Chapter 61: The Forest of Death!
"Please, hold all celebrations for when the whole chunin exams finish, this next test will be… breathtaking."
No one said a word, everyone knew about Orochimaru, seeing him in person was terrifying for everyone who met him.
"Orochimaru-sama, great to see you here," Ryuu said with a smile on his face.
Everyone looked at him I'm disbelief.
"Don't you know who you're talking to? He's one of the legendary sannin and you talk with him so casually, are you stupid?"
Tazumi asked.
"I guess you could say I'm friends with him, is that wrong?" Ryuu responded while holding his chin.
Orochimaru licked his lips and had a wicked smirk.
"I am the second proctor for your exams, Orochimaru, let's not waste time with introductions.
Hmph, Yuto, you've left a few people here, and you barely applied pressure on them, it doesn't matter, by the time the next round is done, nearly more than half of them will be gone."
Everyone widened their eyes.
"Well, what are we doing here then, let's go!" Ryuu said as he excitedly jumped up from his seat, he was about to jump out of the window but Orochimaru grabbed him by his collar.
"Aren't you going to wait for your teammates?" Ryuu scratched his head,
"Right, sorry about that." He smiled as he said that.
"Now then, follow me and don't fall behind, I won't wait." He said.
He led us to some fenced area with many large trees, it had a warning sign saying, "no trespassing!" and looked to be very dangerous, I could feel many traps laid out on the ground and many strange animals.
"This is the place you will take your exams on, training ground 44, or as we like to call it, the forest of death."
I could see many people started being afraid just by hearing that name, Orochimaru had a smirk on his face after seeing so many people being afraid.
"This place looks creepy, right Ryuu?" Obito asked.
I nodded,
"It has many traps that remained untriggered by the previous chunin exams, be careful where you step." He nodded.
"Before we begin the second exam, I need you all to fill in these consent forms."
I helped him by handing out the consent forms.
"Why would we need a consent form," Tazumi asked.
Orochimaru licked his lips, "Usually in this test, it's about survival even if it means killing your opponent's using any ninja arts or weapons but this time it's different, we're in a war and we need as many shinobi as we can get and obviously we can't have that when you die here.
But in a test like this, death is inevitable, and that's why we need you to sign these, so we won't be held accountable."
Everyone had their eyes widening.
"You're telling me we could die here?!" Tazumi asked.
He nodded.
"But before you sign that form, I'll explain the goal in this test, after I do that, you take these forms to that hut behind you.
To put this simply, usually, this is a no holds barred survival test, but this time because we're in a war, the only rule is not to kill your enemy."
He pulled a paper from his pocket.
"This is a map of the forest of death, as you can see, it's bordered by a circular perimeter interrupted at regular intervals by 44 locked gates.
There are forests, and a river, in the middle there's a tower about ten kilometers from these gates.
Within the confines of this area you will undergo a survival test, during this test you may use any ninja arts or weapons you have, but try not to kill your opponent if that's possible, we're all shinobi from the leaf.
Think of this test as capture the flag, or in this case, it's capture the scrolls, there's a scroll of heaven and an earth scroll of earth, your objective is to gain both, there are 20 teams here, which means 10 of you will start with a scroll of earth and the other 10 will have the scroll of heaven, your job is to bring them back to the tower."
"Orochimaru-sama, doesn't that mean that only 10 teams will pass?" He nodded.
"That's if all who collect both scrolls will make it in time.
You have five days to complete this exam, the forest has many animals you can kill for food but don't eat what you don't know, the Forest has many poisonous plants and deadly animals and insects, you'll be surrounded by enemies so sleep with one eye open."
He licked his lips with a smile.
"I know I said try to prevent killing your enemies, but some of you might die due to starvation, dehydration, exhaustion, and exposure.
And as usual, there are rules for the participants for which you can be disqualified, for example, if the team which carries both scrolls cannot reach the tower in time, they will fail,
And so will any team that loses a member because of death or severe injuries, also, you are not allowed to leave the forest, no matter the reason, and we forbid you to see what's inside the scroll."
"What's going to happen if we see even just a little?" Obito asked.
"Those who are foolish enough to try will find out." He gulped.
"Those who get promoted to chunin will be entrusted with secret documents, consider this a way to test if you can be trusted.
Anyway, that's all you need to know, go trade in your consent forms for a scroll, you only get one per team then head to a chosen gate, once you've done that, everyone will begin at the same time."
