Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter Sixteen
Hinata was glad they had a day to rest before the second portion of the Chunin Exams...Training Ground Forty-Four, also known as the Forest of Death, was unsettling and forboding.
A tall wire fence surrounded the entire training ground, and she noticed several gates leading inside of it. Anko stood in front of it with her hands on her hips acting as if she ruled the place.
Hinata glances at her teammates, Kiba was smirking confidently and Shino remained quiet and indifferent as usual, 'Am I the only one getting a strange feeling about this place?'
"This whole place just creeps me out," Sakura murmurs, she and Sasuke stood over to the left over Team Eight, Naruto a few feet in front of them looking around.
"It should," Anko says with a grin, "This place is called the Forest of Death, and soon enough your gonna find out why."
Naruto huffs, "They call it the Forest of Death! And soon your gonna find out why!" He says in a mocking manner, "Do you worst!! Your not gonna scare me away!"
"Oh," Anko says, "It looks like we got ourselves a tough guy," she whips out a kunai and throws it at Naruto, scraping his cheek.
She appears behind Naruto a second later, "Can you handle this? Your not afraid are you? Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this Forest," she suddenly tenses and turns with a kunai out.
"I was just returning your knife," a Grass ninja says, her extremely long tongue holding the kunai to Anko who takes it.
"Why thank you Grass nin, but I don't recommend you stand that close to my back unless you want to meet a premature end," Anko states with a grin.
Hinata watches all of this unfold silently, 'Who is this woman? And that Grass Ninja...What was up with her tongue?' A foreboding feeling washed over her again when she looked back to the Forest before focusing on Anko again.
"Seems like everyone here is quite tempered today, must be something in the air...this is gonna be fun," Anko says with a grin.
'Tempered! Sheesh! Your the one who throw a kunai at me!' Naruto thinks angrily.
Anko walks up to her place in front of everyone, "Now before we begin this test, I have something to hand out to you all. It's just a standard consent form. Before the test all of you are going to have to read over this and sign it."
"What for?" Naruto asks.
"Some of you may not come back from this test and I have to get your consent for that risk, otherwise that'd be my responsibility," Anko answers with a chuckle.
"Now! I'll explain what you'll be doing on this test, here first, pass these out," Anko says handing the stack to Naruto, "The first thing you need to know is that this test will tax everyone one of your survival skills."
'Survival? I wouldn't expect anything else looking at the examination sight,' Hinata thinks.
"Now first I'm going to explain the terrain of the battlefield," Anko starts, "The Fourty Fourth Training Ground has fourty-four locked entrance gates, there are rivers and a forest inside. In the center there is a locked tower, it is in this confined area that you will undergo this survival test. The test consists of...anything goes battle to get your hands on these scrolls," Anko states as she pulls two different scrolls out of her coat.
"Two scrolls?" Shikamaru asks.
"You'll be fighting to get both a Heaven Scroll and an Earth Scroll," Anko explains.
"All together 26 teams will be taking part in this test together, so only half of those teams will be going after the Heaven Scroll and the other half will be going after the Earth Scroll," Anko says, "I'll hand one Scroll over to each team and that's what you'll be vying for."
"Okay..so what's the test?" Sasuke asks.
"Your entire team must bring an Earth Scroll and a Heaven Scroll to the Tower," Anko states.
"So that means at the very best half of us fail, more if not every team is able to get both the scrolls!" Sakura says.
"No one ever said it would be easy," Anko says, "Oh and one more thing, the test has a time limit, you must finish it in five days."
"Five days out there!" Ino yells.
"What are we going to do for food!" Choji shouts.
"Just look around! The Forest is full of things to eat, there's plenty to feed all of you," Anko says.
"Yeah but that's not all the Forest has plenty of," Kabuto says, "The Forest is filled with man eating bests, and poisonous plants."
"Oh man!" Choji groans.
"Quiet down! They call it a survival exam for a reason!" Ino says.
"That means with these circumstances there's no way half the teams will be passing the test," Neji says.
"With the days getting longer, the nights are getting shorter. We'll have less time to sleep and less time to recover...a true challenge indeed!" Lee says with his good guy stance.
"Completely surrounded by enemies, there won't be time to rest, we have to keep watch at all times," Sasuke says.
"Right, this test also measures endurance behind enemy lines. This is designed to be a grueling test and I'm sure some of you won't be up to the challenge," Anko states.
