Abnormal Attack!

The Forty-Fourth Training Ground—or by its better-known name, the Forest of Death—was the more fitting way to refer to it.

Towering trees stretched into the sky. Broken patches of sunlight fell across damp, decaying leaves, while a sickly-sweet smell hung in the air. Insects chirred monotonously in the distance, occasionally interrupted by the roar of some beast.

Gloomy, eerie, unsettling.

"I'm telling you... this place is way too creepy!" Uzumaki Kushina complained, cautiously following behind Hiroki as she glanced around.

She was afraid some strange monster might suddenly leap out.

"That teacher named Orochimaru has terrible taste. What kind of person picks a place like this for a meeting?"

Hiroki said nothing. His gaze calmly swept across their surroundings as he continued to wonder why Orochimaru was testing them again.

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Had the Third not informed Orochimaru? Or did Orochimaru refuse to accept Jiraiya's assessment?

Or was this the work of Danzo, the usual scapegoat!? After all, wasn't that how it went in all those Naruto fanfics Hiroki had read? Whenever something inexplicable happened, it was probably Danzo's doing.

While Hiroki was still thinking, and just as Kushina was about to complain again, they stopped.

Their gazes fixed on a thick tree trunk not far ahead.

A figure stood there. Somehow, he had appeared without them noticing, as if he had always been part of the tree's shadow, emerging naturally as the light shifted.

A pale, slender figure stood watching them, like a terrifying ghost!

Kushina nearly screamed. Instinctively, she grabbed the back of Hiroki's clothes.

But when she looked more closely, she saw that he was wearing a simple shinobi outfit with a green Konoha flak jacket over it.

He was clearly a living shinobi, not some ghost.

And yet, he still didn't really look human! That was Kushina's first impression of their teacher.

His skin was an almost sickly white, reflecting the dim light like fine porcelain.

Long, smooth black hair fell over his shoulders, making his face look even more bloodless.

But what drew the eye most was his gaze.

His eyes were golden, with slit pupils like a snake's.

When he looked at them, there was none of the emotion one would expect from a human—no curiosity, no scrutiny. Only the cold, pure interest of a reptile observing its prey.

Cold. Dangerous!

Kushina was so frightened that she held her breath, afraid to move.

Was that Orochimaru!?

That was Orochimaru.

The corners of Orochimaru's mouth lifted slightly, forming a smile that held no warmth at all. If anything, it seemed to lower the temperature in the forest by a few degrees.

He said softly, "You two..."

"The test begins!"

The moment his voice fell, a blue window abruptly appeared before Hiroki, filling his entire field of vision!

The floating window for the System Resource Monitor he had written himself suddenly popped up, warning him that an anomaly had appeared!

The values in the System Resource Monitor began climbing wildly without warning.

The |CPU Usage| bar shot from a steady 15% straight up to 99%, its bright red color painfully vivid.

The |Memory| reading was no different; its usage rate began soaring almost instantly!

Hiroki could even "feel" his thoughts lagging noticeably, like an old computer running hundreds of demanding programs at once. Each thought became extraordinarily difficult to form.

An attack!

Orochimaru!

Without needing to think or reason it out, Hiroki instinctively realized that this was Orochimaru's test!

But how was he doing it!?

"Kushina, I like you!" Hiroki suddenly said.

"Huh!?"

Uzumaki Kushina's mind instantly went blank, as if struck by a bolt of lightning.

She glanced around. The eerie Forest of Death was still the same, and the insects and beasts in the distance hadn't stopped making noise. Meanwhile, that teacher with terrible taste—Orochimaru—stood on a tree trunk not far away, wearing that unsettling smile.

Why was he confessing to her all of a sudden?

"Y-you... what are you saying, idiot!" Kushina's cheeks turned red in an instant. She hurriedly took a step back, waving both hands in front of her in a desperate attempt to hide her flustered state. "Th-this is a test! A test! D-don't say things like that at a time like this!"

Though she protested, her heart betrayed her, pounding wildly as a rush of warmth—part embarrassment, part delight, part confusion—swept through her.

Was he... joking? It didn't seem like it. B-but why now, of all times?

"I'm serious." Hiroki stepped forward, his gaze fixed on her. His earnest attention left her nowhere to hide. "It's because we're being tested, because we're facing danger, that I realized... I don't want to keep these feelings bottled up anymore."

"If I fail the test... I might... never have the courage to tell you."

Oh no, oh no, oh no...

Kushina felt as if her mind had turned into a pot of boiling porridge. She had even forgotten her fear and that snake-like teacher. It was as if the whole world had shrunk to the boy in front of her, confessing his feelings.

"Um... um..." She was at a loss for words, her face so red it seemed ready to bleed. Her voice was barely audible. "C-can we talk about this after the test is over?..."

That was the strongest rejection she could manage.

But... Hiroki smiled gently. Slowly, he raised a hand, as if to touch her cheek.

What should she do, what should she do, what should she do!???

A voice in Kushina's heart cried out: Let him!

She almost closed her eyes, ready to let it happen.

Even if this was a test... there was no need to rush, right? Even if she failed this time, she could always pass another time.

Kushina instinctively tried to reassure herself.

But the next moment...

However, just as his fingertips were about to touch her burning cheek, something changed.

Hiroki's expression suddenly froze. His mouth flew open, as if he were about to scream silently, but what emerged from deep in his throat wasn't a sound.

It was a slender little snake, its body a vivid green and coated in slick, slimy mucus.

Its eyes glowed like two crimson points. It hissed as it flicked its tongue, its cold scales scraping against the inside of Hiroki's mouth.

Then, in a nauseating fashion, it crawled out of Hiroki's throat and quickly coiled around his slender neck.

"Ugh..."

Hiroki weakly reached out, as if asking for help, but the green snake kept tightening around his neck. His legs gave way, and he toppled backward, landing heavily on the rotting leaves. Only his limbs continued to twitch unconsciously.

"Ah—!"