Wow, I actually managed to finish this so soon and what's more I found enough time to study and write few things in my other fics too… I rock :D Seriously though, I'm glad that I managed to finish this that fast for several reason, out of which none are really important for you… it's just mine, being an author, positive aspect, coz I really like the next, two chappies.

Thanks for all the reviews from the last time. I'm glad you enjoyed the previous chapter and that you'll like this one at least as much.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I just found out that my grandma is in critical condition. She'll have an operation tomorrow, so I'm afraid this might be the last chapter you'll be able to read in a long while... sorry, but I just don't have the heart or head to write anything at this point and this chapter only got submitted because I managed to finish it today in the morning, before I got the information.

Lets just get on with this:

Chapter #41: After match

Title Page: Kai and his clones are making a human pyramid (like cheerleaders do :D )

"Kai…" a gentle voice rang in the blonde gennin's head. "Kai, wake up…" he heard it again and the moment he felt a weak slap on his cheek, his head shoot up, hitting Kumiko's forehead.

"Ah, where are those bastards?" yelled the loud, not noticing the kunoichi who was kneeling right next to him, holding her head in her hands.

As the pain in her forehead finally disappeared, she clenched her fist and hit Kai with full force in the back of his head, making him hit the ground with his face yet again: "They're long gone, dumbass! Watch where to move that empty skull of yours!"

"What's more…" added Takaru calmly as he stood nearby, propped by the tree. "They took our scroll with them… not only have we lost Ibuki and Kusari, but we're a step closer to failing this exam miserably… Kumiko, what do you purpose?"

The kunoichi stood up and giving Kai the finally, death glare, she replied: "First we should find the others… after all, only the whole team can pass so even if we were to get tens of scrolls, just the three of us won't be allowed to take another test… also, with all what happened, we should avoid unnecessary fights… thus it'd be useful to know if they got a scroll while we were separated…"

"Or is it because you just miss Kusari?" joked the blonde, which earned him a beating of his life. Kumiko finished after five minutes and returned to explaining: "And lastly, when there's more of us, our chances of winning a fight and getting the scroll we need will increase…"

"Let's get going then…" concluded Takaru. "We already lost orientation, however if those two are smart enough, they'll most likely head in the direction of the tower, since this is the place everyone's heading… the biggest chances for us to find them is by taking that route…"

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"You gotta be kidding me!" yelled Hogosha annoyed. "Just when it was getting entertaining!"

Teela just threw a quick glare at him and then her gaze stopped at Kusari, laying under a nearby tree. After a moment she made eye-contact with Reiji, who was still staring at the tree tops with his axe resting on his left shoulder.

"I'm afraid things are a bit complicated right now…" announced Tasuki. "I don't really care about those Leaf brats and all, but it seems Teela has some business with the shrimps and thus I guess we can't allow you guys to kill them…"

"Is that so?" responded the bold shinobi with no emotions showing on his face.

"Yeah…" nodded Kumo. "Would you mind just clear the area?"

"If you're thinking that…" began Futatsu, but he was instantly quieted by Reiji: "Let's go…" The swordsman looked at his teammate surprised: "But, Reiji… that brat…"

"I dislike repeating myself, Futatsu…" announced the axe user coldly. "The reason we came to Konoha is to pass this exam… those brats doesn't have a scroll and those moon-nins have the earth scroll, which is of no use to us, considering we have the earth one too… stretching this is pointless… But get this…" with that the metal-nin turned towards Teela: "We are not leaving coz we're scared… and you can rest assure that if we'll get to fight each other in the next exam, you'll lose greatly…" and so he disappeared in the tree tops with his teammates close behind.

"That bold guy…" began Tenka with an emotionless voice. "He seemed strong…"

"Whatever…" replied Tasuki with hands in his pockets and turned to Teela. "We saved them, can we go now?" The kunoichi gave him a quick glare and then walked over to Kusari, who was still laying under the tree. As the chain master looked at her, she held out her hand and handed him the scroll she was carrying.

"We're even…" she announced as she stood up and walked over to her teammates. "From now on, if we'll have to face each other in the exams, don't count on me to hold back…" and with that she began to walk into the forest.

"Is it wise?" asked Nobu doubtfully. "If we'll leave our scroll to those brats, we'll have to get two by ourselves… and other participants might try to avoid us, noticing we're scroll-less…"

The blue-haired girl didn't answer. She just turned around and looked at him for a split second. The blonde twin instantly noticed there was no point in continuing the topic, so he just sighed and followed the kunoichi.

