[Konohagakure] Forty-Forth Training Ground (Forest of Death)

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A metallic fence surrounds its perimeter with 44 gates equally spaced around it; this perimeter is where the shinobi entered. Inside is a river, the forest, and a tower located in the exact center; the forest's radius is about ten kilometers. Its primary function served as a testing ground for the survival and fighting skills of genin trying to become chūnin. It was a very dangerous place, filled with hordes of flora and fauna, often gigantic, poisonous — or even more likely, both — hence its name. Within the forest are several large and deadly creatures such as leeches, tigers, and bears.

Spoiler:

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The tower in the center of the forest houses a large arena which is often used as another potential area for the exams. Otherwise it is also a normal building, recently used as storage for grains and other dry goods during the off seasons. It is upheld and maintained by the Chunin and Jounin of the Konohagakure.

One afternoon, a pair of red-haired twins from the Land of Whirlpools left Konohagakure to return to their homeland. One of these twins was a male in his mid teens. He carried on his back a large scroll, which had been used to seal a great number of ninja tools. The pair's journey brought them through the forty-forth training ground, which was a bit of a shortcut, as they seemed to consider it worthwhile. Whatever dangers were ahead of them, these two apparently thought themselves capable of dealing with it. "Mendokuse! We got dropped off so much earlier, but the trip back is already making me tired!"

"Oi, don't have that sort of attitude you'll make me tired too!" The red haired female of this pairing was also in her midteens and she wasn't carrying anything, her stroll was casual as she looked through this particular forest with all the interest in the world. "Eh, maybe we should have gotten Aneki to pick us up~ We could have gotten a better look around the village." the girl said. Their trip had been rather fruitful but she still felt like it could have included a bit more sight-seeing. Whatever the case, the pair didn't think themselves to be in any particular danger.

"You should be tired! We have to walk all the way back to the boat, then wait to get back home once we get on it! I can feel the seasickness coming already..." The longer he walked, the longer the young man known as Akira felt the trip home was going to be. He was beginning to drag his feet already, not due to actual fatigue, but due to the mental tiredness he gained from looking forward. "We couldn't have asked for that. Her kid up and disappeared on her; she had to get back to him. Besides, she's got a bunch of stuff going on in Suna. We'll be alright... when this is finally over."

"Where's your energy Aki?! Going new places, doing new things!~" She asked, in general this girl seemed to reek of optimism. "You can't think about all the bad stuff associated with the trip, it will just make it seem longer~" Finished the red haired young woman. It seemed that they were indeed making progress. To her point that they could have gotten their older sister to pick them up, her brother came back with some pretty factual information. "Yes, I guess you're right. To be fair though, that kid can probably take care of himself even without Aneki. He seems like the type anyways, what with him just skill checking, reading minds, and teleporting people out of thin air and all~" she added as they took a step forward. As they progressed deeper into the forest she began to see more. "Besides, after home, we can go visit Aneki directly, she never actually said what she does in the Suna..." she said seemingly curious about what her eldest sibling had started doing with her life after her previous exile.

Meanwhile, the pair was slowly but surely being approached. A red mist seemed to be gathering blowing in from the east where the river should have been. Of course, this would seem strange even to the red haired young woman and as she moved she became a bit uneasy.

"Yeah, that's cool and all, but... I dunno. I just kinda wish someone would invent a big flying machine or something. Maybe one that people could sit down in, and look through a window while it carried them where they need to do on another plane entirely. A plane! They should call it a plane!" he said, spinning around to face his closest sibling with flailing hand gestures to make his excitement over this idea obvious. As for the apparent strength of Benihime's child, he had a bit more of an idea to share. "He was kinda freaked out back there, though. A kid's still a kid, and that one probably needed some emotional support or something. Anyway, I bet she's a Jounin by now. She's gotta be with strength like that." As they pressed onward, Akira found himself walking out ahead, and doing so backwards as to gaze upon his twin directly while they conversed. Since he was looking, he could easily take note of her discomfort. "What's up? Something bugging you?"

"Plane huh? That sounds... fun and all. You figure out how they are going to keep something big enough to travel in up in the air without it falling, and I'll try it out with ya'!~" the girl said, find this entire thing to be something amazing and definitely worth looking into, if they should need to. Moving right along, her closest sibling mentioned that their nephew might have needed some emotional support, in spite of his strength and supposed that their eldest sister might be a jounin by now. "Hmm, I suppose that is true" she said her nephew, her eyes narrowing. "I hope she's a jounin, it'd be so cool, to get a show of her new skills~" And just like that, she came to a stop looking around the forest with her twin walking away facing her, apparently noticing her obvious discomfort. "Something doesn't feel quite right." she said and as she looked around but there was no obvious explanation for the feeling she had. "I thought the whole, Forest of Death thing might have been getting to me... but Aki, we might be in trouble."

"Perceptive, kitten." These words would be spoken as a man launched himself out of the trees. He was dressed overly ornately with hair of red and white trimmed around his face and trailing down his back. Beyond this, he had eyes like pupil-less moons blood red in color, he had an old world feel about him. On his shoulder a pauldron which had the shape of a tiger's head for whatever reason. After launching himself out of the trees he would aim to immediately capture the male of these twins by the neck, with a single hand sparing a single glance and a question. "Where is he?" A simple enough question but in the context of this situation it made no sense.

"Eto..." When Teruko voiced her thoughts on the feeling in this area, Akira raised a hand to gather what he expected to be a small amount of chakra from the surrounding area. What he got instead was many times more than his expectation, which left him wide-eyed. "Now that you mention it, this place is kinda..." The young man would never get a chance to finish his statement. Mid-sentence, he was cut off by the words of the white and red-haired man, who immediately went on to grip Akira by the neck during his appearance. This man's question was one Akira did not understand, nor was it one he could answer while being stifled in such a manner. His right hand quickly reached for his katana, which he aimed to draw and slash across his assailant's midsection in one swift motion.

After a second or two her twin seemed to understand her discomfort, but before they had enough time to process what was going on here, a man appeared out of nowhere attacking her twin and asking of the pair a question which neither of them had the ability to answer. The male twin to his credit tried to cut himself free, but the man didn't seem to care much about the slash coming toward his midsection. In fact the young man would find the blade met a piece of armor worn beneath the kimono worn by the man who seemed disappointed by the action. "You cut my clothes." he said without loosening his grip. While this occurred the female twin launched herself forward, without a moment of forethought a spinning back kick at her full speed and physical strength launched at the man's back a bit higher than her brother's strike had been. The strange man seemed to be a bit surprised by this, even so he reached behind him at the top of her kick and grabbed her by the neck and was presently holding both twins in this way. "Oh kitten, you give me hope. I didn't think the pair of you would be worth hunting. I have greater prey on my mind than you. Perhaps, you'll be a good pre-game hunt. Though I will be needing you to answer my question." He spoke those words, belittling the pair and their skills, before aiming to slam the surprised and still struggling female twin, into her male twin. This was done, apparently without care for brandished weapons nor potential injury to either of them, taking the time to let both of them go as he did. "Speak." The man said, apparently in wait for an answer to his question, regardless of the current state of both of the twins.

Much to Akira's dismay, the connection of his slash did not yield the blood of his target. Beyond that, his sister was soon at the receiving end of this man's choke-hold as well, after failing to connect an attack of her own. This would lead to another speech from the strange man, which in-turn led to him aiming to slam the two into one another. As their bodies drew closer, Akira gathered chakra from the surrounding area to create a cushion of sorts between them, softening the blow for both ends before they were released. Their attacker's query was still in demand, it seemed, but Akira had no clue what he could be getting at. "What the hell are you even talking about?"