─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───
"𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐒."
Hoshi muttered as they stood at the entrance of a large gate, behind was a creepy huge forest. The forest reminded her of Orochimaru, in the forest is where she made friends with snakes. She smiled at that memory, she missed him a lot.
"Why are you smiling?" Hayase asked and raised his eyebrow, looking at his sister's smile while they stood in front of the 'Death Forest'.
"It reminded me of Orochimaru. We would always go to forests like these." Inari responded, still smiling. Hayase groaned and banged his fist on top of Inari's head, she frowned and put her hand on top of her head, "What did your brother say bout that?" He asked with an annoyed voice, Inari looked down, "That he won't be mentioned. Ever." She replied quietly.
He had a satisfied smile on his face and punched her shoulder, "You good?" Inari nodded, "Yeah."
"The forest looks like hundreds died in there." Hoshi mentioned with a slight disgusted look, "It's so ominous." He finished, Anko chuckled, "It should be, that's why they call it The Forest of Death and soon, you're going to find out why." She had a creepy grin on her face like she was sharing a horror story to a bunch of little kids.
Inari heard Naruto make some remarks back, saying how he's not afraid. She rolled down her sleeve and there popped out a little snake, she bent down and let it slither away, "What are you doing?" Hayase whispered, she stood up and looked back at him, "Just checking something..."
"I have something to hand to you all." She announced, pulling out a stack of papers, "It's just a standard consent form, before the test all of you will have to read over this form and sign it." Inari tilted her head. Consent for what? She wondered, "What's it for?" Kiyoko asked and Anko smiled, "Some of you may not come back alive and I'll need to have your consent to that possible risk otherwise it would be my responsibility." She answered while chuckling.
"Now, I'll explain what you'll do on this test." She handed the stack of papers to Naruto, "Hand these out." She told him, he did so, walking around, handing everyone a paper, "First, I'll give you all brief description of the practice field," She said pulling out a map, "The 44th battle training field zone has 44 locked entrance gates. There inside has rivers and the forest, in the center there is a tower located ten kilometers from each gate; in this confined area that you will undergo the survival test. This test consists of anything that goes throughout battle." She finished, putting away the map and pulling out two scrolls.
"To get your hands on your hands on these scrolls."
"Both of them?" Sasuke asked, Anko the nodded and answered with a yes, she placed the white and black scroll side by side, "A Heaven scroll and Earth scroll. Altogether 26 teams will be up against each other, so basically, half of those teams will be receiving a Heaven scroll and the other half will get a Earth scroll. I'll hand over one of those scrolls to each team." She explained, "Then how do we pass?" Hayase asked with crossed arms, "Your entire squad must bring both scrolls to the tower."
"Half of us will fail then." Sakura breathed out, "Nobody said it would be easy. Oh and one more thing, the test has a time limit, you must be finished in within five days."
"Five days out there?!" Ino shouted, Choji started to freak out, "What are we supposed to do for food?!" He asked.
"Just look around, the first is full of things to eat, there's plenty to feed all do you!"
Hoshi pretended to faint into Hayase's arms, "I think I'm gonna be sick, how are we gonna thrive on berries and tree bark for half a week?" He asked as he dramatically put his hand over his head, "She said there's rivers in there, they must have fish in them, you like fish right?" Inari reassured him.
She sent them off but before they left she shouted,
"Don't die!"
Time passed and Squad Six turned in their paperwork, Inari was handed the Heaven scroll. Anko ordered everyone to head to their gates, as soon as the gates open, the test starts. They stood in front of Gate Fourteen. Hoshi smirked, "We're gonna pass through this like a breeze! Team Six will destroy everyone!" He yelled, the other two stood there blankly and looked at each other.
A man unlocked the gate and moved aside, as sook as the clock hit Anko gave the signal, "Heads up you maggots, the second part of the test has begun!" Inari walked in first and immediately they heard screams from somewhere deep in the forest. She looked up, birds flew from the trees, they looked back.
"Was that someone...screaming?" Inari asked, squinting her eyes, Hoshi tapped Inari's back, "You scared?" She rolled her eyes, "Of course not." She replied, before they started to run. "We should search for somewhere to stay at least, it should be close to a steam as well." Inari told them, "Look at how big the trees are, maybe we could camp up there?" Hoshi added, looking up, "Should we find another group who has the Earth scroll? And take it from them? Or should our main focus today be surviving?" He asked.
"Surviving, duh." Both Inari and Hayase answered in unison, "Our main adjective is finding a place to sleep for tonight and finding a safe source of food." Inari explained, "That one mission we had, when we were collecting berries in the forest for a chef. He told safe berries to eat. Yellow, white or green berries are often poisonous. Our safest bet is purple and black berries." Inari cleared her throat to get Hoshi's attention, who was about to lick a yellow berry.
"And we all know how to start a fire and fish...I think. Hoshi, can you do either of those things?"
He looked at her, offended, "What made you automatically think I can't?" He crossed his arms. She turned to him, "Theres nothing wrong with not being bright, Hoshi." Inari finished, looking around.
"I wish I had more to eat before we left." Hayase grumbled while scratching his stomach.
