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The Conqueror of The Shinobi World Chapter 52 (Forest of Death)
🕑 Added 2022-09-23 17:55:57 +0000 UTCTWO HOURS AGO - HOKAGE'S OFFICE
Naruto went to see Hiruzen a few hours before the second test was about to start. He wanted to discuss with the old Kage regarding the note he gave to Ibiki yesterday regarding a certain Silver-haired boy.
"Ibiki told me about your message, Naruto-kun. I find it quite.....troubling." Hiruzen said.
"Hokage-sama, I've known you all my life. Even if we didn't always have the best friendships, I Respect you. But how could YOU, the fuc-freaking Hokage, not know that a boy with Nono Yakushi's name has been in YOUR village for FOUR years?!" Naruto asked, slightly angry.
".....I honestly don't know what to tell you, Naruto-kun. I have personally registered every single Konoha Shinobi and Kunoichi for the past 14 years, ever since I retook the position of Hokage. And even in my old age, I can still remember every single name. But I NEVER registered a Kabuto Yakushi before." Hiruzen said honestly.
Naruto was still angry, but he knew he needed to calm down.
"....Sigh......okay, I believe you, Hokage-sama. It's just....if he is here for that long....there's a chance that he might know certain things about...." Naruto couldn't bring himself to finish that sentence.
"I know, Naruto-kun.......I'm so sorry."Naruto was clearly upset.
"....Is...is there anyone else that has the power to register Shinobis in the village beside you?" Naruto asked with a serious tone.
"Aside from me, only the Elders. But why would they..." Hiruzen's eyes widened, as did Naruto's, as they came to the same conclusion.
"DANZO," Hiruzen and Naruto said in unison, with venom in their voices.
"That goddamn war-hawk. But the real question is why, though? Do you think Kabuto is in league with ROOT?" Hiruzen asked his apprentice.
"Maybe. There's a high chance he could be a spy for ROOT, but my gut is telling me something else. Danzo and his agents always work in the shadows, but Kabuto was showing-off like a damn peacock when I first met him. I don't know why he wanted to 'help' us by revealing very confidential info, but I have a feeling he was trying to win someone over." Naruto summarized.
"I assume he wanted to play on your naivety to gain your trust since you are all rookies. You told me his chakra reserves is around High-Jonin Level and that he knows Medical Ninjutsu. That's a really rare skill to have nowadays. And with how he was able to acquire extensive info from every single candidate in the exam, including you, shows that he is a very capable spy. As for this mysterious Kusa Kunoichi you speak of, her name is Shiore. Not much I can tell you about her, except a couple of D-ranks and C-ranks in her record. She's practically an ordinary Genin if you ask me. But I trust your abilities to identify threats, Naruto-kun. But given that Shiore is a Chunin Exam candidate from Kusa, we can't really do anything about her unless she broke our laws within the village. But I CAN bring Kabuto in for questioning." Hiruzen suggested.
"......No. If we capture him now, whoever he works for, will be alerted to our awareness. And whatever their planning, it will just become bad to worst. We need to preserve the illusion that he is still in control and find out what he's up to, so we can come up with a counter strategy." Naruto said.
"I see your friendship with young Shikamaru has made you sharper, Naruto-kun. I'm impressed. I hope you have a plan, my boy." Hiruzen said.
"I've already placed my Path Seal on Kabuto. Wherever he goes, I can follow. I'll keep my distance and find out what he's up to in the second test. Have your ANBUs stationed around the perimeter in case anything happens. I'll notify Anko-chan later AFTER she makes her announcement. I don't want to give Kabuto a reason to be suspicious if she suddenly acts differently around him." Naruto practically ordered the old Kage.
Hiruzen couldn't help but feel nostalgic, as he felt he was being ordered by Minato. "Very well, Naruto-kun. I hope you will find what we are looking for. Otherwise, we will never know what we're truly up against..." Hiruzen stood up from his chair as he looked out the window "....This exam.....might be the start of something terrible. I just hope we can stop it in time." Hiruzen said.
