Chapter 136: The First Round: The Canyon Escape
Hiroto Uzumaki drew a wooden tag from the box. On it was the number "4." The examiner nodded, and his team was led to the fourth starting point.
Killer Bee, Yahiko, and Konan drew "1."
"This must be a sign that I'm going to get first place!" Killer Bee said with a swagger. "A good number!"
Yusuke Akahoshi, Ganseki, and Akane drew "8."
All the teams drew their lots and were assigned their starting points.
Though the rules of the first round had been explained, many of the details were still a mystery. The smarter ones were already deep in thought, while the not-so-smart ones were still confused. And the least intelligent were just excited.
The new generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio had drawn starting point "2." When they arrived, they found that it was just a circle drawn on the edge of a cliff. Three other teams were already there.
Shikaku Nara just sighed.
A short while later, after all the teams were in position, the examiner announced, "A new team will descend every three minutes, in the current order."
By now, five teams had gathered at starting point "2." But unfortunately for them, there were no other Konoha teams.
Choza Akimichi looked down from the edge of the cliff and felt a wave of dizziness. The canyon was indeed hundreds of meters deep. But it was not a narrow gorge. It was hundreds of meters wide in some places, and only a dozen or so in others. And there was a forest and a stream at the bottom, a natural wonder of complex terrain.
Soon it was their turn. "There are footholds along the cliff," the Rain ninja examiner said. "You can make your way down. Of course, if you're strong enough, you can just jump."
Shikaku's mouth twitched. Who would be stupid enough to jump?
But just as he was thinking that, he saw a figure at the starting point on the opposite side of the canyon. With some kind of jutsu, a pair of huge wings had appeared on his back, and he was gliding down.
Well, well, Shikaku thought, so the Joint Chunin Exams are something special after all.
The examiner handed him a scroll. "This is the map," he said. "Please set out as soon as possible. If you feel it is too dangerous or wish to give up, just shout 'surrender' or 'forfeit.' We have comrades below who will protect you."
Shikaku nodded and exchanged an encouraging look with his two lifelong friends, Inoichi Yamanaka and Choza Akimichi. Then they leaped down, using the large rocks on the cliff face to descend into the depths of the canyon.
Konan was gliding through the air on her paper wings, a little trick she had developed herself. But it wasn't easy to fly with them. For now, she could only glide. So, starting from the highest point, she had the best opportunity to use the long air time to scout the entire exam area.
Her teammates, Killer Bee and Yahiko, were heading to the rendezvous point as planned.
And she, in the air, had become the focus of attention for all the other participants.
"There are a lot of strong ones here," Pakura said, watching her from a distance. "Tch. Flying is so convenient. She's probably already seen the whole canyon."
Their starting point, "6," was behind a waterfall.
"Pakura-senpai," the yellow-haired Yashamaru said, "she seems to be losing altitude. It looks like she can't stay in the air forever."
Just then, the examiner handed them their map. "Then let's go," Pakura said, taking it.
The youngest of them, Sasori, said nothing, just followed closely behind.
The first thing Shikaku did after landing was to find a hidden corner and open the map scroll.
"It's not a complete map," he said, his eyes narrowing.
It was a very detailed map of a canyon-like terrain, but it was clearly only a piece. And there were no words on it, just a somewhat unrealistic landscape painting.
"What's wrong, Shikaku?" Choza asked, looking over his shoulder.
"I see," he said after a moment. "Based on the proportions of the canyon I saw from above, this map is probably only one-seventh or one-eighth of the whole thing. Which means the map has been divided into seven or eight pieces. And this piece might not even be for this area."
"Then it's useless?" Inoichi asked.
"No," he said, shaking his head. "The map is very detailed. The 'escape point' can probably only be found with this map. The more pieces you have, the better. This map will be the target of everyone's scramble. Those who understand will know its value, and those who don't will still want to collect them to gather information."
"Do you remember the lottery tag?" he said, his eyes still on the map. "It said '2.' The tag was too small to have a two-digit number. So I'm guessing there are no more than nine starting points. And there were five teams at our starting point, a total of fifteen people. I didn't count this morning, but there were probably about 110 or 120 people. So there should be eight starting points, which is likely the same as the number of map pieces. But I don't think everyone from the same starting point got the same map. That would be too easy."
"Shikaku," Choza said, his head spinning, "just tell us what to do. We'll listen to you."
In a hollow tree.
Minato Namikaze handed the map to Tsume. "This round is a test of our intelligence analysis skills," he said. "And of course, there will be fighting. I'm guessing that if we get multiple map pieces, we'll find something. And with dozens of teams, there can't be dozens of different map pieces. So many of us must have gotten the same piece."
"Then what does it mean by 'escape point'?" Shibi Aburame asked, pushing up his glasses.
"It's probably a special location that can only be found by combining multiple map pieces," he said. "But the examiner specifically said that each escape point can only be used twice. So there probably aren't many of them. A lot of people will be eliminated in this round. So, we have to collect maps, analyze the intelligence, find the escape points, and... fight. We have to be fast."
A hatch opened in the ground, and a team of ninja climbed out.
"Starting point 7 is underground?"
A young ninja with a straw hat dusted himself off.
"Han," another said, "let's see the map."
He opened the scroll and took out a piece of the map. He stared at it, confused. "It looks like it's only a part of the map. But how are we supposed to find the escape point with this?"
"If it's only a part," another said, "then let's go and get someone else's map. Maybe if we put them together, we'll find something."
"Wait," the spiky-haired Mahiru suddenly said. "Look at that rock. Something's not right."
On a high cliff in the distance, a protruding rock had some unnatural-looking marks on it. If you weren't familiar with rocks, you might not have noticed anything. But the three of them, from the Hidden Stone, worked with rocks every day.
"Wait a minute," another said. "The map paper has similar marks on it too."
They compared them for a long time, but found nothing.
"It seems to be some kind of 'code'," the broad-jawed Oiwa said. "It looks like we'll have to go and get another map. We can't solve it with just one piece. So this round is a test of intelligence analysis, code-breaking, and combat."
"Just what I was hoping for," Han said, slamming his fists together. "Let's go. Or all the escape points will be gone."
In the center of the canyon, on a high cliff, the Hidden Rain had built an observation deck. The high-ranking officials of the various villages were all there.
Dana took a deep sip of the juice a Rain ninja had handed him.
This was what it was like to be an observer, to watch others fight and die. It was so relaxing.
Just then, he heard an announcement from behind him. "His Excellency, the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning, has arrived!"
"Pfft!"