Author's note: I've always wondered- what is it that makes a Naruto fanfiction interesting to read? Please let me know if you have any input. I don't mean this in a way that I'm desperate for readers and whatnot. I wanna know if there's any way where I can get my writing to be more interesting and whatnot. Y'know, good plot and character creations.
"Fill out these sheets, don't make me repeat!" Killer B announced as the said sheets of paper were being passed around. I was told that we need to fill these out so that if we die, the villages don't blame Kumo. A waiver is what they're called, I think. Sounds like fun. All of the genin from Konoha survived last time though, so I wasn't exactly worried about dying on a giant turtle's back.
"Listen up, a'ight? This here's no fight! Island Turtle's got tons of animals and all of them're way bigger than y'all!" I began to wonder if understanding him was part of the test. Perhaps they were testing our deciphering abilities as well. "So here's what you'll do; pay attention, it's yer cue! These animals are my bros, but I ain't one t'brag. And on each one of 'em, they've got a little tag!"
With that said, he held up a small white tag that fit in the palm of his hands. "On each tag as a number and they be numbers one to eight, y'hear? For every number there be ten of each, and yer gonna need at least one per team. There's enough t'go 'round, so yer goal of thirty-six points'll be easy t'reach!" Why...why couldn't they get an examiner who speaks normally? I like being able to understand the rules to tests that will evaluate my strength as a shinobi. C was a bit of an asshole, but at least he was easy to understand. "With a lower number, your job'll be easier, bro. Y'all be in there for a week, so try not to die and reek! Also, don'tchall forget ma number one rule; no killin' my bros, f'sho!" We were then given some time to fill out the forms and hand them in.
"You guys ready?" Ino asked, popping up behind Chouji and I. We nodded in unison and headed over to the desk where they took the forms. They also told us where we should head and wait for the signal to go.
"Is this place anything like the Forest of Death?" I asked once we arrived at our entrance point. There weren't any man-made gates, really. Just several paths with a numbered block of wood pinned to a tree nearby to number the entrances.
"It looks pretty similar, but I don't think it was crawling with giant animals like this place apparently is." Ino responded with a slight shudder. I guess she wasn't quite sure what to expect, either.
"I hope it has as much food as there was in the Forest." Chouji murmured, already munching on a bag of potato chips. Ino and I sighed in unison before preparing ourselves to enter the forest.
Soon, there was a loud "Get'cherselves ready, genin!" in the distance. Chouji stuffed the chips into his pocket and readied himself as well. I began to notice that my heart was racing, but I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. Survival is no challenge for me. Heck, I've been doing it for five years alone. What makes this any more different?
There was an explosion in the distance, followed by the loud voice of Killer B.
"Let's get this show on the road!"
After about half a mile of running into the forest, the three of us stopped to formulate a plan. It would be easier if all the teams worked together, but that would defeat the purpose of this test. We need to assess our own strength as a team, not our strength with the others. Although we weren't necessarily going to get into each other's ways, we weren't deliberately helping each other out, either.
"This test is sort of like the Forest of Death, since all the teams are after the same thing." Ino stated as we sat in a small circle. "Since they need to eliminate some teams, I bet there's only enough points to let a maximum of half of us to pass, or something like that."
"So the elimination process is similar to the one from the Forest of Death as well." I murmured, remembering the explanation I got about the scrolls and how it automatically eliminated at least half the teams participating.
We fell into silence as we thought this through. I furrowed my brows and began to draw small circles into the ground before me, each one representing the teams that passed, which was thirty.
"We need at least one of each number to pass." I started while writing out the rows of numbers, ten of each to make an eight by ten grid on the ground. "At most, ten teams can pass out of the thirty that are participating in this round."
"That's only two teams less than last year, even though only eleven ended up passing, but the ratio makes it seem so much more intimidating." Ino sighed with worry in her eyes. "There's bound to be people getting more than they need, though. That way, they'll eliminate more of the competition."
"Maybe that's why we get more time." Chouji noted while finishing off the rest of his chips. "If we can't get the right numbers from the animals, we'll have to track down other teams and take their tags...hnng, this is way worse than last time!"
There was no doubt that at least one team would try to pull a trick like that, which meant that we could count on at least one extra team being cut out of the running.
I felt the air around us grow tense as each of us began to realize the chances we had of passing.
"There's no use sitting around, then." Ino spoke while looking up at us with determination in her eyes. "We didn't come all this way to just sit and calculated our chances of success. We need to catch up to Shikamaru, so let's get going already!"
"Yeah, I bet even Shikamaru would get a little annoyed if we went home and told him we didn't even make it past the second round, right?" Chouji laughed while getting up after the blond.
With a sigh, I got onto my feet as well and gave my teammate the same powerful glint that they had in their eyes. "Well then, what're we waiting for? Let's start collecting some tags."
The animals were incredibly unique on this island and when Killer B said they were huge, he wasn't kidding. Some of them were the size of Ichiraku Ramen while others were even larger still. A few hours past noon, we had managed to collect a tag with the number three on it.
"I really hope Konoha doesn't have any bulls that big." Ino shuddered, still shaking off the adrenaline from our encounter with the enormous beast. It had two enormous horns sticking out of its head and towered over us by half a story. In the end, we managed to get the tag from it by having it ram into a cliff side and get its horns stuck.
"Too bad we can't eat the animals." Chouji sighed while opening a new bag of potato chips. "I don't think I have a week's supply of food on me."
"I don't think you should ever had a week's supply on your body." I retorted with a faint smirk, to which Ino sighed and shook her head. Naturally, our content teammate grinned sheepishly in response, his mouth already getting stuffed with chips.
