Well, took my quite a bit to update… sorry, my PC has been screwing up lately and I also suffered a major author's block on this chappie. Luckily that's behind me and I manage to finish this one just few minutes ago!

Well, reviews from last time were mostly vote and those that were not, didn't had any questions really, so I guess I can go straight to the chapter... almost.

REMINDER: just a special note… you know, just in case, I'd like to remind everyone that you can still take part in the first Popularity Contest for this fic (rules are in the previous chapter)… and there will be quite some time to do this. I won't give you how the results look at this point (besides, all the votes were cast in reviews, so you can count them yourselves if you REALLY want to know). I think that's it.

Chapter #45: Ambush

Title Page: the jungle: Ibuki is cutting the teams way with a sword, Kai is trying to get rid of the mosquitoes flying around him by waving his hands, Kumiko is smelling the flowers growing on a tree, Kusari is trying to grab the bananas above and Takaru is drinking water

"Say, Kumiko…" Kai whispered into his teammate's ear as he ran next to her. "Is it really okay to trust that guy?" he asked, pointing at Hizoku, who was running right behind them. "We don't really know anything about him… and did you consider that he wanted to gain our trust by sparing Ibuki and then leading us into an even greater trap?"

"Of course I've considered that…" the kunoichi almost raised her voice a little disappointed her companion had such little confidence in her. "But we have Ibuki on our side and she should be able to tell when we're getting lured into an ambush… moreover, if he was planning something and his teammates would really wish to attack us, we could always capture him and have a hostage… the team can only advance to the next exam with five members, so his companions can't allow that redhead to die…"

"Well, if you say so…" replied the blonde. "But I still don't…" but at this his words froze in his throat as he felt his collar grabbed and was pushed back, landing hard on the ground. Everyone's eyes, except for Ibuki, set on Hizoku, who was the one that grabbed him.

"What the hell…!" began Kai, but then he noticed the young assassin and the grass-nin staring in the same direction and as he followed their sight, he spotted a tag attached to a nearby tree.

"Ninjutsu trap…" Ibuki gave the answer to an unasked question. "I saw another a meter or two away… most likely the next, two tags are still in front of us…"

"Looks like we found a welcoming party sooner then expected…" concluded Takaru with a small smirk, as he reached for his kunai. "They want us to go around it or something?"

"I don't suppose so…" replied the young assassin calmly. "This trap is pretty visible…" and saying so she looked with pity at her blonde teammate, who only made an angry face and freed himself from Hizoku's gasp as the weapon mistress continued: "I'd say that this trap was plant in order for us to notice it… I'm not sure of the purpose for something like that though…"

"In most causes, a trap is meant to be visible so that it'd be easier to trap the enemy into another…" stated Hizoku, who was now looking around. "Or into an ambush…" he finished. "By trying to avoid it, we risk falling into something worse… but at the same time, walking right into it is not even close to smart…"

"Leave this to me!" replied Kai with a victorious smile as he performed a quick hand seal, creating a single clone: "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" and in an instant his clone walked into the set trap, getting hit by electricity. "There, now we know what that trap is…" but before he could finish, he received a smack in the back of his head from Kumiko:

"Have you every heard of not drawing attention!" she yelled with vein pulsing on her forehead: "This thing might've even been set so that the moment it activates, the one who made her notices for all we know! You could've just alarmed some team that we're here!"

"Actually, your yelling doesn't really make our situation better, Kumiko-san…" noticed Hizoku calmly sweat dropping. "Besides, what's done is done and we can't change that… since the trap was activated anyway, we might as well deactivate it…" and so he threw few of his kunai at the tags, making them all fall off the trees and onto the ground. "The path is clear…" but at that moment senbon flew at the six shinobi from every direction.

Seeing no, other way out, Takaru acted immediately and after performing a quick set of hand seals, he called out: "Insei Tooriame!" and in an instant tens of small fireballs flew from his hands, burning most of the needles and those that weren't hit by his attack, were easy enough to avoid.

"Another trap that activates itself after the first gets deactivated?" speculated Kusari, but Ibuki only shook her head: "No, this was not a trap… our enemies has decided to show themselves…" and so she pointed at a nearby tree top, where five rain-nins stood with their arms crossed.

"Well, what do you know, it's just a bunch of kids…" stated the Ame shinobi with a headgear and a body armor, carrying three umbrellas on his back, that seemed to be the leader of the team. "Which scroll could you have…?" he asked with a devilish smile appearing on his face. After this he glared for a split second at Takaru: "That brat performed a fire jutsu that quick and while under such pressure still manage to fire all those bullet in a way they'd destroy most of our senbons… he surely isn't a typical gennin… and what in the world is that grass-nin doing with those Konoha shrimp?" and so he threw a quick look at Hizoku.

"Does it really matter, Mushi?" asked another rain-nin, a chubby one, dressed similar to the first, only he carried just two umbrellas, which were metal however. "Fighting those guys shouldn't take longer then five minutes… we'll just kick their butts and collect their scroll…"

"Well…" began Hizoku as he raised his eyes at the rain-nins, throwing the Ame shinobi a death glare. "That five-minute part is probably true…" and suddenly, before anyone knew it, the redhead was behind the chubby ninja with the blade of his weapon at his throat. "But I'm afraid you was wrong about who's gonna win…"

"What the…?" the Rain team's leader eyes widen as he looked back and saw the grass-nin with a stone face standing between his teammates. "That guy moved in a split second… what is he?" and then he glared down back at the five, Konoha shinobi, who seemed to be just as surprised as him.

