Escape [Sasuke Uchiha]

Chapter 14: The Forest of Death

She took out two more scrolls with different colors. Kabuto repeated questioningly, "Scrolls?"

"Yes," Anko showed both scrolls at us. There was one kanji word on the scrolls and I realized that these kanji words were different on each scroll. One scroll had the kanji word for [Heaven] and another scroll with [Earth]. Anko resumed, "The scroll of Heaven and the scroll of Earth. You will fight over these scrolls. 27 teams in total passed the First Exam. Half of those teams will get the scroll of Heaven. The other half will get the scroll of the Earth. Each team will get one of these scrolls. Simply, you have to fight over these."

"And?" Sasuke spoke up monotonously, "What's needed to pass?"

Anko answered, "Bring the scrolls of Heaven and Earth to the tower with your teammates. But it needs to be done within the time limit. This second exam has a limit of 120 hours or exactly five days."

The examiner withdrew the scrolls back into her coat when Ino stepped forward with a disbelief look on her face, "Five days?!"

"What about food?!" Chouji and Kaito inquired in unison. Those two looked obviously terrified at the idea of staying the Forest of Death without food.

Anko simply replied, "Scrounge it up yourself. The forest is a treasure box of nature. There should be plenty of food."

"However," said Kabuto with a small smile, "There are a lot of man-eating beasts, poison bugs, and poisonous plants."

Chouji, who had his spirit crushed by Kabuto's statement, bent his body down as he rested his hands on his knees with a look of despair, "Oh no..."

"Baka," Ino lightly chided, "that's why it's called a survival."

For once, Ino was right about that.

"Also," this time, Neji Hyuuga – who was not so far away from me and my team – spoke up, "it is not possible for 13 teams, or 30 people, to pass."

Rock Lee added with a serious look, "As time passes, you will be required to move more. So, the time to rest your body will become shorter," he paused to grin, "This seems quite rough."

I sweatdropped when a spark flashed in his teeth. He's still doing that. Then I heard Sasuke's voice next to me, "And we're surrounded by enemies. We won't be able to sleep in peace."

"So there should be one person on guard while the others sleep," I added, "But it's still not peaceful enough to let your guard down like that while resting, unless we're in the tower."

Anko spoke with her hands on her hips, "People will get hurt in the process of fighting over a scroll and those who cannot bear this program's strictness will emerge as well."

"Ano," Shikamaru raised his hand up to speak, "can we quit in between?"

Oh yeah. I am curious about that too.

The examiner turned her head slightly to look at Shikamaru, "As a rule, you are not allowed to give up during the exam. You will spend the five days in the forest."

Shikamaru crossed his arms over his chest, "Just as I thought. How troublesome."

"While we're on this topic," said Anko, "here are the conditions that will fail you. First, a team that cannot bring both scrolls to the tower with the three teammates will fail. Second, the team that loses a teammate or produces an unrecoverable teammate will fail. Also, just as a note, you are not allowed to look inside the scrolls until you reach the tower."

"What happens if you look?" asked Kazuki with burning curiosity evident in his eyes.

Anko smiled, "That's a surprise you'll see when you look at it. If you become a Chuunin, you will be handling top secret documents. It's to determine your reliability. That is it for the explanation. We will exchange three consent forms for one scroll at that hut," she pointed at the three chuunins sitting there under a simple hut, "And after picking your gate entrance, everyone will begin at the same time."