DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does. I don't own Hikari Aino.

A/C: Constructive criticism is warmly welcomed and appreciated, as well as readers' suggestions/ideas (particularly when it comes to Lemons – I really suck at those! :S).

VALUABLE INFORMATION

"The general fact is that the most effective way of utilizing human energy is through an organized rivalry, which by specialization and social control is, at the same time, organized co-operation."
~Charles Horton Cooley

~HIKARI P.O.V~

Turns out, after all that nonsense of running around the forest trying to find and retrieve Moegi, and fighting against an anonymous ninja - it turned out to be a preliminary exam conducted by local ninjas to prove that we were serious and ready to face the challenges of the Chunnin exam. We found that out from our laughing mentor when we told him what had happened - expecting to be commended for using our initiative to protect someone much more vulnerable than we were.

Needless to say, Kakashi was not popular.

As the day wore on, my foul mood fizzled out and the four of us made our way towards the Academy where the Chuunin exam was going to be held in one of the classrooms. Naruto's smile could've blinded anyone who directly looked at him he was so excited, while Sakura looked like a scared little lamb waiting to be pounced on and ripped apart by a ravenous fox or wolf. Sasuke looked like he always did, cold and aloof and the only expression on his pale face was a frown that instantly translated to practically everyone: 'back the hell away or I'll beat you to a pulp.'

Strangely enough, that only seemed to apply to people who weren't Naruto or I, because he tended to stick closer to the both of us out of all the selected Genin candidates that were ambling around the corridors looking for the correct room the exam was to be held. Usually, he kept a wide berth and growled under his breath if people came close to him. I looked over at Naruto, who shrugged just as confused as I was – but I suspected it was probably because of the Gaara incident yesterday and Sasuke didn't want to take any chances that the strange, freaky redheaded sand nin would attack first and ask questions later.

"HEY!" A loud voice calls out excitedly.

Sasuke groans in annoyance, while I winced, Naruto looked around curiously for the person and Sakura looked pissed off as the four of turned to see Ino sprinting towards us. Sasuke braced himself for a purple blur to impact against him as he obviously fully expected Ino to suddenly jump on him and hug him stupid. Sakura obviously realised that too as she moved to incept her with an angry glare on her heart shaped face. To our complete shock it apparently wasn't Sasuke Ino was aiming for – it was me.

Ino glomped me from behind and planted an affectionate kiss on my cheek. I stumbled slightly trying to support the extra weight Ino added onto mine when she jumped onto my back.

"Hey Ino. I missed you too." I croaked before Ino got down from my back, sensing my difficulty standing upright and wrapped me up in a bone-crushing hug.

"I've missed you too, Hikari-chan. I can't believe we've made it to the Chunnin exams!" she shrieked excitedly in my ear and I grinned and nodded enthusiastically – surprised about how she ignored Sasuke altogether.

Naruto bounded forward.

"Hi Ino-chan!" he said brightly. Ino turned and gave Naruto a friendly smile for once not filled with contempt.

What the?

"Hi Naruto, you made it too? Good job!" she complimented him and I instantly frowned, smelling a rat. I was about to ask what the gag was when Sakura beat me to it.

"Ino-pig, what the fuck? Did you swallow some happy pills?" Sakura demanded standing there with her hands clenched in fists. Ino barely noticed Sakura's comment.

"Oh hey, forehead girl. Didn't see you there." Ino answered, ignoring the 'happy pill' hypothesis. Even Naruto was looking a little freaked out at this point so I decided to get to the bottom of this.

"Sakura's got a point, Ino. Why are you so chipper? You're usually draping yourself over Sasuke and provoking a fight with Sakura by now." I asked seeing Naruto nodding in agreement.

Sasuke looked like he really couldn't give a rat's ass, but even he looked curious as to why she wasn't acting like a typical fangirl. Ino gave Sasuke the same friendly smile that she had given Naruto before replying.

"Oh that? I got over him - found another guy I like." Ino explained chatty-like and turned scanning the corridor for the 'lucky' guy that had Ino as a girlfriend. A moment later she shrieked excitedly again and started pointing.

