After a while, Anko couldn't give less of a damn about the shinobi's reactions and said:
"Alright, listen up, maggots. Before we get started, I want you to read and sign this thing." She raised a sheet of paper.
"What are those for?" Enko asked.
"Well, I know I said that if you die, it won't be my fault, but that's not true. Not yet, anyway. That's why this right here is basically a contract," Anko said. "You'll sign it, and that way I won't be held responsible if any of you die during the exam."
Some of the participants felt intimidated. This was an exam where they would be risking their lives. It was no joke, but the way Anko said it made it sound even more terrifying.
"That way I won't be responsible if any of you die," Anko concluded, and Naruto mimicked her mockingly.
"Yeah, yeah. As if something like that is going to scare me. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the man who's going to become Hokage someday!"
Anko sighed at Naruto's arrogance and threw a kunai near his face. A small drop of blood fell to the ground from the cut on the boy's cheek. Then, Anko smiled, amused.
"Believe me, kid, this exam isn't a game. It's better to be afraid than to pretend you're brave."
Pressing a kunai against Naruto's throat, Anko whispered into his ear.
Naruto shuddered. He hadn't been able to see Anko's quick movements.
"What do you think you're doing?" Anko asked after feeling someone's breath on her neck.
Behind her stood a ninja wearing a Kusagakure forehead protector.
"Don't get defensive. I just wanted to give you back your kunai."
Stretching his tongue out like a snake, the ninja handed the kunai back to Anko. She simply sighed and took it before returning to the front.
Meanwhile, Toru silently observed that mysterious person.
'Anko-sensei seems to be very strong, but there also seem to be people just as strong among the other participants. This is going to be dangerous. I need to stay focused, or everything could end badly. I hope Ino and Hinata are thinking the same thing.'
Toru gave all the exam participants a quick look before Naruto handed him one of the sheets of paper.
"Here, Toru..."
After that, Toru took the document in his hands and read it.
The paper listed different ways a ninja could die during the exam. Toru sighed and, using a needle and a bit of his blood, signed the document without thinking twice.
'Looks like Ino and Hinata are still reading the document. I guess all the ways you could die written in there made them uncomfortable. But I suppose that's the point of this exam.'
Still holding the sheet of paper, Toru headed to the farthest spot from everyone else. There, he sat on a rock and waited for his teammates to finish reading the document. However...
"?!"
As he looked at Ino, a sharp headache made Toru stagger, followed by the flash of an image.
He was lying in the darkness of a room. He felt lost, lonely, and sad. Everything hurt... everything was so... painful. And yet, he got up and looked at the sky through the window.
He looked at his hand in confusion before touching his head in pain.
'It's becoming more frequent... I'm really starting to worry.'
There was no reason for him to see something he had never seen before, but it was eating away at his mind. Something told him this was only the beginning of something strange.
A few seconds passed, and Toru raised his gaze.
"So here you are..." Ino said.
"What?" Toru asked, hiding how nervous those mysterious visions had made him.
Ino, with a slight blush on her face, said:
"Well, it's not like I was looking for you. I just wanted to remind you that the exam is about to start, so... you know."
Toru looked at Ino curiously.
"Hm...?"
She sighed and turned around.
"Forget it, idiot. Just hurry up. They're about to explain the rules of the exam."
Without looking Toru in the face, Ino walked toward the group of participants.
'Well, it seems she's becoming friendlier as time goes by. That's good,' Toru thought.
Getting off the rock, he walked toward the group of shinobi in front of him. When he arrived, Hinata greeted him with a distant look.
Toru noticed it, but he could only sigh and listen to Anko's explanation.
"Listen up, bastards, because I'm only saying this once!"
Holding up two scrolls of different colors, Anko began her explanation.
"This second exam is a competition where anything goes to obtain these two scrolls: the Heaven Scroll and the Earth Scroll. So killing and getting killed are both allowed, all for the sake of getting these scrolls."
At that, the participants looked a little nervous. Well, something like that was normal considering they had a high chance of dying during the exam.
"Half of the teams will have a Heaven Scroll, while the other half will have an Earth Scroll. Each team will receive one of these two scrolls and will have to fight to obtain the other. The objective is to reach the tower with both scrolls within five days. On top of that, there's no way to know which scroll the other teams have because they'll be handed out confidentially. So, logically, only half of the participants will pass, or maybe even fewer."
'Only half... It seems like more than I expected. I should start thinking about what I'll do. I need to talk to the girls about this,' Toru thought.
Teamwork was going to be the key to survival.
"Now for the rules, although I already mentioned one of them during the explanation. But because I'm so nice, I'll say them again," Anko said.
The rules were as follows.
First: The team must reach the tower with both scrolls. Failing to do so will cause the entire group to fail.
