The Scorch of Lightning

Chapter 19: Part 2: the Forest of Death

Once at the Training ground 44, or the Forest of Death. The Genins realized why it had its name. The forest is huge, and dark, full of big ugly monsters. Insects, and plants that will eat a human whole. With everything in the forest is practically poisoned.

A metallic fence surrounds its perimeter with 44 gates equally spaced around it; this perimeter is where the shinobi entered. Inside is a river, the forest, and a tower located in the exact centre; the forest's radius is about ten kilometres.

Anko Mitarashi stands on a raised platform. She says, "Welcome to Training Ground 44, or more commonly known to Konoha as the Forest of Death. This place is my home away from home. It's filled with human eating plants, and animals of all sizes."

She looks onto the scared Genin. Anko sees a blank-faced Naruto. And with Anko being Anko. Well, she decides to scare the piss out of the blonde. She throws a kunai at the boy. Naruto then catches the kunai, and throws it back at the Proctor. The Uzumaki says, "You should know that won't work on me, Hebi!"

Anko simply catches the kunai, and puts it back into her holster. She replies, "Maybe you won't die in the forest, but others will. Most people, who act like you will die in the forest."

Anko then continues, "All teams will be given either a heaven or an earth scroll. Once inside the forest, the Genin must take the other scroll from another team. Only those that make it to the tower in the centre of the forest with both scrolls will advance to the next stage of the exams. Also sign these consent forms, so Konoha won't be reliable for your death in this forest."

Team Darui signed the forms, and Naruto went to the scroll tent. The blonde exchanged the consent forms, for an Earth Scroll, Which meant that they needed to look for a Heaven Scroll. Team Darui the heads to their gate.

After all if the Genin Teams get to their intended gates, Anko then speaks over the mega-phones. She says, "Part two of the Chunin Selection Exams have now started! GO! GO! GO! Also, don't die!"

As the gates open, Team Darui blitzes through said gates. After a couple of hours running through the forest, Naruto says, "Pakura-chan, let's stop!"

Pakura nods in recognition, as Naruto squats down to the ground. Naruto then touched the ground with his index, and middle finger. The blonde closes his eyes, and says,"There is someone in this forest with roughly the same amount of chakra that I do. The person's chakra is dark, and dreary. Death just radiates off of it. It near Sasuke Uchiha. It's a good thing I marked him with the Hiraishin Formula, then. Let's go."

Naruto grabs Pakura in one hand, and the other hand make a Rasengan. The duo then disappears in a Yellow Flash. Team Darui reappears at Sasuke's location in another Yellow Flash.

Naruto sees Orochimaru, and slams the Rasengan into the man's stomach. Orochimaru then crumbles away into dirt.

Orochimaru possesses a complex personality; however, more often than not, he was described as "twisted" by a large number of people, including Tsunade. Jiraiya speculated that the death of his parents while he was young, along with his horror for Tsunade losing Nawaki and later shedding tears when she lost Dan, implies that Orochimaru grew to disdain the fragility of human life and how it affected those still living, which led him to desire immortality. To that end, the primary purpose of Orochimaru's human experimentation is to test what modifications the human body can endure and harness a subject's unique abilities for himself. Once accomplishing this goal, Orochimaru had hoped to be worthy of the title of "ultimate being", unable to die and able to achieve his secondary goal to learn every ninja technique in the world, which would normally take many lifetimes to obtain.