Sigmund watched their sensei leave, giving them only an hour to finish up their food and meet him back at the grounds to work on their new jutsus for team tactics. Nanami followed their sensei, excusing herself shortly after finishing up here food. That left Sigmund and Nori at the table alone, the awkward silence drawing between them. Sigmund was still eating, but he was on the verge of finishing up when Nori spoke about him leaving too. Sigmund's eyes glanced at her momentarily before back at his food. He managed to finish his food as she spoke. With a heavy sigh and low, emotionless tone he replied with,"We're a team. I'll wait for you. There could be danger."

When Nori heard Sigmund say that he was going to wait for her because there could be danger, she looked up to him. In all honesty, it did surprise her that he would wait for her, but she also couldn't help but wonder if he thought she couldn't take care of herself on her own. "Thank you for being willing to wait for me, Sigmund, but I'll be okay. I don't want to burden you. I can take care of myself," she said in response before she took a small bite out of the piece of meat in her skewer. "I mean, you probably want to get some more practice in before the exams, right?"

   Sigmund's eyes glanced at her for a moment as he took awhile to respond. His eyes went back to the exit of the restaurant, remaining silent as he waited for her patiently. "Just hurry up and finish your food. We have training to do," he replied with in a serious and low tone. As awkward as it was, he was willing to wait for her. He did feel bad after their earlier incident, so to try to make up for it, he thought he'd wait. He knew she'd like that.

Nori looked up at Sigmund just as she saw him look towards the exit of the restaurant. She was sure he was going to leave and it caused her to look back down to her plate. When she heard him tell her to hurry up because they had training to do. She grew silent. She hadn't expected him to say that. Was he trying to make her feel better? All Nori could do was nod her head. "Okay," she mumbled before she resumed eating her food. It didn't take her too much longer before she finished her food and placed her used napkin on her plate. "Sorry to keep you waiting. We can go now."

   Sigmund had waited patiently for her to finish. It wasn't long until she did so they could get going. She announced it and he just looked at her, getting up and scooting out of the seat. He walked out of the restaurant, positive she would follow and from afar, he could see Nanami and Akuma together. He couldn't tell what exactly they were doing, walking or waiting for them, but he knew they were instructed to head to the training grounds and that is exactly where Sigmund would go.

Nori slid out of the booth and bowed towards the owner and a few of the workers before she followed Sigmund out of the restaurant. She clasped her hands in front of her as she started to walk a few feet behind the other in silence. She looked ahead of them and saw Nanami and Akuma in what seemed to look like a conversation. That didn't look like too bad of an idea. Nori's eyes slowly shifted over towards Sigmund before she looked down to the floor. "So, um...how are you feeling going into the Chunin exams?" she asked. "You must be working hard on your new jutsu, huh?"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:35, Sun 24 Jan 2016.

Akuma had waited patiently at the training grounds for his students. Nanami was the first to show up arriving moments after Akuma himself. He had engaged her in simple conversation as they both waited for the other two to arrive. He was mid-sentence when he noticed the two of them out of the corner of his eyes. So he smiled politely at Nanami and shouted out to his students.

"The last one here runs laps after practice! Obviously it's not going to be Nanami." He then shifted to watch them both out of curiosity.

   They had remained silence for almost the whole way until she asked him about his new jutsu. Nobody had seen his sacred art yet, not even his sensei. He had trained alone those three whole weeks. Akuma-sensei only helped with endurance training and some of his taijutsu. He remained quiet for a bit before answering her question about his jutsu and going into the Chunin Exams. "I'm not nervous. I'm ready. I've been ready. I'm ready to lead and move up in the ranks. I'm also willing to take down anybody who gets in my way of that," he told her, sounding serious and determined. He smirked when it came to his jutsu though. "I can barely tap into it, but it is enough to wreck somebody," he added and that's when he heard their sensei yell at them as they came right into view of the training grounds. Nanami and Akuma-sensei were of course waiting for them. He shouted at them that the last person had to run laps and he immediately stopped walking and looked at Nori. He knew he wasn't going to lose to a girl.

