When I reach the center of the forest of death, I encounter some members of the most prominent clans of Konoha, such as some Hyuga, Yamanaka, Nara, and so on.
I don't feel like remembering them all; it's hard enough for me to remember faces, and now having to remember each clan gives me a headache.
Of course, the most obvious ones are the Hyuga, whether it's their white eyes or the clothes they wear, because they have the yin and yang symbol on them.
I look around and, just as I imagined, Kakashi has already arrived.
"Took you long enough, didn't it?" he says in a lazy voice.
I play dumb and look away, checking to see if he's talking to me or someone else.
But of course, Obito and Rin aren't here, because even though they took the chunin exam together in the anime, it seems out of place to me that Kakashi graduated at 5 and was put in the same group as those two, since they graduated years later.
I got lost in that aspect, since I didn't understand the timeline, so I just turned off my brain and said, "Screw it."
Thinking nonsense again, Kakashi approaches me and gives me a slight push, noticing that I'm out of tune.
"Hey, I'm talking to you, don't play dumb."
Coming back to my senses, I look him in the face.
"I found it strange that you spoke to me, since we have no relationship whatsoever.
Kakashi just rolled his eyes, but then he said something that made sense to me.
"You're my father's student, of course we have some kind of relationship. Besides, for someone who's his student, you took a long time. What were you supposed to be doing?
I didn't remember him being so talkative, but he's right, his father is my teacher.
I have no reason to hide it from him... but no reason to tell him either. What a useless dilemma.
But I'm too lazy to tell the story, so I'd better take out the ninja headbands I've been hunting for most of my time.
Of course, I gave them to him in a sealing scroll that I made under Kushina's guidance, because it's not like I could just go around taking out the headbands for no reason.
Kakashi takes the sealing scroll and pulls out a headband that was inside, which is covered in blood and has marks from being bitten by a wild animal.
The fabric still smelled of dirt and dried blood, but what caught his attention most was the simple state of the headband.
He was stunned to notice that there were more headbands inside, but he put the one he was holding away and calmly returned the scroll to me.
"I understand now, you really are worthy of being his student.
I figured that was the case, as I knew Kakashi had a certain pride.
I took back the scroll with the headbands and put it in my tool pocket.
Why do I want the headbands of the dead? Simple, they are both trophies and tools for psychological coercion, because with the headbands in that state, how horrible must the body have been?
Besides, now that I think about it, it would be interesting if I could have abilities like Kakuzu's.
I already hired him as a mercenary, so I don't know if he could teach me his multiple heart technique.
While I was thinking about Kakuzu, I got distracted and didn't notice that Kakashi was still watching me silently. I see Kakashi has a complicated expression, which can still be seen under his mask.
"What's wrong?"
He just looks at me for a moment and then looks down.
"I just didn't expect you to take the time to even collect trophies."
Oh, that...
"I have my reasons, it's hard to explain."
But he looks at me again, returning to his usual lazy expression.
"No need, don't worry about it."
I just nod and move toward the tower to rest.
It makes things easier for me if I don't have to explain, it saves me time.
In fact, I also take the weapons, tools, and some accessories from the corpses since I can recycle them into something else.
Free materials, right? Besides, I don't understand why so much importance is placed on "respecting the belongings of the dead."
Neither in this life nor the last did I manage to understand it, because if they are objects that you are going to use yourself, why waste them by burying them with their previous owner?
Out of respect for the dead? I don't really understand it, but in my previous life I had no choice but to follow their rules.
But in this life? No, if I can loot the things I need that a mere corpse is not going to use, then I will get them.
It's not like these people respect their dead very much, since they even experimented on parts of the first Hokage's body, and the second created the technique of reincarnation from the impure world.
The high command of Konoha are nothing more than a bunch of corrupt grave robbers, so they have no right to complain to me.
They talk about values, but the first Hokage ended up dissected like a frog in a laboratory.
...
Once again, I lost myself in my thoughts.
It's very annoying; my brain keeps spinning randomly. It seems that even in this world, I have the same damn condition as in my past life.
Or could it be my personality? I don't know, I don't think so.
..........
Kenji sat outside the tower that the supervisors had designated as their destination and handed over the scrolls of heaven and earth to confirm that he had completed the second test.
Kakashi had already arrived a day earlier, but he only got the missing scroll and left. He had no interest or intention of doing the same as Kenji, so even though he pretended to be calm, he was actually stunned after seeing the Kusagakure ninja's headband.
