Menma arrived at the twelfth gate of Training Ground 44—the very place the village called the Forest of Death—exactly three minutes before the start of the second stage of the Chunin Exams.
"Where have you been?!" Karin immediately began scolding him, arms folded across her chest. "We're supposed to go in any minute!"
"Asking him is pointless," Naruko cut in. Her eyes narrowed as if she was about to launch a full interrogation. "My brother's important now. Making connections. Slipping off on his own. Keeping secrets from me…"
"Not now, sister!" Menma snapped louder than he meant to. Naruko's gaze flickered for a second, surprise in her eyes as if it was the first time she'd heard him raise his voice at her. He sighed, tried to soften his tone, and continued more quietly. "I'll tell you everything, I promise. But only after the exam."
"Fine…" Naruko puffed her cheeks like she meant to sulk for a whole week. "But you promised."
"I have no idea what's going on with you two," Karin glanced between them, as if she was watching a chess match without knowing the rules. "But we're standing at the gate and we don't even have a plan!"
"We do have one," Menma grumbled, remembering how that so-called "plan" had been shoved onto him barely five minutes ago. "We head straight for the tower, fight Gaara to the death on the doorstep for his Earth scroll, and break inside."
The silence was so heavy they could hear the birds singing in the forest. Karin and Naruko exchanged a look that clearly read, what kind of nonsense did we just hear?
"First of all, that's madness, not strategy," Karin sternly adjusted her glasses, looking like a strict teacher. "Second, I'm not fighting anyone to the death. Third, who even is this Gaara?"
"Redhead from the Sand," Menma said quickly, checking the time. Only seconds left before the start. "In the first stage he endured our combined killing intent."
"That psycho?" Naruko raised her brows.
A whistle cut through the air, and the gates screeched open.
Teams rushed inside. Menma, with his sensory skills, felt dozens of chakra signatures scatter through the forest. High above, a familiar figure flashed by—Gaara with his siblings, flying toward the tower on a sand cloud like passengers on a private express.
"Please!" Menma grabbed Naruko by the shoulders, looking her straight in the eyes. "Just do as I ask!"
"Fine…" Naruko shrugged off his hands and turned toward the forest. "But I really don't like this."
Without waiting, she dashed ahead into the shadows of the towering trees. The forest greeted her with damp heat and suffocating air. It was clear this green hell was artificial: the canopies too dense, the atmosphere too alien, as if she had stepped into another world.
"Karin!" Menma called sharply. She flinched. He dropped to one knee. "I'm faster than you. Get on my back, hold tight with arms and legs. Take your glasses off."
"You're that fast?" Karin slipped her glasses into her pouch and reluctantly climbed onto his back.
"Only here," Menma smirked when her arms closed around his neck. "Naruko and I used to play here. We came up with our own way of moving around."
He thrust his arm forward, chakra sharpening into a fine tip that pierced the bark of a tree. The chain snapped taut and yanked them ahead. Without losing momentum, Menma fired another chain into the next trunk.
[Spider-Man, Spider-Man…]
For Karin, everything blurred into one smeared streak. Menma, however, caught glimpses of crushed centipede carcasses and mangled leech husks—Naruko was clearing the path with obvious enthusiasm.
Five kilometers down—in barely a minute.
They stopped a hundred meters from the tall tower rising in the heart of the Forest of Death. Menma gently set Karin down.
"I think I'm gonna hurl," Karin groaned, clutching her stomach.
"We're first!" Naruko grinned wide, dark stains of bug blood marking her clothes. "Should we set up a trap?"
"No time," Menma said grimly, watching a sand cloud descend from the sky.
[The maniac's punctual. Maybe there's still a chance to fix him.]
"Karin, move over to the tower doors," Menma ordered curtly without even looking at her. "But don't go inside. Focus on your sensing and keep track of the surroundings. If you feel a large chakra mass in the sand, use substitution and get out immediately."
Karin didn't ask a single question. Training had already taught her there were moments when arguing was useless. She just nodded, walked to the tower wall, sat down by the door, and formed a seal. Her eyes closed, her face settling into concentration.
At last, the Sand trio descended into the clearing. Gaara stood slightly ahead, expression dark. Behind him landed Temari and Kankuro. The distance between them and the twins was less than ten meters.
"We kept our side of the deal," Menma said, taking Naruko's hand and looking straight into Gaara's green eyes. "What about you?"
