The ninjas from the Grass Village began circling the area where we were preparing to fight, moving like a pack.

Sora, Renji, and I watched their movements cautiously, waiting for them to attack before counterattacking.

We had already been through a similar situation recently when we faced Satoshi and his "puppets." This time, we were prepared.

'They're not strong... but I don't know any of them either. Maybe they make up for their weakness with strategy,' I thought, looking at their leader, who didn't have his scroll on display.

'Either way, all I have to do is disrupt their formation.'

"Renji, Sora, you know what to do." I smiled, alerting our rivals and causing them to advance toward us with agility.

Contrary to what we thought, two of them went after me first, trying to even the odds — or take out what they believed was the most troublesome first. Even so, that was a mistake.

Sora and Renji started trading blows with their leader, while I dealt with the other two.

This time, it wasn't complicated at all. One of the ninjas tried to attack me with shurikens and kunais, which were repelled by my skin thanks to the Rock Skin technique I had activated during their first hostile move, while the other tried to attack me hand-to-hand.

[Battle Instinct Activated.]

I easily blocked all their blows — which were nowhere near as powerful as any of the recent enemies I had faced — and with an open-palm strike, I hit him in the center of his body and sent him straight into the spider web that had almost trapped me earlier.

[You have incapacitated your enemy.]

'Thanks, Tetsu, for teaching me that cool move.'

The other, seeing that I had easily defeated his ally, hesitated for a few seconds — which I had discovered to be the worst thing a ninja can do on the battlefield — and I took the opportunity to make hand seals and trap him with mokuton roots.

"Mokuton: Root Bind!"

[You have incapacitated your enemy.]

To finish, I watched Renji and Sora fight the last of them, who couldn't react to the two and was being practically humiliated by my friends' combination and near-perfect synchronization. When Renji kicked our opponent to the forest floor, I quickly grabbed him by the legs with some roots and immobilized his arms to avoid problems.

[You have incapacitated your enemy.]

[Combat ended.]

[You have won.]

"Okay, you win, get me out of here..." their leader said.

"Ha! And you think saying that will get you out of here? Big mistake coming after us," Sora replied, sticking his tongue out at him.

"Let's just get this over with... where's your scroll?" Renji asked impatiently.

"Shit." He sighed deeply.

"It's in the left pocket of my leg," he concluded.

Renji took the scroll, which was indeed in the pocket he had indicated.

[Heaven Scroll obtained.]

I approached the Grass ninja calmly.

"You can try again next year. If you want a tip, next time use your tactics better... I mean, don't face your opponents without a plan or trap."

"Hmph..." He just turned his face away and closed his eyes, annoyed.

At that moment, a ninja appeared on the log we were standing on, and we prepared for a possible fight, only to see that the newcomer was Shisui, wearing a ninja vest and typical jounin clothing.

"From here on, I'll take care of them... you did well," he said with a smile.

Renji puffed out his chest, trying to show strength, and Sora just smiled back, since he didn't know Shisui.

I knew we couldn't talk then, so I just smiled back and followed my allies.

"Let's go, everyone," I said as I leapt onto a distant tree to begin running.

As we ran, Sora commented excitedly:

"We got the scroll so easily, we'll be the first to reach the central tower!"

"Actually... I have another idea," I replied.

She narrowed her eyes, confused.

"I'm sure we're the strongest here, and to finish this faster, we can simply reduce the number of opponents for the next phase as much as possible... what do you think?"

"That's very dangerous, isn't it? Depending on the group we encounter, we could have serious problems, not to mention draining our resources," Renji said.

Sora agreed with him, so we stopped on the ground to discuss my suggestion more carefully.

"Okay, you're not wrong, Renji, but we can get around this easily."

I made hand seals and summoned eight wooden clones.

"I'll send the clones out to travel around the arena looking for enemies. As soon as they encounter someone, they'll pass the information on to me and we'll head towards them. In the meantime, I'll also use my sensor to find opponents."

"We'll be safe because we won't be separated, and we'll still get information from the other ninjas... well thought out, Riku!" Sora said.

"Well... thanks... but I'm only doing this because I don't want to waste too much time in the third phase. What do you say, Renji?"

"Hm... okay, I hope it works and that we don't wear ourselves out too much," he replied.

"Relax, if things get complicated, I'll be responsible for covering you and using most of the chakra, since my reserves are large."

The two agreed, and I signaled to my clones, who entered the trees around us and spread out to find other ninjas.

"Well, this way then. It's the only direction I didn't send the clones," I said, pointing ahead toward the center of the arena.

***

We started running again in search of other teams, and on the way we had some problems with giant insects and other animals that tried to devour us several times.

When we finally got close to the sounds of combat, we hid, trying to observe what was happening.

"Let me see if I have anything that can help us here..." Sora muttered, pulling a scroll from her bag.

"I found it." She smiled, and from inside the scroll she summoned binoculars so we could observe what was happening.

From a distance, we saw the ninjas fighting — some genin who had trained with us at the academy, along with others from Konoha.

While we watched, I made hand seals to activate my sensor and check if there were any other ninjas nearby. Once I confirmed there weren't, all we had to do was wait for the right moment to attack.

"Sora, you start. Renji and I will take the cue to act. Renji, when the time comes, I'll cover you," I said.

We all agreed, and when Sora saw her opportunity, she threw three kunai with explosive tags on the ground near them.

Boom!

The explosion was the perfect start for our formation. Renji ran quickly through the smoke and, using his sword, began to cut down the ninjas who still didn't understand what was happening.

I didn't need to see what was happening through the smoke, since as long as my sensor was active, that wouldn't be a problem. Whenever an enemy got close enough to Renji to attack, wooden spikes shot out and stopped them.

Sora helped with her fuuinjutsu seals and her creativity, and when the smoke cleared, there were no ninjas left standing — except us.

As a final move, I trapped all the unconscious ninjas with roots and took their scrolls.

[Sky Scroll obtained.]

[Sky Scroll obtained.]

[Earth Scroll obtained.]

[Sky Scroll obtained.]

[Combat ended.]

[You won.]

....

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