To Save Them All

Part Two: Forest of Death

A.N. It been a while. 😅... I'm trying I promise! But inspiration is hard! Also life is hard. Love you all anyways!! No idea when the next update will be but I'm not done yet.

"Kurama talking"
"Kurama thinking"
"Normal talking"
"Normal thinking"
Writing/Reading
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As Ibiki contemplates the Hokage's decision to let Anko be a proctor, the bane of T&I was taking a look at the chuunin hopefuls.

"Oi Ibiki, there's over fifty of 'em here, you getting soft?"

Although she had just jumped through a window, Mitarashi Anko instantly put up a banner declaring herself. She seemed to be incapable of reading the mood, and Ibiki contemplated throwing her back out the window she came in, before realising the amount of paperwork that replacing a proctor would take. Injuring Mitarashi Anko would not be worth the time and energy the paperwork world need.

However...

"We got some potential this year. Now just take the brats and leave me be. There's enough weirdos here already, I'm not dealing with you as well."

Emotional damage is paperwork free.

"Rude, Morino!"

_______________________________
Training Ground 44

Arriving at the training ground, the chunnin hopefuls tense when a roar is heard, followed by what seems to be pain filled shrieks.

Anko chuckled at their fear.

"Home sweet home."

"You're not as funny as you think you are Kurama."

Naruto shivers as he thinks back to his times in the forest, his first encounter the most traumatic among them.

"If Orochi-teme tries to take Sasuke, we gotta run."

"Tch."

'"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"We're stronger than him, why would we run?"

"..."

"What?"

"... I'm supposed to be the dumb one you idiot. I'm 12. And a genin. And the dead-last. Beating an S-rank missing-nin where there are people watching us a horrible idea."

"...Tch."

Naruto's forehead veins pulsed in irritation. He wondered what he did to deserve this. There is no flashback of all the headaches he caused his various teachers over the years. No flashbacks whatsoever. None at all.

A sudden slap that Naruto totally could have avoided hits the back of his head.

"Dobe, are you listening?"

Naruto looks up to see Sasuke's dissatisfied face.

Seeing Naruto's look of confusion, Sasuke rolled his eyes and spoke again.

"I asked if you know anything about the forest."

A look of mischief enters Naruto's eyes, causing Sasuke to look at him with suspicion. Shikamaru, who has been keeping an eye on them from farther away with his team sees this too and wondered if this friendship with worth how tired he already felt.

"Troublesome. That's going to be so troublesome." Shikamaru thought to himself before sighing and signalling his team to move closer to Team 7.

Naruto, seeing Shikamaru move closer, makes eye-contact with Team 8, showing off his chaotic grin. They'd understand that chaos was in the works. He began his act.

"This is trading ground 44, AKA the Forest of Death." Naruto says in a low voice that unsurprisingly everyone could hear. "Legend says that the Shodaime, Senju Hashirama created the Forest in a fit of rage, and he put so much bloodlust into his trees that anything that grew or lived there became just as bloodthirsty. Creatures grow several times the size they should be and everything was either poisonous was venomous in some way. There's creatures like tigers as big as a horse and giant slugs that squirt acid. Apparently loads of ninja go in to collect samples of stuff but most of them never come back out. It's literally a Forest of Death."

As if on cue, a cry of pain came from the Forest, as if someone was being tortured, before suddenly cutting out.

Everyone froze.

"Kyahahaha!"

Anko cackling suddenly flooded the clearing, spooking some of the genin, sending shivers down several spines.

"Looks like there's no need for me to warn you lot about the Forest then, yeah?" Anko's smirk is bloodthirsty when she pulls out some papers. 'Now, you all need to sign these before the exam starts so if any of you die, it's not my problem."

Liability waivers. Joy.

_________________________

After Anko explained the rules of the second exam, which were the same as what Naruto had gone through before, Team 7 headed to the tent of scrolls and was handed a Heaven scroll, which Naruto quickly hides on his person. They then made their way to their assigned gate, escorted by a chunnin.

"Oi, Sasuke."

"What Naruto."

"You got a good look at the map right?"

"Of course I did, I'm not you."

"Oi!"

Naruto gives turns to look at Sasuke, before rolling his eyes.

"Bastards always gonna be bastards, datebayo."

As Sakura turns, about to give Naruto a piece of her mind, the starting bell rings.

The gate in front of them opens and Team 7 quickly make their way into the Forest before finding a small hidden clearing to discuss strategies.

Naruto speaks up first.

"I say we make a run for the tower. We can get there quick and just ambush whoever we want after. If we run into someone on the way, even better. Let's break a record or something!"

Naruto's grin couldn't be wider as he thought about breaking the record Gaara set back when he was a genin for the first time.

"I won't lose again. I'll totally be a Kage before him this time!"

"We're you always this competitive? ... Naruto? Oi, don't ignore me!"

Sasuke considers this and although he has gotten better, the thought of beating any record of Itachi's brings him a great deal of satisfaction.

Sasuke agreed to the plan, then proceeded to stare (glare) at Sakura until she stopped arguing against the plan, and heads out towards the tower, Naruto and Sakura quickly following.

_________________________
30 minutes later

As they make their way to the tower, Naruto is constantly on the lookout for a certain Snake-nin. Time passes and there had not yet been any sign of any large chakra spikes or anything out of the ordinary. Team 7 move together, but as he bends his knees, about to make a jump to the next branch, he freezes. Sasuke and Sakura look back, clearly questioning his sudden stop.

Something's wrong. A shiver moves up his spine. He tenses.

There's a predator.

And they're hunting.