Body Flicker Technique!
Kakashi darted straight at Maki.
For a ninja, speed really does let you do whatever you want.
In the future, the "fastest man in the ninja world," Minato Namikaze, would conquer the battlefield purely on speed.
With his Flying Thunder God Technique, he crushed even the two Raikage brothers without giving them a chance.
Right now, Kakashi was walking that same path.
"Summoning Technique!"
Meanwhile, Akira Sato halted and activated the summoning, calling out Taiichi.
Boom!
A burst of white smoke spread.
A three-legged crow, its body cloaked in dark golden feathers, appeared on the battlefield.
"Whoa, what a huge crow!"
"It's a summoned beast!"
…
Under the watchful eyes of everyone nearby, Taiichi began to move.
Caw!
Spreading its wings, it soared into the sky.
In the past, Akira mostly used Taiichi for ground battles — but people often forgot one crucial thing: Taiichi can fly.
Whoosh, whoosh!
With fierce gusts of wind, Taiichi lifted off, casting a massive shadow across the ground.
Compared to just a few months ago at the graduation exam, Taiichi's body was now unrecognizable.
Back then, it was barely human-sized, with a wingspan of only a few meters.
By Earth standards, it counted as a "large bird," but in the ninja world, it was considered small.
Now?
Its wingspan stretched over ten meters, creating an overwhelmingly imposing presence.
It looked huge —
but in reality, bird bodies are mostly lightweight.
Though its wingspan was massive, when its wings were folded, it only stood about six meters tall.
Sure, that's tall —
but compared to giant summoned beasts that stand over ten meters tall, Taiichi was barely one-third their size.
Still, this meant Taiichi had a lot of growth potential left.
Caw!
From the sky, Taiichi launched its attack.
Soccer-ball-sized fireballs erupted from its beak.
The target?
The two-story-tall giant black bear on the ground.
It wasn't aiming at the other ninjas —
because with their fully honed dodging skills, hitting them with these slow fireballs would be nearly impossible.
But the black bear was a different matter.
With its bulky frame, it couldn't dodge effectively.
Boom, boom!
One after another, the fireballs exploded, turning large swaths of the ground into a sea of fire.
The destruction was massive, like something out of an apocalyptic scene.
Some unlucky participants even got caught in the indiscriminate bombardment and were killed.
This was the terrifying power of large summoned beasts!
Their attack strength grows with their body size.
If Taiichi were still the same size as during the graduation exam, it wouldn't have been able to cause this much destruction.
But now, having grown several times larger, its destructive power had increased more than tenfold.
And for Taiichi, launching such a devastating strike didn't even consume much energy —
it was roughly the same cost as casting a single C-rank fire technique.
ROAR!
A furious roar echoed from the sea of fire.
The giant black bear burst out of the flames, charging straight at the tree where Akira stood.
Clearly, its animal instincts had sensed the connection between Akira and Taiichi.
It couldn't reach the bird flying in the sky —
but it could go after the summoner!
"Man, that thing's tough!"
Perched on top of the tree, Akira muttered to himself as the bear smashed through the trees like a tank, barreling toward him.
But Akira had no intention of dodging.
Taking down a giant ninja beast like this was no easy task.
These creatures possessed chakra, an extraordinary force they used to boost their attack and defense.
That was why it could break through Taiichi's fiery onslaught.
If it were just an ordinary beast, no matter how big, it would have been dead by now.
As the bear neared—
BOOM!
A massive explosion erupted from below its feet.
Explosive tags!
The blast was no weaker than a high-level fire technique — even elite Jonin would be wary of such an attack.
But they were expensive as hell.
Thirty thousand ryo for a single tag!
For this trap, Akira had made Koji Yamanaka use five at once.
Against a beast this massive, a single tag wouldn't cut it —
so they went all in, burning up their entire stash.
By the way, explosive tags have a "shelf life."
There's no such thing as buying once and using forever.
As the smoke cleared, they saw the black bear lying in front of Akira, battered and barely alive.
Hit at point-blank range by five explosive tags, even a giant ninja beast couldn't withstand it.
If the enemy had been an intelligent summoned beast, it might have dodged or defended itself —
but this black bear, despite wielding chakra, was nearly mindless.
That's why it walked right into such a simple trap.
Otherwise, trying to take it down head-on would have cost them an unknown amount of energy and time.
Of course, Third Squad's "dirty tactics" played a role —
they didn't bother with honor and just nuked it with the strongest tools they had.
Other participants probably wanted to use such methods,
but they simply couldn't afford them.
Poverty limits imagination.
Thirty thousand ryo per tag —
no Genin could afford that.
Even most Jonin wouldn't carry many, if any at all.
But Akira was different.
To him, his life was what mattered most —
so the more powerful tools he had, the better.
And thanks to his personal channels, he'd been able to stockpile five of them as a trump card.
Looking at it now, the result was spectacular.
In an instant, they had taken down the black bear that even Maki couldn't handle.
"Akira, look out!"
Suddenly, Koji Yamanaka's voice rang out.
A Kusa-nin wearing a Grass Village forehead protector had silently appeared behind Akira, stabbing at him with a kunai.
Poof!
But Akira's figure dissolved into a puff of smoke.
Clone Technique!
A standard D-rank ninja technique.
If the attacker had a Byakugan or some other bloodline limit, they might have seen through it —
but this assassin didn't.
Judging by the stealth and killing intent, the intruder was clearly a seasoned assassin, not just a regular Genin.
Even so, he walked right into the trap.
D-rank clones might not be as powerful as B-rank shadow clones,
but if you're just standing still on a tree, the illusion can be very convincing.
The key point was,
nobody expected Akira to start the fight using a clone as bait.
"Fire Style: Flame Bullet!"
From the side, a wheel-sized fireball smashed into the assassin who had just revealed himself.
It was Akira!
As a master of the "go-with-the-flow" style, Akira was no fool —
he'd never actually be dumb enough to stand that exposed.
He had intentionally set up the bait to lure out the attacker —
and it worked perfectly.
With a clean C-rank fire technique, he swiftly eliminated the assassin.
Yes, the guy was definitely no examinee —
he was an assassin sent by another ninja village.
The entire fight was over in an instant —
there was no "hundreds of rounds" nonsense.
That's ninja combat for you.
Brutal and fast.
This wasn't a time of peace.
The Chunin Exams were a legalized killing ground —
the casualties shown in the anime were just child's play compared to reality.
"Binding Technique!"
Just then, a strip of white cloth shot toward Akira.
"Wind Style: Rending Wind Palm!"
Koji Yamanaka jumped in to assist.
Whoosh!
A kunai flew toward Akira.
The other two members of Maki's team, Jun and Yura, had also joined the fight.
Meanwhile, Kakashi and Maki were clashing in the distance —
the constant sound of metal clashing showed how intense their duel was.
In this kind of battle, Taiichi couldn't really intervene —
its massive body made it too easy to accidentally hurt allies.
Third Squad vs. Maki's Squad!
One of the biggest highlights of this Chunin Exam had finally begun.
(End of Chapter)