A cloud of smoke surrounds Sensei as he pops into existence, summoned by the scrolls his team carried. A closed eyed smile already on his face, he prepared himself to greet his team. "You pas-- what the hell?"

Shun was sitting slumped on the floor, holding Fuzen and Daisuke to him, their heads lolling on his shoulder. "Help," He gasped.

Sensei grabbed Daisuke and Fuzen so they were both half flung over his shoulder as he hurried out of the room and towards the medical wing. He burst through the doors with Shun trailing close behind. "I need help here!" He shouted, causing several medics to turn towards him in surprise. Fuzen and Daisuke were taken from him and lain on their respective beds, and the medic nins quickly went to work.

"What happened to them?" Sensei turned to Shun, only to see his eyes roll back in his head and watch him collapse. Shun was quickly transferred to another bed while Sensei watched helplessly.

"Well, shit," Sensei muttered, running a hand through his hair as he stared at his three unmoving students.

***

The first thing I was aware of when I opened my eyes was the pounding headache I had. I glance around the room with bleary eyes, almost immediately seeing Sensei, wwho was standing by my bed.

"Nice to have you back with us," He grinned.

"Nice to be back," I mumbled, sitting up slowly. Sensei handed me a glass of water and I downed it quickly.

"Now we're just waiting for Daisuke to wake up," Sensei said.

I sat up a little straighter, feeling more alert. I see Shun and grin. "Hey," I greet.

"Hey," he replies.

"Why are you in the hospital?" I ask.

"Standard procedure. I fainted," He explained.

"Oh. Wait, why am I in here?"

"Chakra exhaustion," Sensei speaks up. "And Daisuke was bitten by something poisonous. He should be awake soon."

"How long have we been here?" I question.

"Only about an hour and a half," Sensei told me, "Shun woke up after ten minutes, and we've just been waiting on you two."

"What did you do while waiting?" I wondered.

"Well, we were waiting for Daisuke and you to wake up before you all recount your story, so we ended up playing chess," Sensei grinned.

"Chess?"

"Like shogi, but better," Shun explained.

"Shun here is pretty good," Sensei praised.

"Me? You hadn't heard about the game an hour ago and now you're beating me in ten moves," Shun gripes, "It's pretty ridiculous."

We fall silent as Daisuke groans slightly. Sensei smirks mischievously, then moved closer to Daisuke. When Daisuke opens his eyes, the first thing he sees is Sensei's eyes staring straight into his, only a matter of centemeters away.

"Ah! Crap!" He shouted, startled. We all crack up laughing.

"Daisuke?" I start, then realize he'd fallen back asleep.

"Did... did he just fall back asleep?" Shun asked, flabbergasted.

Sensei poked his cheek slightly, and only got muffled words in response. "Daisuke. Hey, Daisuke," Sensei whispered.

"What?"

"Hey, I'm so sorry. Something went wrong in the Forest and they had to remove your body. You're just a head now," Sensei had all the right emotions down, perfectly faking his story while Shun and I struggled to suppress our laughter.

"Nooo..." He murmured softly.

"How can he be so stupid?" I laugh.

"Ah, the painkillers. He's doped up on them right now," Sensei dismisses slightly, "They say he'll be back to normal after about ten minutes of consciousness,"

"Shame," I comment, grinning.

As we wait for Daisuke, Sensei and Shun try to teach me the concepts of chess, though I fail to grasp them.

"I don't get it," I protested, "Why can the Queen move anywhere it wants but the King can't do anything but cower and hide?!"

"Because that's the way it works!" Shun retorted.

"Ugh... Why am I in the hospital? Weren't we in the Forest? And then the huge weird centipede stung me..." We all glance up as Daisuke finally formed a cognitive sentence. "My head hurts," he groaned.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Sensei grinned, handing Daisuke a glass of water. He sat up gingerly, holding his head.

"I have the worst headache of my life," he complained.

Sensei waits for him to drink his water before asking the question. "Care to explain what exactly happened?"

We glance each other, waiting for someone to start. "Well," Shun began slowly, "The exam started for us the moment those gates opened. We ran into another team almost immediately..."

***

The gates clanged open and we sprinted in, jumping to the top of trees and veering to the right slightly.

The plan was to find a team right away and study then before getting involved.

