Chapter 123 Forest of Death

From the moment the three boys walked into the examination room, Ibiki's alarm bells had been buzzing - normally, he would have deducted points for being unprepared; the three boys only brought some basic ninja tools, such as kunai and shurikens, and had no visible survival supplies on them.

But they all carried Sealing Scrolls, and they looked nothing like the commercially available ones he usually used, and on top of that, the other two kids, save for the blond Jinchuriki, were carrying some kind of special weapon.

What made Ibiki even more uneasy was that they were dressed very similarly to jonin, and he even checked their forehead protectors at first. They all wore simple clothes and only brought some necessary equipment. Most of the supplies seemed to be hidden or neatly placed in places that would not affect their movements, and they all looked terrifyingly calm.

It took the other candidates another fifteen minutes to figure out what the nine had discovered a minute before the test started—that in this exam, cheating was not only necessary but also expected.

After that, everything went smoothly, and when he saw that most of the candidates had written down the answers to at least a few questions, he announced that the time was up.

Now, it's time to begin the real test of the night.

******

What the hell is this exam? And why didn't anyone tell me there was a dress code for this exam?

Temari had only been in the Land of Fire for a few days, but she already hated this place.

It wasn't because there were lush green trees, annoying bugs, or all kinds of ferocious wild animals everywhere. What really made her, a native of Sand Village, unbearable was the humidity here.

She wiped the sweat from the back of her neck with the back of her hand again, resisting the urge to roar in the quiet examination room.

Her back was pressed tightly against the damn plastic chair, her mesh shirt was soaked with sweat, her pencil was also wet with sweat, and the exam was surprisingly difficult. If Gaara hadn't used Sand Eye to help her cheat, she and Kankuro might not have been able to answer even a single question.

What's worse is that their group seemed to be the only one struggling in the entire examination room.

Temari roughly counted and found that there were at least six Konoha ninjas wearing similar clothes.

Temari hated the feeling of being trapped in an enemy country.

To make matters worse, Gaara had been feeling uneasy since the moment they had stepped into Konoha - something about this village made him uneasy, something they seemed to have sensed as they passed through the gates, and it kept grabbing his attention.

When Temari mustered up the courage to ask, Gaara just said vaguely that he "felt a strange chakra" and refused to speak again, even ignoring Temari and Kankuro.

Temari hated this mission, too many things could go wrong and it made her feel uneasy.

******

The first exam was over, with only fifty-four candidates remaining.

Of the remaining eighteen teams, half were from Konoha, including the three teams in black. The other nine teams were her team, as well as teams from Kusagakure Village, Takigakure Village, Kumogakure Village, Mist Village, and Sound Village.

They were then led out of the building and into a deep wooded area on the edge of the village, which was surrounded by fences and seals.

Their examiner stood beside the fence with her hands on her hips, her long dark purple hair tied into a ponytail behind her head. Her sharp eyes scanned the group of Genin in front of her. After confirming that the number was correct, she nodded with satisfaction, then took out a piece of gum from her mouth and spoke while chewing.

"Welcome everyone here, you poor, unprepared rookies," she said cheerfully, "and the Novice Nine," she added nonchalantly, "welcome to the Second Chunin Exam!"

"The nine newbies?" Kankuro asked Temari in a low voice, his heavily shadowed eyes narrowed. "Don't you think she's referring to..." Kankuro said, while gesturing in front of his face a few times, indicating that she was talking about the nine Konoha ninjas in black clothes.

"Maybe." Temari said. "That should mean this is their first time taking the Chunin Exams."

"Maybe," Kankuro responded, but he didn't sound very convinced.

"Alright!" the examiner announced. "My name is Mitarashi Anko, and this place—" she pointed to the fenced-in forest behind her, "is Practice Field No. 44, but we prefer to call it the Death Forest. As for you, just remember that this is the venue for the second exam."

Hongdou quickly pulled out two scrolls from her waist, threw them into the air, caught them with one hand, and showed them to everyone. One was light gold with a pattern representing "sky" printed on it, and the other was dark blue with a pattern representing "earth" printed on it.

"At the beginning of the second test, each team will receive a scroll of heaven or earth. Your goal is to reach the tower in the middle of the forest with a scroll of heaven and a scroll of earth within five days. If you fail to reach the end within the specified time, or if you arrive at the end with one scroll missing, you lose. If you try to peek at the contents of the scroll, you will be disqualified. If your team members die before reaching the end, you will also be eliminated."

"Okay." Hongdou said with a smile. "Now I'll give you an hour to get ready. After an hour, I want to see all of you lined up in front of this gate." She pointed to the gate on the metal fence behind her. "If you are late, you should know what the consequences will be, right?"

********

Kankuro turned to Temari just as the special jonin of Konoha jumped down from the large rock she had been using as a podium.

"If each team can only take one scroll, it means they want to eliminate half of the candidates, and only half of us can pass the exam."

"I'm not worried at all." Temari looked around the team nonchalantly. "From what I've seen, there are a lot of unqualified people here."

Kankuro nodded, but was still a little hesitant.

"That being said, I suggest we try to avoid guys dressed in black."

Temari raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

"why?"

Kankuro just shrugged and put his hands behind his head, but the expression on his face was serious.

"Go with your gut."

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