It was early the following morning. Minato led Nawaki, Kushina, and Mikoto toward a secluded valley located just outside the borders of Konoha Village. The air was crisp, and the dense forest surrounding them seemed to whisper with the secrets of the shinobi world.
This is a trap training ground, Minato explained as they reached the entrance. As the name suggests, various trap devices have been meticulously set up throughout the entire valley. He stood tall at the mouth of the gorge, his posture relaxed yet commanding. Before coming here, I modified the existing devices a little bit to suit our needs.
To demonstrate, he casually produced two slips of paper styled as exploding tags. One was a deep blue, while the other was a vibrant red. These are special training tags I created. The blue tag represents a standard exploding tag, but it has a specific amount of water sealed inside it.
The red tag represents a high-power exploding tag. It contains a low-power flame bullet instead of water. While it will not cause permanent disability or death, it will certainly cause a significant amount of physical pain to anyone who triggers it.
Minato threw the slips into the air with a flick of his wrist. The blue tag burst into a sudden splash of water, drenching the nearby grass in a radius equivalent to a standard explosion. The red tag followed with a sharp bang, erupting into a localized fireball roughly the size of a human head.
Next, you must each pass through this valley entirely alone. During your attempt, if you trigger a blue exploding tag and get splashed by water, it counts as one death, Minato clarified for the group.
What happens if we hit a red exploding tag? Nawaki asked with an impatient look on his face.
Triggering a red exploding tag represents the death of your entire team. Minato spoke with a sudden, solemn weight in his voice. This also means you have effectively killed your teammates and caused the mission to fail completely. As his words hung in the air, an oppressive silence settled over the three young ninja.
Additionally, there are various other traps hidden within the valley, also color-coded into two categories. Red signifies the most serious consequences possible. Minato continued his explanation. There are several of my wood clones stationed in the valley who will update and reset the traps in real-time. With every death, a clone will bring you back to the entrance, and the next person will enter for their turn.
Then let me go first! Nawaki shouted, clenching his right fist against his left palm as he looked eager to test his skills.
Discuss the order among yourselves. Minato offered a gentle smile and made a polite gesture for them to proceed.
The three students huddled together to deliberate. They decided that Nawaki would lead the way, followed by Mikoto, with Kushina taking the final slot. Once the discussion concluded, Nawaki marched confidently toward the valley entrance. With a serious expression on his face, he took his first bold step forward.
Splash! A sudden burst of water exploded directly at his feet, instantly soaking through his clothes and sandals.
The air remained silent for a long moment as everyone processed the scene. Then, Nawaki suddenly grabbed his head with both hands, looking frantic and frustrated. What on earth is this? How did that happen so fast?
Minato crossed his arms over his chest. Nawaki, you are out.
Pfft, hahahahaha! Kushina burst out into uncontrollable laughter at the sight. To be solo-killed by an exploding tag at the very start! That is just so pathetic, Nawaki!
Mikoto could not help but let a smile slip onto her face. She also had not expected Minato to place an exploding tag so casually in such an obvious spot. The most ridiculous part was that because the tag burst upward from the ground, Nawaki's pants were soaking wet while his shirt remained dry, making it look as though he had wet himself.
Dammit, stop laughing! You wouldn't be able to get through this either! With a dark, embarrassed face, Nawaki sat down under a tree by the entrance, waiting for the two girls to fail.
Let me try next. Mikoto stepped forward toward the path. Her eyes instantly turned a blood-red color, with a single black tomoe slowly spinning within each pupil.
Using exploding tags as traps requires the user to leave a certain amount of chakra within them. Although the sharingan cannot see through solid objects, it is perfectly designed to observe the flow of chakra. As long as the tags were not buried too deep in the earth, it would be difficult for them to threaten her.
With Nawaki's embarrassing failure as a warning, Mikoto did not dare to be reckless. She carefully investigated every inch of the surrounding environment as she walked about twenty meters into the valley. She lifted her foot to step over a very thin tripwire and then placed her foot down onto some fallen leaves.
