As always Naruto belongs to Kishimoto. Please review.

Neji could hardly believe it. They were finally entering the chuunin exam. Not that it wasn't long overdue. If only Gai had entered them earlier. He disliked the fact that Hinata would be competing against them. And not just because of his ego that his little sister had the opportunity to become chuunin right away (though he couldn't deny it stung a bit). But also, and more importantly, because if their teams were to face each other it would be awkward. The shinobi part of him knew that he'd need to defeat them if they were pitted against one another, but the brother in him would no doubt want to let her go, while the brancher in him said he needed to protect her. He had to wonder if this conflicting loyalty, village versus clan, wasn't one of the reasons that the main family didn't become shinobi. It released branchers of making a choice between them in the event of the unforeseen.

A wholly different part of him was pleased to think he might get the chance to see what Hinata had learned from her team. They still sparred here and there, but Neji hadn't seen his sister in a serious fight for over a year. He'd love to see what the Inuzuka and Aburame managed to teach her. The sheer fact that she'd said she was going to drop out no matter what Hyobe thought proved something had changed thanks to her team. (Even if that fact was told to Neji alone. She'd gotten confident, not stupid.)

"Hey, I've got an idea," Lee said as they entered the academy building where the first test was to be held. "Since it's our first time, let's not show off anything until later on. That way everyone will ignore us and them BAM! We'll show them how full of vigor and guts we are!"

Ignoring the fact that Neji did indeed have internal organs, he tended to think he didn't actually possess what Lee and Gai referred to as 'guts.' It felt like a contagious disease coming from them. Still, Lee's suggestion was sound. They'd only been genin for over a year, so much like the rookies that were entering, they'd have ambiguity on their side.

"All right, but that means suppressing our chakra as well," Neji said, and his teammates nodded.

"How do you want to handle Hinata?" Tenten asked as they headed up the stairs. "We may be forced to go against her team."

Neji sighed. "If we can avoid meeting them, let's try. It's not just I don't want to fight her, but she knows our team and our skills, same as I know her team. If it's unavoidable, well, this is a test for our team, and we'll win."

Tenten nodded, pleased by the answer. Her grin stalled a little as she sensed what Neji did at the top of the stairs. "Did we enter a genjutsu?"

"I think so," Neji remarked. "But let's see what happens first. Lee suggested not showing off, and it looks like others haven't noticed yet, besides, Lee's too far ahead to warn about it."

Sometimes . . . no, oftentimes Lee's enthusiasm got him into trouble, as did his lack of skill in genjutsu and ninjutsu. Their teammate would just have to learn the hard way along with all the other genin congregating at the false door ahead.

Neji didn't like the look of the thugs blocking the door, but he liked them a lot less when Lee was thrown to the ground from their punch. The idiots wouldn't have laid a finger on Lee if he wasn't holding back.

Tenten went to check on Lee before stepping up herself, "Please, just let us pass."

Neji almost snorted. Guess Tenten was going for the damsel in distress routine. It really didn't suit her. Her eyes betrayed her. Neji saw the slight tenseness as she braced for the hit both of them saw coming and was toss to the ground next to Lee. The idiot had better hope he didn't meet them in the real test, or he'd be finding weapons in places he didn't know he had.

Neji was deciding whether or not to show off enough to call them on their genjutsu when a new team stepped up from the back of the group. He held his mouth, if only because he didn't want to give the brat the honor of being noticed in the group – no matter how much he hated the blond mop.

Oddly enough it wasn't the boy he knew, but the one he didn't that actually caught his attention. The black haired boy stood in front of his teammates with an arrogant smirk on his face. "Why don't you drop that genjutsu and let us pass. We have somewhere to be."

Neji helped Tenten and Lee up, but kept his eyes on the newcomer. So he'd noticed the genjutsu as well.

"You noticed it first, didn't you, Sakura?" he continued, his dark eyes offering not a compliment, but a boost of confidence to his teammate.

Neji noticed the immediate shift in the pink-haired girl's demeanor. Before she'd been hesitant, almost regretting following her teammates, but with his simple comment her back straightened and a little hint of fire lit in her eyes. "Of course. This isn't the third floor."

Neji watched as the other genin (sadly including Lee) stared in shock as the number above the room morphed from 301 to 201. It almost made him feel more confident about the upcoming exam. If the seasoned genin were easier to trick than one of the rookie sets, he had to wonder how difficult it was going to be – and how interesting that made the new rookies.

