The next morning, hopeful genin stood at the forefront of the forest of sector five, in anticipation of the second phase of the Chuunin exams starting.

Nanako became very nervous as thoughts of her dying before ever completing her mission, flashed in her mind.

"Relax Nanako, remember why your here." said Hina softly.

Hina looked to her sister gesturing with her head, for her sister to say something supportive. Rina sighed after glaring at Nanako spitefully, rolling her eyes saying "Yes Nanako you are on a divine from our great leader Nakamaru, with his seal you can accomplish anything."

Nanako who sat on her knees was unaware of the gestures the twins made behind her back, or how they truly felt. She felt sick her running a race within her chest, she grasped at the ground for refuge, safety. The ground wouldn't change on her, threaten her well being. As she continued to plague herself with these thought the realization that nothing and nowhere was safe, frightened her.

"Do, . . .do you think he would understand if I just quit? If I just never returned would you let me go!?" Nanako pleaded as she looked back at the twins.

Rina glanced at Hina out the corner of her eye as Hina opened her mouth saying "That's not a viable option, miss Nanako. Stop being a coward and prove yourself to be the vessel of hope, that Lord Nakamaru believes you to be.

Nanako sat there shocked at what Hina said to her, she turned her head forward. Wiped the tears from her eyes as she hung her head saying "Very well. If Nakamaru sees me as his hope then . . . that is what I will be!"

Nanako spoke hesitantly, but, it was enough to satisfy the twins he smiled at each other.

"Daigo, how do you see this going?" asked Asuka his teammate.

Daigo continued stretching with his other teammate Jin saying "I think this is gonna be a blast personally, but, if you mean like what are we going have to do to make it to the finals. I think we could just lay low the entire time, if we keep are heads down and are movements silent. We should be able to avoid confrontations with other teams."

Jin stopped his stretch saying "Not Naomi team squad, who by the way is gunning for you personally. Which makes us involved by association. I just can't believe you made an enemy of her."

Looking up toward the sky as though he had seen something, he turns back toward his teammates.

"It happened on a mission sometimes you make enemies, you know?" Daigo said coolly"

Asuka's face frowned up as she grabbed Daigo by his collar shaking him yelling "Don't try to make it sound like you were there to kill her, when you were just delivering a message! Then you go and hook up with the first girl that smiles at you, and break up with her the next day when you leave! So don't try to play cool when your a horrible person!"

Everyone in the vicinity turned and looked at Asuka, Daigo's body lay limp in her hands. She looked around seeing all the judgmental faces.

"WHAT!" she yelled.

In an instant everyone around them looked away. Jin reached for his dazed friend who now lay on the ground as Asuka continued to stretch.

Nori rubbed his ears, a look of annoyance on his face. He stood there in the large crowd of genin with Yuri and Mai.

"I can't believe that girl yelled that loud, I'm even sure what she was saying. In any case I'm ready for this thing to start." Nori said with excitement in his voice.

Yuri stood there with her eyes closed, breathing in the air deeply to calm herself. She exhaled, a big smile stretched across her face.

"I'm just as excited, I can't wait to see whats in this forest." said Yuri with clenched fist.

Mai looked at her teammates suspiciously asking "What happen to, wanting to keep a low profile. Are we still doing that? I mean we are still doing that, right?"

Yuri and Nori looked at each other, with fire in their eyes.

"No were definitely charging in there!" said Yuri with excitement.

"No prisoners, anyone gets in are way and were gonna destroy them! said Nori malevolently.

Mai sighed in defeat, having no choice but to support their bull headed plan.

Naomi stood with her team, arms crossed with a look of concern on her face.

"Are you alright Naomi?" asked Toshi her squad mate.

Naomi lifted her gaze from the ground to the boy saying "Shut up Toshi. I'm trying to think of are plan of attack, maybe if you Ono clan members weren't so useless. I wouldn't have to do all the thinking."

Jun, Naomi's other teammate rolled her eyes in defiance.

"So you say Naomi, but, I'm sure once we get in there, me and Toshi are going to be carrying your sorry ass. While you take all the credit." mocked Jun.

