Out of the 45 teams that had entered the chunnin exam, being a total of 135 genin, only half of that made it past the first round. Twenty two went on to the second stage, a total of 66 genin. All of which were standing in front of a large forest, the largest forest in the Land of Fire that separated Kohakugakure from the ocean. The forest took five days to walk through, three if you were running. The forest was relatively empty except for the large amount of plant life and the occasional animal. Around the forest was a large wall with small doors scattered around the bottom of it.

Standing in front of the genin was Uindo, looking annoyed and tired.

Why must I be a proctor? It's bad enough I'm the Anbakage's Adivser but with all the work Takeshiro's giving me I might as well be doing all his work. Maybe I did something to piss him off?

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, "Okay! Time for the next stage! Behind me is Amber Forest, oh and for those of you not natives here I'll tell you now our founder had a thing for the color amber so most of the stuff here is named after amber in some way. The object of this stage is for you and your teammates to get to the ocean behind it, simple as that."

The group of genin sighed in relief, except for a few who questioned the simpleness of the exam.

Uindo smirked as he imagined what they were thinking.

"Man, these Kohaku Shinobi are terrible! I'll become a chunnin easily!

Uindo smirked and snapped his fingers, the sound of it shutting the genin up easily, "However, there is a catch. You will be split from your teammates and each of you will be handed a piece of a map. Once all three of you meet up you will put the pieces together and you will be able to leave the forest. You will not be able to leave the forest before you get all three pieces or the time runs out. The time limit for this stage is five days, if you do not reach the ocean in that time then you will be disqualified."

He took a breath and motioned towards a small wooden stand with a couple people in it, "Since you can die in this exam you need to sign a waver saying we aren't responsible for your stupidity, understood?"

Everyone nodded and Uindo sighed, "Good, get in a line, when everyone's done we'll split you up."

The genin turned towards the stand and walked towards it, unfortunately from their position in the crowd Dante, Kieko, and Miki were the last team in line.

Miki sighed and looked at Dante and Kieko, "I hate being the last in line, Dante this is your fault somehow."

Dante sighed, closing his eyes at the same time, "Yeah yeah, I apologize from the bottom of my unworthy heart."

Kieko giggled, "C'mon, being back here isn't that bad, we have more time to talk now."

Miki sighed in unison with her brother, "True enough, what's there to talk about though? We all know that we're going to find each other, we always do."

Kieko nodded, "Yup! But there are a few thing we do need to cover. None of us have ever been in this forest so we don't know our way around it and not to mention what would happen if we run into any opponents while trying to find each other."

"That is a problem, running into an opponent or even two or three of them will be troublesome. If we run into a team then there's only one option, escape. If it's someone you know then be sure to make sure it's actually them and not someone in a henge. There's also the chance of someone henging into one of us, in which case we need to find a secret word."

The two girls looked at Dante with their eyebrows raised in disbelief, "He...said something smart again..."

Dante growled out, a tick mark appearing by his temples, "I always say something smart. This is no time to be kidding around you two. We need to find a password or phrase, something easy for us to remember."

Miki frowned, her eyes panning over to the team in front of them. They were all wearing tan clothing and all male. The tallest one had spiky gray hair and the other two had short black hair pulled into spikes. All of them had their forehead protectors on their right bicep.

It doesn't seem like their listening but still we should be careful, from the look of their headbands they're from Kusagakure. I don't know a lot about the techniques of Kusagakure so if they hear our password and henge into us they have the chance of taking one of us out from surprise.

Miki smirked and pulled out bandages from her pouch, handing them out to her teammates, and spoke louder than she should've, "What about when we see each other one of us says 'Konnichiwa' and the other one says 'Oyasuminasai'?"

Dante raised an eyebrow once he grabbed the bandage from her, "Ah, yes that works."

Kieko smirked, "You're always the dependable one, Miki."

Miki grinned, giving them a thumbs up, "Of course!"

It took the jounin only a few minutes to scatter the genin, not a single one being within a mile of another.

"Man, this forest really is huge." Spoke a lonely Fu. All around her bugs buzzed as they flew close to her before flying or jumping quickly away. Fu shrugged and continued walking through the forest.

They must feel you inside me.

Oh? Well I guess I'm the Queen of Bugs.

Fu giggled, "Queen? So you're female?"