---

Akitoki's speed: 4.1
Yamada's speed: 3.7

Default, Sigmund wins race.

---

   Sigmund then started sprinting, taking off a second earlier than Nori, perhaps giving him the advantage. He was all for practice and training, but after the three weeks of it, he was ready for a minor break and he sure as hell wasn't going to spend it running laps of all things. He pushed his legs as fast as he could towards Akuma and Nanami.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 18:51, Sun 24 Jan 2016.

When Nori didn't hear Sigmund answer her question, she opened her mouth to say something but then he spoke. She knew he was ready and had been ready for a long time. He was very determined and hard working. Those were the things that she admired about him. If anyone was going to pass these exams, it was going to be him. "I think you're going to do great in the exams, Sigmund. I know how strong and hard working you are. I hope you'll reach your goals," she said and lifted her head up to look at her teammate beside her before she gave him a small smile. "I can't wait to see it. I'm sure if it's you, it's going to be amazing." It was then that she heard Akuma call out to them from the training grounds and tell them that the last one that reached them would have to run laps after practice. Nori stopped in her tracks and looked at Sigmund. Knowing him, he wasn't about to lose to a girl but that didn't mean she was going to lose to a boy, either.

It only took a second for Sigmund to take off before her, but that wasn't going to stop her from falling behind. They had all been working really hard to get up to this point and now everything was going to pay off. Although, Nori had always tried her best to keep herself in shape and that included her being physically fit so she always tended to try and run every morning. She could easily do this. When she saw Sigmund push himself forward, so did she and kept in close proximity of him as they closed the distance between Akuma and Nanami.

   Sigmund heard Nori's feet almost completely next to him. Sigmund pushed himself even more, making a small gap between him and her. He made it to Akuma first, Nori only a second behind him, meaning Sigmund would be safe from running laps and Nori would be stuck after their practice session. He didn't feel bad for winning though. He needed to show his dominate nature; he needed to show that the leader was always in first. He faced Akuma after panting from their small race. He regained his breath and said,"Now that that's settled. I'm ready to begin."

Nanami walks over to Nori and hooks her arm "Don't worry, I'll run those laps with you. I enjoy running, and what makes it better is running with your best friend." She shoulder bumps Nori and smiles "Yep sensei I am more then ready for whatever you have planned. Whether it be running, climbing, sparing, testing our new jutsu, or a surprise. We will are ready, so lets get this show on the road!"

She was bouncing up and down on the back of her heels. Nanami grins as she waits for whatever their sensei had in store for them.

Akuma watched as the two sprinted towards him as fast as they could. They stayed as close to each other as they could, but Sigmund was a clear winner at the end. He smiled and nodded to his student acknowledging his success. "So it looks like you have a running buddy Nori." He walked over to stand by the pond's edge. "Before we can start working on team tactics we have to share our secrets. I would personally find it hard to perform as a team if I didn't know anything. Now who am I going to ask to go first."

He paced by the water for a few moments mumbling to himself and taking the last couple of weeks in before stopping and looking back towards his students. "Nanami could you show us what you have been working on. You seemed to be eager to do so this morning and I would like to provide you with that opportunity."

Nanami walks over and picks up a small practice dummy, one about the size of a small person "I'll be right back." She brings up a hand, making a seal and she vanishes. She appears on top of a boulder a good seven meters yards away. Nanami waves, places the target on the boulder, and quickly makes her way back. When she lands back next to her team "So the jutsu I have devloped has three modes. I have mastered one mode. Which is a healing arrow. The arrow itself is made from chakra. Which is why I needed to apply my chakra to my bow, so it will flow freely without hindrance." She takes aim at Akuma "So I will use Sensei as a guinea pig." When she draws the string she utters something under her breath. An arrow of pure chakra forms, and Nanami fires it at Akuma. It strikes him and dissipates. Any cuts, bruises, and such wounds would heal.

