Author's Note: Yo! First of all, I hope you all are enjoying the story so far and hopefully not cringing^^"/ I was glad that I didn't get any reviews or PMs for the last chapter like 'Oh, here we go, another OC with some hot character' or something like that but nope, you guys were okay with it^^/ (I hope) Anyway, enough of me rambling. Enjoy!
The Forest of Death
Mugen had already arrived at the entrance to the forest early in the morning, leaning against the gates while waiting the candidates to arrive. While waiting, he played around with the 'Earth' and 'Heaven' scrolls. Juggling them, stack them up and made a little tower out of them. He was unexpectedly having a lot of fun with it that he didn't notice a couple of teams had already arrived, watching him from behind.
One of the Genin cleared her throat, got the Joinin's attention by just turning his head and looking at them. There was just silence in between them until Mugen spoke, "Don't judge a twenty-seven year-old man can or cannot do." He said blankly and they all had sweat drops from their faces. "Y-yes, Sensei…" Mugen stood up and put the scrolls back into his pouch before clearing his throat. " Alright, you're Team Shikamaru and Team Neji, right?" Mugen asked while looking at the clipboard that he pulled out of nowhere. "Yes, Sensei-" "When are we going to start, Sensei?! I've trained so hard and passionately with Guy-Sensei for this! I cannot contained my youth!" One of the candidates with somewhat a bowl haircut said loudly, which reminded Mugen of someone he knew. The boy had the same appearances as one of his friends and then it dawned to him.
Mugen walked up to the boy and put his hands on his shoulders, "You…Are you secretly Guy's son or something? Because you two look so similar and sometimes annoyingly, out of place, hyped?" He asked and the rest of the candidates fell to the ground by his statement. "H-he's actually just Guy-Sensei's student, Sensei…He really admires him and yes, they are both annoying as hell…" The girl with two buns on her head explained while their leader just stood there, unfazed. "Uh, I see. Well, since you all here and nobody is here yet. Let's introduce ourselves shall we?" Said Mugen and he leaned against the gates to the forest.
Team Shikamaru stepped forward, "My name's Chouji Akmichi, nice to meet ya, Sensei!" The boy said and ate another handful of chips. Mugen looked at him and nodded, "So, you're Chouza-San's son, huh? You wouldn't happened to sometimes say, 'I take a potato chip…AND EAT IT!' when you ate a potato chip whenever you remember that scene, don't you?" Mugen asked and the boy had a surprised expression on his face, with his mouth hung open. "No way…Sensei, you too?" He asked and Mugen smirked. Choji smiled and gave a chip to him. Shikamaru and Ino was shocked because Chouji never shared his food with anyone so easily. "I'm Ino Yamanaka-" The blonde girl said but Mugen interrupted her, "Your family owns a flower shop, right? Nice flowers." He said and smiled. Ino smiled back and nodded. "Thanks! Stop by and buy some if you want, Sensei. Or maybe for a certain someone." She said and nudges him. Mugen laughed and waved his hand, "Sorry, I don't know how to take care of them and I don't have someone special in mind yet. Thanks though." He said and she nodded, stood next to Chouji. Lastly, was a boy with a bored expression on his face walked up to Mugen. "This is such a drag but I'm Shikamaru. Shikamaru Nara." He said lazily and made the man chuckle.
"You pretty much reminded me when I was your age but I heard your pretty smart just like your dad, Shikaku-San. Do your best at the exams, alright?" Said Mugen and offered a fist bump, which Shikamaru bumps his fist with a smirk on his face. "I'll try." The boy with the green jumpsuit stepped up to Mugen and saluted him. "My name is Rock Lee! Despite that I cannot learn Ninjutsu, I will become a great ninja just by Taijutsu alone!" He said and Mugen chuckled while the boy's teammate sighed as they thought it was impossible. "You got spirit. Just do what you love to do or what you're good at, and you will be a great ninja." Said Mugen, he smiled when Lee had sparkles in his eyes and gave a quick bow. "In that case! I will go ahead a train before the exam starts!" He said and started doing push ups. Mugen tried to stop him but he was already too focused in his training.
