A/N: It's been a hot minute since the two halves of this fic's eventual whole have interacted, so let's make some of that ice-cold NaruHina magic happen, shall we?

Time for chapter 17

Enjoy!

Naruto groaned tiredly as he peeled himself from his couch and walked towards his front door, which was being knocked on. It was nine-thirty at night, and the blonde had fallen asleep on his couch roughly three hours previously. His nightly session with Kakashi had been cancelled due to another set of unknown reasons.

"Coming, coming. Give me ten seconds, would you?" Naruto called as he tiredly walked to his door. Upon reaching it, he threw it open and sighed heavily at who awaited him on the other side.

"Oh, so you finally got sick of watching from the outside bench? Are you gonna sit by my bedside now?" he asked sluggishly, a hint of irritation in his voice as he gave Hinata, who stood at his doorstep, a bored look. The Hyuga girl was carrying a stack of books and several pencils, and if the subtle scent of lavender surrounding her was any indication, she was freshly showered.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, her tone defensive and face red. Naruto shook his head and gestured to the scholarly material stacked in her arms.

"Oh, save it. We both know what I'm talking about. Enough about that. What are you doing here, and why are you loaded with books?" he asked. Hinata quickly recollected herself and stepped into his apartment without an invitation.

"The exams begin tomorrow, and while much of the testing is combat-based, one particular section is always a written test. I trust Nara-san's family to prepare him, but I don't trust you to study on your own. As such, I will be helping you study" she explained as she turned on the lights in the room and set the materials down on his dining table. The Jinchuuriki rubbed his eyes and trudged back to the table.

"Good luck with that. There's a reason I hardly ever passed our written tests in the academy" he said as he sat down across from the Hyuga girl. Hinata shrugged and launched a pencil at him point-first, forcing him to reflexively catch it before it could remove one of his eyes.

"For all of your...frustrating traits, I don't think you're stupid. I think you probably could have passed those tests had you felt compelled to prepare" she said. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the near-compliment.

"I made a decision early on that I wasn't going to put effort into anything that wouldn't matter in the long run. Studying wouldn't have done me any good. The stuff they teach academy isn't applicable anyway" he said. Hinata nodded in agreement.

"Very true. As a person who has been trained in taijutsu from a young age, I can confirm that the hand-to-hand combat they teach is utter rubbish. I never paid much attention to the lectures, as much of it was worthless information. My scores were always excellent, but never perfect for that reason" she said.

"Do you know what's going to be on this test?" Naruto asked skeptically. The Hyuga heiress shook her head and spread the four books and three scrolls she had brought across the table.

"No, but with all of this material, we should be able to educate you on just about anything the test-makers might throw your way. I have been steadily reading this throughout the last three weeks, so I have already absorbed most of the information. All you're going to need is a serviceable level of proficiency in each topic" she explained. Naruto scratched the back of his head as he began to fully comprehend the sheer amount of information contained within each collection of text.

"You really might be wasting your time. I don't remember things very well, and it's already late at night" he said. Hinata tilted her head to one side, the slightest hint of a smile on her face.

"Tell me, Naruto-san. How many hours of sleep would you like to enter tomorrow's testing with?" she asked innocently. Naruto frowned.

"I don't know. Eight maybe" he replied, unsure of his teammates intentions. The Hyuga girl nodded and unfurled one of the scrolls.

"In that case, shut up and start taking notes, because you aren't going to bed until I am satisfied with your memorization of this material" she said, tapping on the now-open scroll as she spoke. The Jinchuuriki snorted and twirled his pencil.

"What if I just get up and go to bed? Are you going to attack me in my own home?" he asked semi-seriously. Hinata gave him a hard stare and began looking over the scroll she had unfurled.

