"Welcome to the stage for the second test, Training Ground 44," Anko grinned evilly. "Also known as… The Forest of Death!" Behind her, a chainlink fence separated us from enormous trees with trunks as thick as houses. It occurred to me that this place had probably been constructed by Hashirama Senju himself using his wood release. The training ground looked to have earned its nickname, even disregarding what I already knew of its interior. Just looking at it from the outside, it gave off an oppressive atmosphere, as if it wanted to trap genin inside and kill them slowly. "You'll soon find out why we call it that."
"The Forest of Death?" Naruto laughed. "You think that scares me!? That's nothing! I'm not afraid!" Anko smiled creepily
"Well, you're certainly spirited." Quick as a flash, she drew and tossed a kunai that cut Naruto's cheek, then Body Flickered behind him. "Kids like you die quickly in there, you know…" She leaned in and licked the blood from his face. "...Spraying your delicious blood all over the place…" Her eyes hardened, and she drew another knife just as a tall Kusa kunoichi appeared behind her, her tongue carrying Anko's kunai. Or rather, Orochimaru disguised as a Kusa kunoichi.
"I was… Just returning your knife." The proctor took back her blade, oblivious to her old sensei's presence.
"Why thank you, Grass ninja. But you know, you shouldn't sneak up behind me… Unless you want to die."
"Apologies, I just get so excited when I see blood. Plus you cut my precious hair, I really couldn't help myself."
"Looks like we have a lot of bloodthirsty ones this time. Heh, this should be fun." She reached into her jacket, tone suddenly turning serious again. "Now, before we start the second test, there's something I have to pass out." Her hand came out holding a number of papers. "You must sign these release forms acknowledging that I'm not responsible if you die in there. There will be deaths in this one, and if you didn't sign, then they'd by my responsibility!" She was cheerful, as if she were talking about cuts and bruises rather than the deaths of literal children. "After I've explained the test, you can sign it, then check in at the booth behind me."
The test was simple: every team would receive a scroll marked with either the kanji for 'heaven' or 'earth'. We were to retrieve an opposite scroll from one of the other teams and take it to the tower in the centre of the forest without opening either of them. The training ground was a circular area about 20km in diameter with 44 entrances and a river running through it. We had five days, and had to make it to the tower with all three team members alive and conscious. We were not allowed to withdraw during the test, so presumably any team that lost a member would either have to make it to the tower anyway or be retrieved after the time limit expired.
We signed our forms and waited our turn to get a scroll. Since the booth was covered, we wouldn't know which teams had the scroll we needed, so information-gathering would be key. Soon enough, we were waiting outside our assigned gate with our earth scroll, which I as our unofficial leader was carrying. I say 'unofficial' because there was never a conversation about it or anything, Naruto and Sakura both just seemed to defer to me naturally, and had been doing so ever since the bell test. It was amusing in a way – back home, I wasn't the leader sort of person. I was never particularly charismatic and my social anxiety issues made it impossible for me to actively take charge. Here, though, I had somehow subconsciously found myself taking that role. Perhaps it was because my newfound power gave me confidence. Perhaps it was because I was, at least psychologically, over a decade older than my teammates and felt a responsibility to guide and protect them. Whatever the reason, in the absence of our sensei I slipped quite easily into the mindset of a leader, and that would be important for this test.
I would protect my teammates from Orochimaru. I would get out of this test without receiving a curse mark, and if possible, without Naruto's seal getting messed with. To do these things, I would need to be able to take command, to inspire my teammates, and to make the right decisions in the thick of battle. There was no way we could kill the snake sannin, but if we worked together and fought well, we could make it too costly and attention-grabbing for him to pursue his objective, forcing him to back off. Hell, if we played our cards right, we might even be able to grab his heaven scroll, but that was beyond unlikely.
The moment the gate was opened, I led my team into the forest. We moved quickly until we came to a clearing with decent visibility of the surrounding area.
"Stop here," I instructed my teammates. "We need a plan. Running aimlessly through the woods isn't going to help us."
"We could head right for the tower and set an ambush?" Sakura suggested, but I disagreed.
"While that might work, the other teams will be thinking the same thing. They'll all be on guard and ready for it." I had been thinking about this during most of the first test, and had already come up with what I hoped would be a functional plan. "Naruto, if you were to make, say, 35 clones, would you still have enough chakra to fight?"
"Of course! That many clones is nothing to me, dattebayo!" he proclaimed proudly.
