Even though the three of them were expeg some kind of ambush—maybe an alliance of their enemies (IWA, KIRI) attag them together or something—nothing like this happened. Mainly because all others were busy either attag other teams or defending against attacks.

  There were only 12 scrolls, meaning only 4 out of 10 teams could go to the round, or some members from each team. That’s why the petition for the scrolls was fierce.

  While every team was fighting for scrolls, the Kumo ninja scattered in the valley were now trated in the same area. With the csh intensifying, this was when they would be he most.

  That’s why they were able to see Kaida giving a scroll to the Takigakure team as well as creating battle mayhem for some reason.

  “Konoha not only gathered one scroll for each of their members, but they even had extra scrolls?” one of the in responsible for prote said in bewilderment.

  “Looks like everyone’s expectation of Konoha’s eback was true. Go a this to the Raikage’s office. We may really o sider this seriously,” the Jonin in charge of handling the safety task of the sed stage said, his voice serious.

  Upon receiving the order, two ninja suddenly vanished from their position, leaving behind a little lightning chakra. Kumo ninja mainly used lightning-based movement jutsu for rather obvious reasons.

  ---

  *Raikage’s Office:*

  A was sitting in his office, doing some paperwork, which didn’t suit his muscur frame at all. But being the Kage of a vilge came with responsibilities. Even though he didn’t do nearly as much work as e, some tasks could not be left for others to plete.

  Knock, knock.

  “e in,” A said.

  “Sir, we have a report from the ninja monit the in exam,” his secretary Mabui, a tanned girl with silver hair, said.

  “What happened?” A asked, a little frustrated. Even though the partits had already sighe tract that they could die in the exam, it wasn’t like Kumogakure wouldn’t face problems if too many partits died. That’s why they had arranged ninja to monitor the exam.

  “Sir, as you know, the goal of the sed part of the exam was to gather scrolls and survive three days in the Land of Lightning,” Mabui said, at which A nodded his head.

  “Konoha’s team was able to gather not just three but five scrolls,” Mabui tinued.

  “Out of 12, right?” A asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And how many did Darui gather?”

  “Two, sir, but the exam isn’t over, and they may still get one more before it ends.”

  “Any specific reason Konoha performed this well?” Uncharacteristically, A asked calmly.

  “Yes, sir. Due to being first in the first round, they received the reward of starting the test one hour before the others. Also, they may have entered two other teams and taken their scrolls as well.”

  “May have?”

  “The fight ended so quickly that when our ninja arrived, there was nothio see,” Mabui expined.

  “Were they injured during the test?”

  “No, sir. Acc to the report, they were perfectly fine. Even their clothes and hair were , like they’d taken a bath or something.”

  “Do you uand what this means, Mabui?” A asked.

  “Yes, sir. There’s a very high ce that Konoha will win this in exam,” Mabui responded.

  Boom!

  The stoable in front of Raikage shattered in two parts.

  “Yes, they’ll win in my vilge, in front of our team, and we’ll bee a ughingsto front of everyone,” Raikage said, anger visible in his eyes as he finally lost his calm expression.

  “Sir, we’ve already done everything we could, even sending Darui. Unless we ‘ge’ the rules a little, I ’t see any other way for us to win,” Mabui said. Being the Raikage’s secretary for so long, she was used to his anger fits.

  “Are you suggesting I cheat for my vilge to win this exam?” A asked, his anger rising further.

  “Sir, the Daimyo specifically requested we win this time, saying something about ‘face’ or whatever,” Mabui reminded A about the message they received at the start of the exam.

  “Those bastards just want to bet on the win and loss of the ninjas. It’s us who have to worry about our reputation. Losing to Konoha, who’s been below average for the st few years, and that too in our own vilge, will be a huge setback for us. Sigh… Tell Raiden that we’ll have a two-week break between the sed and third stages of the exam.”

  “But sir, the dates of the in exam have already been fixed. All the guests are here, and even all three Daimyo are waiting for the third exam. We ’t just ge the dates like that.”

  “Even if the stadium is destroyed? Ask B to meet me at the stadium. We’re going to have a taijutsu spar there. And when Darui es, tell him to meet me.”

  “Sir, are you going to train him during those two weeks?” Mabui asked, for the first time showing a little emotion on her face.

  “Teach him? He was my father’s student and already knows everything he should know. But I’m going to have some spars with him to polish his skills a little,” A said, theuro his remaining tasks, knowing he was about to get very busy soon.

  Mabui, uandiask, quickly got to work—sending a messeo call B while emptying the stadium, and also sending a message to Darui about the Raikage’s orders.

  ---

  Every team had ered the building with the number of scrolls they could get their hands on.

  “As I said before, each scroll is your ticket to the third stage of the exam. So, those who have the scrolls, e forward. If a team only has one or two scrolls, they decide who will move forward with it,” the proctor of the sed stage said.

  Konoha’s team, without any discussio forward and submitted one scroll each, while some other teams quietly retreated, not having even a single scroll.

  The remaining teams started discussing. Those with one scroll were sorted—their leader would go to the exam. But those with two had to choose a sed person. After some discussion, this was the lihat came forward:

  - Konoha: Itachi, Kaida, Kabuto

  - Amegakure: Suiren, Ren

  - Kumogakure: Darui, Ayami

  - Sunagakure: Shima, Kuro

  - Iwagakure: Deidara

  - Kirigakure: Naoki

  - Takigakure: Shirogane

  All the teams that had to choose between two remaining members picked the oh better attack power. From Amegakure, Ren was choseo his profi lightning release, even though he didn’t know any A-rank jutsu. The same went for Sunagakure, where Juro was chosen because Tama was more focused on defehan offense.

  “Good. The rest of you leave now,” the instructor said. He was about to annouhe details of the stage when he received a letter from his subordinate. After reading it, he ged his words.

  “As for you all, you’ll be notified about the exam details ter. For now, you rest at your lodgings. Make sure to recover as soon as you ,” he tinued.

  “You guys leave now,” he said, and everyone dispersed.

  After exiting the doors, Deidara fronted Kaida and his group.

  “You’d better pray your first match isn’t against me, or you’ll be dead in the first round,” Deidara snarled.

  “Sorry, but who are you? I actally fot,” Kaida asked, feigning fusion.

  “You…!” Deidara growled as his teammates grabbed him to stop him from doing anything rash.

  “Captain, not now, please,” one of his teammates said as they held Deidara back. Too angry to tinue, Deidara simply left, vowing to return the humiliation tenfold in the round.

  ‘No matter what, I’m going to kill that bastard,’ he thought to himself.

  “Is there any particur enmity between you two?” Itachi asked, notig how Kaida took every opportunity to make Deidara as angry as possible.

  “Nope, but I don’t really like Iwagakure a lot. They almost eradicated our team. If not for Ryota sensing them from afar, we would’ve been ambushed 10 to 1,” Kaida said.

  “So you’re taking it out on him?” Itachi asked.

  “Sort of. But his eagerness for that is a major reason,” Kaida replied with a mischievous smile on his face.

  Both Itachi and Kabuto just shook their heads at Kaida’s antics.