After passing through the gate and putting distance between himself and the perimeter, Shorai leaped toward the canopy of a towering tree. He came to a halt on a thick branch, hidden by the dense foliage.
He stood perfectly still, closing his eyes as he unleashed his pulse perception. The range had increased again, finally stretching to a hundred-meter radius, though the strain made the edges of his vision flicker.
'I can sense two squads from the nearby gates... like me, they've stopped to get their bearings,' Shorai thought. 'Dangerous animals, poisonous flora on one side. Shukaku's unstable vessel, Orochimaru, and the Mind Stone's vessel on the other.'
'Damn it. And here I thought this would be a pleasant experience,' Shorai gave a wry, melancholy smile. 'Again... it's one thing to read about it, and another to live it. This reminds me of...'
His thoughts drifted, seeking a familiar anchor.
"Huh?" His brows furrowed. 'This reminds me of... what?'
He repeated the thought, but encountered a wall. There was something missing. A strange blankness—like a scratched spot on a record or the hazy memory following a blackout.
'I was definitely doing something...' His composure began to fray. 'The time frame of my previous life between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two... right after my graduation... it's gone.'
It dawned on him then. This was the missing piece of what Ino had glimpsed—the crack in the foundation of his mind.
'I was doing something in that period...' He tried to force the memory, but it remained out of reach. 'Based on where I was from, I should have been in university or mandatory military service. But what exactly was I doing?'
He was so preoccupied with the void in his history that he nearly missed a shadow closing in on his radar.
A blur moved toward his cheek. His mind snapped into overdrive, his perception of time dilating until the world moved at a crawl.
'A flying leech?'
On instinct, Shorai's chakra surged through his legs. He dashed backward using a burst of speed, the creature missing his face by a mere centimeter. He landed sideways on a nearby trunk, watching the organism hit the branch where he had stood.
'How is anyone supposed to sleep in here?' Shorai felt a chill. 'This... thing...'
Before he could react to the first one, several more leaped from the shadows, congregating on the branch.
'They hunt in swarms,' Shorai analyzed, his eyes sharpening. 'One mistake here costs a life. It's a miracle the canon squads didn't all die from blood loss.'
He briefly considered using repellents or seals, but decided on a more direct approach. 'Let's help the ecosystem a little,' Shorai smirked, bringing his palms together and channeling sharp, high-frequency wind chakra between them.
When the transparent, spinning circle of energy reached its peak, he thrust his palms forward.
"Wind Release: Slicing Wind Blast!"
The compressed current roared outward like a localized hurricane, sweeping through the trees and shredding the mass of leeches in its wake.
Shorai exhaled, regaining his stance. He tapped into the Reality Stone to warp his senses, scanning the area once more. 'No immediate threats... but I've alerted several squads. Including a member of Neji's team.'
His perception caught a distinct aura. A girl was moving toward him, stopping just at the edge of his range. He felt her alertness vibrating through the air.
'Tenten,' Shorai thought, before sensing another group making a slow, combat-ready approach from the opposite side.
"Come out. Your stealth is mediocre at best," Shorai called out. In his mind's eye, three dots were hiding behind a wide tree twenty-five meters away.
"Hu-hu-hu. Seems you aren't too shabby, brat."
A male ninja, looking to be about eighteen, stepped out from behind the trunk. His teammates followed, all wearing the headbands of the Hidden Sand.
"Let me guess..." Shorai began, his voice flat.
"Surrender your scroll!" another barked, crossing his arms to reveal three kunai gripped in each hand.
"How dishonorable," Shorai said, his expression suddenly shifting to one of worry and innocence. "Ganging up on a lone shinobi in this dark forest..."
Then, as the Sand ninjas began to smirk, Shorai's mask vanished. His face grew murderously cold, his voice dropping into a low, predatory register.
"How. Lucky. For. Me." With each word, the gravity of his killing intent expanded, making the trio involuntarily shudder. "The sheep thought they were a pack of wolves."
"Stalling won't save you!" the leader shouted, making a quick hand sign.
The teammate with the kunai sent them flying toward the white-haired boy. As the weapons passed the leader, he added his own jutsu to the mix.
"Wind Release: Slicing Winds!"
A sudden gale accelerated the kunai to lethal speeds. Shorai watched the attack with bored eyes. To him, the projectiles were moving through molasses.
He took a slow breath and released it.
Swift Release: Shadowless Flight.
The Sand ninjas were still grinning at their target when a distortion appeared beside their leader. He had no time to blink. A sharp strike to the temple sent him into instant darkness.
Thud.
Shorai stood over the body, not even glancing down as he looked at the remaining two.
"Jyari!"
"You! You should be—!"
The survivors blinked as a chill ran through them, meeting those cold, turquoise eyes.
"One down for a few hours," Shorai's voice was uncharacteristically low. "Two to go."
The Sand ninjas' eyes moved to exchange a look at a snail's pace. Before their eyes could meet, Shorai distorted again.
Zoom. Thud.
Zoom. Thud.
All three lay unconscious. Shorai stood still, his mind stretching out to sense the area. 'This team... they were too close to my entry point. Did my presence change the deployment?'
A shift in the brush nearby caught his attention.
"I won't harm you, Tenten," he announced, his tone warming.
He felt her jolt in surprise before she reluctantly stepped out from her cover. She stared at him with wide brown eyes, her hands trembling as she clutched a kunai and a scroll.
"S-Shorai-kun? Right?"
"Be at ease..." Shorai paused, realizing the absurdity of the situation. "Actually, ignore that. We're in a survival exam. I'm aware you won't believe a word I say. Especially after seeing that."
