"Congratulations you have made it to the second stage of the Chunin Exams. From this point on there is a possibility you could die." Tenchi paused and Saburo wasn't sure if it was to let the remark sink in or had he meant it to be funny. "You will be given a scroll. Its color will either be green, red or blue. In order to pass this stage you will need two scrolls of different colors and all your teammates must be alive."

He pointed behind himself at a distant hill where a large orange flag stood fluttering above the trees. "Now for your destination, on the other side of that mountain there is a small town. It used to be a coal mining town, but the mine played out years ago and it's now abandoned. In the center of the town there is the headmen's house which also used to be the corporate headquarters. The building is surrounded by a wall and it has four gates.

"The scrolls you collected will determine what gate you may enter through. If you have all three in your possession you may enter through any gate. As for rules there aren't any except for the ones I've mentioned. Now the only dangerous things out there will be yourselves and the weather. The cold can easily kill you if you're not prepared for it. To add to the challenge the government will be experimenting with the weather so expect anything. You have three days."

Saburo tuned out the rest of the proctors speech and surreptitiously eyed his target instead. One of his biggest fears had been that their target would not pass the first stage of the exam, but here he was not ten feet away listening intensely to whatever the proctor was saying. It was odd being this close to someone you intended on killing. He wasn't as cool as Yasuo who could calmly mark his target and then have a chat with him, smiling the entire time. It wasn't that he was afraid of killing, he had done his part with those bandits a few weeks ago but, that had been impersonal.

Shaking his head he had to remind himself that these were targets, not people. Then he took a fresh look at them. Like his team they were all wearing white ponchos over their clothes. Unlike his team, he was pretty sure he could put a yardstick across their heads and it would be level.

One of them had a scarf trailing out from beneath his poncho making it look like he had a tail. He must be the Shadow Clone user. Next to him was their team's kunoichi. She didn't look particularly threatening but, her hair was an odd color and it looked natural. He had once heard that odd color hair like that only happens after generations of chakra manipulation. Whether it was true or not, he didn't know, but she could be a problem. Then there was their target who looked exactly like the picture they had been shown. He didn't look like he had a Kekkei Genkai that could kill with a touch.

Supposedly, he didn't know how to use his Kekkei Genkai, but that didn't mean he was stumbling his way through it. Well at least they didn't have to take his head to confirm the kill. That was the nice thing about the exam any deaths became public knowledge.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as one of Tenchi's assistants shoved a piece of paper under his nose. Glancing down he laughed when he read the first line. 'I the undersigned do not hold 

Yukigakure accountable for any injury, loss of limbs, frostbite, death or any other outcome of participating in this exam.' Signing the bottom he shoved it back at the man his teammates a second behind him.

"Cocky little twerps aren't you? We'll probably be pulling your frozen body out of a snow bank," the man muttered under his breath. He then pulled out a bright red scroll from a pouch at his side and tossed it to him, "you three head east until you find a post you like that no one else is using and don't enter the woods until you see a flare go up, if you do your disqualified. A rabbit will be watching you." He nodded behind them.

Turning they saw about two dozen rabbits behind them. Several of the larger ones wore Hitai-ate across their back signifying that they were not ordinary rabbits.

"You've got to be kidding," Nami muttered under her breath.

"Only one way to find out," he answered.

"Hold on," Yasuo said while watching their target from the corner of his eye. As the scrolls were handed out there was no effort by the proctors to conceal who was getting what color. Several other teams seemed to be loitering for the same purpose but, why did Yasuo care?

"Alright let's get out of here," he said impatiently as their targets left in the opposite direction.

They headed east, paralleling the woods followed by a four-legged unwanted observer. They had intended to discuss their plan at this point but, with something watching them it was impossible. Maybe the creature wouldn't report back what they said or maybe it wouldn't understand them if they were cryptic enough, but they couldn't really take that risk. Maybe the village of Yukigakure wouldn't care what they were doing but, they could also stop the exam or throw them out of the exam and secrecy had been stressed to them.

"Who would want to summon a stupid rabbit anyway?" He muttered under his breath at the inconvenience.

"Instant lunch," Nami suggested.

