"Even grilled fish needs to be sweet-flavored?", Aoba was a little surprised.
"You don't understand, sweet is tastier."
She simply sat down directly next to Aoba.
"Well, sorry about that. I only brought these seasonings," Aoba spread his hands helplessly.
Anko didn't say much, "Well, occasionally trying other flavors isn't bad either."
After speaking, she began eating with great relish.
———
"Why is there such a delicious smell?"
Not far away, the Sand siblings stopped in their tracks. Temari suddenly looked around and asked nervously.
"Let's go check it out and we'll know," Kankuro said nonchalantly.
With Gaara around, they indeed didn't have to worry too much.
The two of them simultaneously looked toward Gaara.
They were both waiting for him to make a decision.
As long as he didn't go crazy, they would go along with him.
Gaara's eyes were also fixed on the direction the smell came from.
He covered his own eye with his palm, and the sand around him slowly gathered.
Forming an eyeball, flying toward the direction of the smell.
After a while, Gaara raised the hand that had been covering his eye.
"Let's go take a look."
———
Back on Aoba's side, they were still happily grilling fish and chatting.
Laughing and talking.
Compared to taking the exam, it really did seem more like a vacation.
However, it wasn't long before nine figures suddenly appeared in the nearby river.
They were nine dark silhouettes, almost blended into the night.
Even without using any concealment ninjutsu, just with the cover of darkness, it was very difficult to notice them.
Almost silently, the nine-man group from Hidden Cloud moved slowly toward the riverside campfire where the group was grilling fish.
After entering the Forest of Death, the three Hidden Cloud teams had quickly regrouped using preset signals.
Moving together increased their chances of passing the exam.
By the riverbank, Aoba and the others were still listening to him telling some wildly imaginative story, looking completely unaware of their surroundings.
This reassured the Hidden Cloud nine-man group quite a bit. As they approached the riverbank, a hand wave signaled the nine of them to suddenly strike, forming hand seals and launching an attack toward Aoba's group.
But at that moment, chains extended from behind Aoba and Karin.
Swinging toward the attacking Hidden Cloud members.
"What the—"
Several Hidden Cloud ninjas were startled and immediately realized something was wrong.
Just as they tried to dodge the chains, they suddenly felt as if their brains had taken a heavy blow.
A splitting headache struck.
All of the Hidden Cloud ninjas instantly let out intense screams that echoed through the nighttime forest.
Aoba and Karin's chains instantly bound all the Hidden Cloud ninjas.
The battle ended in an instant.
After casting a praising glance at Sakura floating in the air, Aoba hung all nine ambushers upside down from tree branches.
And also collected the scrolls on them.
"Just what you needed," Aoba tossed a scroll to Shikamaru.
"Thanks a lot," Shikamaru's gratitude was sincere.
This really saved him a lot of trouble.
Now he could continue his energy-saving lifestyle.
"You've already collected your scrolls?", Anko, noticing Aoba didn't take any scrolls for himself, asked curiously.
Aoba nodded.
Their team had previously taken the Earth Scroll they were missing from the Sound ninja team.
Tenten's group had gotten theirs from the Grass ninja squad Karin dealt with.
So only Shikamaru's team had been missing scrolls.
Now they were all complete.
All that remained was heading to the Central Tower tomorrow.
And aside from the Hidden Cloud nine-man group that made a move, many other teams had already gathered nearby, but no one dared to act now.
They had seen the Hidden Cloud ninja's fate, clearly just asking to be defeated.
"He actually took out those nine Hidden Cloud ninja in an instant? That guy is really this strong?", Watching from afar, Kankuro showed a surprised expression.
Those weren't some small fry.
They were Hidden Cloud ninjas.
And yet they were wiped out in an instant.
"It must have been some kind of genjutsu," Temari guessed.
Because she noticed that earlier, the Hidden Cloud ninja screamed before being hit by any visible attack.
"Gaara, are we still going?", Temari looked at Gaara with a somewhat worried expression.
She was also concerned that the scene just now would affect her little brother, causing him to lose control.
But in Gaara's eyes appeared a hint of hesitation, for some reason, from the ninjutsu Aoba just used, hHe actually felt a strong sense of threat, as if even the monster inside him trembled for a moment.
And hid deeper.
"Let's go…"
Gaara was about to suggest leaving, when a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.
"You three, since you're already here, why not join us for a bite?"
All three were startled.
Especially Gaara, he didn't sense the man approaching at all.
Temari instinctively reached for the iron fan on her back, but her wrist was grabbed by a hand.
She turned to look, it was Aoba.
"You…", She looked again and saw that the original spot still had another Aoba.
"I'm just a clone," Aoba smiled.
The three of them felt even more creeped out.
Temari and Kankuro exchanged glances, then looked at Gaara again.
They originally thought Gaara might explode in rage, but now his emotions seemed unusually calm.
Not even a hint of going berserk.
After a moment of silence, Gaara lightly nodded.
"…Then we'll humbly intrude."
Temari and Kankuro widened their eyes in shock.
'Is this really our younger brother?'
'Could it be someone impersonating him?'
Aoba was also a bit surprised.
In his impression, this guy should be a deeply violent, bloodthirsty lunatic who wanted to kill people at any moment.
Of course, that's not meant to insult him.
It was normal for him to be a lunatic.
If he himself hadn't slept for several days and had people trying to assassinate him every now and then, he'd probably smack a passing dog too.
But based on the two times he had encountered him, this Gaara seemed like a rather polite, emotionally stable, and well-mannered ninja.
Probably not someone pretending, because the acting was too bad.
Aoba again sensed the chakra inside him.
'That evil, violent chakra.'
'It is undoubtedly a Tailed Beast.'
'Seems like keeping a mindset based on the original story isn't reliable, this kid's doing pretty well.'
Made him feel embarrassed to hand him over to Orochimaru as a test subject.
Gaara: 'I'm crazy, not stupid.'
Shukaku: 'I may be reckless, but I'm not dumb.'
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