Nanami laughs, and blushes slightly. She hands him a vitamin pill "I think our next bit of training should be on team tactics. With all of our abilities finally finding their path, we can start to strategize how to deal with situations. The new jutsu does deal with using this bow. It has three modes, I have only mastered one, I have a grasp on the second. The third is being a pain. But I will master them all, and expand on them, pushing them to far greater heights." She was all smiles as she spoke about all of this.

   He accepted the vitamin pill and popped it into his mouth as she suggested about working on team tactics. He took another bite of his muffin too to help chew the pill down. He noticed her excitement when she began talking about her new bow jutsu, explaining what it does and its power levels. She was only able to do part of it and had a long way to go, but he wasn't surprised. It had only been three weeks so she wasn't the only one who couldn't wield the full potential of their new jutsu.

   "Yeah, team tactics. I heard it is always good to combine jutsus with each other. It makes them stronger and it helps everybody work together better. Your bow would be the perfect ranged attack. Maybe even a distraction. Your arrows could be infused with one of our jutsus. Nori's fire or my water or lightning. Whichever works. It would be a pretty powerful ranged arrow. Or like I said, the perfect distraction so I can get the perfect timing for close combat," he agreed with her as he took another bite of the muffin. He chewed and swallow before commenting on her bow. "You'll get it down. Probably after the Chunin Exams. If you become a Chunin, you'll definitely be training harder to master it," he added as he finished his muffin, whipping off the crumbs from his pants and onto the roof/ground.

Nanami smiles and looks back at him "Actually the mode I mastered isn't an attack mode. Its a healing arrow, the arrow itself is made of chakra. We lacked a medical ninja, so I figured this type of thing would be useful. Especially once it grows in strength. For now it will heal minor wounds, or it will give you a little extra chakra. The one I have a grasp on, it is my trump card. And yes, the other reason I have been molding the bow with my chakra. So it, and the arrows fired from it would be able to handle chakra. Also adding paperbombs that explode on impact will also be nice. So I can help us adjust to many given situations."

   "That may be true, but that does not mean we can't infuse our jutsus to regular arrows. For specifically lightning, your arrows could be used as a conductor. Or if we infuse fire with a regular arrow, it can help detonate a paper bomb trap," he explained further. "Chakra isn't a problem for me anyways, so a chakra arrow really wouldn't benefit me much anyways," he chuckled. "Whatever floats your boat though. Your jutsu," he finished.

Nanami looks at him weird "I did just say that would be a good idea, and thats why I have chakra treated my bow. So chakra can be infused into it.." She laughs gently "I am aware, most Kekkai users have a little more chakra then non-kekkai users." She pokes Sigmund "My goal with the healing mode, is to eventually be able to fully restore a person from a fatal wound." Nanami smiles "And jutsu combinations is definitely on my to do list. You know I am wind and fire. I know you are water, and lightning. I think lightning, and arrows could make for some pretty destructive stuff. It could also be used to knock somebody out from great distances. Our team has extreme potential." She shoulder bumps him "So lets become the best we can!."

   He gave her a shoulder bump back playfully. "It's a shame that not all of us can become Chunins together. There's only one winner out of the whole thing. It's crazy. All five great shinobi ninja will be there so we gotta give it our all. We have to show our potential. Our full potential, even it means going up against each other," he explained. "Promise me you won't go easy on me. You need to give me your all out there if we ever face each other," he grew more serious as he looked at her with his dark eyes. He was dead serious about this. It was like becoming a chunin was his ultimate goal right now, even it meant beating his comrade.

Nanami smiles "I know what the chunin exams can bring. But I ask one thing. If you get into a situation that could be life threatening, and its die or submit defeat. Don't die." She frowns slightly as she says that, but her smile quickly returns "I know that won't happen, if we have to face one another, lets agree to do so in the finals. All three of us are evenly matched, we each have our weak points as well. But who knows what will happen between now and the Chunin exams. Growth happens through experience. The chunin exams will definitely be a growing experience."

   When Nanami brought up about don't choose death over life, he remained quiet. Taking the coward's way out was not suitable for him. He actually would rather die than even surrender. It was just stubbornness, but also his pride. He didn't answer right away and thought it over, but not wanting to ever have her be burden with his death, he decided to promise her that as well. "I promise to surrender rather than die. I cannot leave my teammates by themselves," he joked. "You girls better make the finals. You can't leave me there by myself!" he exclaimed and smirked, challenging them both and being a tad cocky.

