"Tomorrow, don't point that spear at the examiner's neck."
Asuma pushed the spearhead aside with two fingers. A tiny hole corroded by poison had already appeared on his collar.
Chiba withdrew the Metal Wood.
"What if the examiner attacks first?"
"Then don't go for the neck. Hands and feet are up to you."
"What if they're from Root?"
"Leave them breathing so I can write the report."
"I thought you didn't report your trump cards."
"Crippling an examiner isn't a trump card. It's an accident."
Asuma touched the tear in his collar and added another entry at the bottom of the training sheet.
"This outfit counts as repair expenses too."
"Clothes aren't part of the clan grounds."
"It got damaged inside the clan grounds."
"Go ask the Hokage."
"The old man will tell me to ask you."
They argued all the way to the courtyard gate before Asuma finally stopped, rolled up the training sheet, and tossed it into the brazier.
A month's worth of records quickly burned into ash. Even that barely passing remark left nothing behind.
"I'll be at the third examination room tomorrow morning."
"Proctoring?"
"Keeping order, and seeing whether anyone embarrasses themselves by bringing ten lousy knives."
"I'm only bringing one spear."
"Then don't lose."
The Ninja Academy had already suspended all regular classes. Applicants for early graduation gathered in the first-floor classrooms, with only admission slips and ninja tool inspection forms on their desks.
Naruto held his pen over the final field for a long time.
"What color is the emergency evacuation signal?"
Kiba leaned over the desk in front of him and turned around.
"Red."
"What about a call for help?"
"Also red."
"They're both red. How is anyone supposed to tell them apart?"
Shikamaru closed his own form.
"Emergency evacuation is three consecutive shots. A call for help is one shot, followed by yellow."
Naruto lowered his head and filled it out again.
"How did you remember all that?"
"Because Iruka-sensei explained it six times."
"I listened six times too."
"You slept through every one."
Iruka walked over from beside the podium and took Naruto's form away.
"Why does the name field say Uzumaki Genin?"
"Because I'll be one after tomorrow. Writing it early saves time."
"Change it back first."
"Sensei, that's called confidence."
"You got your exam number wrong too."
Naruto reached out to snatch it back, but Iruka had already pressed the form onto the desk.
"And you, Chiba. During the wilderness mission, you are not allowed to leave your team without permission, cross the designated boundary, or run seventy li chasing a target."
"How big is the boundary this time?"
"Five li."
"Too small."
"If you step past the fifth li, I'll personally drag you back."
Chiba looked at Iruka's left shoulder, where traces of the old injury still remained.
"You can't catch me."
"I'll notify Asuma."
"He might help me."
Iruka wrote a line on the back of Chiba's admission slip with chalk.
"Cross the boundary without permission, and your qualification will be revoked."
"Writing it on the back doesn't make it a rule."
"Tomorrow, I'll write it on the front."
Sasuke handed over his ninja tool inspection form.
"Are students allowed to fight each other during the wilderness mission?"
"They may when competing for mission items. Attacking vital areas will result in immediate elimination."
"Does Wood Release count as attacking vital areas?"
"That depends on where he uses it."
Sasuke turned his face toward Chiba.
"See you in the second stage."
"Get through the first stage first."
"The written exam won't stop me."
Naruto poked his head out from between them.
"Neither of you is taking first place. Luck matters most in a wilderness mission, and I've had good luck since I was little."
Shikamaru pushed him back into his seat.
"Last week, you drew lots. You picked the only blank slip."
"That was someone else cheating."
"You made the lottery tube yourself."
The dismissal bell rang three times, yet Iruka still left the examination procedures on the blackboard.
Chiba memorized the locations of the three examination grounds. Before leaving the academy, he studied the wilderness map once more. The northern riverway and western forest were both marked as prohibited areas.
Those two places were best for ambushes, and best for hiding people.
Shikamaru leaned against the doorway, waiting for him.
"You're planning to take first tomorrow?"
"We'll see."
"That means you're planning to."
"What about you?"
"My mom told me to make the top three, or she'll make me take remedial lessons after the exam."
"You could come in fourth."
"She'd say I did it on purpose."
