Chapter 7.1- One Thousand Hands

When he saw Shori stop to scrawl down that seal, he’d known that there was nothing good that would come of it. At least, they were done with the exam. He was proven right when the next team to approach the final tunnel stepped over the seal. It was only Shikahime’s observant nature that allowed her notice the glow on the floor before the seal went off. She activated her shadow jutsu and somehow used it to toss both her teammates out of the tunnel while she sank into the ground. She surfaced outside the tunnel a few seconds later, but no one had any attention to give her. All the attention was on the completely destroyed exit. Shori’s seal had caused the tunnel to implode in on itself so everyone within the mail was essentially sealed within by the stone that made up the path. Rather, all the attention flickered between the exit and Shori’s brightly smiling face.

He wanted to shrink in on itself as the screen magnified their own feed. His skin looked pasty white on the large display. It was clear that he wanted to be anywhere but here. Uzume glowered right at the receptor. Her glare shot from the screen in a way that showed her clear disdain for everyone watching. Shori, on the other hand, smiled and waved. He was smiling. A bright smile that made it clear he didn’t care about the shouts of him being a cheater that came from certain parts of the crowd. Toshiro was beginning to fear that the field would be overrun by pissed of spectators when the commentator’s voice rang out.

“A brilliant tactic from the Konoha Team. Sealing up the entrance to prevent others from making their way through easily” The samurai said with an approving hum, making it clear that nothing Shori had done was against the rules.

“Even better, he used fuinjutsu which was never mentioned in the rules, and waited until he was more than done with the exam before allowing his trap to take effect. A brilliant tactic, indeed. But let us not hesitate to give it up for the second team to pass this stage, Team Sixty-Six from Konoha; Yamanaka Inoken, Nara Shikahime, and Akimichi Choni.” Jiraiya’s words put paid to the whispers as everyone moved to applauding Shikahime’s team. Even better, the screen decided to show a replay of them escaping the trap.

XXXXX

At the end of the day, it took an hour for someone to finally complete the maze again. It was the team they’d passed from Iwa. They made it to the sealed exit like multiple other teams had. But instead of taking it as a dead end like the other teams had, the muscular one moved forward to examine the site of the cave in. He exchanged words with his teammates, and then they walked backwards before the one with red hair made a single handseal- the tiger seal. Instead of a fireball, he breathed out multiple small balls of lava(?). They slammed into the cave-in and shot through. The blockage on the exit was lifted, and they walked through.

The fourth team to pass was Izuku’s. Only the fourth by a technicality, because it seems they had run into Uraume’s team at some point in the maze and then chosen to work together to complete the rest of it. Uraume stepped backwards to allow Izuku step through first. Toshiro noted that all four of the genin teams to have graduated with him had been in the top five.

The next team had the boy with bi-coloured hair that Shori had been staring at for a while. He noticed him watching their feed even before they got to the exit. After that, teams started to pass through at a steady rate.

All in all, the first stage had taken close to three hours from start to end. Shori’s prank had definitely lengthened the task beyond all expectations.

“Now that we have our first fourteen teams, we can end the task” Jiraiya’s voice rang out before the max began to open up. Those still within it were visibly disappointed to find that they had lost and been disqualified. In one fell swoop, they’d gone from hundreds to fourteen genin hopefuls.

“I hope you all got your fill of the calmer task. From now, we’ll be diving right into the action” Jiraiya said and the ground began to vibrate again.

All the genin who passed had been returned to the central platform, while everyone else was made to evacuate the field. Toshiro noted that apart from his genin class, one other team had passed from Konoha. One team each had passed from both Kumo and Iwa. Two teams had passed from Suna. Shockingly, three teams had passed from Kiri. One team had passed from the hidden waterfall village, and the last two teams had come from the Land of Hot Water, and the Land of Grass respectively. All five major villages were represented, but Konoha had the majority.

He watched as the field shifted. Two hills began to rise from the surrounding earth with flags on them; one red and one green.

A/N; Guess the second test?