Behind Yurui stood Troy and Tarui.
One was a round, chubby boy.
The other was a slender girl with long flowing hair.
Staring at Tarui's hair dragging across the floor, Wind couldn't help complaining,
"I wanted to say this back in the waiting room… With hair that long, isn't she afraid of stepping on it when she walks?"
Kansuke replied earnestly,
"Compared to stepping on it, I'm more worried about how much shampoo she wastes. That's money, you know! Right, Young Master Wind?"
"Uh…"
Wind hesitated, then answered honestly,
"Sorry, Kansuke. I don't really get your point. My family's toilets are made of gold."
"Hey, you bumpkins, what are you muttering about?" Yurui sneered. "Don't you know disaster is about to fall on you?"
The multicolored bubbles he had blown were now floating in the air, completely obscuring the white flag planted at the center of the rooftop.
Kansuke said nervously,
"That ability is strange… In the first exam, when we were falling, I peeked at him. He used those bubbles to hold himself and his teammates in the air."
"Whoosh!"
Without hesitation, Wind flicked his wrist and hurled a kunai at one of the bubbles.
"Bang!"
The bubble burst—and exploded with a Water Release shockwave stronger than a paper bomb.
Wind nodded calmly.
"So that's it. They're all bombs."
Between them, Snow folded her arms and thought:
Bubble bombs… Very similar to the Bubble Technique used by Utakata, the former Six-Tails jinchūriki from the Mist.
But these colorful ones feel ridiculously childish.
"Hehehe, scared now?" Yurui laughed arrogantly. "My Bubble Ball Jutsu! These are just for protecting the flag. Dealing with you, we've got faster methods!"
As he spoke, he drew the twin ninja blades strapped to his back and charged forward in a burst of chakra, weaving through the gaps in the bubble field.
Troy and Tarui followed close behind, launching a coordinated assault.
"You two cover me!" Yurui shouted. "I'll trap them in bubbles and send them back to the countryside!"
Kansuke panicked.
"They're coming! So fast! I'll lose in close combat!"
At that moment, Snow slowly lowered her crossed arms and formed the Horse hand seal before her chest.
Wind turned his head and warned,
"Hold back! If you destroy the flag, we might get disqualified!"
Snow's black hair lifted without wind.
Her voice was calm and heavy.
"I'll hold back—but only enough not to kill them. The flag is up to you!"
—Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!
"Rooooooar!!!"
A torrent of blazing flames instantly flooded the rooftop, rolling toward Yurui's team like a tidal wave.
Three mouths.
Six eyes.
Yet not a single different expression among them.
When humans are overwhelmed by shock and terror, their reactions become strangely uniform.
"What kind of Fire Release is this?!"
"Are we dreaming?!"
"We're done…"
"BOOM!!!"
"AAAAH!!!"
The pressure wave from the advancing flames blasted them away, swallowing the bubble formation behind them.
All the bubble explosions were devoured by the sea of fire.
"Whoosh!"
At the critical moment, a ghostlike figure flashed beside Snow and froze in place—holding the victory flag in his hand.
Wind sighed.
"Snow… that was way too reckless…"
After the flames dissipated, a massive fan-shaped scorched mark tens of meters wide remained on the rooftop, covering most of the battlefield.
Snow lowered her hands and winked at Wind.
"As expected of my brother, the 'Phantom of Godspeed'~."
According to their father, Wind's talent rivaled that of young Shisui Uchiha in his prime.
Kansuke stared at the Cloud trio blown to the edge and at the flag in Wind's hand, scratching his head in disbelief.
Wait… we passed already?
"Is it just me, or… shouldn't genin from major villages be stronger than this? Did we just get lucky and meet the weakest ones?"
Not at all.
Troy and Tarui were already close to chūnin level.
Yurui himself was among the stronger chūnin-tier fighters.
In another timeline, Boruto needed scientific ninja tools and Wind-style shuriken techniques just to defeat him.
It wasn't that they were weak.
It was that this team was absurdly overpowered.
After all, to graduate from Darkshade Ninja Academy, two conditions were required:
First, you had to be at least twelve.
Second, your combat ability had to reach the level recognized by Konoha as "Special Jōnin."
Three such kids forming a team to take the Chūnin Exams…
It was pure dimensional suppression.
At the rooftop's edge, Troy and Tarui had already passed out.
Only Yurui remained barely conscious.
"D-Damn it…"
He struggled to crawl up, but ended up slumped against the railing.
Looking at Snow standing before him with folded arms, he laughed bitterly.
"Hey… that Fire Release earlier… were you serious?"
Snow replied seriously,
"Is that strange?"
"Strange?!" Yurui coughed. "In my village, even among jōnin, only a few can use something like that!"
Snow lowered her eyes.
"Sorry. I don't know your standards. Around me, people who can use even stronger Fire Release are everywhere."
Yurui stared.
"Hey, seriously? Do you live in some kind of monster village?"
Snow answered calmly,
"I don't know what you call a monster. I only know that the real monsters exist where we can't see them."
Yurui froze.
What is this feeling… It's like we're from completely different worlds.
Makes me look so small and stupid…
And I'm supposed to be Killer B's disciple…
He sighed.
Serves me right. I underestimated others because of their background.
You get beaten, you stand straight.
"I was rude to you earlier," Yurui said. "I accept it. Go ahead and hit me if you want."
"I'm not angry," Snow replied.
"Not angry?!"
In her mind flashed the image of her master from five days ago, during the apprenticeship ceremony.
She spoke softly,
"Have you ever seen an adult get angry at children?"
…But you're a child too!
Yurui desperately wanted to say that.
But in the end, he didn't.
Damn it…
I lost so badly I can't even complain.
After Snow's group left, Yurui lay there staring at the drifting clouds.
"Master Killer B… I'll have to apologize when I get back."
"Crack!"
Suddenly, without warning, the Eight-Tails bull pendant around his neck split apart.
Land of Lightning — Cloud Valley.
"Splash!"
Killer B crashed heavily into the water, sinking toward the riverbed, unconscious.
High above, Momoshiki Ōtsutsuki looked at the "pill" in his hand and frowned in displeasure.
"Only this much? Inferior creatures."
With a flick of his sleeve, he put away the spoils and gazed southwest.
"So many tiny chakra signatures gathering in one little place… And the largest one must be the 'Nine-Tails' Urashiki mentioned, right?"
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