"There, right ahead," Shun pointed. We nod and split off, Shun going tot he right, me peeling left, and Daisuke sprinting ahead. We surround the team, continuing to move with them. We studied from afar, trying to figure out what scroll they had.

***

"Well, it turns out they have the scroll we need," Daisuke explained, "So we immediately formulated a plan of attack,"

"I'm impressed. Yu guys studied the enemy instead if jumping right in like a lot of genin teams would. Good job," sensei congratulated. We each grinned.

"Well, we still had to actually fight them..." I trail off.

***

I cast the signs perfectly, putting in the exact amount of chakra required. In the genin's mind below, a giant spider had appeared. In their mind, they were all fighting the spider. When in reality, they were fighting....

Each other.

After ten minutes, one of them seem to realize that they're caught in a genjutsu and release himself. He then releases each of his teammates.

Daisuke immediately set off several traps. One person below throws up an earth wall, blocking the kunai and shurikan. Daisuke and Shun nod at each other, then they each swing down, knocking down the genin who didn't have the scrolls and quickly subduing them.

I jump down and approach the boy who was still standing. I held my hand out, and he knew instantly what I wanted.

"No." He scowled.

"Give me the scroll, or we kill your teammates," I warn.

"You're bluffing," his voice wavered slightly, "You're too ping to be that cold hearted,"

"Try me," I hissed. "You have five seconds. Five, four, three, two, one."

The boy didn't move. "What a shame," I sigh, then do several hand signs. A column of earth shot up, stabbing the girl through the heart as Daisuke jumped away from her.

At least, that's what he saw. In reality, both his teammates were still unconscious and perfectly safe.

"You bitch!" He shrieked, lunging at me. Daisuke appeared in front of me, slamming. His head into the ground with a well placed kick.

"Is that any way to treat a lady?" Daisuke mocked.

"Tsk tsk," I sigh, "that just wasn't the response I was looking for. Shun, move away from his teammate," I order, raising my hands for the signs.

"Wait!!!" He screams. I pause. "Wait," the boy sobs slightly, pulling out a scroll. "Take it. Take it you monster,"

Daisuke takes the scroll from him, then kicks him hard in the head. The boy collapses on the floor. I release the genjutsu, immediately looking unsure.

"Did I do okay?" I asked hesitantly.

"Perfectly," Shun claps me on the shoulder. I grin.

"Nice plan Shun. When perfectly, huh?" Daisuke grinned.

"More or less," Shun shrugged modestly. "Now we have to figure out how to get to the tower without being seen."

"I think I've got that covered. I can create a genjutsu like the one I placed on our scroll. It'll just be bigger, covering us all. The only problem is that my chakra might not hold out the entire time." I say.

"Well Daisuke and I can take turns carrying you so you can conserve stamina," Shun theorizes.

"An so have some chakra pulls you can eat!" Daisuke announced.

"Well, it seems like we might be pit of this place sooner then we thought!" I grinned.

***

"That's how I exhausted my chakra," I shrug.

"And I get hit by the tail of some huge scorpion while protecting Fuzen. I mean, of she got hurt we'd all be discovered," Daisuke explains.

"And I was just stressed and exhausted from having to carry them the test of the way. It was only about a mile but still... It was too far in my opinion."

Sensei grinned. "You all did a fantastic job," he said, "And you were almost the first team to arrive!"

"Someone arrived before us?" Shun asked, surprised. "Who?"

"Some genin team from the sand. They beat the record by a landslide. You guys would've held the new record if it wasn't for them" he scowled slightly then the smile spring back into his face as though he couldn't keep it off.

"But you slowpokes weren't that slow this time," he admitted, "And there's the perk of you all being alive and in one piece!"

We all laughed. "But now we have four days to kill, even though I don't if I'm allowed to technically be with you..." He scratched his head then shrugged. "Whatever. Anyone up for a game of chess?"

_________

Tada. An update.

I know it's been a long time since an update and what must feel like years since I've updated remembered Light. But I'm in vacation with family so it's hard to fun time to write. I stayed up till 3 am to write this! Lol

Oh, check out the fanfic I'm writing with @supermassiveblckhole! It's awesome writing with her and I love the way our fanfic is heading. The fanfic is called The Frailty of Genius, and the shared account is @Insomniac_Lullabies.

Hope you enjoyed this update! I'll try to write faster.

Comment! Vote!

Bye!

gaara119