"Dammit, who do you think you are!" yelled another rain-nin, with long, black hair, dressed the same as the first two, as he send his wooden umbrellas spinning right at Hizoku, who had his back turned towards him.

In an instant the redhead spun around and jumped into the air. By hitting the top of one of the umbrellas, the grass-nin jumped even higher and, spinning in the air, cut from above at the Ame shinobi, who threw the umbrellas. The Kusa ninja's adversary jumped back in the last second, thus avoiding his head being split in two by Hizoku's weapon.

"Gotcha!" yelled another rain-nin, this time a girl with long, blonde hair, clipped into a ponytail, as a chain she threw started to wrapped itself around the grass-nin. The redhead however used the last second he could still move to place his weapon parallel to his body, making it get wrapped by the chain as well.

As the last of the Ame ninja, a boy with messy, brown hair, aimed his kunai at Hizoku's head, the grass-nin just released his chakra into his weapon and right before everyone's eyes spikes shoot out from every part of it, cutting the steal chain that had him trapped and deflected the incoming knife with his weapon that was once more back to normal.

"Dammit, this is starting…" began the chubby rain-nin as he reached for his umbrellas, only to feel his hands getting tied by a steel chain. As he looked back over his shoulder, he noticed Kusari standing on a nearby tree branch behind him, controlling his chain so that it'd trap the chubby ninja just like Hizoku was a second ago.

"You're forgetting one thing…" announced the chain master calmly. "You guys have more then one enemy…" and the moment he said so, he noticed the one with long, black hair appearing right next to the other, rain-nin and throwing his wooden umbrellas at the leaf-nin.

But before the umbrellas managed to reach their targets, Ibuki appeared next to her teammate and threw her kunai at the incoming weapons in a way they'd hit the handles. The moment her knives reached their targets, the handles of the umbrellas changed their positions, thus making the umbrellas change their route and missing the two leaf-nins by several meters.

"Ibuki-chan, I knew you cared!" announced Kusari happily and only because they were in the middle of the battle did the young assassin hold herself back from elbowing him hard in the face. In stead she jumped towards the rain-nin who just threw his umbrellas and released a handful of shuriken straight at the Ame shinobi.

The black-haired boy instantly jumped onto a higher tree branch, just to see Kai flying right for him, aiming a kick into his face. Being unable to dodge, the rain-nin received the hit and was send flying back. A loud 'thud' was heard as he hit a tree behind him, which put an end to his flight and unconscious, the Ame shinobi felt to the ground below.

The blonde girl with the chain was already coming from his right in an attempt to attack him, but before she could perform any assault, she saw a fire whip coming straight at her, which forced her to jump back in order to avoid certain death.

But the smile that appeared on her face after successfully avoiding Takaru's attack immediately vanished as she felt her foot breaking a thin wire and in the next second a small net felt onto her from above.

"What!" the Ame kunoichi yelled surprise. "How in the world…?"

"That trap was very simple…" stated Ibuki, who smiled seeing that her trap worked. "But in the conditions of a real battle that's still enough to immobilized those who are too careless… Takaru just made you go in the right direction…"

"I see you guys make a pretty good team…" noticed Hizoku as he threw the brown-haired rain-nin at the tree branch Kai stood on. "My help wasn't really needed, it seems…" and with that he glared down at the leader of the Ame team, who was now standing on the ground: "One left though…"

The one called Mushi looked towards the tree tops at all the leaf-nins and the redhead who just defeated all his teammates. Getting a little nervous, he reached out for a scroll he carried behind his armor: "Stupid brats… I never thought I'd require to use this technique against wimps like that…" and so he bite his finger, with which he began writing on the scroll he unwrapped with his blood.

"Hey, what the hell is he doing?" demanded Kai as he pointed at the leader of the Rain team. "He's gonna summon some large plant like that Grass fellow from before? Hey, buddy, this won't do, coz we've already beaten someone using the same technique!"

"You've seen nothing, airhead…" replied Mushi calmly as he finished writing and in stead of slamming his hands against the ground, he just sprayed the surrounding with the blood still coming from his finger.

Before anyone knew it, strong wind began blowing from every direction and in the next second Kai felt his left arm getting pierced by a single senbon. Before he even managed to make a yell of pain, another senbon found itself in his body, this time in his left leg.

He wasn't the only one with such problems however: his companions tried to avoid tens of incoming senbon as well, which seemed to move as they desired. Ibuki tried to deflect some of the needles with her shuriken, yet the wind seemed to blow her shinobi stars of course on purpose.

Kumiko jumped down from the trees and landed right in front of the now smiling rain-nin: "What the hell did you just do?" she demanded with both anger and worry showing on her face.

"A special technique that my younger brother taught…" replied Mushi with an even wider smile. "Know that this is a technique no-one escaped yet… but that should be expected, since the one who invented it was our father… the leader of Hidden Rain Village!"

-seems like document manager screwed up a little-

And this concludes this chapter. I'll do my best to update sooner this time, but I'll have few things on my head, so I can't really promise anything.

All the jutsus (namely: one) were already describe (but if you're too lazy to look for it in the previous chapters, I can tell you that Insei Tooriame is Takaru's "Meteor Shower"), so I guess I'm done for this time.

Best wishes and until next update!