"So um, let's say mid exam I quit?" Shikamaru asks with his hand raised.
"Of course not! In the middle of the battle you can't say I'm sorry but I quit..well you could say that but it's probably gonna get you killed," Anko says with a laugh.
"Oh just great, this is gonna be a drag," Shikamaru mutters.
"There are also someways you can be disqualified," Anko says, "The first is simple, if all three members of the team can't make it to the tower with both scrolls after five days. Two if a team loses a member or if a member becomes incapacitated and cannot continue..but most important. None of you, absolutely none of you may look at the contents of your scrolls before you reach the tower."
"But what if the Scroll happens to flap open and you read it?" Naruto asks.
"Let me put it to you this way young man. You. Don't. Want. To. Know."
Naruto groans in response to her answer.
"There are times when a ninja will be asked to carry secret documents, the Scroll rule is to test your integrity. Okay we're done, each team take your consent forms and exchange them for a Scroll. After that each team pick a gate and you'll be led inside," Anko explains.
"Oh! And I have one more word of advice. Just don't die!"
The teams spread out into groups as they talk and fill out the forms.
Hinata glances over to the booth and sees the sentinels in charge of it are putting up a curtain and pulling it out, 'We don't know which team has which Scroll...so stealing information is a matter of life in death in this situation..'
"This place sure is creepy...but this test is a real challenge. I'm mean sure at first I was put off by Ibiki but his test was easy..for us at least," Kiba says casting a look in the direction Naruto went off in.
"Kiba-Kun, you know written tests aren't Naruto-Kun's favorite...and besides none of us would've passed that test if cheating wasn't the answer," Hinata says, "Speaking of Naruto, Anko-San gave him a nasty cut with her kunai, I'm gonna go give him one of my salves," the Hyuuga adds before leaving.
She walks passed what looks like an argument between Sakura and Ino and spots Naruto leaning against a tree with his form in his hands, "Naruto-Kun," The blond looks up and grins at her.
"Hi Hinata-Chan! Oh! Isn't that one of your salves?" Naruto asks, puzzled by why she had it out.
"It's for your cheek, and maybe it will be useful in the exam as well," Hinata says, handing it to him.
Before Naruto can take it they hear a sentinel yell, "We're giving out the scrolls now!" The blond rushes over to his team completely forgetting the salve.
Hinata watches him go, 'Maybe it will become useful later,' she thinks before walking back to her own team.
All the teams exchange their forms for scrolls and soon enough they all stood in front of their gates.
Team Eight stood in front of Gate Sixteen.
"Wahoo! We rock at survival there is no way we can lose!" Kiba says as he pets Akamaru who currently stayed inside his jacket, "Let's do our best guys!"
The sentinels unlock the gates and then face the Genin standing in front of them.
"Alright you maggots! The second part of the test has begun!" Anko yells.
All the Genin head inside at once.
Team Eight jump into a clearing and the three face each other, "Alright, first thing we gotta do is to find it. Ready Hinata?" Kiba asks.
"Yes...Byakugan!" Hinata says, the veins protrude on either side of her face, "I can see where the tower is," she deactivates her Byakugan.
"So if the tower is where everybody is headed, I just say we set a trap and take the scrolls off whoever we catch," Kiba states, Akamaru sniffs and growls and Kiba grins, "Well well, we got company."
"What a bunch of idiots!" One of the Genin watching Team says, "Standing out in the open like this as if they want to get caught."
"Well it seems they've sensed our presence," the second says, "But they are all such lame ninja that they can't even sense our presence."
"Ugh," The first says, causing his teammates to turn to him in concern.
"Hey what's wrong! W-What's in your shirt!" The collar pulls down and they see a huge fat leech on the back of his neck, "What is that thing!"
More leeches fall from the trees and the Genin yell in terror.
"Well, looks like the leeches found them," Kiba says, "They sense body temperature and perspiration and once they find their prey they swoop down together. If they suck your blood for five minutes it's all over. These predators are smart and we've taken that had our advantage and trapped our enemies."
"G-Get off of me," one of the trapped Genin says as he struggles to get up, and pulls on the wire, "W-What?"
They're pulled into a net and all scream.
"One team down," Kiba says with a smirk.
To be continued...
AN: Hello! The next chapter will be the continuation of the Forest of Death, and where oddly enough Gaara became my favorite character lol.
To LB Cat: Thanks for the kind words, your review really touched and made me smile. Thank you for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
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