After catching a glimpse of the power hidden in the depths of hell, Bakorio decided to hasten his plans so he created multiple clones and focused solely on reaching level 100 in all of his Sage arts. It took him a whole week to finish this task, and he was satisfied with the results. After he was done with this, he went to Hiruzen so that he can start his final trials to learn the monkeys' sage arts…

"Bakorio-kun, are you sure you want to go through with this trial? It's going to be hard" Said Hiruzen trying to advise Bakorio not to waste his time but the latter simply shrugged and said "You have an idea about the situation and the danger we are in. I need to finish this no matter what"

Hearing this, Hiruzen let out a sigh before he nodded at Bakorio and said "I hope you succeed" before he summoned the monkey king Enma to escort Bakorio to the mountain of flowers and fruits…

….

After Bakorio was reverse summoned to this sacred ground, he was hit by a sweet aroma in the air, and when he observed his surrounding, he noticed that just as it was described, this place was full of all kinds of flowers and fruit trees which made the soul relax just by staring at their ethereal beauty…

"What a wonderful place" muttered Bakorio and Enma chuckled slightly at him and said "You are not here for a picnic, you can enjoy your time once you pass the trials, otherwise you can't stay here"

Bakorio nodded at him and followed him to the location of the first trial, the trial of life and death that would be held by the red monkey tribe.

"I can't lead you any further from here, the red monkey king will take you to the location of the trial" said Enma as they reached a territory full of red houses, and not long after, a tall and thin red monkey approached them with an emotionless look on its eyes as he observed the two of them before he nodded at Enma and said to Bakorio "Follow me"

Bakorio nodded at him and followed him silently, and before long, he was led to a statue of a monkey that had red eyes that appeared to be made of gems…

"Stare at the eyes of the statue, and the trial shall commence" said the red monkey king before he sat down to the side and observed Bakorio silently

'He's completely different than Enma… is there a reason for this?' Bakorio contemplated silently before he decided not to bother with such useless things

'Enma said that this trial tests my survival abilities when I'm deprived of all of my power, this is no big deal for me' thought Bakorio before he fearlessly stared at the statue's eyes which he guessed would probably put him inside a Genjutsu for it to be possible…

….

Just as Bakorio had guessed, the moment he stared at the statue's red gem-like eyes, he was immediately sent into a strong Genjutsu where he felt as if he transformed into a mortal once more.

His body was weak, he had no chakra, and even his thinking speed was slowed down! 'This is a terrifying Genjutsu... It's at the level of Itachi's Genjutsu!' thought Bakorio as he observed the natural place he appeared in. It seemed as if he was in a forest and a voice suddenly whispered in his head. "Survive for one weak in the forest"

"Well, this is going to be a walk in the park—" Bakorio muttered confidently before he suddenly froze when he heard a terrifying roar coming from the sky above him

"ROAAAAAAAAAAR"

This roar caused the earth to vibrate and the clouds to part which allowed Bakorio whose eardrums were about to burst to catch a glimpse of the creature behind this… It was a very huge red dragon that was at least 100 meters long and it passed above him, casting a long shadow on the ground making it appear as if night has fallen on that area…

"It seems like only my strength was taken… The creatures here are probably still strong. I need to be careful if I want to pass this trial" muttered Bakorio completely ignoring the fact that he was overflowing with confidence not too long ago before he thought secretly to himself as he always does 'How come they know about dragons despite them not existing in the world outside? Is this Genjutsu created based on my knowledge or is there something more to this?'

Bakorio was truly confused, and he didn't want to voice this thought since he didn't know if those monkeys can observe what he was going through or not, just like how he never voices his true thought in the outside world in fear that the one responsible for the dark seed would hear him…

'I will confirm this when I go out' thought Bakorio before he started searching for a place to spend the night since he can't stay in the open like this. He would also need food and water to survive and his hunter talent worked greatly in his favor in this kind of situation.

….

Bakorio spent a few hours searching for a water source while avoiding any potential monsters, and thankfully the weather wasn't too hot so he wasn't dehydrated.

Along the way, he collected a few items such as long tree branches and some vines as well as some sharp rocks he found and made some short spears so that he could defend himself with…

"hmm, I can hear the sound of water flowing" muttered Bakorio as he started walking in the direction he heard this sound but he suddenly heard some rustling in the bushes but it quickly disappeared. However, he was alert all the time and the sound didn't escape him so he picked one of his makeshift spears and aimed it at the bush where the rustling came from and threw it with all of his strength.

*Thud*

The sound of the spear hitting its target echoed accompanied by a huge splash of blood before a beast howled in pain "Uwwuuu"

"This is a wolf huh?" thought Bakorio before he remembered something very important about wolves 'Wolves walk in groups, and they would go berserk if they smell the blood of their comrades' the moment his memory gave birth to this thought. His survival instincts immediately kicked in and he started running in the opposite direction for tens of meters before he stopped and climbed a tree to hide in its leaves and observe his surroundings.

Not long after, multiple wolves started howling at the same time which created even more howling throughout the area as they started scouting the area in search of the one that killed one of their herd…

'That was a close call' Thought Bakorio and he was about to let out a sigh of relief when suddenly, warning alarms started ringing inside his heart and he instinctively covered his weakest uncovered area… his neck.

And just as he did, a completely brown snake that was disguising as a tree branch suddenly lunged at him right at the moment when he let his guard down, and despite his quick reaction, he was only able to avoid certain death and got bit in his forearm instead.

'Damn it, I didn't notice it at all' thought Bakorio before he quickly grabbed the snake by the area near its head and threw it away to where he heard the wolves were about to appear in the hope they would go after each other…

'Let's hope this thing wasn't poisoned' thought Bakorio before he quickly sucked all the blood in his wound just in case and spat it out before he tore a piece of his clothing and patched his hand with it.

'I need to pay much more attention inside this place, otherwise I will fail this trial… And this is just the first one, how hard are the other three' Bakorio finally began to understand why Hiruzen couldn't complete these trials despite him being an experienced ninja… they weren't meant for normal humans in the first place!