Naruto and company followed Anko out of the KSA. She led them through the village toward the north side of the village and through two empty training fields until they came to a large fenced off area.
"Welcome to Training Field 44, or as I like to call it, The Forest of Death. This is where we'll be hosting the second stage but before any of you go inside you'll have to sign these releases."
"Releases for what?" asked one of the genin.
"In case you die in there. We don't want any liability issues," she explained, smiling the whole time.
"She's a little nuts," whispered Naruto. He would have commented further when he found his thoughts interrupted by a kunai flying toward his face, just slightly cutting his face.
"Little brats who don't pay attention often end up dead first," whispered a silky and dangerous voice in his ear. He then felt a tongue lick his cheek, specifically where he'd just been cut.
"Mmm, you taste good," moaned the proctor.
"Excuse me, but you dropped this," said yet another voice from behind Anko and him both. This time the tongue that came out had a kunai wrapped in it, threatening to cut Anko's throat.
"Thank you," said Anko, tapping the-would-be-assassin's inner thigh with another kunai.
The three of them separated at that point, the situation obviously resolved.
Naruto paid extra attention to look at the one that attacked Anko, something about him gave Naruto the chills.
Orochimaru Lv?
Naruto frowned, he didn't remember this person from their spying during the week leading up to the exam. He would have remembered, but then he didn't recognize the face either which means he may have arrived when they weren't watching the gate. But still, he felt like he should know that name but he couldn't remember where or why it was important.
"Naruto, let's go," called Sakura, snapping him out of his daze.
Naruto rushed to join them, the mystery man quickly forgotten, a mistake that would haunt him soon enough.
After they each signed one of the forms, Naruto accepted the scroll for his team, putting it in his inventory, then together they went to their assigned entrance gate.
On the way to the gate a blue message pop up with a very unusual quest message.
Hidden Objective Completion Awarded 100000 Exp
Hidden Quest Alert: The Mystery of Kabuto
Uncover the many secrets surrounding Yakushi Kabuto.
Hidden Objectives:
Draw the attention of the Proctor's to Yakushi's activities.
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Completion Award: 10000000 Exp
Title: Tantei
100000 Exp per Hidden Objective.
"What the fuck?" grumbled Naruto, reading through the quest. "How the hell did I get this?" Luckily, Sasuke was far enough ahead to not hear him but he did draw a look from Sakura.
"What happened?"
"I uncovered some kind of Hidden Quest."
"What's that mean?"
"So the whole thing is hidden. I don't know what the objectives are until I've accomplished the objective. There is also no time limit to it. Either I complete it or I don't."
"Is it even worth it?"
"Yeah, it gives me a ton of experience but it also gives me a new title, 'Tantei'."
"Detective, huh? What would that do for you?"
"Don't know, won't know until I actually get it but who knows when that will happen. But it still left the question as to how he had drawn attention from the proctors. Then it occurred to him, the notes he'd left on the back of his test. The proctor must have looked at them.
Any further reflection was stalled by the arrival at their assigned entrance gate.
"Give me the scroll," ordered Sasuke, turning to face them with his back to the closed gate.
"Nope," said Naruto, smirking.
"Give me the scroll, I'm stronger than you. I can protect it and you can't."
"Tell you what, if you can find the scroll on me you can take it," offered Naruto, holding his arms out to his side openly. There was no way for Sasuke to ever find it because it was in his inventory, a place that only he could access, it was a win-win situation.
Sasuke quickly patted Naruto down, then checked his pouches. "Seals?"
"Of course," said Naruto, enjoying his victory.
"Fine," grunted Sasuke, turning away and looking into the forest, waiting for the gate to be opened. It was clear from his body language he was not pleased.
"So do we have a plan for getting the other scroll?" asked Sakura.
"Find another team and take theirs?" Naruto half asked, half stated.
Sakura rolled her eyes. "We can rush to the tower and set an ambush for a team coming in with both scrolls. We could also try hunting through the forest but there is a chance we'll never run into another team or that we'll run into Gaara's team."
"What about trying to team up with Shikamaru's team?" Naruto asked thoughtfully.
"That would be great, assuming we can find them."
"We don't need to team up with anyone, they'll slow us down." Sasuke was feeling rather prickly it seemed. It was clear, he didn't like that Naruto was carrying the scroll or that he could not find the scroll on Naruto to take for himself.
"Then what do you want to do, Sasuke-kun?" asked Sakura, exasperated.
"Easy, we find other teams, take their scrolls and then go to the tower," he answered as if it was just that easy.
"Why are you being so damn stubborn about all this?" asked Naruto. "We can't just go into this blind. We have to be a team right now. What the hell do you think it means to be chuunin anyway?"
"I don't care about chuunin," he answered. "I'm here to fight strong opponents. There is no other reason to be here."
Naruto wanted to scream and pull his hair out. "Are you fucking kidding me with this shit?"
"Why would I kid about this? I don't care if we pass this test, I need to get stronger and the best way to do that is to fight strong opponents."
"Sasuke, do you understand that if we get to chuunin rank we can get higher rank missions. And with higher rank mission we have the chance to fight strong opponents. What is so hard to understand about this?" argued Naruto.
"Hn," he grunted.
Any further argument was stalled by the gate opening and Sasuke entering, jumping into the canopy.
"Asshole," griped Naruto, following after him.
Sakura just sighed before giving chase to her team.
As soon as Naruto passed through the gate two blue windows popped up.
The first was the new quest for the second stage.
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