Chapter 70
On the other side of the dense forest.
At first, Inuzuka Kiba was irritably smacking the bushes in front of him.
He had been following the most recent residual scent trail left by the academy teachers, but it suddenly cut off midway.
However, Akamaru—lying on the ground—after sharing the same disappointment, suddenly began twitching his little nose repeatedly.
Then, as though he had caught something, he jerked his head up and dashed off in one direction.
Inuzuka Kiba possessed a sense of smell no less keen than a ninken's.
He quickly picked up the sudden scent as well and hurriedly followed Akamaru.
Finally, in a crevice covered by vines,
they spotted a scroll inside.
"Hahaha! Akamaru, we really are the best partners!"
"We should be the first ones to find a mission scroll, right!"
Taking advantage of his small size, Akamaru wriggled inside and bit down on the scroll to drag it out.
Just as Kiba was about to take it,
the inexplicably excited Akamaru couldn't help but start chewing on the scroll in his mouth.
In the end, Kiba barely managed to rescue the scroll from Akamaru's jaws and carefully tucked it into his pouch for safekeeping.
If he went straight back now, he could complete the exercise.
But Kiba still wanted to see how the other teams were doing.
…
"Let's keep moving deeper."
After obtaining their first scroll, Naruto's team didn't pause for a moment. He immediately made the next decision.
They were a three-person squad and needed three scrolls to complete the task for everyone.
The commotion from Kiba earlier had come from the east, and they had already found a scroll in their current area.
The probability of a second scroll being hidden in the same vicinity was very low.
After all, in this 3-kilometer-diameter training ground,
scattering nine scrolls evenly would better allow the students to demonstrate their abilities.
If the others hadn't succeeded yet, seven scrolls should still be hidden—they needed to find them quickly.
"Head west!"
Sasuke had no objections, and Hinata silently followed behind Naruto.
As they advanced deeper, they slowly checked the surroundings along the way.
After walking for about ten minutes, Naruto—who was at the front—suddenly stopped and raised a hand to signal the two behind him to halt.
"There's something ahead."
All three looked through the trees toward an open clearing in front.
Standing prominently there was a roughly half-person-tall, crude wooden model of something unrecognizable.
The craftsmanship was rough, and red paint had been sloppily applied to draw what looked like ferocious patterns.
On the ground centered around the model, a white-painted circle with a radius of over ten meters had been drawn.
"This is… one of the prop animals?"
Hinata spoke softly, a mix of tension and confusion in her voice.
After all, Iruka-sensei's rules had been very clear: entering the range designated by a prop animal meant being judged "dead" and required voluntary withdrawal from the exercise.
This area was essentially a forbidden zone.
But Sasuke simply raised an eyebrow and said: "It looks way too ugly."
He wasn't the only one who thought so.
In fact, almost every student who saw this prop animal today had laughed at it.
Naruto also chuckled as he exchanged words with Sasuke: "Where does it even look like a beast? Don't tell me Iruka-sensei made this himself—it looks so weird!"
Even the slightly nervous Hinata nodded in agreement.
Not far away, Iruka—who was hiding and observing from a tree—heard the students' evaluation and a thick black line immediately appeared on his forehead.
This was a creative idea he and the other teachers had come up with together, yet it was being dissed so harshly… though yeah, the craftsmanship really was a bit lacking…
While Naruto was chatting casually with Sasuke,
part of his attention remained on the wooden beast. His mind raced.
Iruka-sensei had said to treat every exercise as a real mission—not as child's play.
So, if a real ninja encountered a "beast" blocking their path during a mission, what would they do?
In an urgent mission, bypassing it would be the best choice.
But when time wasn't critical, there were other options.
After all, this wooden beast had a very familiar pattern right on it.
Anyone who looked at it would find it instantly recognizable.
Because just two days ago, they had seen this exact pattern—on the throwing targets during shuriken practice.
"Hinata!" Naruto spoke up: "Check inside it—see if there's anything special."
"Mm!"
Hinata activated her Byakugan, shifting her vision to the beast.
"No chakra flow—it's just ordinary wood… wait."
Hinata spotted the anomaly: "There's a very small scroll inside it."
A tiny scroll?
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a glance, both realizing the same thing at once.
"I get it!"
A glint flashed in Naruto's eyes: "This is a hidden rule!"
The corner of Sasuke's mouth also curved slightly.
Sure enough, they had both thought of the same thing. Sasuke continued Naruto's sentence: "The rule prohibits 'approaching,' but it never said we can't 'attack' it from a distance."
"Hitting the exact center of the target should count as 'killing' it!"
This was the true purpose of placing this prop in the exercise!
Testing the students' observation skills, throwing accuracy, and—most importantly—judgment!
"I'll do it!"
Sasuke stepped forward and drew a kunai gleaming with cold light from his pouch.
Throwing was his specialty.
Without any extra movements, he simply drew his arm back and flicked his wrist sharply!
Shhh—!
The kunai turned into a black shadow, whistling through the air and striking dead center on the beast's target with perfect precision.
Sizzle… sizzle…
Red mist rose from the point of impact.
Under the three's astonished gazes, the wooden beast suddenly shuddered once, then completely fell apart into a pile of materials.
It scattered across the ground with a clatter.
It worked!
Naruto nodded to himself in satisfaction.
Far away, the observing Iruka also nodded at the same time.
As expected of these two students—they figured out the hidden rule so quickly.
After confirming the situation with Naruto and Sasuke, Iruka disappeared to continue observing the other students.
Naruto looked at the pile of scattered wood in the distance.
Since the prop had been destroyed, the "beast" was effectively dead.
The white circle on the ground naturally lost its effect.
Precise judgment was one of a ninja's essential qualities.
Naruto strode boldly into the area marked by the white paint circle.
Sasuke and Hinata followed without hesitation.
Among the scattered wooden boards lay a scroll one size smaller than a regular mission scroll, resting quietly.
Naruto picked it up and noticed it lacked the number marking that regular mission scrolls had on the surface.
He chose to open it directly. Inside was a series of strange, cryptic symbols that looked like scribbles.
Sasuke leaned in, frowning in thought: "What is this? It looks a little familiar."
Hinata gathered her courage and moved closer to Naruto from the other side.
She stared at the symbols and was the first to recognize them: "Um… I know what this is… It's an encryption method used for passing intelligence—a basic code!"
"A code!"
Sasuke—prompted by Hinata's words—immediately understood as well.
"Here, give it a try!"
Naruto held the scroll up with both hands and handed it to Hinata.
Hinata pursed her lips, hesitated for a moment, then began attempting to decode it.
She first placed her hands above the scroll and released a small amount of chakra.
Then she formed several seals, controlling her chakra to influence the scribbled symbols on the scroll.
"Open!"
The cryptic symbols actually began to move, quickly rearranging into familiar text.
"Hinata, you're amazing!"
Naruto immediately praised her.
Hinata's face flushed instantly. She fidgeted with her hands in front of her.
"I just… happened to remember… this kind of thing…"
Seeing Hinata's shy reaction, Naruto was already used to it.
He picked up the scroll again and read the decoded text aloud to the other two:
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