The squad was from a minor village and didn't stand a chance.
Two of us on one of them, each—technically three for mine, since the guy I and Rina faced also faced Shiro. I know, usually, you'd expect a dramatic back-and-forth, flashy jutsus, poetic descriptions of willpower clashing under sunlight for a few chapters. But let's be honest—those only happen when both sides are even.
This wasn't that. Seven good shinobi versus three.
We crushed them.
Their Earth Release defenses cracked faster than cheap porcelain. My opponent barely got a single wall up before my paralysis tag locked his leg, and Rina slammed a chakra-coated palm into his chest. He went down, gasping like a fish.
Scroll secured.
The squad had been a weak one. They went down too fast. Then came the expected betrayal.
Souta took a solid ambush kick to the ribs from his temporary partner. The guy flipped backward like a gymnast, landed with a grin, and Souta went flying into a tree.
The scroll he'd just acquired rolled out of his hand, bouncing and tumbling… straight downhill toward the tower.
There was a collective pause, followed by all of us diving after it at once.
"Mine!" Rina shouted.
"Ours!" I yelled back.
Even Shiro joined in, "Bark!"
We collided mid-sprint, tangled in wires, and ended up in a messy cluster right as new chakra signatures flared nearby.
I didn't even have to look up to know what was coming. Suna headbands.
Three of them. All wearing smug grins and carrying that same frowning arrogance like it was part of their uniform.
They saw the scrolls in our hands. We saw the greed in their eyes. And just like that, the second round turned into a full-blown battle royale again.
Wind blades sliced the air as lightning crackled, heat waves distorting the clearing. Kunai flashed like silver streaks. I switched straight to Shogeki, slamming pulse after pulse to keep them at bay.
"Rina, left flank!"
"Already on it!"
We were still holding when a stray Wind Breakthrough tore through the chaos and smacked Shiro from behind. He flew forward with a startled grunt and crashed into the dirt. Rina cursed loudly.
"Suna's down one, Shiro's down, and Souta's—where is Souta!?"
"Tree," I called out, ducking under a kunai. "He's probably developing a deep emotional bond with it."
Rina glared at me but didn't stop fighting.
I set off the series of traps I'd placed earlier. We were too pressured.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Explosions rattled the clearing. Smoke and dust swallowed everything.
A Suna shinobi took a partial hit, his scroll spinning into the air. I jumped over a crackling lightning bolt, caught the scroll after two bounces, and rolled back into position.
Three scrolls now. We just needed to survive until Souta returned to balance the numbers.
But before he could even rejoin, another squad showed up — Kumo this time.
In the chaos, I noticed that it was we who were getting cornered the most. Deliberate or not, the chips fell that way. Souta was injured, and Shiro was down. We would all be out in the next minute. Dammit. I was out of tags. To prevent tag spamming by rich kids, the number of tags was limited.
A shadow flickered past me. I raised a Kunai, but the attack never came. Random solo Shinobi. Using the chaos to get to the tower. "Clever bastard!" I dodged a shuriken. That's when my mind paused. I am carrying all our scrolls. Teams had to submit them. Nobody said all of them had to be there to submit them.
If it had been a real battle. I would have never done this. But that's the thing you see. It was not.
I turned around and abandoned my squad. "Ren?" Rina shouted, but Souta intervened. "Clever bastard! Rina, don't let them follow him." They changed positions to suit the delay maneuvering while I sped through the trees and ran directly into the tower. A few shinobi were sitting at desks to collect the scrolls. In the chaos, nobody followed me. After all, most didn't know that I had all my team's scrolls/
I rushed to the nearest one and handed him the loot. "Team Kagenori. Participants Hyuga Souta, Inuzuka Rina, and Kurosawa Ren." Only then did I stop to breathe properly.
"I see. Members three, scrolls three, fine, you pass."
I turned around to help my friends when an examiner stopped me mid-step.
"No one with a complete mission is allowed back in."
"What? That's ridiculous—my team's still out there!"
"Rules are rules. Sit down, kid."
And that was that. Bureaucracy wins again.
So I sat. And waited.
And waited some more.
And then waited a bit extra, just to make sure I understood what "eternity" feels like.
One hour later, the medics came in with stretchers.
Three of them.
All mine.
Souta was grinning despite the bandages. "Look who's sitting comfortably! Did you at least save us some ramen, you traitor?"
Rina, her hair singed and her pride bruised, pointed at me dramatically. "You! You abandoned your comrades!"
Even Shiro gave a bark. I didn't need to depak ninken to understand him.
The medic pushing her stretcher sighed. "Please don't sit up, miss."
"I'll sit up if I want to yell at him properly!" she shot back, then winced and lay back down. "Ow. Worth it."
Shiro looked half-dead but still managed to mumble, "Ren... remind me to never trust your definition of teamwork again."
"Hey," I said, hands up defensively, "I call that an efficient delegation of survival responsibilities."
Souta laughed from his stretcher. "Translation: he ran faster than us."
"Not true," I said. "I tactically advanced toward the objective."
"Yeah," Rina muttered, "You kurosawas, always so cowardly."
"I prefer the term visionary strategist."
That earned me a bandaged pillow tossed weakly in my direction. It missed by a mile.
The examiners were trying their best to maintain order, but the medbay was already full of shouting, groaning, and general chaos. One of the staff muttered, "Konoha kids are loud this year…"
I leaned against the wall, smirking. "See? We're memorable."
Rina shot me a sideways look. "You're something, alright."
Souta raised a fist weakly from the stretcher. "To our fearless leader, the fastest deserter in the exam!"
Everyone in the room laughed — even the medics.
I took a small bow. "Thank you, thank you. I'd like to dedicate this victory to my legs and their unwavering sense of self-preservation."
Rina sighed, shaking her head but smiling all the same. "Next round, Ren, you're not running anywhere without us."
I grinned. "Wouldn't dream of it."