"I don't suppose this scroll will give you much…" announced Tasuki just before he disappeared between the trees. "However if you're looking for your teammates, they're around five hundred meters to the north…" and with that he was gone as well.

"What was that all about?" asked Ibuki when the moon-nins left. "What did she meant that you're even… and why would they even give us their only scroll?"

"A long story…" replied Kusari as he tried to get back to his feet, yet failed and felt to the ground once more. "Telling it now will only waste our time… let's just go find Kumiko-chan and others… with this we have both scrolls and we can head to the tower…"

The young assassin only sighed and helped him up. As he wrapped his arm around her, in order to use her as support, she gave him a death glare and announced: "Think of anything dirty and you're a dead man… and don't even think about using this situation…" and with that said the two headed where Tasuki claimed their teammates were.

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"Man, those guys were weak…" sighed Tetsu as he kicked a grass-nin that was laying on the ground before him. "I didn't even got to get a good exercise…"

"Can't be helped…" announced Shita, who was sitting on his shoulder as usual. "They had the scroll we needed and there was no telling when we'd find another team with such scroll… we couldn't risk, Tetsu-san…"

The white tiger roared quietly and instantly Miaka began stroking its head: "Torabaku has a point…" she stated. "If you feel like it, we can always look for some opponents, since we still have plenty of time left… that way we'll eliminate competitors before the next exam even starts…"

"Sorry, but I don't feel like listening to some dumb animal's advice…" announced Kasui with his arms crossed as he stood propped against the tree. "I couldn't care less whether we stick around in the forest and play around or just head to the tower… either way I'll get some fun in the end…"

"Stop insulting Torabaku!" demanded Miaka, giving him a death glare.

"Or what?" came a response.

"Enough!" yelled Tetsu, instantly making both his teammates shut up. "Since we got the scroll we need, staying around is pointless… this exam will last five days, so if we were to finish it before that time, we'll get few days of rest, while those who won't be that quick will be exhausted for the next test… thus we're going to the tower…"

Kawa didn't say a thing. She just threw a quick glare at both Kasui and Miaka and then turned after Tetsu, who was already heading in the right direction.

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Tsuino deflected several kunai coming at him with his short swords, that gave the impression of being daggers more then katanas if it wasn't for quite wide blades. The rain-nin looked up and saw two Leaf shinobi charging right at him with their swords ready.

Scar-face instantly moved forward while spinning around and attacked both adversaries, one in the head, the other in the stomach. Both attacks got blocked and the leaf-nins smirked at their success, only to have their eyes widen a second later as their opponent moved in a fracture of a second. None of them even noticed what happened when their swords got thrown out of their hands and sunk into the ground few meters away.

The two froze for a moment and that was enough for Tsuino. In an instant he spun around and found himself behind the leaf-nins. Before they knew it, he propped his hands on the ground, lunching his legs to the sky and landing a kick into each face. The Konoha shinobi were send flying back and crushed hard against the trees.

It was then that their teammate decided to attack. Before Tsuino's feet touched the ground, he came with an attempt to cut right through the rain-nin, only to have his shoulder pierced by some flash of light that came out of nowhere.

The scar-face landed a kick in the last leaf-nin's face as well and the allowed his feet to touch the ground. He then turned to his teammates and announced with a little disappointed voice: "I asked you not to interfere, Ryo… it wasn't very nice to interrupt my fight…"

"Sorry, I just couldn't help myself…" replied the glasses wearing shinobi. "Besides, that guy would've got you if I wouldn't shoot that arrow…"

"Perhaps…" responded the scar-face, scratching the back of his head. "I guess I'm out of shape a little… Youji, what scroll did those guys had?"

"Heaven one…" replied the girl with umbrellas. "Looks like we're lucky…"

"Good, so lets just take it and get the hell out of this forest…" purposed Karei. "This place gives me the creeps…" and with that she shivered a little. Nazaa just looked at her while drinking another bottle of water.

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A hooded man walked through the gate to the Hidden Leaf, looking around calmly. "I guess I'm a bit too early…" he thought to himself."The third exam isn't over yet… it can't be help though, since he started to act sooner then expected… one thing is certain, this should be interesting… very interesting indeed…" and unwillingly for him a smirk crept onto his face.

