By the time she woke up with the first light of dawn, her stomach was growling with hunger. Her metabolism, being that of a ninja, was far more active than in her previous life, so she knew she needed to eat soon. She reactivated her summons and got to work. To her amazement, she found an area with several hazelnut trees full of nuts. She sent one of her clones via hiraishin to gather as much as possible in a conjured bag. She observed through the eyes of her squirrel that, luckily, it seemed like a hard-to-reach area within the forest, so no one had arrived there yet. She watched as her clone disappeared with hiraishin the same instant it reappeared before her with the seal she had prepared in advance.
While eating a few hazelnuts for breakfast, rationing them for the days to come, she had her summons move closer to the perimeter of her base. There was no point in sending them too far, considering she wasn't willing to face anyone unless absolutely necessary. Eventually, she used a locator spell to find a rabbit near her hideout. It was easier than taking candy from a baby. She simply summoned it with accio and killed it with the killing curse. Then she prepared it with another enchantment and cooked it to perfection with her magic.
Her sole task was to eat and stay out of sight, so she conjured several glass containers to keep various portions of food fresh for the coming days. She would need to hunt more than just one rabbit, so once she was full, she stepped outside her house again. It was a shame she couldn't leave the area now that she had both scrolls. The exam was starting to feel boring, considering all she was doing was hiding. Even so, she knew staying unnoticed was one of a ninja's greatest tools and one of the skills they were being forced to practice right now. Otherwise, they would have been allowed to leave as soon as they had their second scroll.
She spent the entire morning hunting animals for her food reserves. By noon, when her stomach growled again, she had found a couple more rabbits and even a grison she intended to eat. As she ventured closer to the swamp, she noticed the difference in flora and fauna. There were far more birds, not to mention the various species of snakes, spiders, toads, crabs, and even crocodiles. She had no idea what was in the water, but everything was gigantic. One of those spiders would normally fit in her palm, but even from a distance, she could tell it was larger than her head.
Shivering, she avoided going any closer and returned to the safety of the forest. Not without stumbling upon a mango tree, partially looted, from which she took as many fruits as possible, and a raspberry bush brimming with fruit deeper within the forest near her base. She had to send her clones to do the dirty work because, once again, it was full of enormous spiders. No wonder the bush was overflowing with raspberries. She jumped back to her treehouse with a bag full of goods. She spent the rest of the afternoon organizing her supplies. With what she had, she could last the five days as long as she didn't exert herself too much. At worst, she could go out and hunt nearby again.
That evening, she ended her day hearing the dying screams of someone relatively close by. She didn't know what the hell was happening, but she wasn't going to investigate either, so she sent her summons instead. It was the middle of the night when they found the remains of a rival ninja. She watched as a giant crocodile devoured the body at the swamp's edge. A chain pierced through one of the ninja's remaining ankles, and she realized they had fallen into a trap, had the misfortune of being abandoned, and then were devoured by the swamp's animals. Seina unsummoned her creatures with a bit of disgust. She went to sleep on her enormous, luxuriously soft sofa with its super-comfy cushions.
The next morning, it wasn't her spell that woke her but someone brushing against her magical barriers. Her eyes snapped open, and she sat up straight, summoning her creatures once again. She ate breakfast under the still-dark sky while her insects scouted to find out what had happened. She didn't see anything, but she remained on high alert. It surprised her that someone had come so close to her part of the forest. It was the section she had entered initially, so she knew the area well. She wondered if it was a coincidence or if someone thought she might be here. She wasn't sure she liked the second option. If it was true, it meant someone had been tracking her and noticed where she entered the swamp.
For the second day, she didn't leave her hideout, entirely paranoid. She spent her time stretching, meditating, and eating on schedule. She even bathed in a small conjured tub and cleaned her only set of clothes. With nothing else to do and her creatures patrolling the perimeter as a defense, she took out the missions stored in her bottomless pocket. The first mission, the moderate one, required her to steal some secret scrolls located on Naga Island. The other, the difficult one, was to rescue a client from a group of criminal ninjas in a small village in the Land of Lightning.
Just knowing where the second mission took place was enough for her to dismiss it. She didn't want to go near a place where her father had made so many enemies. Naga Island, however, was one of the islands surrounding Kirigakure to the south. The difficulty lay in the fact that she had no clues as to where the scrolls were, other than that it was Honsho's treasure. She wondered if all the missions were like this. Then she had another thought. Could the missions be repeated? If so, she'd need to complete the mission before anyone else; otherwise, she imagined she'd be disqualified. Still, she had three more days to think of a strategy, so she didn't stress about it yet.
