Forest of Death? Just My Hunting Ground!

"Quiet!"

Just then, a woman's voice rang out, her emotions clearly suppressed.

Mitaraishi Anko emerged from behind the towering iron fence. She had changed into a more practical outfit today, but her face carried an unnatural pallor.

The moment she appeared, her gaze unconsciously swept through the crowd. When it landed on the lazy orange-haired figure standing among them, her body stiffened almost imperceptibly before she quickly looked away.

She did not dare look at Naruto a second time.

"Before the second exam begins, you need to sign this."

Anko patted the stack of documents handed over by the ninja beside her. They were liability waivers.

"Because people really can die in this exam."

She deliberately lowered her voice, trying to create a frightening atmosphere and restore her authority as the examiner.

However, to the examinees who had witnessed Naruto's domineering presence, this little trick was frankly not much to look at.

Especially when Naruto was the first to step forward and signed his name with a flourish without even reading the terms of the waiver, the aura Anko had worked so hard to build instantly deflated again.

"Naruto Uzumaki, Book of Heaven."

The ninja responsible for handing out scrolls passed him one in a businesslike manner.

Naruto casually took it, as though he had just received a ticket to an amusement park, then turned and walked back to the group.

His movements were so casual, so utterly natural, as if he were not about to enter the Forest of Death, where survival was a slim hope, but his own backyard.

Spurred on by him, the other examinees also stepped forward one after another to sign their names and collect their scrolls.

Over at Team 7, Sasuke and Sakura received their own "Book of Earth."

"The rules are simple," Anko's voice rang out again. "Gather both the Book of Heaven and the Book of Earth, then reach the Central Tower within five days! The exam begins now!"

"Rumble—"

At her command, the iron gates at dozens of entrances to the training ground opened at once, revealing the bottomless dark forest beyond.

Almost the instant the gates opened, every team turned into blurs and charged inside wildly, terrified of falling even one step behind.

"We're going too."

Before Naruto had even finished speaking, his entire body became an orange streak of light and vanished into the depths of the dense forest.

Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a glance. Not daring to delay in the slightest, they immediately followed after him.

The moment they entered the forest, the light dimmed dramatically.

Ancient trees towered overhead, blotting out the sky. The hot, humid air carried the stench of rotten leaves and unknown beasts, making them almost nauseous.

All around them came scalp-prickling rustling sounds. Giant venomous centipedes crawled past their feet, basketball-sized spiders spun webs overhead, and ferocious beasts lurked in the darkness, ready to strike with deadly force at any moment.

"Ah!"

With a muffled cry, Sakura felt a chill around her ankle, followed by a slick, clammy touch.

She stiffly lowered her head and met a pair of cold vertical pupils.

A brightly colored venomous snake was tightly coiled around her leg, its crimson tongue nearly licking her skin!

The composure she had learned in training and the knowledge she had memorized from textbooks were shattered in that instant.

A bone-deep chill shot up from her tailbone to the top of her head. Her mind was seized by the fear called "death," turning completely blank. Even her scream died in her throat, leaving only meaningless gasping sounds.

Sasuke's expression was equally grave. He gripped his kunai tightly, his Sharingan vigilantly scanning the surroundings, but in this oppressive environment, his range of perception had been compressed to its absolute limit.

Just as Sakura was on the verge of breaking down, an orange figure flashed past.

Naruto did not even turn around. With a casual backhanded flick, a gust of force sent the venomous snake flying and pinned it dead to a distant tree trunk.

"Stay close. Don't hold me back."

His words were as blunt as ever, but Sakura felt an unprecedented sense of security.

She nodded vigorously, tightly clutching the corner of Sasuke's clothes and no longer daring to let her attention wander.

Naruto appeared to stroll casually at the front, but his senses had already spread outward.

Although the Pure Byakugan was sealed, the biological radar innate to his Perfect Sage Body, combined with the Great Evolution Divine Soul Art's sharp perception of spiritual energy and killing intent, made this so-called Forest of Death nearly transparent to him from one direction.

He could "see" the chakra signatures hidden behind every tree and "hear" the suppressed breathing beneath every leaf.

To others, this forest was hell. To him, it was home ground.

"Heh, there really are plenty of useless idiots."

Naruto sneered inwardly.

Within his perception, two unlucky teams had already encountered giant beasts and instantly lost members.

Another team had already begun slaughtering one another over a scroll.

Just then, Naruto stopped.

A faint but exceptionally cold aura flashed through his sensory network.

"Someone's coming from the nine o'clock direction."

Naruto spoke calmly, his hands still in his pockets, his posture unchanged.

"!"

Sasuke and Sakura immediately stopped, standing back-to-back in defensive stances.

The moment his words fell, an eerie gale howled past, sending fallen leaves swirling through the air.

The wind stopped, and the leaves fell.

Three figures appeared soundlessly before them, blocking their path.

They all wore Kusagakure forehead protectors. The leader was a short ninja wearing a conical hat that concealed his face.

But Naruto did not need to use his eyes.

He could clearly feel the gaze hidden beneath the shadow of that hat—clammy, greedy, and filled with indifference toward life.

It was the very same venomous snake that had watched him and Sasuke from atop the academy building yesterday!

Orochimaru!

"Hand over your scrolls."

The ninja in the conical hat spoke. His voice was as hoarse as two pieces of sandpaper scraping together, sending chills down their spines.

Along with his words, an indescribably terrifying killing intent erupted like an invisible tidal wave!

Even the slightest trace of that leaking aura made the surrounding air seem to freeze into solid ice!

Death!

That was the only word that surfaced in Sasuke and Sakura's minds.

The instant that killing intent enveloped them, they felt like naked ants thrown into an ice pit, while their opponent was a god standing high above them, ruling over life and death!

Sasuke's Two-Tomoe Sharingan spun wildly, yet all he could see was a field of blood-red.

He saw countless venomous snakes wrapping around him, his body torn apart inch by inch, his soul dragged into an endless abyss.

He wanted to resist, to draw his kunai, to form seals and unleash the Fireball Jutsu... but his body betrayed his will!

His limbs felt as though they had been filled with lead, so heavy that he could not move even a single finger.

Cold sweat soaked his back. His teeth chattered uncontrollably with a clacking sound.

Despair rose from the depths of his heart, nearly swallowing him whole.

Sakura fared even worse. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground. Her pupils were unfocused as unconscious gasps escaped her mouth, as though she were seeing the horrifying illusion of herself being hacked apart by countless blades.

Suffocation!

An extreme sense of suffocation clamped tightly around their throats!

Even breathing became a luxury!

Yet amid that dead silence and despair, an incongruous sound suddenly rang out.

"Crack."

It was the crisp sound of joints twisting.

Under this Shadow Level killing intent, enough to make even jonin tremble in fear, Naruto Uzumaki—the lazy orange-haired youth who always kept his hands in his pockets—simply, bored out of his mind...

Twisted his neck.

"Tsk."

He curled his lip in disgust.

"Say, old man."

"Do you... have bad breath?"