Angelo growled loudly at his arrogance! Damn it he was the next head and yet he's acting like a king! "Damn your mine!" Angelo called out as he charged in throwing a set of needles his way, he knew that he could use palm rotation and that meant he could easily deflect but that's what Angelo was hoping for the second he finishes the rotation he will be vulnerable to attack, all Angelo needs to do is get in his personal space or to use perfect timing and with his dark eyes he will notice if he does any tells showing the end of his rotation as Angelo charged straight on waiting for the timing he needed...

As the shuriken cut the string that was holding Dango up, the three Genin could hear something break in the underbrush, something that sounded an awful lot like metal string tied to something being released. Then they could hear the whistling of kunai flying through the air towards them. Jerin watched from right above them, judging their reaction times and waiting for the right moment to use his genjutsu on the group. He had no doubt that Nagato would catch on quickly, he had a rough idea of what Jerin could do, but he only needed a split second to put them off balance and split them up. If he did it right, they wouldn't catch on until too late.

As the rope released Dango's ankle, he heard a sharp snap of a wire breaking. At almost the same time, he saw the glint of a kunai fly from behind two running towards him. "A trap?!" Dango reacted instinctively, planting his hand on top of Ranko's head to propel himself towards a nearby tree. "I hope she doesn't get mad at me for that," Dango thought as he contacted with the plant. He immediately bounced off of it towards Nagato, vaulting over him to catch the rapid projectile. He caught it with his shoulder, but technically succeeded with what he was trying to do. Quickly recovering from his head-first landing, Dango ran towards them asking, "H-hey, a-re you guysh okay?" He pulled the kunai from his shoulder, where a steady stream of blood leaked out. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt too much. "I guess it's because I hurt myself normally...?"

In a split second, Dango showed everyone that he wasn't just clumsy. He did use Ranko's head as a stepping stone, yes, but well, that definitely looked cool. If it wasn't for the fact that he was now bleeding. And that kunai were flying at her too. Well, she could very well just dodge them, and so she did, jumping in childish motions and ducking as it was some kind of game, all the while with a smile on her face. "Hehe, this is fun! Dangerous, but fun! I think the danger makes it more fun!" Ranko said while dodging the kunais. After she was sure that she had avoided the danger, she dusted her head off. What Dango just did probably had left a footprint on her head. "That was cool, Dangogo! Nagachin, I hope you aren't swiss cheese by now." Ranko smiled in Nagato's direction, hoping not to see her teammate full of holes. "Now, where could sensei be?" She looked at the trees with curious eyes, trying to make out something, anything, that looked remotely human.

Nagato reacted almost as quickly as the rest of his team. So far nobody was really useless in any sense. Even Dango had his moments. They had to work on his clumsiness though. "Check his wo..." He stopped as he hopped backwards with the Kunai coming at him. He swiped his hand upward causing a vertical wave of chakra to burst forward. "Beast Wave Palm!" He spoke quickly not wasting time in dispatching the kunai before they could get to him. "Get down!" He said quickly lunging at his teammates. He place a hand on both of their heads and forced them downward with him just a bit. If he knew his uncle at all, he was gonna try and get in a genjutsu. "Close your eyes for a moment." He glanced around quickly beforeclosing his own eyes. Right now it was all about his other senses. Something like this was the least a ninja could do. He had to focus on everything around him. Listen, feel, etc. Anything to try and gauge a surprise attack and maybe, just maybe, defend against his uncle. If nothing came than that was fine. It was better to be cautious than to be sorry. -------------------------- Nayta chuckled slightly at the attack. "Your's? Sorry, but I don't swing that way buddy." He joked taunting his opponent as he moved to the side out of the way of the needles. This attack was pretty simple. Angelo may had had a plan, but it wasn't like Nayto was an idiot. For the most part he wasn't planning on using his abilities. "But if that's all you've got I'll be pretty bored beating you up." He laughed as he charged forward. He was cocky. Too cocky. He didn't feel Angelo was worthy of wasting the Eight Trigrams techniques on. This would likely heat Angelo up further, which was partially Nayta's plan. This was going better than he thought.

Angelo was about to get angrier but he remembered that although he was cocky as hell that didn't mean he was a moron, he was trying to make Angelo angry so he would mess up well that could work both ways. really? cause I feel pretty bad letting you think you can win! Angelo said as he got closer and took out his needles and although he couldn't make any lethal attacks he could stop him in his tracks. Angelo got close and threw his needles at him knowing he would try to dodge or use his rotation because they weren't very far from him if he did nether he would be hit through the chest. Then Angelo jumped into the air above him and got ready to throw his second set of needles so if he did either then that would still leave Angelo open for the shot the second time. Angelo wasn't going to loose to someone who takes what he has for granted and if need be Angelo will use his blade of wind just to prove that he has the power to give him a real fight and to not toy with Angelo...