Second: If a team loses one of its members, it fails.
Third: Participants are not allowed to look at the contents of the scrolls until they reach the tower.
"Damn... This is going to be easy. What do you think, Kiba?" Enko asked her teammate.
Kiba smiled and gave a slight nod.
"One last thing, you little cockroaches. You're not allowed to open the scrolls under any circumstances. I know I already said it, but I'm sure some idiot will do it anyway."
As she said that, Anko looked at everyone with a dark expression. Especially Naruto, who immediately asked:
"What happens if we open the scroll?"
"Trust me, you don't want to know what'll happen," she replied with a smile.
Naruto shrugged and sighed. Toru, however, was already analyzing the surroundings.
'I think I already know how to start. I know this place a little since my laboratory used to be nearby. I have an idea of the best places to survive.'
Deep within the shadows of the forest, a giant snake could be seen slithering between the trees for a few seconds.
This was going to be complicated.
"Now go pick up your scrolls," Anko said.
After that, all the teams headed toward a kind of temporary tent where two shinobi were in charge of handing out the scrolls.
Toru's team entered the tent and received an Earth Scroll.
"Who's going to carry it?" Ino asked.
Hinata timidly raised her hand.
"I could..."
Toru looked at Hinata. She had the Byakugan, so letting her carry the scroll was the best option they had. With her nearly perfect field of vision, she had an advantage over the others.
"Then I'll leave it to you," Toru said, handing the scroll to Hinata.
For a second, their hands touched, and Hinata became shy. Seeing that, Ino's face turned red, and she frowned.
Meanwhile, Hinata looked Toru in the eyes.
'I wonder... why do I feel this way?' she thought.
"Next..." said the shinobi handing out the scrolls.
That made Team 11 leave the tent.
'That look... There's definitely something between those two.'
But even though she felt annoyed, she was also confused. For a moment, she could feel a knot in her chest that bothered her quite a bit, but she had no way of figuring out what it was.
At the same time, Hinata had a small smile on her face.
'I think this feeling isn't a bad thing...'
She had spent her childhood alongside Toru until that fateful day. She knew him better than many of the people close to him, and maybe that was enough.
"Time's up, cockroaches! Now that everyone has their scrolls, pick a gate. The exam is about to begin," Anko said in front of everyone.
Everyone immediately chose a gate and waited for further instructions.
'It's finally starting...'
Toru stayed close to his teammates. Right now, the best option for starting the exam was to run as fast as they could and find a temporary base.
"Ino, Hinata..."
Toru thought about his words for a moment before speaking.
"Let's stick together and give it everything we've got!" he said seriously.
'There's definitely something wrong with him!' Ino screamed internally.
Toru wasn't the kind of person who said things like that, but for some reason, he was saying them today. This made Hinata feel more confident, although Ino was more confused than motivated.
"Trash! The exam has begun!" Anko shouted, giving them no time to think.
The moment the gate opened, Toru and Hinata shot forward, heading deep into the forest. Ino almost got left behind, but she barely managed to keep up with them.
"Use your Byakugan, Hinata!" Toru said.
"Yes!"
Following his order, Hinata brought her hands together. The veins around her eyes bulged as the Byakugan's nearly perfect field of vision activated. That was how she managed to spot the other nearby participants.
"There's a team nearby. The others are moving away," Hinata said.
Toru immediately thought.
'If it's only one team, we can handle it. Right now, we can't lose our information advantage.'
As he moved at superhuman speed alongside Hinata, Toru noticed that Ino was having trouble keeping up. And how could she not? Toru and Hinata had trained for this their entire lives, while Ino hadn't taken it seriously at first.
'She's falling behind, and that's not good. We can't leave her alone, even by accident, or the enemy team could hurt her,' Toru thought.
With that in mind, he disappeared and reappeared beside Ino. Then...
"Eh?"
Ino felt the warmth of Toru's chest.
'What is he doing?!' she thought.
Toru was carrying Ino in his arms like a princess. She couldn't help but feel angry, confused, and embarrassed, but she quickly reacted.
"What are you doing, idiot?! Put me down! Pervert! Creep! Dead-fish-face!"
Struggling in Toru's arms, Ino tried to free herself, but he was stronger.
"You were falling behind. If you get separated, even by accident, you'll be in danger, and that would put us in danger too. So shut up and let me carry you."
That made Ino shudder, and she dug her nails into his back.
'When this is over, I'm going to break every bone in your body,' she thought.
Even though she thought that, she was honestly too embarrassed to argue back.
"Brute. How dare you tell me to shut up?" Ino muttered.
Toru simply sighed and continued looking ahead.
With the Byakugan, Hinata had been able to see everything in perfect detail.
'They... get along really well.'
And for some reason, that made her feel uncomfortable.