A/N: Sorry for the delay. ;'( Here's the next chapter and soon we'll be into the forest of death and the fun will really start! Thanks so much for all of you and your reviews. And I'd like to dedicate this chapter to "Almiaranger", without whom I would have probably given up ages ago for being the only person reviewing this regularly!
"-and then I sooo said back to her..." Kaida broke off immediately after she heard what Temari had just announced. "Did you just say... THE FOREST OF DEATH?"
"Well done, took you long enough," sighed Temari bitterly before turning back to the group of twenty-four ninja in front of her. "Okay, we have a reasonably manageable amount of you here so I'm assuming Asuma did his job well enough. Just warning you - the proctor for the next exam is the laziest and most annoying ninja I've ever met, give or take a certain blonde haired kid. Makes sense, after all he is a guy."
The look in Kaida's face turned from smouldering fury to reluctant admiration at the last few words that spiralled out of Temari's mouth and a slightly smile twitched onto her face which was soon wiped off as Temari continued her taunting sneer.
"As I said before, this is the forest of death. The remaining ninja of you should know by now that only half of you can get out of there in success and it will almost definitely be under that number. Seeing that there are only two dozen of you here that means that the figures for the final exam will almost definitely be in the single digits. You know, in the first Chunin exam I took twenty-one of us got through to the finals and we had to hold a preliminary round first to narrow down the crop of candidates. I very much doubt we'll need to do that this year by the looks of it."
"Come on, get on with it already. We're sooo bored," Kaida sighed under her breath causing Temari to whip her head around immediately, tuning in on Kaida.
"Very well, I will 'get on with it already', as you so aptly put it. This is, as I mentioned before, the forest of death. You twenty-four ninja will be working in your normal squads of three to get both a heaven and an earth scroll and arrive to the tower in the middle of the forest in a five day period otherwise you'll be disqualified. I doubt any of you will so much as touch the current standing record, held by my team I might add, since I see no outstanding promise at the moment and that record is nigh impossible to touch – yes, it's that good. You'll start off with a heaven or an earth scroll and then have to fight or negotiate or bribe other teams to get the scroll off them. Kicking, biting, selling your soul in complete desperation. Anything's allowed and long as you don't open those scrolls! Though we strongly advise you against maiming, dismemberment and causing a fatal outcome towards your opponent. If anyone doesn't like the sound of this speak now or forever hold your tongue, as they would say!"
The way Temari said all this, in complete happiness and in such a blindingly bright tone, astounded the remaining genin as they stared gormlessly at her. Or rather, our three young genin did while others varied from the reaction of practically gnawing their left leg off to simply smirking in a knowing way as the three grass ninja simultaneously did at the other ninja's reactions.
"Very well, if you're all ready you may go and get your scrolls. But first of all I think maybe we should include a little exercise I introduced myself. It's a little exercise to know your opponent's name. I always find it's useful. Let's just hope it's not Orochimaru!" Temari gleamed happily as some flinched at the name, including the grass ninja in memory of the previous events of the chunin exams a while back. It was such an uncharacteristic action that even Mareo turned his head slightly in surprise to see the soon smoothed up faces hidden behind those deep black masks and swirling robes.
"So, this is all we do. We're going to jumble you all up a bit and put you into different teams of three, clashing of villages and the such so you all get to know each other. Introductory exercise, plain nuisance, call it what you like. Now, let's see... you and you and then maybe you, get together and tell each other your name, village, squad members and one thing about yourself. Okay?"
A reluctant grumbling fell over the genin as they were shuffled around like cards in a pack, re-arranging themselves into a bizarre order on the brisk command of Temari.
"I'll start to get yourself kick-started," Temari smiled which turned out to be a bit more of a grimace, "I'm Temari from the village hidden in the sand. My squad members were Gaara and Kankuro who are also my two brothers and if you fight me then once the third moon opens in this fan on my back then you'll have lost the fight."
Kaida found herself staring at a pale and shrunken boy with a withered face and bored look slathered across it, pale blue hair entwined into some sort of bizarre plaits either side of his face and a leaf ninja headband slapped across his forehead. Also Masanori from Ayame's squad reluctantly stood facing the two of them, a disapproving sneer across his face.
"Fancy that, all three of us from the leaf," he sighed and then, after a brief rolling of his eyes, continued with the set instructions. "I am Masanori Ise of the village hidden in leaves. I am on a squad with Ayame Hashimoto and Kin Tanaka and I can safely say that I am a much more proper ninja than either of you!"
He ended with his nose turned briskly up as if in disgust at the two of them. Kaida just couldn't let that go un-noticed though.
"Well I'm Kaida Soldem also from the village hidden in the leaves. I'm on a squad with Mareo Inoue and Chiko Hara and this purple streak in my hair, which is sooo cute, came upon me overnight from purely natural and mystical purposes which I cannot and will not divulge to any of you."
"I'm Ryu Ayumu," whispered the blue haired boy quietly, "I'm from the same village as you, my squad members are Kago Yumi and Mitsu Kumiko and I mainly deal in genjutsu."
"Hey, isn't that giving us an advantage or something?" Kaida asked the boy, surprised.
"I guess you could call it that, but I would call it..." the boy finished, drifting off as if he forgot he was speaking at all.
Meanwhile Chiko was stumbling slightly as he explained his name, village and that he really didn't have much to say about himself while glancing furtively around at the two rather intimidating ninja standing around him. One of the masked grass ninja stood next to him, still and unmoving as a corpse. Meanwhile a peppy female ninja from the village hidden in the clouds with bright yellow hair which was somehow plaited into spikes all around her head jogged up and down on the spot, full of passion. The girl, when she finally got to spoke, spend an awful lot of time explaining how she had finally come onto her hairdo and by the time she'd finished Temari was ushering them all back in, the grass ninja having remained quiet.
Mareo reluctantly dragged his feet back from his threesome consisting from a really small and rather innocent looking girl from the village hidden in the mist and a muscular ninja from the village hidden in the waterfalls, a huge sword strapped to his back.
"I hope you all had a great time getting to know each other before you go up against each other," Temari sneered, "so now it's just time to go and get your scrolls and then literally go wild!"
Kaida, Chiko and Mareo shared a knowing look.
"Well I'm going to pulverise them all and sooo ace this exam!"
"I-I'll do my best for you guys..."
"What does she mean 'literally'?"