"Temari, Kankuro," Gaara spoke quietly without even glancing at them. "Do not interfere."
"Gaara, this is pure madness!" Kankuro threw up his hands, his voice breaking into a squeal. "We don't even know if they have the scroll we need!"
"Shut up, coward," Gaara cut him off coldly. There was no anger or irritation in his words, only an icy statement of fact. Kankuro shivered as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over him.
"Gaara, please," Temari's voice trembled, carrying a note of pleading and care for the first time in a long while. "Just once… listen to your older sister."
"I don't consider you my family." Sand poured from the gourd, writhing toward them like hissing snakes. "If you get in my way, I'll kill you."
Temari and Kankuro flinched, and only a quick step back kept the sand from brushing their feet.
"Hey!" Menma called sharply, snapping the maniac's attention back to him. The Sand siblings' eyes lit up instantly, clinging to the chance to distract Gaara. "So are we fighting today or not?"
"At least someone understands." Gaara's lips twitched into the ghost of a smile, a mad flame flickering in his eyes. "I hope you last a while."
A wave of sand lunged forward like a predator going for the kill.
Menma didn't hesitate. He bit his finger with a fang, letting blood trickle down his palm.
"You serious?" Naruko shot her brother a sideways look as if he'd just suggested fighting in his underwear. "That's the strongest technique we've got!"
"Trust me, Gaara deserves it."
Naruko sighed, then instantly mirrored his motion—slicing her finger with a fang. Their hands joined, her left palm against his right, fingers weaving through seals in perfect sync. Chakra thrummed and intertwined, the air itself trembling.
The moment the shadow of the sand wave engulfed them, the technique was complete.
A crash. A burst of white smoke ripped across the clearing. The sand slammed into an invisible barrier and exploded outward.
"W-what is that?" Temari's eyes went wide.
"I'd like to know too," Kankuro muttered, swallowing hard.
Even Gaara raised a brow.
Before him loomed a massive black gate—Rashomon's Gate. Three stories tall, its tightly shut doors were carved with sinister symbols. Long red spikes jutted from the sides, heavy chains swayed above as if stirred by a wicked wind. The doors bore a huge demonic face whose eyes seemed to mock Gaara's every move.
And the twins sat perched on top, like two cheeky sparrows on a temple roof.
"Good defense," Gaara said dryly. Sand stirred around him again. "But mine is better."
"Which one are you talking about?" Naruko tilted her head as if studying an animal behind glass. "The automatic one, or the layer that sits right on your skin?"
The air thickened in the clearing. Temari and Kankuro looked like someone had just dropped a state secret on their heads. Kankuro's face drained of color, and Temari almost choked in shock.
[Looks like they haven't seen a real sensor before.]
"You're observant," Gaara crossed his arms. His voice was even, but a flicker of interest flashed in his eyes.
The sand slammed into Rashomon's Gate. A thunderous clang rolled through the clearing, the ground itself trembling. The gate remained unscathed.
"There's one thing I don't get…" Naruko closed her eyes, probing with her sensing. "Your sand eats up a sea of chakra. Where do you get so much?"
"He's a jinchuriki," Menma stated calmly, as if commenting on the weather.
Gaara narrowed his eyes, studying him from under his brow. "How did you know?"
"I collect rumors," Menma replied casually. He shrugged like he was talking about discounts at the market. "I run a shop, in case you didn't hear. Shinobi from all over Konoha drop by, even the ones patrolling your border. One of them mentioned a bloodthirsty jinchuriki, the One-Tail host, hated in his own village. Familiar story, don't you think?"
Gaara's gaze darkened further. "You're saying we're alike?"
"Of course not," Menma snorted. "That'd be an outright lie. My sister and I are loved in Konoha. Respected. We get discounts in every store, people greet us on the streets. You and I couldn't be more different."
For a split second, it looked like the sand around Gaara faltered, as if something inside him clenched.
"I see," he said flatly. Then, glancing at the gate, he added, "Your defense is strong. But what good are indestructible gates if my sand can fly?"
Gaara raised his hand, and the sand followed his command. Just then, a twig snapped behind him. The sand whipped toward the sound with lethal speed.
Three Rain genin stumbled out of the bushes. Their half-metallic costumes gleamed like cheap teapots, and their hats resembled cooking pots. They didn't have time to run.
"Sand Coffin," Gaara said without emotion, clenching his fist.