As we carefully made our way through the forest, we still continued to search for any animals. Eventually, Chouji's eating became too much of a distraction and Ino successfully scolded him into putting them away until we took a break. It was a good thing she did that, since an animal came into view not too long afterwards.
"That is one big cheetah." Ino whispered in awe while eyeing the large feline.
It rested on top of a sort of staircase of boulders, each one a few feet taller than the previous one. The tallest one, the one the cheetah was sprawled on, towered over us at at least a height of twenty feet. The three of us exchanged looks before we shifted gears entirely, ready to take on the beast.
"We'll need to locate the tag first." I spoke in a hushed down while getting some hand signs ready. "I'll try slowing it down with a genjutsu. Chouji, you should try using your ninjutsu to grab its legs. Ino, that leaves you to locate it."
The other two nodded and with a single jerk of my hand, we separated.
I made my way around the cheetah as quietly as I could. My eyes were locked onto it to watch its every move, though it didn't do much. This beast seemed to be taking it pretty easy. Soon, I was lined up with its face. I drew myself closer to it and prepared my genjutsu, but my concentration was interrupted when a crack sounded beneath my foot.
I tensed up immediately and cursed at myself for being so reckless. The head of the cheetah jerked up and I refused to breath. I couldn't see either of my teammates, but I'm sure they were just as tense as well. Thankfully, the cheetah simply huffed and rested its head back into its front paws. I let out my breath slowly and after breathing in again, started the small chain of hand signs.
The moment I began to release my chakra, however, the cheetah shot up onto its feet and looked right at my direction. Startled, my chakra wavered and dispersed, but the beast had already located me and was charging towards me.
"Riku-!" I heard Ino's voice shout from several feet away.
"Bubun Baika no Jutsu!"
Large hands shot out of the trees but before they could grab onto the cheetah, it had already dodged out of the way and was now charging towards Chouji. I narrowed my eyes, wondering why it was so inconsistent with its targets.
"Get outta the way!" I shouted towards Chouji hastily while pulling out some wire and shuriken. With a few swift movements, I had the wires attached to the weapons and threw them towards the beasts legs. They didn't wrap very nicely since Chouji had changed his trajectory and caused the cheetah to make a sharp turn as well, but I at least managed to make the large beast stumble.
"I'll see if I can try and take over its body!" Ino shouted while sliding in front of me. After holding out her hands, I felt the chakra she released. The moment she did, the cheetah whipped its head around and targeted Ino. My eyes grew wide from the realization but Ino caught on as well, since it wasn't long before she exclaimed, "It responds to chakra!"
With that knowledge at our disposal, we immediately stopped using any genjutsu or ninjutsu, but the cheetah was already onto us. There was nowhere to run, so we found ourselves stuck in a situation where we could only dodge and avoid the lunges and swipes of the oversized feline.
"It won't leave us alone!" Chouji wailed, just barely dodging another attack from the animal.
"Just try to think of something!" Ino shouted back as we continued to keep ourselves spread out. At least we could take turns catching a bit of a break that way.
This is an animal that reacts to chakra. It already seems to have ours stuck in its senses, so it would probably chase after us even if we tried to get away. It's incredibly fast so there's barely enough time to dodge, let alone set up a trap or two in an attempt to slow it down. My first attempt already didn't go too well.
So then, what was its weakness? I furrowed my brows as I jumped out of the way once more before Ino got its attention so I could catch my breath. It seems sensitive to chakra so we can only use taijutsu against it, but it's too fast for us to do that. I sighed, silently wishing that Lee was here. He seemed to be the perfect opponent for this animal.
"Maa...To be able to lock onto our chakra after being exposed to it once, jut how sensitive is...it...?" My voice trailed off as my eyes grew wide from the realization. That was it.
Without wasting a breath, I immediately let my chakra run wild and tried to make it as obvious as possible. The cheetah began to charge at me once more, but concealing my chakra was the last thing on my list.
"Riku, what're you-?!" Ino started, but a flash in her eyes told me that she understood what I was trying to do almost immediately. A wide grin spread across her face and she was soon shouted across the field at Chouji. "Oi, Chouji! Make your chakra as obvious as possible!"
"Isn't that the exact opposite of what we're trying to do?!" He shouted back, but started to do as he was told nevertheless."
As expected, the cheetah began to stumble over its own feet as it tried to clear focus on one presence. I smirked and distanced myself further from my teammates so that our chakra was more dispersed, causing more confusion to affect the cheetah.
Soon enough, it began to growl in frustration and annoyance before it got dizzy and collapsed onto the ground. Cautiously, we made our way towards it, our chakra still incredibly obvious as we did so. The tag was clipped harmlessly onto its ear and I pulled it off carefully, making sure the cheetah wouldn't suddenly spring back into life.
"What happened to it?" Chouji asked, still keeping a bit of a distance between him and the groaning animal.
"It got overwhelmed." I stated plainly while pocketing the tag.
"Since it's so sensitive to chakra, if it senses too much of it, it must get a massive headache or something." Ino clarified, but our teammate still seemed a little confused. Finally, she sighed and shook her head a bit. "It's like we gave it a chakra brain-freeze."
Unsurprisingly enough, Chouji understood that immediately. With that settled, the three of us resumed our search for the oversized animals. We now had a number three and a number four, so we were off to a pretty good start. I could tell my teammates were feeling good about out progress and of course, so was I. However, I had a feeling there was something wrong. With cautious eyes, I scanned our surroundings and although I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, I still couldn't shake off that feeling.
Translations
Bubun Baika no Jutsu: Partial Multi-Size Technique
Oho, I hope the test makes sense. If there're any loopholes or if I did some miscalculations somewhere, please let me know ^^ Thanks for reading [: