Chapter 47: Forest of Silence and the Rules of the First Round

Eight more days passed in the blink of an eye. Today, all seven members of the second-year Class 1-S team had gathered in their classroom. Surprisingly, there were no other students in the class apart from them. Why? Because the competition between the four S-class teams will begin today. So, apart from the students who were participating in the competition, everyone else received three days of holiday. Seimei, Reina, Shikamo, and others were talking to each other when they suddenly heard the familiar sound of their classroom door sliding open. They stopped talking and looked up, only to see their homeroom teacher, Kamishiro Kirito, walk in. He walked to the podium, swept his gaze through the seven prodigies of his class, and smiled. "I see that you all are in high spirits," Kirito began talking. "That's good. Because you will need it." Ishimori Haneda asked, "Sensei, can you tell us more about the competition now?" Sarutobi Yuto interjected, "Yes, sensei. We know nothing about the competition. We don't know anything about the rounds. We know nothing at all." "In the last few days, we just trained in various Shinobi tactics like headless chickens without any direction." The other five didn't say anything. They simply nodded their heads, waiting for their Sensei to say something. Meanwhile, Uchiha Reina's head was swirling with various thoughts. There were no such competitions during our second year in my original time before the regression. I don't know what's going on. I don't understand. How can there be such a butterfly effect? No, should I call it a butterfly storm now? Anyway, thinking too much will only give me a headache. At least, most things are still the same, except for a few anomalies. However, these changes aren't necessarily a bad thing. It only means that Konoha's next generation of ninjas will be far stronger and way more capable than the Shinobi in my time before the regression. So, this is good. While Reina was immersed in her inner monologue, Kamishiro Kirito finally opened his mouth. "Well, since you are asking me so nicely, how can I withhold the information?" "This competition will have two rounds." "The first round will be conducted within the Training Ground No. 102—Forest of Silence." "The first round will last for up to 3 days." "After that, you will get a mandatory break of one day before the second round begins." "As for the details of these rounds..." Kirito thought for a while before replying with a gentle smile that didn't look gentle at all. "You will find out before the round begins." Hearing this, Uzumaki Keiko, who was looking at her sensei with eyes full of hope and anticipation, deflated like a balloon. Nara Shikamo simply nodded, but he also had metaphorical black lines on his forehead. Seimei, Reina, Yuto, and Haneda stared at their sensei with a blank face that screamed, "Are you kidding me?" Meanwhile, Touma's face showed visible signs of irritation. On the other side, Kamishiro Kirito kept smiling and clasped his hands together—his whole demeanor looked shady. He remarked, "Okay, now. Don't stare at me like that." "I didn't make the rules." After saying that, he walked down from the podium and said, "Now, follow me, my students." "We will travel directly to the location of the first round." Then, he activated the Body Flicker Technique and quickly disappeared from his location. However, he moved slowly enough to allow his students to track and follow him. Seimei, Reina, and others looked at each other before they, too, activated the Body Flicker Technique to follow their sensei. After travelling for an hour, they reached the outskirts of the village. Before them was a long steel barricade covered with countless barrier tags. And behind that were tall trees with dense foliage. Each tree was at least 30 meters tall. The canopy was so thick that even sunlight had a hard time reaching the surface, painting the forest in an eerie dark-green hue. Suddenly, they heard the familiar voice of their homeroom teacher, cutting through the silence. "Welcome, my students." "The forest before you is the Konoha Special Training Ground No. 102. And it's famously known as the Forest of Silence." The members of the Class 1-S team finally tore their eyes off the jungle and gazed toward Kirito, who had just spoken a few seconds ago. Seimei and Reina also scanned their immediate vicinity to see who else was here. And sure enough, the teams of Class 2-S and Class 3-S were already present. The members of those teams also saw the Class 1-S students coming and started whispering to each other. They were obviously plotting against them. And in little over 10 minutes, the last team, the Class 4-S, also appeared along with their homeroom instructors. When all four teams and their homeroom teachers assembled, a loud, booming voice reached their ears. "Alright, kids. Listen up!" Seimei instinctively moved his head in the direction the voice was coming from. There, he saw a 1.8-meter-tall man with a lean but powerful figure wearing a standard Konoha Jonin vest. He had black, spiky short hair and vertical slit-like pupils, giving the man a wild vibe. Seimei didn't even have to think which Shinobi clan he belonged to. The magenta fang-like markings on his cheeks and the towering, black-colored, ferocious canine pet gave him away. He was a Shinobi from the Inuzuka clan. A clan that was famous for raising ninkens, a group of powerful dog or wolf-like ninja beasts that fought alongside them. "I'm Inuzuka Hiro. A Jonin of Konoha. And I will be the proctor of this round." "Now, let me tell you the rules, so you don't get yourself disqualified within the very first day." The rules were simple: • Each participant will enter the Forest of Silence individually through different gates. As a result, they will be at least 11 kilometers away from the nearest participant at their point of entry. • The participants must reach the central tower located inside the Forest of Silence within 3 days. The tower is exactly 50 kilometers away from each entry point. • Each participant will get a special scroll that they must not lose. Otherwise, they will be disqualified. • The forest is filled with various Chakra Beasts. The strongest of them has a danger rating of B. There are also tens of beasts of B- danger rating. However, it's rare to encounter them. At most, they might have to fight against several C-rank Chakra Beasts while they are inside the forest. • Attacking the opponent team members is permitted. To eliminate them, you must either snatch or destroy your opponent's special scroll. • Permanently crippling or killing your opponents is not permitted. Apart from that, participants can use every method to subdue their opponents. • The forest has many patrolling Shinobi. They will intervene if you're incapacitated or if your life is in mortal danger. However, if their intervention is valid, the participant will be disqualified. That was about the gist of it. "It's 10:56 AM now. You will enter the forest at 12 PM sharp." "I, as well as your instructors, will wait for you in the tower." "If you fail to enter the tower within 3 days at the same time and if you don't have your special scroll on you, you will be disqualified." "Soon, you will travel with a patrolling Shinobi to reach your designated entry point by 11:45 AM. You will also get your special scroll at your designated entry point." "Good luck, participants." "Dismissed." With that, Inuzuka Hiro finished conveying everything he had to say. A couple of minutes later, every participant, including Seimei, was assigned a patrolling Shinobi who would guide them to their designated entry point. It's almost like the second round of the Chunin exam I saw in the original Naruto anime series in my previous life. However, there is no Heaven and Earth scroll nonsense. And the forest location is different. Plus, we don't get to enter with our team members. Ah! Yes, let's not forget about the Chakra Beasts. They can pop up anytime, making this test more difficult than it should have been. Meh! Doesn't matter. Seimei finished his inner monologue and waved at his teammates. "Don't get disqualified before we even reach the second round, alright guys?" "Now, bye-bye!" With that, Seimei flickered away along with his assigned patrolling Shinobi. Reina looked at Seimei's departing figure before she also turned around, waved at her teammates, and vanished from the spot using the Body Flicker Technique. Only her lingering voice telling "See you later" remained. The remaining five looked at each other and nodded. Fire of determination was burning inside them. Soon, they too disappeared from the spot to reach their designated entry points within the time limit. ---------------------------- A/N: Do you like what you are reading? Support me on P@treon and read up to 25 Advanced chapters! patreon.com/Seigan