Unseen the rabbit's ears had twitched at the first comment, but apparently it could not let the second one pass. It stood on its hind legs and cleared its throat to only the mild surprise of the trio. "I will have you know we rabbits are an excellent selection to summon and are never eaten. Our hearing is perfect for collecting information," it twitched its ears for emphasis, "were small so we can go anywhere and because were cute, nobody ever suspects us. Our sense of smell is good enough for tracking and"

"I bet it's not as good as dogs though. My father uses them for tracking," Yasuo said interrupting the little rabbits rant.

The rabbit wiggled its nose in irritation at the interruption of what was obviously a planned speech. "True, but can dogs see in almost a perfect three hundred sixty degree arc and ride on its summoners shoulder? I don't think so…"

Saburo tuned out the little white fur ball rant. Yasuo had been unusually cryptic about how they would be able to track their target but, that odd comment about dogs might've been a clue. Nami nudged him and nodded at Yasuo who had pulled out a plain looking scroll. Was that a temporary summoning scroll? The murderous trio smiled as they all understood, with a little luck they would be Chunin by sunrise.

Moegi didn't think things were going too well. First off they had started the exam late. She wasn't sure what was worse the fact that Konohamaru had argued with a rabbit or the fact that he had lost the argument with the rabbit. It was ashamed too, she had thought the thing had been sort of cute until it started talking. Did all of the summon rabbits have such a chip on their shoulder?

Then there had been the woods. At first she thought it would be a positive for them, but unlike Konoha's trees the branches here were close to the top of the trees and densely packed making it impossible to traverse through them. The ground was equally dangerous, if they left any footprints in the snow they could be easily followed, which was actually what they were looking for now as they jumped from tree trunk to tree trunk. Dispersed moonlight reflected off of the snow providing them with an eerie illumination. Eight hours into the exam and they had come across no one.

It was hard for her to keep up a steady flow of chakra to her hands and feet. She was going to have to ask for another break soon and it had been only two hours since the last one. It wasn't fair normally she could keep up with her to teammates easily but, all this chakra molding was exhausting. To add to the problem the damn trees were so dense that an enemy could be within a few yards and go unseen.

As she leaped to the next tree a tree explosion knocked her to the ground. Hitting the ground she barely had time to protect herself from a hail of something's small coming at her. Her limbs were pelted with something that was hard and wet. For a second she had the odd sensation that she was in the midst of the hardest rainstorm of her life. Rolling to the protective covering of a tree the storm came with her pounding into the tree. Glancing down at her arms, she saw that they were covered in little red welts, a few even bled freely.

Scanning the woods for her friends she saw through the trees that Konohamaru was on the ground and in trouble. He was fending off his attacker with a kenai but, against a sword he was barely holding his own. Reaching for a shuriken she threw it. She didn't really expect to hit the enemy but, it did give Konohamaru enough time to get to his feet.

Creating two clones she sent them off in different directions hoping to confuse her own adversary. She didn't know where Udon was and judging by where he had been before the explosion he was probably the furthest one away. Suddenly she felt a wire wrapped around her chest and she was slammed against the tree. Struggling only caused the wire to bite into her

"Stupid girl there's snow on the ground," a voiced hissed from behind the tree. "It's kunoichi like you that gives the rest of us a bad name." Between each word her opponent loosened the wire only to pull it tight again causing Moegi's head to repeatedly slam against the tree. Fortunately, during her brief seconds of freedom Moegi was able to twist her body enough to free her hand with a kenai in it. As soon as the wire was tight again she cut it.

Coming around the tree she swung at the girl but her forearm was caught and she screamed as something pierced her skin. Her opponent brought her free hand into her side again and again until Moegi managed to catch it. For a moment they stayed like that. Then the girl grimaced and slowly began to move her hand down her arm slicing through the skin. The pain made her frantic and she struggled to free her arm but she fell to her knees.

"Nami duck," her arm was suddenly released as the girl rolled away and Udon appeared over her swinging a kenai through the air where her opponent had been.

"You okay?" Udon asked.

She nodded which he probably couldn't see. Getting to her feet she faced off with the two attackers. For a moment she was surprised to see the kid they had ran into earlier but, this was an exam. More importantly why were the two of them just standing there now? Risking a glanced over at Udon she followed his gaze into the darkened woods. What was he looking at?

