Team Eight stepped through the main room of the tower.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the atmosphere changed. The sounds of the Forest of Death disappeared behind the massive stone doors, leaving only the faint echo of their footsteps as they entered the dimly lit interior.
Shinra glanced around the room before his eyes settled on the large inscription carved into the wall.
He immediately recognized it.
'So this is the passage written in the tower.'
Hyori and Inumaki also looked towards the inscription.
Hyori tilted her head slightly as she began reading the words carved into the stone, while Shinra silently listened.
The passage spoke of the importance of teamwork, courage, and perseverance. It warned those who entered that the path ahead could not be overcome through individual strength alone, and that those who lacked the resolve to trust their comrades would never reach the end.
Shinra stared at the inscription for several seconds before looking away.
'The same old lesson.'
He couldn't help but find it somewhat ironic.
They had spent the last 53 minutes doing almost everything the inscription told them not to do. Their success had come from exploiting the weaknesses of the other teams, using clones as bait, and deliberately manipulating the battlefield rather than relying on teamwork.
'Although I suppose we did cooperate. Our sensory techniques complement each other, which was also one of the reasons we managed to get the scrolls we needed so early.'
Shinra glanced at Hyori and Inumaki.
'Just not in the way they intended.'
Inumaki looked towards him and asked, "Are we supposed to do something?"
Shinra pointed towards the two scrolls hidden beneath his jacket.
"We open them."
The three moved towards the center of the room.
Shinra removed the Earth Scroll while Hyori took out the Heaven Scroll. He placed them side by side before breaking the seals.
The moment the two scrolls were opened, a cloud of smoke erupted from their center.
Inumaki immediately stepped back, his hand moving towards his kunai pouch, while Hyori activated her Byakugan.
A figure emerged from the smoke.
The man wore the standard Konoha Chūnin uniform and immediately raised both hands in a harmless gesture.
"Relax. There's no need to be on guard."
He looked over the three genin before a smile appeared on his face.
"Congratulations. You've successfully completed the second phase of the Chūnin Exams."
Inumaki lowered his hand while Hyori deactivated her Byakugan.
The Chūnin continued, "You were faster than expected. Most teams won't even reach this tower for several hours, and some won't make it here at all."
Shinra looked at him and asked rhetorically, "How many teams have arrived before us?"
The Chūnin paused for a moment before answering.
"None. You have broken the record for the fastest clearance of the Forest of Death by a mile. The previous record was 5 hours and 37 minutes, set by Uchiha Itachi. Your clear time is exactly 53 minutes."
Hyori's and Inumaki's eyes widened. Almost everyone in the village knew about Itachi. The son of the Uchiha clan head and a genius who had graduated from the Academy after only a month of enrollment.
Shinra didn't show it, but he was internally pleased.
'The biggest difference is that Itachi participated solo in the Chūnin Exams, making him the first and last person to participate alone.'
Nevertheless, Team Eight's performance had been astounding during the Exams. Even though they hadn't encountered a seeded team, they had still displayed a sufficient amount of strength and intellect to showcase their skills.
"From this point onward, you are prohibited from leaving the tower until the second phase has officially ended. You will be assigned a private room, food, water, and basic necessities. You are also free to train while you wait, but fighting between participants is strictly prohibited."
Hyori asked, "How long do we have to wait?"
"Five days."
The Chūnin smiled.
"You've completed the difficult part. Now all you have to do is wait."
Shinra nodded.
'Five days.'
His eyes narrowed slightly.
'That's more than enough time to regain chakra. I had consumed a lot of chakra due to the continuous use of the Shadow Clone Jutsu and C-rank ninjutsu. Thankfully, when a shadow clone dispels itself, the remaining chakra is transferred back to the user.'
The Chūnin turned towards the passage behind them.
"There are training areas available throughout the tower. Someone will explain the arrangements shortly."
He looked at the three of them one final time.
"Once again, congratulations on passing."
With that, his body dispersed into smoke.
Inumaki stared at the empty space where the Chūnin had been standing.
"So that's it?"
Shinra nodded.
"That's it."