"Do it. Have 30 of them split up into teams of three and start combing the forest. Quietly. If they spot a team, have one of them dissipate and the remaining two keep an eye on them. This way we can locate at least a few teams and take our pick of the ones that seem weakest. The left over five clones will be sticking in the trees around us, watching the perimeter."
"What will we be doing while the clones go looking?" Sakura asked. "Do we approach the tower?" I gave a devilish grin.
"We do… Nothing." They both looked at me incredulously, so I elaborated. "We find a place to rest, somewhere we can rig with traps and defend, and make it our base camp. We make sure we have all the food and water we need, and we wait. Once we have a target, we move out at night, watch them for a while to get a feel for what they might do, then strike at dawn, right when their night watch is getting tired. After that, we head for the tower." They both agreed it was a sound plan, so Naruto made his clones and had them disperse. Now we had to find a good spot to hunker down for the day.
"We passed by the river on the way to our entrance," Sakura pointed out. "If we set up camp somewhere along it, we can eat fish and drink boiled river water, and we can use it for water jutsu as well."
"Good idea. Naruto, what do you think?"
"I like it! Great idea, Sakura-chan!"
"So we're agreed. Alright then, let's move."
We leaped through the trees at a reasonable pace, fast enough not to waste any time but not so fast that we couldn't keep a good eye on our surroundings. We reached the river soon enough, and followed it upstream for a while until we found a suitable location for our camp. Partway up one of the trees was a hollow big enough for all of us to fit inside with room to spare. It would keep us out of sight, shelter us in case it rained, give us a good vantage point from which to see any approaching enemies, and was close enough to the river that anyone who did find us could easily be lured closer to the water. We then spent the next couple of hours thoroughly booby trapping the area. Snares, log traps, explosive tags – anyone who tried to sneak up on us would have to be extraordinarily careful, or they'd be in for a really bad day. Once we were done, we settled into the hollow and relaxed, waiting either for nightfall or for one of Naruto's clones to find someone.
"I gotta go pee!" Naruto said suddenly, and hopped out of the tree. Barely a minute went by before a pained scream sounded out from nearby, one that definitely wasn't Naruto. Sakura and I shared a glance, then rushed to find out what had happened.
It turned out that the Rain Village ninja in the mask who had impersonated Naruto in canon had made an attempt in this timeline, too. However, he had triggered one of our traps, a nasty little trick Naruto had set up that had launched a barrage of shuriken when a wire was broken, and now his left leg was riddled with throwing stars. The limb was bleeding profusely, and it seemed he couldn't move it. He tossed a strange double-bladed kunai at Sakura, which she easily dodged.
"Stay back!" he shouted, panicking and pulling another knife. Acting quickly, Sakura drew and tossed a pair of her own shuriken, pinning his sleeves to the tree behind him and preventing him from attacking further.
"Nice shots, Sakura." She smiled briefly at the complement before adopting a more serious expression.
"What do we do with him?"
"I'll search him. Keep an eye out for his friends." I knelt down in front of our captured foe and rifled through his pockets and equipment pouch. He was armed with shuriken and more double-bladed knives. He didn't have a scroll on him, though. "So, Ame-kun, you wouldn't be willing to tell us where your friends are hiding, would you?" I asked casually, giving him a friendly smile.
"Go fuck yourself!"
"In the middle of a mission? No thanks." I drew a knife. "Well, if you won't tell me, I have other ways of drawing them out."
"They're not here, I came alone! I thought I could get your scroll without being seen!"
"Thank you. Now that wasn't too hard, was it?" I slammed his head against the tree, knocking him out, then made a Shadow Clone which proceeded to return Sakura's shuriken and hoist the unconscious ninja over her shoulders.
"What are you doing with him?"
"Dumping him somewhere far away from here," I explained as my clone Body Flickered away. "He won't be in any condition to continue the exam with his leg like that, but I don't want his friends coming after us for revenge. This way, he can't lead them to us."
"Where were you guys?" Naruto asked when we returned to the hollow.
"Just dealing with a nuisance that fell into our trap." We told him about the Rain ninja, and he laughed.
"Hah! That's what he gets for attacking us!"
"Right. Those shuriken traps of yours are brutal, how'd you make them?"
"It's easy!" he boasted. "You just need a little ninja wire and…" He went on to explain how he'd made the traps, and how he'd gotten the idea from a prank where he'd done something similar with water balloons full of paint. Partway through the explanation, I shot up from laying down into a sitting position. I could feel the blood drain from my face.
"Makoto, what's wrong?" Sakura asked, worried.
"Someone popped my clone. Someone strong."
