The Sharingan's crimson glow flickered in Shigure's eyes as he scanned the map of barriers stretched invisibly across the towers. His breath quickened as soon as he noticed it.
"The Front Tower? Are you sure?"
The line of chakra that had once wrapped it like an unbreakable shell was gone. South of the Minami Tower, the barrier had collapsed entirely. The Front Tower stood completely exposed.
"Finally… God helps me!" Shigure's voice broke into an excited laugh, his clenched fist trembling slightly.
"Finally!" Nara Kazu's sharp face broke into a grin as well, though the others still looked blank, struggling to piece it together.
Shigure exhaled slowly and explained. "If the barrier around the Front Tower has dropped, that means the candidates holding positions there can't remain. They'll be forced outward—east, west, or north. The Jiei Tower is the closest hub, so most of them are going to drift this way."
"That's… clever," Kazu muttered. His eyes gleamed with calculation, already running probabilities, but then he frowned. "But there's no time to set traps. The best chance is to leave this tower, cross the lake, and attack mid‑movement… Speaking of which—your water jutsu…" He shook his head in disbelief. "You really did create that lake out of nowhere, didn't you?"
Shigure didn't respond. Explaining his chakra reserves, already stepping past the threshold of ordinary jōnin, would only raise questions he didn't need. Summoning a lake with Waterfall Technique had hardly strained him.
"Let's move," he said simply.
They advanced quickly, darting through the scaled‑down forest. Mist clung low, still damp from Shigure's ninjutsu. Soon, the six crossed the lake and dug in at the treeline south of the Minami Tower.
The ground trembled faintly. A new team sprinted up the northern path—a fresh set of prey.
"Now! All at once!" Shigure barked.
The enemy team had no idea anyone would dare ambush them so far from the towers. Caught unprepared, their response was clumsy.
"Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu!" Shigure's jutsu leapt free with blazing sparks, scattering the three opponents.
"Wind Style: Breakthrough!" Kusuo Hatake breathed deep, exhaling a violent gust that drove the scattering figures back together.
"Now!" shouted Hyūga Akane, her Byakugan spinning as she marked lines of weakness.
From the shadows, Nara Kazu's hands flashed into positions. "Shadow Possession Jutsu!"
The three enemy ninja stiffened as the binding shadow stretched theirs into puppet‑like silhouettes they couldn't break.
"What—?! I can't move—!" the young female ninja gasped.
The boy beside her clenched his jaw. "Shizune… we're bound. Nara Kazu's jutsu. It's over for us."
Another of them, bearing a familiar countenance—broad jaw, narrow eyes eerily reminiscent of the Third Hokage—groaned.
"It's… it's you lot," Shigure muttered in faint recognition, his eyes landing on each. "Morino Ibiki… Shizune… and… Sarutobi Asuma?"
"What?" Kusuo blinked, surprised. These weren't nameless no‑bodies. These were faces that would one day belong to respected names among Konoha's shinobi.
But now, they were children—new academy graduates. Their techniques were clumsy, their teamwork unrefined.
Ibiki strained uselessly against the binding shadow, sweat on his brow. "…We don't stand a chance," he admitted. "Eliminate us. There's no shame in losing to six at once."
Shizune bit her lip but nodded. "Our team only scraped through the last stage by luck anyway. We'll just try harder next time."
Asuma's eyes met Shigure's, firm despite the humiliation. "Do it. Don't waste time for pity's sake."
For a moment, silence stretched. Shigure's gut twisted. He didn't want to cut them down. He knew what they'd become. But this was the Chūnin Exams, where hesitation meant defeat. Their presence was too fragile for this battlefield.
"I'm sorry," Shigure finally said. His tone was low, sincere, and his hands moved. "The exam is cruel."
A flash, a burst of disorienting chakra, and Asuma's team was done. Their score cards clattered onto the dirt.
Shigure bent and scooped them up. Then, surprisingly, he tossed them to Ino–Shika–Cho's trio.
"What? For us?" Kazu blinked, doubts clouding his eyes again.
"Why?"
"This way of picking people off isn't sustainable." Shigure dusted off his hands. "Ambushes aren't efficient. We need to change approach."
"Change… approach?" Akane tilted her head.
Shigure gestured to the silent forest. "Notice how few teams we've encountered? Only Asuma's group has passed through here, even with the Front Tower wide open. That means most have already shifted north through the Column Tower and Row Tower. If we wait here, no one else is coming."
Understanding clicked behind Kazu's eyes at last. "…So the action has moved. The circle's shrinking, and the Tower of All is no longer strategically critical. The Towers of Arrival and Fighting flank the corridor. Whoever occupies them controls the movements."
"Exactly." Shigure nodded. "From there, you only defend front and back. No cross‑fires, no full surround. We can move at will."
Kazu exhaled, nodding reluctantly. "Then… our alliance splits here."
"Is it still valid, though?" Choji asked nervously, shoving fries in his mouth.
"Of course." Shigure smiled faintly. "We'll face each other again—after prelims. I'd rather see you three advance than some Uchiha rivals."
A small grin tugged Kazu's lips. "Then you take the Tower of Admiralty."
"And you take the Tower of Fighting," Shigure confirmed.
"Good. Do your best." Yamanaka Yuki waved brightly. With that, the teams separated, each darting off toward destiny.
The forest swallowed them. A strange loneliness pricked Shigure's chest, but the current was already pulling him toward the next battle.
Hours blurred by in cautious travel. The Minami Tower fell into the distance, abandoned like a forgotten grave. Few ninja dared linger where every enemy could converge.
Finally, after weaving north‑west through the underbrush, Team Shigure reached the Rin Tower.
And it was chaos.
Two groups of genin were locked in furious battle beneath its great shadow. Weapons clashed, kunai sparks ringing in the dusk. Jutsu cut the air with crackling heat.
"Mantis stalking the cicada, forgetting the oriole behind, eh?" Kusuo's grin was feral. His hand reached instinctively for his ninjatō.
"Wait." Shigure's arm barred his path. His crimson eyes watched carefully. "We can't blunder in. Let them destroy each other. We strike the survivors, take both sets of score cards."
Hidden in the undergrowth, the six crouched low.
Akane's eyes dilated. "Shigure…" she whispered. "There's another group… northeast of them. Three shinobi, perfectly hidden."
Kusuo started. "Another?! If I'd rushed in, we would've been their prey…"
"They haven't noticed us," Akane murmured, Byakugan scanning every chakra thread.
Shigure frowned deeply. His instincts bristled. "There's a reason everyone converged on the Rin Tower. Its position isn't just convenient."
"Didn't you say it was vital?" Kusuo asked, teeth gritting. "That why all these teams are—"
"Yes," Shigure muttered, eyes narrowing. But that also means someone else realized the same thing.
A sixth sense prickled the back of his skull. The battlefield before them wasn't the real danger. The predators lurking in the trees were.
And they had already noticed them.
--
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