Neither of them spoke after Nawaki fell. They just stood there, staring down into the gorge and waiting. Hisa didn't know what they were waiting for. Nawaki couldn't climb back up to them as it was too steep, but she refused to believe he was dead. She could hear Oki sobbing next to her, but she kept her eyes glued to the darkness of the gorge. Who the hell puts a gorge in the middle of a minefield? Hisa wondered absentmindedly.

Eventually, she realized that they would have to keep moving. Otherwise, they would be blown up, and she knew that Hanabi wouldn't hesitate when the time ran out. She turned and began to walk.

"Come on Oki." she said. "Nawaki will catch up with us."

Oki didn't move.

"Hisa," she whispered "He's dead isn't he? He couldn't have survived the fall. He's dead. Nawaki's dead."

Hisa ignored the tears that were threatening to spill. This had to happen just when she and Nawaki had managed to go a day without fighting.

"Now you're the one being stupid Oki." she said calmly. "Nawaki's not dead. He got stabbed in the stomach three times and didn't even scar, and remember that time when he tripped and fell off the roof of the Hokage's building? I'm pretty sure he doesn't know how to die."

She tried to get Oki to move but she dug her feet in.

"What's the point in getting to the gate Hisa? Without Nawaki we can't leave."

Hisa sighed. Oki was usually the positive one of the team. Nawaki's fall (Hisa refused to think of it as his death.) had shaken her badly. Hisa hoped she would snap out of it.

"If Nawaki is… late in catching up with us we'll just have to cheat."

Oki moved at last. She turned and looked at Hisa curiously.

"Cheat?"

Hisa nodded.

"Yep. I can use my Rinnegan to levitate us over the fence surrounding this field. If they won't let us out then we'll just find a spot where they aren't looking."

A hint of a smile flicked at Oki's mouth.

"No offense Hisa but all of the times you used your Rinnegan today people ended up dying."

"Nawaki's not dead." Hisa argued.

Oki still didn't look convinced but she began walking. Hisa followed her, trying to think of ways to convince her. She was annoyed at Oki for acting like this. She herself was trying to cope with the possibility that Nawaki was dead. (He's not dead, he's not dead. her mind chanted) She didn't have enough energy to motivate Oki as well.

"Listen Oki." she said at last. "When Nawaki catches up with us, do you think he'll like it that you doubted him so much."

Oki laughed, but it wasn't a happy sound.

"Hisa, I think I would doubt the ability to live of anyone who fell at least twenty feet with nothing to break their fall."

"Kawa's uncle managed it." Hisa argued. "Remember when he told us about his fight with that two headed freak?"

"You're dad said he was exaggerating." Oki pointed out.

"Father exaggerates a lot himself." Hisa countered.

Oki shrugged.

"The point is, the chance that Nawaki's alive is around one in a million. I'm just trying to accept it."

"If someone told you that you would be on the same team as the Sage of the Six Paths what would you say the odds of that were?"

"You're not the Sage of the Six Paths Hisa." Oki said wearily.

Hisa smirked. "Give me a few more years and you'll see."

Oki rolled her eyes.

"Look, let's just agree to disagree."

"Fine." Hisa sighed; an idea came into her head. "But only after we make a bet."

Oki looked at suspiciously.

"You hate gambling."

"My Senju DNA is taking over."

Oki rolled her eyes again. But Hisa knew she was interested.

"What's the bet?"

"If Nawaki's alive and if he joins us before the end of this exam then you have to pay me 10,000 yen and you also have to do all my chores on missions, like hunting and setting up my tent. If he doesn't catch up with us or… well, you know then vice versa."

Oki looked at her sceptically.

"You would bet your teammate's life?"

Hisa grinned. She firmly believed Nawaki was alive, but if Oki refused to listen to her why shouldn't she take advantage of his absence?

"Why do you care? You're the one convinced he's dead."

Oki sighed.

"Fine, it's a bet. Now let's hurry up, we're going too slow."

Hisa grinned.

"Well, if you want I could blow up some mines with my Rinne-"

"NO!" Oki yelled.

Hisa laughed.

"I'm only joking. Look there's a small wood over there. If we go over there we can tree-jump."

They made their way over to where the trees started. There were a few paper bombs strapped to the trees, but they were a lot easier to avoid then the mines. The two of them began to jump from branch to branch.

The trees went on for longer than Hisa expected. It was a stroke of good luck that they had found them. Oki detonated a paper bomb once, but she managed to dodge the blast. Other than that, they had encountered no trouble. An hour had gone by before they made contact with anyone else.

