[At the Entrance to the Forest of Death]
After lunch, the people who had passed the written exam had already been selected.
More than a hundred genin were gathered here now. Waiting for the practical exam to begin.
Before long, Anko arrived with Naruto's team, Kimimaro's team, as well as Hotaru and Neji.
"Before the second exam begins, I'll explain the rules."
"To confirm participation, you must sign this Consent of Death form."
"The exam is a survival challenge."
"Training Ground 44, also known as the Forest of Death, is a circle formed by forty-four locked entrances."
"Inside are rivers, forests, and various man-made and natural traps."
"There is a central tower. The distance from the tower to the entrances used to be ten kilometers. After expansion, it is now fifteen kilometers."
"Within this limited area, an elimination-style competition will take place."
"The content is..."
As she spoke, Anko took out a scroll.
"A scroll-grabbing battle."
"Each of you will receive one scroll. I want you to compete with each other for scrolls."
"In this Chunin Exam, many candidates do not have enough teammates, so free team formation is allowed."
"The maximum team size is five people, and the minimum is three."
"If you have three scrolls, you may enter the central tower. That will count as passing the survival exam."
"The exam duration is 120 hours, exactly five days."
"Survival in the wild is also a required skill for ninjas. But a special reminder: there are many poisonous insects and dangerous beasts in the Forest of Death."
"Be careful not to die in there."
"The elimination conditions..."
Rengoku stood among the proctors not far away, listening to Anko read the rules.
This was different from the exam Naruto and the others had taken back then. The only changes were free team formation and the scroll rules.
Konoha was attracting a large number of people from other villages to take the exam here. If they strictly required teams of three, it would be difficult for some ninjas who could not gather enough people.
That was why the rules had been changed to allow free team formation and passing with three scrolls.
The three-scroll rule was quite interesting, because most teams had three members.
If you could completely persuade your other two teammates, you could even head straight to the central tower.
Now that the exam rules had been announced, people without teams were forming groups freely, while those who already had teams were signing the forms and receiving scrolls.
Moegi, Hiroyuki, and Hanabi gathered together.
They were planning to enter as a team.
The Forest of Death was famous. It had hosted the Chunin Exam every year, so it was regularly maintained.
With Nawaki and Tenzo both capable of using Wood Release, the trees inside were much denser than before.
There were also more poisonous insects and creatures than in the past. While the area had expanded, it had also become more dangerous.
Hinata was reminding Hanabi from the side.
"Don't be nervous. You've already done many missions outside the village this year."
"But be careful of the poisonous snakes in the forest. Activate your Byakugan regularly and make sure you don't get ambushed..."
Hanabi was actually much calmer. She had already participated in a Chunin Exam once last year and was familiar with the process.
"Don't worry, Sister. I'm not nervous. I'll definitely become a chunin!"
Hanabi knew that although the forest was dangerous, there were many cameras inside. In addition, all these proctors were there to prevent accidents.
"Chunin Selection Exam! Second Exam, the Survival Test, officially begins!"
As Anko gave the order, all the candidates rushed into the Forest of Death.
Sasuke, Naruto, Hinata, Kimimaro, Haku, and Gaara split up. Some returned to the central tower to watch the surveillance feeds, while others went to more dangerous areas to maintain order.
Although everyone had signed a death consent form, too many deaths would still have a negative impact.
Rengoku also entered Null Horizon and began following behind Hanabi.
After entering Null Horizon, he could only see reality and could not affect it.
Rengoku simply flew up and moved through the sky in Hanabi's direction.
Conditions varied throughout different parts of the Forest of Death, but they all shared one feature: the trees were extremely dense, blocking all sunlight below.
In this kind of environment, poisonous insects were especially common.
Less than ten minutes after the hundred-plus genin entered the forest, screams began to appear.
"Ughh.!"
"AHHHHH!"
The cries echoed through the Forest of Death, making many first-time participants feel a chill run through them.
Haku jumped through the trees and arrived in front of a team surrounded by bloodsucking leeches.
There were already many dead leeches on the ground.
But even more had covered their bodies.
This team clearly lacked experience. They did not know that bloodsucking leeches would jump onto prey in groups when they sensed sweat and body heat.
While fighting and killing leeches here, they had started sweating, attracting even more leeches.
If they continued being drained for five more minutes, all of them would die.
And leeches could not be pulled off by force while feeding, because their suckers had barbs.
That could cause parts of the sucker to break off inside the skin and increase the risk of infection.
But Haku was very experienced in dealing with leeches.
With a wave of his small hand, a large amount of icy mist sprayed from his palm. At low temperatures, these leeches would enter a stiff state resembling hibernation.
One after another, they fell from the victims' bodies.
Haku picked up the three people and began carrying them toward the medical tents outside.
He had done this task several times and was very experienced.
The other proctors were also busy throughout the first dozens of minutes.
One after another, they carried people who were barely alive out of the Forest of Death.
Most of them were first-time participants who had come to gain experience in the Chunin Exam.
Konoha was doing its best to make sure these people would not die in some random place.
Even with Konoha's preparations, however, being a ninja was a profession that lived with danger every day, and situations would still arise where rescue was impossible.
For example, one team encountered a highly venomous spider.
One of them was sprayed in the face with venom.
Less than a minute passed between poisoning and death. By the time he died, his entire face was gone.
When the proctor arrived, all he could do was save the victim's two teammates.
However, teams that made it through the first hour without problems generally had some experience.
There was less reason to worry about them.
As time passed, night arrived.
The various teams all began looking for shelter and preparing to spend the night.
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