It's me again! I was hoping to get more free time, but that backfired and so I still have less time to write and upload then I'd want to. Luckily I'm able to submit next chapters at least once in every, little while.

Thanks for all the reviews for last time. It means a lot, though I'm a bit depressed that the popularity seems to be dropping. I sure hope it's temporary, but if not I may be forced to put this series on hold (with some many things I need to do, there's a possibility of that happening).

No-one asked any questions really, so I believe the only thing left to do is to get on with the show:

Chapter #33: Second Exam – Lee's Team

Title Page: Kei and Lee are training their 'nice guy pose', Ibuki is throwing shuriken at a target attached to a nearby tree and Gaki is using a log as a weight

Tenten looked out the window of the tower. It was just the third day of the exam and already few teams made it through the forest. She smiled that at least one of them was from her own village. However the other that made it through… not only did they made it through so quickly, but there was also something about them… something disturbing.

She suddenly heard a knock on the door. Without turning around, she only said 'enter' and with a quiet 'crack' the door opened and a man with bowl-like, black hair walked in. He seemed the same age as her, had huge eyebrows and was wearing a dark green jumpsuit with a green vest on that. The weapon mistress also noticed a Leaf headband used as a belt.

"Well, this is a bit of surprise…" announced the kunoichi with a wide smile as she looked at the arrival. "It certainly has been quite a while… hasn't it, Lee?" The fuzzy eyebrow jounin only replied with a smile: "Indeed, it has been a while…"

"You're here to find out about your subordinates, aren't ya?" she asked with a tiny smirk as she came closer to the man. The Leaf's Green Beast only replied with a wider smile:

"You know me too well, Tenten-san…"

"Well, they haven't reached the tower yet, that I assure you off…" announced the woman with her smile fading away. "But then, they still have plenty of time to get here… besides, have you seen the teams that finished the exam already?" Lee merely nodded. "Perhaps it'd better for your cell to fail this time and wait for another time…"

"I nominated them to take the exam, because I believe in their flame of youth, Tenten-san…" announced fuzzy eyebrows. "And I believe in them most of all… they could defeat any opponent… I know they could…"

The weapon mistress only smiled. Her former teammate haven't really changed all that much throughout the years. And in a way, it made her happy. That's the way she wanted him to remain, above his… uniqueness.

---That time, elsewhere---

Kei landed on a small meadow. He looked around as he waited for his teammates to catch up to him. As Gaki and Ibuki finally arrived, he raised his hand up. Someone was nearby. In a flash the kunoichi picked out her kunai once she heard a noise coming from the bushes and tossed it in the right direction, just to see it get deflected… by nothing.

"What the…?" her eyes widen as in the next second a team of Oto shinobi walked out of their hiding spot. "What did they do to threw my knife off course?"

"This is all your fault, Wooku!" complained the Sound girl as she glared at the boy with a walkman on his head. "If it wasn't for those stupid headphone you'd realize you stepped on that tree branch and alarmed them! That this wrecks your brain… if you have any in the first place…"

"No biggie…" replied the boy. "If that bothers you so much, Fushi, I can take care of those guys on my own…" and with that he looked at the Leaf cell. "You're not all that strong…"

"Seems like we're being underestimated…" noticed Gaki calmly. "Kei, what do you say we teach those losers about the world?" In stead of replying, his teammate only charged at the sound-nins at an incredible speed with his fists ready.

In a flash Wooku moved forward as well and with a sliding motion, he attacked his opponent's feet by aiming at kick at them. "That's…" Kei thought to himself with his eyes widen before jumping into the air and somersaulting, he flew above the Oto shinobi.

Immediately Wooku came to a stop and rose to his feet. Before Gaki even knew it, the sound-nin spun around on his foot and launched a kick at his opponent's stomach, but Kei managed to spin on his foot, thus avoiding the assault and threw a punch at the walkman-listening boy.

To his surprise however, Wooku made a quick motion and grabbed his arm between his, immobilizing it before the punch reached its target. Then the sound-nin threw a kick at his opponent's stomach once more, only this time it got blocked by the leaf-nin's knee.

Acting on instinct, Kei used his trapped arm to toss his opponent over his shoulder. As Wooku was send flying, he flipped in mid-air and in the end managed to land safely on the ground. As the leaf-nin charged at him, he instantly slammed his hands to the ground and performed a quick, Belgian Helicopter, forcing Kei to stop merely inches before him to avoid getting hit.

"This is impossible!" Ibuki stated with her eyes widen. "Without seeing it first… that walkman guy… is copying Kei's style perfectly!" and with that she looked at Gaki, who was already charging forward at the two fighters.

