"So this is the Forest of Death?" asked Temari, craning her neck to look around. "What a dump!" cried Narukomi. Sasuke grinned and Naruto laughed at her joke.

/\/\/\/\

"What a joke. This'll be easy the second time around," said Misaomi from nearby them with Kankuro and Gaara. Kankuro looked like he couldn't care less while Gaara was looking at a blonde-haired girl talking to who he assumed-or hoped- was her brother.

/\/\/\/\

"Alright, Inoue, you sure you can handle yourself? You suck at survival exercises; I know, I've trained with you-" "Yeah, yeah, Ino, I got this. Just because dad told you to keep an eye on me doesn't mean you have to insult me in front of my teammates!" Yamanaka Inoue snapped at his year-older sister as his teammates snickered behind him.

Ino glared at them before "Humph!"ing and turning away and stomping back to her own team. 'Damn it! Why did mom and dad let Inoue get so annoying? God, he annoys the living crap out of me!' Ino thought furiously, scaring Shikamaru and Choji but not bothering to stop her inner rant.

Suddenly, she felt a chill go up her back and she turned swiftly, almost expecting to find an enemy. But it was simply the red-haired Sand genin, about ten feet away from her with his own team, staring at her curiously. They made eye contact for a millisecond.

Ino blushed and turned away, determined not to turn back to him. 'JINCHURIKI! I'm not supposed to get involved with him!' Ino thought desperately as she took a breath to calm herself.

/\/\/\/\

"Alright, once all your teammates have signed the waver, you can grab your scroll and wait in front of a gate!" called Anko, the proctor. Temari skimmed the waver, not bothering to read the entire thing. 'As if I'm going to die out here,' she thought with a smirk, signing her name at the bottom with a pencil she had in her bag.

About ten minutes later, she and the rest of her team were all gathered in front of a gate. "So, what's our plan?" asked Narukomi. "We should probably split up and look for teams we think are weak, then strike and take their scroll," said Temari.

"You're that confident? Are you sure you can handle splitting from us?" asked Naruto, eyes narrowed in concern. "What, do you doubt my abilities?" asked Temari, sending an irritated glare his way.

"N-no! It's just I've never actually seen you in action, so I don't know what you can do!" Naruto backtracked quickly. Temari blinked in surprise, thinking, 'That's right, I've only used one jutsu since I joined their team, and that was in front of Narukomi!'

"Oh, relax, onii-san, when I found her last week at my training field, it was completely decimated! I doubt anything in that part of the forest lived through that storm of power; right, Temari?" asked Narukomi, putting an arm around her shoulder and grinning at her.

"Yeah, that's right!" Temari said, adding a reassuring smile to her face before saying, "Besides, I've never seen your moves and I have faith in you." Naruto still looked concerned, but he said, "Fine. What do you think, Sasuke? Good idea?"

Sasuke nodded, not saying anything. Following his gaze, Temari saw he was looking at Misaomi. Temari grinned mischievously but said nothing.

/\/\/\/\

"The second test of the Chunin Exams begins…. NOW!" yelled Anko. And the gates opened. Team Seven launched inside, running at a breakneck pace.

"First off, we need a place to meet back with each other, and a time to be there!" called Sasuke. "Right; I'll find a place!" said Narukomi, launching ahead of her teammates like it was nothing at all.

/\/\/\/\

Narukomi raced through the trees several minutes ahead of her teammates, sharp eyes scanning the forest floor. Soon enough, she saw a small clearing near a section of the river. "Here!" she called back to the rest of Team Seven, landing on the ground next to a large root sticking out of the ground.

The rest of her team caught up. "So let's meet back here in, about, a day or so?" asked Temari. Everyone else nodded. And they all split up, each running in a different direction.

A/N: Why the hell do you keep writing suckishly short chapters? BECAUSE I GOT ALL SIX EPISODES OF FLCL ON DVD TODAY, THAT'S WHY! Sorry, I'll make the next chapter longer and better; I swear on my own ninja way!
-Temari