Hi! School's been feeling a little bit overwhelming for me (I never expected the all-nighters to come so soon!) Still, I managed to get this chapter out to you! Hey, I'm really trying to make this multi-tasking work!! I'm sorry to say, but for a few chapters, a bunch of OCs will steal the show, but Naruto and the gang…(looks into the pleading eyes of the audience)… sigh…and NaruSakuness…will be back before you know it! (Everyone cheers). Now for reviewer appreciation!

Uncle Joe: (pokes body with a stick). Steve Irwin must be looking down from heaven thinking "Crikey, what a moron." In addition to the erection, you go through the other complications a spider-bite has to offer. And chances are if you are registered on you shouldn't have the NEED for medication that treats erectile dysfunction.

Mrfipp: Sasori was just there so that in canon, Sakura could get some small piece of revenge. What the hell is ED? As for Deidra and Tobi…they're a ways off. Sorry.

Paveway: Why thank you!

Ichirukipwns: I'm surprised I could make such a long chapter myself.

Pirogeth: If you thought Yuji's dad was unoriginal, wait till you see Rock Lee's team! Can you check to see if the last chapter is really the longest flashback in fanfiction on record?

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I got the movie!...The other 2 sucked though…

Naruto tapped his radio. "Team 12, come in. Have you found the target?" Static was heard on the other side.

"Copy that." Shiguri's voice said. "One problem: Suppose it goes down Iori's pants? We're in a bit of an awkward situation right now."

Naruto's eyebrows twitched at this. "I beg your pardon?"

Yuji said into the radio "He's not joking sensei. She's tried pulling it out, but it digs its claws into her…."

Naruto fell over when he heard what sounded like a punch that rivaled Sakura's on his radio.

"Anyway," Shiguri finished "I think we may need some female-type help with this. I don't think it's going anywhere."

Eventually, Naruto managed to find Tenten, who happily got the cat off, and helped out Iori with certain things the boys should not have been seeing. They made their way back with it, and delivered it to its owner.

"Oh fluffy! You're such a naughty kitty!! Mummy was worried sick!!" The fat lady squeezed her cat even tighter. The poor thing wanted to get away so bad!

Naruto could only grimace. "When I become Hokage, I am not taking any missions from her…"

The woman paid, and left. Tsunade mumbled "I keep trying to tell her to put a leash on that damn thing, but she's off in her own world…" Tsunade turned around. "All right, you're dismissed." The three genin headed out, but Naruto stayed there. "Naruto…do you think they're really ready?"

Naruto grinned. "Ba-chan, even if they're not this will help them grow." Tsunade got up from her desk. "You still have to be there by 3 to announce it formally."

Several jonin gathered by the tent where the Hokages by tradition signed up their students. Tsunade spoke up. "Anyone who wishes to sign up their students for the exam, speak up now. Remember: Your team must have completed 8 D-rank missions and at least one C-rank mission."

Kiba stepped forward. "Inuzuka Kiba. I recommend Inuzuka Hige, Shiro Tsume, and Shidan Kagome."

Shikamaru stepped up. "Nara Shikamaru. I recommend Hyugga Hanabi, Kurosaki Uryuu, and Saitou Kenshin."

Then Lee stepped forward. "Rock Lee. I recommend Funny Chan, Crystal Li…no relation…and Tiger Jaa."

More and more Jonin put there teams forward. Finally, Naruto stepped up. "Uzumaki Naruto. I recommend Miyamoto Yuji, Myojin Iori, and Naka Shiguri."

Tsunade written up everything. "Very well. Give your students these slips, and good luck to you all."

The next day, Naruto's trio was on their way to the exam building. And all three were eager to sign up.

"One more step before I'm right at your heels, dad." Yuji thought. He was brought out of those thoughts when he ran into something. He fell down, and he scowled when he saw the person in front of him. He had yellow eyes, platinum blonde hair that came down to his shoulder, and for a boy his age, was built fairly well. He was also wearing white kung-fu uniform, gloves, and matching pants.

