"Demonic Illusion: Binding Technique!"
Staring straight at Bai Xing's handsome face, Akimichi Yumi panicked and immediately canceled her Partial Expansion, pulling her hands in defensively as she cautiously scanned her surroundings for any sudden changes.
"Yumi! That's genjutsu! Disrupt your chakra—now!" Nara Hane shouted.
Yumi nodded. In Nara Hane's line of sight, she quickly formed a hand seal.
"Release!"
Nara Hane: "..."
Did you seriously get caught in a genjutsu just now?
Shiranui Kumo, who had just forced Yamanaka Taiji to cancel his Mind Body Switch Technique before retreating back to Yūhi Liuyun's side, saw this as well.
"..."
Are you kidding me?!
"Did you deal with the Akimichi one?"
Yūhi Liuyun clearly heard Bai Xing call out the name of the genjutsu before she was affected. Now holding her head, she tried to ease the lingering discomfort after the technique.
At this moment, cold sweat streamed down Bai Xing's forehead. From the corner of his eye, he spotted a bird carrying a surveillance camera perched on a rocky outcrop, perfectly capturing the entire scene.
It had been there for a while—hidden high in the sky. No one except Bai Xing had noticed it.
Orochimaru carefully recalled Bai Xing's hand seals from earlier. They didn't seem wrong, yet the technique had failed.
"Is there a flaw in his talent…?" he murmured.
When Sarutobi Shinnosuke saw Bai Xing appear with such confidence, coordinating seamlessly with his teammates and nearly causing a member of his own squad to be eliminated, his heart rate spiked close to two hundred.
Then—
He laughed.
"I told you already. Bai Xing really isn't up to it. I don't know why he's so obsessed with taking the Chūnin Exams."
"Looks like it'd be better to cancel his qualification early, so he doesn't waste exam resources."
Hearing Shinnosuke's ridicule, Yūhi Kurenai immediately snapped back with displeasure:
"That's enough! Bai Xing's plan wasn't wrong. He was just nervous and misplayed for a moment."
"But that means all the advantage he built up just got handed back. What a pity~"
Orochimaru chuckled darkly, continuing to watch the exam.
...
"Mm."
"My mistake."
As Bai Xing spoke, he leapt down from the rock. On the surface, it looked like he was charging at Akimichi Yumi—but in the next instant, he veered toward the easier target: Yamanaka Taiji.
"Take one out first. Hold the others!"
"Got it!" ×2
Realizing she hadn't been caught in genjutsu, Akimichi Yumi snapped back to her senses and hurriedly formed seals.
"Ninja Art: Expansion Jutsu!"
In an instant, the chubby girl swelled up into a Snorlax-like form.
Then her body compacted, limbs and head retracting into her clothes, transforming into a true "meatball."
"Konoha Style: Human Bullet Tank!"
"Crap!"
Shiranui Kumo spat out the senbon from his mouth, but it was instantly knocked away by the high-speed, spinning green top that was Akimichi Yumi.
Kumo dodged aside and shouted back toward Bai Xing:
"Bai Xing, I can't stop that kind of attack!"
Yamanaka Taiji sneered.
"No one can stop Yumi's charge."
Crack—crack!
Even the rocks couldn't withstand the impact of the spinning green juggernaut, breaking apart with loud cracking sounds.
"What a troublesome move."
Bai Xing could only sidestep, allowing Akimichi Yumi to barrel straight toward Yamanaka Taiji. She then canceled the Expansion Jutsu.
"Hmph! Don't underestimate our combo!"
The red-haired girl looked up smugly—only to find Bai Xing staring at the two of them with an eerily calm expression.
"Idiots. You fell for it."
At that moment, only the black-haired Nara Hane was left standing alone in the open.
After saying this, Shiranui Kumo drew a kunai. Together with Yūhi Liuyun, he moved to surround Nara Hane.
"This is such a drag…"
Nara Hane raised both hands helplessly.
