~Defeating A Mirage~

The sun was shining high in the beautiful Village Of Konoha.The early-morning birds chirrping.
In the northern side of Konoha a small house. In that house a kid, about 12 or 13 is sleeping.
His head on the floor he is sound asleep.



His mother came in woke him up."Keiko! Get your but up know and make this clan proud!" Keiko's mother grabbed him and through him out the window. Keiko quickly awoke and grabbed the wdge of the roof. "Hehe, 40 years old and you still have your skills. (5 mins. later) Okay Mom, Dad! I'm the future of this clan so I'm Becoming a Chunin!" He headed out the door and jumped to the top of the roof, quickly on his way he went at doublespped and got to the Exam Sign-Up Area and signed the paper. "Wonder where Souran and Shikamaru Sensei are? Wait is that Dansai? Hey Dansei over here, oh wait are you the jutsu to let you see?

"Skiiiid!" Made the noise of Souran's sandals as he landed on the ground with a slant. None-the-less, he had finally made it to the chuunin exams building where he would finally become a higher leveled shinobi, one who is more respected. Though, of course once after becoming a chuunin, Souran would automatically want to become a jounin, an even more respected shinobi and I think you understand what would come next. Souran glanced around the front of the building before walking forward, not wanting to fall for any pranks to make the genin feel stupid. He did notice a trap near the side of the building including a net, some leaves and a rope connecting the net to a high branch of an evergreen tree.

"I don't think we all are that brainless. Honestly, what do they take us for...a couple of imbeci-" Souran was suddenly cut off by an odd sense of heat seeming to come from the building. It wasn't something that would come from a chuunin exam building...rather, a hot spring. That was when Souran placed his right hand over his face in disappointment. He shook his head, then removed his hand which masked his face. He looked around and noticed that he had actually ran further away from the exams building.

"Son-of-a-!" Souran was cut off yet again by another feeling he had obtained. Things just didn't seem right. He had gone in the exact same direction as he did when he left his home, how could things have just changed? It didn't add up. He looked around and suddenly noticed that the trap that had been once set, was gone without a trace. Then Souran finally understood.

"...Genjutsu." He mumbled to himself. He quickled slammed his hands together in the snake sign, storing his chakra. Second after second, he could feel his chakra strength increasing. Then he was ready. Souran suddenly released his chakra, full blast while keeping the hand sign strong. Within a minute, the building he saw disappeared, revealing the real one. Souran then thought to himself, "Looks like I just might be in for a little more than I thought." Souran noticed a bird in the tree tops and smirked just before using his body manipulation to control the blue jay. He forced it to sit upon his shoulder and fallow him to the sign in desk. Once he was finished, he glanced around at the others and noticed his fellow teammate: Keiko. Not wanting to leave him by himself, Souran walked over and greeted him.

"Yo Keiko, I'm surprised you got here before me. I guess Shikimaru-sensei is probably either waiting for us on the 3rd floor or sleeping somewhere...I choose the second thought but I could be wrong." Souran began, having no confidence in his sensei's arrival.

"I sure hope Fen gets here soon, I hear the first part of the exam includes writing. I'd like to get a good seat." Souran finished as he lifted his left hand to pet the blue jay on his right shoulder.

a small shadow appeared in front of Souran and Keiko which grew larger and larger and larger until Fen was visible falling fast towards them. He blasted the ground with a large column of wind to soften his landing, sending high speed gusts roaring through the crowd and annoying the surrounding ninja. Fen landed gracefully and greeted his two team mates happily.

"Fashionably late as usual! HAH! Souran! Keiko! Sorry to keep you waiting. My mom blew my stuff into the street again....you guys ready for the exam?? i'm pretty pumped now that i'm actually awake... me and my fist are ready to take this all the way!" Fen said excitedly, holding his fist in front of him.

arrogant as usual, Fen scanned the crowd and gave an unimpressed smirk as he looked at the other ninja.

"None of these guys can stand up to the Dynamo" Fen said to his two team mates proudly. The chuunin exams had sparked an unusual excitement in him now that he was up and about.

"Have you seen any sign of Shikamaru sensei?" Fen questioned, finally looking around for their team leader. "Bleh... i swear... Shikamaru Sensei is lazier than any one i've ever met... i bet he forgot we had the exams today" Fen said angrily, acting like he hadn't just opted this morning to skip the exams and sleep instead.

Fen shifted his weight to one leg and crossed his arms, tapping his foot and wiggling his toes in the dirt. He scanned the still growing group of ninja around him one more time as he did so

"Maybe these guys look a bit tougher than i give credit for..." He said quietly as the number of participants continued to grow.

