CH_87

"Got it." Both of them knew Tōji wouldn't say something without reason, so they agreed.

The three of them reached the central tower of the Forest of Death by evening.

Along the way, they hadn't run into any other examinees… With only 39 examinees in such a vast forest, it really wasn't easy to cross paths.

They did encounter some wild beasts, but since all three were agility-type shinobi, they simply avoided them without needing to fight.

The central tower wasn't open for this exam. A few proctors were stationed around it to explain things to examinees.

『Seems like it doesn't matter where you go—even the central tower has nothing special.』

"It's getting dark. Should we keep looking for scrolls or…?" Neru looked at Tōji.

"Let's head toward the east gate. We'll check for anything along the way. If we find nothing, we'll find a place to rest around nine." Tōji didn't think they could spend all three days and nights searching non-stop—they needed proper rest.

"Fine—let's do that." Neru agreed immediately.

Natchi naturally had no objections—he was happy to go along.

Tōji found it strange. 『Didn't Konoha want a higher pass rate for the Chūnin Exams? This doesn't look like a way to increase passing rates at all.』

『Unless—starting tomorrow, they'll split everyone up to search for scrolls?』

By then, it was starting to get dark. They encountered another squad—but Tōji didn't recognize a single person in that squad of total nobodies…

"…" The six members of the two squads stood motionless in the woods, the silence stretching on awkwardly.

"Want to fight?" Tōji broke the "peace," finding the standoff pointless.

"We haven't found any scrolls yet… what about you?" One of the opposite squad members didn't seem particularly tense.

Maybe they genuinely didn't have anything the other side wanted, so they weren't worried about "unfriendly exchanges."

"We haven't found any either. But how do we know you're telling the truth?" Neru asked.

She didn't really think they'd found a scroll that easily—but she couldn't rule out the possibility that they'd gotten lucky.

"If you want to fight, do you think we're scared of you?" The other side's morale suddenly shot up.

"So? Fight or not?" Natchi whispered to Tōji, still following his lead.

"How confident are you?" Tōji asked Neru instead.

The opponents looked to be about twelve or thirteen—three male genin, all tall and lean, completely unremarkable.

"Hard to say—but we have to have some faith in ourselves." Neru had already reached for her tool pouch.

Tōji didn't really want to fight. There was a small chance the other side had found a scroll, but they weren't guaranteed to win the fight.

Even if they won, if the enemy didn't have a scroll, it'd be a waste of time. If any of them got hurt, it'd be even worse.

"Let's fight! I need to show off what I've been training for!" Natchi threw his opinion in.

"Alright." Tōji felt a bit reluctant, but this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He'd bet that the other side had been lucky earlier—and now it was their turn.

As Tōji reached into his pouch for tools, Natchi pulled out his transformation gear.

"Go! They want to fight—maybe they have a scroll!" The other side saw Tōji and the others moving and decided to strike first.

Everyone probably figured that since it was a competition within the village, no one would go too far… at least they wouldn't go for kills. That made them less restrained.

"Go!" Neru called out softly to Tōji and Natchi, charging forward first.

Shing shing shing! Under his 【Cat Cloak】 state, Natchi's movements were so fast they looked like he was using a low-level Body Flicker.