The sun was almost below the mountains, and the last light of sunset spread across the entire Forest of Death. The forest was no longer as lively as it had been that afternoon. Only Ruri was there, searching the ninjas one by one for scrolls before stacking them together.
By the time Ruri had found all the scrolls on the ninjas and piled them together, evening had arrived.
"Finally finished cleaning up. That really took a lot out of me! Every last one of them was dead weight!" Ruri said, standing before the small pile of people and dusting off his hands.
The Forest of Death, where the second round of the Chunin Ninja Exams was taking place, was unusually quiet now, without the usual sounds of battle.
Ruri glanced at the small pile of people before him, then turned around and gathered all the scrolls he had just collected from the ninjas into one place. After sorting out the scrolls, he sat down in front of the small pile of people and closed his eyes to rest.
"Do we really need to come this early? I don't think anyone could have reached here yet!" one of the Chunin said with a yawn.
"This is about the right time to come. Besides, in every Chunin Ninja Exams, there are always some skilled Genin who reach the finish around this time! We shouldn't underestimate those Genin!" said the other person walking alongside that Chunin.
"All right, all right, we're almost there! Let's see just how many have reached the finish!" The two of them continued toward the finish.
"Ah... this is!"
"What? What on earth happened here..." When the two Chunin reached the finish, they were stunned by the sight before them.
"Oh! You're finally here. I've been waiting for you