The other morning, I teamed up with Shino and Hinata and headed to the Academy. We weren't talking much, Hinata was poking her fingers together, Shino's nose twitched a little, signs that they were nervous. Well, they should be, after all, I slept in… So, we were kinda a little late… We had to hurry, that was why we were jumping and running at full speed.

"I can't believe you slept in." Shino muttered.

"Don't you worry, Bug-boy." I smiled. "My brother did the same."

"Troublesome girl." he sighed.

"Hurry!" Hinata called and we dropped in front of the Academy.

We ran inside and didn't stop.

"Room 301, third floor!" I called and they nodded.

Hinata and I took the lead, Shino following us close behind. We saw Kotetsu and Izumo standing in the corridor, not letting anyone pass them. Both Hinata and I stopped, facing the men in Henge, Shino standing at our backs.

"Let us pass." I commanded and they smirked.

"Yeah, sure, why would we?" I stepped aside and using a genjutsu I pointed to a room, past them.

"Girls' bathroom." They turned to me and Hinata, then I whispered. "We've been trained by Kurenai-sensei, of course we know that you placed a genjutsu on the wrong room to mislead us."

The boys looked at each other, then nodded and let us pass, but when Shino was about to pass them I heard a thump. I turned to see Lee on the ground, Tenten holding him. I looked near them, seeing Neji approaching.

"Should we help them?" I heard Hinata and I shook my head.

"You know how Neji is." She nodded. "He'll figure it out." Then we began running again.

We arrived on the third floor but didn't stop running, then we turned a corner and saw Asuma, Kakashi, and Kurenai leaning against the wall, next to the class. Kakashi nodded to us, so did Asuma, Kurenai-sensei smiled.

"Glad you made it." she said and we stopped panting.

"You look like a train ran over you. What happened?" Asuma looked at us.

"Shikanai slept in." Hinata said while she and Shino pointed at me.

"Hey!" I protested but then I heard noise from behind and when I turned I saw Team 10 run to us. They stopped and began panting.

"You see? I told you it's alright! We made it before them after all." I pointed at the other squad.

"How can you two be so lazy?!" Ino erupted.

"You don't have to shout, I'm right next to you, Ino." Shikamaru commented while covering his right ear.

"Genetics." I shrugged.

"Please, tell me we're not late." Choji said between pants and Asuma shook his head.

"You're not." he answered.

"I could have slept more…" I muttered.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru agreed. Ino and Shino were glaring daggers at us.

"If you ever do this again, I will send spiders after you." my eyes widened and I looked at Shino. Gosh, why did he have to know my phobia?!

"If you do that, I will spray you with bug spray." I countered.

"You will be too frozen in fear from my spiders." fuck. He was right.

"Fine." I huffed.

"Ew!" Ino interrupted. "How can you be in a team with him, Shikanai?" she asked me and I shrugged.

"The worst part isn't the bug obsession, it's the fact that I can barely make him react to anything, he's too stoic." I admitted and earned a glare from Shino.

"Spiders are not bugs." Hinata told me. What. Oh. Of course.

"Shino! You-" I rose my voice only to hear Asuma clear his throat. Oh, right, they were there as well.

"Asuma-sensei, do we really have to participate?" Choji whined and his sensei sighed.

"Remember what we talked about? I'll treat you afterward?" determination filled Choji's eyes and he nodded.

"Right." he began walking ahead, followed by a whining Ino and a lazy Shikamaru.

"Hey, Shikanai!" I turned to Ino. "Good luck!" she called and I nodded.

"Good luck to you guys as well." I smiled and they entered.

"Hinata, are you sure?" Kurenai-sensei asked the timid girl and she nodded.

"Yes. I want to prove it, that I am worth something." she said with clear determination. Poor girl, her father basically disowned her, even though she was a formidable fighter. Under Kurenai-sensei's tutelage, she became really strong, if only her father could see that. "Because that's the truth. I am worth being a representative of my clan and" she turned to Shino and I. "I am worth being in this team." I smiled.

"You sure are." I beamed and nudged Shino. "Our Little Princess grew up." I turned my head to him and he sighed.

"You'll never stop annoying me." I chuckled.

"Never." I promised the boy.

Kurenai smiled at us and so did Asuma, Kakashi was in the background, leaning against the wall, with his book in his hands, not showing any reaction that he was paying attention to us.

"Couldn't have asked for a better team." Kurenai-sensei held out her fist and so did all of us, doing a fist bump. "Good luck, Team Eight."

We nodded and turning to the door I took the lead, followed by Hinata and Shino. For a moment I felt Kakashi's gaze on me, but I didn't look at him.

Later on, the door opened and then I saw, blue, orange and red… Team 7, looking shocked at the mass of people in front of them. Man, they looked like rabbits cornered by wolves. I sighed, as I was leaning against the wall, Hinata on my left, Shino standing next to her, showing a little bit of protection. Hinata was just as surprised as Team 7, but Shino and I were unfazed at the crowd. Team 10 was standing next to us, my brother so close, that our shoulders touched. It was a sign of reassurance, that whatever was going to happen, we'd be there for each other. I was contemplating asking the teams to go and greet the other rookies, but then Ino began running.

