Chapter 23

C - Go West. You have a week to complete this part of the exam. Take things slowly, and search for other teams. Learn, adapt, overcome.

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Chapter 23

…

"We're going west," Shinji concluded, he thought of many options. Going to the tower so fast could end up with meeting some monstrously strong guys, as they would likely be the first ones to go there. Going with Sasuke's team, since they were the weakest, many other people are bound to go for them too.

Moving through the trees, Shinji could smell the blood around them. Looking down, he saw many animals had been slaughtered and blood was drenching the ground. "What happened here?"

Suddenly, Sayuri stopped, causing both Shinji and Kota to stop too. She pointed towards where they were going. "There are three people who are being hunted by animals in front of us. It feels like they've stepped into a trap."

Hearing this, Shinji almost wanted to smile but stopped himself as they ran past the trees and finally arrived at where it was happening. He saw some people surrounded by big bears, snakes, and tigers. The animals strangely seemed to work together as they attacked.

"They're under a Genjutsu," Shinji concluded, knowing that animals working together like that were very unlikely. The people who were being attacked were two genin from the land of Grass guessing by their headbands. One of them had slightly spiky brown hair and eyes, with an average face. While the other wore a black bandana.

Even when fighting against normal animals they were at a disadvantage, showing that they were quite weak and already had some injuries amongst them.

"Damn it!" yelled out the brown-haired guy. "Where the hell did that red-haired bitch go?! We're dying over here! If we don't get her healing soon… we're gonna bleed out."

Shinji saw this but didn't pay attention to them anymore and instead looked around, trying to figure out who had attacked them. Since these Grass Genin were so weak, why bother going this far, unless they were sadistic? But there was another, more likely scenario, the ones that had put the animals under Genjutsu were even weaker.

Fwish! Fwish! Fwish!

Still, Shinji and his team heard the sound of projectiles cutting the air and that was all the warning they got as countless kunai rained down from above them. Shinji immediately jumped back, so did Sayuri and Kota. But that was when something strange happened, as from one of the trees.

*Paam!*

A net gun was shot and Kota was caught in it, stopping his retreat, and Shinji could do nothing but watch as he was mid-air. The bloody sight of Kota being hit by dozens of kunai as he tried to block them from hitting any of his vital organs. He couldn't do anything but fall as he was entrapped in a net.

'Shit! If he falls like that he's going to die!'

As soon as Shinji landed on a tree, sideways, chakra surged towards his feet and within less than a second he jumped towards Kota. He now had twenty or more kunai sticking into his body and he seemed to have gone unconscious.

*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*

Using a kunai, Shinji deflected the rest of the kunai that was thrown at them, and he noticed the small amount of liquid that was coated in them. It was poison, and the situation had become even more dangerous as a deadly poison was flooding Kota's body.

As they landed on the soft grass, Shinji dropped his friend's body on the ground as a deadly silence enveloped him.

"Sayuri, take care of Kota," after saying that, his eyes turned towards the tree where he had noticed the net shoot from.

Fwish!

Within an instant, Shinji's body turned into a log and he appeared in front of a tree trunk, standing in a thick branch.

Baam!!

He punched towards the tree, and his fist met some resistance towards the tree, and slowly as if a veil was taken off, a body was revealed. A female, brown eyes and hair, around fourteen to fifteen. Her eyes were wide in shock, as Shinji's punch had sunk into her chest and caved in her rib cage, puncturing her lungs, causing them to fill with blood and feel like she was drowning in a hot liquid. Her headband showed that she was from the Hidden Rain Village.

Her body slumped to the ground, she hadn't even been able to react to Shinji's attack, nor had she seen it. Also, he hadn't hesitated for a second and immediately went for the kill. Looking up, he heard some slight movements and by using Substitution to move around, with a split second.

*Poof!*

He was behind two guys, both were wearing gas masks and looking toward Shinji below them, while the replacement still kept its human form so they thought he was still down there.

"W -What the hell was that?" whispered one of them. "We need to get out of here, that guy is danger-"

Fwish!

He didn't get to finish his words as his head flew off. His other teammate, the only one left alive, could do nothing but stare in horror. He immediately dashed forward to escape, but he could do nothing as he felt Shinji put him under chokehold mid-air, one hand below his chin and the other above his head.

"Antidote," Shinji muttered simply, his voice as cold as an ice storm.

"I -It's in my pocket. Please spare-"

*CrAaAacK!*

With a bone-chilling sound, the man's neck was twisted in an unnatural manner, like a marionette, Shinji exerted strength through his arms and broke his neck off, making sure that he was dead. After that, while still mid-air, he carefully went through the man's pockets and found many vials of poison and some other liquid that he assumed to be antidotes.

He carefully made sure that the dead guy's body wasn't destroyed in case he had lied about the antidote. He calmly walked toward his friend and handed Sayuri the vial of antidote, she opened it and took a sniff. "This should be an antidote."

Shinji just stood there, looking at Kota's unconscious bleeding body. Even as Sayuri administered the antidote, the bleeding alone was enough to kill him. Even if they rushed right now, the movement from taking him to the tower or outside the Forest of Death would likely kill him.

"Do you know any medical jutsu?" asked Shinji, his calm eyes had turned cold as he peered at his dying teammate.

"No…" Sayuri muttered regretfully. "I never even tried to learn it."

