The Forest of Death, a forbidden zone surrounded by layers upon layers of steel wire mesh.
The seven-meter-high wire fence barely reached the level of the Giant Crown Tree's roots within.
The gargantuan beasts that occasionally leaped over it, along with centipedes over a dozen meters long, confirmed the forest's name.
The rules were simple: 26 teams, half with a "Heaven" scroll and half with an "Earth" scroll. Get a pair, then reach the tower at the center of the forest within five days to pass the test.
Mitaraishi Anko took out the consent forms and had everyone present sign them. In short, the message was simple: once you went in, your life or death was your own responsibility.
Naruto was simply bursting with excitement.
He felt a great deal of hostility directed at them.
They were newcomers, and the youngest ones there.
After collecting the consent forms, Mitaraishi Anko said enthusiastically, "Here's a tip for you—whatever you do, don't die!"
Then each team headed to its assigned entrance into the forest.
Kakashi wasn't there, so Haruno Sakura naturally saw Naruto as their leader.
"What do we do now?"
Sasuke looked at Naruto too, waiting for his answer.
Now that Naruto had stopped seeing Haruno Sakura through rose-tinted glasses, he regarded both of them as his subordinates.
He would shoulder the responsibility that came with their trust.
"Completing the objective isn't hard. There's only one key: speed. If we reach the tower first and hold the finish line, the scrolls will come to us."
Naruto immediately bounded from tree to tree.
Sasuke gritted his teeth and followed.
He had always been acknowledged as a genius. Before coming in, he'd memorized the movements of the other teams and devised all kinds of ambush strategies, ready to compare himself with Naruto.
But the moment Naruto spoke, all his plans collapsed.
What incredible confidence. So direct.
Hold the finish line.
He couldn't have come up with that idea if he'd racked his brains.
The three of them raced through the forest, stopping only twice to catch their breath before reaching its center: a tower that looked as if it had been built by stacking houses like blocks.
Sitting in the canopy of a massive tree, the three of them finished their food and waited.
Naruto calmed his mind and heightened all his senses, listening to the slightest stir in the surroundings.
When his body and mind nearly forgot themselves and merged with nature,
a bone-chilling cold crept up from his tailbone and climbed his spine.
His eyes swept over a patch of yellow earth beneath a distant clump of grass. No matter how he looked, it seemed completely ordinary.
He had sensed a sinister, evil gaze watching them.
In the darkness lurking in his mind, two enormous vertical pupils stared at them.
A strange laugh rang out through the forest.
Naruto's pupils instantly widened until they looked like the barrels of two guns. His brows angled sharply as he bellowed without hesitation, "Run! Head south!"
He drew Kubikiribōchō and released all the Chakra in his body, standing alone in the way.
Haruno Sakura had never seen Naruto like this. Trusting him, she turned and ran.
But after running nearly a hundred meters, she realized she was the only one fleeing. She stopped and looked back.
Sasuke stood beside Naruto, his Two-Tomoe Sharingan activated. "I have a special eye technique! I can help you spot the enemy!"
"Fine! Just don't blame me if you die!"
Naruto shaped Chakra into a sword sign with his left hand. A crescent-shaped Hell Sword Qi shot toward the yellow earth with a howl.
The earth burst open. A long, slender human figure twisted up into a tree. Lowering his pale, pointed face, hidden behind long black hair, he said, "Impressive. You even knew where I was."
He opened his mouth, and a tongue thicker than his mouth forced its way out, curled around a scroll coated in mucus. "Come and take the Book of Earth you want."
Naruto didn't move. He tightened his grip on the greatsword. "Haruno Sakura! Are you trying to get yourself killed by standing there? Run! Get Examiner Mitaraishi to notify Grandpa Hokage and come rescue us!"
Haruno Sakura ran.
The two people she cared about were behind her, but all she could do was run. She couldn't protect them or fight alongside them, because she was weak.
The Long-Tongued Man asked in a strange voice, "You came to hunt your competitors, but now that I'm here, you're calling for help?"
"I hunt people, not freaks like you!" Naruto drew on every last bit of strength in his body.
Judging by his Forehead Protector, the other man was a shinobi from Kusagakure.
If he'd been at the level of an ordinary jōnin, Naruto could have assumed he was hiding his strength. But this guy was on a level even higher than Hiruzen Sarutobi. How could he be a candidate from some small village?
