CHAPTER 2

Ralfe, Kyo and Rina sped through the forest with great urgency. Ralfe was of medium-height, with shoulder-length dark brown hair, covered by a blue beanie hat over which he wore his Konaha headband backwards. His jacket and shorts were both blue, and a pair of glasses adorned his face.

Kyo was taller, with spiky blond hair and red clothes which made Ralfe always said he should change as they failed to camouflage him at all, though Kyo always told him 'that looking the coolest was the most important thing in a fight.' Ralfe said Kyo watched too much TV.

Rina, the quietest member of the team, had long red hair that went most of the way down her back. Her tight shorts and baggy jacket were white, which clashed terribly with her hair.

They had to cover at least two kilometres a day to reach the tower in time. Ignoring all other signs of ninjas, they intended to get as close to the tower in the first day. There they would lie in wait for other genin to come along.

'This'll do.' said Ralfe as they reached a clearing. 'Rina, get in that tree. Kyo, behind that rock. I'll hide behind this tree.'

They waited for half an hour before another Konoha cell moved into the clearing.

'We'll stop for lunch here.' said one of them, who appeared to be the leader.

'Fools.' thought Kyo. He stepped from behind the rock. 'Art of Pyromancy!' he declared. After performing a complex series of hand symbols, he stuck his arms out at full length. Fire shot from them and surrounded the three genin in a ring of flames.

'Nice going Kyo.' said Ralfe as he came out of his hiding place. 'Now heres the deal' he said calmly to the other nins, smirking. 'There's still plenty of the exam left. You've got loads of time to collect two more scrolls. So I suggest you hand over your scroll now. Otherwise our teammate up there,' he gestured towards Rina who stood on the branch of the tree, 'will cut you to bits before you can draw breath. So what's it to be?'

The genin saw that they were beaten. They tossed their scroll to Ralfe.

'Smart move', he said as he caught it. 'The earth scroll, just what we needed.'

He and Rina continued towards the tower.

'The fire should burn itself out in about an hour', said Kyo to their beaten opposition, before turning to run after the others.

'Great job guys!' exclaimed Ralfe as they ran through the forest.

'That was awesome!' cried Rina joyfully.

Kyo could not surpress a loud whoop of delight. Even Ralfe didn't seem to mind.

…………………………….

Kroan, Akari and Kai sped through the forest. They had watched Shadow's team collect their scroll, and had decided to follow them and attack, as they knew them to have the scroll they needed. They intended to tail them until they found a good opportunity to strike.

…………………….

Kira had assumed his meditative stance, and almost fell out of the tree as three nins sped under their hiding place. He slowly pulled himself to his feet, making sure their 'Heaven' scroll didn't fall to the ground.

"Those...were Grass-nins..." He muttered "I had my senses magnified as much as possible, so their high-speed intrusion hurt..."

Rukia nodded impatiently.

"Yes, yes, we know how it works. We've got to follow those nins and take their scroll. Grass-nins are usually almost as powerful as Sand-nins, but far more brutal. It's better if we eliminate them as soon as possible."

Kira winced and nodded, then quickly looked around.

"Where's Kenpachi?"

Rukia grinned.

"He started following them right after they passed underneath us. We'd better hurry if we want to catch up..."

Shadow's team came upon Kenpachi a little further on into the forest.

"I will handle this one...," Shadow said coldly. He moved his hands in several different signs fast enough so that they were hard to make out without a lot of concentration. "Now die!" A bunch of sand engulfed him and slowly crushed him.

Kenpachi jumped as the sand began to engulf him. He quickly made a series of hand seals.

Replacement justu...and the Shyunpo warp step!

His warp-jump carried him behind his assailant, leaving his replacement (a large tree branch disguised as himself) trapped in the sand. He pulled out a handful of shuriken, and threw them at his attacker.

Kroan, Akari and Kai watched as the Sand and Mist shinobi joined battle.

'Lets attack now', said Kai.

'No, we should wait 'til they've finished, and then we'll attack when they're weakened', said Kroan, punching Kai in the arm. Kroan always used his size to get what he wanted.

'Keep it down you two or they'll spot us', said Akari, glaring at them with her piercing eyes.

Back at the fight, Shadow burst into sand as he was hit. He appeared behind Kenpachi.

"Wrong move Sparky..." He stabbed through his stomach with a blade of sand.

Haru and Soni appeared behind Kroan, Akira and Kai, wrapping their sand around the Grass shinobi's bodies.

"Weaklings..." Haru breathed.

'What the hell?' cried Kroan.

Akari managed to dodge the sand, as usual using her speed to her advantage, and jumped in a tree. Kroan popped a soldier pill into his mouth with his one free hand, then picked Kai up under his arm and jumped into the tree next to Akari.

'Guess thats our cover blown.' said Akari. 'Art of Grass Needles!' she cried. After performing the intricate hand signals needed for any jutsu, the grass beneath the sand nins' feet sprung up and shot at Haru with extreme speed. Each blade was as sharp as a real needle.

'Try getting out of that one.' said Kai. 'Art of Spiders' Trap!' Sticky webbing shot from his hands towards Soni.'

Soni burst into sand and recollected after the attack passed.

Haru raised a wall of sand that blocks the needles and shoots them back with sand needles.

Shadow saw his teammates and does twenty hand symbols in five seconds, creating a heavy fog.

'What say we get the hell out of here as quick as we can?' suggested Kai.

'I'm with you. We'll be dead in seconds if they can see through this fog.' agreed Akari. They couldn't see Kroan anywhere.

'Where is he?' exclaimed Kai in desperation. He formed a net of webbing around them that would protect to them to some extent, but he wasn't sure that it would do anything against the sand attacks.

Kroan armed himself with all the kunai he had: one on each finger. He backed up against a tree, away from the sand nins. Hopefully he would be ready for any attack.

Haru appeared behind him and created a rope of sand around Kroan, tying him to the tree.

Soni found the other two under the web. "Give us your scroll...and we might spare you."

Meanwhile, Shadow hid with the sand as he watched the team that he attacked.

'Go to hell', said Kai, and shot webbing in Soni's eyes. Akari punched her in the ribs.

Kroan used all his force to break free of his sand bindings. He had plenty of strength left from the soldier pill.

"So your so weak, you use a soldier pill" Haru said as he jumped into a tree throwing chiropractic needles and kunai knives all over Kroan's body.

Soni gets up and throws chiropractic needles through the web hitting their necks. "You should have given me the scroll."