Author's Note: Woo-hoo! I did it! I got a chapter up even with the broken floppy drive! Yay! Okay, my wonderful fans, I've kept you waiting long enough! Enjoy my efforts!

-Ryu

Into The Dark

Ryu walked her usual bouncy jaunt as she made her way to where the entrance to the Forest of Death was located. She had gotten directions from TenTen the day before and was heading there now. She had agreed to meet the team at the entrance. As she got closer to the forest she could hear the buzz of the forty-four people who had passed the written part of the exam. She had decided to bring Al along with her and he sniffed the air coming from the forest as he walked beside her.

He gave a nervous grumble as they stopped a few feet away from the chain-link fence that separated them from the forest. Or was it separating the forest from them? She petted Al for comfort and looked around for her teammates. Even in a crowd of forty-four, it was hard to find them. She stopped her search to take in the environment as she looked to the forest once more.

She seemed to be getting why they called it the Forest of Death as she looked at it more closely; it gave off a foreboding aura as she tried to see into the dark places between the trees. It didn't look like much sunlight got in there. There was also so much green, it nearly overwhelmed her. The massive amount of trees and underbrush almost scared her.

She sighed as tried to quell the anxiousness inside her. She was both calm and nervous about this part of the exam as her insides shivered, but her mind didn't. She took a step backwards to turn her vision away from the forest and to look for her teammates. She bumped into someone as she did so.

"Oh, sorry," she said as she turned around to see who she had run into. She then saw that the person was Reks, one of the Grass ninja from the other day.

Oh no, was all she could think as she looked at him. He smiled when he saw her, and she started to back away from him. She did not want to have to deal with him right now.

"Well, hello there," he said, sounding a bit too friendly. "You're that girl from the grocery store the other day, right?"

"Uh…maybe," she said, her mind completely on getting away from him.

"Yeah, you are! I didn't get your name," he said as he got closer to her.

Ryu heard Al give a low growl as he did so. Maybe he'll bite him if he gets too close, she thought hopefully. It was clear he wasn't going to leave her alone until she gave him her name as his eyes never left her. His body wasn't getting any closer to her, but she felt like her space was invaded anyway.

"It's Ryu," she said quickly as she turned to leave. "Good-bye."

"Whoa! Hey, don't be so hasty!" he said as he quickly jumped in front of her. "I haven't told you my name yet."

Ryu was starting to lose her temper with this guy. Why couldn't he just take a hint and leave her alone?

"I already know your name," she said, annoyed. "It's Reks."

The white-haired boy smiled. "Oh-h, so you've already heard about me?"

Okay, now she really was annoyed with him. Small pin-pricks of purple were starting to appear in her brown eyes. She rolled her eyes in response to his ego.

"No," she said flatly. "Now, if you don't mind, I have to find my teammates."

She started to walk the other way when he got in her way again. He quickly caught her wrist with a devilish grin. Her eyes were now half-and-half between purple and brown; she was getting angry.

"You can be on my team," he said suggestively. Ryu wanted to slap him, but before she could…

"GRRR-ARF!"

Chomp!

Reks immediately howled as Akumaru sunk his sharp puppy teeth into his ankle. As he hopped around, the puppy held on, growling all the while. Kiba jogged over, looking both curious and surprised as to what his dog had done.

"Akumaru! Let go!" he commanded. The puppy dropped from his hold, and Reks immediately whirled on him, anger flashing in his eyes.

"What is wrong with your dog?!" he snarled.

Akumaru barked a series of growls and arfs, stopping Kiba from apologizing. He then turned to Ryu, completely ignoring Reks.

"Ryu, is this guy bugging you?" he asked swiftly.

Reks was about to butt in, but Ryu jumped before he did. "Yes!" she said as she took a step behind Kiba.

"Oh really?"