"Don't worry, Hokage-sama. We will. I promise," Naruto said with a bright smile as he Shunshin out of the office.
Now
All the genin teams arrived at training ground 44, where the second part of the chunin exams would be held.
Naruto was standing with his teammates, observing everything around him. There were a total of around 23 teams that were going to be taking part in this round. He was also waiting for further information on what they were going to do in this round. He could see some chunin and jounin level shinobi standing there. But what got his attention were the Anbu officers that were present.
One thing he realized was that this round was not going to be easy like the last one. He had heard quite a lot about this particular training ground.
At that moment, Anko decided to announce the rules and couldn't wait to see just how many would die. "Welcome to training ground 44, also known as the forest of death. My name is Anko Mitarashi, and I will be your proctor for the second round. Before we begin this test, I have something to hand out to you all."
She took out forms from her jacket and continued, "These are just standard consent forms. Before the test, you all have to read over this form and sign it."
Yugito asked in confusion, "But, why do we have to sign it?"
Anko smirked, and her tongue licked her lips slowly, making many male Shinobi blush, and not mentioning her arms were crossed under her bust, making them look bigger. "There's a very high chance of death involved in this. Some of you may not come back, and by signing it, you agree that you will be taking part in this round at your own risk. Neither I nor the leaf village will take responsibility if anything happens to any of you in the forest." She said while grinning evilly.
Most of the genins gulped after hearing her say that, and some of them hesitated to continue the exams.
Anko noticed that Naruto wasn't paying any attention to her; while she would bet all her life saving's that Naruto would reach the Final, that didn't mean that the brat shouldn't pay her attention.
Her hand reached a kunai; she knew Naruto would probably see her doing this; he was trained by Kakashi for years, after all, but where was the harm in having some fun.
She threw the kunai towards his left cheek with an evil smirk, but Naruto suddenly put two of his fingers and caught it mid-air. Many genins around gasped at seeing him catching a kunai with that speed.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes slightly. He hadn't seen the kunai coming, while Sakura looked horrified, her eyes searching for whoever threw the kunai.
Ino smiled, despite thinking that her boyfriend was showing off; Shika rolled his eyes, finding the whole situation troublesome.
Anko suddenly appeared behind Naruto, her impressive bust pressed against his back; Naruto couldn't help but blush slightly from the close contact with his lover.
"I see you weren't paying attention, little brat; those that don't usually pay attention are the first to die... Slowly" she whispered in his ear and dragged the word 'slowly.'
Naruto chuckled at her words. "You don't need to worry, Anko-chan; after all, Big bro Kakashi did train me," Naruto replied and feeling malice intent coming from behind them.
Naruto's muscles tensed immediately, something Anko noticed and moved away; her eyes saw Naruto glaring at someone behind her.
Her eyes glanced behind to see a woman; at first glance, she looked normal, but Anko couldn't help but feel uneasy at her presence. She also noticed someone standing close to her, a male with what she thought were white hair since he was wearing a round hat covering his head, with little snake figures hanging at the edge of the cap.
The hat was made of straw, with a thin white rope around the top.
Anko walked back to her old position. Most of the students hadn't noticed her or Naruto eyeing the grass Shinobi team, except a few who had glanced in their direction and seeing nothing amiss except a certain Iwa Shinobi.
Interesting, But I wonder what are the likes of him doing here; if he's here, that means Orochimaru is taking this 'Invasion' plan seriously. I wonder what the old man would say, Kurotsuchi thought with a small smile. Perhaps this Chunin Exams could become the perfect opportunity to take revenge.
"Well, if you, please hurry so that I can explain what you're going to do in the forest," the proctor spoke once again.
Naruto had no hesitation on his face; he was not going to back down from it. He was fully confident in himself. He also had complete confidence in both his teammates and that they were capable of handling anything. "Are you guys ready?"
"Yeah..." They both said to him with grins. They took their forms and signed them without reading them.