As the last of the kunai hit the ground, Jerin didn't move, didn't hardly breath, letting his ninja skills take over as he waited for the right moment. Nagato had remembered that he was one of the village's most skilled users of Genjutsu, a good thing to remember for this, but the attack that he expected never came. Instead, when the trio hit the dirt, it gave way underneath them and dropped them into a pit filled with leaves. Enough to cushion the landing, but few enough that they still felt it. Jerin mentally laughed. He'd almost forgotten he'd set that up the day before just in case his kunai bait trap didn't work. Or if it worked too well. Well done Nagato, but it seems you didn't consider a double layer trap being two traps. You're a impulsive as your grandfather sometimes...

As the group fell into the hole, Nagato shifted so his teammates would land on top of him. "Crap..." He mumbled in a bit of pain, before hearing Jerin. He could practically feel his blood boil as he made his way to his feet. "Goddammit!" Nagato shouted in anger as he looked up. "I'm sorry you two. I messed up." He apologized to Dango and Ranko as he tried to think of what to do. Working together they could easily get out. But Jerin was still somewhere up there. "We need a plan... You know... Before we go up there." -------------------------------- Nayta laughed. "Do you think trying to turn this around on me would work?" He wasn't some low level idiot. He was the next heir to the Hyuga clan. Trained since he was capable of undergoing such harsh punishment and training. He was much better than this. So when Angelo through the senbon again he pulled a kunai to block them. He kept his eyes on his teammate and prepared for the next attack. if there were more needles he'd simply block again. It was the easy. He figured he'd use rotation, but only when this guy was close enough. He was planning. Plotting.

After they landed on the bottom of the pit and inadvertently Nagato, Dango unsteadily got back up before clearing off the visor of his helmet. "W-where did th-thish hole come from-m...?" Dango asked, much more confused about that than why Nagato was taking blame for something none of them knew about. Dango sighed quietly before flicking Nagato in the face. "Why-y are you a-apologishing," he said as he put his helmet on. "It'sh n-not l-like we knewsh about thish." There wasn't any reason for that guy to apologize about anything, and it really annoyed Dango for some reason. Quickly casting that aside, Dango went to planning. "First off, sensei seems to be avoiding direct combat." There was an opportunity for him to strike before the pitfall had triggered, and he must have known they were there since they were yelling beforehand. Because he knew that, their teacher was probably aiming to use genjutsu. "It wouldn't have worked because Nagato had us close our eyes, so that's probably it." Since genjutsu isn't directly offensive, his objective was either to run down the timer, or split them up before taking them one by one. His wire could work as communications so that they could split up and still find each other; pulling, loss of tension, or just stopping could act as a signal and the cable could be followed towards their teammate. "So even if one of us gets caught in the genjutsu, I'll know." After organizing his thoughts, Dango attempted to explain his plan, stumbling over his speech as he did so.

"No need to be sorry, Nagachin!" Ranko said, relaxed as always. "What Dangogo said! None of us could have predicted that Sensei would be this... slippery. That's an Uchiha for you." Ranko got off Nagata after that, and examined her surroundings. "Oh, it's pretty well made. Maybe sensei prepared it yesterday? If so, I'm surprised he could lure us all the way here." Ranko analyzed everything. Still, a smirk showed itself in her face. Even if Jerin was up there, and was about to use genjutsu of some kind, she could probably ignore it easily thanks to her kekkei genkai. Still, her family did tell her not to use it that often, not to mention that she was a complete novice regarding that matter. She decided against it lastly, and looked up. "All right! I am not good at planning, but I can slice anyone up whenever! And also put them inside a barrier if needed! One or the other, it is easy." Ranko said, all wiht a smile on her face and sounding quite cheery. Still, as far as plans went... Ranko had a bit of an idea, after hearing Dango's suggestion. "Sensei will probably go against the one who seems the easiest prey. Sadly, that would be Dangogo. Given that, I propose you two escape and regroup while I draw his attention to me. A bait, if you want. It won't be as easy for me to fall for his genjutsu, after all."

Angelo saw that he pulled out a kunai which gave Angelo the motivation he needed and once he got in close he pulled out his kunai sword and imbued his chakra into it making it twice as sharp thanks to Angelo wind nature. If he wasn't careful Angelo's kunai blade might actually cut through his little kunai "got any more smart ass responses?" Angelo called to him as he charged in with his sword in one hand and his needles in the other ready to go from close to long range easily Angelo was going to make sure that his blade kept him at a distance so he wouldn't be able to pull out his 64 palm technique on Angelo and stop his chakra flow into his blade but right now Angelo just needed to make him know that he needed to be careful and to get serious if he was going to prove to Angelo that he was still better...

