Chapter 6

The next day we find ourselves outside some big fenced area. The wind was pretty active today too. My squad and I stood by Lee's squad.
"Wow, this place is so big, what is it?" Naruto asks.
"This is the location for the second phase of the exam. It's the 44th battle training zone. Though we call it, the Forest of Death." Anko answers.
"Forest of... Death?" Naruto asks, seeming freaked out. I smile, sounds interesting.

"What.. the.." Lee says.
"Huh?" I ask. Lee points to Naruto, he was randomly walking, some sort of cardboard box with a rock pattern on it was following him, and it froze as Naruto stops and turns around. Then Naruto starts running back and forth, the box picks up speed and follows him close behind. He just kept running, then he stops abruptly, and so does the box. Naruto faces the box with his hands on his hips.
Naruto points at it. "That's the worst disguise of all time! There's no such thing as square rocks! It's completely obvious!"
"You saw through my camouflage again!" The box says. "You're slick boss, just what I'd expect from my greatest rival!" The box then disappears and three puffs of different colored smoke, pink, yellow and blue appear, capturing everyone's attention. Three kids could be seen crouched down choking on it. I blink. "I think we used a bit too much gunpowder you guys." Says the one wearing the long blue scarf. They all look at Naruto.
"I'm Moegi, the sassiest kunoichi of pre-school! Check me out!" The girl says, doing a little dance.
"I love algebra, call me Udon!" Says the boy with the runny nose.
"And I'm the number one ninja in the village, I'm Konohamaru!" Says the one with the long scarf. I sweatdrop. "And when we're all together,"

"We're the Konohamaru ninja squad!" They all say in unison.

"Yeah, I knew it was you guys the whole time." Naruto says, his hands behind his head. "What the heck do you guys want? I'm about to take the second phase of the Chuunin Exam, and you're interrupting me. And I don't have time to be playin' around with you guys now."
"We didn't come here to play around boss! We're on official business!" Konohamaru says.
"Yeah! That's right! We came here for an exclusive interview!" Moegi exclaims.
"Uh huh!" Udon says, nodding.
"An interview huh?" Naruto asks.
"We're here on an assignment to write an article for the academy's newspaper, it's a big time all featured story about the Chuunin selection examination." Konohamaru says.
"So that's why we want to do an exclusive interview with you." Moegi says. "Please tell us you're going to do it!"
"It would mean a lot!" Udon says.
"Yeah.. but right now?" Naruto growls.
"Hey!" Anko calls. "You over there! What're you doing? You're holding up the exams." She says, walking over to him.
"Uh, sorry but Konohamaru was telling me something about an interview for the academy newspaper." Naruto says. Anko gasps and her eyes widen. Then she smiles and rubs the back of her head nervously.
"Oh yeah, I forgot all about it. Lord Hokage did mention something about them interviewing me." She says.
"Uhh, interviewing you?" Naruto asks.
"Alright, we're taking a 10 minute break!" Anko calls out. "For those that are scheduled to be interviewed, please be courteous and be thankful to the reporters from the academy's newspaper."
"I thought I was the only one being interviewed." Naruto complains.
"No boss, but you are the most important." Konohamaru says, getting out a notebook and pen.
"Oh! Well in that case, I'll give you an interview that'll make it clear to your readers why I'm the greatest ninja ever!" Naruto exclaims. I facepalm myself.
"Well.. 10 minutes huh? What should we do in the meantime?" Lee asks.
"Hmph, sit around and wait I suppose." Neji says.
"We could train?" I suggest. Lee gasps.
"Yes! Good idea Setsuki-san!" Lee says. He looks at my hands, then grabs my wrist, inspecting my hand. "How are your hands?"
"Quite good actually! Gai-san's ointment really did the trick!" I exclaim there was nothing on my hands now, just clear skin. Lee smiles.
"That is great news!" He says. "Now, we should do 100 push ups while we wait!"
"Yea- wait, 100?" I ask. But then I notice Lee was already on the ground doing them. I shrug and crouch down beside him and begin doing them too, of course I was slower because I'm not used to doing them. "Okay, 1.. 2.. 3.."
"17, 18, 19." Lee counts.