Shikamaru stuffed a packet of soldier pills into his pocket.
"If the wilderness mission assigns teams at random, don't leave me behind."
"You can keep up?"
"I can calculate where you're going beforehand."
"What if you calculate wrong?"
"I'll lie down and wait for rescue."
By the time Chiba returned to the Senju Clan Grounds, Bai Ye had patched the last gap in the eastern wall. Soft Bone had been woven into a dense bone mesh along the base of the wall, then covered with an outer layer of ordinary soil.
Chiba stepped on the newly laid ground.
"It can't bear enough weight."
"It's meant to stop people, not your fists."
"What about underground?"
"Three layers. The outermost sends warnings, the middle traps people, and the innermost kills them."
"What if people from Root get in?"
"Break their legs and throw them out the main gate. I remember."
"What about Anbu?"
"Ask for authorization first."
"What about Asuma?"
Bai Ye pressed an exposed bone spike back into the dirt.
"He's come twenty-seven times. He brings cigarettes every time, so let him in."
"What about Yotsuki?"
"Check whether he has food in his hands."
Chiba handed him the clan grounds' Root Network map.
"After I graduate, I'll have more missions outside. I'm leaving the clan grounds to you."
Bai Ye did not take it. He asked first, "How long will you be gone?"
"I'm not sure."
"What if Hidden Sound Village finds this place?"
"Kill them."
"What if Danzo comes personally?"
"Retreat into the cave and snap the innermost red vine."
"What will it do?"
"Notify me, and notify the Hokage."
Only then did Bai Ye tuck the Root Network map inside his clothes.
"Go without worry. Without your order, no one will take a single step into the Senju Clan Grounds."
"Asuma is an exception."
"Then no one, and one cigarette addict."
Chiba returned to the main house, and the World Tree panel unfolded with a thought.
The four leaves of basic Wood Release, Poison Wood, Bone Wood, and Metal Wood glowed around the trunk. More than half of the structural fusion nodes had also been completed.
A fifth gray leaf floated higher above them.
[Requirements for next-stage evolution.] [Defeat a Jōnin-level target.] [Current evolution points: zero.]
A Jōnin-level target would not appear in an ordinary graduation exam, unless someone intended to turn the exam into something else.
Before nightfall, all examinees were assigned to the dormitories on the academy's eastern side. Their ninja tools were sealed away together and would be returned before they entered the examination grounds the next day.
Naruto claimed the bed by the window. He tossed and turned for half an hour, making the bedframe creak so loudly that someone in the next room knocked on the wall.
"Chiba, are you asleep?"
"No."
"Sasuke definitely isn't asleep either."
Sasuke's answer came quickly from across the room.
"Shut up."
Naruto rolled over and sat up.
"You really are awake. Whoever loses tomorrow treats the others to ramen."
"What are you using to pay?"
"They'll give us mission money once we pass."
"Pass first."
"Chiba, you're in too."
Three knocks sounded outside the door, each separated by different intervals. It was the old emergency signal used by the orphanage pharmacy.
Chiba climbed out the window and landed behind the dormitory. Fine roots had already spread over the corner of the wall.
Yotsuki stood beside the drainage ditch. His right hand was hidden in his sleeve, while his left repeatedly squeezed the handle of a medicine case. His fingernails had already gouged several shallow marks into the leather edge.
"This is the first time you've come to find me on your own."
"I can only stay for half a quarter-hour."
"Root people following you?"
"No."
"Then talk."
Yotsuki did not raise his head. With the tip of his shoe, he pushed a pebble from the ditch's edge into the water. After a moment, he reached up to touch the Cursed Seal near the base of his tongue.
"If I tell you, what will you do?"
"I'll listen first."
"Can you promise me you won't leave the proctoring Jōnin's sight tomorrow?"
"No."
"Then at least don't meddle in other people's business."
"Whose business?"
Yotsuki raised his face, his lips drained of color. His right hand, hidden in his sleeve, finally loosened, leaving four red marks in his palm where his nails had pressed.
"For tomorrow's exam, Lord Danzo has arranged for someone to tamper with things in secret. The target is Naruto."
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