Yumi had been very annoyed of the first 10 minutes that she had gotten there, not that she would show it. Though she had come early she hadn't seen any of her teammates nor her sensei. She had gotten past all those lame tricks in the building and scoffed at them, most of them had been genjustu, so it was easy to get by. The advantages of getting there early was that you get to see who's entering and to her amusement see them fall into the traps.

'This is way too easy. If this is what they're gonna be pulling in the exams then it'll be a piece of cake.' She thought to herself but she couldn't underestimate this exam. She had heard rumors about the terrifying test they made the ninja go through and how a lot of these ninjas are on their 3rd or 4th try. That's got to be worth something right? Some kind of hard test that's what it is. Would it be a written test? Or endurance? She wouldn't know until she got in but she was very curious. This exam was messing up her normally calm attitude.

Yumi had been dragged out of her thoughts when she saw one of her teammates enter through the door. 'Dansei.' She had looked at him for a brief moment before going back to her thoughts. 'The rest of them better come. I won't be able to get in if they don't hurry up.' A small frown appeared on her face as she leaned against the wall of the room. She had been excited for this, ruining it would come with dire consequences.

"You've got to be kidding. Just because I don't use genjutsu doesn't mean I'm not going to dispel one when I see it," Akane muttered as she slammed her hands together. "Kai!"

Slowly the false image of the exam building vanished, revealing the actual establishment. Casually adjusting the bangs that continued to droop in front of her eyes, the pint-sized kunoichi strode into the building. Honestly, only a rookie would have fallen for the genjutsu. Of course, the fact was that the only reason a non-genjutsu user like herself wasn't caught was the presence of a resident expert on her own squad, but this didn't slow Akane down for a moment. After all, avoiding a trap was avoiding a trap no matter how you did it. Satisfied, she slipped past a few more obvious rope traps hanging from the ceiling. Suddenly, a sound not unlike a bursting baloon filled the room. Akane turned just in time to see a child no more then ten years of age come hurtling towards her. She smiled at the precocious little tyke, intercepting his punch with one hand and easily flipping him over her right shoulder where his leg unfortunately triggered a rope trap which hoisted him up to the roof of the exam building. "No fair, nee-chan!" he shouted as he dangled, his short, dark hair stringing out below him. "You weren't supposed to find me!"

"Maybe you should try jumping at me when I'm asleep then," Akane teased her younger brother as she nonchalantly searched her pouch for a kunai, which she used to cut the rope.

Dropping to the ground with a thud, her brother picked himself up and reached into a supply pouch at his waist. Thrusting his hand into it, he proceeded to rummage about its depths for a moment before extracting a yellow box which he proceeded to hand to his older sister. "Oyaji told me to get this to you. Said it was for quick energy," he winked at his sister.

Akane rolled her eyes as she opened the box. Her father had an annoying habit of sending his daughter some sort of sweet right before a mission. It was nice, but occasionally embarassing. Instead of the expected sugary confection, however, Akane gawked at the contents of the box: a small jar filled with small, brown pellets. "Father sent me a hyorogan packet? It isn't as if they grow on trees. Where did he get them?" she wondered aloud.

The younger Yamato shook his head. "Dunno. Oyaji doesn't tell me anything," he complained. "He just said they'd come in handy during the exams."

Akane smiled as she proceeded to bend down and, against all rules pertaining to a shinobi showing emotions, squeezed her younger brother. "Arigatou Gozaimasu, Midori," she muttered in his ear. Straightening up, she muttered, "By the way... how did you get in?"

Midori grinned mischeviously. "I used that new jutsu that Iruka-sensei taught us. They thought I was a jounin and they let me in, and I turned into a rock while they weren't looking. Adults aren't so smart," he proudly proclaimed.

Akane frowned in mock severity at her younger brother as she chastised him, performing a fairly accurate imitation of her mother. "Young man, that was a foolish thing to do! If the jounin found you they might have thrown you out and you would have brought shame on your father and I! It's enough to break this woman's heart!" Giggling, she smacked her sibling's head lightly. "You'd better get going, seriously. You were lucky that you got in in the first place. If you stay here much longer, you're going to be in trouble."

Midori smirked as his hands formed a few rudimentary seals. "Gotcha, nee-chan. Henge!" A burst of smoke surrounding the impish boy before clearing to reveal a small dog with soulful eyes. With one last glance at his sister, he eagerly bolted away.

Akane smiled fondly as she entered the building. Her brother could be a pest, but at least he was her pest. It was then that she noticed a familiar face. "Yumi? You're here already? Where are Hanako and Tenten-sensei?" she inquired, striding towards her younger yet taller team mate.