Kiba looked levelly at the frowning boy. Reks obviously wasn't happy that someone had intervened, especially another boy. His frown deepened as he measured him up, Kiba being taller and bigger then him by a few inches. His growling companion wasn't helping either.

"And you are?" Kiba asked.

Ryu wasn't sure what was going on, but it seemed like the both of them were fighting a silent battle. Reks folded his arms as part of his response.

"Reks Tachiki," he said. "You?"

"Kiba Inuzuka,"

Neither of them moved as they stood in front of each other. Ryu was glad that Kiba and Akumaru had come to her rescue, but she didn't want a fist fight over it. But by the way things were looking, it seemed more like a staring contest then anything. Kiba ended it by turning to her.

"So, how long has this guy been bothering you?" he asked deliberately.

Ryu opened her mouth, but Reks finally got his chance to butt in.

"I wasn't bothering her, I was just being friendly," he said.

Kiba looked at him, his temper showing with his canines.

"I was asking her, not you," he nearly growled.

"And if she took it the wrong way?"

"Why should she if you were behaving correctly?"

Reks seemed visibly irritated now. "Why should I answer to you?" he snapped. "Who are you, her boyfriend?"

This didn't phase Kiba one bit. "No, but I'm her friend and I'm not going to let some white-haired creep take advantage of her."

Reks was now seething with anger, and when Veraj came up behind him to see what was wrong, this only seemed to embolden him. Veraj took one look at the situation, and smiled a wicked smile as a mean glint entered his eyes.

"Hey, Reks, need some help?" he asked. He looked at Ryu. "Oh, it's you."

His smile widened as he leaned I to Reks. "If you get the boy, can I beat on the girl for the other day?"

"Be my guest,"

"What did I do?!" Ryu exclaimed, changing her stance to defend herself while trying to gather her courage.

His size still intimidated her, and she had to resist her instinct to run from him. She still cringed though, her fear getting the best of her. Veraj smiled a toothy grin as he cracked his knuckles.

"Women need to learn their place," he said menacingly.

Both Akumaru and Kiba growled as Ryu was able to get a hold of herself enough to try and harness her wind.

"Ryu!"

A familiar voice then broke through the charged air as Lee ran over to his teammate. But as soon as he did, he wondered whether he should of come over. The large ninja seemed ready to jump on Ryu and his expression changed as he sized up the situation.

"Who are you?" he asked. Veraj turned on him, his blatant disregard for respect emanating from him.

"None of your beeswax, small fry," he said gruffly.

Lee took a stance. "If you intend to do harm to my teammate, then it is my 'beeswax,'" he replied smoothly.

The air was charged with a raucous kind of energy. It seemed like at any moment the teens would jump and tear each other apart.

"Alright, you clowns!!!" Anko suddenly roared at the front, making everyone present jump. "Shut your traps and stand up straight!"

Lee dragged Ryu over to where the rest of the team was to listen Anko speak. She cleared her throat before she continued.

"If you haven't already figured it out, the next part of the exam is a survival test. You all get kicked out into the Forest of Death for five days, no breaks and no outside help. In this forest is a tower you have to get to by the time the five days are up with two scrolls."

She held up two scrolls; one saying heaven, and the other saying earth.

"Your team only gets one of the two and the goal is to get the other to you can get into the tower."

She smiled a wicked smile. "Simple, right?"

A wave of uneasiness seemed to settle across the crowd. This only seemed to make Anko smile even more.

"And there's one more thing…" she said while rummaging through a pocket. She pulled out a piece of paper. "You need to sign these consent forms. So if anything happens to you in there the Leaf Village can't be held responsible."

She then started to hand out the forms to the teams. She continued to explain the rest of the exam as she did so.

"There are 44 locked gates that go into the Forest of Death. After you hand in your forms and pick up your scroll, you'll go to one of these gates to start from. You'll all be let in at the same time so there's no rush."

