Chapter 116 - Arc 8 - Forest of Quest - Uncertainty, Team 10, 3, and Karin

So few important things.
This chapter's 3rd scene is pretty dark. If you are easily triggered, it might be good to approach it with caution.

Otherwise, the PCL Equation Update that happened recently does alter Ino's Quest from the side story, that's why the number is different.
Have a good day ya'll.

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“Seventy four balls.” Ino says, finishing her count and holding up one of them under the sunlight. The dark surface shines eerily, making Ino pay special attention to the way it shifts in her grip. “Don’t you think this test is too easy? Even the teams that did worse than us or didn’t have as much village support could probably fight one other team and sprint to the exit.”

“It would be seventy six if Sakura hadn’t played that trick with your body.” Shikamaru says, even while underneath a hostile forest he can’t get his gaze off the clouds. Thankfully for him Ino’s been here many times so he can relax and expert her to point out forest threats. With that consideration, their only real trial with this exam is stealing a few extra balls from some other team. They don’t even have to eliminate anyone, they need sixteen balls, they can coerce someone to hand that over without even having a fight.

She’s got the charm to do it, it’s the one thing Sakura’s system helped raise her confidence in. While she was insulted that the system called her just a pretty face in quite a few different ways, she does have a pretty and charming face and several abilities to support that. She probably wouldn’t even have to trade a kiss for the small amount of balls they need, though she would if she had to. She’s not very confident with her team in a fight of this caliber and Sakura wouldn’t even question it.

She kinda wishes Sakura would question it. Oh what she would do for Sakura to question it if she kissed a random dude. “It doesn’t matter that it’s seventy four instead, one or two conversations gets us the ninety balls either way. It just seems weirdly easy.” Ino trails, “is this rigged?”

“No.” The dreadful stress on Shikamaru’s single word almost makes her stumble. Her instinctual glare back at him does thankfully get an explanation out of him. With his hands resting in his pockets and the little sigh at her prompting, he does talk, even if he manages to make it look like the world’s biggest hassle. “The goal of this test is to eliminate as many examinees as possible. Sakura had it right when she said there’s probably about enough balls for two thirds of the teams to win, but the reality is that less than half will.”

“Wha-why not?” She wishes Sakura was here to explain it, if nothing else because Sakura at least looks happy for the opportunity to explain things. If she didn’t know Shikamaru from her childhood she’d be ready to sock him for the attitude he’s always bearing towards her, especially the kind of looks he gives her for daring to ask basic questions. She does know him, and therefore knows that’s how he treats everything and she shouldn’t take it personally, but it’s still really disgruntling and rude.

“Well, think about it as if the objective was different. Say you needed two objects to pass and each team had one of those two objects. You would naturally try to figure out what teams had your object, cooperate with them, forge alliances, and then hunt down the other object. In this event, excess losses would be unlikely, and while it wouldn’t be perfect, almost fifty percent of students would pass. More so if there’s any secret versions of those objects in the forest, which there likely would be to test different skills and create potential ambush points.” He exhales dreadfully at the fact that he’s still talking, and she rolls her eyes. They call her a drama queen - behind her back - but he’s the real diva.

“Take this objective instead.” The boy boredly takes one of the balls out of the pouch and bounces it in his palm, “it’s small so it’d be easy to hide lots of extras around if they want to create a high value scavenger hunt or secretly support an individual team that spectators are very interested in. But that’s not why they’re like this, that’s more of a bonus. The reason they’re like this is because they’re fragile, can be given in large quantities, and will need to be distributed to every team member because they can’t be stored in a scroll. This will make every single genin, without fail, a target for almost every single other genin. Since even one member going down on a team disqualifies you, some people will get attacked and disqualified despite already having ninety balls, and some balls will get destroyed completely. I think Sakura was too generous, I’ll be surprised if even one third of teams make it to the exit. The strong start is a trap meant to lead us all into a quick and thoughtless battle with more casualties than expected value.”

“Those were a lot of words.” She snorts, shaking her head at her friend.

“I got it.” Her second teammate crunches chips in response, “seems pretty simple.”

“It is simple, it could have been like ten words. For all the complaining he does, Shika likes to hear himself talk.” Ino teases Shikamaru, giving him a taunting glance, arms behind her back and hands clasped together behind her hips, body leaned forward so she can turn her head over her shoulder just right to let her gaze twinkle at him.

She gets to watch him grimace at being caught, and her smirk is well earned. Boys are so simple sometimes. So the proctors want to weed out the impatient and overconfident, and reduce the number of teams drastically… Sakura might actually be in danger, is that what the quest she got a month and a half ago is about?

[Quest Alert: Stand Up

Description: Prove you deserve to stand beside her. Get Team 10s Party Contribution Level to an average of 32(scaled) by the upcoming Exams

Objective: 30/32 Party Contribution Level (Objective Scaled for PCL Equation Update)

Reward: The Chance to Help Save Sakura]

She hasn’t failed it yet, which means they still have a little time.