EDIT: I feel like I didn't add enough about the Yamato clan's ability to store light in objects to Akane's style, so I switched out 'Long Shot' for 'Lights Out' in the jutsu page. Last time I'll do that without a plot reason, promise. Oh, and I've added an "important clan members" section to detail Akane's extended family, since the Yamato clan does have a subplot-ish thing.

OOC: Waaah! The big meanie ACC is copyyying me by adding a younger male sibling! >O<

...

Nah, J/K. Oh, and like...how much detail do you want on the clans? Because the Tamori family has a rather...unique internal justice system. So in case you're wondering about the 'conviction' business (which, incidentally, has nothing to do with conviction in the usual legal sense), I can add an explanation for that if need be. :3

IC:

Akane barely had time to pose her question before a frustrated cry rang through the hall outside.

"Shimatta! Shimatta! Shimatta! I don't have time for this! Dance of Budding!"

The unmistakable twang of numerous rope traps triggering in near unison was followed by the ominous sound of sharpened metal leaving its sheath in a hurry, soon replaced by a series of light and heavier thumps caused by the impact of shoe soles and falling rope respectively.

Make that a lot of falling rope.

Soon thereafter, Hanako sauntered into the exam room, hair disheveled and katana drawn. Noting the number of quizzical stares turned towards her, the kunoichi casually brushed her black locks back into a semi-orderly formation, causing a few remnants of the recent rope massacre to fall down on the floor beside her. Her forehead protector had been attached at a slight angle and she looked very much like what she was -- someone who had gotten there in a hurry.

Noting the continued stares, the teenager spoke up "I hope those weren't all the rope traps you had." she said with just a tinge of guilt in her voice, addressing the remark to the exam personnel in the room, "I would have stopped to disarm properly but I thought that would have been wasting too much time." as the attention of the crowd was slowly diverted again, she finally found the sense to slip her weapon back into its scabbard.

It didn't take Hanako long to find her team. They would be the first to get over the weirdness of what had just happened, and besides: there weren't many midget kunoichi about.

"Akane-chan, Yumi-chan, Dansei-kun, ohayou!" she called cheerfully, waving at the three Genin who would probably not have wanted to be associated with her at the moment as she sprinted over to them. Feeling the need to elaborate on the matter, she continued "Didn't mean to make you wait, but otouto-kun's rite of flowering was today. I just had to attend, Tamori clan duty. Gomennassai." she finished her excuse with a curt bow. That was the good part of being a member of the Tamori clan, she mused, you could always excuse yourself by citing clan duty because no-one outside the clan really had an idea of what the Tamori clan duty was. It was partly true, anyway: having family members attend the rite of flowering was tradition. The fact that Itsuki was only her stepbrother and that her attendance, therefore, was purely voluntary was just semantics. It was a public secret that Hanako always fussed over her younger sibling; public in the sense that anyone could tell just by looking at them, secret in the sense that Hanako would vehemently deny it when asked.

There were certain rules to how these sibling relationships worked.

"Anyway, I made it in time, right?" she cast a glance around the room, "Tenten-sensei hasn't arrived yet, has she?"

"Fen I swear you are the weirdest ninja I have ever seen. Judging that your mom blew your
stuff into the street you most likely did not wanna get up to take the Exams today!" Keiko
ran up to the door and went in to see if Ibiki Morino, the Exam procter was there. He saw
three Chunin and a Jonin but no Ibiki.


Keiko walked back to Souran and Fen and asked "Jeez, this year I'm the youngest, this is the worst hour ever!
I just hope the Exam Procter gets here soon! Also I put a poll online for the Chunin Exams "What team is most
likely to win and we got in 2nd place out of everyone!"

OOC: Sharpay, I don't think they have computers in the Naruto world xD Also, Alter Ego, It would'nt hurt to add that so I think you should.

IC: "Well, no matter how strong these other people may seem, I'll bet a good half of them will either fail...or quit." Souran stated as he took a quick glance at the fellow shinobi in the room.
Souran could feel the day ending soon so he turned to his teammates, suggesting that they head up to room 301 on the third floor already. He wanted to attack these exams head-on. Not waiting for the other two, Souran had already begun walking up the stairs. As he lifted foot after foot, he suddenly stopped, motionless. His facial expression was most likely expressing how shocked he was. He could not move a single mussel on his body.

"...Wha-what is this?!" He wondered as his head began to turn around as if it were being forced. Once his head was at the half-way point for a human's head to turn, Souran understood clearly now.

"Shikimaru-Sensei, I see you've finally arrived."

