Chapter 13

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We were told the second instance of the exams would be held in Konoha's 44th training ground the day before. To us genin the information held little meaning, except for the fact that it was more commonly known as 'The Forest of death'. We had been told it was an extremely dangerous place, full of wild beasts and poisonous plants, but as in everything in life, one does not believe what one has yet not seen or experienced. But that didn't mean we did not do our research before going in. any good shinobi makes sure to be very well informed of the situation around him before departing on a mission. Since Akira-sensei had refused to help us in any way until the finals, we took it upon ourselves to do the research.

Konohagakure's library was not as great an information source as one might have thought. Living in a world of shinobi, keeping important information in parchments easily stolen seemed like something very silly to do. But in spite of the fact that our superiors and ancestors were rather reluctant to let the posterity know all of their secrets, we managed to find some Intel that would help us get us through our exam. We managed to fish out some maps, flora and fauna guides and a list of rather unusual beings that lurked the forest, as well as an addition to the list of poisonous plants we had been given during our time in the Academy.

The second instance of the Exams, the Survival Trial, was meant to be an escort/ kidnapping mission. Ten teams had survived the first part, of which five would escort a proctor to the tower in the centre of the forest, while the other five attempted to kidnap and take the proctors to the same destination. Whichever team failed to take a proctor to the tower within three days would be disqualified. The client or hostage would have to be in perfect health and shape, which made the knowledge we were looking for every bit as important.

Now, after a long day of reading and a rather nervous night's sleep, Team 8 stood at one of the forty four gates of the dreaded training ground. Behind the metal fences, the forest loomed over us like a particularly threatening storm, completely blocking our view of the sky with its almost solid looking canopy.

The somber atmosphere of the situation before us seemed not to be enough, because the proctor (or in this case 'client') that had been assigned to us was most definitely not your average shinobi. For starters, I didn't dare use defining pronouns, and could not for the life of me figure out which rank or specialty they held; not to mention the fact that their unmoving, ever-present, all-seeing kind of aura made me more than just a little uneasy. They had long, brown hair and dark almond shaped eyes that were too cold to look at directly. Their figure and face were slim and athletic and very much androgynous. The only detail that caught my attention, which at the time seemed irrelevant, was the faceplate they wore. It was the exact same design our late Nidaime Hokage.

Our team moved out as soon as we heard the signal, taking a defensive formation with Hotaka on point and Takahiro and I to the sides of our client. The Forest of Death loomed over us ahead, and as we made our way through the gate and into the training ground, the deep dark green of its shadow seemed to engulf us, like a giant swallowing all four of us whole. Trees taller than the Hokage building and thick only as a Fire Country species could grow, were quite threatening on its own, and to that we had to add the different threats that could be found among those trees, as well as the other teams. Visibility was poor and maneuverability limited among such gigantic plants, which in turn made the threats within the forest even more dangerous. The worst kind of enemies is that which you can't see.

We rushed our client at a speed any civilian adult could keep (we did know the proctor was capable of going even faster than ourselves, but we wanted to do things as correctly as we could) and tried to cover as much ground as our client and the terrain allowed. We climbed over fallen trunks, ducked under low branches, avoided clearings in which vegetation seemed not to grow, and although our progress was rather slow, we guided the proctor steadily and safely through the forest. Every five hours we took a break, one of us genin on watch while the rest of us made sure we were going in the right direction and replenished ourselves and the client's energy.

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