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"White Cat" had put on abit of weight again, thanks to the abundant food he received in the latest Gacha.
This time, he had tried multiple different kinds of foods, and when combined with the previous ones saved beforehand, it was quite a feast.
The only positive thing was that he had received a special at food, which could be considered a minor gain in strength, albeit at the cost of 1000 points. Ah, how easy it was to get involved with Gacha and lose points! It was quite frustrating.
While the cat was busy eating, Obito and Guy tried to locate the Kusa ninjas defeated by Takeshi for their forehead protectors, but sadly, they returned empty-handed.
"Oh, Jiraiya-sama has white hair, so you becoming a white cat would make a perfect match," Obito said, offering his own understanding on why Takeshi changed his fur color.
"Meow!" Takeshi was already in a sad mood due to multiple useless draws. When he heard this, he became angry, jumped forward, and landed on Obito's head. Then, he grabbed Obito's hair and started pulling it in various directions.
Soon enough, Obito's hair became patchy. By the time he returned to the medical kit, Obito had inadvertently received a free haircut.
'Well, he looks much better than before,' Takeshi thought, admiring Obito's new hairstyle. In the eyes of the cat, this hairstyle was quite handsome, and Obito seemed to have helped him gain more than two hundred points – not a bad deal, considering it was his hard earned effort.
"Ahhh!" Obito was furious and wanted to charge at the cat with a kunai.
"Obito, you can't say that about Jiraiya-sama," Rin said.
'Exactly!...wait a minute!' Takeshi fell into deep thought after hearing this and didn't quite understand what Rin meant.
'Damn! She is scolding him for comparing me with Jiraiya! Why can't you say that about Jiraiya? Could it be that she thinks I'm a pervert like him! "White Cat" raised his head and stared at the little girl.
Guy couldn't comprehend this, as he was lost in thought – 'Who is Jiraiya?'
"But..."
"Jiraiya-sama is a good person. Do you understand that I won't allow you to talk bad about him behind his back?" Rin replied sternly.
"Yes." Obito acknowledged, feeling aggrieved. 'Jiraiya is a good person? Why would anyone believe that!'
Rumors had spread a while ago that Jiraiya was interested in the "princess" of the Akimichi clan and wanted to peek at her bathing at the edge of the bathhouse, but luckily, he was called out by this cat.
This was what many people thought happened, and they had no problem believing it because of Jiraiya's already bad reputation when it came to his perverted deeds.
Instead, we should praise this cat for being 'Heroic and brave' for risking his life to bring such a matter to justice.
But after thinking about it further – 'why did this cat specifically appear next to the bathhouse?' Obito felt that there was nothing wrong with his thinking process, and combined with the past experience, he saw the "truth" of the cat abandoning him and choosing Rin, and decided that this was a perverted cat.
There was nothing wrong with his logic and reasoning ability, but... "In addition, Takeshi is just a cat. He has a different thinking process compared to us humans, so don't put our human logic on that of a cat." Rin continued. As expected of a medical ninja, she would have a different understanding.
After hearing this, Guy was further confused and felt utterly clueless, while Obito couldn't help but feel sad and angry when he saw the cat's smirking look.
"Meow!"
"I know, I know." After saying this, he quickened his pace and moved forward – 'this was coercion and bullying, and I have done nothing to deserve this! I am not changing my mind; this is definitely a perverted cat!'
Takeshi was lying on the medicine box, looking very happy. This was the advantage of being a cat. Since he was so cute, others would often forgive him.
At least compared to himself, Obito suffered quite a bit. At this time, Guy finally interjected and asked, "Who is Jiraiya-sama?"
"It's not important, nya~... I have found another enemy; do you want to pursue him?"
"Lead the way quickly." Rin was full of energy. Since they were so close to passing, they were already more than halfway there for the goal of this exam.
There must be a lot of clues about various shinobi's passed through in this forest, but based on the conditions of ground and trees.
General logic for this is, the more clues left over, the easier the prey, of course, this could also be a trap, but unless the enemy is a Special Jonin or Jonin level, the danger is not that high; they can definitely get more forehead protectors each and win this round.
Takeshi was very glad that he had peed on others when this round started; otherwise, how could he easily find the enemies around him?
