Day 3

"RUN!" the skinny young woman turned to escape, but felt a tug on the collar of her green uniform. She slowly stopped churning her legs, then gave up. It was no use.

"Usagi, stop being so scared. We've seen this before." Said a tall man wearing a black uniform, his protector on his long arm. He was referring to a wild tiger that had gotten lose from the Forest of Death.

"Jiro, do we kill it, or let it be?" asked another tall man. He was younger, and had a twin, who waited for the verdict.

"Hmm, take it on. Use what you've learned." Jiro said.

"Goro, Rokuro, what will we do?" Usagi asked, trembling. Goro stepped forward. The way to tell Goro and Rokuro apart was by Goro's bandages, which were on his arms and left leg. Rokuro was also a little taller, around six one. Their sister Usagi, was older than them both, but she rarely acted that way. She wore a green uniform with her protector on traditionally, and carried a flag on her back.

Goro finished his hand seal, a replication technique. The tiger growled, sensing they wanted to fight. It gave a sudden charge, aiming for the original Goro. Goro quickly formed another hand seal, then froze. The tiger froze to.

"Nice work Goro, holding the tiger in place with your shadow imitation clones. Rokuro! Your move."

Rokuro did the same replication technique but charged the tiger from all sides. Defenseless, the tiger could only watch as Rokuro slashed it from all directions.

"Usagi! Finish it!"

"Oyyyeee!" she shouted, surprising everyone, including the tiger. She threw kunai down on the ground, then started to bound of off them on her way to the tiger. She stopped inches away from the vulnerable beast, and formed hand seals. The kunai were lifted out of the ground, and Usagi kicked the tiger in the chin, lifting it up.

The kunai found a soft place in the tigers underbelly, and it fell. Dead.

- - -

Ayumi and Kazuki both watched in amazement at the display of teamwork.

"If we meet them in the forest, it should be an interesting battle." She said. Kazuki agreed. Miharu focused on the chunin with the trio more than the three siblings. In fact, the chuunin was the oldest of the four. Jiro Ito was also a person who was good friends with Taiki when they were younger. As they got older, they grew apart, and with the family responsibilities piling up on the large Ito clan, Jiro had was like a chuunin before he finished the exam, taking time away from the exam to teach his younger siblings.

Usagi was a year younger than Miharu, and her actions ranged from childish to genius. It was impossible to tell what she was going to do. Goro was the fighter of the twins, always challenging someone to a fight. Rokaru was more reticent and wanted to become a shinobi to help earn money on missions. His true goal was to become an ambassador for the Hidden Leaf.

"Yama-san. Did you see that?" Kazuki asked. Yama shook her head, studying scrolls. Miharu took time out to give Yama medical scrolls, and told her it would take a while to fully understand them. Yama studied them closely, forming hand seals, then felt a strange feeling in her arm.

"A poison removal jutsu. When you touch the affected area, it offsets the effects of the poison." Miharu said. "and the poison is removed."

Yama nodded, and disengaged the jutsu. Miharu was glad at how her tem formed. Ayumi had shown improvement with her sound techniques, Kazuki was training not just speed, but his strength, and Yama, in addition to her formidable fighting skills, was becoming a medical ninja.

This trio's chance are looking better day by day. She thought, pumping her fist. Beat THAT, Yoshi-san."

- - -

Saraidenn Fujiwara. She ran to the waterfall.

Are you listening? The time has come for you…

Sarai leapt up, jumping across tree branches, hoping she wasn't late. She finally had breakfast, and could feel her legs under her. She felt faster, stronger…

To learn the Fujiwara technique. But only if you land on your feet.

A tall man came into view, along with – three genin? Wrong group. She darted to her left.

You've turned eleven today. Become more mature. Now, gather your charka into your feet to become more stable. We'll keep going until you can recover successfully.

She smiled, becoming the same age as Takeh. Hopefully they could be treated as equals. Kaito always made things tougher on her…

Get up … think more on landing than dodging …

She saw Takeh and Asuka, who both were at the base of a tree. Sarai landed in front of them.

"Where is Kaito-sensei?" she asked. Asuka shrugged.

"I don't know. He's usually here before we are. This is weird." Takeh said.

- - -

"HAHAHAHAHA!" If his genin were to see him, they wouldn't recognize this Kaito. He was laughing with his old friend Kichiro Watanabe, a stout ninja with a sense of humor. He wore a green uniform with brown stripes and brown shoes. He carried a blade on his back as well.

"You should've seen them! You should've seen them!" Kichiro said, motioning to his genin. The trio sat by idly, waiting for the reunion to end. Neither seemed intent on training, so they took time to chill for a minute.

"I guess we'll have to wait, aaayyyy?" said his only male genin, Ichiro Yamada. He was a decent ninja, but excelled more at singing and drama. He joined to appease his father, who wanted all of his sons to become a shinobi before they were anything else. It was more for personal protection rather than a lifetime decision. He wore a white shirt under his green robe and red pants, with his protector worn a little crooked on his forehead.

"Geez, you'd think they haven't seen each other for ten years. It's only been a few months." The skinny girl crossed her arms. Her face bore her usual expression, which was a sneer. She huffed before laying her head on the table.

"Kasumi, a lot has happened ever since we were split. I think it's great to reminisce on the good times."

"Ugh, Minako, you think everything is great, don't you?" Kasumi responded, her head still on the table. Kasumi Shikamaru wasn't the most positive genin. Her attitude reminded most of the Shikamaru before her, especially her older brother, Nara. She wore a blue vest over her black uniform and wore metal greaves on the sides of her legs.

"Mew, yeah. Isn't that right, Kini?" the cat sitting on her head mewed affirmatively. Minako Kiba came from a very familiar house, much like her cousin. Her cat was an orange tabby named Kini. It was given to her at birth. Minako had three marks on the sides of her face, looking more like a cat than human. She wore a pink bow in her black hair and a white kimono with a pink bow tied around it. Her shoes were white sandals.

"At this rate, we won't have to train, aaayyy?" Ichiro said. Kasumi groaned at Ichiro. He always ended his sentences like that. It was annoying. Everything right now was annoying. Why didn't Kichiro do this some other time? It was so … troublesome.

"Mew mew mew …. Mew mew mew … Mew mew mew…" Kini happily joined the perky Minako and their song filled the air, Ichiro joining. Kasumi had enough and ran to Kichiro, who was in the middle of another story. He was laughing with the taller genin when he felt a tug on his shirt.

"Huh?" he asked. Kasumi gave him a bored expression, hoping he'd get the message. He gave another laugh.

"There are too many stories to tell. We'll talk later." He said. Kaito nodded, then vanished. Ichiro and Minako were still singing, and Kichiro looked at Kasumi, whose eyes pleaded for him to make them stop. He gave her a knowing nod, then called out to his singing genin.

"So were finally leaving … aaaayyy?" Ichiro asked.

"Yep. Today's lesson is … patience. You'll need it for the exam." He said.