The blood-soaked silence finally broke as Uchiha Shigure lowered his kunai. The last of the seventeen Mist-nin fell with a dull thud into the grass. The coppery stench of iron clung to him, his pale hands and face smeared crimson as he returned calmly to his team.
He wiped his blade against the hem of his sleeve, as if the act were nothing more than routine hygiene after finishing a meal. Only when he looked up did he notice every pair of eyes fixed on him.
"Why are you all staring?" Shigure asked, genuinely puzzled, his sharingan still fading. "How long did that take me?"
Kusuo Hatake swallowed hard before answering. His voice cracked despite himself. "O-One minute… thirty seconds."
Shigure blinked. "One minute and thirty? Tch. Slower than I'd hoped. I must have wasted time talking."
The entire group was stunned into silence. Their shock quickly gave way to something more raw—fear, disbelief, awe.
"You're not satisfied?" Obito's voice trembled. "Shigure, you just killed seventeen ninja in—what, ninety seconds? That's not even human!"
Kusuo's usual sharp tongue was gone. Even Hyūga Akane, who tried to keep composure, faltered. "Those weren't students or bandits. They were Chūnin and Jōnin, stronger than any of us! You're… you're only five years old."
Even Kakashi said nothing at first. His own pride lay broken in the dirt before him. He had challenged Shigure once, confident in his prodigy status. But after watching Shigure carve through Kirigakure shinobi like paper dolls, all Kakashi could do was bow his head. That wasn't rivalry anymore—that was reverence for a monster among children.
Shigure waved them off and pointed to the cooling corpses. Kusuo, Kakashi, and Obito immediately understood. Without a word, they began to strip the fallen of their score cards and packs while Shigure crouched, eyes narrowing as his thoughts turned dark.
"These men… every one of them used water-style and wielded Hyūga-like kekkei genkai," Shigure murmured. "They're from Kirigakure. No doubt of it. But why infiltrate the Chūnin Exams? Why target Konoha's genin at all?"
He recalled the rumors. Within Mist, civil unrest burned. Zabuza Momochi had slain his entire class at graduation, a blood-soaked tradition turned into rebellion. Powerful clans clamored for reform, striking at the old order. The Hidden Mist, already notorious as the 'Village of Bloody Mist,' had begun to fracture.
So why start a war they could not afford? And why draw him, Uchiha Shigure, into it?
His eye narrowed on the sealed scroll tucked inside the enemy leader's pouch. This will hold the answers. It must.
"Shigure, look!" Hyūga Akane's voice broke his train of thought. She pointed skyward, where the translucent dome of chakra surrounding the forest shimmered and shifted again.
Shigure lifted his head. The barrier's surface above the departed Tower of Lin evaporated like mist in sunlight. The tower crumbled into irrelevance—it was no longer a valid destination. Yet it wasn't only the Tower of Lin. The southwestern Lie Tower dimmed as well, abandoned in the same instant. Two entire paths eliminated at once.
"From this moment, all towers on the west side are dead," Shigure said, analyzing coolly. "That leaves five: the Soldier Tower here, the Fighting Tower, the All Tower, the Formation Tower, and the Movement Tower. Only one will be the final goal."
Everyone listened, hanging on his judgment. He continued: "The matches are entering their decisive stage. From now on, battles won't just be tests—they'll be wars. We remain in the Soldier Tower for now. Don't move. Rest, conserve chakra. Forget about score cards; survival and the final tower are all that matter now."
The group nodded in unison. Under Shigure's command, they set crude barricades from fallen timber, buried explosive tags beneath the soil, and layered wire snares across the entryways. The Soldier Tower became a fortress.
But no challengers came. The corpses outside told the tale well enough—scattered remains of Konoha genin, now joined with the butchered Mist-nin. These grounds had become a true shura field, painted with death. Even passing strangers glimpsed the carnage and turned sharply away. No one wanted to meet whatever monster carved that pile.
The rare stability brought relief. They hunted small game, plucked berries, filled flasks at a trickle of spring water. One by one, they refilled chakra reserves. The tension began to decline—until the tremor came.
The ground beneath them shivered with the telltale pulse of chakra manipulation. The barrier stones above dimmed once again. Shigure glanced up and sighed.
"Our luck's poor. The Soldier Tower is being abandoned next." His eyes narrowed as he thought rapidly. "That leaves the All Tower, the Movement, the Formation, and the Fighting Tower. All may converge in the same endgame, but we must choose."
After heated discussion, consensus pointed one way: the Tower of Fighting.
They moved swiftly, silence broken only by snapping twigs underfoot. Fortune seemed to smile—for once, no enemy teams crossed their path. Only a sounder of wild boars, dispatched effortlessly by Kusuo and Akane's teamwork.
When the looming Tower of Fighting finally rose into sight, Shigure halted. He formed a quick seal and whispered: "Byakuran." Pale light flared in his eyes as his perception expanded outward. Then he smiled.
"No enemy forces. Not yet. In fact… familiar chakra. Come on. They won't attack."
Before anyone could respond, space warped—and Shigure vanished. A flicker of yellow lightning, and he reappeared inside the tower's courtyard, standing calmly beside a startled group. He had long since marked half of them secretly with his Flying Thunder God seal.
"Who's there? Konoha Whirlwind!" cried a boy clad in a green jumpsuit, his bowl-cut hair bobbing as his foot lashed out in a furious kick.
Shigure caught his ankle mid-spin as if grabbing a branch in the wind. "Quick. Strong. But still open." With a twist, he redirected the boy and set him safely aside.
The boy tumbled gracefully, flipping thrice before landing on his feet. Huge eyebrows shot up. "What strength! You must be Shigure!"
"Kai, wait!" Nara Kazu interjected. "It's Shigure and his team. They're Konoha allies. With them, our alliance will only grow stronger."
Might Guy lit up instantly. "Shigure! Kakashi! You're here! This is excellent! I was just getting bored—fight me, both of you!"
Kakashi stared tiredly, but Shigure only smirked.
"Kai," Shiranui Genma said, silver senbon clamped between his teeth, "save your energy. We still advance to the individual rounds later."
"Strategy first," added Ebisu, adjusting his glasses. "There will be time to prove yourself."
Guy pouted briefly, then stood tall with a thumbs-up. "Very well! But next time, rivals—our youth shall burn!"
Their arrival doubled the alliance in strength. In addition to Ino-Shika-Chō, there were now Guy, Genma, Ebisu, and Yamanaka Nozomi. Konoha's surviving forces had found one another, creating a bulwark of comrades in a trial designed to whittle them down.
"I never imagined we'd all last this long," Nozomi confessed, voice tinged with relief.
Kusuo agreed. "The final tower has to be one of these. The trials can't last much longer… and we've nearly made it. Just a little more pressure. Just twelve hours total…" His voice cracked with exhaustion, but his eyes burned with hope. "We're almost there."
For a moment, relief settled over the gathered children of Konoha. But Shigure did not relax. He stared up at the tower stone overhead, watching the barrier flicker faintly. His instincts clenched like a fist.
The Tower of Fighting is no sanctuary. Something is coming. Something that will shatter even this alliance.
The thought lingered as the sound of drumming footsteps echoed faintly beyond the walls.
--
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