Everyone went to get a scroll from the hut, they kept it covered from everyone so that it remains a mystery who has whichever one you're looking for.
"I saw what you did," Kakashi said, Ryuu started sweating a little.
"What do you mean, Kakashi?"
"Don't play dumb with me, I already know your plan, are you sure it will work?" Ryuu nodded.
"What plan? I saw nothing, I don't know what you guys are talking about." Obito said.
"Don't worry, you'll find out soon."
He scratched his head, but he didn't question me.
We went to get our scroll and went to the 7th gate; we had the heaven scroll all we needed is the earth scroll.
"Do you see them Ryuu?" Kakashi asked.
"Yeah, be careful, we're the center of attention today, and everyone will try to get us, maybe some of them hold a grudge against one of us, probably me." Kakashi and Obito nodded.
"But if things go as planned, all this will be over in less than 10 minutes."
Obito's eyes widened, Kakashi was used to these crazy stunts Ryuu liked to pull, so he didn't care, plus if this plan works they all pass and have the next step into becoming a chunin.
"Kakashi! My eternal rival!" Might Guy came from beside us, we were in gate 9 and they were in gate 10.
"I'll see you in the finals, I won't lose to you or Ryuu!" I nodded and accepted the challenge.
"Alright everyone, follow your proctors to your gates, when the clock turns to half an hour, the survival test begins," Orochimaru said.
Even though he isn't one to shout, everyone can hear him because they're all too afraid to speak when he speaks.
After 5 minutes, the clock hit the half an hour mark, and we began.
"Swoosh!" The sound of all the teams passing by, everyone was determined to get a scroll as early as possible.
Ryuu placed his finger on the ground.
"Alright, the plan is in motion, we're far enough."
Obito still did not know what the plan was.
"Obito, I know you must be confused, but I have a plan and get ready to fight you too, Kakashi Alright?" They nodded.
You bastard!" Tazumi yelled as he ran towards Ryuu with his kunai.
"Cling!" His teammate hit his kunai out of his hands.
"What are you doing?!"
"Don't rush into battle like that."
He clenched his fist.
"Fine, then what do you suppose we do? We can't just let him take our scroll!"
Ryuu had a wicked smirk on his face.
"With all that talking, someone may mistakenly think you're worth the effort, Tazumi." He mocked him and it was working, Tazumi activated his Sharingan.
"Oh no, Kakashi, he has the two tomoe Sharingan already? surely what am I to do about this, I can't possibly win this fight." He jokingly said.
"Look, can't we just get over this already?" Kakashi asked.
Ryuu smiled and activated his Sharingan.
"Take it easy, already, I'm just playing around, it's not like they actually have a chance here," Ryuu said as he smiled.
"Is that so?"
Tazumi asked.
"Wind style Gale palm!" He tried hitting Ryuu with it, but Ryuu dodged it.
"Well, that's interesting, an Uchiha using wind style." He said to himself.
He gave the scrolls to Obito and Kakashi.
"Did we get the right ones?" They nodded.
"Well then, let's finish this up and leave."
He looked back at them.
"Sorry to bother you like this, but I'm kind of in a rush here so I'll take my leave, OK?"
"No way! Give me back my scroll!"
He tried to rush at Ryuu with nothing but a kunai.
"Fire style Dragon flame jutsu!" Ryuu shot out a dragon and used it as a distraction, it moved them back then he put them all in a genjutsu.
"Let's hurry, we've already wasted time as it is," Kakashi said.
Ryuu teleported to the one who went further.
They had both scrolls as well, but they weren't enemies
"Kakashi?" He said as he got in a fighting stance.
"Oh, hey Guy!" Ryuu said.
"How are you here already?" He asked.
"Doesn't matter, don't worry we're not here to fight, I'm heading towards the tower, see you when I'm there ok?" He nodded.
Ryuu bit his finger and weaved hand signs.
"Summoning jutsu!"
"Boom!"
A cloud of white smoke appeared and in the middle of the forest, a giant red toad wearing a kimono and smoking a pipe appeared.
"How's it going bunta?" He asked as he and his team stood above him.
"What nonsense is this? What do you need me for?" He asked.
"I need you to get us to that tower over there as fast as possible." He nodded.
"As fast as possible, huh?" I nodded.
"Get in." He said as he opened his mouth.
"Get in?" Even Ryuu was perplexed by whatever was going on.
"Well, what are you waiting for?"
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