"Temari?"
Baki resisted the incomparable pressure as he looked at Kankuro, who still lay unconscious beside him.
Under that crushing pressure, Kankuro's healing wounds split open and began bleeding again.
"This is bad. What the hell is going on?"
"Stop wondering. We've been transported inside a Sealing Barrier! Damn it, we were so close!"
A somewhat youthful voice, filled with frustration, came from beside them.
Temari and the others looked over to find Kabuto Yakushi slumped nearby, watching them without being able to move.
"A Sealing Barrier?"
"This is the center of the Second Exam's venue. Hm, so that's it... it was that scroll!"
Kabuto suddenly realized the crucial detail. There had been something wrong with the scroll they opened during the Second Match of the Chunin Ninja Exams!
Then that means...
Kabuto hurriedly looked around and soon spotted Shirakumo lying flat on the ground, unable to move, along with a strangely shaped lump of flesh nearby.
"What's that?"
Kabuto stared at the lump in confusion. Naturally, he had no idea it was the ruined body Kakuzu had abandoned... though really, no one could have recognized that thing.
Karatachi Gui from Kirigakure has already left... so everyone brought here is either a non-Konoha contestant who hasn't left Konoha yet, or someone posing as a Konoha ninja?
As he realized who everyone here was, Kabuto's heart sank.
They had seen through everything.
"...Where's Gaara?!"
Unable to find Gaara, Baki hurriedly asked.
"He..."
Temari briefly explained what had happened.
"That idiot! No wonder. So you acted ahead of schedule, and now we've been dragged into it too..."
Baki's expression changed. With Konoha obstructing them, the forces from Sunagakure and Otogakure would not arrive until the afternoon at the earliest.
Aside from a handful of hidden operatives planted in advance, they had no