prepare to enter

every team was waiting at the forest of death until a Jounin had arrived and loudly announced to the gathered shinobi to follow him to the stage of the next part of the exam.

As 8 team walked after the Jounin, John couldn't help but look through the gathered crowd of Genin here. He saw his friends, but like him, they were all too anxious to walk over and chat. He caught a glimpse of his friends from the sand. Gaar stared into the void, Kankuro noticed his stare and glared right back at him. Only Temari winked at him before returning her attention back to her siblings. they walked up to a Gate with a stall next to it

"Alright, listen up, you sorry brats!", a loud voice called and the attention was drawn to the shapely figure of Anko, who was standing on top of a stall next to the gate that led into the forest. Like yesterday, she seemed to be in a rather cheerful mood. "THIS! Is the Forest of Death!", Anko explained with a grand gesture towards the obvious forest behind her.

A groan. "Who would've guessed?", Naruto muttered. who was standing right in front pf John. In an instant, his disinterest got him a retaliation he hadn't expected. A kunai had been flung right at him, and Naruto, only seeing it from the corner of his eye, only just pulled his head away so that it grazed his cheek. It still cut his skin and created a gash, and blood was quickly flowing out of the small wound. while John caught it

"That's what happens if you don't pay attention to me...", the Special Jounin said as she stepped towards the frightened Naruto. Then, in a move that surprised everyone, she bent over, giving Naruto a good view of her cleavage and let her tongue dart out over the wound. "I've got a taste for blood. Mmm, so young, so fresh... I hope you make it out alive, boy.", she explained as Naruto "If not... we'll give you a proper burial.", the scary lady said nonchalantly while still wearing that same smile she had before.

"Here. You dropped this.", John said as he handed the kunia to Anko

"Oh. Why, thank you.", she said as she took the kunai and returned to her previous spot on top of the stall.

"Anyways, back to topic.", she announced and held two scrolls aloft. "These two scrolls are called 'Earth scroll' and 'Heaven scroll', respectively. You will start off with one of them, and you'll have to find the other one before you come to the tower in the center of the forest. The time limit is 72 hours to do that!", she said loudly.

"So that means we'll either have to steal it or defeat a team to get their scroll... but we won't know which team has the matching scroll beforehand... man, that sucks.", John heard Shikamaru complain next to Naruto.

"In other words, only half of the teams can advance to the next round?", Sakura asked loudly, getting Ankos attention.

The proctor nodded. "Yup, that's right. But usually, it's far less than that. Other than your opponents, the forest isn't called the 'Forest of Death' for nothing.", she reminded the young Genin with her still unnervingly cheery voice.

She scratched her head a moment in contemplation. That might've been a normal gesture, hadn't she done the scratching with the very kunai she had used to slice Naruto's cheek open. "Anything I forgot? Oh yeah. Folks, you MUST NOT look into the scroll before you enter the tower. If you open the scroll before you're inside that building, you'll automatically be disqualified. In a pretty uncomfortable manner, if I might add."..

"Good good, now each team comes here and signs up. You'll be given a scroll and each team will be led to their entrance.", Anko finished her explanation and jumped down from the stall. Slowly, the teams moved forward to register and receive their scroll, before being led away by the staff that stood ready there.

Some time later, it was Team eights turn. After signing up their names, they drew a number and were handed scroll. They got an Earth Scroll. The number, so they were told, corresponded to the gate where they would be entering the forest.

So, as they were brought to the gate by a Chunin, John took control of the team as he was supposed to. "Hey guys, we have to go over our strategy!", he said.

all three teammates nodded thoughtfully. he was right of course. "Yeah. Like, who's gonna carry our scroll?", Sakura chimed in. "And what are we gonna do once we're inside...", he wondered with a look at the number of the gate they were standing in front of now. Yup, this would be their starting point. A small clock over the entrance showed the countdown until the gate opened. Only five minutes, and then the second stage of the exam would begin...