Chapter 69
Outside the competition grounds, Maki shook his head slightly as he looked at the unconscious Iwa-kun.
In certain situations, a ninja had to think like a ninja.
Naruto had already said he would treat everyone equally.
The result of this would be that every single person's collected special kunai would be reduced to just 20% of what they had. Rankings would drop by four places at most—everything else basically unchanged.
In short: they just got robbed by Naruto, and it hurt their pride.
Not long after, Sakura finished counting all the special kunai.
Under Naruto's watchful eye, Iwa-kun's teammates carefully carried their unconscious leader away…
After collecting the first wave of "toll fees," Naruto felt his current method was a bit inefficient.
He turned back and looked at the sign in the distance that read "Competition Settlement Point," and a new idea formed.
Without wasting time, Naruto got to work.
As time passed, the following scene unfolded.
In front of the settlement point, Naruto had set up several signposts with messages like:
"Competition settlement → this way ←" "Students ending the competition, please go there to register →"
As the deadline approached, many academy students began emerging from the dense forest.
To be fair, they were still just academy students—so not many thought the same way Naruto did.
That meant Naruto's "competition" was already much smaller.
Dozens of students rushed out of the forest all at once. Some came in groups, others alone…
When they saw Naruto standing by the signposts, many looked puzzled.
Could those two massive booms from earlier have been caused by these huge cracks?
"This thing looks so fake."
"Yeah, there's only one path. If we want to pass, we have to go through here."
"Going around would waste too much time."
"What do we do?"
Among the crowd, there were a few who saw through it immediately—namely Nara Shikamaru.
Shikamaru led a group from Iruka's class, his face carrying its usual lazy expression.
"Let's go around."
In Shikamaru's eyes, this wasn't the real settlement point.
The real one would have teachers and village ninjas waiting. This place had nothing.
Except… a few figures in the distance.
That proved someone extremely confident in their strength was planning to rob people here!
Shikamaru led his group away. Many Sand students looked at them with disdain.
"So this is Konoha's ninja? Really cowardly."
"Right—what kind of threat could those few people in the middle really be?"
"Yeah, with so many of us, unless they're specially sent by the teachers, they wouldn't dare—"
"Mm… why does that yellow-haired figure look kind of familiar? Actually… I think I'll go around too."
"Hmph! Sand's dead-last!"
Shikamaru: "…"
Shikamaru stopped Inuzuka Kiba and Yamanaka Ino, who were about to charge forward and start a fight, and said calmly:
"No need to start a pointless conflict over something this lame. Let's go."
Kiba glared fiercely at the Sand group: "Damn bastards—their eyes are all so arrogant!"
Ino helplessly looked at Kiba and muttered: "Why do I feel like you're the most arrogant one…"
Kiba staring down dozens of people like that was basically a provocation already.
Shino pushed up his glasses and looked into the distance: "Uzumaki Naruto's chakra…?"