At dusk, they found a hidden cave.
The entrance was covered by vines, and it was quite dry inside.
Yamada gathered some dry firewood and started a fire.
Watanabe sat at the entrance keeping watch, eyes fixed on the darkness outside.
Shinji leaned against the back of the cave, eyes closed.
His mind was still racing, and he felt a sense of unease.
"System? System! Can you hear me?"
But there was no response to Shinji.
In the middle of the night, Shinji was awakened by the sounds of fighting.
Screams and the roar of Ninjutsu came from the distance.
Firelight flickered through the gaps in the vines.
Watanabe huddled at the entrance, face pale.
"Someone... someone is fighting over there..."
Shinji stood up, walked to the entrance, and glanced outside.
In the distance, several large trees were burning. In the firelight, figures were chasing and killing each other.
He withdrew his gaze.
"It has nothing to do with us."
He returned to the back of the cave and continued to rest with his eyes closed.
The next day, they continued to venture deeper.
The forest became quieter and quieter. Not the normal kind of quiet, but a deathly silence.
There was no birdsong, no chirping of insects, only the occasional scream from far away, drifting as if from another world.
They passed by a clearing.
Three corpses lay in the clearing. They wore the forehead protectors of the Hidden Grass Village. The blood had not yet dried.
Yamada covered his mouth and ran to the side to vomit.
Watanabe's face was as white as paper, but he forced himself to stand his ground, though his hands were trembling violently.
Shinji walked over, crouched down, and examined the wounds.
Killed with a single strike. A very clean technique.
He stood up and continued walking forward.
"W-wait for us."
Yamada caught up, his face deathly pale: "Aren't you afraid?"
Shinji did not speak.
Afraid?
He had seen scenes ten, a hundred times more gruesome than this. In the ruins of the Hidden Mist Village, corpses were piled into mountains.
On the battlefield of Kannabi Bridge, blood flowed like a river. In the fifteen years of the simulation, he had lived on the edge of a blade every single day.
What was this compared to that?
On the third day, they encountered their first real, powerful enemies.
A trio from Otogakure.
Two men and one woman, wearing strange clothes, with twisted smiles on their faces.
The leader was a bald man with long earrings hanging from his ears, fiddling with a ninja sword in his hand.
"Yo."
He saw the three of them and his eyes lit up: "Konoha brats."
Yamada and Watanabe immediately entered combat stance and drew their ninja swords.
Shinji looked at the three people.
Their Chakra fluctuations were much stronger than the previous group.
Especially the bald one, who should be at the level of a Special Jonin.
"Hand over the scrolls."
The bald man smiled and said: "I can let you die quickly."
Shinji did not speak.
He just took a step forward.
The bald man was stunned for a moment, then laughed.
"Interesting." He charged forward.
Then he stopped.
Because Shinji was already in front of him.
Fast.
Too fast.
The bald man hadn't even seen how he moved.
He only saw those eyes, those eyes that were too deep and too calm.
Only three feet away.
He instinctively thrust his ninja sword forward.
Shinji dodged to the side and punched him in the ribs.
Crack.
The sound of bones breaking.
The bald man bent over, spat out a mouthful of blood, fell to the ground, twitched twice, and stopped moving.
The remaining two were stunned in place.
One second. Two seconds.
Then the woman screamed and turned to run. The other man scrambled after her.
Shinji did not chase.
He crouched down and fished a scroll from the bald man's body. He opened it and looked. Heaven Scroll.
"We have them all," he said.
Yamada and Watanabe stood in the distance, looking at him as if he were a monster.
"W-who exactly are you?" Watanabe's voice was off-key.
Shinji stood up and put the two scrolls away.
"A Konoha Genin," he said.
The fourth day.
They headed towards the Central Tower.
Along the way, they encountered many examinees. Some saw them from afar and avoided them. Some tried to rob them, but were taken down by Shinji in a few moves.
Others just brushed past them, exchanged wary glances, and went their separate ways.
At noon, they rested in a forest.
Yamada leaned against a tree trunk, eating rations. Watanabe sat nearby, glancing at Shinji from time to time, wanting to speak but hesitating.
Shinji sat with his eyes closed, appearing to rest.
But he was sensing his surroundings.
Something was moving nearby.
Very light. Very stealthy. But it definitely existed.
Shinji opened his eyes.
Then he saw Hinata.
She poked her head out from the bushes, her grayish-purple short hair a bit messy, her white eyes filled with surprise.
Seeing Shinji, her eyes lit up instantly.
"Shinji-kun!"
She ran out of the bushes, breathless, and ran up to him.
"I finally found you!"
Shinji stood up.
"Are you alone? Where are your teammates?"
Hinata's face flushed slightly: "I... I got separated from them... We were attacked by a group yesterday, and we ran in different directions..."
As she said this, her eyes darted away.
Shinji understood.
She wasn't separated; she had split off on purpose.
To come and find him.
"How long have you been walking in this forest alone?"
"O-one day..."
Hinata lowered her head, her voice getting quieter and quieter:
"I have been looking for you the whole time..."
Yamada and Watanabe watched this scene from the side, exchanging a meaningful look.
Shinji was silent for a moment.
"Follow me," he said.
Hinata looked up, her eyes bright, and nodded vigorously.
"Mm!"
Just then.
Shinji's movements froze.
He sensed something coming.
Chakra fluctuations. Very light, but very clear. Coming from the southeast, approaching rapidly.
He turned around and shielded Hinata behind him.
"Step back."
Hinata was stunned for a moment, then complied. She retreated to Yamada and Watanabe's side, but her gaze remained fixed on Shinji's back.
The bushes rustled.
A girl poked her head out from the bushes.
Short dark blue hair, a Hidden Mist Village forehead protector, large eyes; she looked to be about twelve or thirteen.
The girl saw Shinji looking at her, shrank her neck back, then poked her head out again and waved at him.
"Um," her voice was very soft, "can I come over?"
Yamada and Watanabe immediately became alert.
Shinji looked at her.
"Come over."
The girl trotted over, stopped in front of him, looked up at him, and was breathless.
"I finally found you!"
She panted: "My name is Minazuki Ryoko! I want to form an alliance with you!"
Shinji looked at her.
Minazuki, that Kekkei Genkai clan from the Hidden Mist Village that had been purged, the same clan as Haku.
"Why me?"
"Because..."
The girl blinked: "Because someone asked me to find you."
She smiled innocently.
Shinji looked at that face. It was too clean.
Clean like a wild fruit just picked from the mountains, covered in dew, untouched by anyone.
But in those eyes, something was moving.
Very light. Very faint. But he saw a trace of something strange.
"Are you alone?" he asked.
"Mm." The girl nodded, "My teammates are all dead."
When she said this, her tone was very flat, as if she felt no sadness or grief.