I had to break this up because it would have been WAY to long if I didn't. Because of the way I have been portraying Yugi toward Gaara people are questioning my pairings. I swear this is a;
YugixYami
AtemxHeba
BakuraxRyou
MarikxMalik
SetoxJoey
I just haven't gotten a chance to interact them very much but be patient, it will come. There will be Yaoi in this and my favorite pairings! Gaara may be paired with a male OC but I haven't quite decided yet. The reason and details behind the OC will be introduced later.
Enjoy!
Chapter 9- Chūnin Selection Exam: The Forest of Death! (Part 1)
(Yugi's POV)
Mahad Sensei in the morning had led us to the Forest of Death as soon as the sun had risen. When he picked us up after Ibiki's test he had advised us to make sure we always knew where each other was and to trust each other, because the next test was extremely dangerous. He didn't say anything more than that because we couldn't tell us about the exam.
Heba and I knew though, better than anyone else. We knew that people could, and would, die in this test and not just from murder. But from dehydration, hunger, animals, there were so many factors we made sure we were ready. Heba and I had backpacks with food, water, antibiotics and medication.
We were completely prepared so if we were going to die, we would have to be murdered, and we didn't have a very good chance at being murdered when we have two prodigies on our team and Joey who was a great ninja.
I looked up to the forest and shivered when a snake about the size of a king cobra slithered up a tree and curled around a branch. "This place is creepy." I mumbled and Joey nodded his head in agreement.
"You can say that again buddy."
Anko smirked from where she was at the front of us and placed her left arm on her waist. "This is the location for the second phase of the exam; it's the 44th battle training zone. But we call it The Forest of Death."
"The Forest…. Of Death…." Joey mumbled from next to me.
I looked up to him and smiled reassuringly but it didn't seem to work. I looked back to Anko who had locked eyes with him and nodded her head before she continued to speak again. "You will soon find out, why it's called the Forest of Death."
"You will soon find out, why it's called the Forest of Death." Naruto mocked placing his own hands on his hips and shaking his bottom like some sort of chicken dance.
I placed my hand over my mouth to stifle a laugh. He stood up straight and pointed a finger at Anko as he started to yell. "You think that scares me! That's nothing! I'm not afraid!"
'Oh naive Naruto, you should be.' I sighed in my head and watched as Anko flicked a kunai out of her wrist and tossed it at Naruto. It sliced through his cheek and embedded in the ground only a few feet from a sound ninja with long black hair and a straw hat on. I instantly remembered that was Orochimaru in disguise.
A shiver ran down my spine and I shifted closer to Yami who was next to me. He looked down to me and smiled reassuringly before looking back to Anko who was taking the kunai from Orochimaru.
"What is with that guys tongue?" Atem asked.
"It's like…. Some sort of snakes tongue…" Yami mumbled.
Heba and I shared a knowing look. He knew it was Orochimaru just as much as I did. But neither one of us wanted to say anything for fear of running the story line. Sasuke was going to get the curse mark; he had to in order for the show to continue.
"Now before we start the second test," Anko called out making us snap our heads back to her just as she pulled out some papers. "There's some things I have to pass out."
"What are they?" Joey asked.
She looked to him before casing her eyes over everyone in the crowed. "There agreement forms. You have to read them and then sign them."
Naruto's brows furrowed and he tilted his head to the side. "What for?"
"Some of you may not come back from this test and I have to get your consent to that risk, if I don't have you sign these…. It will be my responsibility." She answered laughing as if it was ridicules that she should be responsible for our death.
"Is she…. Nuts?" Yami asked and I tilted my head in thought.
"Honestly? I think she is more bipolar…"
Yami blinked and then nodded his head in agreement. "Possible."
In the blink of an eye she was back to her serious self and handed the forms to Naruto. "Here had these out."
"Definitely bipolar…." Atem mumbled and the rest of us nodded our head in agreement to that.
"Now I'll be explaining what you will be doing on this test. First thing you should know is that this test will tax everyone if your survival skills. First I'll give you all a description of the terrain on the practice field."
The paper finally came to us and I took them from Yami before grabbing a sheet for myself and handing the paper to Heba. I gave the sheet a once over reading that it is an agreement that I understand that I could die in this test and I accept full understanding of that.
When Anko started talking again I looked back up to her. She took out a scroll and opened it, showing to us a map of the Forest of Death. "The 44th battle training zone has 44 locked entrance gates; there are rivers and a forests inside. In the center there is a locked tower located 10 Kilometers from each gate. It is in the confined area that you will undergo this survival test." She closed the scroll and tucked it back into her coat as she continued to speak.
"The test consists of," She narrowed her eyes and dropped her voice as she continued to speak. "An anything goes battle, to get your hands on these scrolls." She pulled out two scrolls from her jacket and held them up for us to see. The black one had the kanji for Earth on it and a white one had the kanji for heaven on it.
