped a second explosive tag onto the Earth Style ninja.

The sound of an explosion rang out again.

The second man was dead.

But at that moment, Wind Style: Great Breakthrough hit Takuma head-on from behind.

The immense impact sent him flying, snapping two trees before he finally stopped.

His skin was torn and flesh mangled, a sharp pain radiated from his spine, and his vision went black in waves.

His Healing Factor worked frantically, the granulation tissue at the edges of his wounds wriggling and growing at a visible rate, but his bones were emitting a creaking sound of being pushed to their limit.

Only one left.

Takuma knelt on one knee, gasping for air.

Blood flowed from his forehead, obscuring half his vision.

The wounds on his body were healing, but his chakra consumption was immense; the power of the Cursed Seal began to fade, and the vines retracted into his palms.

The sensory ninja stood ten meters away.

His expression finally lost its calm, his pupils slightly constricted.

"What kind of monster are you?"

Takuma raised his hand and wiped the blood from his eyes.

He looked at the man and forced a smile: "That's a question... I'd like to know too."

The sensory ninja stopped testing him.

He bit his finger, formed hand seals rapidly, and chakra formed visible air currents around him.

He prepared to kill Takuma at any cost.

Takuma charged head-on into the gale.

Incredulity flashed in the sensory ninja's eyes; no one would charge head-on into a Wind Style attack.

His hand seal speed slowed by half a beat involuntarily.

Another vine popped out of Takuma's sleeve.

The vine slithered along the ground, darting out from the sensory ninja's blind spot at the last moment to wrap around his ankle.

With a fierce yank, the sensory ninja lost his balance and fell backward.

Takuma pounced, his knee pinning the man's chest as he held a kunai to his throat.

"Who sent you?"

The sensory ninja looked at the boy and gave a miserable laugh.

He bit down on the poison sac hidden in his molars.

His body stiffened within seconds, his pupils dilating.

Takuma bent down to briefly search the corpses.

No forehead protectors, no identification marks, standard-issue equipment, uniform poison sacs—the exact same configuration as the group of ninjas he had encountered in the mountain forest last time.

When the sun slanted low, Takuma appeared at the Hokage's office.

The Third Hokage listened to his report, his pipe turning slowly between his fingers.

"The Anbu will investigate this matter."

The Third Hokage finally spoke. "You don't need to worry about what happens next. Prepare well for the final rounds of the Chunin Exams. There isn't much time left, go."

Takuma wanted to press for more, but the Third had already turned away.

That back conveyed a clear message—the conversation was over.

When he returned to the bookstore, the sky was completely dark.

Mori Kazuki was organizing the bookshelves; he looked up at the sound of footsteps and saw his son standing at the door, covered in blood.

Father and son locked eyes for a moment.

Mori Kazuki put down the book in his hand.

He then led Takuma into the backyard, checked his injuries from head to toe, and only after confirming there was no immediate danger did he ask in a deep voice: "Another battle?"

Takuma briefly recounted what had happened.

After listening, Mori Kazuki remained silent under the moonlight for a long time.

"Three-man ambush, seamless coordination, standard equipment, uniform poison sacs."

He spoke slowly, his voice very low. "This isn't a simple infiltration. Two battles, the same tactical style, the same equipment configuration—there is an organized military operation behind this."

"You think so too?"

"Ever since you first encountered the reconnaissance squad in the mountain forest, I felt something was wrong."

Mori Kazuki pulled a cigarette from his pocket, thought for a moment, and put it back. "The weak points in Konoha's outer barrier are being systematically scouted, and regular ninja squads are setting ambushes outside the village to hunt Konoha ninjas—this is not the behavioral pattern of rogue ninjas. This is the infiltration tactic of a hostile major power."

Takuma did not speak.

"There is too little information right now, we can only speculate."

"Do you still intend to participate in the final rounds of the Chunin Exams?"

Takuma nodded.

"I must participate."

He could not change what was coming next, but he had to possess enough power to survive the approaching storm.

To protect the people he wanted to protect.