Training Ground 44 lived up to its name.
Even from the outside, behind the high chain-link fence, this place radiated a threat. Giant trees whose roots seemed to strangle the earth itself; an unnatural silence broken only by the cries of unknown birds; and thick, moist air saturated with the smell of decay.
Team 7 stood before Anko Mitarashi along with the other Genin.
Anko was smiling. It was the smile of a predator toying with cornered prey before dinner.
"This place is called the Forest of Death," she purred, sweeping her gaze over the hushed children. "And soon enough, you're going to find out why."
She pulled out a stack of consent forms.
"Before we start, sign this. It's consent to die. If you croak inside—and some of you definitely will—I don't want to be held responsible."
She laughed. The laugh was loud, sharp, a little unhinged. The Genin around her tensed.
Naruto stood calmly, arms crossed over his chest. His Qi Sensory scanned the forest beyond the fence.
This isn't just a forest, he analyzed. The ecosystem is saturated with chakra. The animals here have mutated. I feel vibrations... giant snakes, insects the size of dogs. This place is a living trap.
Anko noticed his gaze.
The blonde boy. The one who hadn't flinched before Ibiki. He stood looking at her not with fear, but with cold, evaluating interest. It was annoying. And intriguing.
"What are you looking so brave for, kid?" she snapped, snatching a kunai from her pouch.
The movement was lightning fast. To an ordinary Genin, a Jonin's hand is a blurred smudge.
She threw the kunai. Target: his cheek. To leave a scratch, draw blood, knock him down a peg.
WHOOSH!
Steel sliced the air. Sakura screamed. Sasuke jerked but didn't even have time to raise his hand.
CLAP.
The sound was short and crisp.
The kunai didn't bite into flesh. And it didn't fly past.
It halted centimeters from Naruto's face.
His hand was raised. Two fingers—index and middle—had hooked through the ring of the kunai's handle.
Naruto didn't even blink.
Using Qi Sensory, he had sensed Anko's muscle contraction a fraction of a second before the throw. He then used Qi Reinforcement to accelerate his hand to the speed needed for interception.
"Dangerous toy, Proctor-san," he said calmly, looking her in the eyes.
Dead silence hung over the crowd of Genin. A Genin caught a Jonin's kunai? From that distance?
Anko's smile widened, but now there was no amusement in it. Only a dangerous glint.
In the next instant, she disappeared in a Shunshin and appeared right behind Naruto's back, hooking her arm around his neck and pressing him to her.
"Not bad reflexes," she whispered in his ear. She smelled of sweet dango and blood. "But the brave ones usually die first. Would you have spilled my blood if you could?"
Naruto didn't try to break free. In such proximity, his sensory perception struck his brain like a tolling bell.
He felt her chakra—bright, wild as fire. But beneath that fire was something else.
Dark. Viscous. Cold.
Right where the back of his head touched her neck, a cluster of foreign, evil energy pulsed. It felt like a tick burrowed into the chakra channels, sucking out life force and poisoning the mind.
It's a parasite, Naruto realized. She is suffering. Every second.
"I don't want your blood, Anko-san," he answered quietly, so only she could hear. "But your neck..."
Anko tensed. "What about my neck?"
"It's heavy for you," Naruto said, his voice carrying not a threat, but a strange, adult statement of fact. "You carry a parasite that eats you from the inside. That must be painful."
Anko recoiled from him as if burned. Her hand instinctively flew to her neck, covering the spot where the Cursed Seal of Heaven was hidden under the mesh.
Her eyes widened. How did he know? The seal is inactive. No one but the Hokage and his inner circle knew about her pain.
She looked at Naruto. He stood calmly, twirling the caught kunai on his finger. In his blue eyes, she saw not childish curiosity, but understanding. The deep, frightening understanding of a medic—or an executioner.
Who are you, kid? she thought, feeling a chill run down her spine.
"Sign the papers and get to the exchange booth," she barked, hiding her confusion behind rudeness. "You have thirty minutes!"
***
Gate 12.
Team 7 stood before the locked grate. In Naruto's hands was a "Heaven" scroll.
Sasuke was checking his gear. His look was gloomy as always. The scene with the kunai had once again stung his pride. Naruto had caught it, while Sasuke had barely tracked the motion. The gap in power was growing.
Sakura trembled, looking into the darkness of the forest.
"Is... is it really that dangerous in there?" she asked.
"Worse than you think," Naruto answered. He stood in front, facing the gate. "This territory has its own laws."
The gong sounded. The grate rattled upward.
Naruto didn't wait.
"Forward."
They entered the twilight. The giant canopies closed over their heads, cutting off the sunlight. The temperature dropped. The sounds of the outside world vanished, replaced by rustles that made blood run cold.
"Stop," Naruto raised his hand, halting the team after fifty meters.
He closed his eyes.
Qi Sensory: Activation.
The world around him lit up with signatures.
To the right—a nest of giant leeches. Ahead, three hundred meters—an ambush, three weak chakras, Rain Genin? To the left—clear, but the ground is unstable, quicksand?
And somewhere far away, deep in the forest, flashed a chakra that made the hair on Naruto's arms stand up.
Huge. Cold. Malignant.
It disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
Strange... Naruto pondered. A second ago there was a bonfire of cold energy. And now—emptiness. As if someone turned off the light. Or... as if he noticed that I noticed him, and hid.
He opened his eyes.
"Sasuke," his voice was hard, commanding. "You take the rear guard. Cover our backs. Sakura—in the center. I'll go point. I'll track the dangers."
Sasuke frowned.
"Why are you giving orders? I can handle myself..."
"Do you see that vine ten meters away?" Naruto interrupted him, pointing a finger.
"I see it. So?"
"That's not a vine. That's a boa constrictor waiting for you to get close."
Sasuke peered closer. The "vine" twitched.
The Uchiha swallowed and fell silent. He remembered Zabuza. He remembered how Naruto sensed enemies in the mist.
"Tch," Sasuke clicked his tongue, putting away his kunai and stepping back. "Fine. Lead. But if you lead us into a trap..."
"I won't. We move left. The path is clear there."
Naruto moved forward, gliding silently along the branches. His Qi vibrated, warning of every movement within a radius of hundreds of meters.
He knew where to go. But he also knew that meeting that monster was inevitable. He felt its attention. A cold, serpentine gaze that had already chosen its prey.
We aren't hunters here, Naruto thought, clenching his fist. We are prey.