Chapter 130: A Difficult Choice!

The transformation technique that even the three-tomoe Sharingan couldn’t detect, Uchiha Shisui had only seen on Fujinaka Genma.

Precisely because of that, he felt this exam was far from simple.

Moreover, far from becoming lax because Fujinaka Genma had appeared, they grew even more serious.

Among these examinees, Uchiha Shisui believed no one understood this man’s eccentricities better than he did.

Soon, the three resumed their journey.

This time, as soon as they neared target location C, they were ambushed and triggered traps.

Powerful explosion tags and various hidden weapons and pitfalls.

Uchiha Shisui and Kakashi remained unharmed, but Akimichi Jota, less agile, was first blown up, then stabbed in the buttocks by a shuriken.

Fortunately, he was in his Expansion Technique state at the time, with strong defense—only superficial wounds.

But when they reached the destination—a cave—Akimichi Jota was utterly exhausted, nearly incapacitated.

Then, as before, they used clones to probe.

But barely inside the cave, a deafening explosion shook the ground, and Kakashi’s clone was obliterated outright.

“Watch out!”

Uchiha Shisui shouted, drawing his blade to meet the black shadow rushing toward him.

Kakashi stood before Akimichi Jota, blade in hand, eyes locked on the two figures clashing swiftly and fiercely within the forest.

Half a minute later.

Uchiha Shisui grunted, spat blood, and was flung backward.

But mid-air, he forced himself to form hand seals despite his injury and unleashed a massive Fireball Technique, creating a small sea of flames to block Fujinaka Genma’s high-speed pursuit.

Kakashi leapt forward, catching the falling Uchiha Shisui. “How are Itachi?”

“Not serious.”

Uchiha Shisui said: “Go. The scroll isn’t here.”

“What?”

Kakashi was stunned, landed, and had no time to ask further—when he saw the enemy circling behind them, striking at Akimichi Jota, who could barely resist.

“No!”

Uchiha Shisui gasped.

Too late!

Boom!

Akimichi Jota, face twisted in terror, had his throat slit by a shuriken, blood spraying.

But immediately after, he exploded with a loud bang.

Smoke billowed, accompanied by the shriek of Chidori—a blue column of light pierced through the smoke, impaling Fujinaka Genma.

Boom!

Fujinaka Genma’s clone vanished, leaving nothing behind.

The smoke cleared. Uchiha Shisui saw a crater—Kakashi and Akimichi Jota were both inside.

Lightning Clone!

Clearly, Kakashi had deliberately exposed Akimichi Jota as bait, setting a trap instead.

But there was no scroll.

“Didn’t it blow up with him?”

Akimichi Jota crawled out of the crater.

“In real combat, the enemy might destroy intelligence—but this is an exam; they wouldn’t do that.”

Uchiha Shisui analyzed calmly: “The intelligence must be somewhere we overlooked!”

Suddenly.

Kakashi and Uchiha Shisui exchanged glances and spoke in unison: “The bear!”

“What?”

Before Akimichi Jota could react, Kakashi hoisted him onto his back.

The three hurried back to location A, saw the black bear still lying on the ground, and both Uchiha Shisui and Kakashi exhaled in relief.

Then Uchiha Shisui stepped forward, found a wound on the bear’s abdomen, and pulled out a scroll from inside.

Akimichi Jota stared wide-eyed: “Hidden here…?”

Kakashi sighed in relief—thankfully, the Sharingan’s hypnosis was strong enough.

If the bear had woken up and left earlier, they’d have had to expend far more effort.

They opened the scroll—but found no direct intelligence, only a complex sequence of runes and numbers.

Fortunately, both Uchiha Shisui and Kakashi were academic prodigies; they deciphered the hidden message easily.

But the three frowned—the intelligence revealed only one fragment, with no clear next step.

Clearly incomplete.

“Kakashi, what do Itachi think?”

Uchiha Shisui asked.

“This is only a tiny portion. I suspect we need to find all ten scrolls to obtain the complete final intelligence!”

Kakashi analyzed.

Akimichi Jota frowned: “Why not find a corresponding scroll? The scrolls should match—then we’d get the next clue.”

“I agree with Kakashi.”

Uchiha Shisui analyzed: “Although this exam is overseen by the Fourth Hokage and the Third Hokage, its purpose must be tied to Genma’s reforms within the Root.”

“Genma opposes training methods that force ninja to kill each other—he’d never approve an exam structured this way.”

Akimichi Jota nodded: “If so, we should split up and contact other teams?”

“No!”

Kakashi immediately rejected: “Too dangerous. We’d be picked off one by one.”

“Kakashi’s right. The enemy is strong. Alone, none of us stands a chance.”

Uchiha Shisui said.

So after resting briefly, waiting for Akimichi Jota to regain mobility, the three moved out again.

This time, it tested their tracking skills.

But in this area, all three excelled—especially Uchiha Shisui, with his Sharingan.

Kakashi, too, had extraordinary abilities—his sense of smell surpassed normal limits.

Meanwhile.

Other teams weren’t as fortunate as Kakashi’s.

Two teams had already been eliminated—because they split up.

Each carried their scroll information to find other teams, only to be wiped out entirely.

Yet among the teams were not only Uchiha, but also the more perceptive Hyuga clan—so teams began merging.

In the end, only six teams fully converged; one team had only one survivor; three teams were wiped out completely.

That meant three segments of intelligence were missing.

More critically, over half of the survivors were severely wounded—now a liability.

Even the rest carried some injuries—none were untouched.

“The missing information can probably be deduced from what we have.”

“But the real issue now: what do we do with the wounded?”

Uchiha Shisui spoke.

“Abandon them!”

Someone spoke coldly.

The wounded liabilities were left behind; the rest continued the exam.

The speaker was an Uchiha, his expression icy: “The exam rules didn’t allow abandoning the test—but carrying them could mean death for everyone. We must send them away.”

“Split into two teams: one continues the mission, one escorts the wounded out!”

After a silence, a Hyuga member spoke: “I agree. This is the best solution.”

But someone immediately countered: “The enemy is strong. Splitting our forces reduces our chance of success.”

“And we risk being picked off one by one.”