There was a moment of tension between the two, each of them having their own mental wars waged in their heads while searching for what the moment should have made them feel or think.

For Eri, her brows were knit, and confusion rang clear on her face, but it did nothing to hide the very blatant and transparent look of fear that crossed her eyes as she stared at him. It was a wary gaze of heightened adrenaline, like she were some kind of prey eyeing down a predator and waiting for its moment to run. Thoughts twisted up in her mind, all the who's and how's and what's getting muddled together in a cauldron of raising anxiety.

For Sasuke, he had been calm. Sure, the pain in his neck was killing him, and every moment it decided to flare up again, he got caught in between the concern that it would spread beyond his capability of controlling it, or that the pain would show in his face and tip her off to something. He was sure there was something she already knew, there had to be something that alerted that intuition of hers, or unfortunately it was just the fact that she had known him so long and caught onto all of his attempts at sly word-reworking or white lies.

What that didn't explain was that look in her eye. She kept watching him, her eyes shivering by how quickly they appeared ready to dart to the site of his every move - it was like she didn't know who he was, and while he didn't understand it, he also didn't like it.

"Come here a second, I'll-" he was going to say he'd talk to her. Maybe in the moment of her showing such clear apprehension, he shouldn't have made the gesture he did, but it was so normal between them from their past interactions that he thought nothing of reaching down to seize her hand. His intention was to just tug her aside, or pull her away from the curious eyes and eavesdropping ears of the crowd.

The moment he reached to swipe her hand, she just as quickly snatched it back, holding it close to herself as if the act of him touching her had scorched her skin.

The words he'd aimed to speak withered near-instantly.

She didn't even realize it in the moment, it was entirely reflex. She hadn't yet fully come to her senses on the matter until she was already clutching the hand he reached for close to her chest, and by the quick paces of her breaths, it seemed like a fight or flight response. Her large, nervous brown eyes flickered down to her hand, then to his own. One look at his face, and she could see the narrow semblance of hurt in his dark eyes, masked by the more prominent look of surprise. She had seen the traces of that face before, but not once could she remember it being her doing.

She couldn't look at him. Feeling the trickle of regret come down over her, she quietly spoke a sharp, "I-I'm sorry, I..." Her lips fell into the twist of a frown, her tooth sinking into the corner of her lower lip, "I think I'm just... shaken up from the forest still."

In his tire and pain, he expected himself to become annoyed for that. He thought he would have shot back a comment or so, and maybe if he could tell she was just playing with him for some reason, he would have added a short-tempered jab of his own to get a reaction that satisfied him - maybe call her difficult or something. That wasn't the case, though. He couldn't even be angry, maybe upset, but to show it after that expression that crossed her face - that miserable look like she was hurt by her own actions more than he was-... how could he?

For her to say that it was the forest, well, that created a whole new spot for problems in the back of his mind. He knew the experience he'd had in that forest, and he could only imagine what she faced. Was that the real reason for her withdrawing from him? He didn't know, but he wondered. He'd ask, but he hadn't the time to at this exact moment. In fact, they hardly had the time for him to reason with her regarding the predicament he found himself in.

Luckily, he didn't have to potentially experience the wariness of reaching for her again, as she'd held out her hand for him to take this time -despite the peculiar way she turned her eyes away as if toiling over some troublesome thoughts.

"So what's going on..?" she spoke softly, carefully, and in some ways so unusually meek. "Did something happen..?"

They weren't going far, just away from the more densely populated parts of the room. He didn't need anybody out of the loop to go catching a peek, and he also knew just how intrusive some of his classmates could be.

"Something like that..." He answered with a certain level of concentration behind his words. How did he share this with her without triggering her to just slam her foot down on the neck of his plans? She was too studious for her own good, and his carefully chosen words and meticulous manner of addressing things wouldn't go unnoticed by her. Even now, he could see the way her furrowed brows laced her more gentle set face with the vague introduction of hard skepticism. He knew that she never meant these things, even when he brought them up, they often surprised her for him to say. That being said, if he wasn't trying to creep his way around her guards, or if it were directed at someone other than him, he almost would have found her accidentally-challenging expression pretty entertaining.