Naomi stared into the eyes of Jun who also returned the glare.

"It's through my careful planning, of our movements, that this "carrying" you speak so highly of is even made possible. In the future you should think before you open your mouth, freak. Or otherwise I'll be forced to further educate you." Naomi said spitefully.

Jun stepped close to Naomi's face, there noses almost touched saying "You can say what you like to Toshi because he lets you, but you should know better than to talk to me that way." Smirking she continued. "I think I'll "educate" you this time, learn to watch your back while your inside this forest Naomi, because I won't be."

Jun turned and walked away, from her teammates disappearing into the crowd.

Toshi reached out to Jun, but, was too late. He looked around for her nervously, not a trace.

"I'm sure she didn't mean that Naomi. I understand that, that's just how you are, but, maybe. Maybe you should be nicer to the people you rely upon, your friends. I'll do the best I can for the team while were out there and you should consider apologizing to Jun. At least that's what I think a good leader would do." Toshi said as he went to look for Jun.

Naomi held herself tightly, she continued to think on a plan of action, it helped keep her from dwelling on the guilt she felt.

Batsu and Ai stared off into the deep forest, they were envisioning their approach. Rai looked back and forth between the two, their trance like gazes made her feel unsure.

Rai groaned thinking "Their so focused, I was never really good at doing that they haven't spoken a word sine we woke up this morning. I'm sure they've been dreaming about this moment, they have to be nervous, I'm nervous."

As Rai followed the example of her teammates she began staring off into the forest. She looked into the great depths of the mystic forest, images began to form before her eyes.

"Genkei!" Rai thought.

The image of her brother perched on a branch his back to her. His slowly turned to look at with a smile on it's face. It spoke "Don't hold back." as the image spoke an image of Suzaku landed on his head. Rai giggled to herself. Another image, one of her mother appeared walking into the forest saying "Show me what you've got, sweetie." The images dissipated with blowing wind. Rai opened her hands letting the wind cool her palms, her confidence renewed. She had found her focus point.

"I won't give up, even if it kills me. Nobody I know quits so neither will I." Rai said as electricity began to spark about her body.

Batsu and Ai looked at each other confidently, after hearing Rai's words.

All the teams from Teisei, Banju and Chi waited in great anticipation, for the second event to begin. One of the jounin that lead the tour from the day prior stood in front of the large crowd, waving his an arm in the air as to get everyone's attention.

Clearing his throat before saying "Can everyone hear me?"

He paused for a moment before continuing, everyone was silent.

"Alright good, welcome to the second phase of the Chuunin Exams. This phase will challenge a multitude of skills you have been honing up to this point. It's a survival test, where you will also search for and retrieve an important item. You will know the item in question when you find it, there are nine of them and each is hidden away within a shrine. On a mountain, at the true center of the forest. Now I know what your thinking, should be easy to find a mountain in a forest, but, it's not. This forest is enchanted and so is all the life that resides within it. So as tragic as this may sound, only a few of you will actually make it to the mountain, but, a lot of you may die before you even see it." said the Jounin nonchalantly.

Many in the crowd of genin became nervous after hearing the forest carried mysticism in it.

Clearing his throat once more the jounin continued saying "You will have three days to make it to the top of the mountain. Be wary when going through the forest, since we hold the chuunin exams around a regularly scheduled time frame. I guess you could consider this hunting season. Lastly, there are no rules governing how you need to go about moving to the mountain peak or how you need to collect the item within the shrine. I will say this though if you have more than one item you will not only be able to enter the prelims, but, also get to determine who the members of your team match up against. Every corresponding item afterward will dictate the match ups of another team. Those with no item will be left to find there own way out of the forest and back to the start, ending the exam for that team. Does everyone understand everything I've said? Just to clarify you only need to find one item to enter the preliminary matches. Now, any questions?"

The jounin slowly scanned from one side of the crowd to the next.

With a smirk on his face, he held his hand out toward the forest saying "Okay then, you may sta-"