"T-Takeda-kun!" Iori shrieked happily. "Are you participating in the chunin exams?"

The bishonen genin brushed his hair and said "Hmph. I should be promoted to jonin right now. But procedures are procedures, so I suppose I should go through with them. I'd say see you later, but you three losers won't even make it past the first stage. Tata." He waved them off.

Iori hung her head in gloom, while her two teammates flipped him off.

"I swear, I'll kick his ass!!" Yuji shouted.

"Assuming I don't get him first." Shiguri growled.

Inside, several other genin teams gathered. A brown-haired dog whimpered. "It's alright, Genmai." Hige told him. Though he was part of the Inuzuka clan, Hige looked nothing like his family members. He had brown hair, and chickened out on getting his tattoos. His fangs weren't very prominent either. Another genin with snow white hair and red eyes passed by him. "Tcch. I want to get straight to the fighting part." The boy flexed his fingers, whose nails were filed to look like claws. "But comprehension and survival are two very important aspects of a shinobi, Tsume!!" a high pitched voice said. A girl in a black dress and short hair ran up to them. She was probably no more than 7 years old. "Kagome…" Tsume growled…

Inside, genin placed themselves against the walls, intimidated by the one team walking down. Well, not the team itself, but its signature member: Hyugga Hanabi. She was cold and ruthless. She never started a fight, but she was more than eager to finish off any challengers. She was also starting to become quite a young woman, and any boys who approached her were dealt with in much the same manner. To both of her sides were her two teammates. One had spiked black hair and glasses, plus a robe that seemed to be in tatters, and two weapons: One was a cross-bow on his right arm, and another was a sword that looked more like a gigantic butcher knife. The other genin had short red hair, with two bangs covering his eyes. The rest of his outfit was quite plain-looking, but if one was to look into his golden eyes, they would see nothing but killer intent.

"Uryuu, Kenshin, I assume you can take care of yourselves during the exam?" Hanabi asked coolly.

"Yes!" They both said in unison.

A boy with black, unkempt hair and a black uniform with a yin and yang symbol on the back stood with a girl with black hair and green eyes, who was dressed in pure black and had a huge scroll on her back. They were both being pushed around by a bigger genin, who had long brown hair and the build of a boar.

"C'mon!!" their assailant yelled. "Let's go!!"

The boy bowed, but did not take his eye off of the bully. "I'm sorry; but there is no fighting allowed here. If you'd like, we can arrange a-"

The big genin took a couple of swings at the two. None of the shots connected, but the unwillingness of the two genin to fight wasn't helping.

"What's going on!?" a voice shouted.

The bully looked to his right and noticed what seemed to be their third teammate. Unlike most of the other students, this one had dark, tanned skin. He wore a denim jacket with jeans, and had his t-shirt showing. His hands were wrapped up in some kind of rope, and he had a red scarf on his neck. What most people would've taken notice of, though, would be the 2 bones on his back, which were fastened on to him in an X pattern. Both were wider than his arms, and as long as his back.

The fat genin found this amusing. "Hm, since your friends here don't seem too willing, I guess I'll play with you!!" The bully charged…and was knocked to the floor by a push kick to the face. The tan boy backed away in horse stances, with his arms pointing at the other genin, and splintering the wood with each step.

The bully got up, holding his nose. He stared at him for the longest time, and said "At the finals, you're mine." The big one disappeared.

"Chan, Crystal…are you alright?" the tan boy asked.

The girl answered "We're both fine, thanks to you, Jaa."

Chan said "We could have handled it."

Jaa just smiled. "Yeah, I know."

Finally, every genin who applied made their way to the first test. The illusion joke that the old Team 7 had to get through was pulled, but Yuji figured it out.