With a soft, metallic click, the mechanism was triggered. Mikoto's expression changed instantly, and she dodged backward with a sharp movement. In the next moment, over a dozen wooden kunai were pinned into the dirt where she had just been standing.
One of the flying kunai hit the very wire she had previously avoided. A dull thud echoed from the ground beneath Mikoto's feet, and the earth suddenly collapsed into a hole. Did he even calculate the exact distance of my retreat?
Mikoto was surprised by the complexity, but having survived the chunin exams, her reflexes were much sharper than Nawaki's. Almost at the same moment the ground gave way, she raised her hand and threw a kunai, pinning it firmly to a nearby tree trunk. A wire was tied to the ring of the kunai. Mikoto pulled the end of the wire, using the momentum to fly toward the safety of the trunk.
Flipping onto a sturdy branch, Mikoto looked around and found disguised exploding tags hidden everywhere. She wondered why Minato was so obsessed with using them. Little did she know, Minato was also acting out of necessity for the timeline.
To prevent Nawaki from following his original tragic fate, Minato had taken great pains to design these exercises. Who would have thought that as soon as the boy started his run, he would step on an exploding tag casually covered with a handful of dirt. Minato even wondered if the boy had some kind of exploding tag affinity physique.
Bang! A sharp explosion sounded from deep within the valley.
After sneaking forward for about fifty meters, Mikoto accidentally stepped into some mud, detonating a chain of exploding tags hidden within the sludge.
I failed after all... Mikoto sighed quietly and pulled her mud-covered foot out of the trap. A wood clone flickered to her side and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. In an instant, the two appeared back beside Minato at the entrance.
Mikoto looked at Minato in genuine surprise. Is this... a space-time ninjutsu?
It is just a little trick I use. Minato smiled at her. How were you eliminated?
I stepped into some mud that looked like ordinary flat ground. Mikoto felt a bit helpless as she explained. The traps are just too dense, and many of them are designed as chain traps. I got caught before I could even reach a hundred meters.
Not bad at all. You certainly surpassed a certain someone's record of $0.6$ meters, Minato comforted her with a small smile.
Nawaki's face darkened at the comment, and he turned his head away, muttering under his breath. I was just being careless, that's all.
My turn, my turn! Kushina walked toward the valley entrance, looking full of energy and confidence. Watch me, shadow clone jutsu!
With a loud bang, a shadow clone appeared in a cloud of smoke beside Kushina. Then she pointed her finger toward the valley. Go! Kushina number one!
Understood! Without another word, the shadow clone launched a suicide charge directly into the valley.
Nawaki looked absolutely stunned. Eh? There is a method like this? Dammit, why didn't I think of doing that?
This simply shows that Kushina's battle intelligence is higher than yours. Minato laughed at the boy's reaction. But this method isn't something ordinary people can easily use.
Shadow clones split the main body's chakra equally. Although the remaining chakra returns to the user after the clone is dispelled, under normal circumstances, that chakra cannot be stored; even if it returns, it usually disappears quickly. For most people, this is still a significant drain on their energy. Only those with massive chakra reserves like the Uzumaki clan can use it so recklessly.
However, this method alone was not enough for Kushina to cross the entire valley. This training ground was $2,000$ meters long. Although the traps in the front were dense, they were just the appetizers for the real challenge yet to come.
Bang, bang, bang! One trap after another was triggered by the charging shadow clone. Finally, after rushing out over thirty meters, Kushina's shadow clone was popped by a dense barrage of wooden shuriken.
Kushina unhurriedly walked along the safe path that her shadow clone had paved with its life. Then she created another shadow clone and repeated the trick.
Bang! After walking over a dozen more meters, the second shadow clone fell into a deep pitfall trap.
The third shadow clone walked across a wide, open space, with Kushina trailing not far behind it. Then, with a sudden bang, Kushina's main body was soaked to the bone with water.
Why is this happening again? Looking at the wood clone that appeared beside her, Kushina looked completely puzzled. The shadow clone clearly walked past that exact spot without any trouble.
The wood clone chuckled at her confusion. Who said the traps have to be preset in the ground?
----------------
You can read advanced chapters here: patreon.com/GregariousLion