A Few Seconds Earlier
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"He's behind Naruto."
Rin spoke bluntly, his tone flat.
His blindfolded gaze tilted slightly.
The sudden statement made both boys react immediately.
"Wh—? AaHH!"
Naruto began turning around instinctively, his body twisting to look behind him.
At the same time, Sasuke also started to shift his position, his head beginning to turn.
Before either of them could finish the movement—
Rin stomped down on Naruto's foot.
Naruto froze with a muffled yelp as the pain shot through his toes.
At the same time, Sasuke halted his own movement as well, catching the signal immediately.
"Don't move, idiot!"
Rin whispered sharply.
"He's quite a bit further from here… and he's looking at us right now."
Rin kept his face completely calm as he spoke.
No glance toward the direction Kakashi was hiding.
Nothing that might betray that they had already figured out his position.
"How far is he?"
Sasuke asked quietly.
Even as he spoke, he deliberately shifted his posture and turned his back toward the direction Rin had indicated Kakashi was watching from.
It was trust.
During their academy years, Sasuke had already noticed that Rin possessed a strange awareness—an ability to sense things others didn't immediately pick up on.
Also the fact that boy could see through that thick blindfold made it even more obvious.
But since the start of this test, that impression had only grown stronger.
Every time Kakashi changed positions.
Rin had still been able to locate him.
On top of that, Rin had been the one connecting the pieces of the exam—explaining the logic behind the bell test and pushing them toward cooperation.
That alone had been enough for Sasuke to stop doubting him.
Rin remained still for a moment after the question, as if measuring the distance again.
"Around forty meters."
He answered quietly.
Then his voice dropped slightly further.
"Stay where you are."
His head tilted faintly.
"On my signal… spread out so we can ambush him."
Naruto frowned slightly but stayed still, remembering Rin's earlier warning.
Rin continued calmly.
"He most likely won't toy around with us anymore. He'll take it a little more seriously this time."
The words were spoken matter-of-factly.
Just a practical observation.
"Let's continue our attacks until Sakura gets here."
As he spoke, Rin's head turned slightly.
Far in the distance, hidden among the trees, Kakashi's figure shifted just a little.
Rin noticed it instantly.
Kakashi had turned his attention slightly.
That small movement was enough.
Rin gave a subtle nod.
In the next moment—
Both he and Sasuke jumped away from their positions, disappearing into different directions through the trees.
Naruto remained where he was for a brief second longer.
"Huh—?"
He looked around in confusion, trying to figure out where they had gone.
Then the realization hit him.
"Oh—!"
He scrambled to move as well, pushing off the ground to follow the plan.
Fortunately for him, Kakashi had looked away just long enough that his delayed reaction went unnoticed by the jonin.
As Sasuke moved through the branches, pushing himself forward in the direction Rin had indicated, he quickly noticed something ahead of him.
Rin had already moved.
Not just moved—but closed the entire distance.
By the time Sasuke began to reach the area Rin had pointed, the blindfolded boy had already engaged Kakashi. The two figures were moving rapidly between the trees, their movements sharp and precise as Rin pressed the attack.
Naruto landed on a nearby branch just a moment later, his eyes widening slightly at the sight.
Neither of them were stunned by it.
Both Naruto and Sasuke had already seen enough of Rin, they knew he was fast.
Fast enough that him reaching Kakashi before them wasn't surprising anymore.
As Kakashi jumped backward to create distance from Rin's assault, both Sasuke and Naruto were approaching them quickly.
Sasuke had already thrown a handful of shuriken during his approach. The metal stars sliced through the air in quick succession as he continued advancing, his body moving forward from branch to branch while maintaining pressure.
Kakashi noticed them immediately.
His body shifted slightly as he prepared to turn and block the incoming shuriken.
But Rin didn't allow him the space.
The moment Kakashi began adjusting his position to deal with Sasuke's projectiles, Rin surged forward again.
His body burst toward Kakashi with sudden acceleration, forcing the jonin to respond to him first.
Kakashi had originally planned to jump away—to avoid both Rin's close-range attack and Sasuke's incoming shuriken at the same time. Creating distance would have let him reset the situation.
But Rin pressed harder.
The boy's speed forced Kakashi to stay engaged.
Rin's fist shot forward toward Kakashi's face.
Kakashi reacted instantly.
His head tilted just enough to the side to avoid one of the incoming shuriken slicing toward him from Sasuke's direction. At the same time, his left hand came up and diverted Rin's punch before it could land cleanly.
