A/N. … Ok, so I don't remember what color I had Narumi's hair as… And I don't much feel like going back to double check… So from now on, her hair is the same color as Kushina's in the anime. If you want to know what she looks like I just uploaded a hand drawn picture of her a little while ago… The quality probably isn't the best, but my best camera is probably my ipod touch, and I suck at drawing feet. Anyways, hope you enjoy the story and sorry for not updating in a while, my computer had an unexpected crash and refused to work any longer.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

EP 3: The Genin Exam Pt. 2

"Kuso…" It could've been either the high tensions running through her classmates as they gathered around the training field located at the back of the academy, circling it like hungry vultures waiting for the slaughter, or maybe it was just the fact that she was surrounded by a lot of people she normally didn't get along with on a regular basis or even bothered to socialize with for that matter, but she felt old anxieties and fears she had thought Kaede had long gotten rid of from when she was smaller and had no real home or safe place to hide in cropping up once again. It turned her into a nervous wreck, hands wringing together nervously even after she had returned the weapon to the teachers as she worried her bottom lip in an old habit that had stemmed from nervousness and a shyness that had even outmatched the Hyuuga heiress back then. Either way, she had a horrible feeling that no matter who she got put up against in the upcoming mock tournament, she was going to lose and badly at that. She wasn't even going to think of how the other students would mock her for failing to pass the genin exam yet again, making for quite the humiliating total of four times or the fact that Kaede might actually beat her for wasting her time with all the training she had put the young girl through.

"Narumi." If she had still been holding that kunai, a certain lazy genius would've probably lost his head.

"Goddamn it! You stupid, idiotic, senseless, injudicious, imprudent, careless…" Narumi could've gone on and on with a large list of terribly big words that may or may not have been difficult to spell for some, had the usually lazy boy not clapped a hand straight over her mouth to stop her little tirade short. The bookish girl was fairly sure she had managed to keep herself at a moderate volume at least, guiet enough that the other students hadn't heard her string of insults that more or less meant the same thing, since none of them were looking their way, but she couldn't have been entirely sure. For all she knew they were simply ignoring the pair, she did have a tendency to lose control of the volume of her voice when she was nervous and/or angry. Especially when she was nervous and someone had had the bright idea of sneaking up on her, whether intentional or not, because then would go to anger and her voice would reach all new pitches she was not entirely proud of.

"Narumi, back to earth please." Shikamaru's sarcasm wound up lost on the other, who simply blinked at him in a daze. Obviously she hadn't been entirely paying attention to him, she had been far too lost in her own thoughts. He sighed at her behavior, not entirely sure how to go about accomplishing his self-appointed mission, and the only reason as to why he had bothered grabbing the formerly steaming girl in the first place. "Wow, you're normally not this distracted…"

"Oh shut up you bumbling idiot! You do realize that if I still had that kunai Iruka-sensei gave us, you'd be searching for a new head right?" She bit back, yanking his hand from over her mouth so she could clearly be heard. Shikamaru simply deadpanned, expression only managing to grate further on her already frayed nerves as he finally replied.

"Why do you think I came over now instead of sooner… You have reflexes that could kill should the situation call for it." He leaned back slightly, stretching before finally slouching down into the familiar lazy posture Narumi had grown used to over the three years they had been around each other. "Troublesome woman, I'm not that stupid…" The other simply huffed, glaring at him from behind an admittedly pretty shade of red colored bangs, the girl actually pouting of all things as she decided to leave him without a response, hand latching on to his wrist with an unnaturally tight grip and dragging him off to find a better view point of the battles to come. They would both need a good spot to better see their classmates, Shikamaru so he could devise better strategies that involved the minimum amount of work possible and at the same time the least amount of damages sustained for himself, while Narumi just wanted to see her classmates beat the living shit out of each other. However well behaved she normally was, she still liked to see a good fist fight every once in a while. "Quit worrying, you'll be just fine."

"Didn't I tell you to shut up, you baka!" She ordered, finally finding a spot that met her standards before sitting down, forcing the lazy shinobi-in-training to join her not even a few seconds afterwards. "Thanks..." It was small, and barely above a whisper, honestly he would've missed it if he hadn't happened to land as close to his younger friend as he had, but he couldn't help the small smile that came to his face, pleased that his attempt at cheering her up had succeeded.

"Hmph, Troublesome woman." He called out, allowing for a rather heavy hand to land on her head, ruffling the ridiculously long strands of hair. "Anytime, after all, what are friends for?" He completely missed the ruby red blush that had overcome Narumi's face at the gesture, hidden behind soft hair and head hung low as if the weight of his hand was the cause. They both broke into fits of laughter however as a small fight broke out, Narumi swatting at his hand as the other laughed at her attempts to stop his messing around with her hair.

