Chapter 31: Someone different

The sky was clear and the sound of birds singing reached everyone's ears. It was a pity that in a few minutes only the desperate cries of some participants could be heard.

"Listen, you worms. Before we start with everything, I want you to read and sign this thing."

Anko showed a small stack of sheets of paper.

"What are those things for?" Onikuma Enko stepped forward and asked.

Sure enough, a smile formed on Anko's mouth before she answered.

"This is something like a contract. You guys will sign it and so I won't be responsible if any of you die during the exam."

With a cheerful tone of voice, Anko looked at Enko.

Some of the participants felt scared. This was an exam where they would risk their lives. It was no joke, but the way Anko said it made it sound very scary.

"I won't be responsible if any of you die" Doing a strange dance, Naruto repeated Anko's words.

"Uh-huh, yeah. Like I'd be scared of something like that, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the man who will one day become Hokage!"

Looking at Anko with a defiant smile, Naruto shouted.

But apparently, Anko interpreted the boy's words as something different.

So, Anko pulled out a kunai and quickly threw it near Naruto.

This caused a small drop of blood to fall to the ground, due to the small cut on Naruto's face.

"Trust me, this test is not a game. It's better to be scared than to be playing brave."

Touching Naruto's throat with a kunai, Anko spoke into his ear.

Naruto flinched, failing to see Anko's quick movements.

"What do you think you're doing?" Anko asked after feeling someone's breath on her neck.

Behind her, stood a ninja with the front shield of the Hidden Grass Village.

"Don't get defensive, I just wanted to return your kunai."

Stretching out his tongue, as if he were a snake, the ninja handed the kunai to Anko.

She simply sighed and took the kunai before returning to the front.

Meanwhile, Toru watched everything with a poker face.

(Anko-sensei is someone interesting. Besides, it looks like I'll have to keep an eye on everything. The ninjas here, just by looking at them I can tell that they are more dangerous than they look. Especially the ones from the sand and sound village.)

Toru gave a quick glance at all the exam participants, before Naruto handed him one of the sheets of paper.

"Here you go..." Naruto said with a nervous expression on his face.

After that, Toru took the document in his hands and read it.

On that sheet of paper, there were written different ways in which a ninja could die during the exam.

Toru sighed and using some of his blood and a needle, he signed the document without thinking twice.

(It looks like Ino and Hinata are still reading the document. I guess all the ways of death that are written on that thing must have made them uncomfortable. But that's the fun of this exam, I guess.)

Still holding the sheet of paper in his hands, Toru made his way to the place farthest away from everyone.

There she sat on a rock and waited for her teammates to finish reading the paper.

(Agh!)

While looking at Ino, a severe headache made Toru stagger.

At the same time, the image of a boy appeared in his mind, as if it was a lightning bolt that suddenly decided to strike the boy.

That boy had multiple bruises on his body, but still maintained an emotionless expression on his face.

Moreover, Toru recognized the book that the boy was holding in his hand.

(It's becoming more frequent)

Toru sighed as he touched his head. The pain was slowly starting to fade away.

(I don't know what to do about this).

Looking at the sheet of paper with a poker face, Toru looked at a specific word.

(Blood...)

It's true, every time Toru remembered something related to blood, the images of that sea of blood came back.

Everything was strange, as if those images were trying to tell him something, but Toru could not decipher it.

A few seconds passed, and someone's voice made Toru look up.

"So here you are..." A girl's voice was heard.

"Ino... What's wrong, were you looking for me?"

Hiding his pained expression behind a poker face, Toru looked at Ino.

The girl stood in front of him and the sunlight somehow made her look like an angel who descended from heaven just to help the boy.

"Well, it's not like I've been looking for you. I just wanted to remind you that the exam is about to start, so..." Looking away, hiding the blush on her cheeks, Ino spoke.

But Toru just looked at Ino curiously.

"Hm...?"

Gesturing slightly with her head, Toru looked Ino in the eyes.

Seeing Toru's face, Ino turned away and sighed.

"Forget it, silly. And you better hurry up, they're about to say the rules of the exam."

Without looking Toru in the face, Ino walked in the direction of the group of participants.

(Hm... Looks like Ino is changing as time goes by, that's good).

Toru sighed and closed her eyes.

(Leaving that aside, I have to stay focused, I'll try to find an explanation for those strange mental images when the exam is over).

Getting up from the rock, Toru walked in the direction of the group of ninja in front of him.

When he arrived, Hinata greeted him with a distant look.

Toru noticed that, but could only sigh and listen to Anko's explanation.

"Listen up, you bastards, because I'm only going to say this once!"

Holding up two different colored scrolls, Anko began the explanation.

"This second exam consists of a competition where everything is allowed for obtaining these two scrolls, the scroll of heaven and earth. So, killing and dying is allowed, anything is allowed for getting these scrolls" Anko said.

At that, the participants looked a bit nervous, well, something like that was normal considering that they have a high chance of dying during the test.

"Half of the teams will have a scroll from heaven while the other half will have a scroll from earth. Each team will have one of these two scrolls and must fight to obtain the other scroll. The objective is to reach the tower with these two scrolls. Also, there is no means of knowing which scroll the other teams will have, as they will be given out confidentially. So by logic only half of the participants will pass, according to this, or maybe less."

