The forest was silent as if it were anticipating the battle between them. The three genin were on different trees, observing Kaito and his team without showing any reaction.
Kaito was also studying his opponent, trying to figure out their strengths and weaknesses.
"I can't figure out what he's good at without forcing him to fight. The others were straightforward because it was visible, but this guy is just standing there, covered in that gray cloak," Kaito thought as he glanced at his opponent. The clothing covering most of the body made it difficult to make a quick judgment.
At that moment, Kaito hurled several shurikens toward his opponent, who easily dodged by jumping to another tree.
Kaito smiled as he performed a hand seal and spat out dozens of water bullets. The ninja was still in the air, so he didn't have time to dodge, having to throw several kunai to defend himself. However, some of the bullets still grazed his shoulder.
The ninja landed on the tree, observing his wounds, surprised that this had happened.
"You're better than I expected, but you'll lose. Hand over the scroll, and I'll just break your bones," the ninja began speaking, looking at Kaito.
"Man, that was just a basic jutsu, and you're saying I'm good? I think it's you who isn't very strong," Kaito taunted, glancing around slightly.
His friends had already started their battles and seemed to be getting the upper hand, so Kaito didn't worry anymore.
"For a kid, you're pretty bold," the ninja smiled, unfazed by what Kaito had said.
In the next moment, he leaped toward the ground, forming several hand signs in the air. As his feet touched the ground, Kaito saw several earth spikes rising from the ground.
Kaito dodged by jumping back repeatedly, feeling the ground about to break every time he landed, forcing him to evade.
After a certain distance, Kaito felt that the ground was normal, so he stopped dodging and looked at his opponent, who was now smiling.
"Nice dodge, kid," he said, then ran towards Kaito, forming various different hand signs.
Seeing this, Kaito didn't want to remain only on the defensive and also formed several hand signs.
"Water Style Jutsu: Multiple Large Water Bullets," Kaito spoke in his mind, and in the next moment, four huge water bullets appeared in front of him.
Next, Kaito fired them one by one. The ninja managed to dodge the first three by jumping and dodging from side to side, but the last one didn't come as expected. It was then that he realized Kaito had transformed the last one into several smaller bullets.
"Darn, there must be at least 500 there," he was frightened at the sight of the numerous water bullets.
In the next moment, a barrage was fired in his direction. The ninja panicked and used his jutsu, and a barrier of earth appeared in front of him, successfully defending against the bullets. He breathed a sigh of relief as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, but then he looked to the side, seeing Kaito and his huge amount of water bullets.
Kaito smiled and fired again, this time using all the bullets at once, not wanting to give the opponent any chance.
Desperation was written all over the ninja's face as he started dodging and running, but the barrage of bullets was close behind, forcing him to dodge and run even harder.
But in the next moment, he felt a sharp pain in his face, and a force throwing him in the opposite direction.
He didn't know when Kaito had appeared in front of him.
Kaito had appeared in front of him, delivering a powerful kick to his face.
"Darn, when did this kid get here..." This was his last thought as his vision blurred, but he remained conscious until he hit a tree, the impact causing him to faint immediately.
"That was too easy. I was expecting a bit more of a challenge," Kaito was disappointed, looking forward to a real fight.
Kaito approached the enemy cautiously, waiting for any sign of a reaction. When he realized that the ninja was truly unconscious. He began to search for the scroll, which he soon found, with the word "Sky" written on it.
"Hehe, lucky me, he had the scroll we needed. Now that we have both, we can move forward to pass the exam," Kaito took the scroll and sealed it inside his storage scroll.
Kaito smiled and stored the scroll. After that, he looked at Ryuji and Hikari, who were still fighting.
At that moment, Ryuji was exchanging blows with his opponent. Their fists, covered in stone and iron gloves, were colliding, and neither was backing down.
Ryuji seized a moment of opportunity and punched his opponent in the ribs, causing one of his guarding hands to lower slightly, giving Ryuji room to strike his face.
His opponent noticed the move and tried to dodge, but he didn't expect Ryuji to give up the punch and kick him again in the ribs, causing him extreme pain.
