Unlike Kosuke Maruboshi, the pure physical fighter Might Dai didn’t care in the slightest about the Force Isamu had infiltrated into his body.
But when Isamu activated the Force
Might Dai showed absolutely no reaction whatsoever.
Isamu finally understood.
When it came to Taijutsu and physical ability, this “Genin” had an even greater degree of control over his body than Kosuke Maruboshi.
He didn’t know whether Dai genuinely couldn’t detect it or simply didn’t care about the small amount of Force Isamu had managed to introduce into his body.
At the end of the day, Isamu was simply too weak.
An ant’s trump card was nothing more than an itch to a beast.
Before Isamu could call an end to their spar, Might Dai once again punched him straight into the water.
Afterward, Isamu obediently sat beside the campfire to warm himself.
“Did you bring the poison?”
A while later, when the four of them were gathered around enjoying a delicious meal of soup and other dishes, Kosuke Maruboshi suddenly spoke.
The other two first looked at Kosuke, then at Isamu, and finally at the bowls of soup they were holding.
Might Dai: ?
Nawaki: ?
Isamu: ?
“Didn’t you say you were going to poison them during the assessment?
Even if you make a simple water clock, it’s impossible to guarantee that the timing will be exactly what you want,” Kosuke explained.
“Why don’t you give me the poison?
I’ll put it in for you.”
The sinister nature of warfare lay in the fact that you could never predict what would happen next.
All the graduating students subconsciously assumed that this assessment would be confined to the Forest of Death.
Isamu, however, intended to teach them a lesson by poisoning the area from outside the assessment grounds to show them what it meant to be a truly cunning criminal.
Thinking about what Kosuke had gone through when he was young, Isamu seemed to understand what the older shinobi was thinking.
“Senpai, isn’t that inappropriate?” Isamu asked somewhat worriedly.
After all, Kosuke was a Konoha shinobi.
“Hm?
What’s inappropriate about it?
I’m a middle-aged man with one foot in the grave who was forcibly coerced by you, the despicable outsider, and had no choice but to become your accomplice in a poisoning incident.
That’s perfectly reasonable!”
Kosuke Maruboshi narrowed his eyes as he spoke, as though he were discussing something completely trivial.
Isamu took a deep breath.
“You’re really going through a lot of trouble for my sake, aren’t you?”
“On the morning of the fourth day after the assessment begins, please spread the poison, Senpai.”
Isamu handed over the bottle containing the poison.
His reputation was already terrible anyway.
Adding a charge of coercing a Konoha Genin into helping him poison people would probably just change his title from the despicable outsider to the extremely despicable outsider.
Kosuke Maruboshi accepted the bottle.
“Don’t worry, Isamu.”
For shinobi, poisoning and assassination were practically everyday affairs.
The only difference this time was that the targets were Ninja Academy students who had yet to graduate.
It’s time to let you kids learn just how dangerous the shinobi world can be.
While the numerous students were still immersed in their beautiful fantasies of training hard, defeating Isamu, and graduating together
They had no idea that their old senior had already arranged something special for them.
According to the rules, Isamu would enter the Forest of Death one day before the assessment and take on the role of the “Hunter.”
On the final night before Isamu entered the forest, Tsunade brought him the supplies he needed.
Three days’ worth of food, several brand-new standard-issue short swords, a number of kunai and other ninja tools, as well as specially made Explosive Tags and other equipment.
All of these supplies had been provided by Konoha.
Furthermore, every type of item had been assigned a corresponding value, and the total value of the supplies Isamu could choose was limited.
He had to balance the allocation of each type of supply according to his own needs.
The explosive power of the specially made Explosive Tags had been severely restricted.
When detonated, they would release a large amount of red dust mixed with a sedative.
In a windless environment, given the physical condition of these students, remaining in the affected area for just one or two seconds would be enough to cause dizziness severe enough to impair their combat ability.
It was worth mentioning that these were also defective prototypes developed by a certain Second Hokage who had been devoted to research.
Because their production cost was extremely high, a single special Explosive Tag was worth more than twenty ordinary Explosive Tags.
On top of that, they had strict environmental requirements and were only effective against Genin-level targets, so they were rarely used.
Because of the special nature of this assessment, Isamu had been given the opportunity to obtain them.
And there were only ten.
Apparently, they were leftover stock from the Second Hokage’s time.
Looking at the stock in his hands that was actually older than he was, Isamu couldn’t help wondering whether these things could still be used.
“There is one thing I need to remind you about,” Tsunade said.
“There is an accepted casualty allowance in this battle.”
A practical combat assessment inevitably carried the risk of accidents.
Every student participating in the assessment had already been informed of this.
Tsunade hesitated for a long time before finally saying something that went against the Will of Fire:
“As long as the casualties aren’t any of those from the major clans, that’s fine.”
During these past few days, Isamu had naturally memorized the names of the students he had been teaching.
Naturally, he could tell which ones belonged to those clans.
Those major clans cared about their reputation more than anything.
If you prevented one of their younger members from graduating, they might grumble a few words and say:
Our child wasn’t good enough.
They deserve to repeat a year.
But if you killed one of them
They would say:
Blades have no eyes.
That’s simply how cruel the shinobi world is.
We don’t blame you, Isamu
And then, behind the scenes, who knew what they might do?
Unless Isamu stayed by Tsunade’s side for the rest of his life, there was no way he’d survive for more than two days.
Isamu counted them.
The Sarutobi, Uchiha, Hyūga, Yamanaka, Nara, Akimichi, Shimura
These “do not accidentally kill” students accounted for roughly two-fifths of the graduating class.
So the small number of permitted casualties was basically reserved for the civilian shinobi, huh?
Heh.
Sure enough, even in a place like Konoha, people were divided into different levels of status.
However, Isamu had no intention of using even a single “death” allowance.
He had his own way of winning.
“Understood.”
One person against a hundred.
Since he couldn’t actually kill these students, he needed to avoid getting dragged into prolonged battles that would consume his stamina as much as possible.
The objective this time was to destroy the students’ forehead protectors.
If this assessment were treated as a mission, then the forehead protectors on the students’ heads would be the supplies they needed to protect.
Isamu’s mission was to seize those supplies.
After Tsunade finished giving him a long list of instructions, Isamu packed up his supplies and entered the Forest of Death shortly after midnight.
He began making his preparations in advance.
The following morning, eight o’clock.
All the students participating in the assessment had gathered in front of the Forest of Death.
The entire graduating class, along with people like Minato Namikaze who had applied for early graduation, as well as some young members sent by various clans to “join in the fun”
There were a total of 134 people.
Kushina had originally applied to participate in the assessment as well, but Konoha had rejected her application.
On a temporary platform, a shinobi was reading out the rules of the assessment.
Below, the students were already cracking their knuckles and preparing to band together to teach Isamu a lesson.
We might not be able to beat him one-on-one.
But surely we can beat him if we gang up on him, right?
From a glance, the 134 people gathered in the middle of the field had already split into nearly ten smaller groups.
Most of the groups were divided according to clan affiliation.
Among them, the largest group was the “Ordinary Group,” consisting of more than forty civilian students.
They had the largest numbers, though their individual strength varied considerably.
They were led by a senior student named Inoue Takeshi and the popular candidate Minato Namikaze.