"If I must. The more likely scenario is that I would simply force my way into your bedroom and obnoxiously read the text out loud to you. I would make your ears bleed until you came to your senses and returned to this table. Don't test me, Naruto-san. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, as they say" she said. Naruto shuddered at the thought and put his pencil to the paper that had been given to him. The pair then began to study. It was a slow, arduous, and incredibly, unbearably boring process, but the blonde slowly absorbed the information as time went on.

"Why are you helping me, Hinata? This doesn't make much sense if we're comparing this to how you've been acting during the morning sessions" Naruto asked after roughly fifteen minutes of studying. The Hyuga girl glanced up from her notes and remained silent for several moments.

"I have heard that if one member of a team fails the written test, the entire cell is disqualified. I cannot and will not allow that to happen. This is merely a precautionary measure to ensure the passing of Team Seven" she said, her face and tone unreadable. Naruto nodded.

"That makes sense. It lines up with the bad attitude you've had lately. Thanks for being consistent for once, Hinata" he replied sarcastically. Hinata scowled at him.

"Just because I take my training seriously doesn't mean that I have a bad attitude. I simply do not wish to speak with either your or Nara-san any more than I have to" she explained irritatedly. The Jinchuuriki maintained eye-contact despite her glare.

"When did that change? You may not have been all that uplifting to talk to before, but you were willing to talk. Also, I don't appreciate you treating me like a liability, which is exactly what this feels like" he said. The Hyuga heiress' glare intensified at his words.

"Have you ever considered that perhaps you are one by some metrics?" she snapped. The moment she had finished the sentence, her face paled and one of her hands slapped over her mouth. Naruto stared at her silently for several moments.

"I don't understand you. You say all of these hurtful things, and then you look like somebody just murdered a kitten right in front of you. What's with you? If your own words bother you so much, don't say them" he said. The Hyuga heiress pursed her lips and lowered her eyes to the table. After another five minutes of silent studying, Naruto spoke once more.

"And to answer your question, yes. Yes I have" he said quietly. Hinata glanced up from the table briefly and took a deep breath.

"I...apologize. I stepped out of line. Forgive me, Naruto-san" she said, clearly hating every word that was leaving her mouth. Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"An apology? Not something I thought I'd ever here from you. Either way, it's fine. Don't worry about it. Just you actually saying you're sorry is enough. I don't get that out of people much, as you probably could have guessed" he said with a depressive chuckle. The rigidness in the Hyuga girl's postured lessened somewhat at his words.

"G-good. In that case, we should continue studying. There is still much to do" she said, still embarrassed by her previous outburst. The Jinchuuriki grinned at her still-somewhat-frazzled demeanor.

"Man, for all of your smoothness as a talker, you get shaky pretty easily. Keep that up. It's really endearing" he said humorously. Hinata turned red and gave him a confused look.

"Do you know what the word 'endearing' means, Naruto-san?" she asked quietly. The blonde shook his head, much to her relief and subtle disappointment.

"Nope. I've just heard you use it to make fun of me before. I also heard your sister use it when she was talking to Konohamaru. Seemed like a good word, so I'm going to use it now" he said matter-of-factly. Hinata allowed a ghost of a smile to form on her face.

'Go right ahead, Naruto-kun. Use it as much as you would like'

Shikamaru sighed as he and his teammates waited silently in a hall full of genin. They were in the building in which they would be taking the written section of the Chunin Exams. They had been forced to navigate a genjutsu to reach the place they were currently standing. They had an enormous advantage due to Hinata's Byakugan, so the illusion had been simple to find a way around.

'We get here at six in the morning, solve the puzzle, and then we find out that the test doesn't start until seven-thirty. Typical' the shadow user thought to himself sulkily. He glanced around him at the other genin. The entirety of teams eight and ten were in attendance, as well as another team that contained Neji, a boy in a jumpsuit, and a girl who was filing her nails with a kunai. Beyond the genin of Konoha, there were teams from various other villages. From Suna to Kusa, the selection of nationalities was quite varied.

