Gathering and plundering.
This was one of the most common types of missions ninja undertook. Ninja from the Five Great Nations also frequently crossed paths on the same mission, so even in peacetime, fights and deadly clashes between them were no less frequent. The only difference was that the scale never grew!
Many were limited to confrontations between squads.
These also included opposing missions such as protection and assassination.
Kirigakure had devised this assessment mission in hopes of letting these rookie ninja adapt in advance to the pace of the missions ahead. It was not that Kirigakure lacked simple D-rank missions such as "finding lost belongings" or "hunting wild beasts."
Rather, Kirigakure hoped to cultivate more elites.
A graduation assessment like this was one excellent way to screen for them.
Kei understood the underlying principle well, which was why he had avoided a pointless battle with Heiji Kaguya from the outset.
Ninja had to prioritize completing their missions at all times. That was also a ninja's duty!
Whoosh!
As Kei ventured deeper into the forest to collect his mission items in the designated areas.
Across the vast assessment forest, more than three hundred examinees also began tackling their respective assessment missions!
Some examinees launched into the fiercest of battles as soon as they entered the examination grounds!
Of course, apart from a very few battle maniacs like Heiji Kaguya, the biggest reason the remaining examinees attacked from the outset was that their assessment missions required them to collect the "nameplates" carried by other examinees!
Battle naturally erupted at the slightest provocation!
And given the Mist Ninja's educational philosophy and policies, even battles between comrades drew blood with every move!
Restraint?!
That was impossible, unless they were willing to accept failure or even death at someone else's hands. Although not everyone was like that lunatic Zabuza, determined to kill their opponents, these graduates could not hold back unless they were one hundred percent certain of their own safety!
Once a battle truly became a bloody fight to the end, either you died or I did. This was also the biggest reason deaths repeatedly occurred during Kirigakure's graduation assessments.
These examinees had no way to hold back, nor could they possibly do so.
But all of this still fell within the assessment's permitted bounds.
The examiners stationed around the examination grounds turned a deaf ear to the battle cries and screams coming from within the forest, because they had gone through the same thing themselves. Those who could not adapt.
Had long since been eliminated!
Even if they were lucky enough to graduate, they were also the most likely to die on the battlefield, or to choose to give up being ninja after recognizing the reality for themselves.
Becoming a qualified ninja truly required the right qualities in every respect!
As for the deadly fighting within the assessment forest.
Kei had no interest whatsoever.
His sights remained firmly fixed on his own assessment mission. Whenever he occasionally encountered other examinees along his route, he avoided them in advance.
He kept those pointless troubles to a minimum.
These examinees were generally much weaker than Kei. Especially since he could pick up information in advance through subtle movements of the wind and the faint moisture dispersed in the air, he could practically avoid these groups perfectly.
His assessment mission progressed very smoothly.
In just two or three short hours.
Kei had found four of the mission items on his list, leaving only the final one!
He was also very lucky, encountering no examinees with similar missions along the way. Either they had not yet found the areas containing the items, or other examinees had intercepted them beforehand.
After judging that it was about time, he found a relatively safe spot to have lunch and take the opportunity to study the area containing his final mission item, along with the route he would choose.
Hmm? I still need to take a detour? If I cut straight through, I'll easily run into other examinees. It's already noon, so this whole area will very likely become a place where other examinees fight and kill one another. Better not get dragged into it!
As Kei ate the dry rations he had prepared beforehand, he drew a relatively simple map of this section of the assessment forest on the ground, using the information he had previously obtained. A faintly contemplative look showed in his eyes.
The mission's target items.
Were clearly divided by difficulty.
The four mission items Kei had obtained so far were all relatively easy to acquire. The first, for example, Job's tears, was a grass-family plant common in the Shinobi World and one of the main ingredients used to make Military Rations Pills. It could be gathered in over half the areas of this assessment forest. Although the other three items were not as easy to find as Job's tears, they could hardly be considered very difficult either!
But the final mission item ahead was different!
It was not something originally found in this forest, but something the teaching staff had placed there in advance, and its quantity was limited. In the staff's words before the assessment began, even if everything went smoothly, at most only two-thirds of the examinees assigned the same mission would be able to complete it!
This blatant limit on how many could pass the assessment!
Immediately set the examinees on edge.
Even Kei felt a little urgency. Although he was not actually worried that he would fail to complete his assessment mission, what if?!
Unexpected accidents were what one feared most these days.
I'd better finish the mission before sunset!
Kei stood up and exerted a little force with his right hand, crushing the food bag in his palm. Then he sprang away, once again disappearing into the layers of shade beneath the trees.
Following his chosen route.
He sped toward his designated target area.
And roughly ten minutes after Kei left.
Two furtive figures also crept into the area where Kei had been. After searching the vicinity very cautiously for a while, they finally determined the general direction in which he had left.
"Was it here?"
"Should be right!"
After the two muttered to each other for a little while.
One headed back the way they had come.
The other followed closely in the general direction Kei had taken.
Up ahead, Kei was entirely occupied with thoughts of his final mission item, unaware that a little tail was already trailing behind him.
It had indeed been mentioned earlier that Kei's exceptionally powerful bloodline talent gave him some ability to use "wind" and "water" to expand his sensory range.
But he had only just developed this ability, after all.
With Kei's current strength, he could only sense the faintest traces of a presence within a fixed, highly restricted range.
Now that the other party was tracking him, while Kei had no warning at all.
It was very difficult for him to detect their whereabouts.
And this was bound to become an unpredictable variable in Kei's actions to come.