The key was that those who were marked were relatively weak rookie ninjas, so there was no need to worry about accidentally kicking a hornet's nest.
Although Obito was angry, he could only follow along. With Takeshi as the lead, it wasn't difficult to find the enemies. But what shocked everyone was that when he followed the source of the smell, they found two corpses hidden in the frest. And their forehead protectors had not been taken away.
There were no wounds visible on the surface, but... "It's poison." Rin squatted down and examined the bodies.
With Guy's help, she turned the body over and carefully checked the necks. They saw an injury the size of a pinprick. Sasori?
Takeshi thought of the puppet Sasori was using, and usually, people taking the exam would gather in small groups to avoid being ganged up on.
There were only two corpses here, and one of them was taken away, since he could smell three people. He sniffed around.
Indeed, there should be three people here, but the scent of the third person disappeared midway.
It may be that the body was sealed into the scroll after death, or Sasori may have used some other method to cover up the scent. This shouldn't be difficult for someone like Sasori.
"What's going on?" Obito followed Takeshi, feeling nervous – he vaguely felt that the matter here was related to the "Sasori" mentioned before.
"Meow~ It's probably a Sasori; there's no way to track him." Takeshi replied, and then returned to Rin. Seeing the tragic state of the corpse, he couldn't help but feel shocked.
This was the lethality of Sasori. The reason why he retreated after a single attack was because he was afraid of attacks that weren't easily visible, nor easy to expect, such as poison breath or poison coated on thin needles, like for these victims.
Once he was poisoned, death was definite. The scientific shinobis and researchers in the ninja world were so scary!
Black Cat was full of regret that he spent so much of the points he had just gained after messing with Sasori...Forget it; those points are already spent, and it wasn't a complete loss, anyway. There was no point in regretting it.
It was better to figure out how to deal with Sasori. Sasori doesn't know how to completely eliminate the smell. But it is still difficult to detect him from such a far range, so they must be careful at all times to avoid being ambushed.
Fortunately, they got forehead protectors enough to pass, and now all they had to do was find the exit.
The message should be engraved somewhere in the woods. But the forest was so big; where could he find the place where the words were engraved?
It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. It seemed like they needed to find another enemy team to interrogate...
'While I don't have too much experience in this field, my interrogation methods are certified. Even Minato gave a thumbs-up and praised me, and I can also make some points along the way. Thank you in advance for your noble sacrifice my future victims!'
After searching around some more, they found two more bodies. Same death condition. Now, Obito was immensely terrified.
Before, Takeshi whispered, "Sasori is observing in secret." If Takeshi hadn't discovered and chased him away, there would be one more the corpse lying on the ground now.
"Let's... let's run quickly, I fe-, I feel..."
"We have to inform the examiner and Orochimaru-sama." Rin took a deep breath, her eyes passed over Obito, Guy, and Takeshi one by one, and finally focused on Takeshi. "Takeshi, you will need to run for a while."
He is not a contestant, so it doesn't matter even if he climbs the mountain. In addition, if there is danger here, she can also use Summoning Jutsu to bring Takeshi back.
This is the best method for now. Of course, Takeshi knew it, but he was worried. He doesn't know where Sasori might be.
'How could these three people escape if they were ambushed? We need Byakugan, as long as I could find a Hyuga clan member to support my team. As long as even if only one is found, it will be fine.'
The problem was that the forest was too big, and there might be poison traps arranged by Sasori. Although Sasori's purpose is to hunt down the Kekkei Genkai users, he is a maniac. Who can guess what the maniac will do?
At least Takeshi couldn't guess it. Fortunately, the poison traps can be identified by smell, so he thought for a while and told the rest of his team his plan, which was quickly unanimously approved.
They will look around for a Hyuga clan member to team up with, and then Takeshi will go to notify Orochimaru and Ebizo.
However, at this moment, a small snake climbed onto the corpse behind them and stared at the scene for a few seconds.
On the top of the mountain, Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly, and then raised a sneer at the corner of his mouth.
'This Sasori from the Sand Hidden Village is... interesting.' He didn't know if Ebizo knew what Sasori was doing in the forest down below, so he decided to take another look.
If he could use this to trick the Hidden Sand Village into an unfavorable position, that would be the best.
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