Clone Makoto set down the unconscious Rain Villager at the base of a big rock several kilometres away from the campsite.
"That should be far enough," she said to herself, stretching. She was about to dispel herself so that the original Makoto could regain at least some of the chakra spent on her when a sinister laugh made her freeze on the spot.
"Kukukukuku… If it isn't the young Uchiha, all alone. Where are your friends, little mouse?"
Orochimaru. I need to draw him away from the Boss. She drew a kunai and took a stance with her back to the rock.
"Show yourself!"
"If you insist." The disguised sannin stepped out from behind a tree and casually strolled towards her.
"Stay back! If you're after our scroll, you're out of luck, because I don't carry it." Faster than the clone could react, Orochimaru buried his fist in her gut, and she dissipated in a puff of smoke.
"It was a kunoichi from Kusagakure," I told my teammates. "She was alone, and she was fast."
"Sounds like someone we should stay away from if we can," Sakura commented, and I nodded my agreement.
"What? We can totally take her!" Naruto protested.
"Maybe," I told him. Absolutely not. "But someone that strong probably has strong teammates, too. We'd be better off looking for easier targets. We're not going for style points here, Naruto."
"Hmph, fine." He wasn't happy about it, but he knew I was right. With that decided, I pulled an energy bar from my pouch.
"I'm going to eat this and then take a nap, see if I can get back some of the chakra I spent on that clone. If nothing happens, wake me up in a couple hours."
The sun was on the verge of setting when Sakura shook me awake gently, expression serious.
"Something got one of the clones Naruto left on guard," she quietly informed me as I activated my henge. "Inside the perimeter of our traps." Looking past Sakura, I saw that Naruto was watching the outside intently for any hint of motion.
"Did you see what it was?" I asked the blonde, who shook his head in response. This was bad. By my estimation, there were only five people in the forest who could get through the traps without triggering any of them: the two Hyuuga with their Byakugan, Shino Aburame with his bugs, and Orochimaru or Kabuto with sheer skill. Hinata would never have attacked Naruto, nor would she stand by and let Shino do the same, and Kabuto had to maintain his cover as a talentless genin, so we were either dealing with Team Guy or Orochimaru. I hoped to whatever gods may have been listening that it was Team Guy.
"Hey Makoto-chan, that Grass ninja that got your clone earlier – was she really tall and wearing a purple rope belt?" Naruto asked, and my heart sank.
Aw, fuck me. "She's here?" He nodded. "Where about?"
"She just took out another clone off in that direction." I immediately began formulating a plan.
"Alright, here's what we should do…"
Orochimaru had to admit, the brats were good with traps, at least for a genin squad. He doubted there were many experienced chuunin who could make it through this gauntlet without tripping up. For him though, this was barely an inconvenience. He glanced at the bloody stains on the ground where the scent of that Ame ninja had led him. The Uchiha would be somewhere around here, no doubt hidden in an elevated position with a good view of the surrounding area.
Somewhere like that tree up ahead.
He casually tossed a kunai into the heart of yet another Shadow Clone that was watching from what it apparently thought to be a hidden position (and made a mental note to have Kabuto investigate the orange-clad brat later, since no genin should have enough chakra to make this many) before strolling up the tree trunk.
The sound of an explosion rang out from behind us, signalling that our plan had worked. It had used up all our remaining explosive tags, but the result was one hell of a blast. Naruto and Sakura stopped, forcing me to stop with them.
"What are you doing? We need to keep moving!" I insisted.
"C'mon Makoto-chan, there's no way she survived that!" Naruto protested.
"Naruto's right," agreed Sakura. "We can stop here and plan our next move."
"No, that blast wasn't enough! She's still on us, we can't stop yet!"
"But we hit her with 20 explosive tags!"
"Right! And my clone saw her go into the hollow, so they were right on top of her! She's history, dattebayo!"
"You should listen to your teammate," a familiar voice spoke, sounding as if it came from all around us. "The wise prey does not stop for even a moment when pursued by its predator." In an instant my Sharingan eyes were darting around, seeking any trace of our stalker's chakra.
"What the hell? How are you still alive!?" Naruto shouted incredulously. The voice chuckled menacingly as Orochimaru appeared on a nearby branch.
"Unfortunately for you," the psychotic sannin continued, ignoring Naruto's question, "against some predators, flight is not an option."
A/N: And Second Best Villain finally shows his face! I'm really nervous about doing him justice, in the series he dominates every scene he's in (until the war arc, but we don't talk about how badly he was treated then). Next chapter is entirely devoted to the battle against him!