"Konohamaru," Udon called out.

"I know," a second later Konohamaru appeared beside her and the third Mist genin slipped in opposite of him.

What was she missing? A moment ago they had all been fighting and now they had just stopped. Her two friends were still on guard as were the Mist genin but, nobody was making a move.

"Alright we know you're there, come on out." The tallest of their three opponents shouted.

There was a silence for a few seconds and then a chuckle. "Well, you got us," a booming voice called out. About twenty yards behind their attacker something emerged from the snow. Slowly it took the shape of a tall man. It was joined by a second and third. Then surprisingly a fourth one appeared in her peripheral vision. At first she thought they were clones, but although their clothes were similar they were all slightly different. They were clearly from Yukigakure but, that was all she could tell.

"Hey, isn't teaming up against the rules?" Konohamaru shouted.

"There aren't any rules here idiot," somebody called out from her right. "But, you did save us some time. We thought we would have to ambush two teams, but when we heard your fight we figured we could just ambush the winner. You really should have known that an explosion would travel far in these woods."

"So be good little genin and hand over your scroll," A feminine voice chimed in.

"Listen we're doing you a favor," another voice spoke from behind her. "If you became Chunin no one would take orders from you. So just hand over your scrolls and we won't hurt you."

There was a moment of silence that was finally broken by Udon. "There are six of them and six of us, truce?"

"Split their scrolls," one of the Mist team suggested.

With a nod all six turned to fight their new opponents. Moegi targeted the first one away from her and prepared to use her new Jutsu. She positioned herself so that there was a tree a short jump behind her and tried to look scared. It wasn't hard considering that the person charging at her was huge. Her family had a talent for Genjutsu but, she was always nervous when using any Jutsu in battle no matter how basic it was.

Flashing through a quick series of hand signs she finished just as her opponent was less than two meters away, jumping backward she landed next to the side of the tree. Her opponent continued running right up to the point where he crashed into said tree. She couldn't help but smile. It was a simple Genjutsu. It simply messed with an opponent's sense of depth combined with a simple allusion of her. It was a shame that it only worked for a few seconds.

Rebounding off of the tree she brought her foot into his knee and for good measure brought her hand into his throat as he fell. For a second she thought he might be dead. Then she noticed a slight hissing as he breathed through the blood that was pouring out his nose. Then she noticed a blue scroll tucked into his belt. Grabbing it she looked around to see if either of her teammates needed help.

From where the Mist team was fighting there was a scream of pain followed by another, both sounded as if they came from older teenagers. Spotting Udon engaged in hand-to-hand combat against an older Kunoichi she moved quickly behind her. She took her out with a blow to the back of the head. A moment later Konohamaru appeared next to them grinning when he saw the scroll that was still in her hand. He was sporting a nasty cut on his arm but other than that he looked fine.

"You okay over here," Yasuo called out appearing out of nowhere.

"Yeah, we got a scroll, you?" Konohamaru asked.

"Yeah, ours is blue too. Well I guess this means we'll be seeing you again." With that he turned and walked away.

Konohamaru wished he had paid more attention in those first aid classes at the Academy. Still all things considered they weren't doing so badly. They were less than twelve hours into the exam and they already had their scrolls. After their brief fight they had fled in the general direction of the orange flag but, they had to stop to apply some more permanent bandages. Udon wasn't hurt and the scratch on his arm was hardly worth the trouble. Moegi though had gotten the worst of them all. Her wounds weren't as serious as the blood made them look but, the gash on her arm look painful thankfully it was narrow. He winced in sympathy as Udon patched her up as best as he could.

Now they just had to make it to the village and through the gate, then on to the third stage. This was almost as easy as Naruto had made it sound. Now all they had to do was hurry up and get to the village before anyone else could set up an ambush. That had been their plane B if they hadn't found any one after the first day.

Glancing up at the still visible orange flag he said the first thing that came to his mind trying to fill the silence, "I think we can make it to the village by morning."

"No we can't," Udon's objection quietly but firmly.

Konohamaru blinked in surprise, Udon normally didn't disagree with him. "Why not?" He demanded.

