Riverside Entrapment

Forest of Death, third day.

The damp, stifling air was like a layer of sticky grease plastered over everyone's skin. Three consecutive days of taut nerves and survival competition had pushed most examinees' bodies and minds to their limits.

"Damn it... I can't find it! I can't find it at all!"

Naruto Uzumaki punched a tree trunk, shaking several dead leaves loose. Dark circles hung beneath his eyes, and his stomach rumbled in thunderous protest. "We only have a Heaven Scroll. Where the hell is that Earth Scroll hiding?!"

Uchiha Sasuke leaned against a tree nearby, his expression grim. Although Ye Tian's "treatment" had temporarily subdued the Curse Mark, the exhaustion weighing on his body remained oppressive.

He swept his eyes coldly across the surroundings. "It's already the third day. The remaining teams have either been eliminated or are hiding like rats. Rather than running around like headless flies, we might as well..."

"Take the initiative and intercept people near Central Tower?" Sakura asked tentatively. She gripped her kunai tightly, and though her eyes were weary, there was now a trace of determination in them.

"Too slow... cough, cough..."

A weak, slightly lazy voice interrupted their impassioned plan.

Ye Tian sat on a moss-covered rock, leaning on that broken tree branch. His face was so pale that he looked as though he might breathe his last at any moment. He pulled a handkerchief from his robe, covered his mouth, and coughed "heart-wrenchingly" for a while before slowly saying:

"Taking the initiative... is too tiring. And it makes it easy for others to swoop in afterward."

"Then what do you suggest? Are we supposed to sit here and wait to die?" Sasuke frowned. Though he was wary of Ye Tian's methods, this passive attitude still annoyed him.

Ye Tian slightly lifted his eyelids, and a sharp glint flashed through the depths of his seemingly murky eyes.

"If the prey refuses to come out, then we'll make them deliver themselves to us."

Ye Tian pointed at the rushing river in the distance, a meaningful curve rising at the corner of his mouth.

"We'll go to the riverbank... and fish."

The riverbank was strewn with jagged rocks.

"Hey, Ye Tian, is this what you meant by fishing?" Naruto looked utterly baffled as he watched Ye Tian busy himself on the shore.

Ye Tian was holding several ordinary-looking pebbles, placing one here and tossing another there. It looked completely random, but every time he set down a stone, his fingers secretly formed a hand seal and injected a thread of faint Spiritual Energy into it.

[Modified Little Five-Element Maze Formation]

This was the most basic trapping formation in the cultivation world, using disruptions in the Five Elements' positions to interfere with the senses of anyone who entered it. In this ninja world, where no one understood formations, it was a Dimensional Strike.

"Sasuke, don't just stand there looking stupid." Ye Tian pointed at a large bluestone at the three o'clock direction. "Take off that reflective forehead protector of yours and hang it on that rock. Tilt it thirty degrees to the left."

"Huh? Why?" Sasuke looked thoroughly disgusted, but remembering Ye Tian's previous miraculous methods, he did as told.

"This is... cough, cough, the principle of optical refraction." Ye Tian spouted nonsense with a straight face. "It uses light and magnetic interference to create a visual blind spot. This is science."

After arranging the "scientific" stone formation, Ye Tian pulled out the large black pot that had rendered great service during this exam from his treasure-chest-like basket.

He set up the pot, lit a fire, and poured in water.

Then, he took out a small porcelain bottle marked with a sealing talisman. The instant he removed the stopper, a strange fragrance spread through the air.

It was not an ordinary food aroma, but a special pheromone blended from Spirit Grass and demon beast glands. In the cultivation world, it was called Beast-Luring Incense, used specifically to lure low-level demon beasts. But in the Shinobi World, this stuff had an attraction even deadlier than that of demon beasts for hungry, tightly wound ninjas.

"Gulp..."

Naruto and Sakura swallowed at the same time. Even Sasuke could not help twitching his nose.

"What... did you put in that soup?" Naruto stared longingly at the bubbling fish soup.

"Bait."

Ye Tian took out a spoon and leisurely stirred the broth. A sly smile appeared on his pale face. "For beasts that have starved for three days, nothing is more tempting than a completely defenseless feast."

The scent drifted along the river breeze, spreading several kilometers away.

In the bushes downstream, three figures in raincoats and breathing masks suddenly stopped in their tracks.

A three-man team from Amegakure.

"What a delicious smell..." One of them could not resist pulling down his mask and taking a deep breath. "Fish soup! And the scent of high-grade medicinal herbs!"

"Someone's ahead!" Greed flashed in the captain's eyes. "Anyone who dares cook so openly at a time like this is either a trap or... a bunch of rookies with a death wish."

They quietly crept closer and, through the grass, saw a sight that filled them with wild joy.

