Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!
At this moment, dozens of candidates who had passed the first test were following a proctor, who called herself Anko Mitarashi, to the site of the second exam.
"I can't believe that's what the last test was about. That proctor, Ibiki, tricked us for so long. It's just..." In the crowd, Sakura complained wearily to Sasuke and Naruto.
After Ibiki announced they had passed, he explained the true purpose of the exam: to test their intelligence-gathering abilities and, most importantly, their fearlessness in the face of a critical, high-stakes situation!
"Haha, I actually figured it out from the start," Naruto said, rubbing his head with a shameless grin.
In reality, from his cheating to his final declaration, he had just stumbled into the correct choices by pure chance.
"Heh." Sasuke just scoffed at his shamelessness.
As they were talking, Anko, who was leading the group, suddenly stopped, and everyone else halted behind her.
Before them was a giant, dense forest surrounded by a tall metal fence, so vast that they couldn't see a hundred meters into it. It was eerie, sinister, and seemed to hold endless horrors. That was everyone's first impression of it.
Gulp!
One of the fodder candidates gulped nervously, a sound that Anko noticed.
"Scared already? This isn't even the time to be scared. Once you're inside, you'll find out just how terrifying this place, known as the 'Forest of Death,' really is!" Anko said, a wicked grin on her face.
As she spoke, the candidate who had gulped became even more nervous, and her words even managed to frighten some of the others who hadn't been scared before.
"Tch, what's so scary about this!" Hearing her threat, not only was Naruto not scared, but he crossed his arms with a look of disdain.
"Oh? You know, people who are as overconfident as you... are usually the first to die!"
As her voice rang out, Anko, who had somehow appeared not far behind Naruto, whipped out a kunai and threw it straight at his cheek, clearly intending to teach him a lesson!
Smack!
However, things did not go at all as she had planned.
In her mind, the kunai would graze Naruto's cheek, and she would then appear at his side to lick the wound, a move that would frighten him into taking the exam seriously.
But in reality, Naruto tilted his head, easily dodging the kunai. Then, as it flew past his cheek, he reached out and snatched it firmly from the air.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing? That was dangerous!" Naruto spun around and said to Anko, annoyed.
If he hadn't sensed that she had no killing intent, and if she wasn't the head proctor, he would have been tempted to go over and punch her.
"Not bad, kid," Anko said, her pupils narrowing slightly. Naruto's skill had piqued her interest, and she felt a brief urge to attack him again and subdue him.
But she quickly suppressed the thought. She was the proctor for this exam, and such actions were inappropriate for her position.
"Hmph, you're right to think it's dangerous, kid. In the upcoming exam, you'll be facing all sorts of dangers just like that, when you least expect it!"
"So, everyone, get your heads in the game! I don't want to be collecting your corpses when this is all over!"
She took the opportunity to scan the crowd and issue a warning to all the candidates. Then, she began to explain the content and rules of the exam:
"This test is a scroll-capturing battle. The scrolls are divided into 'Heaven' and 'Earth.' Before you enter the forest, half of the teams will be given a Heaven scroll, and the other half will be given an Earth scroll."
"Your job is to, within a five-day time limit, collect the other type of scroll from another team and make it to the tower in the centre of the forest."
"If you fail to arrive within the time limit, fail to collect both scrolls, or if any member of your team is killed or unable to continue fighting, your entire team will fail!"
"We got a Heaven scroll, so we need to find a team with an Earth scroll."
"Right. And casualties are allowed in this exam, so we have to be extra careful."
Inside the Forest of Death, Naruto and Sakura were discussing their plan, while Sasuke scanned their surroundings.
After signing the exam consent forms, which were essentially liability waivers for their lives, they had been given a scroll.
Then, at the same time as the other 27 teams, they had entered the forest through one of the 28 gates.
"These trees are huge!" Naruto exclaimed, looking at the giant trees around them, which were several meters wide.
He hadn't been able to appreciate their full size from outside the fence, but now, up close, it was impossible to miss.
After they had walked for a while, Sakura's expression suddenly tensed. "Someone's coming!"
A second later, as if sensing something, Sasuke also looked to their left. "Hm, I sense it too."
Naruto was a bit slower, but he also reacted quickly, turning his gaze in the same direction. "Three people. Looks like a full team."
After another month of training, all three of them had made significant progress in sensing ki.
Sakura, the most skilled, could now sense things up to sixty meters away, which was why she had been the first to detect their arrival.
Sasuke was slightly behind, with a range of about forty meters.
As for Naruto, although he was the weakest of the three, he had still improved greatly, from his initial five or six meters to his current range of over twenty.
Soon, they sensed the ki of the three intruders stop about fifteen meters away from them.
The three of them exchanged a look and gave a slight nod, as if they had reached a silent agreement.
In the next instant, swoosh! swoosh!
Both Sasuke and Naruto vanished from their positions. Sakura remained where she was, forming a ki blast in her hand and throwing it at a spot covered in thick leaves.
At that moment, three Rain ninjas were hidden in the trees. Two of them were the same ones who had tried to attack Naruto and Sasuke before the first exam.
They had been holding a grudge and had sought them out as soon as the second exam began.
"Where did the other two go?"
"Damn it, they must have spotted us!"
"Never mind that, we have to dodge this thing!"
They had been planning a surprise attack, but they never expected to be discovered first.
Although one of them didn't know what the ki blast Sakura had thrown was, his instincts were screaming at him that he could not let it touch him!
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
The three of them immediately scattered in different directions.
In the next second, BOOM!
The ki blast detonated on the branch where they had been hiding, blasting a large hole in the half-meter-thick branch.
"What in the world is that technique?!" The three of them turned to look and their eyes widened in horror. If that blast had hit them, wouldn't it have blown a bloody hole right through them?
Just then, a cold voice sounded out. "Losing focus in the middle of a fight is a fatal mistake."
Sasuke, who had vanished earlier, had appeared behind one of the Rain ninja, and he brought his leg down in a powerful axe kick!
At the same time, two Narutos appeared on either side of the other two Rain ninja, also launching their own swift attacks!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
With the sound of three heavy bodies hitting the ground, the three Rain ninja all lay on the forest floor, their eyes rolled back in their heads, completely unconscious.