The idiot blocking their way was less impressed. "Well, not too bad, but all you've done is catch on," he said, the intent in his flashing only a second before he kicked.

The black-haired boy read the speed easily and moved to match him, but before Tenten or Neji could stop him, Lee jumped between them and blocked both their kicks easily. So much for not showing off.

"Lee, what happened to not showing off before we have to?" Neji complained as Lee released the two opponents and the two thugs slunk away.

"Sorry, Neji."

Lee wasn't sorry, at least that was the emotion most prevalent in his face. For once Neji truly wished he wasn't so good at reading people, because he didn't want to think about what his teammate was about to do. Beside him, Tenten shook her head in exasperation.

Lee proudly strutted in his skin-tight green jumpsuit to the pink-haired girl, Sakura, who had no idea what she was about to be subject to. "My name's Rock Lee. Your name's Sakura, right?"

She nodded uncertainly.

Lee stuck up his thumb and pinged the best Nice Guy Pose he could muster. "Please go out with me! I'll protect you until I die!"

"Absolutely not," Sakura answered with all the fear and dread a person would if a demon came up and asked for their soul. "You're way too intense."

What girl would accept a proposal like that? And why was Lee so surprised by it! Dear God, Neji and Tenten needed to stress the importance of boundaries with him. And now he was depressed. Lee was going to be the death of their team, or at least the one that sends them all to the asylum.

"Hey wait," Neji called to the black-haired boy as the three were walking away. "What's your name?" He didn't care about Naruto or the girl, but there was potential in that one's dark eyes. Enough potential to interest him.

The boy stopped and looked back annoyed. "It's pretty rude to ask someone's name without giving yours first."

Neji leveled a glare that the boy returned with an arrogant smirk added in.

"Wait a second," Naruto said, shoving his teammate aside, much to the boy's aggravation. "I know you. You're Hinata's brother."

Neji groaned inwardly. He wouldn't groan outwardly, because that would've ruined the calm, detached look he was going for with all his potential opponents, but to have to admit Naruto's existence . . . Neji really wanted to groan outwardly, too.

"I still have a score to settle with you," Naruto seethed, pointing a finger in Neji's face that he was very tempted to break. "I never got the chance to beat you up for leaving Hinata there that day."

He had a score to settle with Neji? Over something Neji'd apologized for and been forgiven? While Naruto get s free ride on hurting her just because he's an oblivious idiot! If Neji didn't love his sister so much he'd have beaten Naruto to a pulp long ago.

Neji leaned in with a sinister delight reserved for anyone who hurt his sister simmering in his pale eyes. "I hope we get the chance to fight. I've been waiting years for an excuse to make you beg for mercy, and when I'm done with my warm up, I'll move on to your friend who might actually force me to fight seriously."

Turning his back on Naruto, Neji motioned to Tenten and Lee to follow as he walked away to a beautiful chorus of angry shouts. Okay, that was worth acknowledging Naruto's existence.

"Lee, aren't you coming," Tenten called, drawing Neji attention back at their teammate.

Lee hesitated, still looking back at where Naruto's team was going. (Naruto looked like he was being forced by Sakura, which amused Neji even more.) "You guys go ahead, there's something I want to check out."

Tenten watched as Lee ran off. "I wonder what that's about."

"Knowing Lee, it's better if we don't understand."

"You know," Tenten started, slipping into step beside him, "for as much as you complain about Lee, you're just like him sometimes."

Neji stopped in his tracks. For a solid moment all Neji's higher brain functions ceased as the idea of Neji and Lee being similar was too difficult of a concept to comprehend. When his mind finally started again, he simply stared at Tenten's grinning face. "I am not like Lee."

"Not all the time," Tenten chuckled in that birdlike chirp of hers, "but when it comes to Hinata you can be just as over the top and exaggerated as him."

"That's different," Neji insisted as Tenten walked away. "I'm not like Lee!"

Tenten was still smirking her face off when they made it to the proper third floor and entered the room assigned for the first part of the chuunin exam. The room was huge and for a minute Neji and Tenten just took in everything.

There were more people than he'd anticipated, but then this wasn't merely a test for Konoha's genin. All the hidden villages were participating in this. It was rather surprising to see the ages, too. While there were a number around their age, meaning early genin, there were more who were older and no doubt far more experienced in taking this exam than them. Suddenly the exam was real. It was this room waiting to be started. Neji could feel the excitement –plain, normal, not youthful or gutsy in any way excitement– boiling inside him.

"Neji-niisan!"