"You're as fast as Lee, Shorai-kun," Tenten said, keeping her guard up. "But you're not going to fool me."
"Fine. Let's just say that as part of my personal code, I don't target my own village's teams unless they're the only ones left. Alright?" Shorai sighed and nonchalantly turned back to the Sand ninjas to begin looting.
He sensed a strange mix of emotions from her. He had left his back completely open, a gesture of either supreme arrogance or total trust.
"You aren't worried at all..." she voiced her thought.
"I'll be brutally honest with you, Tenten." Shorai looked over his shoulder. "Your skills are a terrible match for mine. Without your teammates, you aren't a threat."
"How self-assured for a solo participant," she frowned, though she didn't attack. "Did you kill them?"
"Just unconscious. I'm precise with my strikes." Shorai went through the leader's pockets and finally pulled out a scroll. "Earth Scroll. Same as yours, I assume?"
Tenten huffed, relaxing slightly. "Hmph. Yeah. Same as—"
Before she could finish, Shorai's eyes snapped toward her—or rather, toward the space directly behind her. Tenten tensed, but as she saw his gaze shift, she realized she wasn't the target. She dashed to the side, dodging just as a figure reached for her with an open palm.
"Damn... I missed," a distorted voice hissed.
A ninja in a raincoat rose from the brush, flanked by two teammates. They encircled Shorai and Tenten.
"Amegakure?" Tenten noted the Rain symbols.
"Arrogant boy. We need that scroll," the leader said from Shorai's left.
Shorai's lips curled into a half-smile. "Am I hitting a jackpot today?" He looked at the trio. "You obviously possess a Heaven scroll."
"Surrender yours and we won't shed blood," the Rain ninja said, his voice sounding hollow and echoing.
Shorai's gaze turned bored. "Do you guys know any actual elemental jutsu? Or is hiding behind clones your only tactic? The two fakes won't fool me."
The leader showed a flash of surprise. "Perceptive..."
'A genjutsu?' Shorai flared his chakra. His Reality Stone-warped perception trembled briefly but held firm. He could see the real ninjas hiding behind the replicas.
"Nice try."
Zoom.
Swift Strike: Pressure Point Destruction.
Pah-pah-pah-pah!
A flurry of finger strikes rained down on the leader's body, followed by a final palm strike that sent him crashing into a tree trunk.
"Argh! The hell..." the man gasped, trying to rise. "What are you waiting for? Get him!"
"Nezumi-san!" one called out, but Shorai was already moving.
"W-wow..." Tenten stood frozen, watching the distortions of white, black, and turquoise blur through the trees.
Within seconds, Shorai stood before the disabled Nezumi. He made an inviting gesture with his hand. "The scroll. Nicely, this time."
Grimacing in pain, Nezumi reached into his pouch and tossed a Heaven scroll. Shorai caught it with a smirk.
"Nice doing business with you."
"Oh, shove it..."
"Why so serious? Your abilities just aren't at this level yet." Shorai shook his head and leaped back to a branch near Tenten. "Morning, sunshine."
Tenten blinked, her seriousness returning. "Are you really a Genin? You aren't even out of breath. Who are you, really?"
Shorai simply smiled. Then, as if a switch had flipped, his voice shifted into a low, melodic song.
"I'm just a soul... whose intentions are good..."
His smile brightened.
"Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood..."
The words trailed off as Shorai suddenly jerked his head to the side, his expression going sharp. Tenten watched him, bewildered.
"See you around, Lady Tenten. Good luck!"
Zoom.
He vanished, leaving her alone in the silence of the woods.
Shorai reappeared a safe distance away, immediately unleashing his crimson shield. He felt his headband tremble, followed by the sickly yellow waves of a mental intrusion.
As he blocked the contact, his perception pierced through the forest until he found the source.
An enraged Naruto was unleashing a primal fury on a giant snake, which was being ridden by the black-eyed woman from the Grass. He sensed the terror radiating from Sakura and the shock from Sasuke.
'No time to waste.'
He accelerated toward their location, a blur of white that startled several teams who couldn't even register what had passed them.
Suddenly, a wall of brown appeared in his path. Shorai twisted in mid-air and landed on the ground, staring at a trio emerging from the shadows.
"Oh. Would you look at that..." Kankuro smiled threateningly, the paint on his face catching the dim light.
"The Special Associate," Temari grinned, unstrapping her fan.
And then there was Gaara. He stood with his arms crossed, his eyes devoid of anything resembling human emotion. "Sho-rai..."
"Good to see you're all in good health. Very... youthful of you," Shorai smirked, evaluating their stances. "Kankuro. Temari-chan. Gaara."
Shorai's eyes narrowed into slits. "I don't have time to play. I'm running late."
"You arrived just in time to die," Gaara said. Without moving a muscle, the sand from his gourd surged forward.
"No hello?" Shorai watched the sand approaching at a snail's pace.
The sand collapsed on the spot where Shorai had been, creating a massive splash.
"He was an arrogant jerk," Kankuro remarked.
"Still am," Shorai's voice came from a high branch above them.
"You're good at running, eh?" Kankuro snickered.
"Shut it," Gaara ordered, making his brother flinch. The red-haired boy raised a hand toward Shorai, his fingers curling into a grip. "Show me what you've been hiding, Sho-rai!"
Shorai sensed two things: the fading energy of the Mind Stone in the distance, and the sand rising from all sides to form a coffin.
Before the sand could close, Shorai blurred again, appearing on a branch well out of reach.
"I'm terribly sorry, guys. As much as I'd like to test myself against the Desert, I have an appointment." He gave them a sly wave. "Bye!"
In the next second, he was gone, leaving a very irritated predator behind in the dust.