(Only half, seems to be more than I expected. I should think of something before starting the exam) Toru thought.

"Now, the rules. Although one I already said one of them in the explanation, but just because I'm nice I'll say it again" Anko said, this made Naruto make a disgusted face.

-The team must reach the tower with the two scrolls. Failure of this will fail the whole group.

-If a team loses a member of the group, the team fails.

-Participants may not look at the contents of the scrolls until they reach the tower.

"So that's it. Hm... this will be easy, won't it Kiba?" Looking at his teammate, Enko spoke.

Kiba smiled and affirmed with a slight nod.

"Ah, one last thing. You're not allowed to open the scrolls, for any reason, I know I already said that, but I'm sure there will be some idiot who will do it."

Saying that, Anko looked at everyone with a grim expression on her face.

"What if we open them?" said Naruto in a nonchalant manner.

This made Anko look at him with a smile.

"Trust me, you don't want to know what will happen."

After listening to Anko, Naruto shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

(Okay, I know how to start. I know this place a little bit due to having had my lab near here, so I already have some ideas.)

Crossing his arms, Toru looked at the vast forest in front of him.

For a few seconds he could see a giant snake slithering through the trees.

"Now, go collect your scrolls."

Anko said.

After that, all the teams went to a sort of temporary tent where two ninja were in charge of distributing the scrolls.

Toru's team entered the tent and the ninja handed them an earth scroll.

"Who will carry it?" Ino asked.

Hinata shyly raised her hand before speaking.

"I could..."

Toru looked at Hinata, she had the Byakugan, so handing her the scroll is the best thing to do since she can see further than a normal person.

"Then I entrust it to you."

Handing her the scroll, Toru stroked Hinata's hair.

Seeing this, Ino's face turned as red as a tomato.

Meanwhile, Hinata looked Toru in the eyes.

It had been years since the last time Toru did something like that.

Well, he usually did it to shut Hinata up, since in the past she always asked questions that Toru didn't know how to answer.

(I wonder... Why do I feel like this?)

While stroking Hinata's head, Toru thought, but unfortunately he couldn't find an answer to his question.

"Next..." Said the ninja in front of Toru.

This made Toru's team leave the tent.

(Doing something like that... there's definitely something strange with him).

Ino was confused, for a moment she could feel a knot in her chest, but she didn't know the reason for it.

At the same time, Hinata started to remember certain things from the past.

(It's different... it's different from anyone else).

Hinata touched her head, right where Toru put his hand.

It felt warm, this made Hinata feel at peace, but while she was thinking, Anko's voice was heard.

"Time's up, cockroaches! Now that you all received your scrolls, pick a door, the exam is about to begin!"

Positioning herself in front of everyone, Anko spoke.

In response to that, everyone chose a door and waited for further instructions.

(Here it begins...)

Toru narrowed his eyes and approached the door.

The best option to start this examination was to run with all his might and thus find a place which can be used as a temporary base.

"Ino, Hinata..."

Toru thought about his words for a bit before speaking.

"Let's give it our best..." Toru said, but Ino felt uneasy.

(There's definitely something wrong with him!) Ino screamed internally.

She didn't know what was going on anymore. Toru was different than the day before.

Meanwhile, Hinata only felt curious.

(Toru-kun, he's different...but why?)

"Scoria! The exam starts... Now!"

Without giving them time to think, the exam began.

As quickly as the door opened, Toru and Hinata started running, heading deeper into the forest.

At the same time, Ino was lagging behind, after all her physical performance is less than her teammates.

In the end, Toru and Hinata were going so fast that it was hard to keep up with them.

"Hinata, your eyes" As they ran, Toru spoke.

"Yes!"

Hearing Toru's words, Hinata clasped her hands together, at the same time the veins around her eyes began to swell and....

"Byakugan!"

Everything was visible to her. She could clearly see the other participants moving through the trees.

"There's a team nearby. The others seem to be moving away" Hinata said.

Then, Toru thought.

(Well, if it's just one team we should make sure to keep the advantage).

While moving at a super human speed next to Hinata, Toru noticed Ino, who was breathing heavily.

(She's falling behind, that's a problem).

Toru disappeared in front of Ino and Hinata, and then....

"Huh?"

Ino felt the warmth of Toru's chest.

(What are you doing?!)

Toru was carrying Ino in his arms like she was a princess. She couldn't help but blush, but she immediately reacted.

"What are you doing you idiot! Get off me! Pervert! Stalker! Dead fish face!"

Flailing in Toru's arms, Ino tried to break free, but Toru's arms were too strong.

"You were hanging back, that's a problem. You want to cause trouble for me?" Toru said with a dangerous look on his face.

This made Ino flinch strangely.

(I take my words back, he's still the same jerk).

Ino wrapped her arms around Toru's neck as she tried to hide the blush on her face.

"Hmph... you should be thankful that I allow this" Ino said.

Toru simply sighed and continued to stare straight ahead.

(Toru-kun and Ino are getting along very well...).

Using Byakugan, Hinata watched Toru carry Ino in his arms.

For some reason... this made her feel uneasy....