"What's the matter, think I was gunna bail on you guys? No, I'm not like that." Shikimaru exclaimed as he turned his head to all three genin and then finally releasing his shadow impersonation technique. "I just came to wish you three good luck though is all. You ready?"

Souran smirked evilly and answered, "Are we ready? Of course we are, we are going to pass these exams with flying colors...Anyway sensei, we have to get to the third floor so we can actually start this thing. So stop holding us up!" He finished before continuing up the stairs, ignoring the other ninja who had been nosy enough to eavesdrop on that little uproar. Souran gave each of them bad looks as if he would suddenly burst into punching them.

Yumi turned her head to her now approaching teammate, Akane. Only 2 more to go. Though Yumi was beginning to doubt if her sensei was actually going to show up. She would normally be here by now. "Yumi? You're here already? Where are Hanako and Tenten-sensei?" She just shrugged in response to her teammates question and was about to ask about Tenten sensei until her attention was diverted to a girl in a cluster of ropes and trying to straighten herself back up. Yumi put her hand on her forehead to rub it upon realization that was her teammate and that her main headache had suddenly arrived.

"Hanako.." she grumbled under her breath, clearly annoyed at Hanako's behavior. Well it was nothing that much out of the ordinary and atleast she was there now.

After all you'd think should could get around the mediocre rope traps being set up. At least without attracting that much attention to yourself. After detangling herself from the ropes she ran back over to them and called their names, at an unreasonably loud volume I might add. Yumi visibly winced when her name was called but then tried to act more polite when she heard the reason she was late was because of clan duties. Still...Tenten sensei hasn't gotten there yet. Maybe they aren't supposed to show up, after all they're already chuunin and jounin. Besides they can't have the teachers holding their hands in this anyway.

She took another look around the room to see that more ninjas had arrived in the building. " Well we better get going." Yumi mumbled but it was still loud enough for her teammates to hear her. She made a move for where most of the other ninjas were in hopes of being able to blend in and still be able to observe closely. She wasn't about to wait for anyone. Not with the chuunin exams taking place.

Akane rolled her eyes as a particularly disheveled Hanako entered the room, hitae-aite conspicuously crooked. As the swordswoman shouted her greeting and explained her reason for lateness, Akane listened politely. "You're going to have to tell us a bit more about this clan duty," she replied as she stepped towards her team mate. "After all, we are friends, correct?" Okay, so technically they were more partners than friends. Akane knew that Yumi held a fair amount of annoyance in regards to Hanako, which was probably the by-product of throwing two shinobi with radically different ideas of what to do in battle together on the same team. Yumi was a spy, and as such relied completely on stealth. Hanako, on the other hand, took a much more direct route in confrontation of the enemy, choosing to go right for the throat with jutsu that were confrontational, to say the least. On the bright side, between the two of them there weren't many styles of attack that the team couldn't opt for. Of course, it helped that there were four members on the squad instead of the usual three. Akane shook herself from her momentary reverie. This was the chuunin exam! She had no time to sit around reminiscing about her partners!

Irritably brushing stray hair from her line of sight, she dashed to the middle of the group and nodded to Dansei, who was still sitting on the floor. Dansei, at least, was one male she could trust not to become smitten with her. After all, the beauty of a queen was lost on a blind man. Well, technically he could restore his sight momentarily, but he had never used it to admire Akane as far as she could tell. Or had he? Slowly, her hand began straying towards the kunai pouch. Maybe he had secretly planned upon joining this team because he had glimpsed her without her knowledge while he was training his bloodline! Maybe he was the one secretly stalking her in the night! Or maybe-

A hand clapped itself down on Akane's shoulder, interrupting her thoughts. "I thought we had established that you weren't going to be worried about Dansei?" the older woman asked.

"T-Tenten-sensei! When did you get here?" Akane asked, surprised.

"Just a minute ago. Now hurry to the third floor! We have an exam to take!" the jounin exclaimed before marching towards the stairway herself.

Akane groaned. Of course, Tenten-sensei was nowhere near being as driven as Rock Lee or Might Guy, Konoha's resident fitness nuts, but training with them as a genin had definitely rubbed off. Cracking her knuckles, she walked over to Hanako before they made progress up the steps. "So... your brother went through the rite of flowering? How did it go?" she asked conversationally before something struck her. "Wait. You have a brother?"

OOC: Yeah, slight add-on at the end there since I figured if the Tamori clan are so secretive about their traditions then they probably don't talk much about the rest of the clan. Plus, I couldn't resist. XD (If you'd like, Akane may have simply forgotten about Hanako's brother. After all, being as paranoid as she is means that details that don't directly affect her are usually forgotten.)

