"This is awesome!"

"Mmh."

"Aw, c'mon Kyoumou! Be a little more excited!" Kyuuri playfully punched Kyoumou on the arm, almost knocking the younger girl off the tree.

"What's there to get excited about?" muttered Kyoumou. "We're a forest, big deal."

Muji sighed, and stood up in an authoritative position on a branch above the other two. The effect was spoiled slightly by the fact that she wobbled and almost lost her balance. "Listen Kyoumou. Sensei told us to get that shuriken, and we're gonna get it!"

Kyoumou's lip curled. "You and your stupid sensei." She shrugged and heaved herself to her feet. "But... I guess I don't want to fail this dumb mission any more than you do. I mean, a shuriken? How the hell are we supposed to find a goddamned shuriken in the Forest of Death?"

Muji's face fell slightly, and the thirteen year-old's shoulders sagged. "Fair do. I mean, this isn't exactly the safest forest there is."

Kyuuri got up, dusted her hands off and beamed at the other two. "C'mon guys! One shuriken, how hard can it be?" She scratched her chin. "Hmm. Sensei told us she'd stuck it in a tree somewhere..."

"So we search every single tree in the forest?" snapped Kyoumou.

"We're wasting time. Let's talk on the move, okay?" Muji turned and took off through the trees, bounding from one branch to the next. Kyuuri and Kyoumou followed, the latter rather reluctantly. "I bet I could find it in half an hour on my own."

"Too bad Kyoumou," replied Muji. "We're a team, and I'm gonna lead us to this shuriken even if it kills me!"

"Whatever," grunted Kyoumou. She glanced quickly from side to side, in case the glitter of metal leapt out at her, but all she saw were the enormous trunks of those ridiculously huge trees rushing past. "Knowing Sensei, that damned shuriken's gonna be hidden somwhere real hard."

Kyuuri alighted on a branch and pushed off hard again, trying to keep up with Kyoumou. For an eleven year-old, Kyoumou could move fast. "Let's think... I guess the most obvious place would be a really huge tree in the centre of the forest, right? And Sensei wants us to work our butts off, so I say it's somewhere at the bottom of a titchy little tree."

Muji glanced back. "Yeah, but what if Sensei knew that, and so hid the shuriken in the big tree? Like, reverse psychology, you know?" She sighed. "If only one of us had the Byakugan or something."

Kyoumou thought hard. This mission really did seem impossible. Shuriken were pretty darn small, and this forest was huge. "Maybe... Sensei might have left signs, you know?"

Muji raised an eyebrow. "Like a treasure hunt? Yeah right! Woops..." She leaped left to avoid an oncoming branch and planted her feet firmly on the bark, waiting for the others to stop next to her. Kyuuri landed, and patted her hair.

"Kyoumou could be right Muji. I mean, no human being walks through a forest without leaving some evidence, right?" She pointed back the way they came. "If we went back, we'd find bent branches, turned soil...probably our own footprints. Not even Sensei can move through a forest like a ghost."

"All right," said Kyoumou. "How do we tell that it was Sensei and not some animal?"

Muji shrugged. "Guess that's where our tracking skills come in." Kyuuri glanced around.

"Sensei at least told us it was further North."

"Uh huh," Kyoumou nodded. "Which is why we were heading North. What d'you say we split up and search this area for a bit?"

"I don't - " Muji began, but it was too late. With one hand sign, Kyoumou had conjured up a sheet of glass and leaped off it and away. By bouncing off the glass, Kyoumou's speed was only increased, by following the patterns of the light waves. Kyuuri shrugged apologetically and followed Kyoumou's example, disappearing just as fast. Muji sighed and stared around. The task did really seem impossible. The trees loomed overhead, impossibly large. No time like the present to get started. She began her search, examining all the bushes and shrubs for any sign of Sensei's passing.

Kyoumou smiled to herself, feeling better now that she was alone. Okay, Sensei. You want tracking skills? She stopped, dug in her pockets and extracted a scroll. A quick nip to the thumb and... She dragged the wound down the paper, and rolled the scroll back up, clutching it to her and focusing on the hand signs required. With a burst of chakra, blood suddenly gushed out of each end of the scroll, much more than she'd put in. It twisted in the air, spraying the nearby trees and splashing over the ground until it eventually formed the rough shapes of two large dogs. Kyoumou folded her arms and looked at the two rippling forms, dripping slightly and staining the ground red. They weren't as large as she usually made them, but it was hard, making dogs out of your own blood.

"Okay." She concentrated chakra to her hands and placed one on either dog's neck. "Let's go fetch." The oddly assorted trio took off again, bounded into the trees and disappeared.

Kyuuri stopped in a clearing, panting and wiped a smear of mud off her cheek. This was going nowhere. She thought for a moment, smiled and stood up straight, clutching both hands together. "Let's go!" Eyes closed, she sent streams of chakra directly to her hair, which danced about as though caught in a gale. Suddenly, tendril after tendril of long, tangled hair shot out and snaked it's way through the trees, like some strange tentacle. Kyuuri winced as she felt her hair multiply it's length but you had to suffer for your art, no? Chakra continued to whirl and dance around her in a mad storm as her hair curled through the forest, searching out the shuriken.

Muji frowned, and squinted at the root. Was it? It was very faint but... Yes! An imprint of Sensei's sandal! She straightened up and stared at the nearest bush. Ah. Those two twigs were snapped. She grinned. "I gotcha."

Kyoumou glanced back and saw the other dog stop, nose to the ground. As she watched, it’s head shot up and it bounded off. She leaped onto the back of it’s companion and they followed at a similar speed.

“ARGH!” Muji fell flat on her face, and recoiled in horror. Something had grabbed her ankle! She slashed out wildly with a kunai, yelling and kicking.

“Hey!” Muji opened her eyes to see Kyuuri dashing towards her, hair wild. Oh. It was a lock of Kyuuri’s hair around her ankle. Kyuuri tugged it off and gazed ruefully at the hacked-off end. “You find anything?”

Muji grinned. “The shuriken’s up this tree, I’m sure of it.” She jabbed her finger upwards. “But it’s pretty high, and there are no good climbing branches, so we’ll have to wait for Kyoumou.”

Secretly, Kyuuri was rather relieved. She hated tree-climbing.

Right on cue, Kyoumou and her two dogs burst into the clearing, and Kyoumou leaped off her mount and gave a mock-salute. Muji rolled her eyes. “Shuriken’s up there, so get climbing!”

“Yes ma’am,” Kyoumou muttered. She undid the jutsu and they all watched the dogs dissolve into pools of blood. “Okay…” Kyoumou muttered to herself, clasping her hands together. Concentrating, she conjured another sheet of glass, charged forwards and leaped off it, shooting upwards. She focused the chakra to her feet – “Okay, okay…”

With fierce concentration, she held it all at her feet and ran directly up the tree, clasped her hands together again and suddenly leaped up to meet another sheet of glass. Bounce off it again, run up the tree…jump…. She attached herself to the tree once more and looked ahead. There, at last, was the shuriken.

She yanked it out of the bark and caught the scrap of paper attached. It said: Well done! Now just get back down without falling… The girl grinned. Mission accomplished.