I really wanted to upload new chapters of all (well, most) of my fics at one time, so sorry for making you wait a day for this one… I hope you'll find it worth waiting for.

To answer the reviews I wasn't able so far:

Are we gonna met the other gennins better: you shouldn't worry about that… I can promise you that every gennin (that has a bigger part planned at least) will have his/hers five minutes... and you'll get to know them better in the right time…

Will Sasuke die: sorry to all, no-Sasuke fans, but even if I'll decide to kill him, it won't be too soon and that's mostly due to the fact that he has an IMPORTANT part to play after the exams…

What's up with that snow-nin (the one who Mikka bumped into): I'll only tell that he has his reasons for acting like that… and you'll probably be quite surprise when you find out about them…

Will there be an OC related to Hayate: most OC's that will appear in this fic are already planned out, so I don't think so… BUT if you wanna read a fic with someone related to Hayate you might wanna check out my newest fanfic: "Those Who Inherit the Will of Fire" (which should be uploaded shortly after this chapter)… you'll find a cousin of Hayate there… or if you're just looking for someone using his sword fighting style you could check out my "Shinobi Showdown"… there's a character in there who's using it…

With that done, without further delays, lets get on with the show:

Chapter #31: Dead End?

Chapter Cover: Kai is painting a kanji symbol for 'fire' on a wall with a spray

"Damn, this is boring…" complained Kai as he walked through the tunnel with hands behind his head. "I was hoping for some action… why do we have to complete this lame test anyway? It's not like it'll give us anything since we're aware that traps are set around…" and the moment he said so Kusari's chain surrounded his neck and pushed him back.

In gasp for air, the blonde's tongue left the mouth and his eyes almost went out of orbits as he landed loudly on the rocky ground with few, sharp stones piercing his butt.

The loud mouth instantly jumped up and grabbing his teammate by the collar he started to threaten him with his free hand: "What the hell is your problem, Kusari? You wanna kill me?"

"More like he saved your life…" Ibuki cut in calmly and kneeled down in the place Kai stood just a second ago. "Takaru, would you mind putting some light into the situation?"

The son of Tsunade quickly performed a set of hand seals and soon after his hand got surrounded with flames, clearing the darkness in the tunnel a bit. Once that was done the young assassin showed the blonde, who calmed down a little, a thin string going across the path.

"Step on that and most likely you'll end up pierced by thing more sharper then stones…" she turned to her teammate. "The fact that we are aware of the traps doesn't mean they will be easy to spot. This one is the most basic and you almost felt for it so just imagine your chances when we'll come across one that's really hard to notice…"

"Alright, so lets just jump over it and…" began Kai as he walked closer, but before he jumped, Ibuki stopped him by putting her hand on his chest.

"You shouldn't sleep in the Academy during trap classes…" she announced as she motioned to Takaru to walk a little out front. As the light his hand gave cleared the darkness, Kai spotted another string, just two or three steps behind the first.

"The string you almost stepped on was easy to spot…" explained the young assassin as she walked over the first trap. "That's why it was safe to assume it was merely a decoy. You were to avoid it easily and fell for the second string… however the one who set those traps might predicted that as well, so there is a possibility that a bit further there is a third string or maybe even fourth…"

"They don't teach that much in the Academy…" noticed Kumiko. "How do you know so much so that stuff?"

"I'm from the clan of assassins…" Ibuki reminded her. "And assassinations are usually done on enemy territory… traps are expected so my father gave me special training in that area… most of the traps are based on already known mechanism, rarely something new is invented, so you might say I'm rather talented in avoiding such things…"

"Cool, you can walk us right through this cave then…" noticed Kusari.

"I guess I could try…" agreed the young assassin. "With Takaru clearing the darkness I should be able to spot most of the traps, however I'm not promising I'll manage to notice them all, so either way you'll have to stay alert…"

"Still it's some plan…" announced the son of Tsunade. "Lets get going then… remember that there's a time limit to this…" and with that all five of them walked forward with Takaru and Ibuki out front.

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"Are you certain?" asked the ANBU with a tiger mask on his face. He had long, black hair and wore a brown, a little baggy shirt with short sleeves and white pants with short trouser legs. Both his hands were covered in bandages.

"I'm almost possitive…" replied Sasuke as his mask was now placed on top of his head. Both him and his companion where in the forest surrounding Konoha. They searched the place where a strange trail of broken trees and brushes led deeper into the jungle.

"But what business can he have with Konoha?" the other ANBU couldn't believe.

"I have a wild guess…" came a response. "However finding out what he wants isn't our priority right now, Neji… we should inform Hokage-sama about the situation…"

"Indeed…" nodded the other ANBU, Neji, and so they both headed back to the village.

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"Damn, this sucks!" complained Kai… again. "First that lame tunnel and how we have to wait for all the teams to finish the exam… I'll die of bore before those exams will end…"

"Will you just shut up?" Senkou gave him an evil glare as Mikka giggled softly.

"I knew you'll make it, Takaru-kun…" announced Kogane as she stared at her crush who didn't really seemed to care. "I've waited with beating heart…"

"She's just sick…" thought Kitsune as he looked at his teammate, sweat dropping. Then he turned to the other kunoichi in his team who now was sleeping and snoring loudly while she was at it. "And Hanamaru went to get some food… just the fact that we got through that tunnel is a miracle…"

"Uramaru's still acting weird?" Galu asked Tsume as he noticed the dog hiding behind her.

"Yeah…" replied the kunoichi. "Who scares you so much, Uramaru?"