"Um, guys, this is the 2nd floor. That is not 301." Of course he had to duck the kunai from the two "guards", but after that everyone went upstairs

Everyone was suspicious as to why they were being separated from their teammates, and Team 12 was no different. Iori was placed in the very front, Shiguri at the side, and Yuji in the back. Suddenly, Konoha's interrogator, Ibuki, teleported into the room. When he explained the rules, many were panicking inside. Iori was one of them. She never did well on written tests, and if she got a zero…well, she didn't care what her teammates thought, but still she knew that it would prove to the higher-ups that she was not ready as a ninja. Shiguri was not at all worried. He did not score well on the written tests too, but it was not because he did not know the answers…he just didn't care to write them down. His grandfather drilled all the rules and regulations in his head, and he got so sick of it all, so he often flunked tests just to spite him. Yuji didn't score well on written exams either, but he realized the strategy.

"So, you WANT us to cheat, just not get caught."

Soon, everyone began.

The various teams go to work. Most went ahead and tried to do it honestly. Some attempted to cheat, but were caught. Rock Lee's Team 4 did not have any special methods of cheating, but they were well versed in the questions. Genmai alerted Hige what his neighbors were writing. Tsume had a mirror in his hands, but only he could see the reflections. Kagome was considered a genius, as it was very rare to have anyone become a genin less than ten years of age. Hanabi used her byakugan, and it was said that her two teammates had a mind link. Iori couldn't even manage to start her work on the questions; they were much harder than what she was used to.

Shiguri scribbled and put his pencil down. "Harder than I remember." He thought.

Yuji didn't begin. "Hmm…how do I go about this?" He looked at one of the genins in front of him. He was huge!! He couldn't see past his…"I think I found my target!" Yuji looked around him, and saw the pencil sharpener. "Okay." He broke the tip of his pencil, and flicked it onto the rear of the fat genin. The genin threw his paper up in the air, and Yuji tried to copy all of the answers. However, a kunai pinned it to the wall.

"You fail!!" one of the proctors shouted.

"But I'm supposed to loose only…"

"You practically showed it to everyone in the room, so you loose all your points!! Get out!!"

He and his teammates were kicked out, and the paper was disposed of.

"They were too quick to send it out of the air for me to copy." Yuji thought. "But not for my camera!" Yuji pressed something on the side of his glasses. Thought it made his eyes ache, a holographic image of the paper was displayed in front of him. "All right, I better jot this down quick." Yuji didn't write it just once; he wrote everything twice, one on a small piece of gum wrap. Yuji saw Iori panicking, and knew he had to do something. Yuji pretended he was stretching, but in reality he was making his pencil hollow. Then, he stuffed a small piece of paper that contained the additional answers inside. He aimed for Iori, and blew.

Iori felt it in the back of her head. However, instead of being curious and picking up the small piece of paper, she turned around and screamed "WHAT THE HELL!?"

The proctors held her down, and another said to Yuji "You. You will not harass other participants in this exam. We catch you one more time, and your team is out!! Is that clear!?"

Yuji hung his head down. "Yes sir." Yuji then held his head. "We're doomed."

Finally, 45 minutes have passed.

"Now for the tenth question!!" Ibuki yelled. "I'm going to give you two choices: You can refuse to answer. If you do, you fail, but you can take the exam again the next time it comes around. Should you accept the question and get it wrong, you will be a genin forever!!"

Everyone panicked and yelled bursts of outrage, but they were all silenced. Yuji knew they had to reject it. "I won't have any chance to cheat again, and judging by the way Shiguri looks, it seems like he's not sure he can answer it either!! There's no way in hell Iori can do it!!" Iori looked back at Yuji, who was about to raise his hand, and stared each other in the eyes. Yuji didn't know why, but Iori seemed to be pleading with him, as if to give her a chance. Reason told him not to, and yet…"All right, Iori. If you think you have the slightest chance of getting it right, I'll give you that chance." Yuji put his hand down, thankful that they did not call upon him.

Soon, everyone who rejected the question left. Iori held both of hands together, anticipating the hardest question of her life.

"To all of those still here…You passed!!"