"Tsukuyo Narumi." The anxiety was back once again, the whole of the once excited crowd going surprisingly quiet as the recently turned twelve year old stood up and began to slowly make her way through the throngs of students crowding close to the lines of the battlefield. The earth was already scarred from several battles prior, a particular match between the youngest surviving Uchiha and an overconfident Inuzuka heir leaving the battlefield war torn and overtly singed. Someone had gotten a little fire happy unfortunately, and it had only been fueled by a determination to do the two remaining members of his family proud and the unnecessary goading and insults thrown by the obnoxiously loud boy at his traumatizing past had led to a very fierce battle that had ended with the Inuzuka boy needed to be taken to the infirmary for third degree burns.

The smoke that was still wafting from off of the charred ground didn't help her nervousness much either.

"You prepared to get your ass handed to ya, Narumi-chwan?" She couldn't help but wince. Great, her opponent was Takira. Honestly she would've preferred that Haruno girl, or even Yamanaka Ino, but she had to be put up against the one person who had specifically gone out of her way to make her feel miserable. She couldn't help the frustrated sigh that escaped her lips, forget the nervousness, by the time this was over, she was probably going to have the grandmaster king of headaches.

It didn't help at all when Iruka had placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, as good as his intentions had been, and wished her good luck. Good luck wasn't going to spare her any of the frustration this little match was going to bring about, and she was fairly certain that she'd at least be coming out of this with more bruises and broken bones than anything else in the world. At least the teachers had been smart for once and forbid the use of jutsu or long distance throwing weapons for this portion of the exam. Takira had the worst aim out of all of her classmates, including herself, and unfortunately the additional usage of throwing weapons would've resulted in the teachers having to protect the others rather than watching the test. The older, more brutish girl would never hit her actual target, and instead completely miss and wind up hitting the nearby spectators.

"This is going to be so much fun…" The sarcasm went completely ignored by the teachers, though she could swear that she could faintly hear Mizuki snickering silently from behind the cover provided by Iruka.

"Ready, GO!" Like the sound of a shuriken slicing through the air, the other girl took off, lunging at Narumi with careless abandon, fist cocked high and curled tight. It missed however, the swing far too wide to hit anything and passed harmlessly overhead as Narumi stepped into the girl's guard, before swiftly ducking underneath the outstretched arm. She took it in a tight grasp, putting all of her weight behind it, before throwing the girl wide and back into the direction she had come charging from originally, sending Takira skidding across the battlefield before finally rolling onto her feet just a few inches short of the out-of-bounds line.

Her expression was one of outright fury, but she did surprisingly well at hiding it, a nasty frown quickly morphing into a hideous grin as a pair of hands curled into tight fists once again and bigger girl charged forward for another go, roaring like a mad animal the whole entire time. She lacked the grace or finesse that was expected of a shinobi, she was far too loud for her own good, even simple footsteps might as well have been her stomping around like an elephant, but for all the other girl was worth, and despite the fact she had been born the unruly daughter of a one of the many store clerks in the village, she had power that was severely lacking in the majority of her family. A foreign toughness about her that had on more than one occasion resulted in Narumi speculating that maybe she was the descendant of one of the more forward and honorable samurai from the Land of Iron somewhere in the north. The girl was all muscle, and she knew how to throw it around, the only thing that would've made her more deadly being if she could actually aim properly for once in her short life. It would've been stupid to try and take one of her wild charges head on. The only problem for Narumi was, that unfortunately as it might've been.

She was known for doing some rather stupid things herself sometimes.

Taking a deep breath, she ran headlong, more than one of her classmates, and even both of her teachers gaping at her as if she had lost her mind.

She very well might've.

Until she suddenly went sliding on her knees and in between the charging bull's legs, kicking up dust and dirt in her wake and leaving her knees and lower legs scrapped and bleeding. She didn't let it stop her however, and within the blink of an eye, was up and both feet again, spinning around rapidly with her leg raised high in a round house kick that left Takira more than a little dizzy as it made contact, sending the poor girl sprawling to the ground. Narumi quickly backed off, not daring to try and push her luck by keeping up the attack. She knew that that probably hadn't been enough to the put the much larger girl down for good, but keeping up the attack in hopes of keeping her down would've been just as stupid as her head long charge at the girl had been. Takira was an iron wall, of solid muscle and unbridled power. She could wail on the other all she wanted, but the amount of damage she would've done would've probably been miniscule, and in the end she would've worn herself out, and as a result, left herself completely helpless to the other once she finally gathered her wits about her and picked herself up from the ground.

She knew this from all the confrontations they had had prior to this, when they had dissolved into fist fights that really hadn't needed to happen. It wasn't the small repeated pecking that hurt the girl and would keep her down, it was the slow but carefully placed attacks that hit hard in sensitive places that would leave the bigger girl defeated on the ground instead.

As predicted, Takira got up, wobbly as she was from the roundhouse kick to the head Narumi had given her, but she was standing none the less, and more than ready to try taking on more.