"This mode is primarily for support, when I am not needed as a direct combatant. The second mode is currently my most powerful technique. At the moment I can only use it once a day, since I haven't gotten the chakra balancing quite right. But it is a sight to see. So I might as well show you. A side note, the chakra infusion into my bow has made it to where it will only be able to be used by me. Along with increasing the impact power of a nomral arrow." She points towards the boulder, its a little over seven hundred meters "That is my target." Nanami closes her eyes and brings her bow up, again uttering something in a quiet voice. The area around her starts swirling intensely with wind chakra. The chakra starts radiating towards her fingers, and arrow forms. The wind chakra swirls around the arrow almost like a drill head. Nanami takes aim, and releases the shot. A massive gust of wind blows in all directions. In less then a second the arrow strikes the target, then an eruption of wind chakra shreds the boulder.

Nanami smiles and looks worn out, kinda like Sasuke did when he was first training with the chidori "Well there you have it. It won't miss if you are stationary, and if you aren't aware of it, you won't be able to dodge it. It is a kill move. If a person gets hit by it. Not only will the arrow do significant damage, but the eruption of chakra would shred their body to pieces."
This message was last edited by a game editor at 03:38, Mon 25 Jan 2016.

Akuma watched as his student suddenly took aim at him and then loosed the healing arrow. Fortunately he had no injuries so the arrow had no real effect besides giving him more energy. Then he watched as she set up and then loosed another , albeit more deadly, arrow. After she looked exhausted as she should. Nanami hadn't gotten to a point where she could frequently use this arrow, but he had hoped that she would only ever have to use it in dire circumstances. Especially during the upcoming exams. Then he turned his attention to her teammates "I'm sure you've both noticed at this point that Nanami has trained to work with you both in a much more long range based role. This will allow her to provide you with unexpected and much needed support while out. However, she will also be able to see the battle from a long range perspective and help you in that way as well. Now Sigmund I would like you to show us what you will be bringing to the table."

   Sigmund nodded his head as he watched Nanami's demonstration. He was impressed but her repetitive disappearing and reappearing trick would eventually become predictable and someone will eventually start catching on to her little trick unfortunately. It took chakra to keep it up too and if she kept excessively doing it, she would tire herself so much quicker, especially if kept using her new technique. Akuma-sensei explained her supporting role and he was completely okay with that. She was the smarts after all and he were the bronze. She would be able to read the battle field must faster than he and Nori could.

   That's when Akuma-sensei said it was his turn. "With pleasure, sensei," he said as he threw off his coat and tossed it away from them. He stepped away from them because things could get ugly. He took a battle stance, crossing his arms in an x shape across his chest and closed his eyes. His team could hear bone cracking and starting witnessing bones popping out of his skin, from his shoulders, all over his arms, in the palm of his hands, and his torso. He reopened his eyes and when he did, they had changed color from his dark blue to a bright green. He seemed to have red lining outlining the bottom of his eyes, resembling his unknown late father, Kimimar. "I call this one Dance of the Larch. Very deadly if someone ever comes close. Incredibly fast and incredibly troublesome for all taijutsu users," he said, seeing the darkness in his eyes.

   "It's the third of my five dances I have planned for myself. From my body, several bones pop out all at once. The stronger the opponent's physical attack, the more powerful the counter attack is, dealing severe damage. The sudden defence, combined with the needle-like bones high killing ability, makes way for a technique which has great potential for battle," he began to explain his dance. "The bones can be used to block or trap an opponent's taijutsu strikes. In addition to being an unwelcome surprise for opponents, it makes me basically untouchable at close range. If an opponent would start to get close to me, I will begin to spin rapidly slashing the foe in multiple areas," he finished and then stood up straight. "The only down fall to this technique is that I can't hold this form for long just yet. It takes too much of my chakra to maintain. 10 seconds is the best I can do if I gradually build up my kekkei techniques using the other two first," and as he explained this, his bones began to start retracing back inside his body, making minor crackling sounds and the red underneath his eyes vanished. "If I go straight to this jutsu without buildup, only 20 seconds," he finished, clearly showing them he couldn't hold it anymore. His eyes final turned back to blue.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:46, Tue 26 Jan 2016.