"I see," Shinji's words were calm… No, they now had turned cold too. His mind worked harder than it had ever worked before, trying to figure out something where Kota ends up surviving.

'Even if he survives, many of his nerves are cut. His career as a ninja is over, he will never be able to move the body like he needs to. His swordsmanship was the only tool that he had as a ninja which he was good at.'

As Shinji slowly came to accept the ending, and Kota's possible death. An idea struck him, his eyes sharpened like those of a hawk and he turned around.

Sayuri couldn't even see his hand seals, and only saw multiple water clones morphing out of his body.

He left them behind to keep guard, though he couldn't move too far away from them. But he stood where the animals were attacking the two Grass Ninja. Taking out his sword, though not that good at swordsmanship, with his overwhelming strength, Shinji cut off snakes, bears, tigers, and any other animal around. Decapitating them with one swift move, so fast that not even a drop of blood landed on him.

He then stood in front of the two Genin from the hidden grass. They were injured and winced when they saw him. "I heard you talking before about your teammate and healing. Where are they?"

They shook, Shinji's stair was like that of a giant and cold as a snake's. Both knew that if they didn't speak, he would kill them.

"S -She went that way," pointed one of them.

"If I don't find her, make sure you're ready," Shinji warned and with a swift chop to their necks, knocked them out.

He charged, with speeds that he rarely moved at before. Shinji… wasn't the kind of guy who had a lot of friends. Neither did he care about having many of them. But if there was one person who had his back from the beginning, willing to move together with him, and helps with Kenjutsu. It was Kota, he would feel more insulted when someone spoke badly about Shinji rather than himself.

In short, he was Shinji's best friend.

It didn't take long to find Karin, and when he did, she was being chased by a bear. Of course, not long after the bear was still running, but this time without its head. When its body no longer caught signals, it slumped into the ground.

Karin, breathing heavily, turned around to look at her savior and saw Shinji, not a speck of blood was on his clothes. But his hand and word were covered in blood, which was not his own.

"Can you heal someone?" He asked this time more softly as he didn't want to leave a bad impression on the healer and have her be unwilling to heal Kota.

"Y -Yes," she stuttered, looking at him strangely and then at the ground. "M -My name is Karin. What's your-"

She didn't get to finish her words as Shinji grabbed her in a princess carry and blitzed through trees. Karin could barely see anything as they moved, and not much later she was in front of ten other Shinjis which she could sense were some kind of clones.

Also, there was a bleeding young man on the ground, except for his big body and pale face, which was due to blood loss, there was nothing special about him. "Is he the one I have to heal?"

Shinji nodded and pointed towards him. "If you do this for us, we will help you pass this exam. Even give you our scroll."

Of course, when he said that he didn't mention the scroll of the people he had just killed. Because while the situation was dire, Shinji still held his cool and was thinking ahead. He was intrigued, instead of using medical jutsu, the red-haired girl pulled up her sleeve, showing her arm which was full of bite marks.

'Strange. Why are there so many bite marks?'

But he got his answer as soon as she put her arm forward and had Kota bite down, by using chakra to stimulate his jaw muscles. Karin didn't even flinch at the pin, and instead kept glancing toward Shinji. That made Sayuri narrow her eyes, and open her mouth, about to say something, but she stopped herself.

"Also, your teammates. They're safe, I didn't kill them on account of you." Shinji explained while pointing at her two unconscious teammates, whose bodies were slumped to the ground.

Karin's eyes turned cold at that. "Can I cash in that favor that you owe me?"

"Yes," Shinji nodded, looking in awe as color returned to Kota's skin and all of his injuries were healed. He opened his eyes and stood up, perfectly well.

'What?! That isn't just healing jutsus, they take time, and with all of the blood Kota had lost there is no way that he would be up so soon.'

Even Kota himself seemed surprised, staring at his hands in awe and clenching his fists. "This isn't a dream, right?" he muttered quietly, but Shinji was able to hear him.

"I want you to kill my teammates," Karin suddenly stated, a cold, devilish smile coming toward her face. "I will kill them all. Hidden Grass Village, I will kill them all for what they did to my mother."

Shinji sensed that there were some issues there, but decided to not ask and instead just threw two kunai at breakneck speeds.

*Puk!* *Puk!*

The sound of skulls being pierced rang out, as the kunai Shinji threw and killed her teammates without any hesitation. Karin then took out an Earth Scroll and handed it over to Shinji. "Here, I don't need this thing anymore."

Since he already had a Heaven Scroll, two like the team he had killed ruthlessly had another heaven scroll. With Karin's Earth Scroll, then he could easily pass this exam.

'I am not staying here for long. This place is dangerous for Kota and even Sayuri. We must move towards the tower!'

But as he turned around, he saw Karin glancing at the ground, with sadness filling her eyes. Remembering how she couldn't even do basic ninja techniques, Shinji wondered if he should help her. Technically, he had repaid his debts with her, and they were even. But he still felt thankful toward the red-haired girl.

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[Choose one of the choices, and white it down in the comments below:]

A - Help Karin get to the tower safely.

B - Don't help Karin

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Author Note:

Kota survived due to luck, literally. Due to rolls which decide luck, Karin and her team were close by.

P.S: For every 100 Power Stones, Shinji gets a re-roll in a bad dice roll. (which determines luck-related events).