"Enough of this!" he yelled, reading his fists, but then Fushi stepped forward and picking out her harp, she played a quick tone on it.. Immediately Gaki's eyes widen as he realized that even though he was charging straight at the fighting Wooku and Kei, the two were now completely on his left. "I miscalculated?" was his first thought, but then he glared at the Sound kunoichi. "No… that harp girl… she must've done something with that music…"

As Wooku launched another kick, aimed at his stomach, Kei bended to his left and propping his hands on the ground, he launched a kick of his own, his aimed at the sound-nin's head. The walkman boy managed to block the assault with his left hand, but just then the leaf-nin dropped his other leg from above him, aiming to hit the top of his head. Immediately the Oto shinobi used his other hand to grab the incoming kick.

In a fraction of a second Kei's hands shoot forward and hit Wooku in the stomach hard, making the sound-nin bend over slightly. Before his head hit the ground due to the lack of balance, the Leaf shinobi managed to grab his opponent by his shirt and flipping in mid-air, threw him several meters away, while landing safely on his feet.

"I won't let a guy who copies my style to defeat me!" announced Kei loudly, but just then a sudden blur appeared next to him and next thing he knew was receiving a powerful kick in the face, which send him flying as well.

As he flipped and landed on his feet once more, he looked at the one who attacked him, which turned out to be Toge. With a calm face the sound-nin held out his hand and to Kei's surprise, bone suddenly shoot out of it, covering his arm in spikes.

"We already have all the scrolls we need…" stated the white-haired boy. "So we do not need yours. I suggest we all just calm down and go our separate ways… there's no need to waste our energy on each other… at least yet…"

"Bones…" Ibuki shivered at the sight. "Just who are those guys?"

Gaki seemed to not care and was about to jump towards the Sound cell's leader, but Kei managed to stop him in time and before his teammate said anything, he spoke up: "Very well… since we too have a complete, this fight is pointless… but be aware that if we'll meet during the next exam, it won't end just like that…"

"Naturally…" replied Toge as he walked out of the meadow with his two teammates following him. Once they were gone, Kei let out a sigh of relief. Gaki, slightly pissed, took his companions hand of his mouth and yelled:

"What the hell was that?!" he demanded. "We could've taken them out!"

"It's not that simple…" Ibuki cut in hesitantly. "That walkman guy… his ability was really weird. Didn't you noticed that he managed to use Kei's movement even though he never saw it before? And that harp girl… I'm not sure what she did, but it'd seem that you were defenseless against her. And then there's always that bone guy…"

"Yeah, he seemed the worst of them all…" nodded Kei calmly.

"You think we couldn't defeat them?" asked Gaki with disbelief in his voice.

"Maybe we could, maybe not…" replied his teammate as he stared in the direction the sound-nins disappeared to. "One thing is for sure… none of them are your everyday gennin…"

---That time, elsewhere---

Urusai picked up another, fallen tree branch and added it to his 'collection'. He really hated getting wood for the fire, but considering that Jun was supposed to get some food and Ayame was preparing the camp for the night, he didn't had much choice really. Finally he found another branch and decided that was enough. Slowly, he headed back to their meeting spot.

As he reached a small clearing, he noticed Ayame finishing putting up a simple tent made out of tree branches and leaves. She located their future, resting place between two trees, which tops threw dark shadows on it, covering even better.

The kunoichi instantly turned around as she heard her teammate coming and yelled, stopping Urusai from taking another step: "Don't move! I've already set traps around the camp… currently you're right in front of a thin wire. Just jump over it…"

"Setting traps around the camp?" asked the blonde a little confused as he did as told. "You want us to get killed by our own devices? What's the point in that? We are going to keep a night watch, aren't we?"

"Of course…" replied the masked girl. "But an extra insurance won't hurt. Besides, most of these are simple traps that are only suppose to alarm us if someone's coming… we're only spending one night here, it wouldn't be wise to set dangerous traps around, just in case we would have to get back here and forgot about them entirely…"

"You have a point, but I don't really think we'll pass this exam by being nice…" replied Urusai as he dropped the branches he collected in the middle of the clearing. "Besides, as Jun said, we have to get two scrolls, so it'll be harder for us then for other teams… if we'd manage to lure a team into a trap, thus avoiding a fight, we catch up to others teams to an extend…"

"Wow, I never thought I was going to say something like that, but you're actually right, Urusai…" stated Ayame with a tiny smile appearing behind her mask. "But at this point we don't have enough time to set the traps that will prove useless after one night…"

"Okay, if you say so. But I still think…" but at this point he was cut off as a sudden hand covered his mouth. As the blonde turned around, he noticed the one standing behind him was Jun. As the loud mouth asked him quietly what was he doing, the young genius only pointed at the forest now covered with darkness, before he replied as quietly as he could:

"We've got company…"

---dreams collide as everyone carries their misunderstood goals towards the finish line---

And so this chapter ends! Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll leave me a review once you're done. It'd mean a lot.

Take care and until next time!