He glanced towards the entrance of the tower.
'The tournament phase is next. Thankfully, my clone is still outside, which will make it easier to spy on the other participants.'
Hyori looked towards Shinra.
"What now?"
Shinra looked towards the corridors leading deeper into the tower.
"Now we wait and use the spare time to train."
For the next several hours, the three of them focused entirely on training.
Shinra spent most of his time training with his sword. He was still trying to perfect the kenjutsu technique he had used against Sasori that boosted his speed massively. Thunderbomb was still relatively new, and although the technique was useful, he had already noticed several weaknesses during its first real battle. Its biggest downside was that it often engulfed the caster in the attack, and against enemies who were more resistant to the paralysis effect, they would recover much quicker.
He spent hours practicing his form and stance without using chakra, trying to make the process of cutting through the air strong enough that his entire body would encounter significantly less resistance when moving.
'The technique still has room for improvement.'
Shinra brought his sword backwards with his right hand, slowly going through the movement he had used against Sasori.
'The sword has to move first.'
He thrust the sword forward in one smooth motion, imagining the Lightning Release spreading across the blade as he accelerated.
'By coating the blade with Lightning Release and thrusting it forward at the same time as I accelerate, the tip of the sword cuts through the air before the rest of my body follows.'
The principle was similar to the Third Raikage's Hell Stab.
Instead of concentrating the Lightning Release around his fingers, Shinra concentrated it along the sword and used its tip as the leading point of his movement.
'The narrower the point moving through the air, the less resistance my body has to overcome.'
That was what allowed him to temporarily surpass his normal limit.
When he had used the technique against Sasori, the difference had been obvious. For a brief moment, his speed had reached a level that even a jōnin would consider fast.
But the technique had two major flaws.
'My body has to follow the direction of the sword, and my sword needs to be able to withstand the large amount of lightning coating it. The second issue will be fixed when I receive my reward for the mission. As for the first flaw, it needs more thought.'
If he thrust the sword forward, his body had to move in that same direction. He couldn't suddenly change his trajectory without first deactivating the technique.
That was exactly what Sasori had exploited.
The moment Shinra accelerated, Iron Sand bullets had been fired directly into his path. He had been forced to deactivate the technique, dodge the attack, and then reactivate it before accelerating again.
'If I could change my direction without having to deactivate it, the technique would be much more useful.'
Shinra lowered the sword and looked at the blade.
'But that's not something I can solve yet.'
For now, he could only improve the part he understood.
The movement itself.
He raised the sword again, bringing it backwards with his right hand before thrusting forward.
The motion had to be smooth.
There could be no hesitation between drawing the sword back, coating it with Lightning Release, and accelerating.
'One movement.'
He repeated the motion.
Again.
And again.
Each repetition brought him closer to the movement he had used against Sasori.
But this time, he wasn't trying to push his body beyond its limits.
He was trying to make the technique more efficient.
'If I can reduce the resistance enough, then I won't need to consume as much chakra just to reach the same speed.'
Shinra continued practicing.
He also spent time practicing his sensory technique.
The Forest of Death had already shown him how dangerous fighting another sensor could be. Someone had managed to interfere with his sensory field, providing him with hundreds of false signals, and Shinra didn't intend to allow something like that to happen again.
'My range is already much greater than most sensors, but range isn't everything. If someone can interfere with my sensory field, then having a larger range won't help me.'
Hyori focused on her Gentle Fist while Inumaki continued training alongside Yoshimaru.
The three of them barely spoke during the training sessions.
They had already spent enough time together that they didn't need to constantly communicate.
By the time seven hours had passed since Team Eight entered the tower, Shinra, who was currently meditating, opened his eyes.
Several chakra signatures were approaching.
'Someone is approaching the tower.'
Shinra stopped his training and looked towards Hyori and Inumaki.
"Another team is coming."
Hyori immediately activated her Byakugan.
"Who are they?" Shinra asked.
She looked towards Shinra and said, "It's Team Five."
Shinra nodded.
'So they managed to make it through.'
