Vicious

"Open the gates."

Hearing Orochimaru's words, all of the proctors unlocked the entrances at the same time, allowing the participants to enter.

"Let's do this!"

Nozomi was the first to dash in, excited. She couldn't wait to test out the results of her training. Behind her, Jun and Minato looked at each other with a smile before following her in.

A few minutes later, as they were hopping branches, Nozomi spoke up.

"One team, three o'clock. They're about a hundred meters away. They've got an earth scroll."

Nozomi had her Byakugan activated at all times since they entered. Up until now, she had already detected three teams, and they all had heaven scrolls, which they didn't want.

Nodding their heads, all three of them headed over to the enemy team in silence. Having already infiltrated a castle before, they got close without the other ninja noticing a thing.

Inside a clearing, three ninja from Kusagakure were sitting, discussing their game-plan. The one that seemed like the leader rose, pointing in the tower's direction.

"Let's be the first to get there and wait for other teams to arrive! If we do this, we'll be sure to get the earth scroll!"

"Sure, sounds good!"

"Yeah, I'm all for it too. Let's go!"

In high spirits, the three of them started running towards the tower.

As they hopped from branch to branch, the leader spoke up once again.

"Morimoto, Katasuke. Did you guys bring enough soldier pills?"

"..."

Faced with silence, he turned around, only to realize that both of his teammates had disappeared.

"W-what…!?"

Making use of his surprise, Nozomi appeared behind him and got into the gentle fist stance.

"It's over once you're in my range... Hakke Sanjūni Shō." (Eight Trigrams: Thirty-Two Palms.)[1]

Before the opponent could react, Nozomi was already on the offensive, hitting at his chakra nodes with blinding speed and precision.

"Eight trigrams… Two palms!"

"Four palms!"

"Eight Palms!"

"Sixteen Palms!"

"Thirty-two palms!"

"GUAAAGH!"

The Kusagakure nin was unable to defend as he got hit by an onslaught of internal attacks, sending him flying.

Before he got too far, Minato flashed out of nowhere and grabbed him by the back of his shirt. Nearby, Jun also appeared, holding two unconscious bodies in his arms.

Activating his Sharingan, Jun checked the enemy's condition. Thirty-two chakra nodes had been disabled in his body, and since they were all connected to his vital organs, he was literally half dead.

Looking at Nozomi, he couldn't help but frown.

'What a vicious woman… Even I would've just put him out of his misery..."

Leaving the guy like that was worse than death, but Nozomi didn't seem to care. She'd gotten some frustrations out thanks to that.

Smiling, Nozomi hopped to where her teammates were. Taking the guy's body, she reached her hand into his pouch and retrieved their earth scroll.

Holding it up, she made a peace sign.

Seeing her, both Minato and Jun smiled awkwardly.

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In another corner of the forest of death, Ren and his teammates were currently thinking of a plan of action. Since they had a Nara, they let her do the thinking.

Scratching her head with a lazy expression, Shinju sighed. She had long, black hair that was tied up in a ponytail. Like most people in her clan, she had circular earrings.

"So annoying… Why did I sign up for this…"

"Shinju, quit complaining. We're here to become Chūnin. Need I remind you?"

Hearing Hiyashi's serious words, Shinju felt a headache coming on to her. Of all the people she could've teamed up with, it had with people from the two most stuck-up clans in the village.

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[1] This is essentially a halved version of the Eight Trigrams, Sixty-Four Palms. This technique is used to close off the flow of chakra through thirty-two chakra points of an opponent's chakra pathway system. It eliminates their ability to use chakra for quite some time and renders them unconscious. The full version is only taught to the main-house, while this version, although not typical for most Hyūga, can be derived from the sixteen palms with enough research and training.

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Don't forget to drop some stones!

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