June 6, 13 AK

Sasuke grunted faintly in irritation as he diverted his sword strike to avoid hitting Sakura. He wouldn't have worried about slicing the other male on the team, but Naruto was currently trying to find an opening to attack on the opposite side of the clearing, wary hands clutched around those ridiculous sickles.

A hand shot out, swift as a falling branch, to grab Sakura around the throat in velvet gentle but iron firm fingers.

"Fail."

He scowled as Sensei brought the round to a close, an expression which Hiroki caught with that curious twisting of the head.

"Yes? Something you wanted to say Sasuke?"

He smoothed his expression out, but the damage was done. Sensei was looking at him, and that expression never held good things.

"Do you think your teammates are holding you back?"

No, not really, not in so many words. It just seemed… well, like it might be easier to fight on his own. Team 7 had a lot of rather headstrong people in it, and they didn't always coordinate very well. Someone was always in the way of someone else.

The Jounin's eyes narrowed at his continued silence.

"Do you want to play another game of Biopsy?"

The Genin shared a mutual shudder at the mention of what could only be very loosely described as a 'game', which (though educational) involved scalpels and specimen tubes and appeared to be Sensei's preferred method of 'motivating' them if their performance wasn't up to snuff. Sasuke spoke up hurriedly.

"No, Sensei. I'm just…"-he licked his lips searching for the right word- "having trouble getting a feel for their patterns."

The masked Uchiha paused, blinking slowly, aura of menace fading away.

"Hmm."

Sasuke froze, scrutinizing his instructor for any sign of what Hiroki was thinking. A thoughtful Hiroki could be a very good thing, or a very bad thing, and the latter tended to be true more regularly than the former. His train of increasingly anxious thought ended as the sound of clapping hands rung out through the training ground.

"Okay! I have a new plan."

He suddenly had a very bad feeling about the immediate future. Then everything went black.

. . .

It took Sasuke a few minutes to realize he was awake. Surely he must still be dreaming. There was the sound of someone calling his name, as if from far off, but it was probably just someone trying to wake him from this pleasant warmth of his bed. After all, there was no such thing as a tree that bi- oh god tiger!

He spun off the branch a moment before a massive set of claws sank into the wood he had been sprawled across. Only a split second before he would have tumbled to the forest floor more than fifty feet down did his hand slap onto the branch and stick him in place. He had only been hanging for a few heartbeats when the massive cat on the branch let out an earsplitting yowl and hot liquid began to drip down towards him.

A panicked blond head peeked over the edge a second later, blue eyes darting around for signs of further danger.

"Sasuke?! Are you okay? Did he get you?"

The Uchiha blinked. Had he ever seen Naruto so riled up before? He hadn't thought the other boy could feel genuinely afraid, but now his orange teammate was almost twitchy looking, which didn't suit him at all.

"I'm fine. Where's Sakura? Where are we?"

Naruto laughed, a little bit higher pitched and frantic sounding a noise than usual, clutching at his head with hands hidden by the sleeves of his hoodie.

"She's close, just a couple branches over. She's fine. We're all fine, we're just in the freaking FOREST OF DEATH, what's to be nervous about? HAHAHAHA!"

Sasuke flipped over to stand upright next to his teammate and give the Uzumaki a firm bop on the head with a fist.

"Calm down. How do you know where we are?"

Naruto paused, seeming to emerge slightly from the voluminous folds of his hoodie as he rubbed his head.

"I, I got a note. From Sensei." -he pointed at Sasuke's chest where a small piece of paper had been pinned to his shirt- "You've got one too."

So he did. He plucked it up and spread it out to read, recognizing Hiroki's almost calligraphic writing immediately.

I thought a different sort of teamwork exercise might help you all to bond. Welcome to advanced training ground 44. This area is home to a wide variety of hazardous plants and animals, however, each of you has got a little present to help you along. Sasuke, you will be able to detect poisonous substances present in your food, though it might not be perfectly accurate so be careful! You'll all need to work together to make it to the central tower by tomorrow night without getting eaten. Have fun!

He glanced from the note to his teammate, who was holding out a hand to show off a pattern in dark ink scrawled across the palm. Naruto smiled a little sheepishly at his inquiring glance, starting to relax back to his usual bouncy self.

