Naruto: The dungeon I developed went viral throughout the entire ninja world.

Chapter 69 The Forest of Death, Orochimaru's Selfish Ambitions

Training Ground 44, Death Forest.

Towering barbed wire fences isolate this primeval forest from the outside world.

Inside, there were towering trees, and poisonous insects and ferocious beasts everywhere.

It looks eerie and terrifying; people with weak mental fortitude probably wouldn't survive the first round.

Mitarashi Anko stands at the entrance.

She was wearing a sexy mesh lingerie set over a beige trench coat, and holding a stack of papers in her hand.

"Listen up, you little devils."

Hongdou's voice was loud, with a gloating laugh, as if the more these people suffered, the happier she was.

"This is the Forest of Death."

"As the name suggests, you might die inside if you go in."

"Signed it."

She waved the paper in her hand.

"A waiver of liability for life or death."

"We are not responsible if someone dies inside."

"If your body is eaten by wild animals, don't expect the village to collect it for you."

This intimidation did frighten quite a few people. Is this even allowed? They're just here to take an exam; there's no need to risk their lives here.

Some of the lower-ranking ninjas' hands began to tremble, and they could barely hold the pen while signing; they were truly terrified.

Class 7 stood in the crowd.

Naruto took the death warrant without even looking at it, or perhaps he was too lazy to look at it, and simply signed his name.

Sasuke is the same.

Although Sakura was a little nervous, she glanced at her two teammates beside her and signed as well, since they were a team.

They had been through the Land of Waves together and fought many battles together, which strengthened their mental fortitude considerably.

"Hmph, you little brats, you've got guts."

Red Bean retracts the death warrant.

"I hope you'll still be this tough when you come out."

In the shadows behind the crowd, a grass ninja wearing a straw hat stood quietly.

His hat brim was pulled low, covering most of his face.

Only his long tongue, which occasionally dangled out, betrayed his inner greed, Orochimaru.

Although he had made a deal with Roy and agreed to be a technical advisor, he still came.

Because he didn't completely believe that the shop owner named Roy could really mold Sasuke into the perfect vessel.

He also didn't believe that any special training could compare to the trials he had faced on the brink of life and death; there were too many variables in this world.

Orochimaru only wanted to achieve what he desired using methods that he could truly control.

"Sasuke-kun..."

Orochimaru smiled slightly, his golden vertical pupils filled with excitement.

"I already had the Sound Four roughly test your stamina, but it wasn't enough. Now let me see for myself just how much you're capable of."

"Am I worthy to bear my soul?"

"start!"

The signal gun fired.

All the squads shot into the forest like arrows released from a bow.

Team 7 was very fast, with Naruto and Sasuke leading the way and Sakura close behind.

Less than five minutes after entering the forest, a strange noise came from the bushes ahead, and a huge centipede crawled out of the ground.

It is over ten meters long, and each of its feet is like a sharp scythe.

It opened its mouth wide and spewed out a green, poisonous mist.

"Be careful!"

Sakura exclaimed in surprise, but Naruto did not stop or even draw his kunai.

With a casual flick of his wrist, a shuriken flew out, spinning rapidly.

The shuriken sliced ​​through the centipede's hard shell as easily as cutting tofu, and even cut the centipede in half.

The centipede struggled a few times, then stopped moving, clearly dead beyond any doubt.

"Too weak, they're not even qualified to be our opponents."

Naruto withdrew his hand without even glancing at the centipede.

The three continued forward, and another ten minutes passed.

"Hand over the reel!"

Three rain ninjas jumped down from the tree.

They were wearing breathing masks and holding poisoned senbon needles.

"Rain Ninja?"

Sasuke stopped in his tracks, his eyes cold.

"Perfect, I'll use you guys as practice."

With a hiss, lightning chakra instantly covered his entire body.

Sasuke disappeared, and the next second, he appeared behind three Rain Ninja.

The Kusanagi sword in their hands was sheathed, and the three fell to the ground.

Sasuke bent down and searched their bodies, finding a scroll.

"The Earth Scroll, it seems our luck is pretty good."

Sasuke tossed the scroll to Naruto.

"Let's go, this level of exam is a complete waste of time."

His tone was full of disdain, as if the opponents here were no longer worthy of his strength.

For Team 7 right now, these ordinary genin can't even be paired with them for a warm-up.

Just as they were about to leave, a cold wind blew by, and the temperature seemed to drop sharply.

An inexplicable sense of oppression surged from all around.

"What happened?"

Sakura felt a chill run through her body. Naruto and Sasuke stopped in their tracks and looked ahead warily.

The ground began to rise, and the soil churned.

A grass ninja wearing a straw hat slowly rose from the ground.

He didn't make a move; he just stood there watching Sasuke.

A terrifying killing intent erupted instantly, an aura that only a demon who had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood could possess.

A palpable killing intent instantly enveloped Class 7.

Naruto and Sasuke both felt as if their bodies were becoming immobile, which was quite similar to the scene in Tanabata Street more than four years ago. Sure enough, this powerful guy still came.

Immediately afterwards, the illusion appeared.

In that instant, they saw a vision of themselves being killed.

I've experienced almost every kind of death imaginable: beheading, being torn apart, or being devoured.

The fear of death made their hearts pound and their clothes soaked with cold sweat.

"This is..."

Sasuke gritted his teeth, trying to control his trembling body.

"Killing intent at the level of the Three Legendary Sannin?"

Although I had experienced it once before, this time facing the fear head-on felt like the other side was really serious, and it was completely different from the last time.

The grass ninja raised her head, revealing a pale face and golden vertical pupils.

"Sasuke-kun."

Orochimaru finally stopped pretending and spoke directly to Sasuke.

"Although your eyesight is excellent and your lightning release technique is quite sharp."

"but……"

Orochimaru stuck out his long tongue, not forgetting to give him a jab.

"It's still a long way off."

"This level of power isn't even enough to protect oneself."

"Not to mention protecting your people, you can't protect anything."

These words, coming from a powerful figure at the level of a Sannin, utterly devastated him, making it seem as if his years of training had been in vain.

His people are his Achilles' heel, and protecting them is also his motivation to become stronger.

"Shut up!"

Sasuke roared, his anger overpowering his fear.

He bit his tongue, the sharp pain bringing him back to his senses and forcibly freeing him from the shackles of murderous intent.

"You dare to talk about protecting? You yourself betrayed Konoha, and you didn't protect anything at all, did you?"

Sasuke formed hand seals with incredible speed, using the sequence "巳龙卯寅".

"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!"

A giant fire dragon spewed from Sasuke's mouth.

The fire dragon roared as it charged toward Orochimaru along the steel wire, the intense heat instantly igniting the surrounding trees.

Flames soared into the sky, as if proclaiming that even ordinary ninjas had the determination to resist the strong.