'The heaven and earth scrolls.' I mumbled in my head and looked over to Heba who looked pale as a ghost. I knew he was worried about this test and so was I, but I didn't plan on losing. I was going to put everything I had into this. Yami, Atem, Joey, they were counting on us just like we were counting on them. I wasn't going to let them down.
"Both of them?" Sasuke asked making me look back to Anko.
"Yes. You'll be fighting to get both a heaven and an earth scroll." She answered and an eerie silence befell all of us as we stared at the scrolls and waited for Anko to continue and explain.
After a moment of silence she continued. "All together 26 teams will be taking this test. So half will be going after the heaven scroll and the other half will be trying to get the earth scroll. I'll hand over one kind of scroll to each team and that's what you will be vying for."
"Okay so how do we pass the test?" Sasuke asked and Anko looked over to him.
"Your entire squad must bring both a heaven and an earth scroll to the tower."
Yami narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest as he spoke. "Back at Ibiki Sensei's test, you said by the time you're done more than half of us will be gone. In this test 13 teams will lose their scrolls because we have to fight each other for the other scroll we need to pass… meaning half of the teams, if not everybody, will lose their scroll and fail. Whether it be to another team or not being able to get a scroll, more than half of us will indeed fail this test."
Anko smirked at Yami and nodded her head. "You're very clever, but no one ever said this was going to be easy." She looked back over to everyone else and shrugged. "Oh and one more thing, this test has a time limit. You must finish it in five days."
"Five days!" Ino exclaimed.
"WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO FOR FOOD!?" Chōji and Joey shouted at the same time looking absolutely devastated at the thought of not eating.
I couldn't help but laugh at that. Both boys were a bottomless pit I really wondered where they put all of that food and who would win in an eating contest.
"Just look around the forest is full of things to eat." She responded nonchalantly. "There is plenty to feed all of you."
"Are you sure? Joey's stomach is a big as this forest." Atem yelled and Joey turned a glare to him.
"Hey! I am a growing boy I need to eat!"
"Joey you probably eat more then everyone here put together." Yami responded rolling his eyes.
"That's not all the forest has plenty off. There are man-eating bests and poisonous plants in there."
Every head turned to Kabuto and I swallowed nervously. Atem narrowed his eyes and looked to Anko with a serious expression. "As the days go on the distance to the goal will become farther, and the time to rest will become shorter especially with the area crawling with enemies. Even thirteen teams passing is looking more and more unlikely."
"It is a challenge indeed." Lee added grinning.
Anko nodded. "Right, this test also measures endurance behind enemy lines. This is designed to be a grueling test and I am sure some of you won't be up to the challenge."
"So let's say I am in the middle of the test, can I quite?" Shikamaru asked and Anko looked over to him as if he was insane.
"Of course not, you can't say in the middle of a battle, 'Sorry I quit'." She paused and thought that over a moment before smiling to Shikamaru. "Well I guess you could but it would get you killed."
Shikamaru sighed at that and closed his eyes. "Oh just great, this is going to be such a drag."
"Laziest. Ninja. Ever." Heba mumbled and I couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Ya but he is one of the strongest."
Heba shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "Strongest or not, he is still the laziest."
"There are also some ways you can get disqualified." We all looked back to Anko as we waited for the rules. "The first is simple; if all members of the team can't make it to the tower with both scrolls after five days. Number two; if the team loses a member or if a member of the team becomes incapacitated and cannot continue. But most important, none of you absolutely none of you may look at the contents of the scrolls until you've reach the tower."
"Wh-what happens if it accidentally happens to flap open and you read it?" Naruto asked timidly.
"Let me put it to you this way young man… You. Don't. Want. To. Know." She answered punctuating each word.
"Note to self, make sure scroll is sealed away where that won't happen." Joey mumbled and we nodded in agreement with him.
"There will be times when a ninja is asked to carry secret documents. The scroll rule is to test your integrity. Okay were done. Each team take your consent form and exchange them over there for your scroll." She pointed to a booth not too far from us where three ninja's were sitting behind a table. "After that each team pick a gate and you will be led inside when it's time to start the test." She let out a long sigh after that. "Oh and I have one more word of advice." She looked to us seriously and raised her voice.
"JUST DON'T DIE!"
We all stood up straight at that and once again a veil of silence fell over us as the information we were just told sunk in. After a moment of two the groups started to split up as the ninja at the booth closed a curtain that kept us from seeing what team was carrying what scroll. Our team stayed together in place as we discussed what we were going to do.
"Guys, what's the plan?" Joey asked and we all looked over to him before everyone looked to me, after all Yami and I were the best at plan forming.