There were only four Konoha brats on the riverbank.

One blond idiot was drooling at the pot, one pink-haired girl was spacing out, and one black-haired punk was leaning against a rock with his eyes closed.

As for the one cooking, he was even more of a useless wreck who looked terminally ill and seemed ready to cough up blood just from leaning on a cane!

"Three Genin and one sick man." The Amegakure captain grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Heaven has delivered an Earth Scroll right to us! Go! End this quickly!"

"Water Release: Water Shockwave!"

Without wasting any more words, the three Amegakure ninjas charged from their hiding place like hungry wolves pouncing on prey. Running over the water's surface, they headed straight for the crude camp.

"Enemy attack!" Sasuke abruptly opened his eyes and was just about to form hand seals.

"Don't move." Ye Tian calmly sprinkled a handful of chopped scallions into the soup and spoke softly. "Sit down and drink your soup."

The next second, something strange happened.

The three Amegakure ninjas charging forward so aggressively suddenly froze the instant they stepped into the circle surrounded by the pebbles.

From their perspective, they were clearly charging straight toward the black pot, but as they ran, the scenery around them suddenly blurred and twisted.

The black pot that had seemed within reach became impossible to reach no matter how far they ran. No matter how they accelerated, they would somehow find themselves back where they had started, even wildly swinging kunai at empty air.

"What's going on?! Is that genjutsu?!" the Amegakure captain shouted in terror. "Release! Release! Damn it, I can't break it!"

Like flies trapped inside a glass bottle, they spun madly around within a ten-meter radius, throwing ninjutsu at empty air and making complete fools of themselves.

To Team 7 outside the formation, the three of them looked possessed, spinning in circles on the spot with twisted expressions as they kicked and bit at a rock.

"Th-This..." Naruto's mouth hung open, and his chopsticks fell from his hand. "Have they gone crazy?"

Ye Tian ladled up a bowl of milky-white fish soup, blew on the steam, and took a contented sip.

"This isn't madness. This is getting lost in the ocean of science."

Ye Tian set down his bowl and pointed his chopsticks at the Amegakure captain still spinning in place, speaking as though he were directing a game.

"Naruto, at nine o'clock. The guy punching the air—throw a kunai at his ass. Go easy. Don't kill him."

"Oh... okay!" Naruto did not really understand, but he instinctively obeyed.

Whoosh!

"Ah!!" The Amegakure captain screamed and jumped up clutching his backside, but he still could not see where the attack had come from. He could only wave his arms around in terror. "Who?! Come out! You despicable Konoha ninjas!"

"Sasuke, the one in the breathing mask is forming hand seals. Give him a Fireball Jutsu. Control the power—don't burn my formation stones."

"Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!"

Boom!

The unlucky Amegakure ninja had just been about to use Water Release when a sudden fireball smashed into his face. He instantly became a charred black mess and fell straight backward.

"Sakura, the last one is yours. He's behind the rock to your right. He thinks he's hiding well, but his ass is sticking out."

"Got it!" Sakura was fired up as well. She rushed over and knocked the still-confused Amegakure ninja unconscious with one punch.

Less than two minutes.

The battle was over.

There had been no fierce taijutsu clash, no thrilling exchange of ninjutsu.

Team 7 had wiped out this originally formidable Amegakure squad while drinking fish soup, as though they were shooting at stationary targets.

Ye Tian slowly walked over and used his cane to pry open the Amegakure captain's ninja tool bag. A dark brown scroll rolled out.

"Earth Scroll."

Ye Tian picked up the scroll and tossed it to the still-stunned Sasuke, then coughed violently twice and resumed his frail appearance.

"Cough, cough... See? I told you... fishing is much easier than hunting."

Naruto looked at the warm fish soup in his hands, then at the three unlucky men foaming at the mouth on the ground. Little stars of admiration shone in his eyes.

"Big Brother Ye Tian! That move was incredible! A few lousy rocks had them running in circles? This is way more satisfying than fighting!"

Sasuke held the scroll and stared at those seemingly casually placed stones, unable to contain the shock in his heart.

"It wasn't genjutsu. There was no Chakra flow... This is the 'science' he talked about?" Sasuke took a deep breath, and his gaze toward Ye Tian grew even more complicated. "Just how many terrifying things like this are inside that guy's head?"

Ye Tian ignored everyone's shock. He quietly retrieved the Spirit Stones and, while he was at it, stripped the Amegakure ninjas of every valuable ninja tool they had.

"All right, we're full, and we have the scroll."

Ye Tian hoisted the black pot onto his back and smiled faintly in the direction of Central Tower.

"Let's go. Time for the finish line. It's also time... to meet some old friends."

After all, there were still more "fat sheep" waiting for him in that tower.