Sasuke pretends not to notice them hovering. He doesn't want to acknowledge it, and besides – acknowledging that his teammates are hovering will mean he has to tell them off and he doesn't… really want to tell them off. Not just his team is hovering – team 8 is, too. He imagines team 10 would be if they were here, but thus far, he hasn't seen them.

He knows that his team has passed, as has team 8… Kabuto's team, the other Konoha team with the Hyuuga on it, and the team from Sand. The second part still has a few hours left, so it's quite possible that more teams will show up, but it's unlikely there will be very many.

"N… Naruto," Hinata speaks up. "I-I… Can I…"

Sitting on his bed, Sasuke eyes the byplay, watching as Hinata shoves an ointment at Naruto. It makes something twist in his chest. He doesn't like it.

Naruto, though, grins big and wide. "Wow, Hinata! Did you make this yourself?" She nods, and his grin grows even bigger. "That's so cool! Hey, hey, when the test's over, can you show me how, too?"

She looks like she's going to faint. (Sasuke hopes she does.) "Ah… Um… If y-you want to…?"

"Great!"

Sasuke doesn't like this, and he glares down at his lap. Sakura giggles next to him, and he glances at her. "What, you don't think it's cute, Sasuke?" she asks. "She's liked him for like, ever. I'm really happy for her." There's something in her smile that seems to be a bit… false, but he doesn't know what.

"Hn." He doesn't say anything, can't say anything, and Sakura's smile fades, melting into a contemplative look.

"Do you…" She looks like something's stuck in the back of her throat. "Are you…" Sakura grimaces. "Never mind."

Weird.

Sasuke stands up, stretching, and starts to gather together his supplies. "We should eat and head to the meeting room," he says, Naruto glances over to listen. "We want to be there early to scope it out."

"I wonder if they'll have ramen!" the blonde yells, his natural volume.

Sakura rolls her eyes, standing up as well. "Idiot. They haven't had it so far." She gives Hinata a warm smile. "Hinata, want to come with? I think your team's already down there, anyway."

She flushes. "Um… S… Sure, Sakura."

Even though Sakura and Naruto are more than ready to socialize with Team 8 and Kabuto, who are at the small eatery set aside for the rather fast test-takers (and when did Naruto start calling Kabuto Kabuto-nii?), Sasuke doesn't want to talk.

He really doesn't ever want to talk.

Instead, he sits sandwiched between his two teammates, munching on a mixed bowl of rice, eggs, and natto (he's not sure when he's going to get to eat again today, so something hearty is probably better) and sipping at a small cup of tea.

Not everyone respects his desire to not speak, though.

"Hey, Sasuke," Kabuto says, and the Uchiha glances up at him. "Are you feeling alright? You've been sleeping almost the whole exam."

His breakfast sticks in his throat, and he's only barely able to swallow it down with a drink of water, glaring at him. Even the rational thought of 'he's a medic' doesn't dissuade the anger that swells up at that. "Yes," Sasuke says, very firmly. "I'm fine."

Team 7 and team 8 share uneasy glances, but they're smart enough to not share details with someone who is an outsider. Konoha genin or not, Kabuto wasn't there, and he isn't one of the rookies – to be honest, Sasuke is very, very grateful it was another rookie team that showed up.

He needs to talk to the Ame genin as it is.

Shoveling down his last mouthful of breakfast, Sasuke stands up abruptly, taking his tray of dishes with him. "Sakura. Naruto," he says. "Let's go."

Naruto groans, looking about to protest, but Sakura kicks him under the table. He huffs at her and she gives him a winning smile, and like that, the two other members of his team get up to follow Sasuke.

When they reach the open room where they're supposed to meet – it looks like one of the rooms they arrived in, in the tower, just bigger – two teams are already there. The team with the Hyuuga, and… Team Oboro.

"Oh, god, hide me," says Sakura, and she immediately ducks behind Sasuke. Naruto snickers. Sasuke has no clue what his life has turned into.

Against his better instincts, he asks. "Hide you from who?"

Naruto snickers again. "Bushy Brows has a cruuuuuuush on her!" He chants, sing-song. Sakura takes a swing at him, but he easily dodges, since she doesn't want to move from the safety of Sasuke's back.

Sasuke doesn't know any of the other team – he hasn't met them – but it's really, really easy to see which one is 'Bushy Brows'. The one in the green jumpsuit very loudly proclaiming how excited he was for the next exam, and how everyone was extraordinarily YOUTHFUL and-

And Sasuke very wisely opts for heading up the stairs to talk to Team Oboro.

The duo is still in their jumpsuits – it isn't like anyone else had brought other clothes for the second exam – but they've ditched their masks and headwraps. Mubi, that's the name of the one with one eye, glances up at their approach. He has a brown buzzcut, Sasuke can see now, and his right eye is completely opaque, the skin around it covered in burn scars – it looks almost melted. Kagari, on his other side, has the bushy brown hair that Sasuke had briefly noted earlier, and he looks over at them just a beat behind Mubi. Both of his eyes are the exact same as his teammate's right, and he is, thus, completely blind.

