Whoo hoo! 2004 is here! Celebrations world-wide!

Oh, and yeah, another chapter…

Chapter 3: The Showdown of Teamwork

"so, you had any luck?" Hob asked Karen, Hob was officially desperate. Over the past two hours, he was assaulted by every non-fatal trap known to mankind, from trap holes to leg binders and up to a genjutsu maze of turning cubes, which was the worst.

"nothing, I don't know where to start, the entire area is booby trapped , did you get something?" she asked, even with the small time she spent on checking the surroundings, she could tell the small hints of traps, a broken branch and some turned up ground, "no, but I have a vast collection of old socks, but no pairs" he tried to sneak in a smile, but she was already examining the socks, "check this out, how do they smell?" she flashed the socks at him.

"They smell like her perfume, lavender and orange, what about that?" he asked, "Who wears perfume on their feet? It's obviously a set up, she probably got this perfume just for this test" she said, angered by Hob's lack of shinobi thinking skills, "So you mean I was just running after nothing? Damn this sucks! So Doro is going to find her?" he asked, he and Doro always had a rivalry between them, both in ninja skills and about girls.

"I don't think so, Doro is probably also following fake clues, I guess we should look for Shally and see if she has something" Karen answered.

"Doro, get your ass over here now!" Shally shouted, she recognized the object she held in her hand, it wasn't a needle, it was one of those tuning forks, and she would bet her life on the fact it probably reacted to the bell Ealla was wearing, all she needed was to find Doro and have him trace the bell, and then she could put one of those charms on Ealla, luckily for the team, they had a large amount of charms, so they could plan alone according to their own ways.

"this way, about 300 meters from us!" he whispered to Shally, they worked together now, as they got closer they saw her, she was reading a manuscript about some new threat for the shinobi society, a weapon that was easy to use and as deadly as a well aimed kunai, allowing peasants to carry weapons of that caliber would be a disaster.

"she's really focused on that, but she knows we found this fork thing, so she'll still be on her toes" Shally mentioned, "so, we somehow need to strike first with these charms, but she has chose a great spot to sit in, we can't sneak from behind her, we'll have to go in direct combat" he said firmly, his first step of becoming the kage began with this test.

"Crap, those idiots already got to her!" Karen cursed, "Stupid Basterd, I'm gonna kick Doro's ass when I catch him, no way I'm letting him act high & mighty on me" Hob agreed, his dog lead them into the forest, they saw their jounin instructor with the paper, Hob smelled that Shally and Doro on the other side, "what do we do? Are attacking now or waiting?" He asked, he wasn't a coward and definitely not afraid of a fight, but he was still smart enough to know he was outclassed.

"we wait, when they attack, she'll have to show an opening at this side, and when she does, we both jump and put a charm on her back" she said, "but, there is a problem, they might be thinking the same, and we'll end up waiting for each other to make the first move all night, and she'll be bound to locate us sooner or later, if she hasn't already done it" he said, the situation was getting too complicated for him, he hated it when things got out of his league, "I know, we can't do nothing now, so you go and check if she has an escape route and if it's trapped" she commanded, he followed her order immediately.

"so what should I do?" she asked inside her head, directing the question to the voice inside, "oh, no. you wouldn't ask me to help you with this, it would be cheating, you'll have to learn it by yourself" he said quickly, "don't play games with me, you better spit out what you know or else…" she responded in anger, "cool down, you idiot, someone with ou… your kind of power has to keep his emotions at control, you just released enough power to allow her to find you, and even worse, the Inu-Injiyuu will also follow it"  he almost shouted at her.

 "those demon things… they are drawn to chackra?" she asked, "well, not exactly, but it'll be safe to say that whenever you release chackra, they'll come, I think there are other factors involved as well, but I'm not sure yet".

Two hours passed, no one the pairs had made their moves yet, Ealla noticed them and knew of their position already, "crap, they are stuck in the same spot, if they can't figure it out themselves I'll have to call them out" she thought to herself while checking the time at her clock, she took out a blue object from her backpack. "it's bad, you know what it is? That's a time candle, the blue ones burn down within 20 minutes, and that is our time limit to this test" Shally said.

 "that's bad, and I can bet Hob and Karen don't know that information, so it means we'll have to make our move first" Doro said in anger, because of their knowledge over Hob and Karen they'll have to lose their opportunity.

 "What is it?" Karen asked, Hob was suddenly sniffing the air uneasily, "that candle has to mean something, Doro is now pumped with adrenaline, they seem to be planning something, when they act, it's our queue to move in" he said, "exactly, give your dog one of the charms, we'll use him when she dodges them, it's the best chance we have against a jounin" Karen ordered, "when I give the signal, we go in, an all out battle with everything we have, I'm not going back to the academy" she continued, "deal, I won't let that dumbass Doro patronize over me".