Hisa frowned. Something was making her feel uneasy, and trusting your sixth sense was important for shinobi.

"Stop for a minute Oki." she said quietly. "I think something's wrong."

Oki stopped and looked around.

"Do you think it's a trap?"

"Probably. My guess is another genin team trying to eliminate the competition."

Hisa found she had guessed right when a giant shockwave flew through the trees. It blasted the two of them off the tree branches. They tumbled to the ground, Hisa barley managing to land on her feet.

"Who's there?" she said loudly, scanning the area for enemies.

She heard a shrill giggle and three genin appeared in front of her. They were all at least eight years older than her, and much, much taller.

"Look what we have here guys." the one in the middle shrieked.

The voice was annoyingly high, and it's owner dressed so strangely that Hisa couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl. The other two were definitely boys. They were both bulky, and one was bald. The one in the middle looked around fifteen, while the boys looked like full-grown adults. It was clear the boy/girl in the middle was the leader. After staring at her for a bit Hisa decided that she was a girl. They all looked capable so Hisa decided to try and reason with them.

"There's no point attacking us." she said, trying to sound calm. "We've lost a teammate so we can't leave anyway."

The girl let out another shriek of a laugh.

"Oh, we're not here to lessen the competition, we heard about you're… unusual doujutsu. We're here to test ourselves against it."

Behind her, she heard Oki sigh.

"Rinnegan this, Rinnegan that, why does no one ever talk to us just because they enjoy our company?"

The girl ignored her. She turned to the bald man.

"Noriaki, do your thing."

Hisa tensed, expecting the man to attack. Instead, he just opened his mouth and screamed. Hisa looked around, wondering what the scream was for. Her eyes widened when she noticed Oki lying on the ground, unmoving. Hisa ran over to Oki and felt for a pulse, but found none. Panic seized her. How had Oki been hit? Why was she so cold? She couldn't possibly be dead! Hisa had already lost Nawaki, she refused to lose Oki as well.

She noticed that the screaming had stopped and looked around. Where had the other team gone? She searched the whole area, but she couldn't see them anywhere. She looked closer, something felt off. She stared at a tree for a few seconds, until she realised what the problem was. Nothing was moving. There was no wind blowing and there were no sounds at all.

She was in a genjutsu.

She tried to think of what Naruto had told her about breaking out of them, but her mind was drawing a blank. Any second now, the enemy could attack and she would be helpless. She slapped herself across the face and was surprised when she felt the sting. So she wasn't completely trapped in her mind, it was just an illusion on her surroundings. That gave her an idea.

She reached into her kunai pouch and pulled one out. She hesitated for a second before plunging the kunai into her leg. She made sure to plunge it into her calf because if it went into her thigh she could lose a lot of blood. She winced as the pain hit her, but the stab did the trick. The genjutsu disappeared and she was able to see her real surroundings.

Oki was lying on the ground, but Hisa could see the rise and fall of her chest. They had only knocked her out. She turned around and saw the three ninja grinning at her.

"Not bad little girl." the shrill voiced one said. "But can you save your friend too?"

She drew out a few shuriken and threw them at Oki. Hisa ran as fast as she could, scooped Oki up just before the shuriken hit her, and ran for cover behind a tree. She weaved from tree to tree until she was sure the other team couldn't see her. She gently laid Oki down at the base of the tree. She knew Oki wouldn't wake up unless Hisa used force, and she needed Oki for this fight.

She tried to ignore the part of her that was screaming Revenge is mine! She quickly leant over and slapped Oki across the face as hard as she could. For a second, Hisa thought it wouldn't work. But Oki's eyes shot open and she sat up, looking around blearily.

"Oh, hey Hisa." she murmured. "I had this crazy dream where Nawaki fell off a bridge into this huge deep gorge and then we were attacked by this random genin team trying to test their strength by pitting it against your Rinnegan."

She noticed Hisa's expression.

"That wasn't a dream was it?"

"Sadly, no. Look, we need to hurry before the creepy team find us."

"Too late." the shrill voice sang out.

Hisa looked up to see the rain of kunai heading straight towards them. She and Oki dived out of the way just in time. She rolled to her feet to see Oki face off against the bald man. She thought she heard the woman call him Noriaki. The other two genin landed in front of Hisa. She didn't know their names so she dubbed the man Hook-Nose since his nose was shaped oddly. The girl she christened Squeaky-Voice for obvious reasons.

"So you want to fight me do you?" she growled. "I'm not having a good day, and since I've already killed at least twenty innocent children I don't really care about adding two more to that."

