Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. (And I cry into my pillow everynight)!

Hinata was standing in the lunch line. Today was the first day of the chunin exams. She took a deep breath, felling the atmosphere of excitement from all the ninja. All the different villages where eyeing each other and everyone was chattering with excitement. Hinata was standing behind Kiba and Shino. Kiba was preoccupied trying to start an argument with Shino about the ingredients in today's soup. Shino was preoccupied with ignoring him.

"All these new people," Hinata thought nervously, "I'd rather stick with my group." The only people she recognized were from her village, and the only ones she trusted were her own squad. In the last few years Neji, her cousin had hated her for even breathing, so Hinata avoided him at all costs. That was the way she was used to dealing with situations: avoidance.

Suddenly Hinata felt a sharp tug on a lock of her hair. She gasped and put her hand on the back of her neck, to keep it from getting pulled again. When she turned around the first thing she saw at eye level was a man's chest. As she looked up, she saw that is wasn't a man, but a boy a little older than herself, another ninja. He had tape over most of his face, and looked intimidating. From his headband she could see he was from the sound village. He had and amused look in his eyes.

"What do we have here?" Hinata tried to open her mouth and speak, she really did, but she stood there frozen. The bandaged up sound villager turned to his shorter teammate and said. "Heh, I can't believe kids like this get into these exams. I was hoping we would actually get an interesting challenge this year. After a smirk and another 'I-can't-believe-they're-doing-this-to-us' look, the two boys changed the topic, and continued talking to each other , as if Hinata wasn't even there.

Hinata was relieved they seemed to forget her, and she stated to turn around when her eyes saw Naruto, sitting across the cafeteria, talking and slurping ramen simultaneously. 'No...wait a minute,' Hinata thought to herself. 'I came to these chunin exams to see if I could change, and I need to start. Right now!'

"NO!" Hinata said more loudly that she intended to, which was still much quieter that most other voices. The two ninja looked down at her slightly surprised at such a soft voice sounding so assertive. "Ah...I mean..um..." Hinata glanced down and stated to poke her index fingers together. Glancing over quickly again at Naruto, she saw him blowing bubbles into his milk carton through a straw inserted in each nostril. 'Ok, here we go, Hinata' she thought to herself.

She made herself look them in the eyes. Taking one big breath, she blurted it all at once. "No, your wrong! The village hidden in the leaves has great genin ninja! We all train hard, and are a match for any one of you, you'll see!" She wondered what would happen if she pointed at them and screamed "Believe it!", but she thought it was enough to stand up to them.

The two sound village boys stared at her for several seconds, the shorter one raised one eyebrow. They didn't really know what to say. She had said it all so fast, and the tension drove Hinata's voice to an even higher pitch. To them, she sounded like an angry chipmunk on helium. They were sure she had said something...

'Don't break eye contact, don't break eye contact, don't break...." Hinata tried to keep herself psyched up.

"Uh, you're holding up the line." One of them pointed behind her. Hinata turned and saw ten feet of space between her and her teammates. Red with embarrassment and jittery with fear, she rushed up behind Sino and Kiba, who were still arguing over something silly. Even with Kiba's intense hearing, it did him no good if he wasn't paying attention. Hinata was glad though, she got to take care of it without help.

Trying to spot Naruto again in the crowd, Hinata thought to herself, 'There, I did it! I stood up for myself! I think I can change now, yeah!' She was beaming inside as she gazed at Naruto, who was laughing hysterically at Sakura for some reason. Sakura's face was as red as a beat as she punched Naruto on the head.

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Author's note: so what do you guys think? After sweat, blood, and way too much crying: My very first fanfiction and, he looks just like his father! Anyway, reiviews! Don't just say 'good', I don't do that with you guys! Bring on the helpful critisim! Thanks