Bakorio's first day was miserable inside the forest, getting attacked left and right without any rest put a lot of pressure on both his body and his mind, but his heartless eyes never showed any distress despite his body that was riddled with wounds and filled with injuries.

"Finally, a place where I can rest" Muttered Bakorio who had just found a small cave hidden behind some bushes and he barely squeezed himself inside of it and spent his first night there cold and alone…

The next morning, he went out again in search of food, but this time he was attacked by a leopard which he didn't expect at all, and had to fight to the death to barely kill it since he didn't have any of his powers…

'Tch, the worst that appeared yesterday were some wolves, but now there are leopards as well… is the difficulty going to get higher with each passing day?' Bakorio couldn't help but frown when he remembered the huge dragon that flew above him yesterday and the long shadow it cast upon the earth and he didn't even want to imagine fighting it even if he had all of his powers...

'No, this test shouldn't be that impossible otherwise Hiruzen wouldn't have passed it, there's probably some sort of trick to it' thought Bakorio completely confident that he was better than that old cowardly bag of bones as he started contemplating everything he went through since he arrived here

'A test of life and death, testing survival ability… is it really that straightforward?' thought Bakorio while walking through the forest to the location of the river he found yesterday to get some water, but not long after he sensed that some other beast was not far in front of him and immediately became fully alert.

'That dragon is probably the key to this' thought Bakorio as he suddenly had a very bold idea and changed the direction of where he was heading. His new destination was to march in the same direction as the huge dragon from yesterday, and according to what he saw from climbing a giant tree, that dragon was most likely headed toward a giant black mountain that was at least 5 kilometers tall!

"That's probably where the dragon is staying" thought Bakorio before he started walking through the forest while trying to evade any monsters along the way.

At first, he only encountered normal animals, but soon he started finding huge versions of those animals such as huge snakes, huge tigers, and so on… and after that, he even saw weird animals like horses with upper humanoid halves and giant insects…

'This place is truly bizarre' he thought…

...

Two days later, Bakorio finally reached the foot of the mountain. However, it wasn't without a price and he already lost a hand and a foot along the way… This journey was anything but easy.

His hand was lost to a group of giant mantises that ambushed him, and his foot was eaten by a giant crocodile when he was crossing a marsh…

"I'm finally here" muttered Bakorio with a tired voice, and not long after. Giant roars echoed from the peak of the mountain scaring any animal from approaching!

"As I suspected, no beast dares to get too close to the mountain, the safest place is actually the most dangerous one" muttered Bakorio with a sigh before he leaned his back on the black mountain and closed his eyes…

A day passed with him in that state before he recuperated slightly from his sleepless two days journey, and just as he suspected, no monsters approached him during that time, while the dragons probably saw him as something that wouldn't even fill the gap between their teeth so they didn't even spare him a glance…

"I need some food and water" he muttered before he started limping along the perimeter of the mountain in search for what he desired after a few hours, he found a source of water and he immediately drank his fill before he began searching for some small prey he could hunt in his current state…

Time quickly passed under the safety of the mountain, and Bakorio barely managed to survive for 7 days, although he was both starved and thirsty since he wasn't always able to get food and water with his injuries.

…

Back at the mountain of flowers and fruits, the red monkey king kept staring at Bakorio with its cold eyes… In the real world, only a day had passed, and he was surprised to see that Bakorio was able to pass their trial from the first try. After all, Hiruzen probably spent 100 tries before he found the trick to it...

Bakorio's closed eyes quivered slightly before they opened and he stared curiously at his surroundings seeing that he was back in the real world, and he was immediately hit by a strong sense of hunger so he turned to the red monkey king and the latter said before he could even ask

"Congratulations on passing the first test, follow me I have some food prepared for you"

"Oh, how considerate of you" Said Bakorio with a smile as if he didn't suffer for a whole week which surprised the red monkey king slightly

"My name is Shuma" Said the monkey king, this was him showing that he acknowledged the young man in front of him and Bakorio nodded at him "I'm Bakorio Uchiha, can you please answer a question for me"

The red monkey king nodded at him calmly and Bakorio immediately asked "That Genjutsu I was in… was it based on a real place?"

The red monkey king suddenly paused in his steps and stared at Bakorio deeply before he let out a sigh and said "You are the second person to realize this"

"Oh, so my guess was true… who was the first?" Asked Bakorio curiously and Shuma calmly replied "According to my knowledge, it's the sage of six paths… our red monkey sage said that he realized this because of his Rinnegan that has ties to that world. I guess you realized this as well from your connection to him as his descendant"

'That place is connected to the Rinnegan?' Bakorio's eyes widened slightly as he asked "What's the name of that place?"

Shuma stared at the empty space slightly with a regretful look before he said "That place is the beast world a separate dimension from this world"

Bakorio suddenly recalled his countless fights with pain during his war timeline and the various beasts that he could summon thanks to his Rinnegan and suddenly he was hit by realization…

'The animal path probably summoned those animals from the beast world huh… I wonder if those dragons still exist there…. Now that I think about it, many places here seem to be related to the dragons, the dragon palace, Ryuchi cave (Dragon ground cave)… It's highly possible that these sage animals came from that world far back in the past'

Bakorio decided to ask Katsuyu about this later since she would probably be more open to him than the other sages and tell him the truth and ended up following silently after Shuma who offered him some food that consisted of some fruits and juices that tasted so heavenly delicious.

"Once you finish, I will escort you to the location of your next trial that would be held by the long-armed monkeys" said Shuma coldly as he sat to the side…

Bakorio nodded at him and filled his stomach to the brim before they left to start the second trial, the trial of will!

...

"Welcome young man, I'm Kuma, the king of the longed armed monkey tribe" Said a tall and very muscular monkey just like Enma, but his fur was completely white and his hands reached all the way to his feet…

"Nice to meet you, Kuma. I'm ready to start the test" Said Bakorio and Kuma chuckled slightly at him and said "Not much for words huh? you remind me of someone" He shot a look at Shuma who stared at him coldly before he said "My job here is done" and then he left…

"Tch, what a cold guy" muttered Kuma before he said to Bakorio "Our trial tests the will of the individual and how far they can persevere. Follow me to the foot of the mountain"

Bakorio nodded at him and followed him to the foot of the mountain before Kuma suddenly said to him "Wear this bracelet, it will restrict your physical attributes turning them into that of a normal human and it will also shrink you down to one-tenth of your current size"

Bakorio stared silently at the bracelet before he wore it and a huge rush of nature's energy rushed into the bracelet as various seals started gushing from it and Kuma's eyes couldn't help but widen as he thought 'This kid is a monster, I can't wait to see if he could pass this test…'