Shikamaru cracked his knuckles, he felt ready to complete this second challenge, and unlike the first one, this one will test his powers, but he had no doubt Naruto would protect them.
As Naruto and Ino had finished signing their consent forms, Ino noticed that Naruto was deep in thought.
"Whiskers?" Ino asked.
"Yeah?" Naruto responded.
"You okay? You seem a little distracted." Ino asked.
"Yeah, it's just...." Naruto started but stopped midway.
".....Is it about your meeting with Lord Third earlier?" Ino finished for him.
"Sigh......unfortunately, we learned something that is 100% troublesome. I can't tell you all the details yet, but I CAN tell you what I need to do during the test, aside from finding the scrolls." Naruto said.
"What is it?" Ino asked.
"I'll tell you in 3, 2....1."
"HEY GUYS," Anko appeared on the tree branch above them with a goofy grin.
"Anko?" Ino and Shikamaru said in unison when they saw the Snake Mistress.
"What are you doing here?" Ino asked curiously.
"Well, during my little fun with the Gaki, he slipped a piece of note in my hand. Telling me to meet you guys later. So what's up, Naruto?" Anko asked as she jumped down and sat next to Naruto.
"We shouldn't talk about this out loud. Ino-chan, would you be so kind?" Naruto asked.
Ino nodded and created a mind-link for all four of them, 'Everyone online?' Ino asked.
'Yup,' Naruto said.
'Yeah,' Shikamaru said.
'Soooo...I just talk in my mind, and you all can hear me?' Anko asked.
'Yup. That's how the Mind Transmission Jutsu works.' Ino confirmed.
'Wow, talk about mind-fucked, am I right? I wonder if I can do an echo in here?' Anko asked herself with a mischievous smirk.
'Oh no, no, please don't....' Ino didn't get to finish.
'BEEE GENTLEEE!' Anko yelled out, but there was no echo whatsoever.
Team 10 looked at her like they just had a major migraine.
'It doesn't echo in here, Anko.' Ino pointed out in annoyance.
'Be Gentle?' Shikamaru asked with a raised eyebrow.
'It's my safe word. Mama likes it rough,' Anko said proudly, with a smirk.
'Can we please stay on topic? Naruto, what is it you need to talk about?' Shikamaru asked.
'Yeah, Gaki, hurry up. I need to get back to work,' Anko said.
Naruto then explained to them about his recent meeting with Hiruzen and his side-mission to spy on Kabuto Yakushi. He also informed them about his suspicion on Shiore and the fact that Hiruzen's ANBUs will soon be securing the area once the exam starts.
'So you're saying Glasses Wearing Creep and Long Tongue Weirdo are major suspects of espionage against Konoha?' Anko asked to clarify.
'Yes, and my senses are practically screaming at me, warning me of danger every time I get near one of them.' Naruto said.
'Kakashi did mention that you can sense the presence of hostility somehow, and Lord Third even confirms this. So I guess I just have to trust your hunch. What do you need me to do?' Anko asked.
'For now, act natural. Be on alert for anything.' Naruto said.
'You got it. So are we done here? Because I miss talking out loud. It's one of my best qualities.' Anko said with a grin.
'I hope so. I rather not use most of my chakra before the exam even starts,' Ino added.
'Yeah, we're done here,' Naruto said.
Ino immediately deactivates the mind-link and was slightly panting from using a good portion of her chakra. Naruto notices this and raises his hand as it starts to radiate gold-colored chakra. He then gently places it on top of Ino's head.
A few moments later, a Chunin representative at the registering booth announced that they are ready to hand out their scrolls. Team 10 and everyone else who was sitting were now back on their feet, as one by one, each team went through the tent to receive their scroll.
After all the genins had signed their forms, Anko started again. "Alright, listen carefully, everyone. I'll explain what you'll be doing in this test. This will test everyone's survival skills. Each team will be assigned a different entrance gate to enter the forest. In the forest's center, there's a locked tower located 10km from each gate."