The sand closed in, and the bodies inside cracked all at once. The air split with a wet crunch, like squeezing raw vegetables. Blood seeped through the grains and dripped onto the grass.
Menma wasn't looking at the corpses—he had seen enough death already. What struck him was the efficiency: not a wasted motion, not a wasted breath. Everything done with the cold precision of a surgeon. Naruko frowned beside him, her face showing the same realization—there was no dealing with this psycho except going all in.
"Quick death. No pain," Gaara said flatly. His gaze flicked to the twins, and madness lit in his eyes. "But you won't get that mercy. Your blood will soak into the sand and make me stronger."
"Wait!" Naruko suddenly threw up her hands. "Before I die, you have to answer my question! If you don't, I'll haunt you as a ghost until you go insane."
"Speak." Gaara's voice was patient, but a shadow of irritation lurked underneath.
"How do you even walk around in those sandals?" Naruko squinted as if about to unveil the universe's greatest mystery. "Fine here, in the forest. But in the desert? You must have sand all over inside!"
Temari and Kankuro's faces stretched in unison. Menma's hand went straight to his forehead.
Gaara frowned, then unexpectedly answered with utter seriousness: "Never thought about it… Probably tradition. After a while, you get used to sand in your shoes." He tilted his head. "That was your last question in this life?"
"Yup!" Naruko flashed him a thumbs-up. "Only I meant your life, not mine."
At that moment, Rashomon's Gate came alive. From beneath the black tiles, thousands of gleaming blades shot out, raining down on Gaara. His automatic defense triggered instantly, sand rising like a wall. But the assault didn't stop—the blades pounded on endlessly, a storm of steel.
Gaara was forced to reinforce his shield, pouring more and more sand into it. Each new strike drained his chakra, leaving him no room to counterattack.
Menma seized the pause. His sensory perception caught a familiar chakra five hundred meters away. Hinata.
[Either she's watching the fight through her Byakugan, or she's already collected two scrolls and is waiting for the way to the tower to clear. And those Rain genin definitely didn't stumble in here by accident. Good thing I chose to fight near the tower. As long as we're here, no one gets through.]
The sand lunged again, but to the twins it was far too slow. They bounded easily across the gate's rooftops, chains rattling, like two monkeys on a playground.
Then Rashomon rumbled. At first low, like distant thunder, then louder and louder. Its doors began to creak open, releasing a gust of icy air. Graveyard chill poured out, and even the trees groaned as if they wanted to retreat.
Inside was nothing—only blackness. But it wasn't ordinary darkness, it was bottomless. The kind that made a normal person's hair stand on end.
Sensing the threat, Gaara instinctively wrapped himself in a cocoon of sand. But Rashomon wasn't interested in defenses. Its "gaze" was already locked on its prey.
Five minutes. That was all Gaara had to break through the gates and escape a terrible fate. But he had wasted that time talking. The doors burst wide open, and the sand cocoon with its master was sucked inside, as if into a black hole.
The Rashomon slammed shut and vanished from this world.
"GAARA!" Temari screamed, lunging toward the twins. Terror filled her eyes. "What did you do to him?!"
"Sent him to another dimension," Menma explained calmly, as if discussing a courier delivery. "If you want your brother back—hand over the scroll."
"You… you'll bring him back right now!" Temari raised her giant fan, ready to blow everything to hell.
"This isn't a negotiation," Menma met her glare coldly. "Give me the scroll and he returns. Refuse, and say goodbye." His eyes flicked to Kankuro, who had already unstrapped his puppet. "You really plan to fight the guy who erased your brother without a scratch? Sounds… unwise."
"Temari…" Kankuro exhaled softly, his voice trembling.
Temari's eyes darted between them, then she clenched her teeth and hurled the scroll at Menma.
"That's better," he said, catching it.
"Hey!" Kankuro shouted. "What about Gaara?!"
"The technique ends in an hour," Menma answered coolly over his shoulder, already heading for the tower. "Your dear brother, who just promised to kill you both, will reappear here safe and sound. You can get your hugs ready."
The twins grabbed Karin by the arms, and the three of them stepped inside.
Team Eleven was the first to finish the second stage of the exam.
[Easy part's over. Now comes the hard one: meeting Orochimaru.]
/////
I started a new story about a girl paladin in a world of sword and magic with litRPG elements. It is nothing like this fanfic, but I wanted to try a different genre. I would be happy if you checked it out and told me what you think. Your feedback helps a lot.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/140335/i-became-a-paladin-girl