Everyone in Team 12 fell over their chairs. "What the freak is going on here!?" Shiguri yelled. "Where's the fucking question!?"

Ibuki smiled "Well, I should probably explain the purpose of this part of the exam first. First off, did you ever wonder why we did not fail you automatically for cheating? We wanted you to, but not get caught!!"

Iori thought back. "Was that what Yuji was trying to do?"

"After all," Ibuki continued and lifted his cap "you'll be expected to spy on other people, and getting caught would be a disaster." Ibuki loved this part of the exam. Seeing the kids' faces when they saw his head never got old.

"Now I know I'd rather die than look like that!!" Iori screamed internally

"Ewww." Shiguri whispered

And Yuji was left speechless.

"As for the tenth question…think of it as a mission. In order to live as a ninja and protect our village, you have to accept a mission. And if you fail it, you will most likely die. If you wish to become a chunin, you must face real danger, no matter how slim your chances are for survival."

Shiguri raised his hand. "So…there…is…no…question?"

"Correct."

"And after all of this time, all we had to do to pass was yell 'I accept!'?"

"Correct."

There was a moment of silence. Then, Shiguri leapt on top of the desk and prepared to throw a kunai. "I'll kill you, you bastard!!"

Unfortunately for him, the other ninja tackled him to the ground. They gave him a strict warning, but that was it.

As everyone prepared to leave for the next stage, Ibuki said to Iori "Excuse me? What is your sensei's name?"

Iori turned around confused. "Well, he is a jonin, and even if he does have a grudge against him, he has no right to fail us." Finally she answered "Uzumaki Naruto."

Ibuki's eyes widened, and then he laughed.

"Hey what's so funny!?" Iori shouted.

"Your sensei was the first to pass this part of the exam without writing down a single thing." Ibuki grinned. "I can see his students are taking after him."

The teams gathered around the edge of a forest. The outside read "Forest of Death".

"Yuji, what do you think the odds are that it's another forest that happens to be harmless and that the others are trying to scare us?" Shiguri asked his friend.

"I'd say zero. I've been near here before, and I've heard screams." This didn't bring comfort to anybody.

Suddenly, an explosion of smoke was in front of everyone. There appeared a woman with short hair and a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Hmm, Ibuki did a SLIGHTLY better job than last time…slightly, but not much." She said. "Hello! The name is Mitarashi Anko, and I'm about to send you into the Forest of Death!"

Some genin laughed. "That's bullshit! You can't have any new chunin if you kill the candidates!"

Suddenly, Anko was upon him. "Oh, if you die, that simply means you don't qualify! Real ninja can survive this no problem!! Genins, not so much, although we get a few lucky ones!! That forest is the real deal! Tigers, centipedes, and…" Snakes shot out of her arms, and wrapped themselves around the boy's neck. They flicked their tongues at him, the boy trembled, and passed out. Anko reached down and touched him. "Oops! He only fainted, but I don't think he'll be up in time to begin!" Anko looked back to two other ninjas. "You two! Take him to the infirmary!"

The two nin did as they were told, and one of his teammates asked "What about us?"

Anko looked perplexed, then smiled. "Oh!! Why, you're disqualified!! You need all three of you to begin!" They were about to protest, when Anko squealed "Oh, I just remembered…my fierce snake just had a batch of babies!! They're adorable!! And they're poisonous already!! Just one drop can kill over a hundred men!!" This time, the two remained silent, and walked away.

Yuji whispered to Shiguri "You think I should've pointed out to that guy that those were garden snakes?"

"Nah. It's less competition for us." That's what they thought. The scrolls were passed out, and the rules were explained. Due to Anko's prank, the number of teams was uneven. That meant that the contest would be short one pair.

"Did you say competition?" Yuji asked. "You should have said prey."

Shiguri hissed "Yeah."

Finally, everyone was allowed to enter, and the second stage began.

