Rei hopped down the steps between the rows of benches, taking them two at a time, to find her spot next to Kiba when an intense tremor shook the whole arena. She flung out her arms to steady herself, luckily not hitting anyone around her. Shortly after it ended, Rei carefully went down the remaining steps and snaked between the people by the rail. Again, Kiba grabbed her arm and pulled her to the rail between him and Shikamaru. The crowd went hysterical, cheering for the winner of the match.

"Was that an earthquake?" She looked down, searching the arena floor. There was a crevice spanning most of the area, and there was a huge gaping hole in the stands on the other side of the stadium.

"No, that was someone winning their match in five seconds flat," Kiba replied, the words all strung together. He gripped Rei's shoulders, turning her to him, an astonished look on his face. "You can fly?"

Rei grinned. "No, that was –"

"Shadows." Rei and Kiba both looked over to Shikamaru who was facing the arena floor, his arms folded across his chest, a bored look on his face.

Kiba looked even more confused. "How did you —"

"She did it only after being in the shade of the trees," he explained in a casual voice. "And after she used Naruto's shadow clone strategy, she looked up here and smirked at me. It only made sense that she was about to use something that I do." He glanced over at Rei from the corner of his eye, then continued watching the proctor and some medical nin down on the arena floor, looking for the person who lost the match, searching the cracks and crevice in the ground.

Rei grinned at Shikamaru. "I got the idea after watching you train a few months ago."

His shoulders raised and lowered with his sigh. "You could have enlightened me. Naruto knows you can do shadow clones."

"Well, I . . . wanted to surprise everyone." She was wondering why she had to defend herself. When Shikamaru didn't say anything, she stepped into his line of sight, and he avoided her eyes. "It's my technique," she said, her voice taking on a hint of hostility. "I just got the idea from you." Kiba was standing by the wall, hoping he wouldn't get dragged into whatever this was. Rei waited for a response from Shikamaru.

"My match is about to start." He turned and walked away up the stairs, disappearing behind the wall at the top.

Rei was left watching him, her mouth slightly open, an offended look on her face. "What's his problem?"

Kiba had also watched him go. "Maybe he's jealous."

"Whatever." She turned and leaned forward onto the rail. The kid who won the previous match had used a second jutsu to make the giant crevice disappear, and it repaired the hole in the stands. The loser of the match was lying sprawled out on the ground. Rei couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He didn't even get a chance to show what he could do. She remembered back to seeing him during the preliminaries, and he was good. It made her want to go up against him herself.

As he was carried out of the arena, the winner simply walked away, hands in his pockets and not a scratch on him. Rei felt an almost burning anger for him, but she felt better knowing that since he only did one move, there was a slim chance he would become a chuunin. The kages needed to see more than just that. Something similar happened the year before.

Kiba kept quiet when he saw Rei watching Shikamaru walk out onto the arena floor with a bitter look on her face. Temari was waiting for him with a smirk. They both signaled to the proctor that they were ready, and the match started as the proctor signaled them to begin.

Rei sighed and closed her eyes as a light breeze from Temari's giant fan hit her face. Even though she was annoyed with him, part of Rei was excited to see Shikamaru in action, since she hadn't seen him fight since the preliminaries. Normally, they trained together when they weren't training with their teams, and much of the time, it meant they were fighting each other. Rei had started to learn how to predict his strategies, giving her an edge in any battle she fought with any other opponent since she was learning to think and plan ahead. Thinking it over, she figured she had him to thank for her victory over Kuro. Before she'd fought with Shikamaru so much, she probably wouldn't have thought to start out with a clone, and so she would have been caught in the vines herself.

"Rei, look at that!" Without taking his eyes off the fight, Kiba reached over and shook Rei's arm. She opened her eyes to see Shikamaru on the other side of the arena floor surrounded by shadows. His jacket was floating in the air like a parachute, and she just had to smirk. If she was Temari, she would have looked up every once in a while. Shikamaru had tried that on her once before, and, sadly, it worked.

Temari seemed to finally get wise to Shikamaru's strategy and hid behind a wall of earth. She was smirking, apparently having a new plan, but Rei saw her eyes grow and her smirk vanish. Rei's brow furrowed in confusion until she noticed the stream of Shikamaru's shadow poking out of a hole in the ground left from Naruto's match. Around her, the people were cheering for Shikamaru, especially the genin. Only Gaara and Kankuro looked unhappy with the winner of the match.

The crowd nearest Shikamaru gasped, and the people cheering stopped, wondering what they'd missed. Whispers were flying through the stadium, and it took a while for the news to reach Rei's side.

An old man leaned far over the railing on the other side of the wall from Kiba and tried to get his attention. "Hey!" Kiba turned to look at him and leaned over the rail to hear him better. "The winner withdrew himself from the match!" Rei's face turned to a look of utter shock, but Kiba was able to voice what she was too stunned to ask.