"It will be a race to reach the tower. But to enter the tower, your team needs to have both these Heaven and Earth scrolls." She showed them the scrolls in his hand. "Half of you will receive the Heaven scrolls, and the rest will receive the Earth scrolls. So you have to fight to get both the scrolls."
"That means half of us will fail this test," Shikamaru mentioned.
"I said it will be a race. We can't allow a large number of squads to pass this test for the next round. And if any of you poor genins die, your whole team will fail along with you, not that will be your concern once you become food," Anko mentioned, shocking the genins.
"WHAT..." were the cries of many genins present there. "You can't do that. That's totally unfair."
"Rules are rules. One more thing, the test has a time limit. You will get five days to finish this test, and the most important thing you should know is that you must not open the scroll before reaching the tower. If you open it, then your team will be disqualified immediately from the exams," Anko proctor informed the genins.
"WHAT? What will we do about FOOD" Choji cried out with anime tears on his face.
"There's plenty of animals and plants in the wilderness, of course, try to eat any poisonous plant like Mōmoku, eat that, and you can say goodbye to your eyes, and of course try to hunt animals, but you can always end up their food," Anko said grinning from the pale looks of many Genins around, except a few teams that didn't look intimated.
"Alright, please take your form over there." She pointed behind her. "And exchange it for the scroll, and after that, each team will be assigned a gate to be let inside."
After finishing the process and getting a debrief, all the genin teams stood at their assigned gates and waited for the signal to enter the forest.
Naruto was also behind the gates with his teammates. He was deep in his thoughts. This test was very tricky and had a very high chance of failure.
This exam was crucial for him, not only because it was the Chunin selection exam. It was essential for him, too, because he wanted to test out his limits, and there was no other way better than this. He wanted to dominate these exams.
"So, how are we going to do this?" Ino spoke, clearly seeing that Naruto was thinking.
Naruto grabbed their earth scroll; he puffed a scroll from his wrist seal and opened it; he put the earth scroll nearby and started writing a Seal. Ino looked curiously at what he was doing. Shikamaru minded his own business.
"What are you doing, Naruto?" Ino asked curiously, seeing the word 'ここ' written in Naruto's scroll; he then drew a circle around; he kept on drawing weird symbols and lines she couldn't understand, but then he saw him write another word close to the other one '召喚,' she noticed he wrote almost the same lines and symbols around the other word, but she wondered what he was doing.
Naruto took the earth scroll, and he wrote the word 'リンク' on the scroll, but the next thing she knew, the ink in the earth scroll disappeared, almost as if it was never there to begin with.
"Very well, now we are ready, and I Will be the one keeping the scroll, got it" Naruto ordered with a much different tone; his usual carefree and kind tone changed to a commanding one, and his eyes looked colder, almost ice, both Ino, and Shikamaru nodded their heads in agreement.
Team 7
"Five days without food..." Chōji mumbled in fright as he opened a bag and started checking how much food he had.
"Will you shut up already!" Sakura hissed. "Is food all you can really think about?"
"Chōji, you don't have to be worried about the food. Because there will be plenty of animals and plants that we can eat in the forest, we will not starve." Sakura added. Sasuke was quiet and not really caring about Choji's food problem.
"Mph..." The Akimichi frowned. "I know, I know."
"So stop moping and help us think about how we are getting another scroll!" Sakura stated.
Choji kept looking as he counted how many bags of chips, homemade cakes, and not mentioning sandwiches with meat he had.
Sakura looked baffled at the amount of food Choji had in his bag, while Sasuke was scratching his head and thinking if his teammate was trying to lose weight since it seemed he hadn't brought as much as he used to.
Team 8
"Alright, guys, let me lead! This is my specialty." Kiba informed his teammates. Akamaru barked in agreement.
"I'm fine with that. You use your nose and lead us to another team. My insects will find anyone nearby; then we ambush them and take their scroll." Shino said. "It's a simple plan, but it should work."
"Right." Hinata agreed. She saw the logic and agreed with it. She also knew that Kiba was not weak.
