Starts In Konoha: Unlocking Shadow Clone

With Naruto's team leading the way, signing their consent forms, the remaining candidates followed suit one by one.

No one wanted to seem cowardly by backing out at the last minute, not after fighting for the chance to take the exam.

Naruto, however, was oblivious to all this.

Upon entering the Forest of Death, his first impression was that of a primal rainforest in a tropical zone. Birds flew overhead while reptiles and beasts slithered and prowled below.

Within mere minutes, Naruto's team witnessed the raw laws of the jungle, with small insects devoured by larger ones, birds preying on insects, and snakes swallowing the birds in turn. The rule of survival of the fittest was vividly apparent in this forest.

"Spread out ten meters apart and search the area for the scroll." Naruto instructed.

The three split up, each ten meters away from the other, and proceeded forward in a line.

Before long, Sasuke called out, "Naruto, come here and take a look!"

"Did you find it?"

Naruto flashed and ran to Sasuke's side.

In a flash, Naruto was at Sasuke's side. Before them stood a 30-centimeter-high rock, inscribed with the word 'Shinobi'.

"This should mark the location of a Heaven or Earth scroll. Let's step back."

Naruto said, pulling Sasuke ten meters away before quickly summoning a shadow clone.

It is not ruled out that this is a trap in the assessment, so Naruto felt it was safer to send a clone.

The shadow clone moved forward and carefully lifted the rock. Beneath it was a small pit, in which lay a scroll marked with the character 'Earth'… it was the Earth scroll.

"It's the scroll!" Sakura exclaimed in excitement and was about to rush forward to grab it, but Naruto held her back.

"Don't be hasty. Let the clone pick it up." Naruto said in a deep voice.

Sakura pouted, "It's right there in front of us. What's there to be afraid of? I don't get it."

But at the next moment, as the clone grabbed the Earth scroll, his expression changed. The shadow clone shouted, "Take the scroll!" before throwing it toward Naruto and dispelling himself.

As Naruto caught the scroll, he quickly grabbed Sasuke and Sakura and dashed away from the area.

They had barely run a few steps when a loud explosion echoed from behind them. When they looked back, they saw the rock had been blown to pieces.

Recalling the memory from his shadow clone, Naruto said with a serious tone, "Good thing I sent a shadow clone. Anko is indeed up to no good. There were explosive tags under the scroll, and they're set to ignite the moment the scroll was removed."

Upon hearing this, Sakura, who had been disdainful just now, was now visibly shaken and her face turned pale with fear.

"If I had gone there, I probably wouldn't have had time to escape." Sakura admitted fearfully.

"Do you understand the dangers of this exam now?"

Naruto took the opportunity to lecture them, " We're the ones who requested a redo of the exam, so the difficulty level is bound to be doubled. Stay vigilant from now on and follow my lead."

Both Sasuke and Sakura nodded, fully trusting Naruto's judgment.

With a heightened sense of caution, they continued their journey through the forest.

Even though Naruto knew the plot, he didn't dare to be careless.

'Who knew what other traps Anko might have laid?'

'During the first exam, Ibiki had multiple proctors assisting him. Now, in this part of the exam, where gathering intelligence was the focus, there were no other proctors interfering. This likely meant Anko had devised hidden traps as a way to test our ability to obtain information under perilous conditions.'

After figuring everything out, Naruto would place a Flying Thunder God's mark on the ground every time he walked a certain distance, so that if he encountered danger, he could quickly retreat to a safe place.

Just like that, an hour passed quickly, and a system prompt sounded in Naruto's mind.

[It is detected that the host has stayed in the Forest of Death for one hour. Sign-in successful. Reward: Danger Sense!]

[Danger Sense: Passive skill that allows the user to detect any danger within a 100-meter radius.]

'Passive skill?'

Naruto was slightly taken aback. This was the first time he had obtained a passive skill.

'This ability to is probably something that the system created based on the natural danger instincts of animals.'

Naruto originally thought that he could obtain some invincible skill like 'King of the Jungle' by signing in in the Forest of Death, but he felt this ability is not bad either.

If he was able to sense danger within a hundred meters, he can react immediately.

Even after leaving the Forest of Death, this ability will still be useful in the future.

"Sasuke, Sakura, come back, let's go together."

Naruto called out.

Now that he had the Danger Sense ability, they didn't need to split up to search. He could simply lead the way forward, sensing any hidden traps, even those with explosive tags attached to scrolls.

Not only that, Naruto soon discovered how useful his new skill was. It filtered out minor threats like mosquitoes, which posed no harm, while picking up even the lowest-level hidden traps, sparing Naruto the mental effort of constantly checking for danger.

By dusk, as the sun set, the three of them unexpectedly arrived at the Central Tower.

"Huh, this…"

Naruto was a little speechless, surprised they'd made it through so quickly, 'It seemed a shame for the Forest of Death's trial to end so uneventfully…'

But Naruto didn't think too much of it, then threw one of the scrolls to Sasuke and the two opened them at the same time.

A puff of smoke appeared, and Iruka emerged from the scrolls.

"Naruto, you guys are here already?" Iruka was slightly surprised.

"Iruka-sensei, we are just lucky, but why don't you take Sakura with you? I think Sasuke and I will explore a bit more and get some extra training in." Naruto replied with a grin.

Iruka shook his head, and said with concern, "I wouldn't advise it. This place is full of dangers, and nightfall will only make it riskier."

"Don't worry, we'll be cautious. Besides, take a look at this. If it doesn't work, we'll use this to call for you."

Naruto pulled out the perfectly intact scroll Heaven scroll and Earth scroll from his pocket.

Seeing this, Iruka was speechless: "You've got incredible luck… Fine, then. Just remember, if anything goes wrong, open the scroll right away, and I'll be there."

Naruto nodded and waved goodbye to Iruka.

Sakura didn't say anything in reply. She was too exhausted from the day's scares, and there were mosquitoes everywhere, which she really couldn't stand.

"Sasuke, Naruto, be careful. I'll be waiting for you two to come back."

After saying that, Sakura followed Iruka and left obediently.

On the way, Iruka asked curiously, "Sakura, how did you guys manage to find two set of scrolls so easily?"

Hearing this, Sakura answered casually, "Oh, we just checked under rocks wherever we saw them. Actually, it wasn't just two… We've got a whole backpack full of scrolls. After using one just now, there's probably eleven sets left."

"What? Eleven sets? If what you said is true, I'm afraid this Chunin Exam is doomed again."

Iruka was petrified on the spot, his face full of bitterness.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked in confusion.

"Anko wanted to eliminate the vast majority of candidates, so she only put out thirteen set of scrolls in total!" Iruka said bitterly.

Hearing this, Sakura was also dumbfounded.

'So, since our team has taken twelve sets of scrolls, there's only one place is in the forest?'

'With the remaining 150 candidates, it's too difficult...'