Ryu signed the form in her wavy handwriting, and then walked along with her team over to the tent to turn in their papers and receive their scroll. Theirs turned out to be a heaven scroll. That meant they would have to find an earth scroll in the forest. They decided to go to gate number three and wait. While they were waiting, Ryu thought f something. She picked Al up.

"Wait a second, okay you guys?" she asked. Lee and TenTen nodded while Nedgie glared daggers at her.

"Be quick," he grumbled at her,

She didn't bother going for an aggravating come back; she was too busy trying to figure out how to do this. She nervously approached Anko.

"Um… Ms. Anko?" she said. The dark-eyed woman turned.

"Whaddaya want, kid?" she said. She looked at the orange tabby in her arms. "Is that stuffed animal going with you?"

She shook her head. "That kind of it," she said. "Do you know Guy Might?"

Anko nodded, and Ryu held Al out to her.

"Do you think…you could bring Al to him?" she asked tentively. "I don't think it would be a good idea if I bring him with me."

Anko sighed. "Well, at least you realized this now instead of later," she said. She held out her arms. "I'll give him to Guy."

Ryu gently placed Al into the proctor's hands. He squirmed a bit as he realized what was happening and meowed loudly in protest. Ryu placed a finger on his nose, and smiled.

"It's okay, Al," she said. "I just don't want you to get eaten by something unrecognizable."

The cat seemed to sigh at this and climbed onto Anko's shoulders. She sighed.

"Alright, kid, go back to your gate." She said. She scratched Al behind one of his ears. "I'll watch your cat until Guy gets here."

"Thanks," said Ryu as she walked away.

She jogged back over to her team and TenTen looked around her.

"Where's Al?" she asked.

"Abko's going to give him to Al while we're doing the survival test," she said. She frowned slightly. "I didn't like the idea of him getting eaten by a giant spider or something."

The lock suddenly came open on the gate and they heard Anko's traveling voice shout, "GO!!!"

The team leapt as fast as they could into the dark and inhospitable forest.

Day Three

The team of four, covered in dust, mud, and a number of grubby things finally found a cool place beside one of the rivers that ran through the forest. Ryu sat with a sigh of relief. She had never felt so tired in her life. It felt like they had been in this forest forever. Even worse, they had been in it for three days and they had yet to find a team with a heaven scroll. Even with Nedgie's Byakugan, they hadn't been able to find anyone. The notion that everyone had gotten to the tower already was preposterous, but this crazy idea kept sneaking into Ryu's train of thought. She shook her head, trying to get the exhaustion away from her for a moment. TenTen looked at her.

"Hey, Ryu? Are you alright?" she asked. She had noticed she was getting a little pale. She nodded.

"Yeah, I'm just really tired…" she said letting the sentence trail off.

Lee came up from the riverbank, completely soaked.

"Well, my tired friends," he said. "You needn't be as tired anymore!"

He plopped a catch of fish down he had been able to get. He smiled at the girls while Nedgie inspected the catch. He looked at Lee.

"I hope you got firewood," he said. Lee's smile disappeared.

"Uh… No, I didn't."

Nedgie sighed as he got up. He looked back at the others. "I'm going to get some wood," he said. "Try not to get in trouble while I'm gone."

With that he walked away. Ryu frowned as he disappeared into the forest.

"'Try not get into trouble while I'm gone!'" she mimicked. She blew air out in a dissatisfied "Harrumph!". She looked at TenTen and Lee.

"Jeez, how do you guys put up with his attitude!" she said. TenTen shrugged.

"You get used to it, is all," she said. She started to untie the fish Lee had gotten. "And there's other things you have to take into consideration."

Ryu folded her arms. "Like what?" she grumbled. "That he's arrogant and emotionless?"

Lee tried not to laugh as TenTen looked at Ryu. "Ryu, Nedgie's a genius and one who hasn't exactly had the best time of it…"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, neither have I, but you don't see me treating everyone else like dirt."

Lee looked at Ryu. "Ryu, you're not acting like yourself." he said cautiously. "Are you sure you feel alright?"