"Sasuke where've you been?" she squeaked hugging Sasuke from behind.

"Troublesome." My brother and I sighed as our teams began moving to where Team 7 stood.

"You have no idea how lucky you are you're not infatuated with Sasuke." Shikamaru said and looked at me, then at Hinata, as we watched that Ino practically molested the boy… Then Sakura got in the mix… We approached the team. "Oh, it's you guys." Shikamaru began. "I knew this was gonna be a drag, but I didn't know it was going to be this lame." Trying to act tough, Shikamaru? I mimicked his slouched pose and I looked at Team 7.

"Yo!" I beamed but got ignored.

"So, I see, all three stooges are here." Naruto looked at Team 10. Well, at least we weren't in the mix.

"Hey! You know what, pipsqueak?" my brother stepped forward. "Oh, forget it, you're a waste of time." Aaaand back to his calm demeanor.

"I said, YO, GUYS!" I rose my voice and they finally looked at my team, for some strange reason I could bet there was a team introduction inside of Naruto's head. I could even imagine it, Nara Shikanai, always complaining, barely does anything about it, the laziest girl in the Academy.

"Hi, Naruto." Hinata smiled from my left, while Shino remained quietly standing right next to Hinata.

Choji began pacing around and for a moment he stepped closer to us, only to be stopped by Shino, who stepped in front of Choji.

"What do you want? What's wrong?" Shino kept staring at the floor, that was when I noticed a bug.

"Thought maybe you hadn't seen it." Shino commented, Choji looked completely confused. "Didn't want you stepping on it."

"Why? You saving it for lunch?" Choji inquired and I began laughing, breaking the tense atmosphere around us.

"Bug-boy and his habits of eating bugs." I chuckled. "That's a good one, Choji, but nah. Shino's not that kind of a guy." I pointed at my teammate. "But he's crazily overprotective of his little friends, and I advise you, to never step on a bug." I smiled, but I heard it pretty clearly how Choji, Sakura, and even Naruto gulped loudly.

"Hey! You guys!" I heard a boy's voice and when I turned it was my turn to gulp loudly. That silver hair, that purple outfit. I recognized him instantly. Kabuto. Oh no. "You might wanna try keeping it down a little." He stopped in front of us, and I steeled myself, trying to control my feelings towards him. Anger. Fear. Skepticism. Coldness. "I mean, no offense, but you're the rookies, right? Fresh out of the Academy? I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves, just cool it. This isn't a class field trip." No shit Sherlock.

"Well, who asked you?" Ino practically shouted. "Who are you?" gah, so loud.

"I'm Yakushi Kabuto." Kabuto smiled. "But really, look around you." That was when everyone noticed that the others were staring at us with hateful eyes. "You made quite an impression." I smiled.

"Shikanai, why are you smiling?" Ino asked and I stood in front of our little group, then turned to everyone.

"Hi, everyone!" I said loudly. "Nice to meet you!" they all looked taken aback, shocked and surprised, then I turned back to Kabuto and smiled darkly. Stepping closer I lowered my voice, so those far enough couldn't hear us. "Maybe some of us were planning to get noticed." He looked surprised, then smiled.

"I wouldn't advise it." He looked curious underneath the smile. "What's your name?"

"I like doing what isn't really advised to do and Nara Shikanai, I'd like to say glad to meet you, but there's a chance we'll try to kill each other later on." Shino sighed and put a hand on my back guiding me away, Hinata followed us.

"The genin, who killed a jonin?" he asked and I turned back and smiled, fully aware that now the entire room was watching me. I was alarmingly aware, that Orochimaru was in the room, watching me as well.

"The one and only." I answered and Shino began guiding me once again.

"Why did you do that, Shikanai?" Hinata asked quietly.

"I don't trust the guy." I sighed. "I have a hunch that he's only trouble." I slouched and put my hands in my pant's pockets. "Maybe some would be scared now from me and won't attack our team."

"It wasn't a good strategy." Shino commented. "They're going to be more cautious and they might take it as a challenge to attack us." I nodded slowly.

"Let them fear us." I spoke. We stopped near a bench. "Let the fear rule them."

The first part went by unnoticed, in the classroom, everything happened just like in the anime, except that I wasn't writing on my paper, I was drawing on it. I drew a cat and I wrote next to the cat 'oh no, it looks like the cat is covering my answers, sorry Big-guy Morino, maybe if you scare the cat away you'll see the answers', and then Shino sent a bug to me and one to Hinata, I wrote on my paper, upside down to wait for my orders and so we began cheating, some got to be hauled away because they were caught, they trashed and screamed, but they still got pulled away and shoved out. I felt somebody watching me and when I looked up from my paper I saw Ibiki smiling at me, I shrugged and continued passing down codes to the little fly next to me. Before I knew it, we passed it. It wasn't even hard, after all, I knew we would pull through.

Henge no Jutsu = Transformation Technique

All I'm saying is... Stitches suck.

I still don't own Naruto and never will.

Have a nice read and have a nice day!

Amaterasu53: Don't forget about Root, some things may appear sooner or later ;)

bunnyxstar: Thank you! The Exams are here, I wonder what would Shikanai's involvement change, hmm?