Speaking of which - where did he begin?

He mentally presented a few ways to explain, just to circle back and try mentally proposing another alternative route. This went on too long and too tediously he felt, so it all registered in the sour face that began to take root.

Rather than rush him, or drip concern over his prolonged silence, Eri rose the hand that he once had taken to lead her here and had since released. She gently palmed his shoulder -the opposite shoulder to the one he seemed to favor- ,then gripped firmly but cautiously, all the while she tilted her head to try getting more of an opening to clearly see his expression. "You know you don't have to push anything, right?" She wanted to be sure to remind him. It gave her no joy seeing him grow unsure and distressed, especially not with a supposed obligation to explain something that may have been difficult, "if you want to tell me now, that's okay, and if you need more time to tell me that's okay too."

That was... reassuring.

Clearly, she hadn't the slightest clue that he couldn't just abstain from telling her the issue. If she were to find out on her own or through someone else, it would unfold into a whole mess. Still, the patience she offered while attempting to understand made his tongue-tied trials less arduous.

"First, I need you to tell me you'll stay calm."

There went that unwittingly challenging expression again. Her eyes narrowed warily, and distrust leaked through her fixed, cinnamon stare. Hesitance lingered in a temporary quiet and while he half-expected her to instantly refuse, she instead angled her head away to peer suspiciously out of the corner of her eyes. "I'll do my best, but I can't promise you," she began, a subtle pout upturning her lips, "that sounds like the kind of thing you say to avoid getting into trouble."

'You don't know the half of it,' he heard himself dryly remark in his head. He wished he had something more concrete, but it seemed like that was the best answer he was going to get out of this. Hesitantly, he eased his hand loose from the grip on the crook of his neck.

It was slight, and it was painfully slow, but in the very sluggish and deliberate movements, Eri caught sight of his hand that appeared to twitch and tremble with strain and pressure. From watching his movements, it was as if she could feel the painful tension too. "What is that thing..?" she questioned in hush whilst catching sight of the dark mark against his skin, "like three seeds, or teardrops, or..." she tilted her head to the side, then to the other, trying to really get a look of the bizarre symbol, "it... kind of reminds me of your eyes."

"What's that even supposed to mean?" he shot, somewhat tiredly at the outlandish comparison.

"The Sharingan, right? The one that you showed me..." she thought back to the instance of his eyes flashing red as he narrated the harrowing tales of his near-death-experience. She had gotten close enough, so much so that she recalled him being somewhat unnerved by the way she stared so mystified into his eyes. There were two little marks around the pupil, and if she remembered correctly, "It kind of reminds me of that."

He hadn't considered that. Frankly, he hadn't much of an opportunity to give it much thought aside from how to deal with it, so leave it to her to go searching for the details or making comments on it cosmetically. That being said, the concern came with realization that she didn't seem to be grasping the severity. If she didn't... she would. "Maybe..." he trailed so lightly, and his faint temperament left Eri with a twinge of uneasiness.

"it hurts though, doesn't it..?" she tried to avoid directly addressing the problem for him, worrying that it may be a sensitive topic somehow, "is it supposed to be like that..?"

Oh. That was why. The poor, dumb kitten was assuming this was actively his doing. Really, had he only gone and realized now that she gives him far too much credit? It was a strange blend actually, sometimes -apparently- she trusted him a little too much, supplemented him with all of the benefit of the doubt, and was absolutely certain that he was planned out and well-adjusted for every situation that he was clearly not. On the other hand, she acted as if he couldn't be trusted to socialize properly, get himself out of bed, feed himself, or apparently clearly tell the truth without looking for a way to twist the narrative.

...

Well.

That last one was accurate.

