Sen sat on the edge of the bridge, reading a book waiting for his teammates to arrive. The book he was reading was by the same author who wrote his father's Icha Icha books, but surprisingly it wasn't perverted. The book followed the journey of a young man trying to discover his place in the ninja world, Sen quiet enjoyed it and was hoping the author would continue the series. But he seriously doubted this as there were copious amounts of Ica Icha books. But of course, he could hope. He looked up from his book when he heard someone cough beside him. When he turned his head he was greeted by a pair of coal black eyes that belonged to his cousin, Sasuke.

"Yo, Sasuke. How are you?" Sen greeted, placing a bookmark in his book and placing it into his pouch.

Sasuke shrugged and replied, "I'm ok. Didn't get much sleep last night-"

Sen cut him off by saying, "Nightmare" Sasuke nodded and leaned on the railing of the bridge. They sat there for about half an hour in peace, but that abruptly ended when Naruto came bounding onto the bridge.

"Hey Sasuke, Hey Sen." He yelled landing noisily in front of the duo.

Sasuke groaned and Sen barely offered a small, "Yo."

Naruto frowned at this and asked(shouted), "Hey Sen, what are you reading?"

Sen looked up and replied, "The journey of Katsu: A brave warrior." He then looked back to his book. Naruto sat down quietly for about point two seconds until he decided he was bored. Naruto decided to entertain himself in the most peace disrupting way he could, by playing a prank on Sen. Having never met him beyond the day before, Naruto had never been able to prank the young Hatake before today. Naruto thought for a while about what would really push the boy's buttons, then the idea dawned on him. He could take his book, that should rile the kid up. In one swift movement, Naruto grabbed the book out of Sen's hands and began to run off. And in less than a millisecond Naruto's plan was foiled. Faster than Naruto could think Sen had grabbed the book back and thrown Naruto into the river to teach him a lesson.

Just as this was taking place Sakura walked onto the bridge and beelined towards Sasuke all while shouting her catchphrase, "Sasuke!"And Sasuke expertly dodged the attempt at physical contact.

Sen greeted her with a small, "Yo," then dutifully returned to his book. Sakura gushed at this saying something along the lines of, 'Cool just like Sasuke.'

No one made any attempt to leave until Sen closed his book and sighed.

"Ok, let's go. I'm sure everyone's up and ready for a good old exam." Sen jumped off the railing and started walking in the direction of the testing facility. When they arrived they quickly ascended the stairs, moving upwards at a steady pace. Sen was walking quickly up the next set of stairs and realized his team was not behind him. He retraced his steps and found his team standing outside a door. "Guys, this is the second floor. We need to go up one more flight." Sen said when he suddenly came face to face with his old teammates, also trying to get into the room.

"Hello my dear friend Sen, how are you?" Rock Lee asked suddenly back on his feet.

"I... I... I'm good... Come on guys... one more floor..."Sen said grabbing Sasuke's hand and dragging him away from his old teammates.

Naruto looked back, confused. "Do you know those guys, Sen?" He asked, even more, confused when Sen abruptly stopped.

"We're here." He said as he opened the door leading to the examination room.

Naruto was about to ask his question again but was interrupted by Kiba pulling him into a headlock.

"Hey, Naruto! How ya been?" He asked completely overlooking Sen. Sen sighed in relief, and made his way towards the back of the room. But, sadly lady luck was not on his side when he coincidentally bumped into his former teammate; Neji Hyuga. And unfortunately, there was nowhere to hide.

"Hello, Sen." Neji greeted, walking closer to the pink-eyed boy.

Sen gulped and replied in a very uncharacteristically meek voice, "Yo... Neji... how have you been? Haven't seen you... in a while..." In all honesty, Sen hadn't seen his old teammates since the incident during the mission in Iwa.

"Yes, it has, I am doing well. Is there something wrong Sen? You seem to be nervous." Neji added, again stepping slightly closer to the slightly trembling boy.

Sen shook his head vigorously and replied, "No... everything's fine... I'm just... I'm sorry you had to see that side of me... I'm pretty sure I mentally scared Tenten. Is she okay?" Sen looked up abruptly when Neji placed his hand on Sen's shoulder.

