After speaking, Mochizuki Hui glanced meaningfully at a few trees around him before walking away.
As soon as he left, four shadows emerged from behind the trees, looking in the direction he had gone with expressions of shock.
Each of these figures wore white animal masks and black hooded cloaks—obviously, they were members of the Anbu.
The reason these Anbu were present was to ensure the safety of the children. After all, this was a real combat exam, and if things got out of hand, causing serious injury or death, it would have dire consequences.
"Everyone underestimated you, Mochizuki Hui," one Anbu member murmured to himself. The others remained silent, all equally astonished by the boy's abilities.
Meanwhile, after dealing with the four teams, Mochizuki Hui made his way directly toward the exit of the small forest.
Thanks to his ability to absorb and sense various forms of energy, he knew exactly where Jiraiya's group was hiding, despite their best efforts to stay concealed.
There were different strategies for passing this kind of exam and securing forehead protectors from other teams.
The first type of team would actively search for other groups, aiming to defeat them and steal their forehead protectors in an open fight.
The second type would hide within the forest, setting traps and waiting for those aggressive teams to fall right into them.
The third type was the most cunning: they would quickly enter the forest, sneak back to the exit, and set up traps there, waiting for the victors of the other teams to come to them. It was a strategy of lying in wait to ambush the final survivors.
After all, one of the exam's requirements was to return to the training ground with the forehead protectors. To do that, everyone would need to pass through the exit.
So waiting by the exit was often the best plan.
However, this strategy had a downside: if the victors from within the forest were too strong and had gathered all the forehead protectors, the teams waiting at the exit could end up as easy targets.
When Jiraiya's team saw Mochizuki Hui slowly walking back from the depths of the forest, their first thought was that he had been defeated and had lost his forehead protector to another group, eliminating him from the exam.
But when they noticed that he was carrying several forehead protectors in his hands, their eyes widened in disbelief. They exchanged confused glances, utterly baffled.
"What's going on? How does Mochizuki Hui have so many forehead protectors?!"
"No idea! Did the other teams all take each other out, and he just got lucky?"
"How could that even happen? Do you even hear yourself?"
"Well, then what do you think happened?!"
"Uh… I don't know…"
Their silent exchange of glances conveyed the unspoken conversation between them.
Mochizuki Hui, though fully aware of their hiding spot, pretended to be oblivious and continued walking casually toward the exit of the forest.
At one point, he stepped on a thin wire, snapping it.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Immediately, dozens of shuriken and kunai shot out from the leaves of the trees on both sides of him. Above, a large net fell swiftly toward him.
This was the trap that Jiraiya's team had meticulously set up, with the thin wire acting as the trigger.
In the face of such dangers from both sides and above, most people's instinctive reaction would be to dodge either forward or backwards.
And Mochizuki Hui chose to leap backwards.
Whether he moved forward or backward, there were traps waiting for him in both directions. He knew this, but he deliberately moved backward—because Jiraiya's team was lying in wait behind him.
"Got him!"
As Mochizuki Hui leapt into the air, seemingly with no place to evade, Jiraiya appeared first, swiftly throwing several shuriken at the airborne target.
At the same time, the two other boys on Jiraiya's team emerged from the sides, kunai in hand, rushing toward Mochizuki Hui to finish him off the moment he landed.
These two were considered the strongest out of all the participants in the exam. They were confident that, with their carefully laid trap, no matter which team they faced, they could eliminate at least one member.
Once they took down one, the remaining two could handle the rest.
Unfortunately for them, they had no idea how powerful Mochizuki Hui truly was.
They were about to find out the hard way.
Mochizuki Hui swung his kunai mid-air, deftly deflecting the shuriken aimed at him. At the same time, he had already seen through the incoming attacks from the two boys.
As he landed, he swiftly grabbed the wrists of the two boys just as they attempted to stab him with their kunai.
With a powerful tug, Mochizuki Hui yanked both boys toward each other.
Bang!
The two boys collided, dazed and dizzy, collapsing to the ground in a heap. Stars spun in their eyes, and they were no longer capable of fighting.
It was so easy. Dealing with academy students like this was child's play for Mochizuki Hui—it was like an adult fighting toddlers.
His strength, speed, reflexes, perception, and combat intelligence...
He completely outclassed them in every aspect.
After taking down the two boys, Mochizuki Hui turned to face Jiraiya, who stood there in shock.
"If you don't want to get beaten up, I suggest you hand over your forehead protector," Mochizuki Hui said with a smirk.
He hadn't seen the forehead protectors on the three boys, so they had likely hidden them somewhere. As long as all three weren't taken out at once, there was always a chance for one of them to escape and make a comeback.
Mochizuki Hui had to admit, Jiraiya's teammates had excellent awareness for their age.
Too bad they were up against someone completely out of their league.