The Test

They called him a lot of things. Some of them were true and others were misguided. Shikamaru could understand though why they called him these things. It was human nature to place people into certain classifications. Although, Shikamaru felt that he himself was too complex to be strictly classified as one thing or the other, he didn't mind it too much because it made him appear normal and that's what he himself was striving for.

They called him sexist because of the opinionated comments he made about woman. He agreed with this assumption mainly because he didn't like women. Even though, as far back as he can remember, his mother had drilled into him the responsibilities he would have to undertake as a man regarding women. It's not that he really hated them, in fact he was starting to feel a strange 'attraction' towards them that he could not logically explain. When he asked his father about it, his father told him that he was just growing up and that in time he would discover what that 'attraction' was. This only frustrated Shikamaru more. With this strange confusion brewing inside him, he decided to keep his distance and observe when it came to women.

They called him stupid because of his lack of 'social' understanding. Shikamaru was just pretty sure they were mad. No sane person could begin to comprehend their insane societal rules, while Shikamaru thought that he himself was the epitome of sane. Everything logical made sense to him while the crazy, insane garbage that people accused him of being too stupid to understand would baffle even some of the greatest minds.

They called him lazy because he would complain when people would try to force him to do something and say that when they needed him he was always laying around watching clouds somewhere. The truth was Shikamaru was far from lazy. He just didn't see why he would have to waste his time and/or money and/or effort to accomplish some pointless task that the troublesome people were trying to con him into doing. The only reason he was off watching clouds while they were looking for him, was to clear his mind of all the troublesome thoughts that they had put there in the first place.

Ok, Shikamaru will admit that he is, albeit, a little bit lazy. Just a little. But his unwillingness to over-exert himself at the whims of his comrades could be misconstrued as complete laziness. He knew, however, that if he really wanted to do something, he would do it whole-heartedly.

Now, he found himself standing, with his best friend and his most troublesome one, in center of the twenty-first training ground waiting on their new sensei to arrive. The three of them had mixed expressions anywhere from excitement to frustration to disgust. Shikamaru, however, was worried by something their sensei had said the day before.

"We'll probably end up going back to the academy." Shikamaru broke the silence.

"huh" Chouji mumbled through the breakfast he had been munching on.

"What do you mean?" Ino asked more angry than inquisitive.

Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders. "Asuma-sensei didn't take the time to find out anything about us. If I was going to be working with someone for a while I would at least try to find out more about them. I think they're going to test us again."

"Well he did ask us our names, maybe he knows us from our registration forms?" Chouji interjected.

"You can't tell about a person from what someone else wrote on a paper." Ino retorted before turning her attention back to Shikamaru. "What do you mean 'test us again'?"

Shikamaru shrugged again. "They probably want to see how we would do in a real world experience before officially making us genin. That's probably why we're meeting at the training ground."

Ino wrinkled her nose in frustration. "You don't know anything, Shikamaru."

Chouji groaned in disappointment most because the breakfast he just ate was not enough to quell his hunger.

"Yoshi, quiet down. It's too early to be yelling like that." Asuma called out as he approached the three would-be ninja.

"Asuma-sensei" Ino called out as all three turned to meet him. "What are we doing here, is it something important?"

"You could say that." Asuma chuckled as he skillfully tapped on cigarette out of his pack and caught it between his lips. After lighting and taking a long drag, he spoke again.

"You have already proven that you are worthy of becoming genin by graduating from the academy. Today, we're going to find out if you really have what it takes to officially become genin."

"Told you" Shikamaru mumbled under his breath towards Ino, which earned him a quick punch in the shoulder and a menacing glare.

Asuma rubbed the back of his head. 'They're already fighting amongst themselves' he thought.

"Listen up, of the twenty-seven of you that graduated on three teams or nine of you will become official genin. The rest will return to the academy for further training.'" He gave them a few moments for his words to sink in. Surprisingly, they appeared to expect that from him.

"So, what do we have to do?" Ino questioned shyly, borderline flirtatious.

Asuma's cheeks turned a light shade of red as he defensively rubbed the back of his head. He put his hand in front of his mouth and coughed to regain his composure. He reached in to his flack vest and pulled out an envelope.

"This envelope contains an official genin certificate. Your object will be to obtain this envelope and the one that does will move on to missions as an official genin." Asuma paused to take another drag of his cigarette.

"So you mean that only one of us will become a genin." Chouji groaned. "That's not fair."

"Life's not fair." Asuma responded lightly. "You can use your ninja tools, and quite frankly,you're going to need them if you ever expect to get the envelope from me."

Asuma looked across the faces of the three young ninja and saw that each one had a different expression. Chouji looked disappointed. Ino looked very determined. But Shikamaru on the other hand, looked bored out of his mind. 'There's something about that kid' Asuma thought. All of the other genin he received in the past had some sort of dramatic reaction to this realization, but Shikamaru looked as if his mind was elsewhere.