Nori had pushed to finish before Sigmund, but she was just a few seconds too late and now she would have to run laps after practice. She looked over to him and saw him have to catch his breath. Somehow that gave her a little bit of satisfaction as he had to push himself more just so she wouldn't finish first. She looked over to Nanami when she hooked her arm with her's and said that she would run the laps with her. She gave her a small smile. "Thanks, Nanami. I appreciate that," she said before she looked over to Akuma. Looks like this was it. They were going to show each other just what they had been working on up until this point. She was a little nervous, but she was proud of what she had accomplished so far and couldn't wait to show her teammates what she had been working on.

When Akuma had called upon Nanami to show what she had been working on first, Nori stood beside Sigmund and watched her friend demonstrate her healing arrow on their teacher. That was amazing. In case one of them would need any kind of healing, she would be able to help them from afar. It was a good supportive technique that was certainly going to come in handy for the future. She folded her arms across her chest as Nanami started up her next mode. She watched as the arrow was infused with wind chakra and released it to hit the boulder. Nori shielded her eyes as a large gust of wind blew in their direction until it hit the boulder, causing it to erupt. Her eyes widened slightly. "So cool..." she muttered in a low breath.

Akuma soon called upon Sigmund to demonstrate his new jutsu next, leaving her to be the last one to show off her's. She was ready. Sigmund stepped up to their sensei and took his stance. She could hear his bones crack before they started to pop out of his skin, causing her to slightly jump and wince. Did that really not hurt him? It wasn't the first time she had seen it, but it still looked like it hurt. He made it seem like it was nothing, but somehow she expected that from him. Her eyes just took in all the popped out bones and the way his eyes changed from one color to the next as he explained his dance. Nori honestly felt sorry for those that would have to fight him. It wouldn't be pretty. When she saw his bones start to retreat back into his body, a sense of relief came over her and she relaxed.

Nanami walked over to a tree, leaning against it she takes out a pad. She quickly starts writing down various forms resulting from the new information of Sigmunds jutsu. -A new dance huh, the bone popping and such is great for intimidation. I wonder if my chakra arrows can extend the duration of his dance. Something to try out later when we have finished showing our jutsu.- She said to herself, and she also wrote it down.

She continued to draw up many different attack patterns as she stood there waiting for Sensei to chime in and call Nori. Nanami was especially excited to see Nori's technique. She knew not what to expect from her. She smiles at Nori "Impressive Sigmund-Kun. I can't wait to see yours Nori!"
This message was last edited by a game editor at 22:39, Tue 26 Jan 2016.

Akuma watched in amazement at Sigmunds jutsu. This was even his first time seeing it and it was truly something to marvel at. He would be able to provide close range protection to the team and make sure that any enemies were incapacitated. Now he just has to see Nori's justu in relation to the others and they could begin. So he turned and looked in her direction.

"Okay Nori. You're up and then we'll start working on the tactics."

Nori turned her head and looked over at Nanami before she gave her a small smile. "Thanks, Nanami. Mine probably won't be as amazing, but I've been working hard at it," she said before she looked over to Akuma when he told her that she was next. She took a deep breath and released it as she closed her eyes. When she opened them back up, a determined and serious look were within them as she vanished and reappeared a good distance away from her sensei. "I hope you don't mind me demonstrating on you, Akuma-sensei." Nori rolled her neck from side to side before she cracked it and relaxed her shoulders.

