"They're Suna Shinobi... Akamaki, Onifukuro Ra, and Tamajirushi. During the written exam, Akamaki controlled Onifukuro Ra and Tamajirushi through Chakra Threads, forming the three of them into a single unit. They didn't just steal information; they shared it too. This Akamaki is a command-oriented talent. At the moment, it's unknown what Ninjutsu talent he possesses..."
In the monitoring room, Inoichi Yamanaka simply stated the names of Akamaki's squad and their performance during the first exam.
His superhuman memory, honed by years of dealing with intelligence, combined with his abilities for targeted memory analysis, comparison, and extraction, made him intimately familiar with the candidates of the first exam. He remembered every subtle performance of every squad—where points were deducted, where they were added, how many were lost, and the final score; he knew it all clearly.
Onifukuro Ra was the beanpole, while Tamajirushi was the big guy; they were like limbs extending from Akamaki's body.
Tamajirushi charged forward rapidly, forming hand seals while running... a choking cloud of sand and dust rose, blotting out the sun.
Accompanied by a wind that wasn't particularly strong, it delicately enveloped a large area of the surroundings.
Onifukuro Ra spread his arms; his clothes clung tightly to his front and back, making him look like a giant flying squirrel as the fabric turned into membranes. He took flight within the dust, vanishing into the haze. Chakra Threads extending from his five fingers connected to his waist and limbs respectively, and slight tremors transmitted information from Akamaki—
Higher up, directly below the target coordinates, marked by Chakra Threads... marked by Chakra Threads!
Three Chakra Threads extended from Akamaki's toes, connecting to the clothing of the three targets, and then upward to Onifukuro Ra.
Onifukuro Ra, Akamaki, and the target three-man squad formed an irregular triangular cross-section.
Suddenly!
Akamaki's finger twitched slightly, and the Chakra Threads instantly pulled taut.
This was the signal for action.
Onifukuro Ra took out a large net tied with eight copper rings from the tool pouch at his waist, spread it out from the sky, and let it fall over their heads.
By the time the three targets spotted the large net, it had already fallen over them. Before they could react further, a powerful gust of wind pressure hit them in the face, pouring into their eyes, noses, mouths, and ears. Their entire beings went "buzz" as they fell into a state of shock. By the time the three emerged from their shock, the swirling yellow sand and the scroll in their hands were gone... "A pity... another Heaven Scroll... in that case, let's destroy it!"
Onifukuro Ra looked at the scroll in his hand with disdain.
"Then destroy it!"
Akamaki thought for a moment and agreed.
The scroll was committed to the flames, leaving a pile of ash on the ground. The three then quickly departed, continuing to cut across their predetermined route... Her blue eyes fixed on the monitor, witnessing a one-sided battle between Ninjas; Ino's heart felt thoroughly invigorated.
The rhythm of the entire battle could be summed up in one word:
Fast!
Planning, action, engagement.
Victory and defeat were decided in an instant.
The actions of Akamaki's three-man squad were practically an art form.
However, Ino had some doubts in her heart: "Strange, why didn't they seem to appear in the manga? Logically, geniuses like this..."
Especially Akamaki's fighting style—it was so bizarre, so untraceable. If not for the three great masters beside her—Inoichi Yamanaka, Inuzuka Tsume, and Uchiha Fugaku—personally pointing it out and explaining it to her using their rich experience, Ino wouldn't have even understood how Akamaki was fighting.
Chakra Threads are invisible and intangible, but people who have experienced the war with Suna can understand this mode of combat.
The only thing that was hard to understand was:
He was clearly a Puppeteer who could use Chakra Threads, yet he had no puppets in his hands. Instead, he used Chakra Threads to control his teammates, achieving a trinity that transcended conventional coordination, allowing the squad's strength to be exerted to its maximum... Inuzuka Tsume marveled: "This batch of Suna Shinobi has produced two extraordinary geniuses. If such geniuses grow up..."
Unfortunately—they might not be able to grow up. Hearing Inuzuka Tsume's praise, Ino immediately realized the reason they never appeared in the future—they died young.
A dead genius is no genius at all... The other Suna genius, Shu Feng's combat was an entirely different style. Under the cover of two teammates, she used Wind Release to narrow the target's range of movement. As many as seventy Chakra Threads extended from her hands and feet, and small devices hidden in her wrist guards, pauldrons, belt, and shoes flew out one after another, dancing densely around her.
One Chakra Thread controlled one small flying device. These devices were shaped like willow leaves, though some were thick and heavy while others were light and thin.
The willow leaves pressed forward like a hurricane, quickly strangling and flexibly changing positions. Controlling these seventy-plus willow-leaf-like small devices was actually much, much easier than controlling a single puppet; if she could, she could even control more.
The willow leaves gathered into clusters and circled the target squad. Shu Feng's voice was indifferent and cold: "Hand over the scroll, or don't blame me for what happens!"
Even if the target squad was very unwilling, they could only drop the scroll.
Another squad of Ninjas from a small village was eliminated... Watching Shu Feng's "Sword Control Style" visuals, Ino's heart was full of absurdity: Are we sure this is the Ninja World? Not Mount Shu? Thousand Sword Technique? Not Ten Thousand Swords Returning to Ancestor?
This refined visual style was simply incompatible with the common fighting methods of the Ninja World—but it had to be admitted, it was truly sharp.
In comparison, Konoha's two Genin squads appeared "ordinary." They hadn't encountered any battles... Perhaps because the environment they lived in was too comfortable, they hadn't even thought about searching for enemy Ninjas—or they had some ideas but didn't know how to implement them. Ino looked at these two outing-like squads and then gave Inuzuka Tsume a strange look—Konoha's Genin are missing a Kiba, well, his mom will do.
They even felt a bit bored.
Fortunately—
Shu Feng's squad also failed to find a suitable scroll, so another scroll was discarded... 7 squads, 7 scrolls. Among them, 3 were Heaven Scrolls and 4 were Earth Scrolls. Now, only 2 Heaven Scrolls and 3 Earth Scrolls remained.
The two Konoha squads held Earth Scrolls, as did Suna's Shu Feng squad. Currently, the remaining Grass Shinobi and Suna's Akamaki squad held Heaven Scrolls.
This terrible situation... "Damned brats... if Akamaki's squad runs into the Grass Shinobi and burns another Heaven Scroll, how are we supposed to keep playing?"
Inuzuka Tsume was about to go crazy—last time they played this scroll-collecting game, there weren't any issues at all. How did these two Suna squads make it so the game can't even continue this time?
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