Kaiko iggorded Souran as usual and ran up to the third floor. "Chunin Exam here I come!" Keiko opended the door and saw a
bunch of genin friends from the Acadamy. "So when do we get the exam started! Keiko took his seat and yelled to Soran
and Fen that he was already seated. Keiko thought he would pass some time and practice his kunai throwing at a
conveanlitly placed Akane balloon.

((Ack. Just as a note, Imma really busy on everyday but Sunday, and will be until a week from now. So don't be surprised if I don't post very often. :xxxx))

Dansei shivered. Even though he had regained his sight, he still had his SONAR sleeves active. There was someone with a kunai in hand to his left. A woman, most likely. Don't want a fight like Rock Lee started with Sasuke... he thought, rotating his torso to face his would be attacker. After seeing it was just Tenten and Akane, he relaxed.

Then he realized that Akane was planning to attack him. Dansei looked at her, frowning. "Are you really that paranoid about having men obsess over you?" he asked as he stood up. "Let's get going, please... I'll see you after the exam is done, Tenten-sensei." He instantly focused his chakra with a Sheep hand seal, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Women. What a bore. If only Shikamaru was my sensei... We would definitely be able to relate.

The shadow bind jutsu was released and Fen let moved his joints, as if some of them might not be working.

"man i hate Shikamaru sensei's jutsu... it drives me nuts when i can't move my own body." Fen said to Souran, frustrated while windmilling his arm around in the socket.

Fen walked casually beside Souran as Keiko ran ahead of them to grab his chair.

"Man, that kid... just has so much energy to waste doesn't he?" Fen said casually "He should put more of that energy into his fighting... throwing kunai around and yelling everywhere... he's gonna make every team hate us..." Fen said annoyed. He covered his face with the palm of his hand and shook his head embarrassed at Keiko's behavior. He stood quietly with Souran as they awaited the start of the exams. Fen scanned the group of genin every where, recognizing a lot of the genin from his class and some from last year's exam. The pressure of the exams was starting to dawn on him and the importance of it slowly settled in. He was beginning to take the exams more serious from this point on.

OOC: Awwright...an explanation for the conviction system has been added. Like I said, it's not exactly a family picnic type thing. xD

And actually, the Tamori clan aren't really secretive about their family members. Anything that isn't a strictly internal matter is free game for conversation, and knowing Hanako she would probably have no trouble chattering about it if asked. She'd just sort of skip away from anything that would breach family secrecy stature, sort of in the same manner as she's doing it now. :3

IC:

All things considered, the reactions had been pretty expected. Yume, as usual, was displeased. It had pretty much been that way since day one: that girl always seemed to have an issue with something Hanako was doing. When the young swordswoman wasn't annoying her silent teammate by constantly sparring with thin air or whatever handy environmental object was within reach, she was apparently either saying or doing the wrong thing or just being 'too loud'. She honestly didn't understand her. Sure, girls like that were appreciated in the rookie class where they kept quiet and actually focused on making their little flower arrangements instead of sending the flower petals flying against the vase for target practice, but she just couldn't picture anyone making a successful career if they threw a hissy fit over conversation volumes. Dansei, as usual, gave no response to her greeting. He was, if possible, even more of a recluse than Yume and Hanako couldn't recall him ever speaking to her beyond what was absolutely necessary for practical reasons. As such, she always made a point of loudly greeting him at every opportunity. Some time, some day, he would have to give in to annoyance and give a response. Then again, she reasoned for herself, Dansei may just have been reluctant to speak with girls...given the way Akane had welcomed him to the team, Hanako really couldn't fault him for that. Yes, Akane...out of the three Genin she had been teamed up with, the short-tempered and equally short-statured brunette was actually the one she was on best terms with. Sure, the paranoia was a bit tiresome at times, but at least Akane spoke her mind, unlike the other two, who seemed to have made a life's ambition of bottling everything up inside of them. Predictably, she was the only one who had given a proper reply:

"Well, since you put it that way, Akane-chan..." Hanako responded to her teammate's question, putting on the face of one who was deciding for something she knew she really shouldn't, "...I suppose I could tell you a little bit, in complete confidence, of course." leaning closer to the compact-edition shinobi -- an act which essentially meant that she had to crouch -- her voice dropping to a conspiratory whisper, "You see, we have this rule...never discuss the duty with non-clan members. But don't tell anyone I told you that, alright?"

She gave her a wink, extending to her full height again, "In all seriousness, Akane-chan, it's not anything that interesting. Just a set of rules, really. Respect your elders, dress with dignity, set a good example for younger children, look after your family..." she absent-mindedly counted off the points on her fingers, "There's about three hundred more where that came from, not counting special cases, d'ya really want to hear them all? Because, I'm going to run out of fingers here."