"After the mission in Lędar town, we can handle anything! This exam will be a piece of cake!" The Inuzuka proclaimed confidently with a grin.
"Hinata, you active your Byakugan the moment the doors open. We need your vision," Kiba said.
"Hai," Hinata agreed.
"I think we should also think about the teams we should try to avoid, why you ask? Well, the teams from Kumo, the team from Iwa, and especially Naruto's team are not to be underestimated," Shino stated.
Hinata nodded in agreement immediately, and she didn't want to fight Naruto.
"None of them is as strong as us, and I'm actually praying that we encounter Naruto," Kiba exclaimed with a big smile on his face.
Akamaru shook his head in disapproval.
Team 9
"I will hold the scroll; you, Lee, will stay close to me; TenTen stays a bit further away for a surprise attack," Neji organized, looking at his teammates.
Neither Lee nor TenTen held any objections, "Neji, what should we do if we encounter any Konoha team?" Lee asked, hoping they would avoid any encounter with any Konoha team. He would instead get the second scroll from a team from a foreign country.
"We take it, of course, even if it isn't the one we need; fewer teams, the better," Neji stated.
Lee didn't like the idea but didn't say anything, but then he remembered something.
"What about the Two Kumo teams?" Lee asked with a hint of dread.
At the mention of the Kumo team, Neji's eyes looked covered in shadows. "If we encounter them, I will make them curse the day their leader..." Neji stopped making his point clear where he stood with the problem of the Kumo team.
TenTen said nothing, but she didn't want to do this. Revenge wouldn't help, and not to mention, the genins held no responsibility for what their leader tried to do.
Suna Team
"Stay out of my way. I'll handle this exam." Gaara ordered his teammates.
"R-Right. Of course, Gaara." Kankurō replied nervously. Just the thought of spending so much time alone with the likes of him frightened him.
He could only hope that the other teams would take the end of his rage.
Temari said nothing. She only sighed in annoyance and boredom. There was no reason for her to do anything. Gaara could take on every genin in this forest. This was too easy and boring for her.
She knew the risk the blonde genin possessed, but Gaara was much stronger than him.
Team Kumo
"Very well, I'm in the front, Atsui; you stand behind me, same for you, Samui; if we encounter any enemies, you can deal with the other two. I will deal with whoever is the strongest," Yugito said to his friends.
Atsui just shrugged his shoulder while Samui looked deep in thought.
"Yugito, what should we do if we encounter the Taki team or Naruto's team," Karui asked since both teams had their own Jinchuuriki and, therefore, not to be underestimated.
Yugito licked her lips slightly at the mention of Naruto.
"Don't worry about Naruto-kun. We will get along Just 'Fine' "
Iwa Team
"Are you sure about this, Kurotsuchi? The Tsuchikage specifically told us not to cause problems?" One questioned her, keeping his distance from her; she narrowed her eyes in annoyance for questioning her logic.
Grabbing him from his collar, she brought his face close to her face, her eyes narrowed.
"You know what Konoha did to us; that boy is too similar to be an accident," she claimed, her voice spitting venom, her eyes briefly glancing at the blonde in question.
"You know having blonde hair is not that uncommon, right? You want to kill some Konoha genins, go ahead, but if the trouble arises, you will be alone, and don't forget if they find out that you're not an actual Genin, we will be in problems," the third member of the team spoke his tone blank.
She grunted at his response before letting go of the teammate. Stomping on the ground, she walked away to be alone with her thoughts, her mind going back to her mother. The last time she had seen her.
"Once we return, we will celebrate your birthday,"
You never returned, Kurotsuchi thought, her heart burning as she swallowed a huge breath, stopping the feelings from getting the better of her.
Later
"The 101st Chunin Exams of Konoha starts now," a voice shouted; the gates around Forest of Death opened.
The teams entered the forest. Team 10 ran forward in the triangle formation, they had prepared themselves for everything, and somehow Naruto knew this time wouldn't be so Easy.