Ryuji didn't wait for the enemy to recover and attacked again, but this time, he kicked him in the face, hitting him directly and throwing him to the side. Fortunately, his gloves absorbed all the impact.
The gloved ninja started to get up from the ground, but in the next moment, he only saw a fist covered in stones coming toward him. He didn't have time to react this time, the previous kick had left him dizzy, so Ryuji's blow landed directly on his face, slipping through the gap in his defense caused by the dizziness.
Ryuji's punch threw the enemy back again, making him faint immediately as he rolled in the dirt.
Ryuji looked at Kaito, who had already finished the fight, and gave a thumbs-up sign. They then watched Hikari.
Hikari wasn't having a hard time; she was controlling her opponent's mind without even needing to use her possession jutsu.
Her opponent ran towards her, throwing punches that seemed like they would surely land. Kaito and Ryuji were already prepared to intervene, but in the moment the ninja's punch was about to hit her, her eyes went slightly opaque and quickly returned to normal. The punch missed the side of her face, and Hikari took the opportunity to punch him in the neck, causing the ninja to struggle for breath as he moved away.
Kaito and Ryuji were surprised because they didn't expect this scene. They didn't know how the opponent had missed that attack. They continued to watch, and this happened a few more times. Despite the pain in his neck, the ninja continued to advance after circling Hikari a few times, but at the last second, his blows always missed by a hair's breadth.
This left Kaito and Ryuji more intrigued until they saw the opposing ninja finally falling, unable to fight any longer.
Kaito and Ryuji approached Hikari, who was smiling as she looked at them.
"Hey, guys, these were weak," Hikari said as she looked at her defeated opponent lying in front of her.
"Haha, I thought the same, Hikari. But what technique did you use to defeat him? I've never seen you use it before," Ryuji asked curiously.
"True, Hikari, that was cool to see. It seemed like the opponent had a vision problem. What were you using?" Kaito smiled as he asked as well.
Hikari's smile grew even bigger at Kaito's question.
"It's a secret."
Kaito and Ryuji looked at her suspiciously. Normally, she would have no problem sharing, but they quickly understood what she was doing.
"I'll only tell you if you tell me why you could use ice jutsu. What do you think? A secret for a secret," Hikari proposed.
"Okay, you want to know about that. Well, where do I start?" Kaito scratched his head as he spoke.
"I'm a descendant of the Yuki clan, so I have a Kekkei Genkai. You guys know what that is, right? That's it," Kaito explained.
Ryuji and Hikari were shocked to learn that Kaito was descended from a clan that had already been destroyed, but they didn't ask any more questions; after all, they had answered their own questions.
"Well, this is a jutsu from my clan that few people learn. It's called Instigation Jutsu. Basically, I make the opponent have the desire to do something that he can't control, but it only works for a second. That's why I only used it in the last second to make him twist his body a little, causing his punch to miss by a small margin," Hikari briefly explained how her jutsu worked and looked at her teammates, clearly impressing them with such a technique.
"Hehehe, so that makes you even stronger. Great," Kaito smiled, pleased that his teammates were getting stronger.
Ryuji was also excited about Hikari's increased strength; after all, she wasn't as good at taijutsu before, which always worried him a lot. Now he could relax a bit, as this jutsu was perfect for her.
"Let's go, let's head to the tower. I want to finish the exam soon, now that we have both scrolls," Kaito said to his friends, who agreed.
The three walked further into the dark forest, listening to several other distant battle sounds. They were advancing very cautiously, so they were slowly moving towards their destination.
The day quickly passed as they continued to advance; a day had already passed since the start of the exam.
As Team 11 advanced towards the tower, carefully surveying the environment, they heard the sounds of battles happening a little further ahead. The three quickly prepared themselves to fight at any moment.
As they approached slowly, they soon saw who was fighting.
There were many people, including three ninjas with the Sound Village headband and several Konoha genin. Kaito immediately remembered the fight from the anime where Sasuke unleashed the power of the mark Orochimaru had left on him.
Kaito observed carefully and soon saw Rock Lee lying down as he had already been defeated. He also saw Naruto and Sasuke lying side by side while Sakura was applying medical treatments. She had indeed listened to Kaito and was really taking care of him.
Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji were also present, fighting against the Sound Village ninjas.