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Tenten’s eyes flash as she dodges a strike meant right for her face, a lone blade in the dark overcast by a million leaves. She must have missed Neji’s warning about it, but that’s okay, she doesn’t rely on her eyesight to catch attacks anymore. The desire to kill her, the rustle of the leaves, the sound wave from the kunai cutting through the air are more than enough for her. She’ll never rely on sight again, not after those invisible enemies, not after she almost died. Magic exists, and the only way to prepare for it as a normal girl is to be better. “You’ll need more than a sneak attack to beat me!” As tempting as it is to pull out her shotgun and blast into the forest, she doesn’t have infinite ammunition, not yet anyway.

For now, her own techniques will work a lot better. A single look back at Neji and the coded message he’s signing with his hand tells her exactly where she needs to unleash her newest experimental move. A second later her hand is throwing a flaming scroll into the trees. Falling back behind Neji is an instinctual endeavor, and despite his superior speed it’s Lee that takes the extra moment before he realizes what’s going on and jumps over, sliding between him just as a blue shell of chakra appears in front of them.

She learned a lot in that Dungeon. The infinite C and D rank missions they’ve taken over the past year - with a few others sprinkled in - mean very little compared to one several day journey into the depths of some kind of infested factory of living nightmares. The flaming scroll’s explosion rocks the forest and before one can blink thousands of blades infest themselves into every part of the surroundings but them, bouncing off Neji’s efforts like he’s projected a magic forcefield.

It’s a shame Lee had to sit the dungeon out, because even he could probably have learned something. For her, Sakura taught the true meaning of blowing the absolute shit out of the enemy. She took out superior force by simply amping it up until even she was on fire and the room was destroyed. The putrid smell of burnt flesh and ash mixing together will never leave her memories. It was so powerful, and Sakura emblazoned herself into Tenten’s core strategies with a few simple actions. She would never think of a technique like that on her own, and not because she doesn’t have a way to make everything around her explode.

How to ensure the enemy can’t dodge? Blow yourself up too as they attack, why not, blow everything up. Just set it all ablaze and worry about the consequences later. Of course she doesn’t want to die so she developed strategies to avoid gruesomely exploding into Tenten chunks, but the lesson was clear; use more boom. Booms equalize all.

They watched their junior overstep them not by training, or power, or strategic genius, but by sheer force of will and batshit insanity. As touched as Neji was to see her jump in front of an attack meant for him, as grateful as Tenten was to get the gifts she did, a single truth became well known on her team after they left the dungeon and had time to talk and agree. Sakura’s crazy. Like, crazier than Lee. She’s pretty sure Lee’s gotten crazier for hanging out with her.

The end result of all that was a simple promise to each-other that they’d never need to be saved like that again. She’d train her senses so she was never snuck up on, Neji’d train himself to operate in any situation no matter the disadvantage, and Lee, well Lee vowed to do more laps when he saw they were working harder.

What’s important is that they won’t lose to her, they’re going to pass this exam and then kick her ass in the tournament part of all this! “You think we got 'em?” Tenten asks, peeking her bun-covered head to the side of Neji’s barrier, only to see a group of flaming trees fall over and explode into a plume of smoke and dirt.

“They’ll live, Lee will need to escort them to the tower though. Which should be fine, they have enough balls for us to pass.” Neji says.

“We can’t leave yet,” Lee shakes his head, “we have friends in this forest that may need our help.”

“... See, you say that, but you really mean friend singular, and she seems to be doing fine to me.” Neji points to the side with a sly smirk, drawing both of their eyes to a huge monkey in the trees that’s staring at them. Tenten’s first instinct is to get ready to fight, but something stands out.

“It has that same glow in its eyes that Sakura’s pet has.” Lee notices it before her, which causes Tenten to huff, but she gets her chance a moment later when she points to its leg.

“It got injured by one of the kunai but it’s not distressed. So that thing’s dead, right?” She asks.

“That is correct.” Neji’s hands come together. Breathing deeply, and focusing deep.

“We have been in this forest for less than one day. We are near the center, and my Byakugan reaches about fifty meters in each direction, the way area actually works means I’m not even seeing even one two hundredth of the surface area of this full forest.”

Tenten hold’s her breath, seeing where Neji is going but eager to hear what he has to say anyway. Lee, well he’s just excited to understand the conversation.

“I can see four of her summons and twelve clones of Naruto. Assuming this ratio is constant and is in every fifty meter area… Sakura owns this forest.”

“What if they’re just tracking us?” Tenten asks, “they could be far less dense the further away from the leaf teams you go.”

“Whatever the case, I do not believe she will be needing our help as she is spending her team’s resources on us. We should prioritize completion of our task. It is clear team seven has alternative motives for this test and we should not interrupt them.” Neji says dryly, looking out at several of the clones at once, then back at his team. “You both look unsure, do you truly want to stay that much? She could be planning a trap, what if we get caught in it? Or worse, what if she drags the entire forest into a dungeon? I do not want to experience that dungeon, Tenten, there is a high chance it will involve killing hundreds of people after ten thousand rabid beasts.”