Naruto made his way into the building where the preliminaries, if there were too many genin, would take place. He got to the balcony, and looked around. "It's been ages. I still remember…I still remember how it all happened." Naruto became a chunin by appointment, so he didn't have to go through this forest again. Naruto sighed and went on inside. There was a lounge and beds for all the waiting instructors. And he wasn't the only one there. "Kiba! Shikamaru! Fuzzy Brows!"

Naruto's friends waved hello. "We were just starting to play some cards." Shikamaru said. "Wanna join?"

"I'm in."

No real money was wagered, but still it was fun. After a few rounds, Naruto asked "So, what are your students like?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Oh, man, I got stuck with the worst trio ever. First I've got Hinata's little sister, but she's more like Neji before you kicked his ass. The two boys, Uryuu and Kenshin are like having two Sasukes. No, scratch that. More like two Garaas during our exam." Naruto shuddered.

Kiba was about to say his part, but Lee beat him to it. "The power of youth burns strong within my disciples!! Funny Chan feels can make a weapon out of anything, and most incredible, he is able to perform the drunken fist without the use of sake!! Crystal Li…no relation…is truly the graceful weapon specialist!! But they all pale in comparison to TIGER JAA!! NEVER BEFORE HAVE I SEEN THE POWER OF YOUTH BURN SO BRIGHT, AND IT SHOWS WITH A TAIJUTSU STYLE UNLIKE ANYTHING THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN!!" There was a moment of silence between them. Everyone was uttered speechless as they saw Gai's personality being passed on.

Kiba then spoke up. "My cousin is on my team. He's always been timid, and they thought having me as his sensei would be good for him. I've got a troublemaker as well, Tsume. He's a lot like a cat." Kiba stopped to pet Akamaru. "As you can tell, that's a bit of a problem for us. Then there's Kagome. She's only seven years old, but she's so smart and she's not a bad fighter to boot." Kiba then asked Naruto "What about your students?"

Naruto chuckled "Well, I got stuck with the three lowest ranking ones. Yuji is timid and has some problems believing in himself, but he's brilliant. Iori is actually a lot like I was. Then Shiguri…well, he's talented, but he's got a pretty bad attitude. Despite that, I feel I'm not as close to him as I should be, and I want to change that." The other two jonin nodded, and continued with their game.

Yuji and his teammates made their way through the forest. Soon, Yuji ordered them to stop. "We need the other scroll."

Shiguri nodded. "Right now, the other teams could be anywhere. And they could be looking for us as well. Any ideas?"

Iori yelled "Just find one and beat them all up!! How hard can it be!?"

Her male teammates slapped their heads. "Um, Iori?" Shiguri asked. "You remember what happened when you challenged Naruto-sensei to a fight? We do that, and we're likely to get our asses kicked."

"But we're going up against genin!!"

Yuji placed his hand on Iori's shoulder. "By that logic, the best we can hope for is to kill each other. Even if we win, we're likely to be injured, and once we are, what's going to help us to keep our hard-won scrolls?"

Iori stared blankly, and lowered her head. "I'm such an idiot." Iori whispered to herself.

Yuji said "I've wandered around the edge of this place before. It has a diameter of about 10 km. And no one is going to the end until they get another scroll. So, we'll set some traps. To do that, we'll need to separate, which will be dangerous. One of us alone will be a prime target for stealing the scroll, and at the same time, we cannot risk hiding it in the forest." Yuji looked at Shiguri. "Shiguri, you've got the best match of brawn and brain. We're going to entrust the scroll to you."

Hanabi activated her Byakugan. She scanned all the trees, and spotted another team. She could see the symbol on her scroll, and that their symbol was the opposite of theirs. She pointed her fingers in the general direction, and her two teammates took off.

Three days had passed. Yuji looked around the tree tops, searching for any genin that might come by. So far, no one came. They all agreed that if no one fell into the traps, they would move on. A machine on Yuji's belt suddenly vibrated. He checked the front. "We've got something at the web at the east end!!"

Team 12 headed out. "Hey." Iori said. "I saw a bunch of large bugs around here. How do we know it's not one of those?"

