"Good! Now, before we get started on the test, we have some paperwork to go through." Anko opened a portfolio she had stuck the Hermit knew where in her clothes and got a thick bundle of paper from it. She handed it to the closest ninja, one of the Otojin. He got the bundle around, until everyone had a sheet of paper between their hands. Hitomi looked at her own: a responsibility discharge.

"By signing that paper," Anko explained, "you indicate that you're participating in this test knowing that you're risking your life, and that I am not responsible if you die or are injured." She said that with such carelessness, and just a touch of glee to sublime it, that several contestants stepped back. They looked surprised… And yet it was very public knowledge that people died during these exams, every year. The worst, since that system had been put into place, had been the Kirijin exam three years prior. The village had still been working hard to rebuild its reputation and had failed spectacularly: almost all the contestants had died during the survival test, poisoned and burned from the inside by toxic vapours. Since then, Konoha wouldn't send Genin to their exams anymore.

"I'm gonna explain the modalities of the test, you'll sign after that. Then you'll go, one team at once, into the tent over there to hand your discharges. Let's focus on the explanations, now. In short, this test is a survival exercise in extreme conditions."

Hitomi heard Shikamaru sigh a few steps behind her and couldn't suppress a tender smile. He hated that type of test since the Academy. He had no way to handle them with minimum efforts. He either had to shine, or to try triple-hard to appear mediocre. Neither of those options appealed to him.

"First, let me show you the terrain's typography." Anko unfolded a very rough map of the area and continued. "The Forest of Death is surrounded by a wire fence, which contains forty-four doors at equal distance from each other, all locked. The forest is bisected by a river. A tower stands in its centre, ten kilometres away from any of the doors."

Hitomi took the time to really observe that rough draft of a map so she wouldn't forget it. She knew the version Anko was showing them was far from the real thing, but better to have approximate information than no information at all. Next to her, she felt Sasuke activate his Sharingan.

"You'll enter the forest and try to survive as well as accomplish the mission we prepared for you. You'll have to use all your skills, from weaponry to ninjutsu, including everything you can possibly imagine to steal another team's scroll."

"Scrolls?" a Konohajin Genin asked.

"Yeah, scrolls. There are two kinds: Heaven Scrolls are the blue ones, and Earth Scrolls the green ones. You will have to fight to keep your own and get the one you don't have. You're sixty, which means twenty teams are present. Ten of them will get an Earth Scroll, and the ten others will get a Heaven Scroll. To pass the test, you have to steal the scroll you don't have and take the pair, with your complete team, to the tower in the centre of the Forest."

She allowed the Genin a moment to understand how the test worked and what it implied. Hitomi could almost physically feel the mix of excitement and terror running through her peers. Some of them seemed quite set on defeat already. She understood, even if she didn't share their pessimism. This test would be risky, violent, and could in one second turn into a bloodbath. She herself couldn't suppress the tremors in her hands, but she couldn't tell if those were thanks to Orochimaru's proximity or to the test itself.

"You'll have to act quickly. The test will last for a hundred and twenty hours, exactly five days. Of course, you'll have to fend for yourselves there. You have everything you need in the forest, but be wary of predators, killing insects and venomous plants." An anxious whisper ran through the crowd but Anko blatantly ignored it. "I also have to warn you that it's highly improbable that ten teams manage to pass the test. The more time passes, the deeper you go into the forest and the more land you'll have to cover. And yet you'll have less and less time to recover from wounds and exhaustion. Your enemies will be plenty, and hidden behind every leaf. You won't even be able to sleep correctly."

Hitomi knew all that very well, but her knowledge didn't stop the cold sweat rolling along her spine, instinctive reaction to the subtle mix of killing intent projected by Anko and her expressionless voice, as if that kind of mission was child play for her, or even a game.

"Good! It's now time to list the disqualification criteria. First, will be disqualified all the teams that fail to reach the tower in the allocated time with two scrolls in their possession. Second condition: teams with one or more members dead or unable to fight will be disqualified. Ah, while I think about it: no quitting halfway. Consider this as a mission your war chief handed you and treat it as such. Finally, you are not allowed to look inside the scrolls before you reach the tower."

"What happens if we peek before that?" Naruto asked.

"That," Anko answered with the sweetest smile, "is a surprise for those who are foolish enough to disobey. If you get promoted to Chūnin, you sometimes will have to transport extremely secret information. We have to test your integrity." She clapped her hands, as if relieved to have gotten to the end of her little speech. "Explanations, done. The man in the tent will hand you a scroll in exchange for the three discharge papers of your team members. One team goes at once, of course, and you are allowed to hide the scroll before leaving the tent so no one knows which one you have. Then, you'll be given a door number and wait there until the test begins and the doors unlock. Ah, a little piece of advice before we start: try not to fucking die."