" We know that wasn't you, it was Akihiro. You didn't mean to kill her, she just set you off. You did nothing wrong." Neji said in a calm and understanding voice.

It may have been the same things his dads had been saying but hear it from Neji, one of his only friends made him feel 100 times better about the whole thing.

He was about to thank Neji when he heard Naruto yell, "I'm the best shinobi here and I'm gonna become Hokage!" While most of the Konoha nin just sighed and brushed it off as a regular Naruto occurrence, most of the visiting nin glared at the upbeat boy. Sen cocked his head at the newly observed behaviour and decided that this must be a recurring behaviour on the blonde's part. After the outburst, the chatter in the room steadily rose to its original volume.

"Well, Neji, it has been nice talking with you. But I'd better go find Sasuke and my other teammates before the proctor arrives. And... thank you... for reassuring me." Sen said when he spotted Sasuke at the other end of the room. Neji nodded and offered him a small wave and headed towards his own teammates. Sen sighed in relief as he made his way back to his cousin. Sasuke greeted him with a small grunt, Sen returned the greeting by tilting his head and leaning against his younger cousin. Sasuke rolled his eyes in response to Sen's childish tendencies, and meanwhile, the plethora of Sasuke fangirls appeared to be foaming at the mouths; ready to maul Sen to death.

After another few minutes, the exam proctor came into the room, revealing himself to be the one and only Ibiki Morino. Sen smiled and quietly sat in the seat right next to Sasuke, still not noticing the 50 or so glares he was receiving. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he finally became aware of the mass of killing intent being sent his way. In his uncomfortable state, he shifted slightly closer to Sasuke. Before he could look up to see what was happening, his papa had called for the written exam. Sen looked down at the test and realized he had no clue what to do, his brain had decided to tap out during the most important test in his life. After thinking about this for another second, Sen had decided his anxiety was being stupid and unrealistic. He could take on a fully armed shinobi without even so much as flinching, but a written test is just too much for his brain to even fathom. He groaned out loud and received a concerned look from his father. They made eye contact for a few seconds and Sen nodded his head discreetly to indicate he was okay enough to continue. Ibiki gave him a sceptical look but allowed him to continue.

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(Sen's POV)

I've just been sitting here, just staring at the paper for the past half hour. Then it finally dawned on me, 'Maybe Aki could help me.'

'YES I'M SORRY TO SAY THIS BUT YOU'RE SLIPPING SCORPLING.' Aki said in my head.

'Well, you try thinking straight when taking a written teat your entire future as a shinobi is riding on. Not to mention your teammates too.' I thought back.

'OK, OK. JUST CALM DOWN AND LEAVE THE THE WRITING TO ME.' Aki finally said as he gave me the answers to the exam. And the real kicker was that after we finished I realized I knew all the stuff.

'You have got to be kidding me! I knew all of this!' I groaned in my head.

'HEY, IT'S OK KID. YOUR ANXIETY DOES WEIRD SHIT SOMETIMES. IT'S OK.' Aki said to me. After I had flipped my page over I heard 7 groans around me. I didn't even care at this point who it was, I was way too tired from all the stress of thinking. I sighed quietly, as to not disturb any of the test takers around me and put my head down on the desk. I supposed a few minutes of sleep wouldn't hurt seeing as there were about 2 hours left of time.

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(3rd Person POV) *and about 2 later*

Sen woke up to someone shaking him gently. He groaned and sat up, slowly rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Hey Sen, how ya feelin'? Papa said you looked kinda anxious during the test, and I wanted to make sure you were ok with you and the team moved on to phase 2." Kakashi asked his son, rubbing his back soothingly.

Sen processed for a second then nodded, replying, "Yeah dad. I'm fine, just a little test-taking anxiety, nothing too bad. I think I'm okay to move on to phase two with Sasuke and the others." Kakashi looked his son over once more and reluctantly agreed. Sen smiled as his father led him toward the next phase testing grounds to meet his group and take the next step to become a chunin.