"The snares shouldn't be able to hold anything that big. Besides, they only work if something runs right into them."

They got to the trap in no time, and just like Yuji said, three genins were tangled up, and struggling. They weren't leaf ninjas; in fact they didn't recognize the symbol on their headbands.

"Hey!! Cut us down!!"

Shiguri walked over, and patted each and every one of them. Finally, he found the scroll. He looked at it, and gave Yuji the thumbs up.

"All right." Yuji said. "We've got both scrolls. Now we-" Yuji leapt out of the way when shuriken impeded the side of the branch he stood on just a split-second ago. "RUN!!" The three took off, with their new pair of scrolls.

In another part of the forest, a group of genin from grass village decided to rest. "Yura, you hold onto the scroll." One of the boys said.

"Right."

The brown-haired girl nodded. She took it, and went out to get some firewood. As she gathered the twigs, she thought she heard something. She reacted defensively and pulled out a kunai. However, she lowered it, when it sounded more like whimpering. A small brown dog limped out of the bushes, and looked around nervously. "I didn't know there were dogs in this forest." Yura thought. She put her weapon down, and kneeled. "Hey, little puppy. Are you lost?" The dog looked at her. "Come here. It's okay." Yura held out her arms. The dog hesitated but then slowly made it's way to her. Finally, it leapt right into her arms. The dog then proceeded to lick her face. "Hahahah, that tickles!!" Just as suddenly as it began, the dog jumped out of her arms. Yura looked on in confusion as it ran off, like it had no limp at all. "Huh. That was strange." Yura made her way back to her camp, wondering why a dog would feign injury.

When she finally arrived, her teammates asked "You still got the scroll, right?"

"Of course I do, what do you-" As she reached down for the scroll at the side of her shorts, she couldn't feel it. She panicked, and felt all around her body. "Oh no, where is it!?"

The brown dog continued running through the forest, with the scroll in it's mouth. It finally reached the campfire, and laid it down. It barked, alerting Hige that he had done his job. Hige picked him up and petted him. "Good boy." He put Genmai down and looked at his two teammates. "We better get going. Whoever Genmai stole this scroll from is going to come back with a vengeance." Team 3 took off into the shadows.

Team 12 was staring at their scrolls for the longest time. It was almost like they were having a staring contest with the inanimate objects.

"Well…" Shiguri said. "We were told not to open them. But then again, they expected us to cheat when we were told not to."

"We were WARNED not to, Shiguri." Yuji said. "They said we would loose points if we got caught. In this case, they specifically told us NOT to open the scroll, or we would be disqualified."

Iori then said "But what can they do about it? We're out here in the middle of a forest, and with the amount of teams, there's no way they can hope to keep an eye on all of us."

Just when Yuji was about to protest, they heard someone say, "C'mon, open it!"

Yuji signaled for his teammates to follow him. They spread the bushes apart, and found another team holding both scrolls. "I suggest to wait and see what happens instead of trying to look at their scrolls." Yuji whispered. "If nothing does happen, we can always look at our own." The ninja they were watching opened their scrolls…And then more ninjas appeared right out of them, and proceeded to beat the cheaters to unconsciousness.

Team 12 hid behind the trees, scared at what they just saw. As soon as the ninja were gone, they finally breathed.

"They couldn't just disqualify us, they had to kill us too!" Shiguri whispered.

"Okay." Yuji whispered. "NO ONE OPENS THE FUCKING SCROLLS. Got it?" Everyone nodded affirmatively.

In the canopy, two teams engaged in battle. Three stone ninja vs. three leaf ninjas. The stone ninja tried every ninjutsu and genjutsu they could think of. But none of it stood up to this team's taijutsu.

Li dispelled their latest illusion and made a swiping motion to the other kunoichi's abdomen. The stone kunoichi dodged, but then she looked down to see that she had been cut. She looked, and saw her enemy hold a steel fan.