She went to bed near midnight. Once again, she woke with a start upon sensing a presence near her barriers. Through the window, she saw it was pitch dark outside, so she reactivated her summons, positioning them just inside the limits of her magical barriers, and lay back down on the sofa with her eyes closed. It took only a few minutes for them to reach the disturbance in her magical barriers.
"Where could she have gone?" hissed one ninja, leaping from the treetop. "Didn't you say she came this way?"
"She did. I saw her clearly," the other ninja, seemingly from Kumo, replied with a roll of his eyes. "I don't know why you insist on searching here. We've done two sweeps and found nothing. She's not here."
"Oh yeah? Then where is she?"
"Clearly not here," the second ninja sighed. "Why are you so determined to find her? We could've taken a scroll from anyone else. It was easy enough for me to trap that Kusagakure ninja in the swamp…"
"You've seen her connection to the Hokage. We need to kill her to send a message," the first ninja, also from Kumo, spat with hatred. "Besides, this is the perfect moment to get rid of Konoha ninjas. You heard the Raikage. No one will be surprised if a kid dies here."
"None of this will matter if we don't get another scroll so we both pass. And I'm not giving you my second scroll."
"Relax. She'll show up sooner or later. She can't have gone far without being detected."
"I wouldn't be so sure…" the second ninja muttered under his breath as his companion walked away.
Seina came back, opening her eyes. She felt her body heat up in anger at what she had overheard. They planned to get rid of her simply because she was young and close to the Hokage, and because, apparently, the Raikage had hinted that the exams were a good opportunity to eliminate competition. She sat upright, unable to sleep until she decided what to do.
"What are you going to do with those two idiots? If you let them go, they might target your teammates from Konoha."
"I know. I wasn't planning on letting them go. I think it's necessary to leave here—just once…"
"You're going to kill them," Kurama purred with satisfaction. "Finally, some blood."
"I think the Raikage isn't entirely wrong. This might be the perfect moment to extract some information from my enemies' minds."
"I can't wait to see it."
"Tomorrow. Tonight, I'm sleeping," she promised, lying back down, now a bit calmer.
She would hunt those two idiots, interrogate them, and then get rid of them. Their hours were numbered, and they didn't even know it.
The next day, at dawn, she had a breakfast of mixed fruits and a piece of meat. She checked that she still had enough rations to keep from starving and left the house. She approached the perimeter of her barriers, verifying with her spells that she was completely alone. Then she got to work once more. She would use barriers to trap them once they entered the protected clearing. She then began building a small campfire with stones and sticks. She conjured a skinned rabbit and skewered it above the fire. Lastly, she left one of her clones to cook the fake rabbit while she perched on a high branch under layers of spells, waiting.
The hours passed, completely bored atop the tree, watching as her clone cooked the damn rabbit over and over, waiting for her guests to arrive. Fortunately, she had brought some food and a canteen, so she ate up in the tree at midday without having to return to her base. Then she waited for a long time until they returned. In the end, they seemed to notice the smoke from the fire because they appeared at sunset. Seina could see them from afar, watching her clone from the branches of a tree about 10 meters away. One of her insects silently approached them, allowing her to see up close as they exchanged hand signals to communicate.
The loudest and angriest ninja was the first to leap at her with a punch charged with electricity. The other jumped after him without attacking, perhaps expecting his companion to finish the job. Once she had them within her barriers, she used her genjutsu at full power. She watched them fall flat to the ground, stripped of all their senses and with their balance destroyed by her mental manipulation. A couple of stupefies, some magical chains, and a vanishing charm left them completely naked on the ground. She took the three scrolls they carried and vanished everything else—even their ninja headbands.
With a touch of malice, she used the same seal they had placed on her during the test, one she had memorized using her mental barriers to study it in the future. She wasn't sure it would work, so she petrified them. She restored the clearing she had used for the trap, vanishing the fake rabbit, the fire, the clone, and the barriers. Then she dragged both ninjas into her perimeter. She could almost feel Kurama leaning in his cage, sharing her eyes as if he were present, not merely observing through her.
"Finiteincantatem."
She watched them come to, their eyes snapping open. She witnessed first-hand as they realized their precarious situation. After all, the prey had become the predator. The smarter ninja closed his eyes momentarily, likely understanding what was coming, while the other glared at her, full of hatred.
"Well, well… A little bird told me you were looking for me. Congratulations! You've found me! Bravo to both of you. It only took you seven hours," she said, laughing wickedly as she sensed one of the ninja's growing fear. The other seemed unable to grasp the gravity of their situation.