"I can sort of feel when something starts coming towards us fast. Sensei said it was to help keep us safe from an ambush. It's how I knew something was coming for you."

After glancing down at his own palm Sasuke could confirm that he had a similar design, though he could tell it was different in subtle ways. He glanced back around at the woods, trying to make out any hint of an edge amongst the shadows and endless trees.

"You called this the Forest of Death?"

Naruto chewed on the edge of a lip, gaze sweeping the trees while his hands shifted anxiously on the handle of his sickles.

"That's what Sakura called it, yeah. And what with the giant tigers and all…"

The blond trailed off, gesturing lamely at the massive cat's corpse. Sasuke stared at the carcass for a long second before stepping closer and running his hand over the meat. He couldn't feel anything coming from the seal. With a small scowl he realized that he didn't actually know what the signal for something poisonous was. He pulled out the small vial of weak muscle relaxant Sensei had entrusted him with three days ago and immediately felt the Seal on his hand grow hot.

"Well, we're gonna need food. This tiger has a lot of meat on its bones."

His teammate simply blinked uncomprehendingly for a moment before giving a small start of realization.

"Oh! Right, no ramen in a forest... I didn't have any rations on me this morning…"

Sasuke did not jump a little when Sakura landed on the branch next to them with a thump. Naruto almost screamed like a girl. The kunoichi smiled grimly at the pair of them, her eyes scanning around the dappled shadows cast by dense foliage as a strange screeching sound echoed through the woods.

"That's probably a lesson in and of itself Naruto. Always keep some food on hand. I'm never leaving home again without at least a basic field kit. As is I only have my weapons pouch handy. What about you guys?"

The Uchiha hated to admit it, but he didn't have anything very useful on hand either. His sword was in its sheathe at his waist, and a pouch full of kunai, shuriken, and a spool of ninja wire hung from his hip, but that was it. He didn't even have a canteen, and the moist heat was already making him sweat. He sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair.

"Well, no use now. Let's move."

. . .

When Team 7 stumbled into the tower 46 hours later, covered in dirt and scratches, clothing torn and vaguely haunted looks on their exhausted faces, it was to find their Sensei waiting for them with a cheerful expression on his visible face and a buffet hot and ready to eat, the small grey-brown owl perched neatly on his shoulder making a familiar but much quieter screeching sound.

The masked Jounin smiled pleasantly, creasing the fabric stretched across his face.

"You made it! I'm so proud of all of you; I was a little worried that spraying you with tiger pheromones might have been a bit much, but Tsutsumi here says you've far exceeded my expectations. Good job!"

Naruto made a sort of incoherent squawk of bewildered hurt, but the blond was so tired that the noise rather reminded Sasuke of a concussed parrot being fed into a woodchipper, and the only response was a slow blink from Sensei's owl. Sakura's wordless snarl was a bit closer to his own opinion, but before he could voice his agreement she had crumpled into a little heap at his feet, unconscious before she hit the ground.

Naruto made another noise, though this time it sounded more like an amorous toad longing for the sweet release of death. With a wave of his hand a couple clones poofed into existence and fell into slightly deranged feral crouches before disappearing into the shadowed corners of the room. Even Naruto's stamina had limits though, and the other male on Team 7 collapsed in the wake of the sentries' departure. Sasuke blinked his newly acquired Sharingan on for a second to scan the area before finally giving in to the crushing fatigue.

Temporarily reassured as to their collective safety Sasuke slumped to the floor in a heap with his teammates. As consciousness fled Sasuke was forced to grudgingly admit that, in a technical sense, the exercise had been a success.

. . .

A/N: I once read a fic where Kakashi skipped the bell test and used 'drop them in the FoD for a week' as the initial bonding experience. It was named Blood Wings Ascension, and despite having the most pretentious name imaginable it was probably at least a 6/10; though the sequel died which means that retrospectively it becomes a 5/10. And it's been a long time since I read it, so maybe it was shittier than I remember...

Anyway. Owls are great, because they're practically fluffy little video cameras. They're small, they're good at stealth, and they have excellent sensor and observation abilities.