As usual, before I'll start, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter. It really means a lot. My free time is really limited lately though, so I'll have to make this quick. So, without making this longer, here are the answers to your questions from the last time:

Who's Naruto gonna train for the final exam: well, that I'd prefer to keep a secret for the time being… I can tell you though that I don't plan to show how any of the characters, who'll gain access to the final exam, will train… I have something that you might like even more for the time before the final test in mind

When will Sakura appear: soon, that's all I can say (she'll play a big part in the later part of the story). As promised, you'll find out what happened to ALL the more important characters from the original, in some cases you just have to be more patient then in other.

I believe that's that. Once more thank you all for reviewing and I hope you'll like this chapter as well:

Chapter #38: Doubts and Determination

Title Page: simply Kusari and Kumiko sitting at a table and drinking some milkshake from one glass, using straws

"Are you sure it's safe to eat this?" asked Tsume as she sniffed a strange-looking apple Galu threw her. "It smells a bit funny…" she announced and Uramaru agreed with his master, barking loudly.

"Don't worry, Mikka already checked it and she said it wasn't poisonous…" replied the boy, taking a bite of his own fruit.

"Man, this sucks…" complained Senkou, who was laying on a tree branch above. "Where are Mikka and Kokoro with that water? I want to get charged and then get the scroll… The sooner we'll finish this exam the more time we'll have to rest before the next…"

"Chill, they're already coming…" responded the dog gennin and the moment she said so their other, two teammates came out of the bushes, each carrying several bottles of water.

"What took you so long, dammit?" asked the son of Hokage as he jumped down and grabbed one of the bottles the kunoichi was carrying. "I began to think something happened to you guys! Gathering supplies was supposed to take half a day at most!"

"S-sorry, Senkou-kun…" Mikka apologized quietly and lowered her head.

The silver-haired gennin noticed that and stooped the bottle halfway to his mask: "Oh come on, it's not like it's a bit deal or anything…" he tried to cheer her up. "It's just that this damn forest is giving me the chills and I'd prefer to get out of it ASAP…"

"Lets go find the team that has the scroll we need…" Kokoro said simply as he gave his other teammates the bottles and they all disappeared in the tree-tops.

----------

"Useless…" announced Funbo with a bored voice as he swung his stick once more, hitting Kai directly in the stomach and thus making him disappear in the cloud of white smoke. He then glared at the two gennin standing in front of him and breathing heavily. "Why are you so desperate on making this longer then it has to be? You see that you can't defeat me and that female friend of yours doesn't seem to be doing much to help you either…" and with that he threw a quick look at Kumiko, who still stood behind her two teammates with her kunai ready.

"Stop underestimating us!" yelled Kai as he performed another Kage bushin and made eight of his clones charge at the older Tanken. The stick user was instantly surrounded by the blonde gennin's clones.

"What, this should scare me?" asked Funbo as he looked around and the next moment all the bushins jumped into the air, coming down at the place he stood. The young assassin just raised his stick above his head and began spinning it at an incredible speed, thus blasting away all of the clones.

But as he spun his stick above his head, Takaru charged straight at him and gave the defenseless Tanken a kick in the stomach, making him take few steps back.

"Now!" noticed Kumiko and immediately she threw the knife she was holding in her hand at the ground, few meters away from the stick user. Only then did everyone spotted a small tag with a strange symbol on it that the kunai struck and several identical notes all over the area.

A second after the knife's blade reached the note, it exploded in the green smoke and caused a chain reaction, making the other notes do the same as well. "What the…?" began Funbo as he covered his eyes. None of the explosions reached him, which made him wonder.

As he opened his eyes, he saw Takaru coming right at him again. Without wasting a second his grip on the stick tighten as he aimed at the boys head, but suddenly he felt incredible pain going through his left arm and a moment later it got completely paralyzed. That was all the son of Tsunade needed as he landed a powerful kick in the older boy's face, thus sending him flying back.

Funbo immediately felt he regain power over his left hand and used it to land safely on the ground. But the moment he did so, he spotted Kai coming in with a kick aimed at his head from the left. Instantly he moved his stick to block it, but this time he right arm suddenly froze, thus not allowing him to place his weapon where he wanted in time. The blonde's foot landed on the boy's face, making him slid on the ground for few meters.

"What's going on?" asked Taki, who was observing the fight from a nearby tree branch, worried. "Funbo-kun shouldn't have any problems with blocking those attacks…"

"It probably has something to do with those explosive tags and that weird smoke…" replied Hitomi. "What do you think, Akira?"

"Seems like some strange, genjutsu technique to me…" replied the boy with his eyes still closed. "Most probably that smoke had something in it that paralyzes a certain part of the body… I'm not sure how this is done, but it'd seem that the girl can make any part of Funbo's body stop as she wants to by releasing her chakra into the air in the way you do with the genjutsu…"

"So you're saying this is all just an illusion?" asked Horohoro.

"Genjutsu affects the user's opponent senses…" explained the other boy. "Most likely whatever was in that smoke gotten inside Funbo's body as he inhaled, somehow gathered around his nerves weakening them or something like that and thanks to that the girl can paralyze his body with even a low level of genjutsu bind…"

"If it's really the way you put it, then I have to admit that that girl is scary…" announced the blue-haired boy. "So, do we interfere, Hitomi?"