He wasn't particularly surprised. Team Five had been one of the teams he had considered dangerous before entering the forest, and the fact that they had survived wasn't unexpected.
A few minutes later, the massive doors of the tower opened.
Uchiha Ren, Uchiha Mira, and Aburame Muta entered the tower.
The three of them looked exhausted, with several injuries covering their bodies, but none appeared seriously injured.
The Chūnin responsible for the tower immediately approached them and began checking their scrolls.
Shinra watched from a distance.
'They took seven hours.'
That was still an excellent time, especially considering how much stronger Team Five was compared to most of the other teams.
Ren suddenly looked towards Shinra.
Their eyes met.
Neither of them said anything.
After a few seconds, Ren looked away and walked deeper into the tower with Mira and Muta.
Shinra returned to his training.
Less than thirty minutes later, the tower doors opened again.
This time, three Sunagakure genin walked inside.
Shinra studied them from afar.
'That was fast.'
The Sand team looked considerably more battered than Team Five, but all three were still standing.
The Chūnin checked their scrolls before allowing them into the tower.
One of the Sand genin glanced around the room and noticed Team Five.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
Ren noticed it as well.
The atmosphere inside the tower immediately became slightly more tense.
Shinra's shadow clone quietly watched both teams.
'So these two teams reached the tower almost immediately after one another.'
He was curious about what had happened between them in the forest, but there was no reason to ask.
If they had fought, their injuries already provided enough of an answer.
The remaining teams took considerably longer.
It wasn't until the following day that another team finally arrived.
This time, it was an Ino-Shika-Cho formation from Konoha.
The three genin entered the tower together, exhausted but relatively unharmed. They were followed by two more teams later that day. At the end of the day, Shinra's clone was dispelled due to insufficient chakra. It had managed to steal and destroy three scrolls out of the four teams they encountered: two of them were Earth Scrolls and one was a Heaven Scroll. It also managed to observe the latter part of the battle between Team Five and the Sunagakure squad.
With each new arrival, Shinra recorded their identities, their condition, and the time they had reached the tower.
Shinra looked around the tower.
'With the loss of three scrolls, it means that the number of teams that can pass this round is at most eight. The next two teams to enter will be the last.'
He continued training.
The five days passed surprisingly quickly.
By the end of the second phase, eight teams had successfully reached the tower.
The remaining participants were eliminated.
When the doors finally opened, Shinra, Hyori, and Inumaki stepped outside together.
The other teams began separating almost immediately, each group heading towards their own instructors and village representatives.
Shinra was about to follow Hyori and Inumaki when someone approached him from the side.
The man was dressed in a black cloak that hid his entire body. Shinra immediately noticed the white mask that hid his face.
'Could it be?'
Shinra's expression didn't change. He had anticipated that such an event would happen sooner or later.
The masked shinobi approached him without saying a word and stopped several meters away.
"Kamikaze Shinra?"
"Yes."
"Follow me. There is someone who wishes to meet you."
Shinra glanced towards Hyori and Inumaki.
Neither of them had noticed the exchange yet.
'Shimura Danzo.'
He sighed internally.
The Root ninja waited patiently without looking back.
Shinra didn't know what Danzo wanted from him, but he could make a few educated guesses.
'The Land of Wind incident certainly caught his attention. A ten-year-old genin surviving an encounter with Sasori, returning with valuable intelligence, and then breaking the record for the Forest of Death…'
A faint smile appeared on Shinra's face.
'I suppose I would be interested in myself too.'
Shinra turned towards his teammates.
"I'll catch up with you later."
Hyori stopped and looked back at him.
"Where are you going?"
Shinra glanced towards the masked shinobi.
"Someone wants to speak with me."
Inumaki frowned slightly, but Shinra had already begun walking away.
The Root ninja led him through the outskirts of the training ground, away from the other participants and their instructors. They walked in silence for several minutes before finally entering a secluded building.
Shinra closed his eyes and thought.
'Remember, keep calm and don't antagonize him.'
The masked shinobi opened the door.
"Danzo-sama is waiting inside."
Shinra stepped through the doorway.
The door closed behind him.