Things were rocky for a bit after that training exercise. But somehow they had managed to pass. Still, everything went up and down. For a while, they'd all done various low level, idiotic missions. At least that was how nagato explained them. Finding cats, finding underwear thieves. Stupid. But they all got done. That was roughly the teams first three months. Yup three whole months. But things took a turn for the better when they were finally given a higher level mission. It was a delivery in all honesty, but they were delivering very important artifacts and scrolls. Various items and tool. Thats why so many ninja attacked. By the time things had ended, the members of the team had been fairly hurt, but they survived and one. Each did their own thing. It worked out.

Nayta's team had gone about things of around the same nature. Though their big break mission was hunt of sorts. A hunt for a group of bandits led by an elite ninja. Geez that one was tough. But still they managed. Much like Mitsuki's team who'd had to endure Finding and combatting a group of ninja who'd practically taken over a village. But much like the rest of the teams, they managed. And so things went on like this for about 4 more months. Nagato, Mitsuki, Nayta, nobody could really believe so much time had passed. And yet, it had. There was no denying that.

And now they were here. They'd been crammed right into the chunin exams and things had been going mostly well. Things were a little different this time around. There was a test, a team portion, but then there was an individual portion. One where some members were weeded out. It was strange, but that led them to this. The tournament preliminaries. So far things had been progressing. Most of the first fights were genin from other villages, but someone from their end was bound to be going soon. Nagato was with his team watching. Nayta was and so was Mitsuki. Or least those who were left. The others either needed medical attention or rest, so they wouldn't be here for a while. Hopefully spirits hadn't been crushed. And even now, Nagato was scoping out the other genin. There were some here and there who he got bad feeling about, but he couldn't act on such things without evidence. And there were a few that he wasn't so sure about. Like who were they? They felt familiar. Whatever... All that was important now was the exams.

Months come and go. To be honest, Ranko liked a lot going on missions, no matter what happened. In fact, she felt really pumped whenever the missions took a turn for the worst. The mission with the scrolls and ninjas attacking from all sides was really fun. She would have liked to bring a souvenir with her, though. Three months went by as if it were nothing, and the chunin exams were just around the corner now. Ranko gave it her best to reach where she was right now, and she was confident that she was doing a pretty good work. Now, waiting for her turn to come, she anxiously jumped, using the railings as a support for it. She seemed really, really excited at the premise of having a battle against someone else.

"Nagachin, Nagachin! Aren't you pumped? You are pumped, right? Why wouldn't you be pumped? This is real, real, reaaaal exciting!" Ranko said, seeming more hyper than ever, something that only happened when she anticipated a good fight. "Who do you think we will fight? I hope they are strong. Finishing up my match without it being funny will be lame." She stuck out her tongue to emphazise her point. "I only hope they know how to fight and endure against me. It'll be really fun slicing up a strong opponent." Ranko smiled, though it was a most creepy smile, before she shook her head. "Oh, sorry."

Angelo couldn't help but look back to last couple of months and wonder how he kept sane the entire time dealing with the hyuga clan heir and his stuck up attitude every damn day honestly a few times it actually led to him punching him in the face once or twice for the sake of "practice" Angelo was his rival and he his, at least at this point they both acknowledged it after that big mission against the elite ninja that was in charge over a bunch of bandits. It was only when nayat actually asked for help that they were both able to take the man down and drag him into the village for questioning. At least now it was time for the chunin exams and that meant another chance to one up nayat about being the hyuga heir and just get him to shut up. Angelo has gotten better with both his needles and his medical ninjustsu since he knew it saved everyone on the team at least once during their time together. Now it was time to show them that Angelo was ready to be promoted as a chunin and be a leader in his own right. Angelo watched the preliminaries of the tournament and danced a needle on his fingers board and waiting for his chance to go out their and just be better then the others...

Jerin rested a hand on Ranko's shoulder to calm her and looked at Nagato, who was intensely watching the competition. "The exams aren't designed to show that you're stronger than anyone else, just that you've got the endurance and skill to put yourself above the others. You could be the least strong ninja in all of Konoha, but be more skilled than any other and become a chunin." He steps back and leans against the railing behind him. "Besides, the odds are you'll be facing a Sand Village ninja if Konoha's luck is anything to go by. However, we hopefully won't experience an attempted Coup like Nagato's grandfather and my father did."