I begin running out of breath. "35... 36..." I breathe, ready to collapse.
"78, 79, 80." Lee continues. I collapse and fall on my stomach, I was really unfit compared to Lee. "98, 99, 100!" Lee exclaims, jumping up to his feet. "Yes! We did it! We- uh, Setsuki-san?"
"I'm.. okay.." I pant, rolling over onto my back.
"You do not look okay." Lee says. I take a few seconds to catch my breath.
"If you were smart you would save your energy for the second phase." Neji grumbles in a huffy tone. Lee sits down beside me, legs crossed.
"Setsuki-san, are you sure?" Lee asks. I smile.
"Yeah, stop asking." I chuckle.
"Oh, my apologies." Lee says. I sit up.
"Nah it's cool.. like ice." I say, smiling.
".. Excuse me?" Lee asks, tilting his head to the side.
"You know, cool, like ice, because ice is frozen water, therefore it's cool." I explain. Lee blinks.
"I do not understand." He says.
"It's a joke." I say, then pout a little. No one ever laughs.
"Oh! Of course! Haha." Lee laughs. Now this made me smile, he found it funny.
"Do your worst! You're not gonna scare me away!" Naruto exclaims, we face him. He points at Anko. "I can handle anything!"
Anko smiles and tilts her head tot he side. "So, looks like we got ourselves a tough guy.." Then she got a kunai in her hand somehow and throws it, narrowly missing his cheek and hitting the ground, and almost hitting someone's face on the way. That particular person was wearing some sort of big purple rope around their waist.
Then Anko suddenly disappears, then reappears behind Naruto all within a blink of the eye. "You tough enough to handle this?" Anko asks. "You're not afraid are you?" Then I notice she did get him. There was a nice cut on his cheek, blood dripping out of it. She puts a hand on the opposite cheek. "Tough guys like you leave blood all over this forest." She says, touching his blood, then she gets another kunai in her hand and turns her head back slightly. Someone was standing behind her, their tongue expanded out holding the kunai to her. I shiver and throw my arms around Lee, clinging to him.
"Huh?" Lee looks at me questionably, and hesitantly puts his arm around me, patting my back. "Are you afraid of something Setsuki-san?" My wide eyes stay firmly locked on that guy.
"I was.. just returning your knife." The woman says.
"Why thank you Grass ninja." Anko says. "You know I really only recommend you stand this close behind me, if you wish to reach a premature end." She says, taking the kunai. The woman pulls the tongue back into her mouth.
"My pardon. With a side of blood and your blade slicing through my hair, I'm afraid that I just became a little excited. I meant you no harm." She says. Then she chuckles and turns around and walks back to her squad.
"S-Setsuki-san, you are shivering, are you alright?" Lee asks.
"Huh? Well, yeah! I'm fine!" I imply, not loosening my grip at all.
"Likewise.." Anko says to that woman. I then notice Naruto sticking his tongue out to himself, he must be trying to do what that woman did. "Seems like everyone here today is quick tempered. There must be something in the air.. heh, this is gonna be fun." She mutters then walks to the gate. Lee somehow stood up with me still clinging to him. "Now before we begin this test, I have something to hand out to you all." She says, turning to us and pulling out some paper. "It's just a standard consent form. Before the test, all of you are going to have to read over this form, and then sign it."
"What for?" Naruto asks.
"Some of you may not come back from this test." Anko replies in a simple tone. "And I have to get your consent to that risk. Otherwise it would be my responsibility, ahahaha!" I sweatdrop. "Now, I'll explain what you'll be doing on this test. Here, pass these out." She says, handing them to Naruto. Naruto takes them. "The first thing you need to know, is that this test attacks every one of your survival skills."
Someone hands the pile of paper to Tenten, takes one and hands them to Neji. Neji does the same and hands them to Lee. Lee takes two and passes the rest on.
"First," Anko says, unrolling a scroll and holding it up in her hand. "I'll give you all a description of the rain on the practise field. The 44th training battle zone has 44 locked entrance gates. There are rivers, and a forest inside. In the center is the locked tower, located 10km from each gate. It's in this confined area that you'll undergo the survival test. The test consists of anything goes battle, to get your hands on these scrolls." She explains then holds up two rolled up scrolls in her hand.
"Both of them?" Sasuke asks.
"Yeah. You'll be fighting to get both, a Heaven scroll and an Earth scroll." Anko answers. I finally decide to let go of Lee and stand up straight.
"Here." Lee says, handing me one of the two forms he grabbed.
"Oh thanks." I say, taking it.
"All together, 28 teams will be taking part in this test. So half of those teams will be going after the Heaven scroll, and the other half will be trying to get the Earth scroll. I will hand over one kind of scroll to each team. And that' what you'll be vying for." Anko explains.
"Okay." Sasuke says. "So how do we pass the test?"
"Your squad must bring both a Heaven and Earth scroll to the tower." Anko answers.
"That means at the very best, half of us will fail. More if not every team is able to get both the scrolls." Sakura says.
"No one ever sad it was gonna be easy." Anko says with a blank look on her face. "Oh, and one more thing. The test has a time limit. You must finish it within 5 days."
"Five days out there?" That blond Genin questions.
"What are we gonna do for food!" The fat one questions.
"Just look around!" Anko says. "The forest is full of things to eat. There's plenty to feed all of you."
"Yeah but.." Kabuto says. "That's not all the forest has plenty of. There are man-eating beasts and poisonous plants in there."
"Daww man!" The fat kid complains.
"Quiet down! This is why they call it survival you know!" The blond gushes.
"That means.." Neji says. Lee and I look at him. "With these circumstances there's no way half the teams will pass the test."
"With the days getting longer, the nights are getting shorter. So we will have less time to sleep and less time to recover.." Lee says, then gets a small smile. "It is a challenge indeed!" He says, smiling fully, then his teeth sparkle. I get anime tears, oh how I wished my teeth would sparkle.
"Completely surrounded by enemies.." Sasuke says. "There wont be time to rest, we'll have to keep a constant watch."
"Right." Anko says, agreeing. "This test also measures endurance behind enemy lines. This is designed to be a gruelling test, and I'm sure some of you wont be up to the challenge."
"So um.." Shikamaru says, raising his hand. "Lets say mid-exam, can we quit?"
"Of course not. In the middle of a battle you can't say sorry I quit." Anko replies, then she smiles. "Well I guess you could but it's probably gonna get'cha killed."
"Oh just great.." Shikamaru groans. "This is gonna be a drag.."
"There are also some ways you can get disqualified. The first is simple, if all three members of a squad can't make it to the central tower with both scrolls after 5 days. Number two, if a team loses a member or a member becomes incapacitated and cannot continue. But most important, none of you, absolutely none of you may look at the contents of the scrolls until you've reached the tower." Anko says.
"Well what happens if it just happens to flip open and you read it?" Naruto asks.
"Lemme put it to you this way young man. You. Don't. Want. To. Know." Anko answers in a ghostly voice. "There will be times when a ninja is asked to carry out secret documents, the scroll rule is to test your integrity. Okay we're done. Each team take your consent forms over there and exchange them for scrolls." She says, pointing to a table with three Chuunin sitting at it. "After that, each team pick a gate, and you'll be lead inside." she says then sighs. "Oh, and I have one more word of advice... JUST DON'T DIE!"