The white-eyed girl just looked below for a few moments and then finally answered: "Lets give Funbo few, more minutes… if he won't manage to free himself from whatever trap that girl used, we'll enter the fight…"

The stick user crashed hard against the tree as Kai landed another punch on his. The older Tanken looked at Kumiko, how still kept her hands, forming a snake seal. "I see, so it's her doing then… is that the plan she spoke off?"

"This is really working, Kumiko…" announced Takaru as he turned to his kunoichi teammate. "It seems that powder your father asked the Rikoteki to produce really serves its purposes…"

"Thanks, Takaru-kun…" replied the girl. "But the effect fades quickly, so you guys have to strike that guy out soon…"

"Don't worry, Kumiko-chan…" said Kai with a wide smile. "As it is now, there's no way he can do anything…" and so he charged at Funbo and his eyes widen, noticing that the young assassin was smiling.

----------

Kusari jumped out of the way of another kunai flying right at him and looked around in hope to find a way out, yet he saw none. The last thing he remembered was Futatsu taking out some scroll and the next moment he was trapped in the eye of a small cyclone with weapons carries by the wind. From time to time the weapons taken by the wind shoot right towards him, due to which he didn't had much time to rest.

"Dammit, what a jutsu…" the chain user cursed in his mind as he dodged another incoming weapon. "With every second those knives seem to pick up speed and shoot more often… if I won't do something fast, I'll soon end up like a training dummy with kunai all over my body…" and with that he deflected another knife with his chain.

"What the hell did you just do?" demanded Ibuki as she looked at the tornado her teammate was trapped in from the outside. "This technique is pretty similar to the one few members of my clan use. How in the world did you learned it?"

"Is it really that important?" asked Futatsu with a smirk. "Soon your boyfriend will drop death and we'll move on… seat quietly and we'll consider letting you go alive…"

"You really think I'll just stand here doing nothing?"

"And what can you do?" asked Naginata laughing. "You're planning to go against all five of us? All this is just because Futatsu wanted to fight that chain guy… we have no business with you as long as you have no scroll, so just shut up and be grateful…"

The young assassin clenched her teeth and looked to the ground, shaking a little, as a memory from her early childhood echoed in her head…

---Seven years ago---

Six-year-old Ibuki threw another kunai. Just like all the other, it hit the target and struck deep into it.

"You've really improved, Ibuki…" announced a man with long, black hair and black eyes. He was wearing a jet black robe and a Konoha headband on his forehead. "I see your weapon throwing skills are really exceptional… I don't think even Funbo can match you in that area…"

"Thank you, father…" replied Ibuki quietly. "May we please finish this session now? I promise Rikku-chan to meet her at the ice cream stand in few minutes and if we'll stay here I'll be late…"

"Is that Rikku person your new friend?" asked the man and the weapon mistress only nodded. The man walked over to his daughter and placed his hand on her head, his face completely emotionless: "Ibuki, have you already forgotten what I've told you? Socializing yourself with anyone is the greatest sin an assassin can make… when you attach yourself to people feelings begin to appear and they cause distraction during missions… that is the one thing assassin cannot allow himself to have…"

"Yes, father…" nodded Ibuki, lowering her head.

---Flashback ends---

"Five against one…" she thought to herself, lowering her head even more. "What chances do I have? Is there really a point in even trying? I'll only get myself killed as well…" but with that last thought another memory shoot through her head:

"Weather you accept it or not, you and Kai are very alike" Naruto's voice ran through her mind. "There's a big difference between you two though: while you're complaining about your situation, that just because you wear the Tanken name, you're seen like one, Kai does everything he can to prove that people who see him as a loser, just because of his name, are wrong… Tanken fight, to kill. Why won't you find a different reason to fight for starters?"

Her gaze went up as her sensei's voice fades away. Her eyes stopped on Futatsu, who was still smiling widely. As his eyes noticed Ibuki staring at him, the young assassin jumped into the air and picked out several kunai:

"That chain guys as you called him is not just my teammate!" she yelled, gaining all the metal-nins attention. "He's my friend and I refuse to just watch him die, doing nothing!" and with that she unleashed her knives right at the surprised katana user.

Reiji smirked under his nose: "Oh, this could be fun…"

And that's that for the time being. Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll leave a review once you're done.

No jutsu encyclopedia this time around, but at least I'll make another character profile. No requests this time around, so I've decided to make Toku this time around:

Name: Amagasa Toku

Name Origins: his first name has several meanings, but in this case the one I looked at when deciding on the name was 'shelter, shield', but as to why you'll have to read and see… then again 'to explain' would fit too I guess… his last name, 'amagasa', means simply umbrella and it is also the object he carries everywhere with him (for a reason, of course)

Age: currently 13 years old

Birth Date: 22nd of April

Blood Type: AB

Height: 147,8 cm

Weight: 49,2 kg

Favorite food: anything without meat (he's a vegetarian)

Favorite color: brown

Village: Konoha (Hidden Leaf… yeah, I wonder for how many of you this was a surprise)

Current rank: gennin

Team: team led by Shikamaru; his teammates are Konpaku Rei, Rikoteki Kogane, Debano Kitsune and Gusoku Hanamaru

Bloodline limit: none

Family: she doesn't talk about his family much, however it is rumored that his clan's fighting style has it's origins outside the Hidden Leaf

Techniques (used so far): none

First appearance: 29th chapter

And that is really it. Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll leave me a review once you're done.

Best wishes and see you next time, I hope.