'I forget how big an event this is sometimes. Everybody but Kumo is here' Shikamaru thought to himself. He then looked to his teammates, who were leaning on opposite walls of the hallway. The lazy genin chuckled at one specific detail of the sight.

'You aren't slick, Hinata. Staring at the floor with your Byakugan active is kind of a dead give away as to what you're really looking at' he thought humorously. He then focused on Naruto for a moment.

'...and he's totally oblivious. Lucky you, Hinata' he thought, stifling a laugh as he watched his aloof teammate silently, subtly stare at the Jinchuuriki. Shikamaru glanced up at the clock on the wall and sighed. It was only six-thirty, which meant that there was still an hour until the beginning of the written test.

'I might as well walk around a little. My knees are going to snap if I just stand in place' he thought to himself. The shadow user then said a brief set of goodbyes to his teammates and began wandering the genin-infested halls.

'What an odd bunch of people. All shapes and sizes' he thought to himself as he observed his fellow genin. As he looked around, his focus shifted from hall in front of him to the people standing against the wall. It was this that caused him to run into a boy who was walking in the opposite direction.

'Second time this month that I've run into somebody' he thought to himself as he regained his lost balance. He then looked to the boy he had run into. He was fairly short and had red hair. He also had a strange gourd strapped to his back. The most striking thing about him was the incredibly defined circles under his eyes, which made his unflinching stare even more unnerving.

"Sorry about that. I wasn't paying attention" Shikamaru said somewhat nervously. The redhead remained silent, unblinking as he attempted to stare a hole in the shadow user's skull.

'Oh, so that's how it is. Fine, I'll have a staring contest with you, prick' the lazy genin thought to himself as he returned the blank glare. The boys stood in tense silence for several moments before they were interrupted by a girl with a fan.

"Leave him be, Gaara. Don't waste your energy" she said, pulling him back as she spoke. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and began to walk through opening the girl had created for him in the middle of the hall. Before he could pass the pair completely, the girl's hand shot out and seized his arm.

"Do you have a death wish?" she asked quietly. The shadow user glanced at her out of the corner of his eye without turning his head.

"Does he?" he asked. The girl stared at him for a moment before letting go of his arm and allowing him to pass. She kept her eyes on him as he walked down the hall. Shikamaru, once he was out of her earshot, sighed and shook his head.

'This is why I don't wake up early. I get mouthy'

Temari turned her attention back to Gaara for the first time in several minutes. The redhead was also staring in the direction the Konoha genin had walked. His facial expression was unreadable as it always was, save for the nearly imperceptible smile tugging at his mouth.

"How long does he have?" she asked, well aware of what was likely circulating through the boy's demented mind. To her surprise, Gaara shook his head and chuckled.

"That depends. I like him" he replied, shocking his sister further. Temari furrowed her eyebrows.

"What? What makes him any different?" she asked skeptically. The redhead allowed a bit of sand to leak from his gourd and fall to the floor.

"He has a spine. A rare trait these days. I'm going to very much enjoy ripping it from his body. Oh, how satisfying that will be" he replied. Temari shuddered at his brutally casual words. Such topics were discussed a disturbing amount within their family, but she had never truly grown accustomed to it.

"There's a lot of people here. More than I thought there would be" she commented as she glanced around at the crowd that populated the crowd. Gaara nodded.

"By the time we reach the combat-oriented section of this exam, there will be less than thirty people. I guarantee it" he said. Temari chuckled.

"Who do you think will still be there?" she asked curiously. The redhead thought for a moment before gesturing to Team Eight and Team Ten.

"The team that the boy I just ran into hails from, and those two teams. Unlike most of the ninja here, they actually have detectable chakra" he said. The fan wielding kunoichi studied the groups for a moment and looked back down the hall.

'You just picked a fight you can't win, whoever you are'

A/N: Gaara is more or less the same guy as he was in part one, but I've changed his demeanor a little. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

See you next chapter! Read and Review!