"I wouldn't know. All of that 'looking like my Sharingan business'... that's just a coincidence," he hesitated for that time simply because he didn't know. It may have been a coincidence, it may not have been, "I got this... in the forest."

She was unnervingly quiet. In fact, she just stared at him with a fixed yet unwavering stare as if she was waiting for a joke.

Rather than let her come up with her own potential worst-case scenario, he went on, "I don't know all of what it's about. It isn't holding me back or anything, it just-"

"Hurts," she finished before he had the opportunity, and from the moment of her atypical interjection, he let his dark eyes take a precautionary look at her face. She looked stern... No matter how soft she was attempting to make herself appear, he caught obvious stares of a stern mother of sorts bypassing that tender filter.

"Yeah..." he begrudgingly resigned.

"Well Kakashi-sensei has to know about this then, right? Or maybe they have some kind of medics on standby around here to take a look at it, or-" she had begun to get restrictedly frantic. She looked around the room in every direction, searching for someone that could provide some clarity or assistance and possibly help make some sense of this potentially harmful mark, but unfortunately that was the last thing he had planned.

"No!" he remained as calm as he could, but she could hear the way he rose his voice in defiance. "I don't want anybody to know about this."

"What?" Her flickering eyes shot back to him, lit ablaze by an incredulous stare, "is that a joke?"

"Eri," he rarely spoke her name. Often times it was just when they were playfully wearing on each others' nerves, but even then the use of names -especially full names- was seldom present. That much was made clear as she lifted her shoulders and lowered her head.

Her lips twitched into a sideways pout and her gaze was cast off to the side. She knew he was coming armed with some convoluted reasoning that she couldn't get involved, and while she often felt stubborn inclination, she at least wanted to hear him out if he felt the need to come tell her about this before his own teacher.

"I need to participate. If I go tell them, they'll just pull me out."

"You don't know that."

"I can't risk it."

Her less than pleased expression grew more and more unconvinced, "It's an exam. I know you came a long way and all, but you can become a chunin next year too. It's better that you're healthy, isn't it?"

"It's not just about the exam," he challenged in hush. He really hated to pull this card, he truly did, but it well-encompassed the feelings he was struggling with right now, and while arguing his case had been the main objective here, it had become just as imperative that she knew how he felt. "You should know better than anybody what a chance to put myself up against powerhouses like this could mean to me: to know just where I stand."

The ground she stood was soddened with hesitation. He could tell by the way she sneaked one last glimpse behind her at the authority figures stationed at various points in the room, that her resolve was beginning to crumble with that remark. The only thing that he could admit in seeing the drastic change in her face was that he grew to dislike how unreadable it became. She knew about his trials and tribulations, and gloomy nights of reveal-all had come to let the pieces of his ambitions slip through the cracks of his usually tight-lipped ways.

A time or two, he had become wrongfully upset with her. He had taken her obscure expression as pity, and sometimes as disapproval or other things that he found, in growing to know her more, were just his own inner-demons casting projection.

Even still, it was somewhat difficult to know where she stood on his issue, not when her face became so ambiguously feather-like.

She peered back from over her shoulder, then down at her own feet where her stare remained for a few moments longer. Her expression became more passive for just a flash before a wriggle of sternness recaptured her face. "Listen..." she began, her cheek swelling with air and a notably defiant expression taking root, "I'm going to let this go, okay? For now..."

And the but was-

"But!"

'- there it is.'

She folded her arms, walking forward to him as if she truly believed she was threatening to him in any form, "you better be careful, okay? If I think you're going too far, or doing something stupid, I'm gonna rat you out before you even get a second chance to convince me."

He knew he'd dodged a bullet, and even still he couldn't help but subconsciously prod the bull the moment he felt the beginnings of a wry smirk twisting his lips. "Yeah..." he trailed, luckily keeping at bay the beginnings of a chuckle that nearly escaped - that would have been bad, "... I'll make sure I keep that in mind."