"Ok, you have until noon to get the envelope from me. That leaves us about three and a half hours." Asuma readied himself. "Ready…begin."

Asuma jumped backwards into the woods. In pulled a kunai out of her pouch and reversed it in her hand.

"I'm going to get that envelope." As she jumped off into the woods in pursuit of their sensei.

Shikamaru and Chouji just stood there for a minute. Chouji looked at Shikamaru as if asking what he should do.

"It's troublesome, Chouji, but we might as well try." He shrugged to his friend who nodded in reply.

Shikamaru stretched for a minute leaning far to each side and bending over forward as if he was stretching for a long distance run. When he felt as if every muscle that he would possibly used had been thoroughly stretched he let out a long yawn before jumping off into the woods to his left.

"Mate yo" Chouji cried as he leapt off after his friend.

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Ino was the first one to catch up with Asuma. Asuma was wondering how long it would take them to find him and fifteen minutes after he started this ordeal, he got his answer.

Ino jumped down from a tree a few meters in front of him kunai in hand. Her look of determination had only grown stronger during her pursuit. As Asuma stood there nonchalantly, as if he didn't see her as a threat, her determination boiled into anger. 'How dare he take me lightly' she thought. 'I was the best konoichi in my class. I'm a woman to be feared.' She let her anger turn to rage as she charged at him with her full force.

Asuma just side stepped her and she flew right by him when she lunged. She fell to the ground, but quickly recovered into a ready position.

"You're going to have to do better than that." Asuma chuckled as he looked down on the furious konoichi.

"Get bent" she snarled back at him. "I am going to get that envelope."

'She's never going to get it if she doesn't learn to control that temper and that mouth of hers' Asuma thought to himself.

She lunged at him again. This time Asuma didn't dodge her attack, but slid a knuckle blade from his sleeve, caught it, and parried her attack with ease. This carried on for a couple of minutes and the more energy Ino put into her attack the more she became frustrated by the fact that her attacks were pointless. Her frustration reached a peak and she hopped back to assess the situation.

Close combat wasn't working so it was time to switch to distance combat. She flipped the kunai around in her hand and took her aim. She let it fly, but Asuma just deflected it with his blade. The kunai spun around in the air, until he caught it and hurled it back at her. She dogged it by rolling to her right and when she popped back up she quickly let two shuriken fly followed shortly by a third. Asuma just deflected the three shuriken as easily as he deflected the kunai earlier.

Shikamaru could hear the clash of metal in the distance and knew immediately that someone had found their sensei. He approached cautiously as he knew that jumping into direct combat would be the bad choice. When he got close enough, he jumped into the trees to get a better view of the situation.

Ino had had enough. This man was showing her no respect and he was too strong to be taken down by ninja tools. She would need to make a big move. She knelt down on the forest floor, her head pointed towards the ground as she quickly made hand seals. She brought her hands up in front of her in the shape of a box as she raised her head. Shintenshin no Jutsu.

Asuma jumped up to a tree branch as she spoke the words. Her body fell limp to the forest floor. Asuma shook his head. She let desperation overcome her and made a bad decision. He dropped back down to ground level and walked over to her. He picked up her body and propped it up against a tree.

Shikamaru watched the events unfold in front of him. Asuma was too strong. At no point did he show any signs of a weakness or any openings. Shikamaru knew there was no way he would be able to take this man head on. He would have to wait and look for an opening. He saw Asuma turn his head away from the girl he just laid against the tree to look over his shoulder in Shikamaru's direction.

'Oh, shit' Shikamaru thought. 'He found me.'

Silence. Asuma turned around to face his direction. Shikamaru froze. He knows he should retreat, but something in Asuma eyes told Shikamaru that he hadn't quite located him yet. That's when he heard it.

Baika no Jutsu. Nikudan Sensha

Shikamaru looked directly beneath him. His best friend had found their location and had brought himself out in the open. 'Not a smart move, Chouji' Shikamaru thought. He watched his friend's body expand to two times its normal size. Then he saw as he pulled each of his limbs as well as his head. Then his friend's swollen body began to roll. He rolled with so much force that the earth beneath him was being thrown behind him a good six or seven meters.

Asuma leapt to his right and Chouji changed direction to follow in pursuit clipping a tree in the process. Shikamaru was amazed at the sheer power his friend displayed. A bunch of loud cracking sounds were followed by a humongous thud as the tree fell. The tree he was sitting in was still shaking as he watched Chouji chase their sensei around the forest floor.

When Asuma jumped into a tree to dodge Chouji, Shikamaru saw his opportunity. Asuma's back was turned to him and his concentration was on Chouji who was now reversing direction and picking up speed. When Chouji took to the air, Shikamaru launched his attack. One kunai followed by two shuriken flew at Asuma's back.