Akane's attention, it seemed, had already been diverted. The movement towards her kunai pouch was stealthy, but it was such a common sight that anyone from team 11 who was within visual -- or, in the case of Dansei, tactile -- range would have noticed it. With a tired little sigh, she scanned the vicinity for the poor bastard who had looked, acted, breathed, or just plain existed the wrong way this time. You learned to spot them after you had been around Akane for a while, if not from their manner then at least by the oh-so-discreet glares that the brunette kept casting at them, and it didn't take long to find the target this time.

Dansei.

Again.

Hanako rolled her eyes. Hadn't Tenten-sensei already impressed the point that being blind made peeping a very unlikely hobby? The girl made a routined move to intercept her teammate's attack, only to find that she had already been beaten to it by a hand, which -- she was sure -- hadn't been there a moment ago. A quick investigation also confirmed the owner of said appendage.

"Tenten-sensei, when did you-?" the girl began in near-perfect unison with Akane, but the Jounin waved off both questions, insisting that they hurry to the exam room. A grimace of fondness and exasperation briefly decorated Hanako's face. Even though she had -- by all counts -- been the most level-headed genin of her own team, their sensei was a bit...unusual. But as far as Hanako was concerned, it was definitely unusual in a good way. As such, her response was nothing short of cheerful once she had gotten past the shock.

"Hai, Tenten-sensei!"

Oh yes, she had definitely gotten herself another round of weird looks for that one. Hanako honestly couldn't understand her teammates' issue with fast-paced movement; a healthy body made for a healthy mind, after all. Then again, she couldn't understand how you could interpret 'Plain pork ramen, medium size' as a romantic advance either. It was probably just another girl thing. There seemed to be a lot of those, girl things, and Hanako had always been vaguely annoyed that she had somehow been left out of whatever peculiar ceremony they had been laid down in. Odds are that she had been busy with sword practice.

The young swordswoman was snapped out of her musings as the subject of said musings suddenly addressed her. Hanako, who had been walking in stride with Tenten right from the get-go, was slightly surprised. It was partly because Akane had -- from her perspective -- practically popped out of nowhere, but mostly because she talked like Tamori family rituals were something she actually knew about.

"Wait. You have a brother?"

Well, so much for knowing what she was talking about. Hanako couldn't help a good-natured chuckle, "Stepbrother, actually." she corrected her, "But I'm a nee-chan to Itsuki all the same. Anyway, he passed the rite, slipped with the kunai and almost sliced his hand in half, idiot that he is, but passed. Had to take him to the hospital, though. But...everything worked out alright in the end, thanks for asking." the teenager paused, realizing that this was getting just a tad to emotional for her tastes and deciding to twist the topic a bit, "Why the sudden interest, though? You're not interested in my little brother, are you?" she gave Akane a playful poke in the side, knowing full well that this insinuation would probably cause set the temperamental genin's short fuse ablaze, "And here I thought you were busy fending off all your admirers..."

Dansei appeared in a seat right by the Akane balloon just as Kaiko had launched a kunai at it. He instantly ducked, and the projectile soared past his head. He glared at Kaiko, almost considering sending a fire jutsu his way. He decided against it and looked at proctor down at the front of the room.

Hm... Glaring feels good.

Yumi had been all to fast in trying to get to the exams on time and didn't even wait for her sensei to show up. Or maybe she just wanted to get away from all the noise going on in the halls, she didn't know. It could've been both but that wasn't the point. She had taken a seat that was close to her team but not so close. She was on the same row but was 3 seats down from them. No one was occupying those seats and there were a lot of genin on the other side of her so it didn't look like she was on their team at all. She could've moved if she wanted to, but she just didn't feel like it. Lazy as it may sound it's true, being around too much noise bothered her but the noise coming from the other genin there wasn't much of a tea party either. From the looks of the room and how they were sitting it seemed like they were going to have some kind of test. On the outside Yumi's face stayed as expressionless as ever but on the inside she was smirking to herself, which is something she found that she did very often. If it's a test of smarts then Yumi would surely win seeing how she was one of the best females in her class which is actually kind of sad since she's the youngest one in her team. But then a sudden thought made her cringe.

'What about everyone else?' she thought as her hand shifted from her chin down to the table. She had been with them in their academy days and had seen what they had done. 'Dansei could probably get by this test, and she was sure that if Akane set her mind to it she'd pass the test but what about Hanako?' Yumi had never really thought about her teammates as much as she did now and it was starting to bother her. She had pretty much considered Hanako not to be all that smart. What if they don't let the rest of them go through because Hanako didn't pass? Yumi doesn't have much of a temper but when she got angry it was a sight to see. During their training lessons she might accidentally snap someone's arm and she didn't want to do that.. She fought with herself for a minute about what to do sighed, got up and took a seat next to Dansei. She was pretty sure that she got along with him the best and as far as she knew he was on good terms with her as well.