"I'm tired, Moegi is tired and neither of us are in any shape for another battle. Besides that looks like a storm," Udon gestured behind him.

Turning Konohamaru looked up into the sky. Previously the night had been crisp and clear. The sky had shown with hundreds of stars, more than Konoha sky ever did, but now there was darkness on the horizon. It hadn't blocked out the moon yet, which was why he hadn't noticed.

Silently he cursed his luck. Ebisu sensei had forced them to learn a lot about this country before they came here. Most storms would only last between two and ten hours, but they could cause a complete whiteout. The only thing they could do if that happened was hunker down and wait the storm out. "Maybe it will…" he cut himself off as he thought he saw something in the woods behind his friends. "Get down!"

Dozens of shurikens smashed into the tree that Udon and Moegi had just been leaning against. He ducked to the ground too, but nothing came his way. Scanning the woods he barely made out a figure starting from tree to tree slowly advancing towards them. He wouldn't have noticed the 

girl if her shadow hadn't been cast in front of him. Her sword sliced into the snow where he had just been.

Coming up he blocked another blow to his stomach with a kenai. She flipped her blade and spun into his defense, he had to duck and roll away to avoid a blow that would of left him shorter than he already was. With a little distance between them he got a good look at her for the first time. She was from the Mist team they had met earlier. Why were they attacking them? They already have their scrolls why risk another fight and so soon?

Spotting Moegi being driven further and further away from him he realized that they were trying to separate them. Grabbing several shurikens he threw them at the girl in a diagonal pattern. They were easily blocked, but it took time and he made a break for Moegi. Turning his back on the kunoichi was not a good idea.

Zigzagging through the trees he heard kenai hit the trees around him and one even nicked his shoulder. Ignoring the pain he prepared his jutsu. Most of the time he wished it was more like Naruto, but right now he would just be happy if he could create half as many shadow clones as his boss could. Unfortunately, two was his limit. Sending both of them on ahead he watched as Yasuo turned to face the new threat.

He dispatched the first clone by thrusting his scabbard into it stomach. The second one was close on its heels and he swung his sword upwards cutting it in two. For a second he was exposed and Konohamaru barreled into him. He had meant to stab him with the kenai in the shoulder or stomach but his opponent's brought his leg up into his stomach and rolled with the impact. All Konohamaru could do was slice his leg, barely.

Rolling to his feet he appeared right next to Moegi and for a second they faced each other like they had earlier that night. "You already have your scrolls. Why come after us?" Konohamaru could guess why but, he needed to catch his breath.

Yasuo shrugged and didn't even have the decency to be breathing hard, "If we take your scrolls we will have four. Then we can barter two away if we have to."

"Why don't we team up like those guys who ambushed us did?"

Yasuo considered that for a moment, "Well you see we have you here now."

The two Mist genin were suddenly eliminated by a fireball in the distance and that was when he finally realized there plan. These two were not fighting them they were stalling them. Udon was still separated from them and he didn't have any of the scrolls. That meant they were either planning on neutralizing him and then team up on them or use Udon as a hostage to get the scroll out of them. Normally, he would bet on Udon in a one-on-one fight but, he wasn't at his best now.

He made a gesture to Moegi to get ready to run and reached into his weapon pouch. With a quick flip of his wrist he threw two smoke bombs onto the ground and they disappeared into a dense cloud of smoke. Two figures darted out of the smoke followed by two doppelgangers. The Mist team confused by the two sets of footprints had to split up. Konohamaru had left an exploding note back in smoke and it exploded announcing to anyone within earshot that there was a battle in progress. It would draw in the carrion from all directions which was hopefully more than the Mist team would want to deal with.

Konohamaru and Moegi headed to where they had seen the fireball. He dropped another exploding tag discouraging any close pursuit and in the brief flash of light he caught a glimpse of his friend and missing teammate. He was on the ground barely holding back a kenai. Several thrown shuriken separated the two and they pulled Udon to his feet on the run. Throwing a flash bomb over his shoulder Konohamaru led his team into a dense crumbled of trees. Seconds later there was a bright flash of light pinpointing the exact location of the battle.

Within minutes several teams arrived at the scene of the battle but, by then both weary teams had made good their escape.