The Way of the Heart
The towering trees confined within the area were ancient, tall and twisted, harbouring shadows in every crevice. A huge centipede scuttled up the side of the tree, sending dark, yellow eyes creatures scampering whilst a single bird flew down from the sky and settled gracefully on a branch.
Moments before being devoured by a monstrous python. This was Training Area 44, off limits to everyone but the bravest ninja. Clustered around the outside were around 100 Genin, or Beginner-level Ninja, waiting to go in to complete the first part of the Chuunin exam, which would qualify them to become Chuunin, or Middle-level Ninja. Among those Genin, one stood, hands shielding his eyes from the sun, frowning impatiently.
This was Naruto Uzumaki, or Naruto for short.
"This sure is a creepy place…" A pink-haired girl commented, a look of apprehension on her face. This was Sakura Haruno, a member of Naruto's 3 man cell, who was also taking the exam. The third member of the cell, Saskue Uchiha, stood slightly apart from the other two, looking over the forest with an air of irritation, equally impatient to get started, but able to pass it off as cool indifference.
"Heh…" The head examiner, Anko, snorted, addressing the whole crowd. "You will be able to experience why this place is called the Forest of Death."
"(Huh.)" Naruto snorted, putting his hands on his hips. "You will be able to experience why this place is called the Forest of Death." He repeated mockingly, wiggling from side-to-side. "There's no point in trying to scare us like that! I'm not scared at all!"
The other examiners tensed, waiting for Anko's sharp tongued retort, but instead, she smiled sweetly at him. "Really? You sure are energetic."
Suddenly, quicker than blinking, she extracted a kunai, throwing knife, out of her pocket and threw it at Naruto, missing his skin by millimetres and actually slicing the hair of another student behind. Naruto had barely thought 'What?' when she appeared out of nowhere behind him.
"Boys like you die the fastest…" She said in the same sweet tone, cupping his terrified face in her hand and tilting his head slightly. "After spilling out that red blood I love all over the place…" She added, gently wiping a finger up his cheek, collecting the warm liquid that had dripped from the fresh wound.
She suddenly tensed, slipping another kunai out of her sleeve and raising it up in a ready stance. A long, purple tongue reached over her shoulder, encircling the kunai she'd just thrown.
"Here's your knife…" The tongue's owner, another Genin, said as he tilted his hat to her.
"Thank you." Anko replied cheerily. "But don't stand behind me like that. That is, unless you want to die young…"
By this time, all eyes were on the three figures, so no-one noticed a bright twinkle in the blue sky above them…
"This is NOT the way back to Agrabah!!!" A young boy yelled frantically, hitting every button and pulling every lever of the Gummi Ship control panel he could get his hands on.
"Stop it! I've told you, I drive!" A pushy voice yelled in return, as Sora was suddenly shouldered out of the way by an anthropomorphic duck in wizard garb, who attempted to undo Sora's thoughtless commands until the ship tilted violently to the right, throwing all three of the crew into the far side of the cabin.
"Get your feathery butt out of my face!" Sora grunted, trying to extract himself from the pile up as the ship righted itself.
"You leave my behind out of this!" Donald shot back, his short temper flaring. "It's your fault that we're in this mess in the first place!"
"My fault?!?" He snapped, aghast. "Who just said they do all the driving?!?"
"That's beside the point!" The duck said dismissively, waving him away as their third crewmember, an anthropomorphic dog dressed in royal armour, sat up and rubbed his head, groaning. "You're the one who wanted to check out that dark scary looking space hole!"
"That's not my fault!" He snapped, gesticulating at the large, key-shaped weapon in his hand as Goofy moved to the front of the cabin. "The keyblade told me we should go towards it!"
"Liar!"
"Um, fellers…" Goofy said, waving for his friends' attentions as he stared out of the window, gulping in apprehension.
"You wanna start something?!" Sora growled, brandishing the keyblade threateningly.
"Fellers?" He looked back, pointing with both hands out of the window.
"Yeah!" Donald growled back, a short staff appearing in his hand. They strode forward and jammed their foreheads together, growling, trying to intimidate the other.
"FELLERS!" Goofy yelled suddenly, cupping his hands round his mouth. The other two looked round, surprised.
"Take it easy Goofy." Sora said apologetically. "We were only playing around."
"Hmmgh." Donald grunted, turning away, a small smile on his face.
"I know that," Goofy sighed, shaking his head. "I just wanted to know what you want to do about that?"
"What?" The other two said in unison.
"That." He confirmed, pointing behind him to the forest filling the whole front window.
They screamed.