Neji turned to the familiar voice of his sister near the far wall. Her teammates followed as she made her way across the room to join them. Shino was still as hard to read as ever. Neji assumed it took a lot of time and motivation to learn to read an Aburame the way Hinata could. Neji had and wanted neither. Kiba was an easier target. The arrogance was practically an intense cologne wafting around him. Hinata ran up and gave him a hug, an action only she and his mother could get away with in the edgy atmosphere of the room full of people he'd want to make think twice before attacking him. Hugging tended to make people fear less, not more.

"I see you made it past the genjutsu," he commented when she let go and rejoined her team.

"Sheesh, if we got caught in something that weak, Kurenai-sensei would send us back to the academy," Kiba scoffed and Akamaru yipped in agreement.

There were advantages to having a genjutsu user as their instructor, Neji supposed. Just as it was advantageous for him to have someone as fast and skilled in taijutsu as Gai as his instructor. They each learned to handle the skills of their teachers.

Neji didn't want to ask the question he was about to, but Hinata would know the answer, even if it would elicit a very predictable reaction in her. "Hey, Hinata, who's the other guy on Naruto's team?"

"Naruto-kun's team?" she repeated. A slight warmth filled her eyes and her lips tugged up before his name finished passing through them.

Neji hated that look. Why couldn't she have hated him after he broke her heart?

"Oh, you must mean Sasuke," Kiba answered for her. "Wait, is their team here, too?"

Neji nodded. "We saw them stuck at the genjutsu earlier."

Tenten sent him a suspicious glare. What? So Neji felt like insulting Naruto in front of his sister. Tenten told him all the time he had a sister complex, was this really a surprise to her?

"Ha!" Kiba bellowed. "And Sasuke thinks he's all high and might just cause he's an Uchiha."

"He was top of our class," Shino added, sounding disinterested in the whole conversation. But then, to Neji, Shino always sounded disinterested.

"Wait, you mean the other guy on Naruto's team is Uchiha Sasuke?" Neji asked. If that was true that explained the potential he sensed in the boy. The only surviving Uchiha left in Konoha would be an interesting opponent.

"Eh? Don't tell me you're worried about one of the rookies?" Tenten asked with the barest smirk.

Neji scoffed at his teammate. "Curious and worried are two very different things."

"Forget about Sasuke, you should be worried about meeting up with us," Kiba huffed. "We're not going to lose to you."

"Kiba-kun," Hinata pleaded, "you promised we'd avoid them if we could."

"You're not supposed to tell them that," Kiba hissed back quietly.

Tenten merely chuckled to herself. "Like brother, like sister."

Lee entering the room quelled any smart retort Neji was conjuring up for Tenten. Just before the door closed Neji caught a glimpse of Gai heading back down the hallway (he was hard to miss). Lee looked disappointed, but Neji couldn't figure out why.

"Did you find whatever you went after?" Tenten asked as Lee joined their group which had migrated away from the main entryway.

"Yeah, but Gai-sensei found me breaking one of his rules and . . . and . . ."

Neji slyly stepped back behind Tenten. Lee got grabby when he got emotional, and if Tenten hadn't shook him and snapped at him to 'get a grip' he probably would have started crying. Tenten really did know how to handle Lee better than him.

"So what were you doing anyway?" Neji asked, back to his former spot now that Lee wasn't about to burst into tears of remorse.

"I went to profess my love for Sakura-chan, again," Lee said, earning a roll of the eyes from Tenten, "and also offer a manly challenge to Uchiha Sasuke, the black-haired one of their team, and when I tried to use lotus on him, that's when Gai-sensei stopped me."

"You fought with the Uchiha?" Neji asked, eager to hear how well he faired against Lee. Lee might not have natural talent, but after a year and a half under Gai's tutelage, his taijutsu was top-notch.

Lee nodded.

"Did you kick his ass?" Kiba asked before Neji could in less crude terminology.

"He seems like he would be a worthy opponent," Lee said almost by way of qualifying his ego (not something he got to do often against Neji), "but he couldn't keep up with my speed, and I would've caught him in my lotus if Gai-sensei hadn't stepped in."

Kiba burst out laughing. "Man, I would've paid to see that."

"You may still get the chance in the exam," Shino offered coolly. Neji wouldn't have thought much of it, but Hinata covered her mouth to hide a chuckle. She'd seen something else in her teammate's blandness.

"Speak of the devil," Tenten whispered, as the doors opened again and this time Naruto's team entered, the Uchiha at the lead.