The candle was burnt halfway through when Shally released the wave of shurikans, they all stuck into the tree as Ealla quickly dodged them, "not yet" Karen whispered to Hob.

 Doro was the next to act,  three Doros stormed the jounin instructor, "Bunshin? You make too much mistakes on it!" She laughed at him, "you'll see, just eat the bait" Shally thought to herself, "Mistakes? We both know we you can't tell the real me!" Doro shouted at her, "I hope it's good enough, the plan won't work if unless she attacks" he thought, "Learn to respect your elders!"  Ealla said as she jumped at the left Doro, "Hob, this is our chance" Karen said and started moving, the dog was already at his way.

"Don't you know… that my bunshin no jutsu is limited to one clone?" Doro whispered to Ealla, she looked right just to see a clone transforming into Shally, who was holding a charm at one hand and a string in the other, "no way to escape" Doro continued, his bandages were warping around Ealla's legs. "well at least they have teamwork" Ealla thought to herself in despair, her whole reputation as a badass jounin will be ruined, she looked around for someway to escape the string with the charm, her salivation came in the form of a dog with another charm in his mouth, he was running towards her.

 "Come dog, and now I can even shout at them" she whispered to herself with a hint of smile. "go, dog, go!" Hob screamed in joy, his distraction might end up putting the charm on the target, "don't let her escape" he continued, his hopes were crushed when he saw his jounin instructor capturing the legs of his dogs and spanned her body, sending the dog into a clash course with Shally's charm.

"My chance!" Karen said to herself, she changed her legs with her metamorphism no jutsu into an animal like vulgar form, it gave an advantage at jumps, which in that moment, she used to get to Ealla, she tried to strike the jounin with her hand, but Ealla grasped it centimeters before it connected with her body, "lost your chance, ha?" she smirked to Karen.

 *BANG*

the candle has burnt himself down, "Time up" Ealla said, she landed and headed to the spot with the candle. "the four of you, our training is over" she said, the sun was going up from behind her, "get your asses here, I'm going to conclude this test" the four genins jumped walked slowly to the spot, and she started her speech.

"None of you managed to get a charm on my back"

[not that you were expected to]

"it took you 6 hours to get to me"

[2 of which you spent on waiting at the room, 2 on the search for me and another two waiting for the best opportunity to attack]

"you separated yourself and went against a superior enemy alone"

[and organized into pairs afterwards]             

"you got into each others way and disrupted your teammates for ago"

[you used openings from each others attack]

"normally, you would have been disqualified, but due to the new rule of the Kage, I have to train you for a month before sending you back to the academy"

[I won't ever let you slip from the sound, too much potential to go unnoticed]

"and we are low on genin teams, so you'll be genins for a month, and only then your statue will be decided"

[if you can keep working like you did now, you'll get to chunins in no time]

"you four must be tired from jumping around uselessly, you should rest at home, and meet me in 10 hours from now, I'll tell you about a genin responsibilities"
[I'm going to fall to bed right now, luckily the candle burnt out, else I would be toast]

"I'm so tired… I just want to sleep now!" Karen said, the four genins walked tighter back to the village, "no you're not" the voice came from her head, "I need you to check some things, it won't be long, go to the village library" it commanded, "now? It's 5 in the morning, I can't read anything now, I want to sleep" she argued with him, "DO IT! it won't take long, all I need is a twenty minutes" he said, "listen to me, I'm going to sleep now, so leave me alone until you can come up with some better excuse" she stated firmly.

 "o.k, so hear this, if you'll do this, I'll help you become the greatest ninja in the village, like I helped your father" he tried to barter, "I don't give a damn about it, but I might consider it if you tell me who you are, and what connection do you have to my parents" Karen insisted, "you got yourself a deal" the voice said in victory, he was already planning to tell her everything, he just needed to understand the new situation better.

YOO HOO! So many reviews to shout out (!) to, I don't remember the last time this happened!

So let's start with the ones from the last chapter of 'Shdow of life'

Eikou:

a. absolutely right, people don't like to read or see characters that they can't relate to, that's why I really don't like Sasuke.. about Kouga, I can't say he's my favorite, he's ok, but the problem is that Rumiko made him too much alike Kuno and Ryoga (in fact, that's the main problem in Inu-Yasha, she didn't get over Ranma yet…)

b. well, some people just consider pairings too much, it's necessary in a romance fic, but in a plot fic, it can sometimes be a hindrance, besides, authors should write what they think is best, and not leave it to voting..

c. I guess each writer has a style of his own, my stories start mostly with angst, and are never funny…. When I do write some humor story, it's usually a random blabble that you need to be me to understand, so obviously, I won't publish those…

d. I KNEW IT! I was sure you're a girl but then your comment about Bar Mitzvahs made me think you're a guy! When I was complaining about waking up at 8am at Saturday I meant each Saturday for a few months! You probably thought I was meaning a one time thing…

Craw:

Well, I don't believe in having the 2nd generation characters act the same way as their parents, it doesn't achieve anything… but still, I'm glad you liked "Shadow of Life" and I hope you'll enjoy the new story.

