Silence dropped over the passage. The two Iwa ANBU clung to the wall and stared at the earth below.
To kill Shigeo, they had stamped sealing tags through the walls and even into the surrounding bedrock to suppress chakra. If Shigeo fell into a Doton pit with his chakra sealed, climbing out would be impossible.
"Should be done," one ANBU whispered.
His partner, still tense, nodded. He lifted the stone lid he'd raised earlier, checked that no one was watching, and the two prepared to withdraw.
A rasp of rock. The slab they had just moved slid back into place and sealed the corridor again, plunging them into darkness.
Both men drew tight, scanning blind.
A spark flared. One ANBU, thinking it was his partner helping, muttered, "Thanks—"
Sky-blue eyes floated in the flame. The child seized his collar. "Despicable cowards."
A wooden blast detonated inside the man's body—Mokuton (Wood Release): Mokubaku (Wood Burst)—killing him on the spot. The other, less versed in earth style, spun to run. But in this narrow maze there was nowhere to go.
He wheeled to strike—too late.
Suiton (Water Release): Mizu no Yaiba (Water Blade).
Water, honed to blades, lanced from all sides. A kunai slid into his heart a beat later.
The boy had mirrored their own methods and ninjutsu, only with far greater precision. The ANBU's mask clattered to the stone. He stared up at the child in terror; those blue eyes shone in the dark, calm even as they killed. Were they… sightless? No—his pupils reflected the ANBU's dying face. He could see here, in the dark. And somehow he had dispelled the sealing array that suppressed chakra—and drawn a counter-seal in the instant he fell.
Iwa's black-ops had spent a full month studying a seal they thought Konoha couldn't unravel. Suppress the kid's chakra and he'd be a normal civilian—prey. Yet he had cracked the tags and written a kaifū fuda (release talisman) as he dropped.
"You… you…" the ANBU gasped. "We won't let you—"
Doton (Earth Release): Ōkakushi no Jutsu (Great Cover).
Earth poured over him. The second corpse tumbled into the pit. Silence.
Shigeo glanced around and let out a cold breath. He slid the rock "ceiling" back; sun stabbed his useless daytime eyes to white, but his sensing told him everything. Someone was watching from above. He tilted his chin toward the sky, a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.
A year ago he might not have broken this sealing net quickly. After six months of Fūinjutsu (Sealing Arts) study, this level of seal was trivial. He could unseal and reseal even a tailed beast now.
Ōnoki… you couldn't kill me last year. You think you can now?
…
In the control room beneath the stands, Iwa staff saw Shigeo reappear on the feed and slammed fists on desks. "They failed. Two hand-picked jōnin ANBU couldn't finish a kid with sealed chakra. Pathetic!"
They'd curated this pair to deliver a silent kill. Instead they'd blown the timing, and Konoha was already at the office door.
"What's going on? Why isn't our contestant Shigeo visible on the big screens? This round is a brain test, not ninjutsu." Shikaku asked evenly, while Gai and Kakashi were already heading for the second venue.
Shikaku knew—just as the Third had warned him—that Iwa's "friendship exam" hid a knife. Konoha couldn't refuse; even beleaguered Kiri had sent kids. Their job was to keep their own safe and still win.
"No issue, no issue—this maze shifts. Video blind spots are normal. Don't worry," the Iwa liaison replied.
Inside the maze, after dropping the two ANBU, Shigeo walked on. Around a dead end, a staffer stood under a lamp; two genin were already stumped before him.
"We answered a dozen already. None correct?" one complained.
"Incorrect," the proctor said flatly.
"What's the question?" Shigeo asked.
"A hunter has a gun that can only shoot one meter. A rabbit is a hundred meters away. Why did it die from one shot?"
"Because it ran up to him," someone blurted.
"I said that's wrong," the proctor snapped.
"He threw a rock!"
"Wrong."
"The gun is ninety-nine meters long," Shigeo said.
"Correct. You may pass."
"What? Impossible! No gun is ninety-nine meters. That's illogical!" the others protested.
"That is the answer. You, proceed. You two—new questions."
Shigeo slipped through.
"What kind of 'shi' doesn't stink?"
"Tenshi (angel)."
"What scares people most on their butts?"
"A buttload of debt."
"Three steps to put an elephant in a refrigerator. What are they?"
"Open the door, put the elephant in, close the door."
"Correct. Proceed."
He moved from riddle to riddle, pace unhurried, eyes half-closed, mind sharp. The maze shifted; the tags on its walls pressed faintly against his skin like gnats. He ignored them and kept answering, carving a straight path with words where others tried to force one with fists.
(End of Chapter)
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