Steel flashed around them as the shuriken continued to arrive.
Rin didn't slow down.
Both of them continued moving in close range—attacking, deflecting, adjusting their positions—while at the same time avoiding the stream of shuriken that Sasuke had sent flying into the fight.
All that happening in the middle of the spinning metal blades cutting through the air around them.
Just as Naruto and Sasuke reached the fight, Kakashi finally decided to break the rhythm Rin had been forcing on him.
Up until now he had been reacting—deflecting blows, adjusting his footing to deal with the constant pressure. But the moment the other two arrived, Kakashi made his move.
Rin stepped in again, driving another punch forward as he tried to keep Kakashi from gaining space.
Kakashi slipped past it.
The punch cut through empty air as Kakashi pivoted slightly to the side. In the same motion, his leg snapped forward.
His foot drove straight into Rin's stomach.
"GUH!"
The impact forced the air out of Rin's lungs as his body lifted off the ground and flew backward. He slammed into the main trunk of a nearby tree with a dull thud before dropping down onto one knee.
Kakashi's eye followed him for a brief moment.
He was genuinely impressed.
Rin had been quick throughout the exchange—far quicker than Kakashi had expected from a fresh academy graduate. The boy reacted quickly, adjusted his stance constantly, and kept pressing the fight instead of freezing up under pressure.
But there were still limits.
Rin's strikes lacked the power to truly threaten a jonin and speed alone wasn't enough to overwhelm someone with Kakashi's experience.
Still… the boy's reactions had been sharp.
Kakashi filed that observation away as he turned back to the rest of the fight.
He already knew the next attack was coming.
Kakashi spun sharply just as Sasuke closed in.
"Guess we're extending the taijutsu lesson."
His voice remained calm as Sasuke's punch came straight toward him.
Kakashi raised his arm and blocked it cleanly.
At the same moment, Naruto burst in from the opposite side, lunging toward Kakashi's waist in an attempt to snatch the bell hanging there.
But Kakashi had already raised the difficulty.
Then—
"Rin! I got them!"
It was Sakura.
Her voice suddenly rang out from the other side of the trees.
She had come rushing through the forest and had spotted Rin before she could even properly see what was happening deeper in the fight. The moment her eyes caught him, she immediately called out.
Rin was still recovering from Kakashi's kick.
After being sent flying into the tree trunk, he had managed to pull himself up onto one of the thicker branches nearby. He sat there briefly, one hand braced against the bark as he tried to push himself upright, the lingering pain from the strike still tightening his stomach.
The shout made him turn sharply.
His head tilted toward the sound as Sakura appeared through the trees—and just behind her, two more figures emerged.
Kiba.
Hinata.
The moment Rin noticed them, a small smile formed on his face.
'They had made it.'
"What's going on here?"
Kiba asked as he came to a stop near Sakura, looking past Rin toward the deeper part of the forest where the sounds of movement and clashing branches echoed faintly.
Hinata stood quietly beside him, her eyes filled with worry about Rin's condition.
Just as they began stepping forward—ready to move toward Rin—
Rin noticed it.
His body tensed as his head turned sharply toward the three of them.
"Behind you!"
He shouted the warning immediately.
The sudden yell made Sakura, Kiba, and Hinata freeze for a brief second, their attention snapping back instinctively. But before any of them could react further, something strange happened.
Soft pink petals began drifting through their vision.
They floated gently through the air, swirling slowly as if carried by a calm breeze that didn't exist.
For a brief moment, the three of them simply stood there, watching the petals fall.
Then their bodies stopped moving entirely.
Silence settled over them.
"So that's where you all were going…"
The voice came from behind a nearby tree.
A moment later, Kurenai stepped out into the open.
Her expression was calm as she looked at the three immobilized genin standing before her. The illusion had already taken hold. Sakura, Kiba, and Hinata remained frozen where they stood, trapped within the genjutsu.
She had been tracking them for a while now.
As a sensor-typeninja, locating the students in the forest had been simple. Their chakra signatures were scattered throughout the area, and it hadn't taken long for her to realize that they had begun forming groups instead of remaining completely separated.
Rather than immediately confronting the first group she noticed, Kurenai had followed the second one.
That group had continued moving through the forest.
It was Sakura who had eventually found Hinata and then Kiba with Hinata's help and had explained the plan the others were already executing.
Kurenai had remained hidden while observing them.
She watched as they moved through the forest together.
Then Hinata used her Byakugan to locate Rin's position.
Once they found him, they headed straight toward that direction.
