[center][h1][b][i][color=cyan] Yasu Hinoiki[/color][/i][/b][/h1]
[hider=Journal entry 1]
[I]"The forest was alive, the ever growing trees consuming every ray of sunlight. Black patches of shade swallowed the floor beneath us, as we leaped from branch to branch. Makoto had a look of distress on her face, I couldn't tell if she was pissed off or actually scared. I wanted to know where Shirou was, and why Makoto was carrying his spear and two headbands, then hit me like hot sake down a virgin throat. He died protecting me, the rest of his corpse leftovers to creatures of forest. No wonder Makoto was pissed off, she just lost one of her comrades as well as a 5% discount on weaponry, wouldn't be surprised if Shirou's mother would start charging us double the price after losing her baby boy. The boy lived as coward but died a hero... to me.

We descended to the ground, a moment to catch our breath, all of sudden kunai came flying past us, from different directions. The bold woman readied her weapon and ran into the fray, I tried to-no I wanted to stop her, but for some strange reason I couldn't, my feet carried me in the opposite direction, I heard the clash of metals, then Makoto's cry, then an explosion, I didn't have to turn back to know her fate.  I was the only one, the only survivor, I needed my Sensei, at one point I blamed our Sensei for my own cowardliness. Suddenly my body fell to the ground, I turned to see my meters away from me, yet I felt no pain. I turned over on back, the back of my head resting on giant fuma shuriken. So much for a beautiful death, I couldn't even see how nice the sky was, at the time I thought my soul would be trapped in this forest, maybe I would reunite with Makoto and Shirou, Makoto would slap the side of my ankle with her pole staff, like the good old days, and Shirou, trying to form a sentence but instead just stuttering, how Smoker Sensei take this news, I'd like to think she smokes 80 cigs before killing herself to join us, in this forest of death, heh, such selfish words to say, besides  I might not reunite with them, I might be sent to the lower part, that place with all the molten rocks, sometimes hot, sometimes cold, maybe reincarnated as a maggot for a  cowardly death, and like that, I would close my head, hear the unsheathing of a blade, and then wake up my this nightmare."[/i][/hider]

Finally finishing his last scribble Yasu sighed closing his book. He dimmed his lamp until it was completely dark in his small room, surrounded by blank plain screens, he heard the faint snores of his peers behind them. He rose from his bed roll, slid open his screen door and went to wash off and change into his daily clothing. Lastly he went into the empty room on the side, the custom training room with a special type of floorboard to train any Shinobi in stealth, slowly he placed his barefoot onto the cold, dusty board, then his hands, moving slowly, yet covering big areas of the floor, the trick was to stretch as you could, but to remain slow, eventually over time your speed will come, he did this for and hour before exiting the training with a bow, thus making his way to the exams.

The number of participants was a big one, there were many different colour headbands, mass variety of clothing. A lot of the participants were grown, with a few exceptional people around his age. Yasu maneuvered around the crowd carefully, trying not to step on anyone's toes, slow and steady was better for him, less likely to get him into problems, even if there was going to be a problem, Makoto would come to his rescue, she always did. He spotted her crouched down like a delinquent, Yasu found her interesting, the daughter of well respected man who had the intimidation skills of a bear, yet she didn't live off her family reputation, she made her own, [color=cyan]"Makuza"[/color] he said underneath his breath, she had more masculinity in her than Shirou did his ballsack. The young Genin would move quietly towards,he wanted to greet her, but didn't know how, every word he thought didn't sound good enough to say aloud, this caused him to skip the greet and just be brief. [color=cyan]"Where's Shirou?"[/color] Her grin scared him, her grin curved like a snake sizing it's prey.[/center]