Nanami smiles happily at his response "Thank you Sigmund-kun. That will help me focus. As far as the finals go, I am more concerned about you making them then me." She says in response to his remark. Nanami giggles "I have been working on various tactics while I trained, you need to be prepared for every situation. Yet you can't be prepared for everything, but I am certainly going to try." Her voice lowers "Everyone has fears though. A nightmare reminds me of this every now and then." She lifts her head and smiles "Sorry, I guess I needed to tell someone that."

Nanami looks back out across the village silent for the moment..

   Sigmund smirked when she mentioned she was worried about him not making it all the way instead of her. "Your lack of faith in me is insulting. You haven't seen what I have been practicing these last couple of weeks. I am prepared for long range and close combat. I feel sorry for the suckers who have to face me. I can't promise they'll live," he commented seriously and perhaps that was the truth. His new jutsu was new, but that does not mean it was unstable. It was more so deadly and he wasn't too sure if he could stop himself if he even tapped into his new jutsu. It was for extreme measures more than anything.

   "I am not afraid of anything, not even death itself," he mentioned, showing off again that he was a courageous and fearless ninja. He was definitely going to be a great candidate for the ANBU if he ever wanted to be. He had the fearless and emotionless attitude for it.

Nanami laughs, and smiles at him "Huh, lack of faith? Think of it as motivation. Thats what teammates do, they push each other to be better. I have a hundred percent faith in you, but if I let you think your the best already. Then you will make that one little mistake at that critical juncture. But then, we don't even know if there will be a tournament. The venue, and the tests change at each chunin exam. So we won't know if there will even be a tournament till we reach it. As each test is only known when it is given. So in someways trying to prepare for them should not be on our minds. The only thing on our minds should be training as a team, and being as strong as we can be before the exam."

She seems happy when talking about the team, and how strong they will be. Nanami is leaning forward and swinging back. Her hair flows with the morning breeze.

   He thought it over about the previous exams. He seemed to remember they did change frequently, but noticed there was a pattern. He was glad she had faith in him, but the thought of him choking at the end was unappealing. He wanted to burst into the laughter at the ridiculous thought if it, but he refrained from it. He didn't want to come off too friendly. He was growing soft with these girls around and needed to get back to his old ways, so he remained quiet and decided to talk about the exams even further.

   "There is always a tournament at the end. That is the sole purpose why all the five kages come together. They want to witness it. They enjoy a good show, to praise one another in their own royalty together so there will be battles, I can promise you that," he reassured. "The exams are usually the same every time, except the first and second tests. Those are different, however, the concept it still the same if you have ever studied them. The third part is always the battles. It would be fairly too easy if they left those out," he explained to her.

Nanami smiles "There are two types of tournaments from what I have gathered. A single elimination tournament, and a team battle tournament. I am more hoping for the team battle tournament, especially with what I will be preparing. If it ends up being a singles tournament. I look forward to facing you. As I said a few moments ago, the chunin exams often cause growth in the ninjas that participate. What we are when the exam first starts, things may be different when it comes time for us to face one another."

She continues to smile. Nanami seems to be really enjoying herself as the two talked "We do have a long road, and some rather tough competition to beat. So lets worry about winning and losing in the tournament, once we actually make it to that stage."

   "We should be working on team tactics right now then. If it comes down to having team battles, that is the one thing we have not even started yet," he claimed and jumped down, landing perfectly on his feet and stared up at her as she was still sitting on the edge of the roof. "I don't know about you, but I want to learn to work with my team, so if it ever comes down to it, we could possibly be the best trio out there," he explained and took his jacket off, tossing it on the ground. He had gotten a new one, but the exact same one because all the hardcore training they did in Akuma's training house had ruined his old one so badly that he had to replace it.

Nanami stands, falls forward. She spins several times before landing on both feet "I agree, its something to work on until the rest of our team get here." She walks at a normal pace back towards the training area. She looks back at Sigmund "So where do you want to start? We can test the chakra limit of the arrows, or we could work on a formation. Kind of hard to do that without Nori." She thinks "Or we could work on endurance, or target practice. Any other suggestion Sigmund-kun?" Suddenly she smiles "How about you be a moving target for me? I can use the healing arrows, so you won't be hurt."

   He thought it over some. It did make it hard to work on things like this without their third member or their sensei even here for that matter. He yet wondered where that old fart was at anyways. He was suppose to be here by now. "Well, it is ultimately up to you. It is obvious we cannot do formation tactics because we are missing one, which is surprising because Nori claims she's all about training," he muttered in disappointment. When she mentioned the arrows thing, he wanted to laugh.

