Forest of Death

Inside the exam room, Naruto watched the woman he jokingly called the "crazy snake lady," both startled and amused. Most of the Genin present looked equally stunned. Only Gaara remained expressionless, while Kiba, Kankuro, and a few others leered at the "Sexy Single" Mitaraishi Anko.

"Tch, that Ibiki. Thirty-four teams left? He's getting more useless by the day. Fine. Once I'm done with them, there won't even be half that many left. All right, brats, meet at Training Ground 44 in one hour. If even one of you is late, your whole team is disqualified!"

With that, Anko leaped out through the broken window, leaving a crowd of Genin who still hadn't recovered from the shock.

"Holy crap..." one Genin muttered, finally breaking the dead silence.

Training Ground 44 · Forest of Death

"Listen up! Welcome to my turf, Training Ground 44, otherwise known as the legendary Forest of Death!" Anko announced loudly, trying to intimidate all the candidates. Naruto merely looked bored, completely unfazed by her presence.

Noticing that the blond kid showed no fear, Anko decided to make an example of him. She hurled a kunai, cutting the unsuspecting Naruto's cheek, then appeared behind him with the Body Flicker Technique and pressed the kunai against his neck.

"Not afraid of the Forest of Death, huh? Fine, but this time, no one's going to chase those wild beasts away for you." As she spoke, Anko pressed her ample chest against Naruto's back and licked the blood from his cheek, her tone teasing.

Naruto forced himself to look calm, but inwardly, he was panicking. Even knowing Anko was only trying to scare him, she was still one terrifying kunoichi. He also noticed quite a few boys shooting him jealous looks, and couldn't help curling his lips into a smile.

"Anko, I've got something inside me that's scarier than every monster in that forest put together. They're all afraid of me," Naruto whispered into her ear.

Anko was about to retort when they both sensed someone approaching from behind. They immediately went on guard, only to discover a Kusagakure kunoichi holding out the kunai.

"My apologies, Examiner. I was only returning this to its owner." With that, the kunoichi returned to her team.

"Crazy snake lady, I think she's even scarier than you," Naruto said, fighting back a shiver.

"Hmph, there are plenty of scary things about me," Anko said, pretending to sound hurt.

After signing the liability waiver, Naruto went to Entrance Twenty-Seven. To his left stood three tall, thin Amegakure ninja. To his right were three Iwagakure ninja, staring at him with hatred in their eyes. His stomach tightened as he remembered Jiraiya's warning.

Flashback

"Kid, during the Chunin Ninja Exams or on missions, ninja might have to kill at any moment for the sake of their mission or their comrades. That's the brutal reality of our line of work. Sometimes, you'll have to do it to protect yourself, too. This is important. So I went to the pet shop in town and picked out the cutest rabbit they had. This little guy practically comes with his own cuteness jutsu. Take a look."

As he spoke, Jiraiya brought out a bunny that was almost criminally cute.

"Oh man, it's adorable! I want to take it home and charge people to come see it!" Naruto said.

"Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"I want you to kill it."

"What? But it's so cute! Pervy Sage, even a kitten in a shoebox isn't as cute as this thing! How am I supposed to do that?" Naruto protested.

"You have to. If you can kill this rabbit, you'll be able to strike down any enemy. You think this is easy for me? This little guy helped me pick up three girls yesterday!" Jiraiya's tone was stern, though his lecherous side soon resurfaced.

"All right, give it here." Naruto raised his kunai and ended the little rabbit's life.

"Okay, why did you have to make me do that? Other ninja kill for the first time on missions," Naruto asked.

"Because some people will target you specifically, especially in this exam. You're the only solo candidate, so you're bound to become a target. I want you to get used to killing beforehand, so you won't hesitate because it's your first time," Jiraiya said seriously.

"I get it, Pervy Sage. It's just a shame about such a cute little guy. Why didn't you pick Tiger Cat? I wouldn't feel bad at all about killing that demon cat." Naruto imagined getting rid of the nightmare of every Genin.

"One more thing, Naruto. Be especially careful around the Iwagakure teams. They hate Konoha, and worse still, you look far too much like the Fourth Hokage. He inflicted devastating losses on Iwagakure during the Third Shinobi World War. Promise me you'll act decisively when you have to. Don't hesitate," the Toad Sage said gravely.

"Okay, I promise. I'll do everything I can to protect myself and the people around me." With that, the two resumed their training.

End of flashback

No wonder Pervy Sage told me to watch out for Iwagakure. They look like they want to eat me alive, Naruto thought.

As the bell rang, he immediately created several shadow clones and sent them off in different directions, while he ran deeper into the forest.

Naruto moved steadily through the treetops. Before long, one of his shadow clones was defeated, and he instantly received its memories of the Iwagakure team attacking. He decided to keep moving and wait for them to catch up.

A few minutes later, Naruto sensed fluctuations of chakra behind him. He turned to see three Iwagakure Genin glaring viciously at him. The boy in front was about as tall as Shino. The girl was slightly taller than Naruto and wore her hair in twin ponytails. The remaining boy was short and stocky, shorter than Naruto but even bulkier than Choji. All three had dark brown hair and light brown eyes.

They got here faster than I expected, but that makes sense. I wasn't moving that fast. Then Naruto spoke. "How do you want to do this? Hand over your scroll quietly, or let me beat you to a pulp?"

He tried to intimidate them, hoping to avoid a fight.

"Cut the crap! You look exactly like the Yellow Flash! Killing you will avenge our comrades who died in the war!" the tall boy roared.

"Looks like I don't have a choice." Naruto settled into the opening stance of Toad Style Taijutsu.

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!" Thick rock armor covered the tall boy's entire body. The short boy also finished his hand seals. "Earth Release: Earth Spear!"

Countless stone spikes burst from the ground and shot toward Naruto. He immediately created a shadow clone, which pushed his real body out of the way and was impaled by the spikes.

"Your Earth Release isn't bad, but it's still not good enough," Naruto taunted, still hoping he could hold back.

"Shut up, blond brat! No one's going to save you here! You're dead!" the short boy shouted.

"If you're that eager to die, don't blame me." Naruto created six shadow clones and charged at the Iwagakure team.