Around 800 meters from their location, Fujin said, "Found them!"

That surprised Mieko, "Already?"

Fujin replied, "Yeah, but it looks like that Yamanaka is a sensor after all. He noticed it when I sensed them."

Hoka immediately activated his Byakugan, "Yeah, I see them too. Around 800 meters from our location. And yeah, that Yamanaka is trying to sense us too."

Fujin said, "Hmm, but I didn't sense anyone sensing me. It looks like we are out of their range."

Mieko replied, "That's good. It means that we have the initiative in our hands!"

Fujin chuckled and replied, "How exactly do you plan on taking advantage from 800 meters away?"

That made her scowl. She began thinking and soon said, "Let us just wait here while he is trying to sense us. It'll exhaust him. When he stops, we can move in by flickering quickly."

Fujin analyzed and said, "And how can you tell when he stops sensing us?"

She looked at Hoka. Hoka replied, "I can't tell that. I can see that he is sitting with a hand seal made. I can tell you when he stops that, but it won't be a surety that he stops sensing us."

Hoka kept his Byakugan activated, while Kaoru kept trying to sense them for the next three minutes. Nara Minori frowned, 'Something isn't right.'

He looked at Kaoru and asked, "Are they still not in range?" Kaoru shook his head.

Minori then said, "Act like you are tired, and stop maintaining that hand seal and get up. But keep your chakra field active."

Kaoru didn't reply and followed what his teammate said.

Hoka suddenly said, "He stopped and got up."

Fujin replied, "Too soon. It looks like they are baiting us."

However, Mieko got impatient. She said, "It doesn't matter, let's go!" And she flickered.

Both Fujin and Hoka followed her. Fujin said, "Prepare your jutsu." Mieko began supercharging her jutsu. Fujin did as well.

At around 400 meters, Fujin said, "He sensed us!"

Mieko frowned upon hearing that, and then snorted, "It doesn't matter. Let's hit them with a big one!"

Yamanaka Kaoru said, "Found them! 400 meters to our south!"

Nara Minori smirked, "Fell for it. They must have a Hyu…"

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Kaoru shouted, "They are coming here very quickly! And have built a hu…"

However, before he could complete it, a massive Fire appeared!

All 3 were dumbfounded! The fire was 25 meters wide and 10 meters high! It spread like a wave, and approached them at a rapid speed!

Minori shouted, "YUTAKA!!"

Akimichi Yutaka didn't need to be commanded. He immediately slammed his hands on the ground, and a dome appeared, covering all three of them. The fire passed over the dome, heating its outer cover. But it didn't damage it. The attack disabled all traps that they had set up in a short time.

Hoka saw them protecting themselves with an Earth dome. He made a hand sign and waited for the flames to pass.

Kaoru sensed his chakra spiking and said, "One of them is preparing another jutsu."

Minori thought rapidly and said, "Yutaka, make a way to exit towards the back of the dome. Be prepared to escape as soon as the fire passes."

Yutaka created an exit towards the back side of the dome. They could see a huge fire and immediately felt the heat. However, Hoka also saw the exit being made.

Soon, the jutsu died down and flames were carried away by the winds. All the trees in the area were burning and the fire was spreading.

As soon as the fire passed through the area, Hoka flickered in front of the dome and slammed his hands on the ground. At the same time, the trio in the dome ran out of it.

However, instead of the stone spears forming inside the dome, they formed right on the path they were running in. They immediately jumped. They managed to avoid lethal injuries, however, they were still slashed by the spears in many places. Especially Yutaka who was slashed at 7 spots and had a bad injury on his foot.

They finally managed to jump away from the stone spears, however, their misery wasn't over yet.

When they were still in mid-air, Mieko launched Phoenix Sage Fire jutsu on them. Fujin too was in a position to use Wind Explosion jutsus on them, but he didn't as that might kill them.

They didn't have any opportunity to dodge or defend and were hit head-on by the jutsu and fell to the ground. They were burnt. Even worse, their clothes caught fire!

Even before they could extinguish the flames, they all felt a kunai placed at the back of their necks. Fujin's wind clones said, "Don't move. Give up your scroll and we will leave."

Understanding the severity of the situation, Minori said, "Give it." Kaoru immediately handed the scroll.

Fujin asked, "Is this scroll real?" Minori replied quickly, "It is." Fujin looked at Hoka and Mieko, and they both nodded. Fujin did too and they all flickered away.

Minori, Kaoru, and Yutaka immediately doused the fire on them and ran away from the area. After moving around 500 meters west, Yutaka slammed his hand on the ground, 'Earth Release : Camp jutsu'

He created an underground cave, where they hid and began treating their wounds.

Yutaka smiled bitterly and said, "We lost to the youngest squad."

Minori sighed, "They were too swift and brutal. We didn't even have a chance to retaliate."

Kaoru was depressed, "This is depressing. We lost to 10 year old kids this time. I don't think I'll ever become a chunin!"

Minori and Yutaka felt bad on seeing him. He was almost in tears. However, they knew that, with their wounds, getting 2 more scrolls would be impossible. They both decided to train seriously for the next 6 months and become chunins.

Yutaka said, "Sorry Kaoru. Next time we will train even more and become chunins."

Kaoru didn't reply.

Elsewhere, Fujin, Hoka, and Mieko gathered together 500 meters north of where the fight happened.

Fujin said, "Well, this was easy."

Mieko grinned and said, "Yes, our surprise attack always works!"

Hoka sighed and said, "I too want to join in on your combo jutsu! It's so devastating!"

Fujin said, "Sadly Earth and Water don't mix up well with Fire-Wind. Anyways, now that we have our scroll, let's rush to the tower. It has only been 15 minutes since the exam started. We may become the fastest squad to clear this round!"

Hearing this, both Mieko and Hoka got excited. They both said, "Let's go!"

The trio ran at a very fast speed towards the tower! Fujin thought, 'There are only 6 more teams. It's unlikely that someone will go to the tower so soon.'

However, he was wrong. Very wrong!