Poof. His attack had struck a log. Shikamaru had not only failed in his attack but had given away his position. Damn it. Chouji ripped the branch that only seconds earlier was holding Asuma. He landed on the ground. Poof. Chouji doubled over clutching his stomach.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Chouji muttered.

Shikamaru jumped down to join his friend. Kunai drawn, he checked the surrounding area to look for any signs of Asuma. When he was sure there were no signs, he turned and helped his friend to his feet.

"We need to re-group." Shikamaru said to his best friend who looked like he was about to vomit.

Shikamaru walked over to the girl Asuma had left leaning against a tree and hoisted her up over his shoulder. 'Troublesome' he muttered as he and Chouji walked off in no particular direction.

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Shikamaru and Chouji sat hidden in a row of hedges that lined the edge of the forest. An unconscious girl lay at their side.

"I don't think it can be done." Chouji whispered to Shikamaru.

"No, none of us are strong enough to beat him. I give up. I'll just go back to the academy." Shikamaru said.

Chouji's stomach growled. "I'm still hungry."

"Well, I'm going to get that envelope no matter what." An awakened Ino said firmly.

"Ino, you're awake." Chouji gasped.

"Of course I'm awake." Ino smack him up-side his head.

"Ino, there's no way you'll get that envelope." Shikamaru stated. "He's too strong for any of us. I'm just going to give up."

"Oh, I am definitely going to get it and you two are going to help me!" she said as she grabbed both boys by the ears. "You got me."

"Owe, owe, owe!"

"Hai, hai…..troublesome."

"Good, now we just have to find him again." Ino said standing up rubbing the dirt that had collected on her hands on Shikamaru's jacket.

Shikamaru groaned in disgust.

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When they found Asuma he was lighting another cigarette and looking up at the sky. Shikamaru looked up at the sky, too. The sun was getting high and their window to complete their objective was growing shorter. The three of them remained hidden behind a line of trees so that Asuma would know they're location.

"Yoshi, on three we all jump out and attack at the same time." Ino whispered.

"No, that won't work." Shikamaru said. "The man shows no opening."

"Well, you come up with a better plan then." Ino hissed.

Shikamaru looked at Asuma again. He glanced across the line of trees that surrounded the opening in which Asuma stood. He let the techniques that his companions used play around in his mind for a bit. He closed his eyes and placed his finger tips together in front of him as he was deep in thought.

He opened his eyes. "Chouji," he whispered. "Can you do your thing again?"

Chouji grunted as he nodded in response.

"Good, I need you to sneak around to that side of the clearing. When you get there, I want you to step out and make your presence known. Don't be afraid to get showy; you're going to be the distraction. Then I want you to attack with everything you got. Make him pay attention to you."

Chouji nodded and turned to sneak off.

Shikamaru turn to Ino. "You're coming with me. When Chouji distracts Asuma, I'll capture him and hold him still. Then you can use your mind-body switch technique to make him give up the envelope. Hand it to me and we will retreat back to your body where you'll get your precious envelope."

Ino nodded. "That's a good plan"

Shikamaru smirked.

The two snuck around in the opposite direction as Chouji.

When Chouji's voice could be heard they popped their heads out to see. Chouji did a great job making it showy, but it might have come across a little to cheesy for Shikamaru's taste. When Chouji launched his attack, Shikamaru quickly ran through his hand seals. His shadow darkened and it began to stretch away from him. Ino watched in awe as his shadow made its way across the open field. It also helped that Asuma jumped backwards to avoid Chouji's attack.

When their shadows met, Asuma froze in his tracks.

"Kage Mane no Jutsu….success" Shikamaru said with a big smirk on his face. "Ino, now!"

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When the two walk out into the clearing to join their teammate and their sensei, Ino had a huge, cheesy grin on her face as she waved the envelope in the air triumphantly. Shikamaru had the impassive look that he had at the beginning.

Ino tore open the envelope and unfolded the paper slowly. The whole time staring victoriously at their sensei. Asuma just shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck again.

After enough basking, Ino looked down at the paper to find it was completely blank. Well, almost, down at the bottom in hand written print, the word 'congratulations' was written.

"What the hell is this?" Ino barked.

Asuma just smiled at them. "Congratulations, you all pass."

"What?" all three cried.

"It was the objective of this exercise. To see if you three can work together as a team."

"I get it." Shikamaru said almost disappointed.

"What the hell!" Ino shouted.

Chouji's stomach grumbled.

"As your new sensei I am proud of you. You work well together and for a reward I would like to treat you to some barbeque."

"Yeah!!!" Chouji screamed.

Shikamaru smirked. Maybe none of them were strong enough to complete the task by themselves, but together they could pull anything off.