The Beast Within {Discontinued ~ Mori no Ko)

Chapter Twelve: Part One

[Third Person POV]

Enter! The Chuunin Exams: Phase One!

"This is the place where Toru-sensei said to meet at, right?" asked Midori, while she was crouched down on some smooth rocks at the edge of a stream, staring in awe at its gentle current.

Aoi sighed and glanced up at the sky with her arms propped behind her head, leaning against a tree with her bow sitting next to her. "Yeah, though, knowing RuRu-chii, he probably got lost on the way here or distracted by a rabbit."

Midori looked over her shoulder and stared at the raven-haired girl. "Aoi-chan, you have little faith in our sensei; he's smarter than he looks."

The girl blew away a stray strand of hair from her mouth that'd been whisked there by the wind. "Although I agree with you, blondie; he's still a nutter."

Midori brushed back her bangs and placed her hand in the water, allowing it to flow smoothly around each of her fingers. "I guess you're right." she said.

"Of course I'm right."

The blonde glanced over to her fellow squad member and raised an eyebrow. "By the way, where's Ken?"

Aoi waved her hand in a discreet manner, then pointed her index finger backward at the tree a few meters away. "He's up in that tree, being a creeper, as usual."

Midori blanched as the boy glanced around the tree at the two. "Did you say something?" he asked with a bored expression.

"Nope. Just turn back around, Kenny-kun."

The red-haired lad swiftly leapt down from the tree and walked over to Aoi, his teeth clenched together and hands balled up into tight fists. "What did you just call me?" he asked, cheeks flushed as he glared at her with his flaming golden eyes.

Aoi smirked and stood up, returning his stare. "Kenny-kuuuun!" she exclaimed, placing both hands on her hips with a teasing expression on her face.

"Why you," he paused and grabbed hold of the girl's black scarf. "Don't you ever call me that again!"

Aoi immediately froze up and carried her blazing blue eyes down to stare at the boy's two hands firmly clasped around her scarf. Feeling threatened, the dark-haired kunoichi forcibly wrapped her own fingers around his wrist, with her eyes narrowed. She spoke in a sinister tone as she commanded, "Do not touch," and pulled the precious charcoal-colored cloth free from his grip.

Ken squinted his eyes at her and raised an eyebrow. "What's so important abo-"

Before he could finish, Toru had placed his hand on Ken's shoulder. "I think that's quite enough." he said with a closed eye smile.

Standing up from the creek side, the blonde heaved out a relieved sigh and walked over to the three; Aoi, Ken, and Toru. Once next to her sensei, she laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head. "I thought I'd have to step in with some clones or something, but I noticed you coming."

The electric blue-haired Jounin glanced over at her and raised a curious brow. "Midori-chan . . . you wasn't really going to step in, were you?"

Said girl slumped her shoulders and sulked. "No," she replied, defeatedly.

Toru patted her on the head and laughed. "Well I'm here now and every thing should be just fine!"

Ken carried his gaze from Aoi to Toru, an annoyed expression firmly on his face. "So what exactly did we need to meet here for?" he asked.

Toru placed his thumb and index finger on his chin and pretended to stroke an imaginary beard. "Hm," he said, removing his hand from his chin, he smiled and continued, "I came to give you guys your sign-up sheets for the Chuunin exams." He reached into the right breast pocket of his flak jacket and pulled out three rolled up papers, handing one of them to each of his subordinates. "You don't have to sign them if you don't want to---there's always next year. However, if one of you does decide not to join, then the rest of you won't be able to either."