Forest of Death IV

"Was that really necessary?" Lee asked, earning a disappointed gaze from Neji.

"Absolutely, they just went through a traumatic and life-threatening situation, and already relaxed to the point of forgetting the danger is still lurking" I honestly replied, there was some tension in the air Neji stopped in the next branch, and turned around facing Lee.

"I think you underestimate them" Lee said, "And I think you are blinded by an inferiority complex" Neji cut him, Lee was mad, for the first time in a while this two were fighting again, and they picked the worst moment, Lee kicked a tree trunk changing his direction, rushing towards Neji, with his leg bent backwards, the initial movement of the Leaf Hurricane, Neji reacted fast enough to enter a defensive position, but the impact never came, I intercepted Lee, pinning him to a branch, he tried escape by overpowering me, but I increased the gravity to increase both of our weights.

"Are you done?" I asked them, Neji nodded, while Lee stopped resisting under the pressure of my weight, "Great! Now apologize to each other, you are acting like children, we are in the middle of a mission, you can fight later" I was remembering them what were we doing.

I just criticized the other Teams for relaxing, and they decide to do something worse, if an enemy was nearby, they could take the chance to steal our scroll or even worse, kill us, and we won't be able to react in time, due to the unnecessary distraction.

"Now with that out of the way, I'll explain to you the new plan, we will go near the tower, we will prepare to attack any Team we can find, we'll grab their scrolls, and complete this test, understood?" I told them in annoyance, once again they just nodded, there were still some tensions between them, sometimes I can't understand them, one thing is having a rivalry, but this was just a display of immature behavior, and enmity.

We advanced in V formation, Neji as always taking the point, Byakugan activated looking for traps, ambushes or distracted enemies, but we didn't find anyone in our way, we set up a base, five hundred meters from the tower, I let Neji rest his eyes for a while, gave them express orders to stay put and split myself from them, scouting the area on my own, but still no results, I went back to our improvised base that was inside a hole of a tree, they already made a small campfire and put some water to boil, while Neji was cleaning a squirrel before adding it to the improvised soup, Lee was sleeping next to fire across from Neji.

After our lunch, consistent of squirrel soup, I told Neji to get some sleep, sent Lee to scout the area while I stayed on watch in case someone tried to attack us while we rest; an hour passed like this, Lee came back both his scouring and my guard were uneventful, which is a bit annoying, but it was my time to rest, not before asking Neji to check our surrounding with his Byakugan, and damned be my luck, he found a Team consistent of three girls no much older than us, rushing towards our direction, and the way he described it seemed that they were injured, and carrying both scrolls, they probably just fought for them, but instead of taking their time to recover, they were trying to complete the test as fast as possible and use the rest of the time in the tower to recover, after all this was the second day of five, it was a good strategy if it weren't for us.

We prepared the ambush, Lee and me to the sides and Neji above us, our strategy was simple, we would be near the tower around fifty meters from it, the moment they see it, they will relax and drop their guard, thinking they are safe, just for us to make a quick raid, Neji will identify and engage the scroll bearer, while Lee and I handle the other two enemies, we got into our positions, hiding behind bushes, keeping our senses sharp to avoid someone else attempting a strategy similar to ours, ten minutes later we saw the three figures at the distance approaching at great speeds, just like I thought as soon as they saw the tower their expressions relaxed a bit, and let the fatigue take over their mind and bodies thinking they were safe.

The girls passed the point of no return, Neji jumped out from his hiding spot, aiming for the girl in the back of the formation, that was the signal for me and Lee to engage in combat with the other two, I let Lee take the initiative, he went for the one leading their formation, leaving the one in the center, the three of them, looked and dressed the same, they were triplets and the only difference was the color of their clothing, Red, Blue and Yellow from the front to the back.

Avoiding wasting time with this fight, I just put my opponent in a Genjutsu, making her see her sisters dying in front of her, and tormenting her for being weak and unable to help them, she quickly fell to the ground, shaking in shock, her eyes wide open, crying in an almost comatose state, I think I went too far, but I don't have time for regrets, Neji has both scroll, already dealt with his opponent paralyzing her by blocking her Tenketsu points, and Lee just sent the last one flying to a nearby tree trunk, leaving her unconscious, we could leave them here, but I decided against it.

"Take the Earth Scroll, leave them the Haven one" I told Neji "Lee, carry the other two and put them in a secure place" I order him, taking out a small piece of paper and a pencil, I wrote a note for them, telling them that they probably won't find another scroll in time and that should quit, the safest way is to read the Heaven Scroll, I put the note in the hand of the one I fought, turned around and lead my Team towards the tower.