"Why did he do that?" He looked down at Shikamaru, who was walking toward the stairs to return to the stands. Hearing the news himself, Naruto jumped over the rail and ran over to Shikamaru.

Rei missed the rest of the conversation between Kiba and the other spectator. She weaved through the crowd of the people and practically flew up the stairs. At the top, she turned, storming down the hallway toward the stairs that led to the arena floor. She met Shikamaru on the stairs. He and Naruto were talking, but once they saw Rei, they stopped. Halfway down the steps, she stopped, looking down at Shikamaru while he looked up at her, Naruto standing next to him.

Suddenly, Rei reached out and smacked him across the cheek. "Why the heck would you do something like that?" She was almost screaming.

Shikamaru was holding his face, feeling the warmth of blood rushing to the area that would turn bright red within seconds. "Fighting is boring –"

"So?" Rei raised her voice even further. "You could have become a chuunin, and maybe if you go down and talk to the proctor, you still can be! How could you have been so stupid to go and do th—"

"Rei." He stopped her rambling with his apathetic voice. "They're still going to count it. The proctor already talked to me."

Rei only stood there, looking down at him, a confused expression on her face.

"You didn't let me finish." Shikamaru climbed up one more step so that he was level with her. "Fighting is boring when I'm not up against you."

Her face changed seamlessly from puzzled to surprised. Her eyes got even bigger when Shikamaru leaned forward and kissed her. She just stood there dumbly, too stunned to do anything. Naruto averted his eyes with a disappointed look on his face. When Shikamaru pulled back, Rei struggled to comprehend what had just happened. Shikamaru smirked at her. Slowly, she smiled back.

Together, the three of them walked back up the stairs, chattering, but they got quiet when Gaara passed them on his way down. Rei and Shikamaru met back up with Kiba, asking if Sasuke had shown up yet. While everyone was waiting for him, Rei and Shikamaru were leaning against the wall, talking to Kiba. Rei was also partly leaning on Shikamaru, feeling the warmth from his arm. She was smiling the whole time.

After a minute or so, Sasuke and Kakashi finally showed up in a flurry of leaves. Even though she didn't really like Sasuke, Rei had to admit that he'd improved his wardrobe a bit. Blue just didn't seem like his color. As the match was about to begin, Shikamaru and Kiba moved up to the rail, squeezing themselves in between other people that had swarmed the place to get the best possible view of the match. Rei hung back, not really too excited to see either of the "prodigies" in action.

"Do you guys want anything to eat?" she asked, her arms folded and the traces of a grin on her face. "I'm gonna go to get food while the lines are short."

Kiba looked over his shoulder at her since he couldn't really turn his body since he was stuffed between Shikamaru and a stranger. "I'm good, thanks."

Shikamaru also turned his head, looking past the person standing behind him. "Same here."

Rei smiled and shook her head at the two as she left to get herself something to snack on. She had to practically fight her way up the stairs. This time, when she reached the top, the halls were nearly empty since many of the people who came to the Exams this time around only came to see this match, anyway. She walked the short distance to a kart that was selling Ichiraku ramen and bought a bowl of beef ramen. After paying the man, she grabbed and broke a pair of chopsticks and received her steaming bowl of noodles. She wouldn't have been surprised if the smell alone brought Naruto running, but it tasted fantastic. She walked back to the stairs, blowing on the bowl to cool down the noodles.

When she started to go down, she saw TenTen coming up and flashed her a quick smile before slurping on her ramen. She was a bit surprised when TenTen stepped in front of her, a shy look on her face.

"Can I ask you something real quick?"

With big eyes and ramen hanging out of her mouth, Rei nodded.

They climbed back up the stairs to where they led out into the empty and much quieter hallway. Rei quickly swallowed her mouthful of noodles and directed her attention to Ten Ten.

"Sorry if it's kind of a weird question, but, uh…" Her voice trailed off, and she looked to the side at the crowd of people cheering for the match.

"What is it?" Rei asked with a polite smile.

"I was wondering," she started, looking back at Rei and lowering her voice, "do you like Shikamaru?"

It was Rei's turn to look to her side at the crowd of people, but her eyes rested on one person in particular. He was standing against the wall now, his head turned to watch the match over Kiba's shoulder. His hands were in his pockets, and one of his legs was bent with his foot planted on the wall. Rei could see his shoulders rise and fall as he closed his eyes and sighed. He turned his head to the other side and opened his eyes, looking directly at Rei. Seeing her talking to TenTen, he raised an eyebrow with a small smile on his face.

Everything seemed to click as it fell into place. He and Choji were looking over at her when they were talking. When he asked Kiba something before her match, it had been about her. He moved up to the rail to get a better look at her match. He'd been watching her closely during her match, and even Kiba noticed. He felt betrayed because she had improved upon his technique without even telling him.

"Rei?"

She blinked, coming back to reality. She looked back to TenTen.

"Do you?"

After a pause, Rei looked back down at Shikamaru.

She smirked.