The girl with the two hair buns and wearing some kind of Chinese clothes, stepped up. She pulled out two scrolls and got into a stance, "My name is TenTen and my specialty is ninja tools! I just love em and to me, shinobi would be nothing without their proper tools and weapons." She said and unrolled the scrolls making a puff of smoke which then revealed different kinds of weapons hung out from the papers. "Interesting kind of Jutsu. As a fellow shinobi who also mostly uses tools, I know what you mean. Good luck!" He said and she bowed before watching Lee who was still doing his pushups. "I'm Neji Hyuuga from the Hyuuga Clan. To me, if you don't have talent then you shouldn't work hard and try to be the best. It's destiny that you don't have any talent or such skills." He said while closing his eyes and opened them, activating his Byakuugan. "Oh? Haha, you'll understand someday." Mugen simply said and gave him a smile. Neji was confused and asked him what he meant. "Don't worry about it. Just do your best and good luck!" He said and the young Hyuuga walked away, joining his team. Mugen sighed and put his hands behind his head, "Now, we play the waiting game... Make sure that all of you are prepared, alright?" He told them and answered.
Mugen greeted a couple more groups and they introduced themselves. It was the Team Kiba, Hidden Rain Team and Hidden Sound Team. Hidden Rain were the only ones who didn't want to introduce themselves to him but they just greeted him. Later on, Team Naruto, Team Kabuto and Hidden Grass Team. The Genin from the Grass made Mugen nervous as the woman in their team always moving around her long tongue. The man felt a weird vibe from them but he didn't want to judge them based on how creepy they are.
Mugen waited for Anko to arrive and decided to start without her. "Alright, listen up! I'm gonna explain about the second exam. Each team has these two scrolls and-AGHH!" Mugen was interrupted when someone landed on him. "And when you have enough scrolls, you can head to the building which is located at the end of the forest." Said Anko, as the dust cleared and revealed who landed on the Jounin. Anko just smiled while eating her favorite sweets, dango. "Yeah, what she said…I thought you'll come after the exam started." Mugen said while he got up and dust off of his clothes. "Hell no! And get nagged by the Old Man? I only said to take my place for a bit, not completely." She said, without looking at him and kept eating. Mugen sighed and started tossing two scrolls to each team. "I don't know if they like each other or what…" Some of the Genin thought as they watched the two adults.
Anko proceeded to tell them that they will not hold responsibility if they died in the forest, which made some of them scared but put on a brave face. Mugen watched her and smiled as he understood that was her way of telling them to watch their step and keep their guard up. He was surprised when she walked back to him. "Hey, hold this would ya?" She said and let him hold her bag of dangos. "How many did you buy?!" Mugen thought and surprised when he took a peek inside. "Hey, don't you dare take one!" Anko yelled out to him and dropped her kunai on the ground. As she was about to grab it, the weird woman from the Hidden Grass Team picked it up with her tongue and gave it to her. "Why, thank you, Grass Ninja." She said with a smile while the woman responded by just tilting her hat.
"Alright, maggots! The Exam has begun!" Anko yelled and it was Mugen's cue to opened the gates. They didn't waste no time and jumped into the dangerous terrain. Mugen tossed the bag of dangos back to Anko, who yelled at him for doing so, and waited before they could enter the forest to watch over them. Just a minute went by a few screams was heard from the forest. "Heh, no surprise there. Come on, let's pick up the bodies." Said Anko and she jumped onto one of the trees in the forest. "By 'picking the bodies', you mean just me, right?" Mugen asked as he followed her from behind. "If you would be a dear, yes!" She said with that bright and somewhat innocent smile of hers. The man sighed and made three clones of himself, spreading them out. "I'll go on ahead and watch over the candidates with the Anbu. If you encountered someone suspicious, just run." Said Mugen, earned a scoff from her which he returned with a serious look. Anko chuckled, "Alright, alright…Sheesh, calm down." She said and Mugen stopped her by grabbing her arm. "I almost lost you once, I don't want to lost you forever." He said, surprising the kunoichi and made her look away from him. "Thanks but, I can take care of myself!" She said and when Mugen was about to say something, she cut him off. "Hey, I won't kick the bucket so easily. Not as long as your sorry ass is still alive!" She said and jumped away from him. Mugen chuckled and smirked before jumping away from her as well.