After checking Motoi's condition and confirming he wasn't in any life-threatening danger, Hiko finally let out a sigh of relief.
But when she looked at Aoshi again, her expression was no longer calm like before—it now carried a trace of fear. Though she was a female ninja, her strength wasn't far off from Motoi's. The two of them were about evenly matched.
In their usual sparring matches, wins and losses were evenly split. In other words, if Aoshi could knock out Motoi with a single kick, then the same could easily happen to her.
And that was something even the Chunin in their village couldn't pull off.
And now you're telling me—this kind of guy is just a genin? How could that possibly be?
Hiko wasn't the only one who felt this way. Even Killer Bee, who was currently locked in fierce combat with Kushina, found himself questioning reality.
How could someone with that level of strength still be a genin? If he really were just a genin, then why hadn't he ever been promoted?
At that thought, Killer Bee suddenly remembered: this joint Chunin Exam was proposed by Konoha itself.
As the host village, Konoha surely wouldn't want to see outsiders steal the spotlight on their home turf. So now everything made sense—Aoshi was clearly Konoha's secret weapon. He definitely wasn't an ordinary genin.
This entire joint Chunin Exam had been planned by Konoha from the start.
Boom!
Because of his distraction, Killer Bee exposed an opening that Kushina immediately exploited, striking his right arm with her kunai. The cut was already bleeding.
You couldn't really blame Killer Bee for that. The sheer force of Aoshi's earlier kick had been overwhelming.
A tree had been snapped in half, and he had instinctively looked over—only to be shocked by the destruction.
That split-second lapse was all Kushina needed to land her hit.
Even so, Killer Bee's strength wasn't to be underestimated. Though injured, he wasn't going to be taken down that easily.
But, worried about his friend's condition, Killer Bee threw several shuriken to force Kushina back and quickly rushed to Motoi and Hiko's side.
Meanwhile, the scene playing out in the forest had completely stunned those in the surveillance room.
"How is this possible? How could that guy defeat Motoi with just one kick?" The previously arrogant Cloud shinobi now wore expressions of utter disbelief.
Even if Motoi wasn't as strong as Killer Bee, there was no way he should have been defeated so easily by a supposedly talentless, older genin from the Leaf.
In the shinobi world, ninja academy students typically graduate and become genin by the age of twelve.
Talented ones graduate early and can even make Chunin quickly. Even those slightly less gifted usually become Chunin within a year or two of graduation.
Generally speaking, most ninja reach the Chunin rank by around sixteen.
Anyone older than that who still hadn't been promoted was considered to have poor aptitude, and Chunin would likely be the limit of their career.
Aoshi clearly looked like a full-grown adult and yet was still officially a genin. In the eyes of many ninja, that put him squarely in the 'hopeless case' category.
That was exactly why Killer Bee and his teammates had never taken him seriously from the start.
"You Konoha scum are cheating! You've disguised a Jonin as a genin for this exam!" One of the Cloud ninja shouted, convinced he had uncovered the truth.
After all, Motoi already had Chunin-level strength. To defeat him that easily, Aoshi had to be a Jonin. His accusation drew curious looks from the Sand ninja, who also wanted to know if it was true.
"You Cloud guys really know how to make excuses. Just admit your own ninja isn't good enough! We Leaf ninja don't stoop to your level."
The Konoha shinobi in the surveillance room weren't rookies. They knew full well that Aoshi wasn't a Jonin.
In Konoha, Jonin were considered part of the village's leadership. They attended high-level meetings and helped make decisions about village affairs.
"Heh, that's just your side of the story!"
---
Of course, none of those arguments reached Aoshi and the others in the forest.
Killer Bee now stared at Aoshi with a deeply serious expression, his earlier confidence shaken, and a sense of retreat creeping into his heart.
Just Kushina alone could fight him evenly. Add in someone even stronger—Aoshi—and there was no way they could win. Even if Motoi wasn't in mortal danger, the fact remained—he was injured and unconscious.
But before Killer Bee could act, a sudden, violent gust of wind surged toward them at high speed.
This was clearly no ordinary wind—it was a powerful Wind Release technique. As it swept past, branches snapped cleanly as if sliced by a giant, razor-sharp blade.
And its target was none other than Aoshi.
"Watch out!" Kushina immediately shouted a warning.
But Aoshi had already noticed. Calmly, he formed a one-handed seal and cast Water Release: Water Formation Wall.
In an instant, a towering wall of water surged up from nowhere, encasing Aoshi in protection.
The wind jutsu, which had earlier sliced branches like tofu, lost much of its force against the water barrier. It only stirred up a few ripples on the surface before dissipating.
Killer Bee, watching the entire exchange, grew even more tense.
He had seen clearly: Aoshi had used a one-handed seal to cast a Water Release jutsu of that scale—in an area with no natural water source.
What kind of monster was this guy? In terms of ninjutsu, Killer Bee had no chance of matching him.
"Who's there?!" Once she confirmed Aoshi was unharmed, Kushina immediately turned to where the attack had come from—three Sand shinobi had arrived.
Leading them was none other than Masaki, who had been ordered by Rasa to defeat Aoshi and erase the shame inflicted upon the Hidden Sand.
Unlike Killer Bee's team, who had entered the forest specifically to find Aoshi and Kushina, Masaki's group had prioritized collecting both Heaven and Earth scrolls.
Earlier, they had already encountered a Leaf team and easily defeated them, only to discover they'd acquired a duplicate Earth scroll.
So, they set out to find another target—and were drawn by the sound of Aoshi's earlier attack on Motoi. That's when they found him.
Although they had already heard that Aoshi had once defeated Pakura, a Kekkei Genkai Jonin…
Masaki didn't take it seriously. He believed Pakura had only lost because he let her guard down. Yes—Masaki was convinced Aoshi wasn't truly Jonin level.
In his mind, Aoshi had two advantages: solid strength and a lucky sneak attack when Pakura was too focused on her mission. Even so, Masaki wasn't about to underestimate him.
Besides, Rasa had warned him repeatedly—never let your guard down against any opponent.
That's why he had launched a Wind Release sneak attack right off the bat. And yet, Masaki had still underestimated Aoshi's true strength.
The confident strike he launched was effortlessly blocked. In his expectations, the attack wouldn't have defeated Aoshi outright—but it should have caused him some trouble.
Though things weren't going as planned, Masaki wasn't ready to give up. That failed jutsu simply meant Aoshi had quick reflexes and impressive Water Release skills.
But that didn't mean Masaki would necessarily lose. After all, a shinobi battle was determined by far more than just raw strength.