Just closing her eyes while continuously moving at high speeds didn't work that well with Mana's latent and untrained chakra sensory abilities. She needed to stop, close her eyes and concentrate for that and even then she was looking at the ability to sense something up to a kilometer away. A distance completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of the massive vegetation which was the Forest of Death.

"You were away the whole night, I'd have thought you'd be covered with massive mosquito bites like Kiyomi." Meiko grinned after looking back at Mana, breaking the magician's concentration. Not that it mattered anyways since it clearly wasn't going anywhere.

"Yeah, they were annoying but I guess the food pill treated that." Mana shrugged while taking a moment to look onwards to Kiyomi. Her arms were covered with large and quite wide for a mosquito bite spots of red. Even her face, which clearly was an area of prioritized protection had a couple of spots on it.

After hearing the silence that took over the conversation Kiyomi looked back with wonder before squinting at Meiko, "I'm not taking a medical food pill just to treat a bunch of itchy bites…" she hissed out. "Don't you know how expensive those things are?"

"Kouta seemed to have them on him in great quantities…" Meiko shrugged.

"That's because he's a medical ninja, he can probably make his own himself from herbs and common spices. The medical food pills are actually pretty expensive and rare for non-medical ninja. The black ones are particularly difficult to obtain, I had to save up dozens of tool refill funds before I could get my hand on them and it still took a whole two and a half years to make enough money for just two of them." Mana explained.

"That doesn't seem right, food pills can heal people just like medical ninja, right? Wouldn't that make them a replacement for medical ninja, in a way?" Meiko bellowed in confusion.

"Food pills don't "heal" people. They accelerate and boost the ninja's own metabolism which is already far surpassing that of non-chakra manipulators. They have very specific limitations and shouldn't be taken in larger quantities or too often. It'd be better if me and Meiko refrained from taking them for a day or two. It's because of these limitations that they are so expensive, the Administration doesn't want non-medical ninja, who don't know all the factors involved, dealing with them."

"You'd probably be alright, you took the red one, right?" Kiyomi looked back. "Those are child's play. You could probably get away taking a couple of those at a time… My brother used to tell me about taking several of reds to emulate one yellow pill, I can remember at least several stories about his missions where he did that."

"Maybe, our best course of action is still to avoid picking fights…" Mana noted while she jumped up higher as she noticed a pair of giant centipedes crawling and wrangling up a tree. As their armored shell rubbed against the bark it greatly damaged the plant and if the insect really wanted to it could snap even the toughest trees in half by just pressing it harder.

"Someone's following us…" Mana whimpered out as she sat above on a large tree branch. Kiyomi looked up at the magician in surprise. Meiko quickly zipped her pants back up and hustled and rolled out from the bush she was peeing in like a scared chubby penguin before fixing her clothes and fastening all the belts and harnesses of her armor.

"How do you know that?" Kiyomi wondered.

"Mind link." Mana whispered, she remembered how well she could hear a conversation when she tracked Team Phobos. If she revealed she was a latent untrained sensor she might trigger the people following them to attack. Kiyomi closed her eyes and weaved a hand seal before opening them and looking at Mana, momentarily the blonde's voice as well that of Meiko were linked together with the magician's mind.

"I'm a sensor. My abilities are a bit raw and I've only found out yesterday night. One of the ninja I was following was a sensor and sensors can tell other sensors, so he told me." Mana focused on her thoughts, putting them into a mental message.

"I wonder if squirrels pee while they're stuck on a tree or if they hide in bushes or something…" Meiko's thoughts echoed out loud, almost like the blacksmith was yelling them out loud.

"What? Wait… Also, Meiko, we heard that. Don't focus on thoughts you don't want us to hear. Imagine speaking in your mind, keep your needless thoughts at a less material level, just let them float freely while you focus on things you need to transmit." Kiyomi explained. "I thought we've done this already a couple of times?"