Sasuke had potential, no doubt, and Neji would love to fight against him, but the fact he couldn't evade Lee renewed Neji's confidence. This chuunin exam would be theirs to conquer.

"Come on, let's go say hi," Kiba said with a smirk. "I wanna go rub it in that Sasuke got his ass kicked before the exam even started."

"Bye Neji-niisan, and good luck," Hinata said before going after her teammates.

The smile on her face only made Neji hope even more they got a chance to go up against that team. He'd finally settle things with Naruto and then see what the Uchiha had to offer.

"You know, it didn't make sense earlier why you hated that blond boy so much, but I think I figured it out," Tenten said.

"Oh, did you now," he replied as they sat down in the empty seats Lee found.

"Yup, she likes him, doesn't she?" Tenten taunted just low enough Lee couldn't hear. "The big brother in you can't stand it."

Neji avoided answering her and instead chose to glare at every random person that met his gaze. That wasn't entirely true –he hadn't loathed Naruto until Hinata had gotten hurt– but for Hinata's sake he kept his mouth shut and let Tenten think what she wanted. Hopefully he'd get a chance to vent in the first test.

Hinata caught up with her team in time to hear Shikamaru sigh, "You guys, too?"

They were all there, Shikamaru and Chouji, and Ino hanging from Sasuke's neck like a strange personal ornament, and Sakura and –Hinata's smile brightened– Naruto. All nine of them would get to take their first chuunin exam together. Hinata was rather glad she'd been forced to join them now. She wouldn't have wanted to miss this.

"So all nine rookies are taking the exams," Kiba remarked, his arrogant gaze falling on Sasuke. "Now then, how far can we all go? Eh, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke brushed it off as well as he could with Ino hanging off his neck. "You're pretty confident, Kiba."

"Yeah, well we've been training pretty hard, so we won't be losing to any of you, especially not one who had his ass handed to him before the first test." Akamaru yipped in quick succession so that it almost sounded like he was laughing.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed while behind him Ino glared daggers at Kiba. Hinata had warned him once he could come off as too arrogant, but Kiba had just laughed and said it was half the fun. The glee in his eyes confirmed it right then.

"How'd you know about that fight?" Sakura snapped, not liking anyone insulting Sasuke.

Kiba held up a hand, not as an unconscious gesture, but to keep Hinata from telling the truth like she was about to. "If you don't know I guess that just makes us the better ninjas."

"Eh, so Sasuke got beat up before the exam started?" Shikamaru drawled sounding both interested and uninterested at the same time. Shikamaru, like Shino, was sometimes hard to read (thought not nearly as hard as Shino).

"The fight was interrupted," Sakura argued. "Sasuke-kun could've taken him."

"I don't know," Kiba continued, loving the ruse, "that lotus would've done some damage." Hinata knew Kiba had no idea what Lee's lotus actually did, but the name was enough to piss off all three members of Sasuke's team.

"What do you know about it?" Naruto snapped, making Hinata really want to tell the truth, but Kiba hurried to answer before she could.

"I'm not about to tell you. The ninjas with the best information wins, you know."

"Hyuuga," Sasuke remarked, his eyes on Hinata. "Naruto said it; the other guy on Lee's team was Hyuuga Neji, Hinata's brother. They must have heard from them."

"We were saying hi when Lee-kun arrived," Hinata explained to Naruto more than Sasuke. She avidly avoided Kiba's (rather knowing) gaze as her cheeks turned a faint shade of pink.

Unfortunately for her, it was Sasuke who continued and not Naruto. "So you know about Rock Lee?"

Hinata's brow furrowed a little. "Only what Neji-niisan tells me, and I've seen them spar once or twice."

"How strong is he?" Sasuke pressed.

It made Hinata feel a little uncomfortable. Like Kiba said, the ninja with the most information had the advantage, but they were all friends, sort of, and –her eyes glanced at Naruto– it was for Naruto's team. Neji, Lee, and Tenten would be able to handle themselves even if she shared a little.

"Lee-kun's gotten much better in taijutsu since he became genin," she explained, "Neji-niisan was surprised just how much he's improved, though he still can't use ninjutsu or genjutsu apparently. He still can't beat Neji-niisan yet either, but then Neji-niisan's really strong."

"Lee said he was the strongest genin from Konoha," Sakura commented.

Hinata nodded. "I'd believe that."

"Hinata," Kiba growled, "have a little more faith in us."

Hinata lowered her gaze to the ground and mumbled, "You've never actually fought Neji-niisan before. He's not called the genius of the Hyuuga clan for nothing."