She released the petrification spell on the dumber one, watching as his brown eyes immediately squinted and he began trying to move—or at least attempted to—within his full-body binding of chains.
"When I get out of here, I'm going to kill you, you brat! I want to see that useless old hag of yours crying over your corpse!"
"Blah, blah, blah," she yawned exaggeratedly. "Here's the thing—you're not getting out of here because I'm going to kill you. You can scream all you want, but no one will hear you because I've got something called a barrier set up here. That's why you couldn't find me. I heard something about your Raikage. That piqued my interest—enough to hunt you down."
"I won't tell you anything!" he shouted, spitting in her direction. Seina dodged it. "AAH!"
"Ah, that must be the seal I placed on you," she informed him with another malicious smile. "Maybe they shouldn't have shown me how to make it during the exam. I've got a good memory."
The ninja kept screaming in agony as his companion, petrified next to him, watched as best he could. Eventually, he gave up trying to use a jutsu or to manipulate his sealed chakra reserves. She heard him pant, looking at him as if he were some kind of lab experiment. Meanwhile, she lifted the spell from the other ninja. To her little surprise, he didn't attempt to attack her—he just remained silent.
"What are you going to do to us?" asked the second ninja as calmly as possible.
"I'm going to find out everything you know, and then I'll kill you," she replied honestly.
"You've already heard my companion. We won't tell you anything."
"I've got exactly two days to torture you. Believe me, by day five, you'll have told me everything. I'm only 12, but I know how to extract information in the most painful way possible. Want me to prove it?"
"Go to hell, you bitch!" the other one shouted.
"Crucio!"
The torture curse shot from her hand without hesitation, striking the first ninja like a scarlet bolt of lightning. His screams shook some leaves from the trees before giving way to extreme convulsions of pain. Neither of these ninjas had experienced anything like it. Every pain receptor in their body overloaded simultaneously, delivering an inexplicable agony. She stopped torturing him after a minute.
The second ninja looked on in horror at his companion, now sobbing on the ground like a baby. Whether it was his sobs or the piercing screams of pain—despite not having a single cut on him—that caused him to change his mind, she couldn't tell.
"Please, we'll tell you everything you want, but have mercy," he pleaded.
Seina laughed at his words. Did they think she was an idiot? The first ninja seemed to recover a bit from the torture, avoiding her gaze as he finally understood the dire situation he was in. The other ninja realized it wouldn't work and didn't ask for mercy again. However, his face displayed clear fear of what was to come.
"How do I know you'll tell me the truth, huh?" she asked rhetorically. "No. I'm going to extract all the information from your brains. I'll take it all. Everything. I want to see how you planned to kill me, why, the secrets of your village, your loved ones… Once there's nothing left to know, I'll give you the death you intended for me. And if I ever cross paths with any of your dear friends—those I'll recognize from your memories—well, who knows what I'll do to them."
She saw them pale at her words. She petrified one of them and loomed over the other with her legilimency fully activated. She spent quite some time delving into his mind. Then, she learned from his memories who he was, his family, his friends, his ex-girlfriend, his team, his likes and dislikes, his devotion to Kumogakure, his hatred for Konoha due to the deaths of his father and grandfather at the hands of the enemy village's army in the last war, the Raikage's words encouraging them to thin the ranks of enemy villages, his desire to find her, sexually assault her, and break her bones with his fists, electrocuting her while fulfilling his lust for revenge…
"Oh, J. This is going to be a terrible death, don't you think?" she addressed him by name as she left his mind.
"What have you done to me?!" the dark-skinned boy yelled from the ground, his short, slicked-back hair now dishevelled.
"I've stolen everything from you. Now it's Nurui's turn." As soon as she called the other by name, they realized what had just happened.
"No, no, no! Please! I'll tell you everything!"
"I don't believe you. Sorry," she offered before using legilimency on him.
After an hour, she learned that Nurui wasn't entirely on board with the Raikage's plans but felt compelled to follow J's lead to ensure more of their fellow jonin candidates passed the test. The collateral damage to Konoha's chunin didn't seem to bother him much. He had wanted to give her a quick death—to execute her so she wouldn't feel a thing. So, as soon as she left his mind, she drew her wakizashi and decapitated him before he could comprehend what was happening.
Blood sprayed from the wound, reaching his colleague lying beside him under the Petrificus totalus. The head, which rolled a few centimetres away, bore an expression of terror frozen seconds before death. J glanced sideways at his companion, then watched as she cleaned the blade with a conjured cloth. His pupils contracted to pinpoints, realizing he was on the brink of death and powerless even to end his own life.