Hitomi shuddered, but as her anxiety stretched inside her to occupy as much space as possible, her determination grew. She could do this. She had thought about it. The perfect window of action would be short, but it was doable. They just had to attack the first team they would find then run to the tower. Ororchimaru wouldn't dare attack Sasuke when he was under ANBU supervision.

With a quick gesture, she signed her paper after completing the typical information – name, village, etc. When Naruto and Sasuke were done as well, they took their place in the queue that had formed at the entrance of the room. Shiranui Genma was inside. Hitomi greeted him with a little smile, hoping to hide her anxiety, and handed him the three sheets of paper. In exchange, he gave her a Heaven Scroll, his usual senbon stuck between his thin lips. "Your door will be the number three. Good luck for the rest, kids."

The girl nodded her tanks, then took one of her own scrolls from an inside pocket. With an expert gesture, she stored it inside, but she still didn't feel satisfied. Frowning, she turned to Genma. "All means of dissimulation are accepted, correct?"

"Yeah, as long as you still have access to the scrolls once you reach the tower. A creative idea popped in that clever little head of yours, kiddo?"

"My head is a perfect size, thank you. And yeah, you can call it creative alright." She sliced her thumb open on a kunai and summoned Kurokumo, who greeted her with a little wave of his tail. Without any ceremonies, she unsealed the Heaven Scroll from the storage she had originally put it in and handed the damned blue thing to her cat. "When I summon you again, take it with you. In fact, keep it on your person at all times."

"Gotcha, Lady Summoner!" He puffed away with a new wave of his tail, leaving Genma to stare at the place. The man let out a little laugh then shook his head, his senbon lightly clicking against his teeth.

"Well played. I'd very much like to see your opponents try to get that one."

Hitomi nodded and left the tent, her silent brothers in tow. She didn't plan on summoning her cats anymore during the test. She didn't want to risk their lives if her team failed to avoid Orochimaru. Her pulse quickened once more; even thinking about him was enough to bring her close to panic.

"Everything will be alright, Hitomi-chan!"

The girl exchanged a hesitating little smile with Naruto. He was always so sunny, so sure of himself and his skills. She knew what Orochimaru would do if he put his hands on him. She just wanted to… She wanted to prevent that. Was it even possible? Her lips formed a thin, hard line. She'd have to try her absolute best. For him, for them.

They arrived at their door, a little kanji for 'three' painted above the chains and seals that kept it close. Her notebook went cold three times in a few minutes: Hinata, Shikamaru and Gaara had just sent their door numbers and… it was the absolute worst scenario she had prepared for. They were all separated by several doors, ten at each side for Team Seven. The girl shifted nervously but pushed her anxiety down, forcing herself to focus on what she could do in that situation. She wrote down the list of doors for each team of the Alliance, including her own, then sent it to all three notebooks, since she hadn't found a way to connect them to any other than her own yet.

Several minutes later, a whiff of chakra grew in the air like a bubble and an incredibly delicate net of seals started working, making the chains fall to the ground. The door opened then, without any hands to push it in one direction or the other, and the three Genin stepped through the opening. Behind them, the door closed, with the discreet buzzing on her meridians indicating that a seal went dormant again.

After three steps into the forest, they could already see a difference in light: the foliage was so thick that the very little light allowed to go through it was barely enough to see where they were going. The night would be even darker: no moon would be able to pierce through such dense forest. However, a good shinobi didn't need their eyes to walk around. The mix of chakra, noise, instinct sometimes too, and even smell in rare cases was enough.

"There's a team two hundred metres to our left," Hitomi said, focusing on her meridians. "We'll go ahead of them and lay a trap for them. I want to be at the tower as soon as possible."

"You have an idea?"

"Yeah. In fact, Sasuke, you will really like this one, it's a trap I worked on with Kakashi-sensei in the Land of Waves. I hadn't tried it on anything but clones before, it'll be the occasion."

The three teenagers went from tree to tree in silence, having immediately decided to leave the treacherous ground to inexperienced teams. Hitomi was almost certain the one she had spotted wasn't from Konoha. According to their current speed, they were still on the ground and found that terrain quite hard to go through. It was just as well. Her team stopped two hundred metres ahead of their target and Hitomi got to work, unfolding her key parchment under a blanket of leaves in the centre of a very little clearing. She knew their victims would want to go there – the hole in foliage was like a well of light, and it would attract any living being. Instinct was a marvellous thing.