We had half an hour to decide on it. I remain standing with Lee's squad because Susumu and Daisuke had already given me the nod to say they were gonna do it.
"This is definitely a challenge I will accept!" Lee exclaims. I smile.
"We'll pass through it with flying colors!" I exclaim.
"Yeah!" Lee says, raising his hand and smiling at me. I smile back and high-five him. The Chuunin pull a curtain over the stand so no one could see.
"Alright everyone, we're handing out the scrolls now." The Chuunin calls.

"But I wanna carry the scroll.." I whine, pouting. Daisuke jerks the Earth scroll away from me.
"No, I don't trust your coordination." He says. I get anime tears.
"I was 8 years old when I tripped on my own feet, I'm 13 now! I can handle it!" I imply. Daisuke shakes his head.
"No, I'm holding and that's final." He says. I fold my arms and pout.
"Fine."

We stand around waiting for the next order.
"Listen up! All of ya!" Anko calls, looking at her watch. "All the teams have received their scrolls so everybody go to your gate and wait there. When the gates open, the test is on!"

We found ourselves outside of gate 42, and Lee's squad was at gate 41. I could see them, and Lee had the biggest flames burning from his eyes. I smile and face our gate.
I raise a fist to the air. "Yosh! Lets do this!" I exclaim.
"Yeah!" Both Daisuke and Susumu agree.

The Chuunin unlocks the gate and stares at his watch. I found myself jogging on the spot. I was ready.
"Alright! Listen up maggots!" Anko shouts. "The second part of the test has begun!" Then the gates open, and the three of us leap in, running as fast as we could.

"Guys, keep your eyes and ears open." Susumu says. We nod. I sniff the air then stop.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Daisuke asks. I stood there for a moment.
"This way!" I say, beckoning them as I jump off in another direction.
"Hey! Setsuki wait up!" Susumu calls as they jump after me.