Inari pulled out her katana and stabbed it into the tree, the boys stared at Inari in confusion, "Why would you do that?" Hoshi asked, clearly dumbfounded,
She removed the katana and examined the point of her blade, Inari spun around and pointed it a few inches away from Hayase's face. His eyes widened and they both looked at the green thing on the top of it.
Inari glanced at him, "These bugs are pretty nutritious, here."
Hayase cleared his throat and backed up, "Uh...no thanks." Hoshi gagged, "I knew you were gross, Inari. But not that gross, why would you offer to give Hayase a bug out of all things you—"
Her finger pressed against his lips, "Shh—"
He shut up, Inari looked around, her eye twitched, "Can you hear it?" She whispered, and put her hand behind her ear, Hoshi and Hayase looked around, "Hear what?" Hayase asked.
Inari could hear a faint sound of a small stream nearby, "I think there's water." She said, following the sound.
The boys followed her blindly and looked around, "I don't hear it." Hoshi said lowly as his eyes scanned the area.
"There!" Hoshi's finger pointed in the direction of the body of water.
The three rushed towards the stream and cupped their hands, lifting up a portion of the water in their palms and sipping it, "I never realized how thirsty I was until now." Hoshi commented while scooping up more water, Inari used the water to wipe her face, "I'm gonna go find sticks for the fire and food for us before it gets dark." She told them as she got up, but Hayase grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down, "Give me the scroll."
She looked back at him, he had his other hand out waiting for the scroll to fall onto his hands. Inari sweat dropped and sighed, "Fine. Here." She said as she reached into her sleeve, she pulled out the scroll and a snake was wrapped around it.
Hayase frowned and looked at Inari, "That snake stays on there. It's how I'll be able to track it, just in case something goes wrong." Hayase was given the scroll and Inari walked off, before she did, Hoshi grabbed her arm and turned her around, "I thought about it for a while...if you die, I'm taking all of your expensive things. To sell of course." He told her, trying to tick her off.
Inari narrowed her eyes at him, "You are truly one of a kind Hoshi." She replied sarcastically, a small smirk tugging on her lips and she ran off.
Letting out a deep sigh, she felt a bit more relaxed.
Half an hour later, Inari was sound asleep on top of a tree branch that was from a large tall tree. Her back against the tree with her arms crossed and the large sticks and berries next to her, and two dead squirrels.
There was a loud ringing in her ear, her eyes shot open and she sat up. Something was wrong, "Did I fall asleep?" She asked herself, she grabbed a branch and threw it on the ground, there was no movement. She kicked the two dead squirrels off the tree branch to see if anyone was near her but there was no movement. She grabbed a large leaf and put the berries and sticks in it and wrapped it up and leapt from the tree.
Landing on the ground swiftly she ran back in the direction where the boys were. One hand holding the leaf and the other lightly touching the katana handle. She arrived at the spot and no one was there, her red orbs quickly scanned the area but it seemed to be deserted. Dropping the leaf, she removed her katana from its case, "Show yourself. Now." Her face was completely washed with bloodlust, she knew blood would be shed .
Two ninjas appeared, one girl had Hayase completely knocked out and tied against a tree with rope, the other held shurikens in-between their fingers. The one with Hayase had large yellow eyes with huge pupils, her bangs covered her eyebrows and her messy brown hair stayed still down her back. Inari thought the girl looked creepy, she reminded her of a moth, the other girl had dark blue hair and blue eyes to match, she was probably the tallest one there.
Inari realized Hoshi was nowhere to be seen, "Where is he? If you let him go and I might spare you both." She said with her katana pointed at the girl holding Hayase on her back, her small dainty lips curled upwards into a smile, but she didn't respond.
Inari closed her eyes for half a second and they shot open again, her Sekigan activated. "Okay." She said calmly and removed her ribbon tied from her ponytail and wrapped it around her arm. Her feet shifted, her left foot pointed towards the girl holding Hayase and her right was pointed at a 90 degree angle, she twirled her katana around and her eyes were dead set on the girl with Hayase.
They all waited. Who would make the first move?
A gust of wind blew in the air, the leaves danced in the wind, Inari smiled and tilted her head.
Then shurikens came flying towards Inari from behind her, her eyes met with the the girl and she deflected them with her katana. Suddenly, she was up close and lunged towards her with his fist ready, Inari dodged it by smacking it out of her way and grabbed onto the ninjas arm. In a split second a snake came up from her sleeve and bit the ninja, and another snake came and bit the same spot.
"A snake?!" She shrieked; her eyes widened in horror. The boy holding Hayase took off, before he did, he threw a paper bomb, Inari noticed in time and jumped back, so did the girl.
Inari's feet landed on the tree and she bent her knees and propelled herself back into the smoke. Three man squad—Hoshi must near the third one, but where?
More shurikens came flying through the thick smoke and Inari was able to dodge them all but one cut through her sleeve, leaving a bad cut.
She slightly winced and made her way out of the smoke, and the blue haired girl seemed to do the same at the exact same time. Inari saw her first and her legs turned and she lunched herself towards her with a ominous expression on her face. The girl gasped slightly and her eyes widened, Inari was dead set on killing her.
"I'll make this quick, for both of us."
─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───