A few minutes later, the targets arrived. Just like Hitomi had guessed, they weren't from Konoha: they were wearing, on their foreheads, the Sunajin insignia, as well as typical pieces of armour for the Village Hidden in the Sand. They were three boys, around sixteen years of age, maybe older. They were probably more experienced than Team Seven, and yet they walked right into the trap, as naïve as any prey. Hitomi activated her seal with a simple thread of chakra – simple, yes, but Kankurō would have been damned proud of her.

Immediately, an almost opaque barrier in the shape of a half-sphere surrounded the three shinobi and a shock activated the smoke bomb she had planted there as well. Brown smoke rose quickly in the dome, making the target cough as they looked for a way out despite their vision loss. There was none, of course. Only brute force would break that trap, but it was particularly hard to gather chakra without being able to breathe or see. One after the other, they fell, unconscious.

Hitomi cut the chakra supply of her trap, allowing the barrier to dissolve. Already, the cloud of smoke was dissipating in the air: two minutes later, the only thing left was a faint smell of nutmeg. She chose that moment to hop to the ground and search the three bodies until she found what she was looking for. A Heaven Scroll, just like their own. She frowned, her lips a thin line once more. They would have to lose a bit more time in the forest.

"Not the one we were looking for, sorry, boys," she announced as she climbed back on the branch where her brothers had been waiting for her. "We keep it anyway, that's one less team in the competition."

"Hitomi? What was that poison?"

"Don't worry, Naruto, they aren't going to die. It's just gonna make them sleep for a few hours, and we're still too close to the door for predators to notice them. They're gonna be just fine."

And if it didn't end up being the case… Could she really bring herself to care? She knew that Orochimaru would target Sasuke at the first opportunity, and that the only way to escape him was to reach the tower before he could find them. She couldn't feel the traitor through her meridians. There were too many people in the forest right now, and she knew he was probably hiding his presence. She doubted she could find a fucking Sannin if said fucking Sannin had decided to stay hidden.

"Let's go then. Where to?"

Hitomi closed her eyes for a second, just enough to find the information he had requested. "A hundred metres to the right. We'll have to go around them then ambush them."

Those were a group from Konoha, she could tell without any doubts from the way they were jumping from tree to tree, their footing steady and so fast any mistake would have meant death. In fact, if Team Seven hadn't been on a favourable trajectory, they wouldn't have been able to trap them. It happened as easily as with their first victims, so confident and sure of their own skills they went into the trap headfirst. They resisted the poison a bit more, since its ingredients came from the Land of Fire, but finally fell as surely as the Sunajin had. Those ones, Hitomi surrounded them with a very quick protective seal, just in case. She had heard a suspect growl in the bushes as she had laid her trap, a bit too obvious to be ignored.

This time, it was the scroll they needed. As Naruto and Sasuke stood watch around her, the latter casting an illusion to hide her movements, she summoned Haīro, handed him the scroll and repeated the instructions she had given to Kurokumo. She had chosen to do it this way, to pick them, because she didn't like to play favourites. Hoshihi was already her familiar, which the five others understood full well, but she couldn't give him all the work.

"Time to go to the tower," Sasuke said when he broke his illusion and saw her empty-handed.

"I agree. No need to collect more scrolls than we need, other teams will do that work for us. If we pick up the pace, we'll be at the tower right after nightfall."

And maybe, maybe it would be enough to dodge Orochimaru. In perfect silence, the three teenagers jumped from their tree to the next, their gait flexible and steady on the branches that were like an infinite ocean under their feet. In other circumstances, Hitomi would have enjoyed the Forest of Death. She would have taken her time to go through it, and maybe she would have tried to meet the giant predators it contained. But she knew she didn't have such luxury.

A kilometer later, they had to take a large detour to avoid a group of giant tigers hiding in the undergrowth. The Yūhi girl swore through clenched teeth, her mood growing darker with each of the little pitfalls they had to dodge. On favourable terrain, the distance between the doors and the tower could be covered by any Genin team in less than an hour, but they had already lost twice that time with these obstacles and their surroundings seemed to refuse to leave them alone for even a hundred meters. They kept having to stop to let a threat pass, or to find a way to go around it if it didn't look like it was moving any time soon. Deep inside, she wanted to curl into a little ball and sob her distress and terrors away.