She sighed and rubbed one of her eyes. "Yeah, I'm just really tired," she said. "I haven't slept that well since we started."

"I don't think anyone has…" TenTen said, sounding just as tired as Ryu did.

They heard the crunching of leaves and twigs and turned to see Nedgie coming back with wood in his arms. They made a fire in silence as the rest they needed eluded them for the moment. After they ate, Nedgie stood again.

"I think we should split up." he said. "We haven't been able to find anyone yet, and if we look in different areas we'll cover more ground."

He looked around at everyone to see if there were any objections. No one seemed to mind. Ryu actually thought it was a good idea. And even then, she could probably take a nap if she couldn't find anyone. So they marked the area where they were, decided to meet back in around two hours, and split up into different directions. Ryu headed north-east since heading east would basically have been retracing their steps.

No one had been following them since Nedgie hadn't seen anyone. He may be a hard-ass, but he's useful, she thought as she air slid through the tree branches. As she went through tree after tree, it felt like she wasn't getting anywhere. She was just so tired…. She stopped in a tree to survey her surroundings and make sure she wasn't going in circles.

No, it didn't look like it, everything was different then the area before. She sighed; she might as well keep going, even if she was sure she wasn't going to find anything. About an hour later, or what felt like one, Ryu stopped in a tree, panting. She was completely exhausted. Maybe if she took a moment, she'd feel better. She jumped down a few branches and took a sheet out of her bag.

She might as well take that nap she had thought of earlier. She sat down on the tree branch and leaned her head against the trunk while wrapping herself up in the sheet. She looked down as she made herself comfortable. But sleep was forgotten as she stared at what she saw on the ground. A full grown tiger was lying underneath the tree, cut to ribbons.

She threw the sheet off, stuffed in her bag, and climbed down the tree. She looked the kill over. Yup, this tiger had been killed by kunai knives, and lots of them. She then looked up above the tiger to see kunai knives sticking out of the trunk. She turned around and beheld a slaughter.

Tigers of all ages and sizes dead and cut along with three ninja bodies. Ryu shuddered. What had happened here? She looked around the area, looking for more clues. When tracking a spirit, you had to notice every detail, that's what Dr. Masuda had taught her.

There were claw marks on the trees, but they weren't fresh so that meant they were for marking territory. That explained the situation to her immediately. The ninja had wandered into tiger territory at the wrong time and then the other tigers had gathered from the noise. And if there were three ninjas that meant they were a team, and they had a scroll. She sighed; she didn't want to but she was going to have to go through their stuff.

She got to it, gong through their pockets methodically and quickly. Two of them turned up empty except for some food, and then she moved onto the last one. The last one had been killed by a very large tiger whose jaws were half-closed around his head while a large kunai knife had been stuck in its chest. As she started to go through his bag, she noticed the tiger was a mother, or used to be. She sighed sadly, but then stopped what she was doing as something wet closed around her ankle with small pricks of pain.

She turned and saw a small tiger cub determinedly gnawing on her leg. Except she wasn't doing much since she didn't have many teeth and her mouth was mostly gums. Her paws were huge, but the claws weren't really doing anything. She growled as she looked at Ryu. Ryu sighed and picked the cub up with one hand while the other grabbed hold of a scroll. She held the cub up to eye level.

"And what were you trying to do?" she asked the cub. "Gum me to death?"

The tiger cub gave the distinctive scratchy "Raowr!" while batting her nose. Ryu suddenly felt a presence behind her. She whipped around in time to see a ninja with a kunai knife aimed at her back. Her mind scrambled for a technique.

"Ryu! Look out!"

The ninja was suddenly swallowed by sand, and was dragged away from her. The sand then convulsed and dispersed, leaving no trace of the ninja. Ryu looked up to see Gaara in a tree with small whisps of sand churning around his feet. She let the held breath go she had sucked in and smiled at him.

