A single cry cut through the tense, deathly stillness of the grove!
"Hinata… what's wrong!?"
Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame both paled, not understanding why Hinata had suddenly lost her composure.
The outburst had basically exposed them completely.
And almost the instant the words left Hinata's lips—
"BOOM—!!!"
A dull, thunderous blast erupted at the center of the battlefield!
Immediately after, a white mist of intense Chakra rippled outward from the blast's epicenter, sweeping through the forest in the blink of an eye and swallowing Tejima Shinichi and the Sand siblings whole.
"What's going on?!"
Clutching Akamaru to his chest, Kiba stared in bewilderment at the area now shrouded in thick fog.
Light glinted strangely off Shino's dark glasses as the insects inside him sent frantic signals of dread.
Hinata's Byakugan bored into the mist; her body trembled, lips quivered, but no coherent sound came—only a helpless finger pointing toward the fog.
The mist churned—and parted.
A colossal shadow blotted the sky.
Shino, Hinata, Kiba, and the whimpering Akamaru felt their blood freeze solid.
Stiffly, they lifted their heads toward the clearing mist—
And what they saw—
Would haunt them for the rest of their lives!!!
A titanic creature now crouched where Tejima Shinichi and Gaara had fought, its bulk beyond imagination.
Even crouched it stood fifty meters tall, rivaling the Forest of Death's loftiest trees.
Its bloated body was laced with eerie violet patterns; a thick tail swayed lazily, each motion grating sand and raising gusts that rustled the leaves.
The shadow below swallowed the forest—and their hearts.
"Y-you've gotta be kidding…" Kiba croaked, Akamaru burying his head and whining like a lost pup. "W-what is that thing?!"
Shino's gaze was graver than ever; the terror from his insects nearly overwrote his own mind.
"Chakra on this scale… this is no Genin, not even a Jonin can handle it."
Closest to the monster, Kobayashi Takeshi and Satō Yū bore the brunt of the pressure.
The crushing aura left them breathless, hands and feet like ice.
"Wha…?" Takeshi gaped, the Heaven scroll slipping from his limp fingers unnoticed.
Satō Yū's face was bloodless; she stumbled back, shivering too hard to speak.
"We're done… totally done…" Kankuro muttered, color drained from his face.
Temari seized his arm, nails digging in.
"Move, Kankuro!" she shouted. "Stay and we die!"
She forced herself to look at the stunned Takeshi and Yū and yelled with all her lungs:
"You two—run! Get out if you want to live!"
Without another word she sprinted away at full speed, never once glancing back.
The shout snapped Takeshi and Yū awake; they met each other's eyes and saw only terror and helplessness.
In the monster's looming shadow, Shinichi was lost behind swirling sand and the beast's bulk.
"Shinichi…" Yū's voice cracked.
"Trust him!" Takeshi gritted, grabbing Yū's hand. "We'd just be baggage—go!"
One last look at the horror, then they spun and raced after the Sand siblings… Across the Forest of Death, every remaining examinee froze, staring in shock at the towering shape that burst through the canopy.
"H-hey… what is that?!" a Kusagakure candidate stammered, finger shaking toward the distance.
"I-it's huge…" an Amegakure boy gulped.
"A summon? But this Chakra…" A sensor Ninja went white.
Hidden in cover, Nara Shikamaru felt the monstrous Chakra and his pupils shrank to pinpricks.
"Give me a break…" he muttered skyward, expression failing him. "Brains alone won't fix this one…"
Adjusting his glasses, Yakushi Kabuto's eyes flickered behind the lenses.
"One-Tail Shukaku… fully awakened now? An unforeseen wrinkle…"
He faded deeper into the shadows, choosing to retreat for the moment.
Other candidates—Takigakure, Otogakure, and more—either panicked, fled, or gawked from afar… Outside the forest, several Anbu patrols reacted instantly.
"That's—!" An Anbu Captain's face twisted behind his mask. "Shukaku?! Why is it here—what is Sunagakure planning?!"
"Captain—orders?!"
"Where's Examiner Anko?" one pressed. "She's chief proctor—she has to take command!"
"No contact. After finding that Kusagakure corpse she went after Orochimaru alone."
The Captain clenched his fist.
"Damn it… of all times…"
"This is critical! Split up—one team rushes to Lord Hokage. The rest with me—form a perimeter, evac every candidate. That thing must not leave the forest!"
The Anbu's hearts sank—Orochimaru on one side, fully awakened Ichibi on the other…
These Chunin Exams had become a lethal maelstrom!