That was when Kurenai finally stepped in to deal with them.
Kurenai's attention shifted back toward the branch where Rin had been sitting only a moment earlier.
But the branch was empty.
'Where'd he go?'
The thought came instantly as her gaze moved across the surrounding trees, searching for the boy who had been there just seconds ago.
Then something registered in her senses.
Her head snapped sharply to the left.
She had felt him at the last possible moment.
'He's fast!'
The realization struck her immediately.
Rin was already upon her.
The flash of steel came first—a kunai thrusting toward her as the boy closed the distance in a burst of speed.
Kurenai reacted instantly. Her own hand moved just as quickly, pulling out a kunai as she stepped into the motion and parried the strike.
Metal clashed sharply.
The impact knocked Rin's blade aside, but the boy didn't slow down.
Instead, he released the weapon entirely.
The kunai spun out of his hand and flew toward her.
Kurenai deflected it without hesitation, batting the projectile away with a quick motion of her own blade.
But in the brief instant that took—
Rin was already in front of her.
Close.
Her eyes widened slightly as she saw him right there.
'He used the kunai to close the distance between us...'
The thought formed immediately as Rin followed up with another attack.
A small smile appeared on her face.
Yet at the same time, a bead of sweat slid down from her forehead.
The boy's speed was no joke.
The moment he forced his way into Kurenai's range, his attention shifted straight toward the bells tied at her waist. His movements became sharper, more direct as he slipped past her guard, his hand reaching forward with precise intent.
Then—
A sudden tug tightened around his ankle.
"Huh?"
Rin's body jerked slightly from the unexpected pull.
Kurenai, however, didn't move.
She simply stood there, watching him.
The boy's hand was still extended toward the bells, frozen just short of reaching them.
"You did good… for a genin."
Her voice was calm, almost approving.
"This was your lesson on Ninjutsu."
As she spoke, she lifted her hand and gently placed it on top of Rin's head.
At that exact moment, the bark beneath Rin shifted.
Thin wooden veins that had sprouted from the branch suddenly tightened. They wrapped around his ankle first, then more of them burst outward from the tree's surface, twisting rapidly around his body.
The wooden tendrils pulled hard.
Rin was yanked down against the branch, his body forced flat against the bark as the vines tightened around his arms and torso. More of them continued to emerge, binding him firmly to the branch with his face pressed against it.
Within seconds, the tree itself had completely restrained him.
Then—
"Beast Imitation: All-Fours Jutsu!"
The sudden shout cut through the forest.
Kurenai turned sharply toward the sound just as a figure burst toward her through the trees.
Kiba.
His body had dropped low, his posture completely changed as he charged forward in a feral stance. His hands and feet moved together in the animalistic form of the Inuzuka Clan technique, his speed far greater than before as he lunged straight at her.
Kurenai's eyes widened slightly.
She had placed him in a genjutsu herself.
And not a weak one either.
The illusion she had cast had been more than enough to hold a genin in place for as long as she wished.
Yet here he was.
Moving freely.
The attack reached her in the next instant.
Kiba swung his elbow toward her as he closed in.
Kurenai sidestepped at the last moment, her body shifting just enough for the strike to pass beside her instead of connecting.
But the assault didn't stop there.
The moment she moved, another presence rushed into her senses.
Kurenai turned sharply again, reacting on instinct as a palm surrounded by focused chakra shot toward the spot where she had been standing a split second earlier.
Hinata.
Her Gentle Fist strike struck nothing but air as Kurenai jumped upward to evade it.
For a brief moment Kurenai was airborne, her body lifting above the branch as she cleared Hinata's attack.
She was also amazed to see this shy girl being so aggressive all of a sudden.
Then something else flashed toward her.
A kunai.
Sakura had thrown it from behind.
Even in midair, Kurenai reacted without hesitation. Her arm moved quickly as she knocked the incoming blade aside before it could reach her.
The kunai spun away into the trees.
But the brief exchange only deepened the confusion forming in her mind.
All three of them had attacked.
Coordinated.
And completely free.
'Just what's going on…?'
Kurenai thought as she looked toward them.
Her gaze shifted briefly to the spot where the three had been standing when they were under the Genjutsu earlier.
And that was when she noticed it.
Something that made her eyes narrow.
The realization struck her instantly.
'No way…'
Then—
BRRING! BRRING! BRRING!
The sharp ringing of the alarm echoed through the forest.
The sound spread through the trees, loud and clear.
The timer had reached noon.
The test was over.
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