Chapter 974

Mitari Aoi's eyes were filled with a dangerous glint, fixing her gaze on the Genin who had asked the question, like a snake locking onto its prey.

"Once the second exam begins, aside from your two teammates, everyone is an enemy. This so-called point system isn't simply about how many heads you take, so don't even think about huddling together with your fellow villagers for warmth — get serious and fight!"

At this point, Mitari Aoi suddenly vanished from her lounge chair, and the next instant she appeared right beside the Genin who had asked the question, a kunai already pressed against his face.

"I really hate it when people interrupt me mid-sentence. Congratulations — your team is already down ten points starting from now."

Not even officially started and already trailing behind everyone, the other two teammates' faces were extremely ugly, but Mitari Aoi was the examiner of the second exam, and they knew full well they didn't possess the ability of someone like Young Yuanzi's Moon ninja — to offend Konoha and still act as if nothing had happened — so they could only grit their teeth and swallow it.

Releasing the trembling little fellow, Mitari Aoi walked, bored, toward the tightly shut gates of the training ground.

"Rule three: in order to effectively encourage you all to fight, the ninja of Konoha's Sealing Corps have carefully prepared 'Intelligence Scrolls' for everyone. When the final tally is taken, the team that obtains the most 'Intelligence Scrolls' will receive more points. To further prevent teams from the same village banding together to farm points, scrolls taken from teams of the same ninja village will yield double points when contested. Hehehe…"

Seeing that everyone around her looked as though they wanted to speak but didn't dare, Mitari Aoi happily indicated that anyone with questions could ask now.

"'Double points' and all that — you didn't just add that in on the spot, did you!" Uzumaki Naruko, whose moment in the spotlight during the first exam had been stolen by Zhao Afu, had finally made her presence felt.

"Yep, I just added it on a whim. You should all thank that little fellow who asked the question earlier." Mitari Aoi openly admitted it without a shred of concealment, and quite maliciously pushed all the blame onto that clever Genin from before. Now the team he belonged to had become a target for everyone, and when the time came, they would most likely be the first to be eliminated.

"Teams with no objections to the three rules above may now select your team captain and head to the entrance marked on your notification to collect your scrolls. I'm very much looking forward to your performance from here on."

Moon Ninja Team One (Captain: Tsukuyomi Xiaomeng).

"Mmm, Entrance C, huh…" After collecting their scrolls, Tsukuyomi Xiaomeng, Zhao Afu, and Fujikawa Linnaizi huddled together, waiting for the gates to open.

"If we're starting from this area, then the team we'll need to watch out for next is probably that one over there." Following Xiaomeng's gaze, the two immediately understood what she meant.

"From the Sand ninja village, carrying that strange gourd on their back, and their companion is the guy Young Yuanzi told us to keep our distance from, right?" Fujikawa Linnaizi adjusted her longbow. She followed orders unconditionally, but unfortunately Young Yuanzi hadn't given them the details on that Xiong Maoyan's background. That curiosity stayed tucked away in her heart — given the chance, they still wanted to observe him.

Moon Ninja Team Two (Captain: Jiliang Miye).

Stuffing the "Intelligence Scroll" stamped with the Moon ninja village's mark into Haramura Rio, Miye unfolded the map of Training Ground Thirteen, her gaze lingering on the Entrance A area where their team was located.

"Xiaomeng is in Area C, so on the first day we probably won't run into her team. The ones we'll encounter more often will be the people right in front of us…" Miye traced out the entire Area A on the map, while at the same time observing the surrounding teams with a scrutinizing gaze.

"Once we start, we'll take down that team of Mist ninja first!"

"I hear they're quite skilled in genjutsu…" Haramura Rio said with a smile, tucking the scroll between her weapons and clamping it tight, speaking to the nearby Senmiya Otori.

"If it weren't for Young Yuanzi's instructions, I'd actually rather have a match with that Uchiha young lady."

Senmiya Otori wasn't very interested in those Mist ninja who looked like extras; right now she was watching Naruko Sana's team.

"Hehe, these Konoha people really have no sense of urgency at all. The rules clearly state that scrolls taken from teams of the same village earn double points…"

"No, no, no — precisely because of that, we need to be even more careful." Miye narrowed her eyes slightly. Her scouting just now had already been detected by one of the Konoha participating teams. Once we go in, stay away from that team — I was spotted.

"That's impossible. Even an ordinary sensory-type ninja shouldn't have been able to detect you." Senmiya Otori was quite surprised that Miye had been discovered.

"That's exactly why — they're no ordinary sensory-type ninja…" Miye was a little deflated. First time leaving the village, first time probing and testing ninja from another village, and she'd already fallen behind.