In just a few seconds, Bakorio found himself covered in countless seals, and thanks to his understanding of them as well as his talent. He was able to deduce that they were for the purpose of restricting his strength and chakra as well as shrinking the size of the user. However, he also noticed that there were some sneaky seals that had the purpose of confusing the user which made him narrow his eyes slightly.

'This seal far surpasses the one Minato used to seal Kurama, whoever came up with it is a terrifying being…' Thought Bakorio as he started feeling a terrible weakness covering his whole body that started shrinking in size until it became a tenth of its original size.

"Now then young man, your challenge starts now, climb the mountain of flowers and fruits all the way to its peak and you shall pass the test" Said Kuma with a smile before he disappeared into the distance.

'Too bad for you, this bracelet of yours can't block my abilities like the previous Genjutsu, and I can see that a huge part of this test is from the confusion seals which were resisted by my reinforced heart and my eyes' thought Bakorio as he stared at the flowers that now become taller than him and started making his way up the mountain.

This mountain was only 1 kilometer tall, but to the now shrunken Bakorio, it was as if he was standing in front of a mountain that was 10 kilometers tall… However, he wasn't discouraged by this and started making his way slowly up the mountain…

Along this journey, he kept constantly getting attacked by many insects and animals which he usually thought of as insignificant, but now they posed a huge threat to him 'Was the first test done on purpose so that people can be ready for this one? It seems I wasn't wrong to think that these sneaky monkeys won't make it a simple climbing test…' thought Bakorio coldly.

He noticed that the higher he climbed, the stronger the animals he was facing grew, as well as the feeling of confusion he felt grew stronger as well, but he was still able to resist it. However, things changed slightly when he reached the 1 kilometers mark as an army of ants that were as big as him suddenly attacked him and they seemed attracted to him for some reason as he was clearly there target since they followed him even when he hid or tried to avoid them.

'This is definitely the doing of this bracelet' thought Bakorio while glaring at the bracelet on his right wrist… Meanwhile, the monkey king Kuma was chuckling to himself as he observed Bakorio struggling to fend off the ants "You made a mistake coming out too early from the first trial, you are indeed smart to figure it out, but you missed on a lot of experience that you could have learned young man" He muttered to himself, but his eyes soon widened in surprise as a beautiful but eerie dark sword appeared on Bakorio's hand and he started chopping every ant that approached him with surgical precision.

"How in the name of sage did this kid come up with such an item that fit his small size" muttered Kuma in surprise not understanding the magic of the system items that could always fit to Bakorio's size. However, he didn't move from his place to interfere since using weapons was allowed.

Meanwhile, after killing almost 100 ants, Bakorio ended up panting slightly and couldn't help but take a rest as he lay there on the ground surrounded by piles of ant corpses 'These monkeys are weird, they act straightforward but they are far from that, and I can already conclude that this journey will only keep getting more and more difficult the higher I get…'

After staring at the pitiful experience he gained from these level 4 ants, Bakorio recovered his strength quickly before he started making his way up the mountain again. He noticed a pattern appearing along his climb. Every 1 kilometer, the confusion would rise a notch and he would face a strong animal attack.

At the 2nd km mark, he was attacked by bees from the air trying to poke him. At the 3rd km mark, it was a mixture of bees and ants.

At the 4th km mark, it was a bunch of worms that would split into more worms when he cuts them and they were the most frustrating enemy he faced so far, and his only thought when facing them was that it would have been much more easier if he could have burned them with some Ninjutsu…

At the 5th Km mark, things finally took a turn for the worse as he was attacked by mantises, and he couldn't help but remember the right hand he lost inside the beast world and tightened his grip on his sword. After all, just because Bakorio hides his pain very well it doesn't mean that he didn't feel any. The experiences he went through inside that Genjutsu were far from fun after all…

'This is going to be a tough one' he thought as he started fighting with the mantises. This was the closest fight so far and he barely won it with a few superficial injuries here and there on his body…

"Fewww, that was close" muttered Bakorio as he took a rest and continued his climb… His body was already extremely tired and he felt as if something was trying to influence him to make him give up but it was resisted continuously…

At the 6th km mark, Bakorio was expecting another fight, but instead, he found himself facing so many giant dung beetles that were rolling giant rocks that they immediately threw in his direction

"This is fucked up" muttered Bakorio while staring at the huge rocks rolling at him from multiple directions and even changing after colliding with each other making them hard to predict or dodge so he instantly used his multi-task ability and quick-thinking speed to calculate their trajectories...

Kuma was surprised to see Bakorio walking forward calmly and the rocks seemed to be avoiding him on purpose as they always pass close to him but never hit him.

"No, this kid is making very small adjustments to his speed and movement, just enough to dodge the rocks, he's actually predicting their movement perfectly… what a monster" Thought Kuma while recalling how Hiruzen managed to go through this place… Hiruzen actually hid inside a hole until the barrage of rocks ended…

After the avalanche of rocks ended, the dung beetles quickly ran away unwilling to fight as if they knew the fate that awaited them and Bakorio simply ignored them and continued on his way since he didn't spend too much energy here…

"Finally, the 7th km mark, I'm already 70% of the way huh" muttered Bakorio, but he was surprised when he wasn't attacked and the whole place seemed kind of peaceful which only further increased his wariness as his inner alarms started ringing…

'There's something weird about this place' thought Bakorio as he observed his surroundings closely before his eyes caught sight of something, and just as he did, he immediately jumped out of the way!

Swoosh

A giant green snake that was hiding on a big plant jumped at Bakorio with its mouth wide open wanting to swallow him whole, and if not for his quick reaction speed, that would have been the outcome…

'That was close, but I'm not the type of person to fall for the same trick twice' Thought Bakorio as he readied his sword and faced the huge snake that was at least twice his size fearlessly!

"Come!" He said with eerily calm eyes.

The green snake hissed at him before it jumped at him again. Bakorio watched everything in slow-motion now that he had his abilities and put his sword in an Iai (Quick draw) stance and waited for the last second when the snake's head was just a hand distance from him before he leaned to the right dodging its lunge and drew his sword instantly before he returned it to its sheath.

Then, without even staring behind him, he continued his way to the top of the mountain as a clean cut appeared on the snake's body before its head slowly slid from it while its body kept spasming on the ground before all life left it…

...

AN: Sorry everyone for the lack of release yesterday, I went to the doctor and I ended up taking some pretty strong medicine... I will make it up with a double release soon