"This... this is a headband from a ninja from the Grass Village?" he thought to himself.
"If it's inside a scroll, that means there should be more. How many has he killed?"
The blood was already dry, so it must have been some time since the previous owner's death, but the smell and condition of the headband indicate that he was killed by beasts. Could they be summonings? Did he find only the corpses and steal the headbands?
Kakashi shook his head, as Kenji didn't seem like the type to do that.
"He's just a kid like me, but why do I feel such a strong aura of death around him? How was he raised and molded? Does my father know what his student is like? If he does, I think it could be my father's plan to raise a true ninja."
Kakashi was deep in thought, as it was a great shock to him to see that a ninja would even take trophies from those he kills.
It may be an everyday occurrence in this world, but Kakashi has only just taken his first lives, so he is not yet accustomed to this kind of cruelty and cynicism.
Kakashi now sees Kenji as someone who could be highly dangerous in the future if he gets out of control, but from his attitude, there seems to be something deeper and more confusing.
"I need to observe him longer. I want to get to know him better to determine whether he will be a partner or a future enemy."
But after a while, he sees that Kenji is surrounded by wolves, which appear to be his summoned beasts, which he pets and plays with as if they were mere pets.
The boy doesn't know what to think.
But in his heart, he feels both fear and respect for Kenji, both for being strong enough to take down several teams and for his harsh methods and personality.
....
Since there was only one day left until the end of the second test, we had no choice but to sit and wait for the rest of the teams to arrive or for the time to run out.
For my part, I had my ants search for other species of ants in the forest, but they only found honey ants.
...
I don't know what to think. While it's interesting that they were found, they're not really useful to me in my profession as a ninja.
But I think they would serve as good transporters of supplies for my ant colonies, so even though I wasn't entirely convinced, I ordered them to bring back a princess to raise as queen and breed her colony.
Although I was disappointed that they only found honey ants, they did find a nest of giant Asian hornets, but there are also corpses of other shinobi who had the misfortune of passing near their habitat.
To be honest, I would like to find warrior hornets whose sting is at least the second most painful in the world.
But I'm not going to turn down those Asian giant hornets, as they are quite aggressive and can cause respiratory failure.
I want those hornets, so I open five more jars with my bullet ants and send them to face those hornets.
This insect versus arthropod war will be legendary.
The ants used the tunnels built by their predecessors, quickly reaching the hornets' hive.
Luckily, these hornets build their nests underground just like ants, so it's easy for them to sneak in and steal the hornets' larvae.
There were a few that detected them, but since the bullet ant has the most painful sting and was enhanced with chakra, a single bullet ant is enough to kill one or more hornets.
An army of bullet ants was kidnapping hornet larvae and taking them underground to return to Kenji's jar, leading to the future birth of a queen who would begin to build a hive near Kenji's base of operations.
In the future, the location of Kenji's base would be classified as a territory of maximum danger, because apart from bullet ants, Asian giant hornets, and violin spiders
It would also be a refuge for many more species of the same, even creating variants by crossing different breeds of insects, arthropods, and arachnids, creating a new ecosystem within that forest territory.
But that's a story for another time.
The last day of the second part of the chunin exam arrived. Kenji had released his bullet ants throughout the forest, but it wasn't just to kidnap hornet larvae; they were also bothering the other participants.
Those who couldn't get there in time had very serious sting marks, and there were even a few brown recluse spiders mixed in, so now some of them had very large blisters.
If one knew what a violin spider was capable of, they would immediately withdraw from the exam, but in this world, apart from the Aburame clan and doctors, there are not many who know how to differentiate between insects.
And so the second part of the exam passed.
The supervisors arrived and said that those who had passed should meet a month later for the third phase, as they would be given time to rest and/or train, and also to wait for all the bigwigs of the shinobi world to arrive, whether they were daimyos, nobles, or wealthy merchants curious to see the chunin exams.
A/N
Sorry for the delay, but unfortunately, I'm just like Kenji in that once I get interested in something, I focus on it until I realize how much time I've wasted.
Well, YouTube has been messing with me a lot with Umamusume, and now I'm about to win the championship with Gold Ship.
Anyway, I'll take my time with the drawing I mentioned, as I'm working on getting better components for my PC, so I'll take my time.
With nothing else to say, thank you for reading.