"Hey, stranger!" she said good-naturedly as he jumped down.

"Are you alright?" he asked as he walked over to her.

"Yeah, thanks a lot," she said. He looked around.

"What happened here?" he asked as he did so.

"These poor smucks wandered into tiger territory," she said as she swiftly stowed the scroll in her bag behind her. She was hoping he hadn't seen what she had been doing.

"And you didn't notice that guy because…?"

"Well…" She held up her arm that was now being fanged by the cub who was growling as ferociously as she could.

"I was kinda preoccupied," She looked behind him.

"Where are you brother and sister?"

"Around. What about you? Is there a reason you're out here by yourself?" he asked.

She stood up and dusted herself off, the cub dropping off her arm.

"Nedgie thought we should split up," she said as she arranged her things in her bag to better hide the scroll. "You're the first person I've seen in three days."

She looked up at the sun. She should probably get back to the river. She looked back at Gaara as he started to walk away. She sighed; she hated this. This entire exam made everyone an enemy.

She was just glad he had saved her life instead of letting her deal with it. She was able to get the cub off of her foot and then started her return to the river. As she did, she couldn't help but feel like she was being followed. She zigged and zagged, and even air slid backwards a few times to make sure no one was behind her. What was this feeling…?

When she got to the river she saw that her team was there except for Nedgie. She noticed Lee had a few slashes in his shirt.

"What happened to you?" she asked. He sighed.

"I got picked up by a giant eagle," he said. He sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose. "Uh… Ryu-kun? No offense, but why do you smell like bad meat?"

"Corpses," she said simply. "I stumbled across a battle ground basically. It wasn't pretty."

TenTen seemed a little on edge. Instead of being her usual inner-confidence self, she was nervously pacing back and forth at the river's edge Ryu watched this behavior for a while then turned to Lee.

"What's up with TenTen?' she asked him. He shrugged.

"I'm not sure. She's been doing that for a while."
Ryu sighed. Lee, you have no common sense, she thought. Or at least any that refer to girls. She got up and walked over to TenTen.

"TenTen? Are you okay?" she asked, concerned. TenTen stopped pacing to look at her.

"Huh?" she said, looking as if she hadn't heard a word she had just said.

"I asked if you were alright. Are you?"

TenTen bit her lip before answering. "Kind of…" she said. She looked at Ryu, looking a bit guilty. "I'm worried about Nedgie."

Ryu gave her a puzzled look. "Nedgie? Why would you be worried about him?" she said. TenTen shrugged.

"It's just…" she said, fidgeting as she said it. "He's always the first one here whenever we split up. It's not like him to be late. What if something happened to him?"

Ryu shook her head. "TenTen, you said yourself. Nedgie's a genius. I'm pretty sure he can take care of himself." she said. TenTen nodded, still looking a bit unsure/

So they waited. Then they waited some more. And a little bit more. The more they waited, the more nervous TenTen seemed to get. After what seemed an hour, Ryu herself was starting to worry about the pale-eyed teen. Lee stood up.

"I think we should go look for Nedgie," he said. "Which direction did he go in?"

"Uh... Well…" TenTen said. "I went south."

Ryu nodded. "And I went north-east."

"I went north-west," said Lee. "So that means Nedgie went west, toward the tower."

"Okay, let's go look for our wayward ninja." Ryu said as she got up.

TenTen stood up and they began their search. The forest seemed to get thicker the closer they got to the tower. It seemed to Ryu that the possibility that Nedgie actually got lost in the foliage wasn't that farfetched of an idea. Or if the foliage didn't eat him. She thought. She immediately banished that thought.

She didn't really like Nedgie, but she couldn't imagine the team without him. He was one of the pillars that kept them all going. Both TenTen and Lee seemed to depend on him for some kind of encouragement that Ryu didn't require from him. She was able to get it that it might be that total surety of himself that he always had. That destiny mumbo-jumbo that she hated so much gave TenTen a confidence boot and Lee a reason to train as hard as he could to prove Nedgie wrong.