'I could be wrong considering how might not like girls because of Akane's constant pestering.' Still, she had been pretty much nice to him and had always picked him for a sparring partner. Yumi may have even heard him speak a sentence or two but that was irrelevant. Teamwork was the key to any situation and she felt they would need a lot of it. She prepared herself for the worst.

"The First Exam: The Written Test"

Glancing up toward the dusty, stone colored sealing covered by lines which made the formation of large squares, Souran made sure that no traps had been set. He took a good minute to examen the room along with the large population of genin. Some had taken a seet, most were sitting on top of desks and others just stood. There had been many familiar faces from when he was in the Konoha Ninja Academy. It almost seemed as though he had just received his Leaf Village head protector yesterday. Souran took notice as to where his teammates had sat. He would have liked to sit down, but a large half of the seats where already stolen, so he decided to just stand next to the others. Souran could tell that their were some ninja coming from other countries, but the one that surprised Souran the most was; the Sound village was being allowed to take part this year. Then he took a look around, noticing chuunin and jounin sitting in their own special chairs. Souran then figured that if they have all these ninja, the sound wouldn't think of attacking, not even this early either. Souran also thought to himself that perhaps they were ninja who didn't follow under Orochimaru's command, though it is quite unlikely.

As minutes past without the sign of the examiner for the test, Souran's legs began to weaken, causing him to move around more and shake his legs slightly. It wasn't long until he finally had enough and asked a genin from the Hidden Grass Village to allow Souran to sit in his seat.

"Hey, mind if I snag that seat from you, my legs are getting kinda tired." Souran asked, smiling, knowing that he'd finally be able to sit somewhere, but that smile was suddenly murdered as the genin gave his answer that Souran would make sure he'd regret speaking.

"Feh, no deal. I'm not giving my seat to someone who can't even stand for less than an hour." He answered as he smirked to his team. Souran's eyes became as dark as the night at that moment. He swung his hand to the back of the seat, grabbing the tip of the back end of the seat. He lifted the wooden chair, emptying it of the grass shinobi, causing him to fall flat on his butt. The other genin who witnessed this event broke out in laughter as the fool fell to the floor. The sudden humiliation caused the grass genin to become quite angry. So angry that he took Souran by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the ground, revealing how tall and strong he was. The genin then threatened Souran.

"Think your tough don't ya. Well I'm about to show you what it really means!" He stated as he pulled his arm back, clenching his right fist and flinging it toward a smirking Souran. Just before the grass shinobi's fist collided against Souran's face, he stopped, unable to move. He let Souran loose of his tight grip. Souran leaned his head toward the blue jay who still sat upon his shoulder just before he forced it to sit on top of the other genin's head. The bird then grasped his hair with it's talons and pulled them by flying upward. This caused no damage to Souran, for the damage was being done to the head area, a spot that could not hurt Souran if done to the opponent. Souran released his body manipulation that he had used on the grass kid and took his seat just before speaking; "And if you refuse to do as I say again, it'll be even wors-"

"That will be enough!" Roared the examiner who seemed to have just showed up. He had multiple scars along his face, and he didn't seem the least bit like a push-over, but more like a torturer. His headband, more like a bandanna, revealed that he was from the leaf village. Before Souran could do anything the toughly built shinobi spoke yet again.

"I'll say this once and only once, so listen up." He began, silently, "During these exams, you may NOT commence into battle with another shinobi unless authorized by your examiner. Though, if you are given permission, you are not allowed to kill your opponent, and if your do not abide by these rules...I will fail you immediately...Understood!? Now line up and take one of these cards I hold in my hand. each have a number, that is where you shall sit. Then we shall hand out the papers for the written exam." Ibiki Morino, the examiner stated in his final speach. The shinobi in the room then commenced with taking cards revealing where they shall sit. Once Souran appeared in front of Ibiki, he was given an evil expression. Souran just looked away and then to his card which read 7. Once Souran found his seat, he sat and waited for his paper.

"This may be a bit more difficult than I thought..." Souran sighed.

"Hello, Yumi," Dansei said, breaking his death-gaze on Kaiko. Now he focused on Yumi's face, trying to read her expressions. She seemed fairly confident about the first portion of the exam -- the written test. How she was feeling about the rest of it... He couldn't tell. "I've heard some things about this from Tenten-sensei. She told me to not worry too much. I would assume the same goes for you."

