Let this chapter unfold…

As Rinji and Taya dashed through the woods, often he would stare at her. She would feel it, but just kept looking ahead.

"So, did you figure out the problem?" Rinji asked.

"I did. My father helped me with it," Taya replied.

"I can't wait to see it in action! Is it going to be your new technique?" Rinji questioned once more.

At this point they reached their training area. Sakura and Kado were there already there. Sakura came to greet them. "I want to see if Kakashi-Sensei taught her how to control the elements." Without saying anything, Sakura placed a kunai knife in Taya hand. Sakura didn't have to say anything; Taya already knew what she had to do. She quickly did the ice jutsu (it was her slowest element and she needed to practice it) and threw it at the medium sized tree. The knife went straight through it. All the members of the team stopped whatever they were doing to stare at the frozen knife that just killed a tree.

"That… was so awesome!" Rinji whacked her on the shoulder. Rinji was originally strong; who the blow almost made Taya fall over. It was a good thing that Kado caught her before she fell. She gave him a quick smile as she helped her get to her feet. From there on the practice flew by quickly.

"Alright, it's time for all of you to take the Chuunin Exam. I've tested you on everything twice, so you should be ready to go. Here are your applications" Sakura passed out the pieces of paper. "It'll start in a week, so train hard, and good luck!" Sakura dismissed them. "No wonder it took three years before we could take the exam," Taya wondered. Again, Taya used the rat hand seal to summon her purple leaves and disappeared.

At home…

"So you're finally taking the Chuunin exam. Are you ready for it?" Kakashi grinned behind his mask.

"I'm ready as I'll ever be. Feel free to teach me any last tips," Taya smiled back at him.

"I'll teach you later; you should really study for the 1st written exam today," Kakashi just left to somewhere unknown. Taya just sighed and did what she was told. For the next few hours she locked herself in her room and sat on the floor with her books, notes, and scrolls spread across the floor. One by one she read every word on each page until they were engraved in her mind. It was getting late, and without knowing it, she crawled into bed without cleaning up.

The next morning…

Kakashi entered Taya's room to check up on her. Once inside, he spent a moment trying to find a way to get to her bed without stepping on her studying material. It was impossible since he couldn't see the floor. In the end, he just decided to let her sleep. "I already checked in with Sakura, so It's alright for her to skip today's mission," Kakashi closed the sliding door gently, but it seemed that he didn't close it gently enough. Taya began to wake up and clumsily cleaned up her room.

"Glad to see that you woke up. If you're up to it, I'll spend my day teaching you today. It seems that my little soldiers all came down with the same flu. Tea's on the table for you already," he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Thanks, I'll be there in a few minutes," Taya barely managed to say as she gathered up all her papers. After all the cleaning was done, Taya got dressed and rushed out to her tea and for her private lesson. She drank her tea hastily, and met the reading Kakashi in the peaceful backyard. She stood a fair distance in front of him.

"Alright, I'm going to teach you a new skill today. I created this one for you when you were studying last night." Kakashi said while he was doing his hand seals. They were original hand seals so he warned her, "Use your Sharingan to capture my hand moments. Oh, and keep in mind that this uses a little more chakra than normal jutsus." Once again, Taya did as she was told. She closed her eyes for a second or two and opened them once more. The Sharingan took over her eyes. Kakashi threw three kunai knives into the air and preformed a dozen original hand seals at a fast speed before the knives fell. They froze in place above his head and gained one of the three elements. As soon as each kunai knife lit up brightly in its own color, they multiplied.

"This will be your Element Knife Replication Jutsu," Kakashi said. "Just point at your target and they should fly straight through them. As long as you're directing, the knives will follow. I'm sure that your Sharingan can see it; some are illusions and most of them are real. They won't know what hit them. If somehow your opponent can deflect it, you can cut of the power if the knives, so don't be afraid. " he ended the jutsu by using a cut-off movement with his arms.

After closely watching his every move, Taya attempted to perform the jutsu. She tossed her kunai knives towards the sky. Her Sharingan had already seen all of the custom hand seals, so all she had to do was trust in it. She worked as fast as she could and she made it just in time. As they had before, the knives froze in midair, gained a fire, lightning, or ice element, multiplied, and shot at a huge boulder behind Kakashi. The rock exploded so hard that even Kakashi flinched.

"You've mastered it! You've grown a little bit today Taya. Later on I'll teach you another jutsu that might help in the Chuunin exam," Kakashi grinned at her. He shoved his hands into his pockets and walked inside the house.

The lesson was over, so the Sharingan is Taya's eye vanished. "That was interesting. I can tell that it's going to help out lot during the battles I'm about to face. Along with my Leaf Clone jutsu, I'll be able to pass the exam for sure," Taya decided to meditate, so she walked on top of the water and sat on the little rock island in her pond. "Let's hope that Kado and Rinji are doing their best as well."

This chapter… it ends here…