Chapter 17: Second Exam

The next day, we all met up at a big forest.

Sakura: "There's something kind of creepy about this place."

Anko: "This place is called the Forest of Death; you'll soon realize why."

Naruto then starts mocking Miss Anko, saying, "The Forest of Death, you'll soon realize why. That kind of threat won't work on me one bit! I'm not scared!"

Anko: "Really? You've got a lot of energy." Miss Anko then suddenly throws a kunai at Naruto but instead of grazing Naruto's cheek, it grazes mine just as she appeared behind me. She looked surprised to see that it was me instead of Naruto.

Just then, I sensed another chakra appear behind Miss Anko as she removed a kunai and held it to the head of a girl who was holding a kunai in her tongue before saying, "I'm returning your… Kunai Knife…"

Anko: "Thank you for taking the trouble… But… don't stand behind me, thirsty for blood. If you don't want a quick death…"

Girl: "Well, it's my nature to act up at the sight of red blood. And my precious hair was cut, so I got excited… Sorry."

Turning her gaze towards me, Miss Anko asked, "So, how did you manage to swap places with the boy, and for what purpose?"

I replied to her, releasing immense killing intent before saying, "He's my comrade, and I needed to make something abundantly clear."

As smoke dispersed, unveiling a clone, I released a transformation Jutsu that I was using pretending to be another ninja revealing my true form. I stared walking towards Miss Anko and with conviction, I declared, "Should you ever dare to harm my friend again, I won't hesitate to end you."

Anko looked shocked hearing my statement before saying, "You can try. Well, before we start the second exam, I have to pass this out to you! It's a consent form, before you can take part in the test you have to sign this."

Naruto: "Why?" 

Anko: "From here on out, corpses are going to come out, I have to get your consent to that! Or it'll be my responsibility. Well, I'm going to start the explanation for the second exam. In a word, the limits of your survival will be challenged. First, I'll give you step-by-step instructions on the terrain of this Training Field. Training Field Number 44 is surrounded by 44 locked entrance gates. There are rivers, a forest, and a tower in the middle. It's about 10 kilometres from the towers to the gate… In a confined area, you will go through a certain survival program. The contents of which are… anything goes scroll battle! 

Genin: "Scroll…"

Anko: "Yeah… I want you to fight for two scrolls, the Heaven Scroll and the Earth Scroll. Altogether 26 teams got through the first test. Half of them… 13 teams get the Heaven scroll; the other half get the Earth Scroll. I'll hand over one scroll to each team. To put it simply, that's what you're fighting for."

Sasuke: "And the conditions to pass?"

Anko: "Three of you bring both the Heaven and Earth Scrolls to the tower in the center. 

Hinoka: "That means that of the 13 teams, half of them will fail for sure…" 

Anko: "Except it must be in time. For this second exam, the limit is 120 hours. Do it in exactly five days!"

Sakura: "Five days. What do we do about food?"

Anko: "Be self-sufficient! It's a treasure trove in the wilderness. There's more than enough for food…"

Kabuto: "However… It's teeming with fierce people-eating animals, poison bugs, poisonous weeds, and much more."

Choji: "Aw man…" 

Ino: "Quiet down! This is why it's called survival! You know!"

Neji: "That means with these circumstances there is no way half the teams will pass the test."

Rock Lee: "With the days getting longer, the nights getting shorter so we will have less time to sleep and less time to recover. It is a challenge indeed!"

Sasuke: "Completely surrounded by enemies, there won't be time to rest; we'll have to keep a constant watch."

Anko: "Right, this test also measures insurance behind enemy lines; this is designed to be a grueling test, and I'm sure some of you won't be up to the challenge." 

Shikamaru: "So uhm let's say mid-exam can we quit?"

Anko: "Of course not! In the middle of a battle, you can't say sorry I quit, well I guess you could but it's probably going to get you killed."

Shikamaru: "Oh just great. This is going to be a drag."

Anko: "There also going to be some ways you can get disqualified. The first is simple, if all three members of a team can't make it to a tower with both scrolls within five days. Number two, if a team loses a member or if a member is incapacitated and cannot continue. But most important, none of you absolutely none of you can look at the contents of the scroll until you reach the tower."

Naruto: "What if it just happens to flap open and you read it?"

Anko: "Let me just put it to you this way young man you, don't, want, to know… There are times when you a ninja will be asked to carry secret documents. The scroll rule will be to test your integrity. Ok, we're done. Each team take your consent forms and exchange them there for your scrolls. After that, each team pick a gate and you'll be led inside… Oh and I have one more word of advice. Just don't die!"

After some time, we exchanged our consent forms for our scrolls and soon after we entered the forest. I held onto all our scrolls since I was the strongest. 

A few minutes after, we decided to make a plan. 

Sasuke: "How about we split into groups of 2 and look for scrolls?"

Sakura: "Sure, that's a great idea Sasuke-Kun!"

Hinoka: "Sure."

Sasuke: "Then I'll go with Hinoka and Naruto and Sakura will go together."

Naruto: "Sure!"

Sakura: "No! I'll go with Sasuke-Kun, and Naruto will go with Hinoka."

Sasuke: "We can't leave Hinoka and Naruto alone…"

Hinoka: "Why not?"

Sasuke looked away and his face was red as he said, "B-because he would slow you down."

Naruto: "I won't slow her down!"

Naruto and Sasuke soon started arguing when I interrupted and said, "Why don't the three of you look for scrolls together, and I'll look alone. So, Naruto can still be with Sakura, and Sakura can still be with Sasuke, and no one can slow me down." Before they could respond, I left. 

I had already gotten 3 scrolls and was looking for one more scroll in case the others weren't able to find any, but I couldn't find any of the right scrolls. Finally, I stumbled upon another 3-man squad. I easily defeated them with Taijutsu and started walking back in the direction of Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto finding them by tracking their chakra. But when I arrived, I was shocked by what I saw...