"It's simple really." I responded and adjusted the backpack on my shoulder as I started to add some numbers. "We have five days to get to the tower with the scroll. The tower is 10 Kilometers from the gate and 10 Kilometers is 6 and a half miles. If we walk 5 Kilometers per hour, it would take us 2 hours to get to the tower."
"So getting to the tower wouldn't take long at all." Yami mumbled and I nodded at that.
"The hard part is getting the scroll we need, and then finding the tower." Atem added.
I once again nodded at that before speaking. "So the first thing we need to do is focus on getting a scroll. Once we have that we have to focus on finding the tower and keeping us from getting attacked by other people who want the scroll."
"What happens if one of us falls ill and what are we going to do for food?" Joey asked and I motioned to the small pack I was carrying.
"Heba and I came prepared. We have small amounts of food in our bags as well as an assortment of antibiotics and poison cures."
Yami blinked and gave us a confused look. "How did you know to bring that?"
"It was something Mahad Sensei said. He said to be extremely careful because the second test was going to be dangerous. Heba and I wanted to be fully prepared for anything so we made sure that we had everything that we could need." I was surprised at how confidently I said that. My heart didn't even pick up in fright. Maybe I was getting too used to lying.
"You guys are quite clever. I am proud to call you a member of my team." Yami smiled at me and I felt my heart leap in my chest as a light blush dusted over my cheeks.
"Th-thank you, y-your quite b-bright yourself and I am g-glad to be a m-member of y-your team." What was wrong with me? I was stuttering and my heart was racing, maybe this lying thing was becoming a problem after all.
"Hey Atem?" Heba called interrupting our discussion.
Atem looked over to Heba and raised a brow. My brother pointed over to the guys we had seen before and tilted his head to the side. "Who are they?"
Atem followed his hand and looked to the people we had seen before. The white haired boy was sitting on the ground reading the agreement paper, the sand colored hair boy was next to him doing the same and the brunette man was leaning against the tree reading the paper. After observing them for a moment Atem looked back to us.
"Bakura Ryou is the boy with the white hair; the sand haired boy is Marik Iwanaga and the brunette is Seto Kaiba."
"What's there background? At the first exam we saw them glaring at you. Do they have a problem with you?" I asked and Yami and Atem shared a look before glancing down to the ground.
"It's a long story actually. The Kaiba clan though is a rival to our clan; Seto has had this constant rival going on with me and Atem for a while now. It started when we beat him back at the academy. Since then he has been trying to beat me and Atem in a fight though he fails every time." Yami answered letting out a long exasperated sigh.
It was easy to tell the whole thing just annoyed him. Then again I couldn't blame him if someone was constantly challenging me, I would be annoyed to. I was about to ask about the other boys when the ninja from the booth interrupted me.
"ALRIGHT EVERYONE WERE GOING TO START HANDING OUT THE SCROLLS NOW."
"Come on guys lets go get our scroll." Heba sighed and we headed over to the booth and waited our turn in front of it so all we saw was the curtain and not the people inside. Once it was our turn we headed inside and I took the pencil offered by the ninja. I signed the consent forms and handed them to the ninja as Atem, Yami, Joey and Heba did. Once he had all the consent forms he handed us an earth scroll.
I took the scroll and tucked it into my pack so that it was hidden from everyone else. We walked out of the booth and over to Anko who was watching all of this and waiting for everyone to receive their scroll. Once they were done she grinned and called out to all of us.
"Listen up! All the teams have received there scrolls so everybody go to your gate and wait there! When the gates open the test is on!"
I followed Yami and Atem over to an open gate. We were at number Seven. From where we were I could see gates six and eight. Gaara, Temari and Kankurō were at gate six and gate seven had what looked like a gentler version of Bakura and Marik, they also had a little girl with them who had brown hair and sun kissed skin.
"Who are they?" I asked and Yami looked over to where I was watching.
"Team 1, the white haired boy is Ryou Bakura, Malik Ishtar is the one with sand hair and the girl is Mana Hyuga. Ryou's father is out of town a lot, he's some sort of archeologist he knows everything there is to know about clans. Malik is the brother of their squad leader Ishizu Ishtar, the whole Ishtar family is a clan of know it all's and future tellers, it has to do with their Kekkei Genkai. And then Mana is a member of the side branch of the Hyuga clan."
I nodded my head and wanted to ask more when the ninja at the front of the gate put the key in the lock and unchained the gate. My heart started to pound so hard in my chest I could hear it beating in my head. The chain fell to the ground and the ninja turned to face us his arms crossed over his chest.
"ALRIGHT HEADS UP YOU MAGGOTTS! THE SCOND PART OF THE TEST HAS BEGUN!" Anko's voice radiated throughout the grounds and the gate flew open.