The snake hit an hour before sunset, splitting their group in two like a prophet split the sea. Sasuke and Hitomi ended up on one side and Naruto on the other. It was a huge beast, so long and thick Hitomi couldn't see its head nor tail. It seemed to focus only on Naruto and the girl decided to let him handle it, because she knew he could and she and Sasuke had their own problems.

on their side of the forest, a brutal Wind Release cut through the trees, slicing whole chunks of centenarian trunks. Slowly, the trees fell, in an agonising creak, as the two teenagers jumped – fortunately, in the right direction – to flee the impact. Such a technique was at least B-ranked, far beyond what Temari had in her arsenal. Hitomi's own jutsus wouldn't have been able to cut through it. She had no choice but to dodge and run, leaving Naruto behind no matter how much it hurt to help the ones of her brothers who, she knew, would need her help the most.

He was standing in front of them – the Kusajin man hiding Orochimaru's soul. He seemed untouched, as if a whole chunk of forest didn't just fall like a house of cards at his feet. He took an Earth Scroll from his pouch and made a whole deal of swallowing it in his throat, as if to tell them they'd have to cut him open to get it. As if it even interested Hitomi. She just wanted to grab Sasuke and Naruto like bundles under her arms and run as fast as her legs could go.

"Oh-oh, so the preys have some fight left in them… Very well, it will be more fun that way. May the best live to see the end of this test… And may the others die."

As soon as the last word left his mouth, his killing intent was set ablaze and burning through the air, so thick Hitomi couldn't breath, couldn't bat an eye, couldn't… live. She couldn't… and why even try, anyway? It was useless, she was so weak, so… so… Her heart thundered in her chest, so quick and messy she felt like she was dying. No, she was dying, she was sure of it. And she had… she had to cut it short, to kill herself now so the predator couldn't toy with her. She owed it to everybody. Sasuke, Naruto, her mother, Ensui… They would be less heartbroken if they knew it had been quick.

She didn't even know how the tantō found itself in her hand, how she managed to raise her arm despite the unbearable pressure until the edge was against her throat, on the exact spot where, if one looked attentively enough, they could see her pulse. It was an intimate, soft spot, so fragile the slightest brush of her blade would end her life. And she had to. She had to, didn't she? She was powerless and terrified, and yet something deep inside her revolted against such thoughts. She loved living. She wanted to live. She had a family, friends, love even sometimes to soften her pain. She was happy. Orochimaru couldn't tear that away from her.

And yet she didn't move when two kunai thrown by the deserter flew in the air in her direction, only watching as death came towards her without batting an eye, until Sasuke's weight slammed against her, sending her away from the two weapons' trajectory. He was bleeding – his leg – but it was his feverish, distraught eyes that were the most worrying, and thus what helped Hitomi snap out of her torpor. She took him by the arm and jumped on one of the trees that had escaped their opponent's devastating strength, seeking refuge, protection – anything.

Unfortunately, danger was awaiting them there, in the shape of a serpent too big to be natural, crawling towards them above their heads. If its scales hadn't produced the slightest rubbing sound against a knot in the wood, neither Hitomi nor Sasuke would have heard it coming. She decapitated it with one jab of her tantō, her shadow stopping the body and head from falling. The noise would have warned Orochimaru of their position.

A disgusted shudder ran down her back when a grey shape started leaving the headless body of the snake. She took Sasuke with her once more, out of reach from the deserter who was already reforming his body from the snake's. A seal. It was a seal. She could sense it – the absurdity of that observation made her want to laugh and cry at the same time. She was going to die. She was going to fail to protect Sasuke, and to die because she was not strong enough and Orochimaru had no motive to leave her alive.

"You shouldn't allow for the slightest relaxation… Prey should always be most vigilant when they try to escape their predator." Incredibly fast, the Sannin wrapped his body around the branch where he had been standing then jumped to his prey. It happened so fast, and yet he found time to stop when five shuriken hit the wood, where his head would have been just a moment later. Hitomi almost burst into tears when she saw Naruto. She didn't want him here, not if it meant Orochimaru was going to hurt him. He had never really awakened Kyūbi, he didn't know how, he was… if she didn't do anything, he…

"Leave my family alone, you fucker!"

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled. "Don't be an idiot, flee! We don't stand a chance against that guy, go away!"

"Ooh… Congratulations, Naruto, you managed to kill my big reptile…"

Once more, tiny bubbles of laughter caressed Hitomi's brain because it was just ridiculous, she was going to die destroyed by a serpent fetishist. She didn't want to die, but more than anything right now she didn't want to die against such a guy. Sasuke's Sharingan, which disappeared, made her shudder in anguish. No, no, he couldn't, it was a trap, he didn't want it, but Hitomi… Hitomi was too terrified to stop her brother.

"Here, you want our scroll, right?" the young Uchiha said, brandishing the Heaven Scroll they had stolen from their first victims. "Take it and let us leave!"