Plus there was the fact that the team needed to be intact in order to get to the third exam. They seemed to be going at a good pace when TenTen let out a small shriek.

"Look!" she said, stopping where she was. "There he is!"

They stopped and Ryu looked down. There he was, and what was he doing? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! He seemed to be just standing there and surveying the area like he owned the place.

This ticked her off immediately and she threw decorum and relief of finding him to the wind.

"Nedgie!" she nearly screamed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

He looked up as they jumped down to him. He looked at her, a little surprised at seeing them.

"I was looking for other teams, what else?" he said. Ryu put her hands on her hips.

"We were supposed to meet up at the river bank two hours ago! What's the big idea just not showing up?" she said. TenTen tried to come up behind her and calm her down, but Ryu wouldn't have it. Nedgie sighed as the two lightly argued.

'Ryu," he said. "I didn't mean to upset you. I'm sorry."

This immediately shut her down. She blinked at him.

"E-excuse you?"

"I said I was sorry."

The entire world seemed to stand still. Even TenTen and Lee seemed to be in shock. She then smiled at him and walked toward him.

"Oh, in that case…"

Her eyes turned purple in a flash and she suddenly shoved him away with her wind. He landed a good seven feet away from them. Ryu glared at him.

"Ryu!" Lee exclaimed. "Why did you do that?! It's Nedge!!"

She looked back at him. "No, Lee," she said. "That's not Nedgie."

Nedgie sat up, furious. "I am too!" he insisted.

"Oh really? Use your Byakugan then.'

He paused as he looked at them. The team waited, on edge now as he hadn't immediately proved Ryu wrong. He got up and dusted himself off.

"Clever…" he said in a voice not quite his own. He looked at them with orange eyes.

"Clever girl…"

Dust started crumble off of the look-alike and as a heap of dirt came off of him, it revealed a man. He was stooped over and he straightened to his natural height. He was nearly seven feet tall, or he was in Ryu's eyes. He could almost be Veraj when he grew up. His hair was blonde and black, the colors in stripes off his head.

His skin reminded her of clay as lines were in some places in his face. A giant axe was strapped to his back, the blade gleaming in the faint light. A black choker was around his neck with the symbol of the Village Hidden Among The Stones, the craggy rock shining distinctively silver. The entire team was on guard now, ready to piunce on the stranger with their own techniques. TenTen was ready to start whipping out shuuriken and kunai knives in an instant.

"Where's Nedgie?!" she demanded. "What did you do with him?!"

"Heh," the stranger smiled. "He's just fine. I'll give him back if you're willing to trade."

"You mean a ransom!" Ryu nearly snarled. He shrugged.

"Call it what you like. Are you willing?"

"What is it that you want?" Lee cautiously asked.

"Your scrolls."

This caught them all off guard. Ryu looked the man up and down.

"But… You look like a jonin! What would you want scrolls for?"

The stranger sighed as he put his axe down.

"I'm a scroll collector known as Hiro," he said as he leaned on the handle. "You won't believe what other teams will do for an easy scroll. And considering how close we are to the end of the exam, teams will be getting desperate. So, what'll it be?"

Each member looked at each other. Lee looked determined to fight while TenTen seemed a bit uneasy. Lee nodded at Ryu with a light shake of his head. She was glad she could read body language so well. She sighed.

"No deal," she said. Hiro sighed as he picked up his axe.

"And here I was hoping you'd see reason," He easily hefted the axe into the air and charged at them.

They split up, Ryu in the air while Lee and TenTen to the sides. Hiro didn't even seem to notice Ryu and turned his attention only Lee and TenTen. What's with this guy? she wondered as she readied to pounce on him with an air dive. He suddenly looked up at her, a wicked grin on his face. She felt a presence behind her and swiftly turned. With a screech, a giant eagle descended upon her, grabbing her arms with it's claws. She heard Hiro laughing as she struggled to get free. The eagle's claws dug into her skin, breaking it in some places. It took off with her higher into the sky. Lee heard her scream as the eagle flew with her.