A shake of the head, a malicious grin, and a nasty fire in her eyes was all Narumi needed to see before she felt the telltale signs of a headache coming on. This was going to be an unnecessarily long match. Why, oh why, did the teachers pit her up against the only student that probably outmatched her in stubbornness and self-determination.

"YAAAGGGH!" The loud yelling was her only warning before she found herself at the brunt of a third headlong charge made by the other girl.

"Kami-sama have mercy on me... He-YAH!"

Her temper was at an all-time high at the moment, she still had a headache from the match with Takira Kumuso. It didn't help that Shikamaru was being unusually quiet, simply staring determinedly at her arm as he continued to bandage up her "war-wounds" as it were. By contrast to the silence that surrounded them like a thick blanket, the rest of the classroom was being obnoxiously loud. It was grating on her last nerve, and she was very sure that she was five seconds from pinning them all to the wall and slowly… Her thoughts were interrupted as Shikamaru suddenly spoke up, causing her to blink as she somehow managed to drag all of her attention away from her far too talkative classmates and place it all on the suddenly talkative Nara and the surprisingly calming air that surrounded him.

"Troublesome woman, ignore them. They're all just a bunch of overtly chatty idiots in the end. You'll just get yourself in trouble." She could understand what he was getting at, she was still bruised up from her battle with Takira anyways, and adding to the injuries wouldn't do her any good by starting a big fight with her classmates before she even got a chance at the final part of the test. If she wanted to pass, she needed to at least stay calm for another hour or so. Than not only would she have passed the genin exam, but then she'd also be out of this suddenly far too cramped room and the far too noisy students around them.

"But still… I know she did bad, the way she lost definitely wasn't glamorous…" She found herself going quiet as some of the girls she understood to be love-struck with the youngest Uchiha walked by, gossiping with each other and at the same time insulting the currently absent Kumuso girl. She hadn't been well liked to begin with, one of the few girls in the classroom that hadn't fallen head over hills for the aforementioned "genius", which had earned her the ire of the others when she had insulted his hair and called him an idiot the very first day she had met him. It hadn't helped her at all with the humiliating defeat she had suffered, and not by the hands of an enemy, but by her own clumsiness.

As Narumi predicted the match had gone on for a long time. So much so that the teachers had been about ready to stop it, once they had realized that it was an hour after twelve and the two were still going at it. In the end there had been no need, for the one that had actually been dead set on keeping it going for as long as need be until she won, ended it herself, and in probably the most humiliating way possible for a shinobi in training. She had been running at her in what had probably been the umpteenth headlong charge with little to no coordination to begin with, and without warning, had tripped over her own two feet and came to a skidding halt, on her face no less, right outside of the ring. She had been disqualified and lost the match for going out of bounds, and in the end had needed to be escorted from the ring by another teacher, tears coming down in rivers from her eyes as she was taken to the infirmary to get her injuries looked at and taken care of.

Their classmates were still laughing about it. As if it were funny, a comedy, the very definition of utmost hilarity. Narumi would be the first to admit, she hadn't been particularly fond of the girl either, but more so for her own antagonistic behavior towards herself rather than for anything she had said or did to anyone else. But not even she was this cruel, this mean, this nasty. She knew what it was like to suffer such a humiliating defeat, understood very well what it was like to loss simply because you were a little ungraceful or uncoordinated. She knew for a fact that a good number of students currently mucking it up over the whole affair had suffered the same fate, and far more often than even Takira had.

A good number of those had even had their butts handed to them but the bigger, more brutish girl herself. Takira had been nice to them though, and even though she could've rubbed their defeats by her hands in their faces, she hadn't. Takira may have been mean and nasty at times, but to further encourage Narumi's belief was a descendent of samurai, she had honor to some extent, and though she hadn't widely shown it, she had never rubbed a victory in the loser's face, never bragged about it, but simply looked at her opponents and then walked away. Never looked down on them, never sneered at them, never begrudged them at thing or told them how meager and unimportant they were. She looked at them, as if they were her equals, and simply turned and walked away, sometimes even giving a respectful nod of the head.

For however horrible she usually was, she didn't deserve to be laughed and mocked at like this.

"Tsukuyo Narumi," She blinked, shaken from her thoughts by one of their teachers calling her name. "Narumi, it's time for you to take the jutsu portion of the test. Come here please." She got up, expression still pensive, still tight.

"Hey Narumi."

"Nara Boy? Why did you-?"

"Good luck." Narumi simply nodded her head, before walking into the other room.

"Ok Narumi, first, show us your transformation jutsu."

"Transform!"

A/N. Ok, so that was longer than I had originally thought it would be. But I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and thanks for reading! I'll try and update soon-ish, but in the meantime please leave a review and tell me what you guys think. Thanks for reading and see ya!