The girl gave yet another shrill laugh, although it was a mocking laugh.

"You can say whatever you want little girl, but the only way to satisfy us is to prove how good you are with action!"

"That sounds slightly sexual!" she heard Oki yell.

Squeaky-Voice frowned.

"Noriaki, kill that one quickly! She's irritating me!"

"She irritates me as well." Hisa said casually. "But not as much as my other teammate. Although I'm still sad that he fell into the gorge."

Hisa wasn't sure why she was acting like this, maybe it was because of the woman's irritating voice. Squeaky-Voice seemed to be getting angrier.

"Are you mocking me, brat?" she snarled.

Hisa shrugged.

"Not really, just trying to make pleasant conversation before a fight. But that doesn't seem to be your thing so let's just get to the fighting part."

She got into a taijutsu stance, keeping one eye on each opponent. Hook-Nose was the one to make the first move. He sent out a shockwave not unlike Hisa's first use of the Rinnegan. Hisa jumped over it, but the man hadn't been looking where he had aimed the shockwave. It hit the bald man who was fighting Oki and sent him flying into a tree. His eyelids fluttered but he made some hand-seals and before he fell unconscious, he spat out a fireball. Oki dodged it, but she forgot to look behind her and hit her head on a tree branch, knocking her out. Hisa couldn't help smirking at that. She knew Oki was alright because she could see she was breathing.

She turned back to her own opponents and raised an eyebrow.

"I haven't even done anything yet and I'm already down an opponent. Are you two sure you want to fight me?"

Hook-Nose snarled. He lunged at Hisa but she dodged and flung two kunai at him. While he was distracted she punched him and kicked him, but he blocked both. She flipped over him and dodged the foot he sent flying at her stomach. While he was off balance she aimed another few punches at him but he blocked every one of them. It reminded her of the first time she fought Nawaki, which made her angry. She didn't have time to be fighting these strangers. She was distracted for a few seconds, and she almost missed the kick he aimed at her head. She managed to duck just in time, but she was getting fed up.

She stuck out her right hand and aimed it at the man.

"Almighty Push!" she yelled.

Hook-Nose flew backwards and slammed into a tree. He fell onto the ground and didn't get back up. Hisa herself fell onto one knee. She was breathing heavily. She had used up most of her chakra with that last attack. But she had defeated the man so it was alright.

Suddenly, she remembered that she had two opponents. She tried to stand back up but it was too late. A few well-placed shuriken pinned her to the ground. She struggled to raise her head as the girl strutted towards her, still giggling in that shrill voice.

"Looks like I win this fight, little girl. I think I'll take your Rinnegan as a reward."

Hisa struggled to keep the fear out of her voice.

"Congratulations. You ganged up on two girls half your age and beat them up. You must be so proud. You even got the boys to do all your dirty work."

"How dare you!" Squeaky-Voice spluttered. "I'm a boy too!"

Hisa frowned thoughtfully.

"Are you sure about that?"

The girl/boy screamed angrily. She grabbed a kunai and jumped on top of Hisa. Hisa struggled to breath under the crushing weight. This girl/boy/thing was heavy.

"I'm going to kill you now." Squeaky-Voice snarled.

Hisa closed her eyes. She didn't want her last memory to be of an ugly looking cross-dresser staring down at her. She heard the rush of air and knew that the kunai was coming towards her head.

Suddenly, the weight was jerked of her and the kunai fell harmlessly onto her chest. She opened her eyes and looked around, wondering who had saved her. Squeaky-Voice was pinned to a tree by a few kunai and shuriken. She was shrieking and snarling, but Hisa ignored her.

Who had saved her?

"Sorry I'm late. I got a bit distracted."

Her head snapped over to the tree on her right. There, standing on a branch, looking extremely smug, was Nawaki. She grinned at him. She wanted to laugh, cry and hug him all at the same time. Instead, she just smirked.

"What took you so long?"

!

Naruto and Hinata stood outside the minefield. Hinata was searching the area with her Byakugan.

"The intruder must be further in the field."

Naruto nodded.

"Alright, I'm going in."

He jumped over the fence and landed inside the field.

"Naruto, be careful, that field is…"

"AH! HINATA HELP! WHY IS THE GROUND EXPLODING?"

"… filled with mines."

With a sigh, she took off to help her husband.

A/N I think I'm going to change the summary soon, because the one that I'm using is terrible. Anyways, I'll explain what happened to Nawaki next chapter, as well as who the mysterious intruder is. Thanks again to everyone who read/reviewed.