I eventually jump down in a sort of open area and look around.
"What is it?" Susumu asks, jumping down beside me.
"I thought I smelled food." I say, then pout, looking around. Daisuke facepalms himself.
"We're here to search for scrolls, not food!" Daisuke growls. I sigh and take a step back randomly, then I hear something crunch as my foot hits the ground. It caught all of our attention. I lift my foot and there was a crushed potato chip.
"What's that..?" Susumu asks.
"A potato chip." I answer, crouching down. I then randomly look at the bush beside me then smirk. I jump up and over the bush, making it look like I jumped up into the trees and took off, but I really just jumped over the bush, and I saw three of the rookies laying on the ground, staring through the bush. I recognize one of them to be Shikamaru. Shikamaru, that annoying blond girl and that fat kid. I smirk even bigger.
I lower my hands slowly and hover them above Shikamaru's feet, then suddenly grab his ankles and shouting "Boo!".
"GAAAHHHHH!" Shikamaru and his teammates scream, jumping 10 feet in the air. I stood there cracking up laughing.
"What the?" Susumu asks.
"It's just.. the rookies!" I say between fits of laughter.
"Don't do that!" Shikamaru gushes.
"Hahaha, that was actually quite funny Setsuki." Daisuke says. I smile proudly.
"Thank you." I say. The three rookies jump down from the tree.
"Just what do you guys want?" Shikamaru groans.
"Your scroll." Susumu answers.
"O-okay! Lets not fight! We'll give you the scroll!" The blond girl says.
"Ino! We can't do that! We'll be kicked out of the exam!" Shikamaru retorts. 'So that's her name.'
"Well I'm not gonna fight them!" Ino gushes.
"Heh, what's the matter? Scared?" Daisuke teases.
"N-no!" Ino shouts.
"I think they are." Susumu sniggers, then they start closing in on them.
"Choji! Ino! We have to fight back, there's no other way!" Shikamaru says. 'And the fat kid's name is Choji.. right!'
I wanted to join in with my teammates, so I begin closing in on the rookies too. "Yeah!" I say, trying to think of something to intimidate them with. "What are you gonna do? Fatty?" I ask. Choji's ear twitches, and Shikamaru's and Ino's eyes widen in shock and they look immediately at Choji. Susumu and Daisuke laugh.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME!" Choji roars.
"Oh lookie, the kid's got a voice!" Daisuke mocks. I laugh along with them.
"Expansion Jutsu!" Choji says then before we know it, he's three times the size as he was before. I sweatdrop.
"Yeah! Get 'em Choji!" Ino cheers. Choji gets a dark look in his eye, particularly towards me. He points to me.
"I'M NOT FAT! I'M BIG BONED! ARGH!" He jumps up into the air and curls into a ball. "HUMAN BOULDER!" He says, then starts spinning around like an actual boulder. I think I may have underestimated him. I start running for dear life. The giant boulder kept chasing after me.
"Setsuki... you baka. Just use your water tricks or something!" Susumu calls out. I had a lightbulb appear above my head, symbolizing an idea. I perform a Jutsu sign with my hands.
"Ninja Art: Water Substitution Jutsu!" I say, then my body turns to water. Choji splashes straight through the puddle and into a tree. Seriously these trees are massive.
"Geez I forgot she could do that.. looks like we're gonna have to fight.. what a drag.." Shikamaru groans. I poke my head up from the puddle, it looks as though the impact with the tree knocked Choji right out. It took a few minutes before my body fully returned to normal, and during those minutes Susumu, Daisuke, Shikamaru and Ino start fighting. However, they were all distanced.
Ino was trying to focus her Mind Transfer jutsu on Susumu, Susumu was trying to focus his Shadow Possession Jutsu on Shikamaru, and Shikamaru was trying to focus his Shadow Possession Jutsu on Daisuke, and finally Daisuke was trying to focus his Mind Transfer Jutsu on Ino.
"Yosh! Time for my ultimate jutsu!" I call, they all look at me, loosing focus of everything. "... Mind Distraction Jutsu!" I say doing a hand sign. All four of them wait around for something to happen. I blink a few times then point to them. "Aha! It worked! Your minds are now distracted!" They all sweatdrop.
"You idiot." Susumu groans, then faces Shikamaru, immediately capturing him in his Shadow Possession Jutsu.
"Tch... dammit.." Shikamaru groans.
"Shikamaru!" Ino says, then faces Susumu and lines up her Mind Transfer Jutsu. Daisuke tackles her, throwing off her focus, therefore making her Jutsu miss. Her body became motionless. Daisuke stands up and brushes the dirt off him. Susumu stands up, forcing Shikamaru to do the same.
"Now, tell me which one of you has the scroll." Susumu says. Sweat drips down from Shikamaru's forehead.
"Tch..." Is all we heard from Shikamaru.
"I reckon he has it." Susumu says, moving his hand into his pocket and watches as Shikamaru reluctantly does the same. Susumu pulls his hand from his pocket not holding anything. However, when Shikamaru was forced to bring his hand out there was the scroll... their Earth scroll.
"You mean we wasted all this time on someone who has the same scroll?" Daisuke complains.
"Yeah," Susumu says, moving his hand in a way like he was gonna throw something. Then for some reason he pretends to throw something, but then Shikamaru threw the scroll toward him. Susumu raises a hand to catch it, and of course, Shikamaru's movements were exactly the same. "but that doesn't mean we can't use this scroll as a bribe."
"Ah, good thinkin'." Daisuke says. I just stand by and smile.
"Right, lets go look for a Heaven scroll." Susumu says, releasing his jutsu. Shikamaru slumps over little and pants a bit. We nod and follow Susumu as he jumps up through the trees.

To think we have 5 days to survive here..