Welcome to Gaia! ::

As soon as Kiku walked away from Ibaraki, the teen was magically fixed and by his friends side.

"Jubei," he said, "Out of absolutely no personal interest at all and under the sollumn oath that I am not trying to get into your sister's pants...what's something I can do to get on her good side?"

He glanced over at the dark girl bearing the byakugan.

Sitting down waiting for the exam to start Rikou spoke up and said,
"Since I'm the muscle of the team and you two are the brains, what is the current stradegy for our estimated victory?"
Scratching his nose while his eyes closed,
"We should worry more about about getting to tower rather than finding other people." Both Emi and Rikou looked at Hiro concerned.
"I did a little trash talking to some of the teams before meeting up with you guys. I chose teams that would easily get offended and chose sensitive topics to them. I can tell some of them have some type of tracking techniques. I have noticed one of them took part of my clothing to sniff me out. Another one marked me with some paint or something, which I can assume used for hunting me down. This gives us a good advantaged. The forest of death is a circle. It will take longer for them to reach us if we go straight to the tower. We are gonna set up a trap a hundred yards or so from the tower so just in case those who are tracking us are at the opposite side of the circle have to travel farther still. So no matter who's tracking us it will give us a couple of minutes to set up a trap. Only way that this will not work is if they don't chase us from the start and go to the center of the forest. This will make the radius or the distance between us shorter and catching up to us too fast. However, this is where you and Emi come in. I know you have some soldier pills that can increasing speed, stamina and strength. Emi will take the soldier pill and go ahead of us. Sorry Rikou your body is used to soldier pills more, but Emi has more experience setting up traps and I need her skills for the trap. The one thing we cannot do is to underestimate our opponents. So we cannot do a simple shadow possession jutsu and have Rikou beat on them. Some of them probably did some research and know that we could do shadow possession jutsu. Emi, I need you to make a big net out of vines in the forest. Place it an obvious place where both the enemy and we can see it. Showing us that this is the meeting place and getting their attention to the net. Once they are in the air and having their attention to the net, Rikou, I need you to jump in front of me and I will jump off you towards the enemy in mid air. Emi, you need to throw a explosive kunai that you need time right so it can explode about eight meters in front of Rikou. Rikou has his father's armor and body fat so that explosion will barely hurt him. This will cause him stop mid air so I can accelerate more when I jump off him. I will throw some kunais in front of me so they'll try to move out of my way. Once I pass them I will throw exploding kunais from behind. They will not be able dodge them and fly towards Rikou. Rikou using your strength grab the big net and launch it at them. This will cause them to stay in place, easy for Emi to catch them in shadow possession jutsu. From there, Rikou, you can have your fun with them. We than take our scroll and we are only hundred yards away from the tower, breaking our uncle Gaara's record."

Jubei looked over at Mai and shook his head.

"She might be sweet to you... but she hates me. She has never said a kind thing about me... ever."

He looked away from her and then looked down at the ground.

"But, I wouldn't expect you to know that. We are hardly ever seen together... or even in the same room. Sorry, it's just a rough subject for me."

"Right...no good side as opposed to a slight chance of a good side...Hey Mai," Ibaraki said, turning to his sister, "How did you get on her good side?"

"And dude, have you tried hanging out with her? I mean, you say she hates you? but, why? I mean, your an awesome guy to hang out with!"

Ibaraki let boistrous laugh as he sat down on the ground. When were they going to get this thing started? Were they ever going to get started? He wanted to take out a 'Bad Guy', finish hission and go hit on the hotties from Grass and Sand.

"Oi, Jubei, check out the redhead over there, in the green and yellow."

Emi smirked. "Well, brother, I guess you did pay attention to our lessons after all. I'm willing to try your plan if Rikou is."
I kind feel...stupid. I couldn't think of anything myself. I hate having to rely on Hiro. Its annoying. And he'll probably never let me forget it.
"Attention everyone! Please, get into your squads and find a gate to enter through! As soon as everyone is in place, we will begin!"
Emi glanced at the two of them. "I guess this is it."

-----------------------

"Hana! Hana, wake up! You're late for the first exam!!"
Hana rolled out of bed, muttering under her breath. "I love you, too, Mom." She pulled on her clothes, and made it to the exam just in time. She suffered through the exam, and was happy when it was finally over, so the real action could start.
Hana walked to the second exam, talking with all the people around her. She joked with some of them, and flirted with others, all the while looking for Kira. I saw her during the first exam! But I lost her in the rush to leave. Where is she?
She bid goodbye to the people she was talking to, and headed over to the booth to get the scroll. Since she was running late, they gave it to her, even without the rest of her teammates. She looked around, noticing that everyone was heading to their gates. Oh gosh! Where's Kira? If I don't find her in time, we're out! And we have to be around to fight the Akatsuki member! Oh no! What if something happened to her...?
Hana spotted Kira just in time, and ran over, somewhat relieved."I've got our scroll. Come on, lets find a gate." She tugged on Kira's sleeve, anxious to get there in time.

Jubei was far too excited to start the next part of the exam to be sent into a daze by the touch of Mai's hand. He cheered at her eagerness to complete the exam.

"Alright! That's the spirit, Mai!"

He followed along with her to the unoccupied gate, waiting for them to open.

He drowns in his dreams...
An exquisite extreme I know.
He’s as damned as he seems,
And more heaven than a heart could hold...

As soon as everyone was in place, Mai watched the gate doors open and lead into an over-grown forest, that she knew was full of dangerous animals and killer beasts.

Pulling the guys in, Mai looked around.

"Alright, let's quickly head to the tower, and set up camp in a covered area. We can jump someone." She said, before starting off. If memory served her right, from last time, she was going in the right direction.

He’s soft to the touch...
But frayed at the end he breaks.
He’s never enough.
And still more than I can take...

Rikou was first to jump in when the gate opened, eager to test his new aquire skills against the enemies of the forest. On the other hand, he was also nervous for his fellow Leaf Shinobi, in fear he was forced to fight thme in combat or if one of them was going to fall into the trap. Rikou went over it in his mind over and over, he had to do it, to prove he was strong as a ninja and just as great as his father. Rikou had to be strong for the trials ahead, if they made it to the third exam, he may have to fight even his own teammates. Whatever was ahead in this forest wasn't going to be easy, nothing was after this even if you passed, it would only become more difficult. Rikou didn't mention anything about his nervous thoughts to his teammates, then the fear of fighting each other might rise in both Emi and Hiro if they pondered on it too long, unless it was Hiro versus Emi. If those two fought, they might be able to settle long time sibling rivalry that built up over the years.