Chapter 1049: The Forest of Bones
The thick cold fog blocked the light and seemed to block the sounds from the outside world. In the fog with flying ice shards, the world seemed to have fallen into a dead silence.
Haku poked his face out from an ice mirror suspended in mid-air and while staring at the red snake frozen into an ice sculpture, he thought, ‘For such a powerful Summon, a short period of being frozen shouldn’t be enough to end its life, right?’
Haku believed that Kimimaro probably wouldn’t take too long to complete the mission, after all, it’s Kimimaro, and once Kimimaro completes the mission of assassinating Uchiha Sasuke, he can release the ninjutsu trapping the Snake along with Naruto.
Just as Haku was having these thoughts, suddenly a crack appeared on the frozen figure of the Giant Snake.
Haku was surprised, “How did they?”
Smash!
Before he could react, a deafening sound echoed in the forest as the Ice Sculpture before him shattered into a million pieces and the Giant Red Snake once again slid out. However, more than the Giant Red Snake, what stunned Haku was Naruto standing atop Garaga’s head while being cloaked in the violet and corrosive Tailed Beast Chakra.
“That Chakra is really frightening!” mumbled Haku as a trace of sweat covered his forehead.
It’s not to say that he was scared of Naruto, rather he was deeply shocked because this was the first time he had felt Chakra this powerful.
‘I really can’t allow him to go near Kimimaro-kun…’ with such a thought, Haku waved his hands and countless Kunai-shaped ice crystals crystallized around him and attacked both Naruto and Garaga simultaneously from all directions.Whoosh!
In the face of countless Ice crystals coming at him, Garaga coiled his body and spun it in circles to use the scales on it to resist the Ice Crystals. At the same time, Naruto, standing atop Garaga’s head waved his hand as a Giant Nine-tail’s Chakra arm immediately stretched out and attacked Haku.
‘Not good!’ thought Haku as he clapped his hands. Instantly the mist & vapors around him condensed into solid Ice in the path of the Chakra Arms.
Bang!
A loud bang echoed as the Nine-Tail’s Giant Chakra arms collided with the Ice, breaking it into countless pieces.
“To be able to break that barrier instantly…” mumbled Haku in surprise as he further condensed more and more Ice to defend against Nine-tail’s Chakra Arm. His Kekkei Genkai is inherently very powerful, and by adding Senjutsu Chakra to his Ice Style, the defensive power has been augmented several times, yet the Nine-tail’s Chakra arm instantly broke that Ice Barrier.
It was exactly as he had guessed earlier; the power of Nine-tail’s Chakra Arm is terrifying, and during the collision, it slowly gained the upper hand, after all, there is a stark difference in Chakra reserves of two sides. Other than Kuroto who has Ryūmyaku & Giant Tenseigan, Nagato who has Chakra Reserves of several tailed beasts in his hand, and Toneri with the Giant Tenseigan on the Moon, there is hardly anyone who can match Naruto in terms of Chakra Reserves. Haku definitely couldn’t, as such, without a surprise, the barrier he created was soon broken through and burst into several pieces and smashed Haku in the gut, sending him flying down from the Ice Mirror, bang!
Cough!
Haku coughed out blood as he tried to get back up.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Suddenly, the earth trembled, and sharp bone spears erupted from the ground, rising up one after another to form a vast bone forest.
The abrupt change instantly interrupted the battle between Haku and Naruto, causing them both to turn their gazes towards the center of the bone forest.
…
In the Distance
Looking at the giant figure of Gamabunta along with the deep red color created by the Jutsu used by Sasuke not long along, and the appearance of Garaga that seems to appear and disappear from time to time along with all that Ice around him, the Jōnins responsible for monitoring the Chūnin Promotion Exam raised their eyebrows.
The fight between the Kumogakure’s squad led by Darui and Amegakure’s squad led by Raijin was already more than exaggerated enough and had affected the entire Forest of Death to a certain extent. In their opinion, another battle of that scale should not have occurred during the second phase of the Joint Chūnin Promotion Exams.
But it turns out that not long after the previous battle ended, another terrifying battle started on the other side of the Forest of Death.
Standing atop the canopy of a tree, Shizune mumbled, “That’s Gamabunta-sama from Mount Myōboku and the Snake should be Uzumaki Naruto’s summon Garaga from the Ryūchi Cave… for the two of them to call upon them…”
Kakashi nodded with a thoughtful expression.
As the Jōnin instructor of Team Seven, Kakashi is no stranger to the Summon used by the three Genins of his squad, and for two of the three kids to have called upon their summon… means they have been pushed to that extent, however, he couldn’t immediately point out the people who could push the three kids to this extent.
Kurenai couldn’t help but wonder as well, “Who are they fighting?”
Although there are a lot of extremely strong ‘Genins’ participating in the Joint Chūnin Promotion Exam, apart from Deidara, Darui, and Raijin, there shouldn’t be any other ninja capable of pushing Naruto, Sasuke, and Mika of Squad Seven to this extent.
“Maybe someone from Sunagakure or perhaps Kirigakure?” suggested Hizashi.
Since shinobi from Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and Amegakure have appeared somewhere or another and made major movement during the second phase of the exam, it wouldn’t be surprising if the people fighting the squad seven are from Sunagakure or Kirigakure, after all, the participants from those two villages are no slouch either.
Whoosh!
At this time, an Anbu ninja appeared beside Kakashi and reported the matter, “Kakashi-sama, it has been verified that the ninjas fighting against your squad are from Otogakure, Kaguya Kimimaro, Yuki Haku, and Guren…”
“Otogakure ninjas?” muttered Asuma in surprise, and judging from the battle situation in the distance, he couldn’t help but wonder, “Are ninjas from Otogakure this capable?”
As far as Asuma is aware, Otogakure is a newly established village, and it neither has any major achievements, nor fame unlike the five great shinobi villages or Amegakure. Heck, Otogakure is not even a proper shinobi village, and it certainly does not have. The only reason they even know of Otogakure is because of the agreement Konoha signed with several other small villages, and for such a village to push some of the strongest Genins of Konoha to this extent, Asuma had to be surprised.
“Fortunately, we did not experience such a terrifying Chūnin Promotion Exam back then, otherwise, we would have remained Genins all over lives!” muttered Shizune with a sigh. She felt pity for most of the unfortunate Genins that were participating in this Joint Promotion Exam.
And the other Jōnins around her couldn’t help agreeing with similar thoughts in their mind, save for one person, that is Might Guy. He was very excited and hoped that he can also get a chance to participate in such battles so that the flames of his youth can always burn brightly.
Just as they were having such thoughts, suddenly, the earth trembled, and sharp bone spears erupted from the ground, rising up one after another to form a vast bone forest.
Looking at the familiar forest of Bones in the distance, Kurenai suddenly mumbled, “Fujin!”
Kakashi shook his head, “No, it has to be Kaguya Kimimaro of Otogakure!” then his expression turned serious and he said, “Although Shisui and Uchiha Shinichi are keeping a watch over Naruto, I feel like I should be there as well, just in case…”
Guy agreed, “In that case, let’s go…”
Kakashi shook his head, “No, we cannot leave Fū unattended… I will go to check up on my squad, meanwhile, you guys keep a watch over Fū. Once I make sure that Naruto and the others are alright, I will join you guys…” In Kakashi’s opinion, with Guy watching over Fū, there shouldn’t be any problem.
“Hmm, fair enough,” said Guy.
The others nodded in agreement.