It's kind of interesting, in a strange way. Sasuke hasn't ever seen any other ninjas with one or no eyes, barring Kakashi-sensei, and there's two at once. He sort of wonders what their story is, but he's not rude enough to ask.

"Hey," Sasuke says, coming to a halt before them. "Why are you guys still here?" Well, apparently he's that rude.

Thankfully, they don't appear to take offence. "We're the only team that failed that made it to the tower," Kagari says. "Since we made it here, figured we might as well watch, if there's anything cool that happens today. They said we could."

Sakura smiles at them, and steps back Sasuke so she can stand next to them, nudging Mubi's shoulder. "Good. I was hoping to see you guys before you left. I wanted to ask…" She glances over at Naruto, clearly a little hesitant, and the dumb blonde is more than willing to step up, bouncing over to them.

"Do you guys wanna be friends? And penpals and stuff? I'm not super good at writing but Sakura said she'd help me!"

Yeah, that uh… wasn't something Sasuke was privy to. Or wanted to be part of. Or really anything like that – there had clearly been some bonding while he was out that he didn't really want to be part of. The Ame genin look a little startled at that, too, and Sasuke is kind enough to save them. "You know Konoha and Ame aren't really friends, right, losers?" he drawls, even though Sakura looks a little hurt at being lumped together with Naruto.

"We're not stupid, Sasuke," she huffs, and oh, maybe it's a little more than that. "But it shouldn't matter what villages we're from! Oboro died trying to help us escape, and if we all want to be friends, we should be able to!"

…He glances away. "Hn."

Naruto snickers, nudging Mubi. "That just means he's wrong but doesn't want to admit it!" No, he is definitely not blushing, that's not a blush.

Mubi laughs softly. "Alright. I'm willing to write, though I can't promise how much I'll get to say. Village secrets and all that. Kag?"

Sasuke forces himself to look at the conversation, and Kagari grimaces, but shrugs. "Fine, I guess. We'll probably have to ask our sensei when we get back, since he's not here."

Naruto nods. "Yeah, yeah! We'll ask Kakashi-sensei, whenever he gets here! He's always late!"

"Maa, what was that, Naruto?"

Slowly, slowly, anticipating their doom, the genin slowly turn around. Right there, perched on the railing, is Kakashi, and his smile fills them with dread. "Sensei… do you just wait for us to say something like that?" Sakura has to ask, staring at him.

He just smiles, offering up no answer to that. "What did you want to ask me, Naruto?"

Quickly, Naruto and Sakura talk over each other, explaining their desire for penpal-ship and friendship and all that. They don't bother to explain Oboro – Sasuke's certain they've told Kakashi already. He nods slowly, listening to what they have to say, and then smiles again. "Sounds fine to me! You'll have to run the letters through security, first, make sure there's nothing classified you're sharing." He leans over and ruffles their hair, ignoring their squawks. "I'm so proud of you two for fostering intercommunity friendship!"

He glances at Sasuke. "Are you participating, my cute little Uchiha?"

Resisting the urge to shudder at that title – why was he so weird – Sasuke eyes his teacher's hands with trepidation. "No."

Kakashi pouts. And then disappears in a quick swirl of smoke to stand behind the Ame genin, where he ruffles their hair. He smiles. "I'm sure you two will be such good friends to my genin!" There's an almost… threatening undertone to that, and the two nod very rapidly. "Good! Now, everyone should be getting here soon, so good luck!"

Before he disappears, he ruffles Sasuke's hair, too, and the Uchiha scowls. "I hate him."

His teammates grumble in agreement, but the Ame genin seem stunned. "You… didn't tell us your teacher was Hatake Kakashi," Mubi says, staring at Sasuke.

He shrugs, and can't resist a smirk. "You didn't ask."

Sakura and Naruto are more than willing to happily chat with the Ame genin, and Sasuke lets them. He considers talking to them about, you know, 'not telling anyone about the whole freaking out and nearly killing someone' thing, but the conversation has reminded him: they're from Amegakure. They… would probably have to, if they deem it relevant, tell their superiors.

He hopes they don't deem it relevant.

While his teammates talk – probably telling them about themselves, given Sasuke has overheard the word 'Hokage' like five times – Sasuke focuses on watching the floor below. Team 8 showed up a half hour ago, and is currently mingling with the other Hyuuga team. Well, almost – Hinata is very clearly avoiding the other Hyuuga. Interesting.

The team from sand has shown up, but they interact with no one, standing in the corner but not talking to each other, either. Kabuto's team is walking in right now… and oh, the teachers are starting to gather near the front.

"We should head down," Sasuke says, and the conversation beside him stops. "It looks like everyone's almost here."

He looks over at the four, and Sakura and Naruto are serious. Sobered up. It's time for the third part of the exam.

"See you later, Mubi, Kagari!" Naruto tells them, giving them a smile, and Sakura echoes him.