   He smirked at the thought of her arrows being shot at him. "Is that suppose to help you aim better?" he teased her before walking yards away from her, on his toes and ready to vault and dodge anywhere he needed to go to dodge her arrows or perhaps, even stop them. "Ready when you are," he challenged, ready for any sort of counter attack.

Akuma had tested his students in a manner that some Jonin thought was unnecessary and harsh, but it got it's job done. They were subjected to new and different trials everyday. They never knew what lay before them. Some days they went back into the maze never running into the same series of events twice. Some days they endured vigorous physical training and if their sensei was in a good mood were allowed to practice sparring with each other. When the dust settled and Akuma had finished testing and training his squad for what he considered the basics he was proud of them.

They had all grown by leaps and bounds showing their progress through their actions. Sigmund , whether he would ever admit it or not, seemed to be opening up to the team and grew to keep the team structure strong. Due to this he allowed Sigmund to act as squad leader many times when Akuma could not be present. Nori who originally seemed to be the weakest of the three made the most improvements and with time was easily seen to be on the same level as he squad members. Nanami worked hard and proved to Akuma and the squad that she deserved to be with them everyday. Akuma was so impressed by her that he gladly took her on as the closest thing he would have to an apprentice.

During all of this time the team was given small missions to perform around the village. The squad was never fond of it as they could have easily handled more, but they struggled through and any moment not spent working on a mission was spent working on their training. Then the Hokage gave Akuma some important news. If ready his squad was eligible to enter the Chunin exams. Yet, he didn't tell his squad at first. He wanted them to remain focused as he began his next phase in their training. He would take each of them to a different and special place for a four day trip on which they began to learn and perfect a new jutsu. He knew that it would be more than useful when they exams came.

Before the exams there was today. Only yesterday Akuma has informed his students that part of their most recent training was to prepare them to take this next step if they decided to do so. He dismissed them so that they could each make their choice and asked them to meet back at their normal grounds in the morning. He was running late when he saw Nanami fall forward of the building and continue a conversation with Sigmund. He had heard just enough of it to add a little quip in himself.

"C'mon now. This is Sigmund we're talking about. With his thick skin an actual arrow would be lucky is it penetrated the skin."

Nanami tilts her head back "Your late sensei. And you should know by now. My bow is far from normal. With how I have infused it with my chakra, and how the weapon-smith taught me to treat the wood. The last time you could barely pick up my bow, let alone pull the string." She points at the arrows in the targets. Only the tail ends of the arrows were showing "It would take a skin of iron to stop a normal arrow.. Even then if you were able to, you would still feel the impact."

She pauses and looks at Sigmund "I would be using my divine shot, thus the arrows are made of chakra, and yes you would be simply target practice. It would be a set pattern, as most times they won't see me coming." She smiles and looks at them both "Sensei, you wouldn't have any tracking-nin training in your repertoire?"

It had been three weeks since Nori, Sigmund, and Nanami had managed to successfully pass Akuma-sensei's test at his house. It was a little bit harder than any of them had anticipated, but what kind of test would it be if their teacher were to go easy on them? If there was one thing she had learned from the experience it was that although she had did her best to prove her techniques and value to her team, she knew she was the weakest of the three. Nanami was definitely the brains and Sigmund was their strength. Where did that leave her exactly? She had always trained and worked hard and was given the opportunities to showcase her abilities during the test, but she felt like she wasn't able to prove what she could really do and that left her disappointed in herself just a little bit.

Over the course of the three weeks, the team had gone one small missions they were assigned by the Kage of the village, and although they proved to menial and tedious, Nori had found them to be great learning experiences. Little by little she was able to show what she was capable of doing to not just her teammates or to their sensei, but to herself, too. She wasn't going to be the weak link anymore. She was going to be a strong asset to the team and carry her weight. In the process of all this training she had done with her team and on a one-on-one basis with Akuma-sensei, she managed to learn a new jutsu and was excited to be able to show it to her fellow teammates with whom she had developed quite a close bond with.

Somehow in the course of her time with him, Nori managed to rekindle that hint of a friendship she had with Sigmund when they were kids. He had started talking to her a little bit more day by day and they even developed a sort of friendly rivalry with each other. Somehow whenever they trained together, he always brought out the best in her and pushed her to work harder and give him all she had, which she was glad to. Nori knew she had to prove even more that she had value to this team, but there was one thing that she knew she couldn't do and that was to disappoint Sigmund. Over the course of time that had passed, Nori had noticed the close bond that was forming between him and Nanami and although it seemed to be just a friendly relationship between them, she envied that. She envied that because she knew that that was something that her and Sigmund would probably never have again. She hated it, but he would probably never form that close of a bond with her like they had when they were kids.