She took her stance, sliding one leg behind her and slightly bending the other in front of her. Her fists curled at her sides and let her chakra envelop her body. Within a flash, she kicked off her back heel and flash stepped towards Akuma. Each of her fists made contact with her sensei's face four times, leading into a full circle kick, then a swift kick to the stomach that led to her fists making contact to her sensei's face four times, which led to turning around swiftly and delivering a tornado roundhouse kick to his head, enabling her opposite foot to do a side kick to his stomach. Nori crotched down, planting her hands on the ground and delivering a high kick to his chest. Once she did that, she swiftly pushed herself up onto her feet, twirling around and bringing a clenched fist to land a blow to his stomach that would make him fly back and land on the ground.

Nori took a step behind her and began to catch her breath. "For this technique to work, I had to build up a lot of my stamina and speed," she said and looked back to Sigmund and Nanami. "Sensei and I were thinking that I could change up a few of the types of kicks I use as it may be more efficient to land against my opponent. If I were to put more strength behind my last punch, I could increase the efficiency of how far back they could land."

Akuma had only just given his consent when he felt Nori's physical barrage start laanding blows on him. He had helped her develop it for the past couple of weeks and he still could barely prepare himself for it. As she continued to pound on his body he prepared for the finishing move and it came. He flew back a couple of feet and landed on the grass hard feeling the wind get knocked out of him. He lay there and stared at the sky waiting for his lungs to fill themselves again. Then he stood already feeling sore from the attack and walked over to his students. "As you can tell if the enemy isn't prepared for such a rapid and unexpected attack it can be quite an unpleasant experience." He smiled softly though. In a way the team was almost perfect. The would be able to cover short, medium, and long range combat. The offensive sides the three presented was strong to say the least. He was worried about the teams defense though. So he knew this is what they were going to need to work on.

"So as you all can see you are more than prepared for the offensive side of battle. Sigmnd can easily defend himself with is new jutsu as well as attack. However, we are going to need to develop defensive strategies in the case that the battle is to ever force you out of the offense."

Nanami claps and smiles "That was awesome Nori-chan.." She leans back against the tree and begins to quickly make notes. Now she had all three of their new jutsu on the mind. -Two dances in essence. Hmm, what to do with two dances. Lets see they both leave attack holes, so I am best to use my arrows in those gaps.- She thinks to herself.. Nanami starts to draw a graph using his teammates heights and length of their reaches.

After which she walks up to the group "So we have two amazing Taijutsu techniques developed and a tactician with a bow. From the length of your reaches, you will leave many open gaps for me to shoot through. Also the healing arrow can instead be used to restore a little chakra . So I may be able to extend the length of your dances Sigmund-kun. Nori, you and Sigmund will make a deadly frontal unit. I will be your support."

   Sigmund watched the blows be dealt to Akuma-sensei, however he wasn't too impressed. Taijutsu, anybody can do. Most of his dances relied on it, but he expected a bit more from her. That's when he watched their sensei literally be thrown into the air a few feet as Nori landed the final blow. Their sensei had been staring at the sky within a matter of seconds. He felt awful for underestimating her, but if it ever came to it, his jutsu could prevent the whole thing. Akuma was right though, if it was unexpected, it would be even deadlier.

   Sigmund only worried about how she had to be so close to the enemy to do her new technique. That did leave her defenseless and very prone to explosions, counter attacks, and even an ambush. If they saw her attack coming, she would be doomed. That's when Akuma explained they needed defense tactics because their offense was covered from long range, to medium, to close hand-to-hand. Their defensive line was wide open.

   He picked up his coat and put it back on as they waited for sensei to walking back to them. That's when Nanami had came back to the group after isolating herself on a tree with a a notepad. She had wrote down notes about their upcoming offensive tactics. She suggested that she could keep Sigmund's dances going with chakra arrows and Nori also had her own taijutsu attack that could potentially be a deadly duo. Her plan was flawed though with the open loops. "This tactic only works if it's unexpected though, like an ambush. If they're expecting something, it'll be less effective, especially if they catch on to your disappearing act and just shooting arrows. You could only keep that up for so long before they find you. They'll just be evasive instead. I like the plan, but this works for an ambush, which could come in handy," he put in his concerns, hoping they would be taken into consideration.