Another stone ninja tried to knock Chan out, but the smaller leaf genin weaved through his hits and struck all the vital points. Finally, the stone genin managed to land a hit, and sent the leaf ninja flying onto a bed of moss. He followed him, and as they both readied themselves to attack, they could not stabilize their footing, and were unintentionally giving their impressions of a child ice-skating for the first time. The stone genin managed to focus his chakra past the moss, and steady himself. Then he attacked. Chan ducked and managed to land a kick on his opponent's groin. However, the force caused Chan to slide, with his opponent on top of him!! They got down to the bottom, and got into the most compromising position ever. Their lips were essentially locked. They separated almost immediately.

"I'm so sorry!" Chan shouted.

"I've been violated by a man!!" the stone genin yelled. He hit Chan a few times, and sent him flying. The genin charged in for more, but fell back when he received an unusually hard punch from Chan. He saw he had a rock in his fist. The stone genin proceeded to kick him, but Chan picked up a squirrel and made it bite his opponent on the nose.

As the genin held his nose, Chan reached up and brought some vines down on his opponent, and then proceeded to tie him up. "Good to know I didn't get staged by Jaa again."

Suddenly a branch came crashing down, and a stone genin had an elbow where his helmet used to be. Just when they touched down, Jaa wrapped his hands around his opponent's neck, and kneed him sky-high.

"I spoke too soon." Chan thought.

Jaa then yelled "Crystal!! Do you have the scroll!?"

"Yes!! It's a heaven scroll!!"

"Very Well!! Let's move out!!"

Chan lagged behind for a few moments. "I can't win…" Finally, he took off and caught up with his teammates.

Team 12 rested at their campfire. Sunrise would be the final day. Though they could have made it into the tower if they wanted to, they were constantly being followed, and for a whole day tried to shake them off. Around nightfall, exhausted, they decided to camp out and high-tail it to the tower at morning. Yuji and Shiguri were sound asleep. Iori, however, could not rest. For some reason, it eluded her. "I might as well go take a little walk. I haven't heard a thing walk by here." Iori got up, and stretched a little bit. She didn't get too far, when suddenly she heard a little noise. She readied a kunai…and out came her long-time crush, who was yawning. "T-Takeda-kun?" Iori whispered.

Takeda looked at her lazily, and then his eyes widened. "You!! I'm sorry, you're…"

" Iori. Myojin Iori."

"Right, right. I'm terribly sorry, I'm so bad with names. So, how have you been fairing?"

"Okay. It's so scary out here!! The bugs are enormous, I haven't had a bath in four days…and there's no outhouse out here!! You have no idea how worried I was some pervert would come up on us whenever I…" She twiddled her fingers. "Well…you get the idea."

Takeda laughed, but in a good natured way. "I'm sure. Hey, did I tell you that we killed a tiger here?"

"N-no. You didn't get a chance too!"

Takeda told her, using so many hand exaggerations, on how his team ran into a tiger. "When I saw my teammates in that shape, I knew I had to do something, so I stabbed it in the back of the neck! Of course, it wouldn't go down without a fight!! I rode it like a horse, and directed it over a gorge!!"

"Wow, that's incredible!! I just hope you can get to the tower before time is up!!"

Takeda laughed. "Oh, no problem. We've already got both scrolls!! And you?"

Iori almost shrieked. "That's so cool!! We've got both too!!"

"Nooo." Takeda said in a mock disbelief tone.

"Oh yes! See!" Iori pulled out both of the scrolls. "Isn't it cool!?"

Takeda laughed, but this time, it was…sinister. "Oh yes. Very cool. Thank you, Iori."

Iori just went "Huh?" Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head, and then she passed out. Takeda's two teammates chuckled and picked up the Earth Scroll.

"Shall we take the other one, Takeda?" The other boy asked.

Takeda said "But of course. As long as they have one, they still have a chance of making it. Without another, they'll never be able to enter the tower in time for tomorrow!!" The team jumped away, laughing as they left.

Review please!

Next chapter: See how Team 12 will deal with this predicament!