“Neji, she used six of those rare sprays on me when one would have sufficed, she’s not planning a trap for us,” Tenten’s deadpan is like a smack to the back of his head, “and we could just say no to a dungeon.”

“Lee, please bring the defeated to the tower for medical treatment and return to us with the balls.” Neji changes his order, seeing they’re not going to let up on this. It’s not like he has the power to force them even if he wanted to. Besides, he’s curious what Sakura is planning, and horrified at the possibilities. “Please, don’t have the ability to turn the entire forest into a dungeon.” He mumbles under his breath.

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Karin’s feet have never taken her anywhere as fast as they are taking her through this damned forest. The roars behind her are too loud for her to allow herself to slow down for any reason, and she can’t help but feel like the pounding of monstrous feet behind her are only getting louder by the second. “I’m not ready for this, I’m so not ready for this, why am I here!? Screw you Kusa!” Her team doesn’t even have the decency to come save her, but she bets they know what’s happening. They’re probably laughing while she runs for her life, but she can’t rely on the hope that they’ll reveal their joke and save her at last second. She wishes she’d eaten the meat before she fell asleep. She’d have something in her belly and she wouldn’t have woken up to see something eating it right next to her head.

She has to keep this up, even while every step threatens to be her last and her empty belly saps her strength with every passing second. Her eyes sting, tears burn her cheeks, and rage floods within her as her only source of strength in a mad dash for survival that seems all the more fruitless by the second. Jerks, jerks, jerks! “If I survive this I’m going to pound your freaking skulls in you-wha-shit!” She feels the screw up before reality clicks in, but she doesn’t have the training to do anything about it. The suddenness of her foot snagging something at the speed she was running - likely a tree root - is far too great for her not so nimble body to react to.

Face first in the dirt, she finds her cheek is scratched, her glasses are half off, and neither of those two inconveniences even lands on the tier list of her problems right now. She spins in her place in the dirt, trying to force her foot free, and finds it’s well and truly stuck on something. It’s her shoe though, if she can just wriggle out of it she may be able to get to safety.

It doesn’t matter, because her efforts to turn around in place are met with hot air on her face. She feels the hot wind on her cheeks and smells meaty breath well before her brain catches up and tells her what she’s seeing. Pointy fur thicker than her arm and a body that stands at the peak of nature’s madness, she finds herself face to snout with the biggest bear she’s seen in her entire life. “Just kill me quickly,” She whines at the beast, “look I’ll even do it for you.” She has just enough coordination in her state to slip her hand into her kunai pouch. It only takes a moment to pull the blade out from its confines, and bring it to her throat.

It gleams in the light, and she finds the bear doesn’t react to the weapon. It doesn’t consider her a threat, and that’s the end of her story. One small redhead torn apart by a forest bigger and stronger than her. She should never have been here and she knew it before she even entered the forest. Her convictions rise, and despite the clarity of her situation, her hand hesitates. It hangs in the air and shakes against her skin, she tries again and again and finds it’s frozen still. Her second hand lands on the ring of the kunai, pressing it towards her neck, and she feels nothing change, not even a bead of blood flows. Tears hotter than steam flow onto her chest as a hiccup escapes her lips. “I don’t even have the training to die on my own terms.” Her voice cracks as reality sets in, “why am I here? Who thought this was a good idea?”

Her vision fizzles into an array of sudden colors, a high pitched screech assaults her senses so loud it boggles the mind, but it’s not from the bear. “Rrreeeeeeeeeeeek!” Her gaze moves towards it, unable to comprehend how her situation could get any worse, only to figure out the answer within a second.

A snake that’s somehow even larger than the bear is barreling towards them, and she’s not the only one confused enough to freeze and stare at it. For her luck, the bear hasn’t killed her yet, but she imagines getting eaten by a giant snake isn’t much better than being torn apart. Before she can let the breath she’s been holding loose, the monsters collide and despite the rest of her life being a clear sign that someone is definitely stealing all her luck right out of her pockets like some kind of sadistic asshole, their clash manages to avoid crushing her and smearing her across the forest floor. Her brain struggles to keep up with reality as a life or death struggle she thought was meant for her is suddenly one between the giant bear and a colossal snake.

It was arrogant to assume she would ever be involved in a struggle in this forest. Her life or death is entirely up to the whims of madness, and her part to play is to die afraid. In this place she’s a bystander to be slaughtered for fun at any moment. She probably wouldn’t have even been nutritious for that bear. She reaches down with a kunai and cuts her sandals’ strap, twisting out of it and taking off running. The second sandal hits the ground a second later, lest she be slowed down by an improper balance.

She only spares one glance back, is it just her, or is that snake’s eyes glowing?