   That's when he nodded his head as their sensei talked. "Well Akuma-sensei, these were just our new techniques. We still have our others too, you know. Our body flicker, substitution, transformation, and clone. Those seem to come in handy from time to time as well. But you're right. We do need defensive tactics. How do we go about this, sensei?" he asked, clearly unsure how to go about the whole situation.

Nori rolled her neck from side to side and cracked it before she looked over to Akuma as he got up from the ground. "Thanks for helping me out, sensei. I think my last punch got a lot stronger than the last time we practiced it," she said as she rubbed her wrapped knuckles and walked back over to her teammates. She smiled at Nanami. "Thanks, Nanami. I appreciate it." Her eyes drifted over to Sigmund and he seemed less than impressed with what she had done. She didn't feel discouraged, though. She knew how much work, time, and effort she put into her training. Nori held her head high as she stopped beside him and folded her arms across her chest. She listened as Nanami explained that she could potentially keep Sigmund's dances going with her chakra arrows as both her and Sigmund's taijutsu attacks could prove to be a deadly duo. Then she heard Sigmund speak up from beside her and it cause Nori to look over at him.

Although, Nanami's plan seemed to be concrete, it still didn't change the fact that they had to work on their defense. They did have Sigmund's technique, but that wasn't going to be enough. "I agree with both Nanami and Sigmund. I mean, Nanami's plan sounds great but Sigmund is right. I mean, my attacks are only good up close to an opponent, but we do have other techniques that could work from afar like Sigmund said. But even though we do need defensive tactics, won't we need more time to make them more effective before the exams? Won't we all be more vulnerable if our opponents find out our weaknesses when we do need to work as a team?"

Akuma nodded and took in the input that his students were giving him. It was good that they were already doing their best to figure out the situation on their own. One they were in the exams he wouldn't be able to help them make these choices. So he spoke up.

"You're right that we need more time. There isn't a way where we can leave and you can know that your defense will be perfect, but if we begin to form one today it will become perfected in the heat of battle. The easiest way to deal with your opponents finding your weakness is to not show them. If all you allow to be seen is your strengths your opponents won't be able to get leverage on you. How to develop your tactics is surely not a simple task especially as we've pointed out you don't have enough time. So I will have to do something that you all haven't gotten to experience yet. In order to learn how to fight as a team and figure out your strategies in the heat of the moment you will need to be placed in the position. So you are going to fight me." Akuma then pulled a small scroll out of his pocket and held it up to his students. "The goal will be to take this scroll from my possession. I do believe this is going to be fun"

For the next 3 days, Kenji Akuma tested his students' limits on team work. Not only did they learn to work better together but they also learned to protect each other way better than they did before.

Sigmund and Nori learned to put aside their differences for now so they could learn to work together better in the front lines. Sigmund learned to control and build up his chakra better to execute his new dance. Nori learned to time her new taijutsu technique effectively as Sigmund kept most dummies and props occupied. Nanami learned to control her chakra control on her body flicker technique so she could continue her supporting arrows for both Sigmund and Nori.

They also learned defensive techniques from setting traps, learning to ambush properly from ranged to close combat, and learning to effectively escape in a matter of seconds. Akuma tested their new found skills in his training arena again, but with him as the enemy. His students managed to ambush him effectively and he approved.

With their newly learned jutsus, skills, and new found teamwork, the entire squad was headed on a three day trip to the Land of Lightning, making their way to Kumogakure.

Their new test awaited.

---

Akitoki Sigmund, Yamada Nori, and Nara Nanami gained .2 in the following categories:

Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Strength, Speed, and Stamina.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:50, Fri 29 Jan 2016.