"I don't care," Kiba snapped, a little gentler than he would to anyone else, "if we have to fight them we're still gonna win, genius or not, and you'd better not hold back just cause he's family."

"Well I hope we get to fight him," Naruto said, stepping ahead of Sasuke so he could look at Hinata directly. "I still have to beat him up for what he did."

"What are you talking about Naruto?" Sakura fussed.

"It's nothing," Hinata dismissed as quickly as she could. "I'm not upset about it anymore." The shy smile on her face looked a little strange for her dismissive attitude, but it was hard to hold back with how intently Naruto looked and her. And was it really hot in that room all of a sudden?

Kiba eyed her once again and that slight knowing turned into full comprehension as he rolled his eyes at her. At least he was nice enough to be quiet about it.

Thankfully no one had a chance to delve further into her family history as Shino drew everyone's attention his way. Chouji had been moving around a little with a strange, hungry look in his eyes as he stared at Akamaru when Shino stepped forward to block him. Everyone watched in silence, waiting for Shino to say something – Hinata knew Shino liked to keep silent longer than necessary sometimes just for effect.

"Don't step on it," he warned the still boy still munching on chips. At Chouji's –and everyone else's– complete obliviousness to his meaning, Shino looked down to the little beetle scurrying across the floor between their feet. "Don't step on it."

Hinata withheld her amusement to a mere smile. For as much as Shino hated meaningless talking, he hated being ignored and overlooked just as much. But his version of boasting in front of his opponents tended to end up on the creepy side, which –in all honesty– actually worked out very well for Shino. Considering not many, if any, of them knew how the Aburame fought, the strange protection of a beetle only left a creepy 'ick' sensation under their skin. If they only knew the truth . . . that 'ick' would get a whole lot worse.

"Are you gonna eat it?" Chouji asked, misunderstanding Shino's meaning completely. It was a good thing someone interrupted at that moment, or Chouji might have been finding more than chips in his bag.

"You all should be a little quieter. You guys are the 'rookie nine' fresh out of the academy, right? Carrying on with those sweet, young faces . . . this isn't a field trip, you know."

Everyone turned to see the new arrival. He wasn't from their year, or even Neji's. He looked older than them, but not too old. Maybe the twins age, or just a bit more than them. He had silverish hair and glasses that gave him a very 'bookworm' aura. No one seemed overly impressed by him.

"Who're you to be talking all haughtily?" Ino mocked from her spot behind Sasuke, an arm still draped around him.

The older teenager adjusted his glasses and offered a smile to the group. "I'm Yakushi Kabuto. Before you say anything else, though, maybe you should take a good look around."

Hinata and the others broke out of their little group and took in the rest of the room. She could only attribute their lack of awareness to getting sucked into old friends and rivalries, because how she hadn't been sensing the sheer animosity burning through the room directly for them seemed baffling. There was barely a ninja in the room not glaring daggers at the nine of them.

"Those three behind you are from the Rain Village, and they're pretty hot-tempered," Kabuto explained. "Everyone's tense right before the exam. I just thought I'd offer a friendly warning before something happens."

Those three he mentioned sure looked like they were ready for something to happen. Hinata felt old doubts coming back, with speed.

"Then again, you're all rookies to the exam, so you don't know any better," Kabuto mused with a sigh.

"Kabuto-san, right?" Sakura questioned and received a nod in reply. "So this is your second time taking the exam?"

Kabuto shook his head. "No, it's my seventh. The exam's only held twice a year, so I've been taking it for four years now."

Seventh? And the old doubts were firmly lodged in her brain now. Hinata needed to evict those thoughts fast, because she didn't want to drag down Kiba and Shino's chances at making chuunin. It didn't matter if she wasn't ready, she needed to do her best for them.

"Then you must know all about the exam," Sakura commented.

Kabuto offered a confident smile. "I suppose so."

"Kabuto-san, you're pretty awesome," Naruto said admiringly.

"And yet you haven't passed yet," Shikamaru noted, earning a chuckle from Kiba and Chouji.

The confidence Kabuto showed a moment before passed into bashful laughter. "Well, that's true."

Shikamaru sighed, looking more depressed than Hinata felt. "Man, this is getting troublesome. Is the chuunin exam really that hard?"

"Well," Kabuto said, returning to his earlier pleasant demeanor, "since this is your first time, and you're all such cute little rookies, why don't I give you some information to help you out."