I'm a demon, does it really matter what gender I am?

Fu smiled but before she could speak she heard a loud crunch behind her.

She turned quickly, pulling out a kunai from seemingly nowhere. She turned to see nothing but her guard didn't drop.

Only twenty minutes in and I'm already found?

"Oh what do we have here?!"

Fu turned her head to the side, watching from the corner of her eye as a man landed behind her. He looked to be in his late teens and was wearing a headband from Iwa and wore a red long sleeve shirt and pants.

Iwa Genin huh? I haven't heard anything about this one, I'm supposed to watch out for the solo kunoichi from Iwa.

"Are you sure you want to fight me? It won't end well ya know."

The man grinned and stepped forward, twirling a kunai in his right hand, "You're right, it won't end well, for you that is!" He jumped forward, completely oblivious to Fu's sigh.

This will be quick.

Kurotsuchi frowned and looked down at her map, apparently since she was alone she was able to head directly to the coast but first had to do one thing.

Get two more pieces of a map from another team.

She sighed and jumped into the air, landing on a tree and jumping forward, instead finding herself stuck in place. She gasped and looked down to see the soles of her feet stuck in what looked like sap.

Sap?!

She bent down and tugged hard on her right leg, barely getting the sap to budge.

Damn it! How can this stuff be so sticky?!

Kurotsuchi bugged on more time, tugging on her leg so hard that when she got her foot off the sap she fell back. Luckily she did in time before a blur of black appeared with a glint of metal.

Her eyes widened as she balanced herself on her left foot, pulling out shuriken and turning as far as she could so glare at the girl wearing full black with spiky brown hair pulled into a ponytail. She wore a Takigakure forehead protector.

A Taki Genin? I am not being killed by a Taki Genin!

The girl jumped forward, brandishing her tanto, placing herself from behind Kurotsuchi. Kurotuchi tried to throw her shuriken but all of them missed horribly.

Shit, she's in my blind spot!

"Ochiba Kire."

Another black blur appeared, racing past Kurotsuchi and the other girl. The other girl's eyes widened and she passed Kurotuchi, hitting the trunk of another tree and slumping to the ground, landing in a heap.

The black blur landed against the trunk of another tree, laughing as he saw his friend's predicament.

"You didn't see the sap before you jumped? The trunk is the only part you can touch, Kuro."

Kurotsuchi glared, clenching her fists, "My name is Kurotsuchi! Kurotsuchi! Not Kuro!"

Ryo smiled, tapping his katana against his shoulder, "Seeing as how I just saved your life I think I can call you whatever I want."

"Key word there being think!"

Ryo shrugged and crouched, aiming himself towards the branch she was standing on, "Might want to brace yourself, Kuro."

Her eyes widened, "What?! No no no-"

"Mokuhon Kire!"

Dante sighed as he ran throw the forest, holding a kunai in his left hand.

It feels like I'm being followed but by a distance, I could probably see them if I used my Seijingan, well that's a big if. Unfortunately I wasn't able to learn how to use it too much. Mom really trained me to the bone though...

He continued running, distantly hearing battles and cries for help. One of which sounded pretty familiar.

Dante's eyes widened and he immediately turned to the right, not braking as he turned, and increased his speed.

For someone like her to have trouble with someone must mean it's a team or at least two people. I'm not too far but I have to lose this person tailing me! Damn it.

Dante's eyes flashed blue for just a second, Guess I'll get rid of him then.

Dante stopped running and stumbled forward, pretending to trip and drop his kunai. As he fell he reached for the kunai, at that moment someone, a boy wearing full black with a Takigakure Forehead Protector appeared behind him and stabbed forward, the blade of his kunai passing through Dante's body. His body blurred before disappearing completely.

"Clone Jutsu?!"

Dante jumped out from the bushes, jumping behind his opponent with his right leg stretched out to his side. Spinning in mid air he kicked his opponent's neck, sending him spinning to the right. Dante landed and jumped forward, slamming his fist into the man's stomach, following up with a spin kick to his chin, and ending it with a palm strike to his chest.

"Ryuugon Rendan!"

The boy fell back, falling against a tree, his brown eyes closing as he was knocked unconscious.

Dante sighed, shaking his wrists before turning and running forward, growing worried as he no longer heard her cries for help.

I can't be too late!