She removed the chains, knowing he couldn't move, and used one of the lightning jutsus she had mastered. It wasn't as powerful as what she had stolen from J and Nurui's minds, but it sufficed as she unleashed a fraction of the brute force Tsunade-sama had taught her to use.
It took barely 20 minutes to kill him with a heart attack. She didn't even need to wait for haemorrhages from his ruptured organs to finish him off. The lightning jutsu to his heart was enough to stop it instantly. She watched as he slowly died, ensuring he was entirely lifeless. She disposed of the bodies, vanishing them into nothingness, then cleaned the clearing of blood and bodily fluids.
"Seems like being reborn hasn't changed you… You're still the same person who hunted down those wizards without rest, massacring them for years without anyone noticing."
"Sometimes even capturing the bad guys as an auror wasn't enough. I wasn't going to let those murderers and rapists roam free just because they were rich. It won't be any different now."
"For a moment, I forgot what you're capable of. It won't happen again."
She returned to her hidden cabin with her loot. She had three other scrolls, so she had more options to choose from. Fortunately, a couple of them were of moderate difficulty, while the remaining one was of easy difficulty. One of the mid-level missions involved going to the Land of Hot Springs in search of a criminal A-rank ninja, while the other required escorting a VIP client from the Land of Wind to the Land of Waterfalls. The easy mission, however, was about delivering a special scroll to a meeting point in the Land of Rivers.
Reading through the mission details, she changed her mind. She was no longer interested in Naga Island but rather in the mission to the Land of Hot Springs. The main reason was that it didn't involve a client who could annoy her, and, on top of that, she already had the coordinates of several points in the Land of Hot Springs where she could use a teleporter. She had even left one of her rocks imbued with the shikijutsu to use the hiraishin.
That night, as she had dinner, she wondered what to do with the other scrolls. In the end, she decided to keep them. This way, she ensured at least two people would be disqualified from the exams.
The last few days were uneventful. She only left the cabin to stretch her legs and practice some katas inside the magical barriers. Time passed slowly as she treated the experience more like a vacation than a jōnin exam. Luckily, no one else came looking for her or suspected someone might be so close to the entrance gate. She watched and heard a few fights in the distance, in the swamp, thanks to her summons, but nothing caught her interest.
On the fifth day, an hour before the exam ended, Seina dismantled her cabin and packed her food reserves into a container she slipped into her pocket, along with her canteen and the two scrolls she had selected as her "loot." She kept the other three just in case but doubted she would need them. With only five minutes left until 7:00 p.m., the designated time, she deactivated the barriers and quickly made her way to the gate. Using her spells, she confirmed she wasn't the only one waiting for the exam to conclude. Still, she didn't drop her invisibility until a gong sounded and the gates opened. She leapt from the tree, regaining visibility mid-fall, and exited after a ninja from Sunagakure, who raised an eyebrow at her in surprise.
"Congratulations on passing the test, candidates," said the ninja. "Now, we will return to the academy, where you will be briefed on the next part of the exam and given your test scores."
Seina followed the group, observing how most of them looked a bit battered or paler and hungrier than when they had started. The only one who looked unchanged was the Kiri ninja, likely because he had the advantage of being on his home turf. When they reached the academy, she headed over to the Konoha group, nodding in response to the smiles and head gestures from her comrades, and waited.
"Congratulations. Out of the 106 candidates who began this exam, about 84 made it to the next stage, and now, 67 remain alive. In a few minutes, an examiner will check that you have the two scrolls required to pass this stage, and one of our medical ninjas will verify if you are fit to continue the exam. If you lack the two scrolls, you will be asked to withdraw after the medical check-up. You may rest until then."
Seina listened as everyone began whispering among their groups. Konoha was no different, and she turned to avoid being left out. She overheard a remark from one of the chūnin.
"It's a shame, but better alive without the scrolls than dead," consoled a Nara to what appeared to be a Yamanaka.
"It's not fair! They ganged up on me to steal my scroll!"
"Same here," she said, drawing the attention of the 15 people accompanying her from Konoha.
"They ganged up on you too?" asked the boy, maybe 17 years old, frowning.
"Yes. There were two of them."
"Well, Shihiro is right. Better luck next time," the boy consoled her, patting her shoulder.
"They didn't take my scrolls," she rolled her eyes. "In fact, I took three from them. If you want a pair, I can give them to you."
"Seriously?!"