Rustle, rustle!
A gray-spotted snake's head, as large as two locomotives, drooped from the treetop above the Long-Tongued Man, its body trailing behind like a train.
Naruto saw the Long-Tongued Man throw two Kunai at him. He was just about to swing his sword and knock them away when the Kunai suddenly appeared in front of his forehead, piercing halfway into it.
Blood ran down his face. It was warm and scalding.
"Damn Genjutsu! Get the hell out of here!"
Naruto swung his sword along the same path as before. With two clangs, the Kunai were knocked away, and the blood on his face vanished.
Beside him, Sasuke stood hunched over and trembling, clutching his throat.
A Genjutsu that acted directly on its victim?
Naruto shook Sasuke hard. "Don't just let your Sharingan sit there!"
Sasuke's eyes were full of fear. His expression even turned weak and helpless. "Naruto... what do I do?"
The Long-Tongued Man stood atop the giant snake as it carried him down to the ground. "When prey faces a predator, it needs to be extra careful to escape!"
"I never planned to run!"
Naruto charged straight at him, leaping eight meters into the air. He reached the Long-Tongued Man and brought his greatsword down at an angle. "Three Hundred Thousand Volts of Chakra! Snake Slaying Hegemonic Blade!"
"A Taijutsu technique that channels Chakra without Hand Seals?" The Long-Tongued Man had never seen a move like that, but instinct made him dive into the giant snake's body at once.
The greatsword came down. The snake's scales, harder than iron plates, shattered layer after layer. Blood sprayed ten meters into the air as its head split in two.
Naruto didn't stop. He attacked the snake's tail and swung again.
Sure enough, the scales at the tail split open, and the Long-Tongued Man emerged, his hands already forming Hand Seals. "Shadow Snake Hand."
Four coils of poisonous snakes surged out of his sleeves, baring sharp fangs as they wrapped around Naruto.
Naruto held his greatsword crosswise and swung its flat side hard.
The snakes burst apart beneath the blow, spraying blood everywhere. Where it landed, the grass withered and the earth turned foul.
"You're a kid like Guy, but you won't get another chance to come near me." The Long-Tongued Man blasted out a gust of wind that sent him soaring more than a hundred meters into the air. He landed atop the forest canopy.
"Ninjutsu: Flipping Technique!"
Boom!
White smoke churned through the soil. A white snake twice as large as the giant snake Naruto had just killed opened its enormous jaws and swallowed him whole.
The snake's crimson stomach walls contracted, squeezing Naruto tightly as it rapidly secreted acid. His hair and windbreaker began to sizzle.
He struggled fiercely, but all he did was release Chakra to shield his body. His movements were broad, but he wasn't focusing his strength into a single point.
Outside, Sasuke watched it all woodenly, his body still unable to move.
Killing intent filled the entire world. Even the insects had fallen silent, dropping from the leaves in droves.
Sasuke felt that if he moved even a little, the killing intent would turn into blades and slice him into pieces, just as it had in the Genjutsu.
But his feet still moved.
He had to save Naruto.
"If you don't dare risk your life even at a time like this, how can you talk about defeating your brother?"
The white snake, its pupils taller than Sasuke himself, watched him coldly. Orochimaru watched him too.
Sasuke aimed for the spot where he'd seen the white snake's belly stop moving and formed Hand Seals. "Great Fireball Technique!"
The white snake swayed. Its scales withstood the flames, only charring slightly, before it twisted around and charged at Sasuke, intent on swallowing him too.
"Don't eat him."
The Long-Tongued Man leaped onto a branch. "How brave. You really are Itachi's little brother."
"Who the hell are you?!" Sasuke shouted as he charged at the white snake again.
"Want to know? Do your best to pass the test." The Long-Tongued Man brought his hands together in a seal. His neck stretched dozens of meters like rubber, his head opening to reveal sharp fangs as it darted toward Sasuke.
Then came a sound as deep as thunder.
"Chakra-Driven Five Hundred Thousand Volts!"
"Hell Dismemberment Sword!!"
The white snake let out a piercing shriek as its belly burst open.
A silver streak shot out through the waterfall of blood. Naruto's scalp was torn and battered, his face twisted into a grimace. He held the tip of his sword like a blade, pointing it at the neck that flew toward him.
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