And so this chapter ends! Hope you enjoyed it.

No jutsu this time around, but at least I can give you guys another character profile… this time it'll be about Kogane:

Name: Rikoteki Kogane

Name origins: her first name means simply 'gold' (or small among of money… in both cases cash)… there are two reasons why I gave her that name: the first one is that she's rather spoiled and got used to getting what she wanted… as for the second reason… that's classified for now. Her last name, Rikoteki, is translated as selfish… look above and you probably understand why I choose that name

Age: currently 13 years old

Birth Date: 23rd of October

Blood type: 0

Height: 143,9 cm

Weight: 44,1 kg

Favorite food: none really… besides, she's always on a diet '

Village: Hidden Leaf (Konoha)

Current rank: gennin

Team: team led by Shikamaru; her teammates are: Konpaku Rei, Amagasa Toku, Debano Kitsune and Gusoku Hanamaru

Bloodline limit: none

Family: her clan is pretty well-known in the Leaf, even though most of the members aren't great warriors... there is a reason behind that, but I'd prefer to keep that a secret, otherwise the surprise will be spoiled

Techniques (used so far): none

First Appearance: 29th chapter

BAKUFU: this team took me quite a bit to complete. Even though Tetsu was one of the first characters that came to my head (along with Kasui, but I hesitated for a long time before I decided to place him in the story), the other three were the complete opposite. Shita got created around the same time Hizoku appeared in my head (as he was inspired by the character from the same manga), yet his abilities as they are now didn't existed until the very end of creation process. The kunoichi from the Waterfall were an even bigger problem. Even though for a long time I had an idea of a reverse Inuzuka for a long time (meaning the clan of cat users) I always pictured character like that to be one of the main heroes of the story (and in the end I couldn't help myself and I made such a character for my other fic) so even though Miaka was created not long after Shita, she wasn't placed in the Waterfall team for a long time. Kawa on the other hand was one of the last characters created. To be honest I was so desperate, that I turned the first idea of the character that came to my head into her. At first I wasn't really pleased with her and even now she's more as a filler-up really, but I have to admit that when I worked on her development, she turned out not so bad.

YUKI: I had the idea of this team way before I watched the first movie and that's the reason why they don't have those stupid armors. Almost from the beginning Yamazaru and Aisu existed (though at first Aisu was a guy and Yamazaru was more… controllable). As I kept on thinking about it, I changed Aisu into a girl as you know now and Yamazaru became less obedient… that last fact gave me an idea of creating a character that'd be the only one capable of communicating with the big, helmet guy… that's how Yari was born. Once he was done, I thought the Snow team was finished… soon after it turned out teams will be five-manned. Creating two more characters for this team was a bit problematic. Kuri bounced into my head out of nowhere really: she wasn't inspired by anything nor did I even liked the idea of her at first… so why did she stayed? Probably because back then I had no, better ideas… but now I'm pretty glad I let her be as she became my second favorite of the Yuki gennin. Kato was created last and even though it is shameful, I must admit that his chara design is practically the same as the first, Zabuza sketches that I found somewhere on the net… I worked on him for quite some time though I'm proud to say that his personality is exactly what the Snow team needed to balance Aisu and Yari… and in the end not only the Inuzuka can team up with dogs.

KUMORI: one of the more important teams for the exams really: dark and untrustworthy, these guys (and one girl) were supposed to be somewhere between the Sand Siblings and Kabuto's team from the manga. The idea of Bakara and Fuma was in my head from the very beginning, far before Ibuki was created. Those two came to life around the time Akira was born. Other's however gave me some more trouble. The next one on the list was Saiken… he was inspired by a character from a different manga, but in the end I changed him almost completely: his chara design, his skills… only his attitude didn't changed that much. Soon after he was created, he became the leader of the team as I figured he'd be the most scary of all (even though Fuma's skill should send shivers down people spines) and not far after that Raina came into act, though she was just supposed to be a girl with metal claws on her hand… not much changed from then. The last one was Kyuu… I had a lot of thought before creating him. At first he was inspired by a character from a fic I read, but in the end I changed his skills and turned his personality upside down (theoretically and literally :D)… and I have to admit that I grew to like this one quite much.

And this concludes this chapter. Hope you liked it and that you'll sacrifice your time to review. Best wishes and until next time, hopefully.