"That's the same eagle that grabbed me!" he said to Hiro as he swung a few times at him. "You've been following us all along."

"Not always," he said as he easily dodged. "But long enough!"

He finally used his axe, swinging it at Lee's head. The boy ducked but then had to tumble away as the man had thrown shuriken at him with his other arm. He was weilding that giant axe with one arm! TenTen saw the opening of his back and threw six kunai knives at him, one for each space between her fingers. Hiro turned as he kicked the surprised Lee away. He lifted the axe and used it as a sheild, the blade covering him completely. The knives bounced off and TenTen reached for more shuriken. She shreiked in surprise as she suddenly found herself being held against her will. Hiro laughed softly in her ear.

"I always did like foreign girls," he said as he moved his hands around.

Lee immediately got up, as the kick had stunned him and ran to attack him. There was no way in the world he was going to let this scum disgrace his teammate. Above the ground battle, Ryu was fighting another in the air. The eagle snapped at her face as she struggled to be released by the claws. She was able to effectively dodge all of them, her own reflexes aided with her wind control.

The eagle suddenly dived, taking her stomach for a ride as her sense of balance was thrown off. The eagle then started to snap again, scratching her chin and cheek once. Crap! It's smart! she moaned in her head more then thoat. She had to get it to let her go or it might take her head off next!

As they continued to hurtle toward the earth, she focused as much as she could on the air around the eagle's feet. The air started to twist and turn, sharpening to become air blades. She rotated them and the eagle screech in pain as it's feet were slashed. They suddenly broke through the tree tops and the eagle crashed to the earth, breaking up Hiro and TenTen as it did. Ryu tumbled head over heels and was only stopped by a tree trunk as she was slammed into it.

The eagle whimpered as it struggled to get back onto it's injured feet. Ryu was able to get back onto her feet and quickly air slid toward the eagle. It hissed and flew back into the air; the girl right behind it. The others got bavk onto their feet, the interruption giving TenTen enough time to get away from Hiro. She was angry.

She whipped out a scroll and bounced up a few tree branches. Lee immediately pounced on the man, who swung his axe with determination. Feet don't fail me now! Lee anxiously thought as he jumped and leaped away from the sharp blade. TenTen ripped the scroll open and started to summon as many weapons as she could while Lee kept Hiro busy. She then threw everything all at once.

"Lee! Move!" she shouted. He ceratinly did as he jumped out of the way.

Hiro turned again and blocked as many as he could with the axe but a few got stuck in his feet.

"Agh!" He leapt away with the shuriken and kunai knives still in his feet.

"Gotchya!"

Lee was suddenly behind him. He gave him a few kicks to the head and then one to the chest. Hiro tumbled over the ground, stopping between TenTen and Lee's trees. He growled as he reached into his back pockets. He had scrolls, but not from the exam.

TenTen gasped as she saw they were for summoning, and she wasn't exactly in any hurry to find out what was in them. She was about to yell at Lee to run when a crash was heard and the giant eagle from before landed hard right on top of the infuriated Hiro with Ryu on top of it. She had air dived and drove it into the ground along with it's master. She climbed out of the crater, spitting dust and rocks.

"Okay, where's the other one?' she asked as she looked around.

Her teammates leapt to the ground.

"Well, you kind of got him along with the bird," TenTen said while gesturing to the crater.

Nothing seemed to be moving in it. They each looked at one another, a little beat up but still not too bad.

"We should start looking for Nedgie," Ryu said. "He can't be too far."

