Uchiha Kazuhiko stood beside the golden giant ape's corpse. His calm words, however, made the three Rock ninjas feel immense pressure, rendering them silent as cicadas in winter.
The summon, Little Gold, was a special beast carefully raised for many years by Akayama's father. In its transformed state, it possessed jonin-level strength.
If not for protecting his son participating in the Chunin Exams, he would never have allowed Akayama to take it out of the Rock Village.
During the second exam, Team Haizawa had encountered several groups of enemies. Relying on Little Gold's power, they had eliminated or repelled their enemies without any losses. Thus, Little Gold could be considered their most powerful trump card.
Now, Little Gold, in a state equivalent to a jonin, had been instantly killed by their opponent. One could imagine the opponent's strength, leaving them utterly devoid of the courage to continue fighting.
Seeing no response from the Rock ninjas after a long moment, Uchiha Kazuhiko frowned and asked in a deep voice,
"Well? Are we fighting or not?"
Seeing Uchiha Kazuhiko's displeased expression, Haizawa, sweating profusely, had no choice but to brace himself and say with an awkward smile,
"Your strength is extraordinary. We are impressed. We will leave immediately and never disturb you again."
"Wait. Who said you could leave?"
Just as the Rock ninjas thought they could leave safely, Uchiha Kazuhiko's words, laced with killing intent, made them feel as if they had fallen into an ice cellar.
The Rock ninjas stopped, unsure if Uchiha Kazuhiko had changed his mind, and looked at him in astonishment.
"Do you think it's appropriate to disturb me and then just leave like that?"
Originally, seeing their submission, Uchiha Kazuhiko had dismissed the idea of eliminating them all. After deactivating the Eight Inner Gates, he suddenly remembered the Grass ninjas he had encountered earlier. He moved swiftly, blocking their path.
Team leader Haizawa's face showed a resolute expression. He shielded his teammates behind him and asked coldly,
"What do you want?"
"Each of you hand over one ninjutsu. Consider it the price for disturbing me."
Uchiha Kazuhiko only possessed a handful of Fire Release techniques; his offensive methods were somewhat limited. Now was the perfect opportunity to acquire some ninjutsu he hadn't mastered yet.
Upon hearing Uchiha Kazuhiko's demand, Haizawa and his companions' faces fell.
Every ninjutsu was part of their village's heritage. By regulations, even private sharing among comrades was forbidden, let alone teaching ninjutsu to ninjas from other villages. If exposed, they would surely face severe punishment from their village.
However, for the sake of their lives, after a brief discussion, the Rock ninjas decided to hand over those common ninjutsu that almost every major village possessed.
"We are willing to give you the ninjutsu, but you must promise never to speak of this,
" Haizawa said, his face ashen, countering with his own condition.
"Agreed. I swear on the name of the Uchiha clan."
Although the honor of the Uchiha clan meant nothing to the transmigrated Uchiha Kazuhiko, to outsiders unaware of the truth, it still held significant persuasive power.
"I hope you keep your word."
Haizawa took out a blank scroll, wrote something on it, and tossed it to Uchiha Kazuhiko from a distance.
Uchiha Kazuhiko caught the scroll. It contained three Earth Release techniques: [Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld], [Earth Release: Earth-Style Spears], and [Earth Release: Headhunter Technique].
"You may go."
Having obtained three usable ninjutsu, Uchiha Kazuhiko was in high spirits. He waved his hand, allowing the Rock ninjas to leave.
Leaving a shadow clone to monitor the surroundings, his main body returned to the previous campsite. He prepared dinner while learning the newly acquired techniques.
"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"
Using chakra of a quality surpassing normal chakra to perform the technique, the ground softened faster and had greater adhesive power than a typical Swamp of the Underworld. In the blink of an eye, the shadow clone used for testing had its legs sunk into the ground, unable to move.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Spears!"
Hard black stone spears erupted from the ground, shattering a large rock on the surface into pieces. Uchiha Kazuhiko took out a kunai, threw it at a black stone spear with the strength of an average chunin. It only penetrated a few centimeters before getting stuck, demonstrating the hardness of the black stone spears.
"Earth Release: Headhunter Technique!"
Uchiha Kazuhiko's body sank beneath the ground. The originally hard earth became as soft as water. With almost no effort, he traveled a considerable distance underground. Although not as fast as moving on the surface, it was nearly comparable.
Having tasted the sweetness of robbery, Uchiha Kazuhiko's mind became even more active. He created another shadow clone and sent it out to search for traces of other teams.
The next day, Uchiha Kazuhiko's shadow clone found a Sand ninja team. After observing them from the shadows for a while and roughly analyzing their strength, it launched a frontal assault.
The Sand team's strength was decent. Naturally, they wouldn't give up easily. The three cooperated to counter the shadow clone's attacks. Although they couldn't defeat it, they showed no signs of losing in the short term.
"Konoha ninja, why are you attacking us?"
The Sand team leader was somewhat puzzled. Konoha and Sand were allies. In such an exam, they should cooperate against enemies from other villages, especially since they didn't have the pass token for this exam. There was no conflict of interest between them.
"I need your ninjutsu. If you're willing to give me three techniques, I'll spare your lives."
The shadow clone slashed back one of the Sand ninjas and stated its purpose directly.
"Don't even think about it."
"Impossible."
The Sand ninjas flatly refused Uchiha Kazuhiko's demand. No longer worried about their alliance ties, they used lethal moves against the shadow clone.
"Sigh. In that case, take your ninjutsu to hell with you."
Uchiha Kazuhiko also stopped holding back. He used Earth Release techniques to restrict the Sand ninjas' movements and employed a few basic moves from the Wind Spirit Sword Art to eliminate the team.
After the battle, Uchiha Kazuhiko searched the three's ninja tool pouches. He only found some soldier pills and tools, but no precious items like ninjutsu scrolls.
The shadow clone discarded these items disdainfully and sat down to recover its chakra before setting off again to search for enemies.
An hour later, the shadow clone encountered a Waterfall ninja team. After defeating them, it obtained two different ninjutsu scrolls: [Wind Release: Great Wind] and [Water Release: Water Arrow].
Three hours later, the shadow clone discovered a combined team of nine Cloud ninjas. After comparing their strengths, it bypassed them and continued.
Five hours later, it encountered a Konoha team and a Cloud team locked in combat. After helping the Konoha team eliminate the enemies, it obtained a [Lightning Release: Lightning Ball] ninjutsu scroll from the spoils.
...
While the shadow clone continuously collected ninjutsu scrolls, two teams from different villages, one after the other, Break in the Eastern Path forest where Uchiha Kazuhiko was located.