And now for epicness, I sincerely hope.

Chapter Seven-Forest of Death

"Konoha, Team S1, entrance four. Konoha, Team S2, entrance eight…"

The wolves were split into standard teams of three for this, not that they intended on staying it. They'd prepared a code while training that morning-a coloured flare indicating the discovery of a safe location.
Of course, this would likely show the enemy where they were-but they were confident they could take anyone in this exam.

Of course, this assumption wasn't quite correct. Yes, they were high-chunin level. But some, almost all of the competitors, had been waiting a while for the exam, long enough to reach high chunin themselves.

This was not going to be a pushover. Especially when the beacon drew each group into separate fights.

* * *

"Rensaton: Kusari Daiga." said a girl, brown haired. "This is unforgiveable."
Behind her, a boy unsheathed a long katana, a crackle of lightning covering its length, and another, younger girl, black haired with strange, pale eyes placed her hands together, the sky above them darkening, clouds forming.

The brown haired girl's hands opened out, golden-white chains forming from them, ending in golden blades, hiltless, attached directly to the energy chains.

"Ooh!" said Kusari Hanma. "That looks like my move!"
"Oh, crap…" muttered Tenten, realising the issue. This was way more than a normal encounter.
"Troublesome…"

The teams had been shuffled slightly for the exams, to check the capabilities of the Wolves in non-standard groups.

Kuroumaru, Baramaru and Zenmi, the nin-dogs, gathered protectively near Hanma, knowing what the problem was as well. Zenmi, in contrast to her companion Hanma, was one of the smartest ninken in the village. Tsume claimed that she could give Shikamaru a run for his money.

"My name is Kusari Daiga, second child of the Kusari clan." said the brown haired girl, eyes narrowing. "You have my sister."
"We do?" said Hanma. "Maybe we can get her to meet you! It'd be a nice reunion!"
"Just because our children are sometimes… unhinged doesn't make them fair game." hissed the cloud genin. "I don't care about this exam. She is coming home with me."
"Me? I am home." said Hanma, confused. "Tennie-chaaaaan, I'm confuuuused…"

The saner girl groaned, as Shikamaru stared despairingly at the darkening clouds.

* * *

"You cannot hope to fight on an even keel with us." said Neji calmly. His opponents, three Rain ninja, merely laughed.
"I believe they are not going to listen to your remonstrance. We must fight with the full power of youth." said Lee sadly.
"You don't need to do anything." hissed Kakiri Kama. "I can deal with these three without even trying."

"What? You're gonna pay for that." growled the leader of the enemy genin, a scarred ninja with multiple weapons upon his back. He drew one of them then, an umbrella.

Kama would have laughed, but they all knew too well what one of these innocuous items could do in the hands of a rain-nin.

The lead rain ninja tossed the umbrella high, crying out.

"Joro Senbon!"
"Hakke Rokujyon Sho." replied Neji calmly, settling into a different stance as needles exploded from the spinning umbrella. As Haiiromi and Midorimi the ninken hid under his feet, Lee drew the Raijin no Ken. Kama'a approach was less subtle. Swinging the axe-sword from her back, she cried out in fury and charge for the three rain-nin.

An immense amount of senbon tore through the air. Neji's devastating attack blocked the largest proportion of those aiming for him, though some did get through. Lee did impressively, but was nonetheless quite heavily injured. Kama on the other hand had been lucky. Her bloodthirsty charge had carried her into the eye of the storm-she was barely cut, and seemed to be moments away from killing one of the rain-nin, who was desperately fighting back with a pair of overlong senbon.

Neji and Lee charged too, wincing slightly in pain, their ninken jumping to their shoulders as they got close.

"Konbi no Jutsu! Raitama!"
Midorimi leapt forwards, bouncing from the blade of the Raijin no Ken-an aura of lightning surrounding her. The electrified ninken collided with a Rain-nin, knocking them over with a smoking wound.
Seconds later, Lee's sword was at their neck.

"Tsuchi Bunshin." commanded Neji with a handsign, and the mud rose up into a clone, running alongside him. The second terrified rain-nin began to throw senbon, but was, in moments, unconscious on the floor from Jyuken strikes.

Haiiromi sat on the rain-nin's face. Just because she could.

Kama was attacking the lead ninja, not giving him a moments peace, her spiralling weapon making deadly cuts that her opponent was only just ahead of. Until the senbon he was using to block snapped, and the axeblade slashed across his chest.

She saw the opening, and rather than trying to bring the weapon round, kicked him in the chest, right across the cut, and knocked him into a tree.
A mere second later, she was standing over him, the odd axe-sword poised to kill him in at least two ways.
"Scroll, please." she said.

* * *

"Where are we, anyway?" complained Naruto. "It feels like we've been walking for hours."
"The forest." replied Sasuke. "Baka."
"Real mature." said Naruto sarcastically. "Teme."
"Both of you shut up." said Ino, rolling her eyes. "We're headed for the flare, like we said earlier."

"There's a flare?" came another voice.
The three turned like lightning as their dogs gave a yelp of shock. Three Rock-nin were rising slowly up from the earth, an immense man with short black hair, and dark eyes, a small, lithe female with a disturbing grin, and another male, rather small, but with a look of knowledge in his eyes.

The wolves immediately realised something was fishy. They were older than almost all of the others.
It was only moments later, when the rock-nin stood on solid ground, that their suspicions were confirmed.

"We found you. Foxglove." said the smaller man, looking at Ino with a grin.

"What about us?" complained Naruto.

"Foxglove and associates." he said dismissively. "Zetsudai, take the loud blonde one. Ikei, the dark one. The assassin girl is mine."

* * *

Hinata gulped. The three ninja opposing them looked strong. One was big, with purple lines on his face and something big on his back. The girl was blonde haired, wearing what seemed to be a fan. The third, a small boy standing forwards, was red haired, with a gourd on his back.

He felt wrong.
Both Akamaru and Aoimaru were hiding behind their respective partners-and they knew that this meant bad things.

Manami meanwhile was furiously chewing on clay, trying to prepare an attack-but not fast enough.
"To prove my existence… I will end yours."

The words were quiet, but they echoed with power.
A popping noise, as the lid was fired from the gourd upon the boy's back.

Sand floated out, pouring into the air, hovering, and then flying towards the team.

"Split!" shouted Kiba.

They headed in three different directions, Kiba leaping for a tree, Manami tossing a small clay creature-caught and destroyed by floating sand with ease before Manami turned to flee, and Hinata running off to the left.

Hinata was the unlucky one. The sand followed her, spiralling into the air and wrapping around her foot.

"Sabaku Kyu!"

The sand dragged her down, encasing her within moments inside an impenetrable shell of sand.
"Sabaku Soso."

Kiba screamed, having turned to help just in time to see the sand implode.

* * *

Rensaton: Kusari Daiga-Chain Release: Chain Blades
Joro Senbon-Senbon Shower
Hakke Rokujyon Sho-Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms
Konbi no Jutsu: Raitama-Combination Technique: Lightning Bullet
Tsuchi Bunshin-Earth Clone
Sabaku Kyu-Sand Waterfall Coffin
Sabaku Soso-Sand Waterfall Funeral

* * *

Yes. I did.