"Excellent, your instinct is a good guide. The only thing a prey can hope from its predator, is that he deigns leaving it alone after getting what he wanted."

"Take it!"

With an anxious sigh, the Yūhi girl watched the scroll fly into a perfect arc through the air and go right into the hand of the deserter who… burned it with a simple spark of chakra. Of course. He didn't need that scroll because he wasn't a fucking Genin.

"Unfortunately, you were mistaken about my intentions. This scroll, I could have easily taken it after killing you. But it's not what I want."

The man bit his thumb open and rolled up one of his sleeves, revealing a summoning seal tattooed on his skin. Hitomi had learned through her readings that some contracts were carved on the body of the summoner. Particularly capricious and independent summons, like the legendary Manda who demanded a sacrifice of a hundred human prey for each summoning, refused to be linked by mere paper and ink. Suddenly, she was overly thankful for how easy her own summons were. She wanted to hug Aotsuki herself for establishing or supporting the continuation of the rules the feline clan still followed to that day.

"In your dreams!" Naruto yelled as he hurled himself to the Sannin. Hitomi and Sasuke screamed in anguish at the same time, too slow to stop their brother from flying towards what they considered unavoidable death.

"Ninpō: The Dance of Infinite Scales!"

A huge snake's head sprang from the ground in front of the deserter and its huge chin intercepted the jinchūriki, slamming against his torso with enough force to break several ribs – Hitomi heard the snaps from where she stood, powerless. Before the snake could dive on him again, she rushed forwards, escaping Sasuke's fingers that had held onto her sleeve. In her mind and right under her skin, the voice that had restlessly haunted her in the Land of Waves was back, chanting promises of death, carnage – and this time, maybe she was just a bit more inclined to listen to it.

She grabbed Naruto in her movement, projected him against a tree and raised her tantō to parry one of the snake's fangs before it hit her face. Not strong enough, not fast enough, she only had the lucky reflex of throwing herself aside, her right cheek burning. She rolled on her shoulder to soften the shock, stood back up and raised a hand to touch her face. The pain was agonising, a fire that made her feel like she was losing her other senses in a fog that was only suffering. Her fingers came back red – she already felt the liquid roll on her throat and soak her kimono.

Naruto, shielded behind her body, came back to his senses and opened his eyes. They stayed foggy for a moment then focused on her face, on the place where she could feel the wound swallow her cheek whole. His face contorted, the expression impossible to decrypt, and then… and then his eyes turned red and morbid, vicious chakra started screaming in the air around him, tearing through Orochimaru's killing intent. The voice pulling under Hitomi's skin jumped in answer, more sublime and alluring than ever.

And she.

She was terrified.

The Kyūbi's chakra was unfolding around them like ribbons of smoke, almost visible, tingeing everything it touched with hatred and fury. Naruto, surrounded by a mass of orange, bubbling chakra, suddenly stood up and stepped around the protection Hitomi had offered him. His chakra brushed against her, but it was enough contact for her arm, where he had touched her, to be slightly burnt. This new pain drowned in its own insignificance, lost inside the one tearing through her cheek and rendering even her breathing difficult.

"So it's true," Orochimaru said in an interested tone, "the boy who holds the Kyūbi sealed survived."

As if the contact with demonic chakra didn't burn like hell, as if it was easier than plucking a flower from the ground, Orochimaru deployed a tongue long enough to wrap around Naruto's arms, stopping him mid-charge, then picked him up from the ground. Her eyes misty with pain, Hitomi saw Orochimaru forming hand seals that didn't augur anything good. She wanted to throw senbon in his direction, stop him – as if he had felt her intent, he shifted and kept Naruto as a shield between them.

"Under the effects of its receptacle, the powers of the Demon Fox filter outside their prison… How interesting! And it looks like the seal on your belly is swelling…"

With such brutality it made Hitomi want to scream, the deserter slammed his hand surrounded with chakra in her brother's belly, making him lose consciousness immediately. Then he threw him away like a broken toy, and Hitomi's hands acted faster than she could possibly think, five senbon stopping his fall by pinning his clothes to the trunk of a tree. She wanted to run to him, to get him away, to make sure he was okay, but she knew she couldn't. She still had to make destiny flip on its head to try to save Sasuke.

She unsheathed her tantō again and casted for a Water Whip. It was her most offense-oriented technique, after all. She knew she had no chance, periodically distracted by her burning cheek, the blood that didn't seem to stop running on her throat and neck, and the tugging and pulling under her skin, but she had to try. The voice inside her became a caress, wrapping around her thoughts like a lover, trying to persuade her to let go, let her do it.

Her chakra curled like a fist inside her body, Hitomi rushed to the deserter.