Forest of Death

When I woke up I was sweating a lot. I had a bad nightmare throughout the night. In the nightmare, I was on my knees and hitting the ground, while screaming and sobbing. Around me, everything was destroyed. I could see my mom's body lying beside me, Tenten not too far away, Shikamaru was cloud gazing in his eternal sleep, Choji face down with a package of chips in his hand. Everything was bleak.

I knew that it was nothing but a nightmare. Even if I wasn't here that wouldn't happen, but I was still afraid. I had come to consider the people I met here my family. Akemi was my real mom now, just like Tsume was my actual aunt. Kiba was my cousin, as annoying as he sometimes was. Shikamaru, Choji, Naruto, Tenten, Hinata, Shino, Kurenai-sensei and even the old man Hiruzen... they had grown on me.

'I need to get even stronger... at least as strong as a kage'

With a clear mind, I got out of my bed, freshened up and got my clothes on. I had decided to change my style to make my True Beast transformation easier, since I had ripped a few pants in the process before. Now I wore a pair of black, tactical harem pants and my shoes were also adaptable and elastic. On the top part, since I also grew a bit in size, I had changed my previous getup with a form fitting, long sleeved shirt below a grey hoodie with fur around the hood. [1]

*

"Ok, now that everything is settled, I need you all to sign these liability waivers so we aren't blamed in case you die in there"

We had just had the short episode in which Orochimaru disguised as she, disgustingly gave Anko her Kunai back after she literally threw it at him. Or her, I didn't want to think too much about it. Luckily, the test was just about to begin and Anko was giving her explanation about what the test entailed.

"Each team will be given a scroll. Said scroll can be either one of Earth or one of Heaven. Your job is to get the scroll that you are missing and reach the building in the center of the Forest of Death in five days. You don't necessarily have to collect two scrolls, since you can get as many as you want. Ok, now come take your scrolls"

It was unanimously decided that I would pick the scroll. Getting a bit closer to the chunin that were giving them, I just extended my hand.

'Hm... Heaven it is'

Hiding the scroll in my clothes, I went back to Hinata and Shino. I told them we would talk about our plan once we were inside the forest.

"Are you guys ready?"

"Yeah"

"I-I am!"

*arf-arf*

*

Everyone had their respective scrolls and we were all looking at each other warily, with the exeption being us four teams of Konoha who already knew each other beforehand. There were more than enough escroll for all of us to pass, so noone was really worried.

"Ok everyone, first of all, good luck. You'll need it. And now... Begin!"

All team began running towards the Forest of Death. I saw the team Shigure who would be killed by Gaara and couldn't help but think of how bad their luck was, to be the first team to run into a psychopath that is a Junchuuriki at the same time. My team on the other hand, was running away from the direction Orochimaru and Gaara were going. I didn't want to have a run-in with either of them, at least not so fast.

"Ok, I'll check around for smells, Shino you'll use you bugs to capture chakra signals and, when we find someone, Hinata will check if we know them with her Byakugan. Agreed?"

"Agreed" x2

We spent at least four hours doing that without any result whatsoever, until I could smell someone. Shino almost at the same time I did gave us the signal that his bug had caught on to something.

"Byakugan!"

Hinata began focusing her sight in the direction we told her the team was coming from. She was very good with the Byakugan, with all the training Kurenai had her do, so it didn't take long for her to find the team. They were Kabuto's team. Of all the people I could find, Kabuto was the one I was the least afraid of. The reason being that he had no advantage over me. The Genin from the Sound could literally make my ears bleed, Gaara was a Jinchuriki and Orochimaru a Sannin. But Kabuto? Could he compare to Sasori? No way. He would lose to fucking kid Naruto!

"Good, let's wait for them here and ambush them. Erase your presence and Shino, get some Kikaichu prepared as traps. Hinata, can you knock one of them out?"

"Understood" "Yes, Ryota-kun!"

I knew that I could knock those three out myself and easily at that, but I didn't want to do that. I wanted Shino and Hinata to get proper experience, and so I would allow them to fight here.

Once everything was prepared for the ambush, we hid on the trees around us. Soon enough, Kabuto and his team reached our place. I gave Shino the signal we had come up with for him to release his bugs and, planting a bug in everyone, we dropped on them.

Shino was fighting Yoroi Akado, the chakra absorbing dude. Hinata was fighting Misumi Tsurugi, Mr. Fantastic. I was pitched against Kabuto Yakushi, whom I would procede to call Cockroach from now on.

"Ryota Inuzuka... I didn't expect to find you first"

"Kabuto Yakushi... you smell of bullshit"

Hinata and Shino were already fighting, each of them having their own complications. Hinata was having a hard time hitting Misumi's chakra points because of his elastic body while Shino and Yoroi were having a competition to see who could deplete the other's Chakra first.

"Well, only we are missing now"

"Yeah. Let's make it quick, ok?"

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[1] I forgot to clarify this before uploading, for those "black harem pants" think of it as tactical streetwear pants, or techwear pants. Shoes... I guess the closest thing I can imagine to it are the Balenciaga Speed Sneaker (You know, the one that looks like a sock) the rest is easy to imagine.