"You'd better," she added briskly, her pout only further deepening, "because I'm totally not bluffing."

"Heh - Trust me, I know," he reeled in the brief beginnings of a laugh quickly after expecting her to catch on and immediately rescind all of her leniency, but luckily he was concerned without reason. She let it go this once.

Boy, was she irritable now. He always found a way to get up to trouble or no good, or sometimes both. Couldn't he ever chill out? She ran her fingers through her lengthy brown locks, turning to walk away from him now. It seemed he had only pulled her aside to plead his case, after all, and with that done, anything else could be spoken about in the public eye - no problem, right? As she turned on her way, she felt the sudden clasp of his hand against her wrist, appropriately halting her in her tracks.

Though at first, it was just mild surprise, before peering over her shoulder, she was sure to make right the lapse in her threatening expression. She couldn't let her annoyance go so quickly, or he would think that he completely walked away with this carrying a win. So swiftly rekindling her bland stare and steep frown, she peered behind her from just over her shoulder, "did you have something else you wanted to add..?"

Much to her immediate confusion, his expression was less smug and less fitting for someone that had just gotten his way. Instead, it was almost too somber.

That huffy face dissipated quickly, and whirring back around, she tilted her head with growing concern, "what's going on..? Is it hurting again?"

"No," yes. When didn't it hurt? That was besides the point, though. He gathered the words he was specifically searching for, and that was somewhat difficult. He wanted to ask why she seemed afraid of him before, or why she reacted so jumpily. He could see she was coming around back to normal, but it was still weighing on his mind. Her response was that it was just a little leftover anxiety, courtesy of the second exam, and yet he felt there may have been something extra at work. How did he communicate that?

He narrowed his eyes in momentarily deep concentration before finally beginning with something, "what happened to you in the forest?" he waded back in to clarify, "what had you so spooked?"

Ah, right.

The guilt had been quickly absolved once the conversation reached peak, and that little incident had just as hastily fled her head. Truthfully, there were a lot of things she could have answered with. The forest was chaotic, and it seemed like there was just one thing after another bearing down on them in that time.

Still, there was one thing in particular: that grass ninja. The more she thought about it, the more that ominous feeling creeped back into her thoughts. The face of the inexplicably serpentine ninja flashed in her head, sending a chill up her spine.

"Mm..." she faltered. It was becoming difficult again to find her words, but luckily her rather quiet friend made no moves to rush her. In fact, she just felt the firm squeeze of her hand that she could only allocate to being his way of nonverbally reassuring her. "There was...-"

Her words were effectively halted, not by her own desire, but because the room had been called to attention. The hokage was entering, and from what they could see, their second exam proctor seemed to be making her way in two, the both of them going towards the risen stage-like platform in the center of the room. It appeared that this portion of the exam was finally going to be called to a close soon.

She looked back at Sasuke, then to the front and back, "I'll tell you later, okay?" she stepped away, and at the prompting of him releasing her hand, she turned to hurry on her way but only after leaving the quiet parting of, "good luck! And be careful, please!"

He knew that what she really wanted to say was along the lines of 'if anything happens, say something, or I'll do it for you', but at the very least he was grateful she abstained. He'd reluctantly let her go, because of course at the end of it all this was the exam, and they had to be ready to participate. He pressed his palm roughly into the mark, wincing so slightly that it hopefully flew under everyone's radar. "I'll hold you to it," he murmured, practically to just himself, and in turning away, he found himself back with his own team.

The next part of the examination was about to begin.

A/N: whew boy. The next couple of chapters -or maybe the next chapter if I just manage to push it all in together and combine it without it being POWERFULLY overstuffed- are gonna come with... a good amount of build up to rough feelings. Not just Sasuke, but a lot of circumstances regarding Eri are going to start rising to the surface. Uuuuugh. HERE WE GOOO...

Either way! I hope you guys liked this chapter, and I look forward to seeing what you guys think! Your reviews and feedback give m r!