"Shhh, lower your voice," his friend scolded him. He turned to her with a hint of astonishment. "Do you really have three extra scrolls?"
"The ones who attacked me had an extra scroll; they were probably planning to finish their mission by taking mine," Seina said, taking out the three scrolls and handing them to the Konoha ninjas, who formed a circle to cover the exchange.
There were no rules against what she was doing, but it wouldn't sit well with candidates from other nations, so it was best to keep it discreet.
"Mind if I take one?" another boy asked, his face serious.
"Go ahead. I already have mine."
"Lucky you, Yamato!" his friend congratulated him, seeing he had secured his second scroll purely by chance.
"Thank you so much, Seina-san," said the boy, followed by the Yamanaka.
"Attention! Line up in five single-file rows!" called one of the Kiri jōnin, accompanied by a medical team. "The sooner we finish here, the sooner you can eat and rest. Once you're cleared, you may check your written exam scores on this board. If you've failed, you won't proceed with the exam."
Seina had to wait a while as the medical ninjas went person to person, checking and healing injuries. When it was her turn, she showed her scrolls to the jōnin, who nodded and returned her loot, and then stepped aside for the medical ninja. The ninja used a medical jutsu to examine her but, noticing she didn't have a single scratch, let her go with a surprised expression. Heart pounding, she approached the scoreboard that everyone was examining. It didn't take long to find her name at the bottom of the list: Seina Uzumaki – 9'26. She felt her breath escape as she realized the incredible score she had achieved. She could hardly believe it.
Later, when only those who had passed the test remained, about 36 people, one of the examiners addressed them again.
"All of you have the two scrolls required. As you know, the missions vary in difficulty: easy, moderate, or difficult. You must now choose a mission, keeping in mind that depending on the difficulty, you'll have more or fewer days to complete it. Easy missions will have a three-day deadline, moderate missions five days, and difficult missions seven days. If you fail to complete your mission within the allotted time, you will not pass the test."
Seina left the ninja academy with the rest of the team, suppressing a huge grin. When she reached the hotel, she couldn't believe her eyes. It was Kakashi-sensei!
"What are you doing here?" she asked, smiling from ear to ear. "I thought you were on a mission!"
"And I am," the jōnin replied, returning her smile. "I'm acting as the Hokage's messenger until she returns to the village."
Seina immediately understood, turning to look at Tsunade-sama, who was smiling next to Shikaku.
"How did it go?" the Hokage asked.
"Great. A 9'26 and two scrolls," she shrugged.
"I can't believe my student is about to match me in rank," Kakashi-sensei laughed, patting her on the shoulder. "I knew you could do it."
The Hokage placed a hand on her forehead, using a medical jutsu to check her condition again.
"You're in great shape."
"Not a single scratch," she nodded.
"Come. Let's all have dinner," the Hokage suggested.
Thus, she found herself dining between Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-sama, surrounded by Konoha ninjas in the most luxurious hotel in Kirigakure. After getting up from the table to bid farewell and go to bed, they ran into another group of ninjas. Unfortunately, they were from Kumogakure. Thankfully, the Raikage was not present at the time.
"Well, well… I almost can't believe it. Kakashi Hatake," said one of the jōnin, looking at her teacher. "I didn't expect to find you here instead of on the battlefield. I heard someone had the brilliant idea of giving you a genin team."
"Times change," Kakashi-sensei replied with a seemingly lazy shrug.
"I didn't know A was so interested in Kakashi," Tsunade-sama intervened, appearing out of nowhere.
"The Raikage likes to stay informed," he replied nonchalantly. His gaze shifted from one person to another, finally resting on her with an expression difficult to decipher.
Was he seeing her, or her father? She noticed some Kumo ninjas moving slightly, their unease evident in the presence of the Hokage, Shikaku Nara, Kakashi Hatake, and the Hokage's entourage, along with all the jōnin candidates—quite a few people. In the end, it came to nothing. The Kumogakure ninjas left, and they proceeded to their floor.
"Be careful with them," Tsunade-sama advised. "Tomorrow, don't do anything foolish in your matches."
There was no need to tell her twice. As soon as she could, she would hand over all the memories to Inoichi. He would surely be interested in seeing what she had witnessed. In the meantime, she wouldn't say a word. She had already put herself in enough danger by warning Shikaku about Ao. Kakashi-sensei bid her goodnight, assuring her that he would watch her match from start to finish this time, and left her to rest. The bath she took was pure luxury, even though she had washed during the exam to avoid smelling like the swamp. When she noticed herself starting to nod off, she got dressed and went to bed.