"Sorry… I'm not too good with control…" Meiko actually blushed in the material plain while only her thoughts could've been heard. "Plus, I don't remember that being established, I must've just not thought about anything else back then…"

"So what's our plan?" Mana tried returning the team back to reality of being followed by a team of unclear power and intentions.

"How unrefined is your ability? Can you tell how far away they are? How strong they are?" Kiyomi wondered.

"Not exactly. I can estimate with something better than an educated guess, they should be about five hundred meters away. I can only tell their strengths apart from each other if it differs greatly, for example I would absolutely tell a difference between a chuunin and a genin but I'm not yet good enough to tell how strong they are precisely. Also… I'm pretty sure there're four signatures." Mana kept feeling out and exploring the four large stars in the mental meditative imagery she was perceiving.

"Four? Could it be an alliance between teams? If neither of the teams are going after each other, it's possible." Kiyomi theorized.

"True. But they're following us too persistently, that smells to me like one of us is their target. They wouldn't have bothered otherwise…" Mana suggested.

"Seems a little bit lucky to just bump into your target, doesn't it?" Kiyomi wondered.

"Exactly, that means they are capable of some sort of enhanced tracking abilities." Mana deduced.

"Inuzuka…"

"Most likely…"

"Awww. I don't like beating dogs…" Meiko grunted.

"So what do we do?" Kiyomi wondered.

"Right now they have a drop on us, they're the hunter and we're the prey but we know they're there. We need to flip the table on that. They've also got an advantage – we're useful to them whereas they aren't to us. I don't like the idea of fighting them but they've got an Inuzuka, we'd never escape them for long." Mana kept thinking while keeping the entire thought process revealed to the team on the link.

"So, what you're saying is – we need to break that damned dog's nose?" Kiyomi grunted as the thought of a needless conflict was just as irritating to her as it was to Mana.

"That's not enough." Meiko butt in. "Even if we do injure the sniffer, they can still recover just like I've done, plus an Inuzuka is part the sniffer their dog is. Safe bet is taking them out completely, I'd also say – let's find out which one of them needs which one of us and take them out as well. That'll reduce the width of the degree at which we need to watch our backs."

"Seconded. Full-out brawl it is." Kiyomi let the team know of her agreement.

Mana could just sigh. Still, she began transmitting her suggestion of the plan on how to flip the stipulation of the battle over. She didn't like the idea of screwing someone else over, eliminating someone else from the exam and therefore from the opportunity of becoming chuunin this year. She needed an inner reminder of what was at stake for her to get more of her heart into the game.

"Alright, punks! We know you're out there!" Mana yelled out with her voice echoing into the dark void lacking happiness and sunlight beyond in all sides.

A rumbling roar emanated from beyond the void and shortly after the dark of the forest began to slowly light up. Tree rustled, crackled and fell down as a sharp ellipse of searing blaze tore its way past them. Surprisingly enough the heat was contained and didn't even set the trees it downed ablaze. All jammed and packed into this tablet of destruction, almost like a rocket of scorching red blaze. A long and spraying watery tail fired off from the end of the projectile only strengthening this impression.

Mana and the rest of the team scattered away from the projectile as it slammed into the ground before erupting into a pillar of absolute destruction. Twenty million degrees and hundred megatons of explosive power compressed into a singular fifty meters radius pillar that extended beyond Mana's field of vision up in the sky. A technique like that would've taken all three of the girls out and left them incapacitated or on the edge of dying. Even dodging it by half its radius felt like hell itself and the pulsing chakra shockwave nearly blew Mana away like a Wind Release technique of its own.

A jet of Caribbean blue darted off of the pillar of flames and darted off right at Mana. The watery tail of the Fire Release technique was no tail of a rocket – it was an actual person rotating nearby the technique. It was a smart strategy, a skilled Water Release user could've manipulated the temperature of the water around them and kept themselves from getting boiled or incinerated by the technique while they also followed their opponents after they've avoided the clunky devastative distraction of the technique that came earlier.