"I give up, okay~?"
Yūhi Liuyun said coldly, "Hand over your scrolls. Then we'll consider letting you go."
"Sure."
Nara Hane took out a scroll engraved with the character Heaven.
The eyes of the two holding Earth scrolls lit up instantly.
Noticing their expressions, Nara Hane casually tossed the scroll into the air with one hand.
Both of them looked up, about to jump and grab it—
But in the next second, they realized they couldn't move.
"Shadow Possession Jutsu—success."
"You—!"
The black-curly-haired, red-eyed girl flared with anger.
"You dare play us?!"
"Pot, meet kettle."
Nara Hane had already spent a lot of chakra defeating another squad, then burned even more rushing here and extending his shadow to pressure Bai Xing. At this point, he didn't have the reserves for anything fancy—only enough to bind the two and stall for time.
"Plan B."
"Roger!" ×2
Seeing his two useless teammates get caught, Bai Xing let out a deep sigh internally.
Why not just beat that Nara kid up and take the scroll? Do you even want to become chūnin?
—Konoha's education really was a bit too gentle.
"Ninja Art: Expansion Jutsu!"
"Human Bullet Tank!"
Akimichi Yumi once again turned into a spinning green top and charged straight in.
Bai Xing dodged immediately. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yamanaka Taiji forming seals—and he did the same.
"Mind Body—"
Yamanaka Taiji's technique hit empty air—or rather, something without consciousness.
"A substitution?!"
Poof!
A log appeared where Bai Xing had been.
Immediately after, a white smoke bomb arced into the air.
Bang—!
Thick smoke erupted, instantly blocking the view of Nara Hane's team—and the surveillance cameras as well.
Inside the smoke, Bai Xing flashily created a bunch of Shadow Clones, then dispelled them. Without even bothering to replenish his chakra, he seamlessly combined two E-rank techniques:
"Clone Transformation Technique!"
Then he followed it up with an Earth Release technique.
Soon, the smoke dissipated.
What stunned everyone was that there were now two Yamanaka Taijis and two Akimichi Yumies standing inside.
"One of them is fake! Don't panic!"
Nara Hane shouted toward Taiji and Yumi, successfully drawing their attention—completely missing the fact that Bai Xing himself had already slipped underground and begun moving.
"Die, you fake!"
Yamanaka Taiji hurled two shuriken at the identical-looking clone. The clone sidestepped easily.
On the other side, Akimichi Yumi charged in and swung a punch—but the clone dodged again.
For several full seconds, neither of them could tell that their opponent wasn't real.
Watching the situation closely, Nara Hane's brows knit tightly.
A faint creak came from beneath the ground.
He finally realized it—
They'd been played again.
"Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu!"
"Ah—!"
...
Inside the monitoring room, Sarutobi Shinnosuke's face turned deathly pale.
On the exam footage, Bai Xing had unmistakably eliminated Nara Hane's entire team—taking one of their forehead protector cloths, which signified mission "death."
"He really does have some skill. His scheming is in no way inferior to the Nara clan."
Orochimaru glanced at Sarutobi Shinnosuke.
Shinnosuke's expression was ugly.
"Heh. No matter what, ninja rely on ninjutsu…"
"Not necessarily."
Yūhi Kurenai replied calmly.
"Many chūnin stand out because of their command ability during missions—especially those from the Nara clan."
"In terms of raw combat power, their ninjutsu isn't particularly strong."
After hearing this, Sarutobi Shinnosuke understood completely—
He had lost. Thoroughly.
The Ino–Shika–Chō he personally trained had been utterly crushed by Bai Xing, a single genin. If they faced Bai Xing's students instead, the outcome wouldn't even need to be discussed.
Moments later, Sarutobi Shinnosuke slammed the door and stormed off, heading for the ANBU to leave the exam grounds through a special passage.
...
The survival-elimination stage of the Chūnin Exams continued.
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