And for this story shout outs (!):

Eikou:

Hi girl! What's up?

Well, going through the names of everyone would be troublesome for me, but I'll do it anyway, it's just a partial thing, so don't worry.

Karen: Naruto X Hinata daughter, the name came from Kaiton (the name Naruto used at the last story to infiltrate as a Hyuga) which came from Kaiten (the heavenly spin of Neji).

Hob: Kiba X Shizune (tsunda's helper) second son, I wanted to use a name from wolf's rain, and I forgot for a second that Hob was the name of the human, and Hige was the name of the wolf, but still, I think it's a much better name.

Doro: Dosu (dead sound nin) nephew, I just like Dosu, and it seemed natural to have him around.

Shally: family unknown… I didn't want to put another leaf around, so I just brought in someone new, I wanted to use the name "Shira" but I decided against it, she'll have one or two chapters concerning her past.

Gray: Ino X unknown son, adopted by Sasuke, I wanted to use the name Gary (I just saw a Pokemon AG episode when I wrote it, and I tried to remember how Ash's rival was called) but I misspelled it Gray, which is much cooler, don't you think?

Tack: Sakura X Lee son, I knew his name has to have something to do with fighting, the Tack came from Tea Kwon Do, which is a martial arts I practiced years ago, but when I wrote him, I didn't know how to spell it in English, so I just wrote Tack…

Ealla: I was too lazy to think of anything, so I just dropped the R from Reilla's name…

Tsubakeruo: since he's from the rock, I wanted him to have a heavy name, he's name starts like Tsubasa, which is wing, but then falls down with 'kerou', so it gives it a heavy feeling…

Synaptix:

Don't worry, like anything I write, this story will have too many twists that you'll soon forget how it started… and even I have no idea how it'll end!

I will NEVER write a Yaoi story, or even read one… don't worry about that! In fact, I review almost every non-shonen ai story I see in Naruto section so that the author won't stop, I call you to join the holy mission! Just kidding ofcourse…. The thing about Shonen ai around here is that only girls write it, I'd be surprised if there's one story that a gay guy wrote…

Shally is a mystery for now, lets just say she has a personality like a bit of shino and some Shikamaru with motivation..

Hattuteline:

Yep, lot's of new characters are hard, and me picturing them to you will be even harder, cuz I don't really write about their appearances… but I'll try my best to give you some idea, (see at the end of the shout outs [!]).

Karen's shyness comes from the fact she is the last living member of the Hyuga clan, and other than far seeing, she can't use the Byakougen for anything else. It wasn't stated anywhere that the actual Byakougen ability isn't developed someday (like the Sharingan), so she keeps the fact that she can use it a secret, because without the protection of the Hyuga clan, she has no defense in case someone will be after her eyes.

Personally, I just like the Kyubi too much to just dismiss him as a killer beast, so I can't write him too evil, and I end up writing him cynical… I know he seems a bit 'wussy' but remember, he has spent over twenty years actively being Naruto, so he can't go back to whatever he used to be before, so he just takes it on himself to become a new Naruto for Karen, besides, in my story, the Kyubi is the ancestor of all the Uzumaki family, so I can't have him ignore her completely. Can I?

Orochimaru is dead, Sasuke killed him at chap 13, the gay snake guy is dead! REJOICE!

Shadowmaster62:

Well, how can I not do a shout out (!) to someone who has one of my favorite words in his nick?

I'm glad that you can see the difference in the writing quality, I got a lot of reviews that it was a bit uncomfortable to read, so It's great to see it's getting better.

About a pre-reader, I don't really need one anymore, but if you still want to, then there's no problems..

Well, since you need to know something about the main characters, then I think I'll write a few words about one charter each week. So here's the first one, tell me what you think.

Name: Karen Uzumaki \ Hyuga.

Team: 13

Teammates: Doro, Hob, Shally, Ealla (jounin instructor)

Specialty: Metamorphism no jutsu.

Hair: blonde. Eyes: white. Often wears: Black. Hair style: not too messy, but not well attended.

Moto: "leave me alone"

Issues: Dead parents that she knows nothing about. Everybody expects her to act like her dad. Has the demon that killed her parents inside her.

Well, what did you think of Chapter 3? I know it wasn't that meaningful, but I hope it was worth reading!