Chapter 10

Kakashi walked alongside with Yukiko as they headed for dinner after the opening ceremony of the Jounin Exam. The girl looked up at the sky, a little dazed from the whole exam as she sighed, "Well, I guess Gai's not a bad partner. He did graduate from the Academy at 7 and became a Chuunin at 11."

The Jounin did not respond but continued to observed his girlfriend's face. Yukiko rolled her eyes to the side at Kakashi when she noticed the stare. "What's wrong?"

"I graduated at 5 and became a Chuunin at 6," he simply stated, redirecting his attention to the street straight ahead. Yukiko blinked at him confusedly, but smirked as she realized that the boy was jealous since she would be spending a month or so with his rival.

She turned her attention back to the street as well and said, "So are you trying to say that you are better than Gai?"

"It's a fact," he replied arrogantly.

"Oh, well. Too bad you are already a Jounin. Or else, we might be able to spent 24/7 together for at least a month," she teased. "Just like Gai and I are going to."

Kakashi stopped his pace abruptly and turned to Yukiko. His face looked creepily serious as his hands held onto her shoulders tightly. "That's it. You are to quit the Jounin Exam!! I will NOT allow you to spend over 700 hours with that Thick-Brows!!"

"Wh-what?" Yukiko whispered as she regretted making a joke that went too far. However, she would not quit the exam just because Kakashi couldn't stand her partner. It was her partner after all, not his. It was her exam, not his. He could not tell her to quit the exam just because of that. "NO WAY! I've been preparing for this for the longest time and I'm not quitting now!" She shook his hands off her shoulders.

Surprised by her reaction, he frowned. He was obviously upset about this whole situation. "Fine," he muttered bitterly and continued walking.

"Hey, you are supposed to support me! What's with the attitude?" Yukiko was getting frustrated as he just continued walking ahead of her. The Jounin Exam was already putting a lot of stress on her. She couldn't believe Kakashi could make it worse.

"Hey, are you listening to me?" She followed closely behind him, but he didn't turn around, nor did he reply. Yukiko was quite annoyed by this and stopped her pace. "Fine, I don't want to eat anymore."

With that said, she disappeared in a puff of smoke. The gray-haired Jounin finally stopped walking and frowned at her disappearance as he slowly turned his head around. He knew he was being a little unreasonable, but he figured that it was normal for a boyfriend to act this way. Who wouldn't knowing that your girl would be spending so much time with another man? Not to mention, your rival!

The next morning, Kakashi appeared in Hokage's office. "Hokage-sama, I have a request."

The elder glanced up from his work and asked, "What is it?"

"I want to be Yukiko and Gai's supervisor for the exam," he stated straight-forwardly.

The Third diverted his attention back to his work and explained, "I already have someone for the position."

"Can we not have a last-minute change?" he insisted firmly, approaching the desk the other man was sitting at.

"It's not even 'last-minute', Kakashi," he frowned as the boy wondered what he meant. The man continued, "The teams have already departed."

"Are they not leaving at 9am?" The Jounin nervously asked for confirmation.

"Yes, and you are half an hour late," The Hokage tried to suppress his smile as he shook his head slightly at the boy's expectedly bad punctuality.

Somewhere near the border of the Leaf Village, two blurry figures traveled from tree to tree at high speed. "Your eyes are red, Yukiko. Are you alright?"

She looked at the concerned Gai and made an effort to smile. She was quite upset at the incident with Kakashi the night before. She couldn't believe he hadn't looked for her, knowing that she would be leaving this morning. Disappointed, she wondered if he did not care anymore. "I was too nervous for the mission. I didn't get a good sleep last night," she said, which was partly true.

"Don't worry about it too much. We'll be fine," the boy reassured. "They have a Jounin supervising each team, so if we get into deep trouble, someone would rescue us."

"Alright then," she forced a smile. "Have you thought of a plan yet?"

The mission assigned to the team was to capture the head of an organization and to find out whether they were responsible for selling organs of advanced bloodlines in the black market. Although an organ was rarely compatible with an outside of the clan, they were still worth a fortune. The team had found out that they own a medium yet popular club just outside the village, where they also held illegal business in the back.

"I suppose we will do more information gathering at the club for now," Gai suggested the obvious.

A/N: OK, I've been through a rough week, both mentally and physically... plus all the workload. Can't blame me the the lack of update! AH!!!!!!! I slept at 6 a.m. last night. Can't read over the grammar...actually, even if i do, i prolly won't spot any in this state of mine. Hope you enjoyed it? Review as usual!