He looked around the room again, his deep blue eyes scanning every ninja's face. "Is Hanako coming?" he asked after a few minutes. "She isn't here yet. And if she doesn't make it, none of us will be able to pass this year."

Then Ibiki came into the room. "Time to get this started," Dansei muttered. He stood up and walked to the front, recieving a card with the number 15 on it. He quietly took his seat and started thinking of any possible questions that might be on the exam. Not to his surprise, he was able to answer every question he could come up with that had to deal with common Genin knowledge.

Let's get this over with.

"Way to go Souran...causing such a commotion against a small fry like that... and he's one of the ones always yelling ME for always making such a commotion...I've been a good boy today comparatively..." Fen said, sighing to himself as he walked through the exam room.

Fen yawned loudly and grabbed his sheet of paper with his exam number. He turned around and walked a few steps and looked over the seats, observing the arrangement. Everyone was gathering around and had been grouped fairly close together. Fen finally looked at his exam number.

"Hm... so Souran got 7... i wonder which number i got..... WHAT?! 57?! i couldn't possibly BE any farther... if we want to work together during this first part, it might be a little tough. But the others will know what to do..." Fen said smiling as he took his seat all the way in the back corner of the room. The desk almost appeared to have a dark cloud looming over it. He sat in the corner and put his head down. Why did he have to pick the seat all the way in the corner... He looked up and it seemed to be a 2 desk barrier in every direction around him with no one in the desk. He began imagining everyone in the front group of people with party hats and throwing confetti.

"...they're having a party... up there.... and i'm... back here...." Fen said in a half delusional state as he stared with blank eyes at the group up front.

"what kind kind of test was thing going to be anyway..." Fen pulled a pencil from the side of the desk and began chewing on it, deep in thought. "Last year it was a chumpy team question that any shinobi with some sense would pass... but i imagine he'll change that this year... hm..." Fen chewed on the pencil some more then resumed his depressed slump as he watched the "party" in the front of the room.

OOC: AE is teh evilorz. How dare you make Akane lose her temper again? >.< (xD) Oh... and how could Akane not know about the rite of flowering? Hanako mentioned it during her last post. Sharpay, why would an Akane baloon be at the chuunin exam? I mean, that makes no sense whatsoever. She isn't remotely famous enough to have a balloon with her face one it. 0_o

Akane smiled as Hanako proceeded to rattle off a quick list of the Tamori clan's duties as well as a report on her stepbrother. If nothing else, Hanako was trustworthy if you weren't trying to keep something a secret. Yumi was a bit too sneaky for Akane's taste. As for Dansei, he was much too quiet. In Akane's opinion, the quiet one was always the most dangerous. It didn't help that the shinobi in question was of the opposite sex. Hanako definitely spoke her mind, and certainly didn't entertain any sort of romantic interest pertaining to Akane. However, just as Akane finished affirming these complimentary thoughts, Hanako proceeded to launch what was probably intended as a well-meaning rib. The teasing succeeded only in awakening a ferocity in Akane that no sane living being would intentionally disturb under any other circumstance. A primeval roar bellowed in the kunoichi's soul but no sound escaped her lips as she moved the wrist just out of Hanako's line of sight slightly, reaching into her sleeve to remove a four-pointed shuriken. With a flick of her wrist, she allowed the small weapon to bury itself in a nearby wall. "Insinuate anything about me and any other member of the opposite sex again and you will die, Hanako-chan," she growled. "I'll forgive you just this once because I know you were joking, but if I hear you say anything of that nature again it will mean war between us." Her statement thus finished, Akane realized that they had reached the exam room door. She paused for a moment before entering and dispensed one last comment to Hanako. "Please understand, Hanako-chan, that my dealings with members of that dreadful race known as men are strictly private affairs."

As the group entered the room, Akane caught the last few snatches of Ibiki's speech. So the exam is the same as last year? Good to know. Sprinting forward, she accepted her card. To her chagrin, however, the poor chunin handing out the exam cards made the main mistake one could possibly make while in the presence of any member of the Yamato clan. "Aren't you a bit young to be a genin?" he asked innocently.

Akane resisted the urge to drive a kunai through the unsuspecting dolt's foot. Gritting her teeth, she quickly riposted. "Since when have sixteen year olds been kept in the Academy?" Without giving the man time to formulate a response she turned on her heel and stalked away, intentionally stamping on his foot in the process.

The unfortunate target of Akane's wrath stared at her incredulously. "Did she just-"

"Don't worry about it. Her temper will get her into trouble, if not during this exam then the next," Ibiki replied calmly, maintaining his composure.