So they split up once more, all having the same lingering thought. What if Hiro had killed Nedgie? Ryu wasn't too sure whether he could of done it or not. From what she had seen, that scroll collector hadn't been that much of a threat. Then again, she had been dealing with his monster parakeet at the time. She would have to ask Lee and TenTen what had happened. Sh climbed into a tree, and was surprised to see how close the tower was. When they found Nedgie, it would be easy to get to the tower from where they were. Now, if only they could find him…

She looked up as she heard some tree leaves rustle. Nedgie was right above her, tied up what seemed mummy-style and looking like he was going to kill something if she didn't get him out.

"Nedgie!" she said, happy that she had found him. She climbed up and loosened the bandages around his mouth. "Are you alright."

'I'm just fine, now get me down!!"

The boy seemed to be seething with rage, almost scaring her. She'd never seen Nedgie lose his temper. So, she cut him down, resisting the urge to tease him and they walked back. Lee and TenTen had returned by then and were glad to see im. Lee was his usual hyper self when it came to a success, and nearly danced when he saw him. Ryu thought TenTen just might hug him, but she restrained herself. Nedgie didn't seem to have changed at all in the least, dispelling any suspicion of another imposter.

He sighed his usual sigh. "Alright, did any of you find a scroll?" he asked, sounding impatient.

Ryu smiled and dug into her bag. "I did!" she said triuphantly.

She pulled the earth scroll out of her bag and held it out proudly.

"Woo-hoo!" Lee cheered. "Let's get to the tower!"

"Don't celebrate yet," Nedgie nearly growled. "We have to be on our guard."

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Ryu thought as they started to walk again. They were back under the pale-eyed boy's dark cloud. Not that she didn't mind much. She had gotten used to Nedgie, he just got on her nerves once in a while. But just because she had gotten used to him didn't mean she necessarly liked him.

Tolerated was more like it. The battle bewteen Hiro and them had erased time, and it was suddenly dark to them. It looked like the sun had set nearly four hours ago. They trudged through the last of the forest, encountering nothing but leaves and a few mosquitos. Ryu almost walked into a wall, she was so tired. She looked up and found hrself facing one of the walls to the tower. Nedgie was looking up at, determined.

"We made it," he said. The team seemed to relax as he readied to open the doors in front of them.

He opened them and the team started to walk in. Ryu paused before she went in. Lee noticed this and turned around.

"Ryu?" he asked. "What is it?'

"It's just…" she said letting the sentence trail off. She took a few steps out into the forest.

She stood there for a moment, looking out into it. Her team waited for her, a bit puzzled. She suddenly reached into a bush and pulled somethng out of it. It growled and batted her arms as she pulled it out.

"You!" she exclaimed as she recognized the tiger cub from earlier in the day.

She turned around to show her team.

"This little thing has been following me ever since I met her!" she said. TenTen sighed.

"Well, put her back then. We've got to go," she said.

Ryu paused as she looked at the cub. She remembered the battle ground. This cub had nothing to go back to. She stopped holding her by the scruff of the neck and held her n her arms like she would with Al. TenTen looked surprised.

"What are you doing?" Nedgie sharply asked.

"She's staying with me," Ryu said as she walked in. She looked at Nedgie, her eyes daring him to challenge her. "And nothing you guys aregoing to say will change my mind."

She thought she saw Nedgie grinding his teeth. The tiger cub growled in his direction. TenTen walked over to the cub and looked at her. She rubbed it's head, and then looked back at Nedgie.

"I think it's okay," she said. She opened the cub's mouth. "See? No teeth."

"Yet," he mumbled.

Lee shook his head. "Forget the tiger! Open the scrolls so we can see who we get this time!"

Nedgie sighed and held the earth scroll out. He looked at Ryu for the heaven scroll.

'Well? Don't tell me you lost it?"

Ryu rolled her eyes as she put the tiger cub down and dug the heaven scroll out of her bag. She had had both scrolls then entire time. They had decided it would be best since she had a bag with her all the time. She held it out and they both opened the scrolls.