(It may seem from the content this chapter that I've forgotten about the battle between the Grass and Mist nins, but don't worry, that continues in the next chapter.)

CHAPTER 4

Ralfe, Kyo and Rina ran through the forest. They reached a clearing and stopped to catch their breath. A stone nin dressed all in black stepped out from behind a tree.

'Crap' said Ralfe.

'We can take him,' said Kyo. 'Theres only one of him.'

'Wait,' said Ralfe, holding up his hand to the nin. 'Which scroll do you have? Theres no pointing in fighting if we don't need one another's scrolls.'

'I have both scrolls. I'm just wiping out rookies like you guys,' came the reply. 'So just hand over your scrolls.'

'What kind of shinobi would that make us if we just gave you our scroll without even putting up a fight?' exclaimed Ralfe.

'Wise ones.'

'Art of Pyromancy!' Kyo shot flames at him, but the opposing shinobi stuck out his arm and a blast of air shot from them, extinguishing the fire.

'Keep attacking!' ordered Ralfe.

'Art of Konoha!' shouted Rina, and leaves flew from the trees towards him. Kyo shot more fire at him. More blasts of air from either arm held them off.

With both the nin's arms blocking attacks, Ralfe took the chance. 'Art of Groundbreaking!' He performed the required hand signals, then struck the ground with his palms. A shockwave shot through the earth towards the nin, knocking him off his feet. He hit a tree and slumped over, unconscious. Suddenly Kyo and Rina were struck by two more sound blasts. Ralfe wheeled around to see who was there. Another stone nin. Suddenly he felt the blade of a kunai at his neck. The third team member crept had come up behind him, and had him cornered.

'Move and he's dead,' said the genin to Kyo and Rina. 'Now hand over your scrolls and we'll let you go.

'Okay,' said Kyo disheartened. He took out the scrolls and threw them to the nins, who released Ralfe. The three leaf genin threw themselves to the ground immediately as the scrolls exploded, knocking the two other nins out.

'Good idea of yours to make decoy scrolls, Rina,' complemented Ralfe.

'Yeh, that was great!' said Kyo.

'Thanks,' she said, quietly. She didn't take compliments well. They rummaged through the Sand genins' stuff, but they didn't have any scrolls.

'I guess they were bluffing,' said Kyo.

'Lets get out of here then,' said Rina.

……………………………………..

Shadow's team popped out of the ground in front of the tower.

"There's no way in!" Haru yelled only to be smacked by Soni.

"What do we do Shadow?" Soni whispered

"Climb..." Shadow said as he throws his chiropractic needles and kanai knives all the way up the tower, "Haru, those are for you and Soni, give me the scrolls, I'll meet you at the top."

"Ok..." Haru said as he handed Shadow the scrolls.

Shadow ran up the side of the building his chakra perfectly balanced for the climb.

………………………………..

Night began to fall over the forest. Kyo, Ralfe and Rina had almost reached the tower.

'Come on, we can get there tonight easily,' argued Kyo.

'I agree that we could, but it would be a risk. There are enemies out here that will use the darkness to their advantage,' said Ralfe.

'But there might be more enemies nearer the tower by tomorrow morning. And near the tower is where it will be most dangerous,' said Rina.

'True. And we'll be vulnerable just sitting here. But if we don't get any sleep, we won't be able to recover any strength,' replied Ralfe.

'As if we're going to get any sleep out here anyway. Its freezing,' said Kyo.

'OK, we'll take a vote. Who thinks we should try to reach the tower tonight?'

All three genin raised their hands.

'Then its decided, we'll continue on towards the tower. We should be able to get there in another couple of hours. Hopefully we'll be ahead of most of the rest of the teams, so we might not run into any trouble.'

'Moving through this forest is irritating', complained Kyo, 'We have to go so slowly with all theses thick bushes and brambles.'

'And in the dark it'll be hard to see.' added Rina. 'Can you light the way Kyo?'

'Sure, but I don't know if I'll be able to keep it up for the whole night.'

'Then we'll just have to get to the tower fast,' said Ralfe. 'Lets go.'

Kyo made a small fireball in his palm and they set off: Kyo leading the way, Rina in the middle and Ralfe at the rear.

……………………………..

Shadow's team reached the top of the tower and opened the scrolls together. Gaara appeared from them and silently the four of them made their way inside the tower.

'Its there!' claimed Kyo joyfully, pointing towards the tower. 'We just have to get through these bushes. Art of Pyromancy!' The flames burned the bushes that led in their way to ashes.

'Woohoo! We made it.'

'Yes!'

'Yey!'

They stood at the foot of the tower.

'Now what?' inquired Rina. 'Wheres the door?'

'It must be around here somewhere. But we don't have time to go all the way round the tower to find it.' said Ralfe.

'Maybe its genjutsu!' yipped Rina. As soon as their minds realised that this was just an illusion, they could see a door just to the left.

'In we go,' said Ralfe. He opened the door and he and Rina walked in. As Kyo was about to follow, he noticed four figures standing on top of the tower, looking down at them.
'Looks like we weren't the first ones here,' he thought. He quickly followed the others in. They unrolled the scrolls and read out the passwords, and as they did so, Genma, their jounin leader appeared before them.

'Genma-sensei!' they exclaimed happilly.

'Congratulations, you have just passed, in nine hours, fifty-one minutes and thirteen seconds, the second test in the Chuunin Selection Exam. I knew you could do it,' he said. Kyo leapt about happily, Ralfe sat down wearily on the floor, and Rina threw her arms around Genma.

'I'm so happy to see you Genma-sensei!'

'Well you seem to have lost your shyness.' he said. 'Well done all of you. You're the second team to finish the test.'

'Second!' queried Ralfe, surprised.

'I saw another team on the roof. Was that them?' said Kyo.

'Yep, a cell from sand. Their jounin captain is Gaara.'

'The Gaara! But hes one of the strongest shinobi alive!' exclaimed Rina.

'True. So its not surprising that his cell would pass so quickly. They arrived a few minutes ago.'

'Why were they on the roof?' asked Ralfe.

'They climbed up the tower. They didn't figure out the last challenge.' replied Genma.

'It was Rina who figured that out,' said Kyo, smiling at her.

'Come on, I'll take you through.'

Genma led them through another door and down a corridor to a large room where the Fifth sat in her throne-like seat. Nearby stood three sand nins and next to them stood the legendary Gaara.

'Congratulations on completing the second exam,' said Tsunade.