"Kraken Fang!" an enraged roar surpassing the lingering roars of the destruction that it shortly followed darted off of the watery rotating drill – a version of the Inuzuka signature rotating technique except with Water Release properties giving it greater shredding drill-like properties.

The rotating Inuzuka tore through Mana's flesh and through her chest clean leaving a gapping hole where it drilled through. The ease at which the young genin dispatched of his target surprised the Inuzuka greatly as after piercing Mana's body the young man turned around immediately and ended the technique, focusing on regaining his composure and defending against the enemy's counterattack. After weaving a hand seal the young individual whispered "Dispel".

Mana's corpse faded away like a mirage and so did the dashing away figures of her teammates. Now the hunter has become the exposed prey with the magician and her team remaining hidden and having clear vision over the Inuzuka and his Fire Release using teammate nearby.

"That was impressive…" Kiyomi smiled.

"Yeah! Did you see that explosion!? It'd have really hurt! I think I'd have barely survived that! I'd have been a steak after it… Wonder if I'm tasty…" Meiko kept on freaking out overloading the mental link with loud and headache inducing pulses of mental energy before biting her own arm softly and nibbling on it for a while.

"No, I meant Mana's illusion. Leave it to Konoha's Sorceress to expand the illusion to affect all of us…" Kiyomi commended Mana's trick.

"Fancy Trick Jutsu is an old illusion I've mastered as a child. I wasn't completely sure if expanding its effect would work but it was likely. Now all three of us are concealed. Truthfully, the corpse should've been emulated for far longer. The technique usually ends when I begin using chakra for my own counterattack or disrupt my mental state with a physical attack."

"He must've dispelled it, fairly easily too. He knows of your genjutsu prowess, must've seen your file. You've been skilled at genjutsu ever since the Academy, your skillset hasn't varied too much after then, that's not good." Kiyomi looked on at the Inuzuka who remained in his current position and on the defensive, choosing to stand still and be able to perceive his own environment instead of moving and exposing blind spots. A furry grey and black husky growled by his side with fangs as long as a senbon needle and as wide as a banana.

"I thought Mana's illusions weren't this easy to dispel…" Meiko curiously cocked her head to the side.

"If they are perfected, used against an opponent of lesser, equal or only slightly higher skill, they aren't. This Fancy Trick Jutsu was out of balance, using conceptual expanded effect and range as well as being unstable. A simple push would've toppled it down…" Mana explained.

"There they are…" Meiko pointed surprised at the two figures faintly sticking out of their environment, only because they looked so extravagant that concealing their presence would've been nearly impossible.

Just like the Inuzuka genin from before, judging from the side which they were seen from, both teammates wore Hoshigakure protectors. As evidenced by the clear star symbol on their forehead protectors. One of the duo, likely the one who launched the Fire Release technique before, was dressed in bulky and almost stone-like in texture metallic armor with loads of small constructs that looked almost like exhaust pipes. He wore a dark bandanna so it was tough to tell much about the genin's hair but several longer strands stuck out from under it.

"Nice eye, Meiko…" Mana praised her teammate as she liked the fact that she didn't need to focus on sensory and expose herself more than she needed to in order to locate the other two competitors.

"I'd notice sweet armor like that anywhere! Maybe we can strip him of it?" the blacksmith wondered.

"Cheeky… Anyways, what's that other one?" Kiyomi noted asking for the attention to be directed at the third teammate of the Inuzuka standing right by the side of the heavily armored ninjutsu user.

A long and flowing cape-like purple dress covered the entire feminine shape of the kunoichi. Her lips were so eye-scratching in how gleamingly they were covered with lipstick that she certainly stuck out in the dark and gloomy green of the surrounding forest even without much enhanced perception needed. She wore the strangest headdress of a large metallic axe-like shape that covered her head from the nose up. The young lady looked demonic, almost like a monster from some sort of a horror movie.