Kabuto pulled out a strange deck of cards that contained information only when his chakra was introduced. It was a smart way of collecting information you didn't want read, Hinata thought. He told all about the concept of the chuunin exam as a way to regulate the power between the villages, and even told Sasuke about someone name Gaara of the Sand. Hinata had no idea who he was, but he was almost terrifyingly powerful for a genin. She hoped they didn't have to face his team during the exam. By the time he'd finished explaining everything, Hinata felt more depressed than ever. This wasn't helping her keep a positive mentality.

"So basically you're saying everyone who's here for the exam . . ." Sakura trailed off as she looked around the room at the frightening men and women still staring at them.

Kabuto nodded. "Exactly, not just Gaara, but everyone here is the top genin from their village. The chuunin exam isn't going to be easy."

Hinata looked at her teammates for some kind of affirmation of her fears, but she should have known better. Kiba was excited. Did she really expect anything else? The bigger the challenge and danger, the faster he'd run toward it. Shino wasn't much better. He was calm and composed, but Hinata saw the familiar rustling beneath his jacket of kikaichuu eager to get out and fight. Why was she the only one who didn't find it exciting? She was starting to think she shouldn't be chuunin even if she was taking the exam for herself.

A soft growl drew her attention to Akamaru, who immediately lowered his head to his master. Kiba flashed a cocky smirk her way and wink when no one was watching. Below, the soft tickle of insect feet crawling across her hand told her Shino was watching as well. They had more confidence in her than she had in herself, and at that moment it meant the world to her.

"Hey, Naruto, don't be scared."

Sakura's soft voice removed Hinata from her thoughts. Naruto's whole body was shaking. It was hard to believe he was scared though. Hinata knew Naruto wasn't scared of anything, but with his head down and back to her, she couldn't see the truth on his face.

Not that she needed to. Before Sakura could gently coax anything out of him, Naruto swung a hand out and pointed at the center of the room screaming as loud as he could until every eye was on him. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I'm not gonna lose to any of you! Got it!"

Yup, that was the Naruto she knew. And she wasn't laughing at Naruto. No. That purple color forming on her entire face from holding in the laughter was from the fact Tenten and Lee were actually holding Neji down in his chair at that moment. If the rest of the room didn't get to Naruto first, Neji was sure to find some excuse to face off against him during the chuunin exam. Why they were both so angry about things she'd gotten over a long time ago, she'd never understand.

"'I'm not going to lose to any of you,'" Kiba snickered, thoroughly enjoying the whole scene. "You said it."

"He just made enemies of the entire room in a few seconds," Shikamaru said, shaking his head.

"What're you talking all big for?" Sakura cried as she trapped Naruto into a headlock, not at all agreeing with the boys' pleasant assessment of the situation.

"But . . . I was . . . just saying the . . . truth," Naruto gasped as Sakura's grip choked the life right out of him.

"This was just a joke," Sakura waved to the room as Naruto's semi-conscious head hung limp over her arm. "He's just an idiot you see, saying crazy, idiotic things and just gets carried away. Don't pay any attention to him."

The room didn't settle at Sakura's reassurance. What had been tense before was now a stripped wire, live and sparking. It was almost strange that Hinata didn't feel as scared now –not after Kiba and Shino's support– than she did before. She was calmer, in fact. Naruto's outburst only eased her further, the familiarity of her overly boisterous friend was comforting rather than annoying. She felt . . . ready.

The whole room changed focus as one of the ninja from Sound –yes, the forehead protector was from the village Kabuto had called Sound– rushed Kabuto, missing the strike considerably. The speed wasn't hard for her to read, not after being in a team with Kiba. Kabuto seemed pleased to have dodged until his glasses shattered. Hinata glanced at Kiba and Shino, but they looked as baffled as she was. Nothing hit Kabuto that they could see.

All of a sudden Kabuto covered his mouth. He struggled to hold himself together, but was vomiting before he hit his knees. Naruto and Sakura ran to help him, but not even Kabuto seemed to understand what had happened. The Sound's attack did not connect! How was he hurt?

"Silence!" cried a voice that came from the very walls of the room.

As if they all weren't confused enough already, smoke filled the front of the room. When the smoke cleared a line of gray-uniformed shinobi stood at the ready across the entire front wall. At the lead was an enormous man with more scars on his face than skin it seemed. Just looking at him made Hinata nervous.

A wry smile pulled at the man's scarred lips. "Sorry to keep you waiting. I'm Morino Ibiki, proctor of the first test of the chuunin exam. It's time to begin."