"Funbo, take a look…" Taki called her teammate. "Looks like your little sister made it as well…" and with that she pointed at the rookie gennins.

"Good for her…" came a response as the older Tanken didn't even bother to look in the direction the boomerang user pointed.

"Whether you like it or not, she is your sister" reminded Akira. "You should show at least a little bit of interest… especially since she's your rival for the head of your clan…"

"You're still worried by those sand-nins?" Horohoro asked Hitomi as he noticed that she kept observing the black-haired boy and his team. The girl only nodded. "They intrigue me as well, however thinking about it won't do you any good… just loosen up…"

Meanwhile the sand-nins that Hitomi observed walked towards the other team from the Hidden Sand that stood in the crowd. "So you made it here too…" said Takai as a welcome.

"What the hell do you guys want?" asked Hari rudely. "We have no business with you guys."

"We just wanted to congratulate you…" said Tarakudo with a smirk appearing behind his bandages. "After all Kazekage-sama would be very disappointed if you wouldn't make it far into the exam… won't you agree?"

"Tarakudo, do shut up…" ordered the sword carrier.

"Or what, Dekai?" came a response. "You think I'm scare of that little katana of yours?"

"Guys, we're from the same village, remember?" the blonde kunoichi from Takai's team stood between the two. "We shouldn't be fighting each other…"

"You always were a boring one, Torune…" announced Horamaru with a smirk appearing on his face. "Let the guys play a bit…" but the moment he said so both Dekai and Tarakudo felt their feet getting stuck. As they look at the ground, they noticed sand slowly crawling up their legs.

"Sabure, we were only kidding…" the bandaged sand-nins assured the redhead girl with the gourd on her back. "Don't joke like that…"

The masked girl just glared at him for a moment and then, calling of her sand, he gazed upon a nearby rock where Tenten stood up in order to make an announcement:

"Congratulations to all of you that are standing here right now!" she said, drawing everyone's attention. "You just passed the first test in this year's Chuunin Selection Exam! You are to wait here a bit longer for the second examiner to appear! I'll take my leave now, however before I do that I'd like to give you a little advice: don't get too sure of yourselves. This test was nothing compared to what's still in front of you! And I don't mean just the exams. Remember that in the shinobi world traps are not just set on the battlefield, but sometimes even in your own mind and heart! Those are the most dangerous! I wish you luck during the next tests!" and with that she was gone.

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"The first exam should be finished by now…" announced Naruto as he sat on a couch. "You think our students manage to get through?"

"Possibly…" replied Shikamaru. "Still Tenten's test was nearly an introduction to get rid of those who are bellow average… the second exam will be a real killer…"

"What do you mean, Shikamaru-kun?" asked Hinata a little worried.

"I guess you haven't heard who's the second examiner then…" the lazy jounin looked at the head of the Hyuuga with a tiny smirk appearing on his face.

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"Finally!" Kai yelled in joy as Tenten disappeared from view. "I hope the next test will be more challenging then this was… I wanna kick some butt!"

"One wins when he knows when to fight and when not to…" said Kokoro emotionless, which earned him a weird glare from the loud mouth.

"Did I miss anything?" asked Hanamaru as we walked closer to the rest of the rookies with a brand new bag of potato chips.

"Actually you're just in time…" replied Toku as everyone's eyes stopped at the same rock on which Tenten stood just few minutes ago.

A woman around thirty walked right on top of it. She had long, blonde hair that were falling on the right side of her face a bit and blue eyes. Her suit was mostly violet: a sleeveless top with a big break between the top and the short skirt which was surrounded with a black leg guards. On both her elbows and knees you could spot a black fishnet.

"Who's the babe?" asked Kusari already drifting away.

The woman looked around and the said loud enough for everyone gathered to hear her: "My name is Yamanaka Ino and I was chosen to be the examiner for the second Chuunin Selection Exam test! Follow me to where the second exam will take place!"

Well, another chappie is done. Hope you liked it and that you'll leave a review once you're done reading.

Now, before I end this up, I've already done team seven and team four, so it's only fair to do team three now (Shino students will be next). So:

BONUS INFO: choosing a jounin for those guys wasn't so hard. Since all three of them (Naruto, Hinata and Shikamaru) were members of different, rookie cells in the past, I've decided it'd be better to make new gennin cells be led by them (Ino was supposed to be the examiner from the start and Chouji, no offense to him, didn't seemed like an instructor material). Gennins themselves were a bit more problematic.

From the very start I only had Toku. The idea of him just appeared in my head and I liked it so much that I've decided to keep him. Then it was quite some time before I came up with another one.

Rei was second on the list. She was actually inspired by a character from different manga, but I've changed her personality and skills… and I'm happy with how she turned out. I've decided to keep her for a trial version, but ended with liking her so much, she stayed.

The other three were harder to think off. The first two created were Kogane and Hanamaru. I liked the chubby fellow the moment he was created and thus he became the third member of the team. When it comes to Kogane, even though she was made before Kitsune, she ended up being the last member added to the team. That's mostly due to the fact that her abilities weren't exactly of my likings and I hesitated if it is a good idea to put her in the story. Why I finally decided to do so? I can't really tell, but as the story is planned, I'm glad that she ended up being a part of it.

Last one created was Kitsune. Of all the Konoha gennins this one is probably the one who I'm the least proud of. I did put him in the team in the end, but I'm still not sure if I did right really. However, it's not like I don't like the guy, I guess I just think I could've done better.

Well, that's that. Hope you enjoyed it.

Take care and hopefully till the next time!