With a gentle twitch of his eye, the Inuzuka youth betrayed his movement. His ninja hound fellow leaped beside him, ready to protect his master in mid movement. Mana realized that their position must've been already been known by the ninja dog and its Inuzuka owner. Those guys possessed an intense sense of smell which the magician had a chance of finding out back when she fought Inuzuka Noji and his partner Sunomaru during the mission she first met Kiyomi on.

Intercepting that leap to safety would've been a mistake. The young man wouldn't have moved if he wasn't sure his team or his canine friend was ready to cover him. They likely had some sort of ace up their sleeve or the young man would've merely substituted with something which would've in terms left the attacker in a very exposed position.

The axe-head young lady suddenly turned her head right at Team Hokage's location, followed by the heavy armored genin that leaped on another branch and turned their general direction as well. At that moment both teams knew of the location of the other but neither one of them was exposed needlessly. At least Team Hokage could make the best out of the bad situation and move into a less exposed location as well as scout out their opponents.

"So. Your target is Mana?" Kiyomi asked out loud. She must've put it together from how the Inuzuka prioritized the magician after the blast even if the other girls were clearly just as exposed, even if they knew from her file how Mana was a genjutsu user and very likely prepared for a simple physical assault – the most cliché way of coming after an illusion user.

"Yeah…" the Inuzuka grinned confidently before pointing at himself with his thumb. "Name's Clarmac Inuzuka, this lovely fur-ball is Basto. The waitress girl is kinda my target, sorry…"

"I'm a stage magician!" Mana yelled out embarrassed to be confused to a servicing worker yet again. "I do magic tricks on stage, this is my uniform!"

"It looks cringy…" Clarmac's female teammate noted. Her teeth were as white as her pale skin, clearly contrasting her blood red lips and dark purple dress as well as her metallic headdress.

"You're the one to talk! You're wearing someone's axe handle on your head!" Kiyomi yelled out. "I'm taking this metal-head down, I hate edgy bitches!" she relayed on the mental link.

"Anyways, my lady friend is Ieiria Deargli. The guy you've already met before by him nuking you is Teclaim Laoch. We're Team Sagitarii from Hoshigakure. I suppose since we've already located each other and established our need to fight this out, may as well do it honorably." Clarmac grinned arrogantly.

"Okay, I'm Wakizashi Meiko, this is Yamanaka Kiyomi. We're Team Hokage from Konoha. I suppose we'll be fighting 'till one of the sides refuses or physically can't go on, we've no interest in killing anyone today." Meiko replied before unsealing a buckler shield and a one handed, two edged and firm gripped, one arm long sword.

"Neither have we. Killing in an examination like this is distasteful and lacking any sportsmanship. I'm glad we can agree on that much…" Laoch nodded with a firm approval. His eyes were firmly stuck on Meiko, he must've established her as the main physical threat of Team Hokage.

"This fight isn't gonna be pretty, it won't be to our favor either. Look out, Mana. They'll be looking to finish this quick." Kiyomi warned the magician mentally.

"Yeah, I'm Clarmac's target, neither of them is ours. They don't want to be injured so they'll be out for my blood… I'd rather not use Flower Petal Sanctuary Jutsu again and keep increasing the chakra cost creep again." the magician agreed.

"Don't worry, you won't have to! After being side-lined for so long. After having my life and participation in this exam saved by you so many times… They can sling a galaxy at Mana and I'll just kick it aside like a ragball!" Meiko grinned, her thick and muscular thighs were shaking in excitement for finally being able to repay the debt to her team in a meaningful way. She's been sidelined and out of her comfort zone for so long, having to rely on Mana's intelligence or Kiyomi's experience and skill for so long. Now was an opportunity for the blacksmith to cut loose. Protect her friends and bash some heads in.

There was absolutely no way that the blacksmith would fail her team now. These three wanted the blood of her friend, they'd have to take it from over Meiko's dead body.