They both smile back. "We'll cheer you on," Mubi tells them, and with that, Team 7 heads down to the floor.

Just in time, it seems like. Team 8's sensei – a woman who he doesn't know the name of – directs them all to line up in an orderly fashion, and they do so. From the corner of his eye, Sasuke can see Team 10 join them, ushered in from behind, as well as a team from… Ishigakure, maybe, he doesn't get a good look because the Hokage appears with a small puff of smoke in front of them.

After a few moments, though, Sasuke tunes out the Hokage. As. Disrespectful as that is. He doesn't really care.

He doesn't really care if this is what they do in place of war, or if clients are coming to see them and thus they must show off, or whatever exactly is the meandering man's point – he's here to test himself. See how strong he is.

(See how strong he is with his own power, not with the brand seared into his neck.)

What does catch his attention, though, is the fact that they're going to have to fight preliminaries right now. It makes sense. There's too many for a proper showcasing, it would take too long, and some of them are rather… weak. (He resists glancing over at Team 10, because he's still kind of stunned they actually made it here.)

Those three are the ones that complain, of course, but it's their fault they didn't make it to the tower until this point. Team 7, Team 8, the Sand team, Kabuto's team, and Hyuuga's team had all made it here before the end, and managed to get some rest and healing. If they wanted to be on an even playing ground, they should have gotten here faster.

Idiots.

Kabuto gives up, but no one else does. Sakura eyes him worriedly, but says nothing, and even though the girl from the Kusagakure team, not Ishigakure, looks like she got really messed up, she doesn't quit, either.

They've come this far. Who, really, would give up now?

The screen flickers, spiraling through the twenty names remaining in the exam, and slowly, surely, comes to a halt. Sasuke smirks.

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi is displayed prominently. Good. He'd rather go first.

Naruto gives his shoulder a friendly punch, and Sakura gives him a nervous smile. "Good luck, Sasuke," she says, as everyone else starts to clear out, leaving just Sasuke and the older genin.

He doesn't respond. He doesn't need luck.

To be honest, when someone has stayed a genin for a decade, Sasuke isn't too surprised it's easy enough to beat him. Sure, that chakra-sucking technique was a bit of a surprise, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

Sakura and Naruto are hanging out over by Kagari and Mubi, and he joins them. "That was pretty lame, Sasuke," Naruto says, grinning.

He shrugs. "Hn. Not my fault he was a pathetic excuse for a genin."

Shino gets called to battle with the sand puppeteer – Kankurou, now he knows his name, if that becomes relevant – and Sasuke keeps an eye on it even while they speak. "Still, you did win, so congratulations," Mubi says, and the Uchiha inclines his head.

Kagari is also focusing on the battle below – which is… mostly just Shino and Kankurou standing there, for now – and he frowns. "That Aburame kid's chakra is interesting…"

Okay, Sasuke feels like he's earned the right to be rude. He won his battle. He gets to be. "How do you know that?" he asks.

The other genin doesn't look at him, but his frown tightens up a bit. "Isn't that kind of rude?"

"I don't care," he says, and Kagari finally turns, narrowing his eyes in his direction.

"I'm a chakra sensor," he spits at him, and oh, that makes sense. But now the tension is… it's awkward, and Sasuke looks away, focusing on the battle below. It's almost a relief when Shino randomly strikes out at the puppet, and it turns out that the puppet was Kankurou, and Kankurou was the puppet, and-

Well, Shino handily wins that one, no problem. His bugs probably helped him sense that. A bad opponent to go up against, given the entire match is over with in like five minutes.

"I take it back, Sasuke," Naruto says, coming up between him and Kagari and wrinkling his nose. "That was a really lame match. At least the guy you fought did something."

Sasuke relaxes, just slightly, and nods. "Hn. Shino did well."

Sakura comes up on his right, smiling a little. "Yeah. Team 8's pretty good, so I'm not surprised…" She trails off, and Sasuke distinctly remembers that he doesn't know what happened before he woke up, that day a few days ago. Team 8 had clearly fought well-

But. But he doesn't really want to ask about it.

Expectantly, all but Kagari glance up at the screen, waiting for the next match-up. Sasuke is curious, and isn't sure what to expect, but unless his two teammates are fighting each other, he can't imagine there's anything that will really surprise or alarm him. It's just the preliminaries.

(He'll never get used to be wrong about these fucking exams.)

Sasuke and Sakura can't tear their eyes away from the screen. Naruto grips the railing, white-knuckled, and Sasuke doesn't even think he's breathing as he desperately glances around the room, trying so very hard to find the person in question.

The proctor coughs. "Will Rock Lee and…. and Uzumaki Karin come down?"

A/N: I've been updating this (and other) fanfictions over at Ao3, but I'm now permanently moving over to FFN. I'll be updating this fic probably at least once daily until I'm caught up to where I'm at on Ao3 (chapter 75). You can find me on tumblr at my writing blog ftcoye, and my personal chadsuke. Thanks for reading!