Although this weighed on her mind, Nori knew she couldn't let it weigh her down. She would admit to liking Sigmund, but she couldn't let that distract her. Not when the Chunin exams were coming up. She was going to give it her best there, too. Akuma had given them the option to sign up for the exams and she sure as hell wasn't going to back down from it. This was just another step for her that she to overcome. Morning time came and it was the day before the exams. Akuma was going to meet the team at the training grounds for their decisions. Nori had woken up a little later than she had wanted to that morning, but she managed to get up, shower, and get dressed before grabbing an apple and leaving her house. It took her no time at all to reach the training grounds and when she did, she saw Nanami and Sigmund had beaten her to it. Not to mention Akuma-sensei.

"Hey guys! I'm here! Sorry I'm late!" she called out as she landed a few feet away from them. "I can see you started without me." She smirked.

   Just before Sigmund and Nanami could begin, Akuma-sensei appeared before them at the last second, putting in his comment just as he landed onto the ground with them. Not even a few minutes later, the final member of the team finally showed up: Nori. All Sigmund could do was smirk at the both of them. His sensei should have been here before them, but he guessed life happens sometimes perhaps. As for Nori, Sigmund only was a bit disappointed. He believed she changed and was motivated like him and Nanami, but he was probably wrong.

   "Well, well...look who finally decided to show up," he stated as he relaxed his shoulders and stood up straight, referring to both their sensei and Nori. "Took you guys long enough. Nanami and I were starting to get bored," he teased as he waited further instructions.

Somehow it irked Nori to hear Sigmund say 'Nanami and I,' but she just let it roll past her shoulders and forced a smile on her face. "Well, at least we are here now, right? Besides it's not as if you guys haven't already started without us anyway," she said as she lightly folded her arms across her chest and looked over at Akuma-sensei. He was technically supposed to be here before any of them were, right? "So what do you have in store for us today, sensei?"

Before Akuma-Sensei could respond, Nanami runs up and hugs Nori "Its been a rough few weeks, and you looked like you needed a hug." She smiles and taps the center of Nori's forehead with two fingers. She pushes off with her right foot, and lands back in the spot she was before. The training had left Nanami more composed, and even more inspired.

"Oh yeah, I know sensei and Sigmund have seen it." She shows Nori the bow. One side had the names of her family members on it. The otherside had Nori's, Akuma's, and Sigmund's names on it "All these people including you, have helped shape me into who I am today." She was upbeat, and enthusiastic about it. If nori looked around, she would see all the arrows that were stuck around the center mass area of the target dummies, the arrows had only the feather end of the arrow showing.

Nori hadn't been expecting for Nanami to come up and hug her like that, but when she did, she unfolded her arms and wrapped one of them around her to hug her back. "Thanks, Nanami. It has been a rough couple of weeks, but it's nothing," she said before she felt her tap the center of her forehead and move away from her. When her friend had showed her her bow, Nori's eyes widened slightly as she looked it over. "I don't know what to say. Thank you, Nanami. I feel honored that you think of me as such a good influence." She smiled as she looked up to her before she looked around the area to see arrows sticking out of the training dummies. "You're becoming a pretty good shot, girl. I'd hate to be on the other end of that arrow that's for sure," she said and let out a light laugh.

Nanami smiles "The people a person cares about gives them strength and hope. Nobody can survive in this world without people to back them. Whether it be from the sidelines, or people you are fighting side by side with." She blushes slightly at the compliment "Oh you haven't seen anything yet." She winks, eluding to something she hasn't shown anyone yet.

Her eyes dance over Sigmund and Akuma "So we going to get started sometime today, or should we come up with out own team building exercises Sensei?"

   Sigmund stayed silent as Nori and Akuma-sensei had shown up. He really didn't have too much to say, aside that he was ready for today, but their sensei was probably tired of running them around any longer. Sigmund stretched his arms in the air as he walked towards Nori and Nanami to see what's up. "As Squad Leader, I say we try to come up with some team tactics with everyone's jutsus, newly found or not. We need it," he suggested, taking command again like earlier in the last few weeks. "If not, I'm freaking starving. I skipped breakfast and only had a small muffin today," he mentioned, hinting to wanting food and could use some grub right about now. However, he did not mind running off of a muffin. He was just ready to start now.