The four of us followed the stabbing finger towards Shikamaru Nara, who looked like he was sleepwalking.

Typical.

"I'm with Shika now." she announced proudly and rushed over to an unsuspecting Shikamaru who grunted the moment Ino wrapped him up in a bone-crushing hug. I giggled when I realised Shikamaru had just muttered the word 'troublesome' underneath his breath but he smiled slightly and returned his girlfriend's hug.

"Let's keep going." Sasuke suggested before sauntering off down the corridor, the rest of us nodding and following suit.

We made it to the classroom we were going to do the exam in but noticed that our path was blocked by a couple of guard ninjas who refused point blank to step aside so we could get past.

"May I get by?" I asked with forced politeness as I could feel my anxiety creeping up on me.

One of the guards merely looked at me like I wasn't even there and just grunted. I was used to monosyllabic sentences from spending so much time with Sasuke, but I really wasn't in the mood to put up with annoying guards. Apparently, neither was Sasuke as he tried to shove past one of them but passed through them like they were nothing more than apparitions.

"Great. Hope that wasn't part of the test." I muttered unhappily as Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura and I ambled through the threshold followed swiftly by the other Genins who hadn't been able to figure out how to get past the guards themselves until Sasuke solved the problem for all of us.

However, the guard that Sasuke had passed through, blocked his path and tried to engage into a fight with him. Sasuke smirked coldly at him and was about to accept the challenge when another Genin intercepted him.

Looking up, we saw a very weird looking boy dressed in a lime green spandex jumpsuit, accessorised with orange leg-warmers and was bandaged all the way up to his elbows, and he wore black ankle-length shinobi sandals. His forehead protector was proudly wrapped around his waist. His black hair had been cut into a bowl shape and was unusually shiny.

But it was his eyebrows that most caught my attention and both Sakura and Naruto's.

"Can we help you?" asked Sasuke rudely.

The boy grinned creepily at us and I felt my skin start to crawl unpleasantly.

"No of course not, my youthful friends. I just wanted to introduce myself and challenge you to a spar. I've always wanted to spar with the great Sasuke Uchiha." the boy gushed and I half expected him to offer to kiss Sasuke's feet.

Sasuke pulled a face before moving away from the eccentric boy.

"Hn."

The boy appeared not to notice the obvious dismissal.

"My name is Rock Lee." He introduced himself, bowing respectfully and fixed an unblinking gaze upon Sakura who recoiled in horror when his eyes twinkled in interest.

I almost spat my teeth across the room from laughter. Sasuke and Naruto looked into the classroom at our potential opponents.

"Wow. There's a lot of Genins in there." reported Naruto impressed.

Sasuke nodded studying them all. I noticed his eyes narrowing almost immediately and I followed his gaze only to flinch when I realised who he had spotted and wished I hadn't seen. Gaara was standing against the opposite room, keeping to himself. The other Genin were giving the anti-social sand nin a wide berth. As though sensing he was being looked at, Gaara raised his expressionless gaze up and stared directly at both Sasuke and I and glared.

"I love you, Sakura-chan."

Lee's voice pulled me back to the situation at hand very quickly and caused Sasuke and I to look at him in incredulous amusement.

"Say what?" I blurted out and snorted at the horrified expression on Sakura's face. Lee started blowing kisses at Sakura which she dodged with difficulty.

Naruto and I started almost wetting ourselves and I had to lean against my blonde-haired friend for support. Sasuke rolled his eyes and promptly ignored us and Lee who during his 'heartfelt love confession' had dropped into a fighting stance, fully expecting Sasuke to follow suit. However, when Naruto saw the determination in Lee's eyes directed towards Sasuke, he immediately stopped laughing and scowled at the implication that Sasuke was the one to be beaten.

"Oi! Fuzzy brows. Don't worry about the Teme, fight me instead!" Naruto insisted dropping into a fighting stance.

However, Lee shook his head, refusing which only angered Naruto more and caused him to charge headlong towards Lee intent on landing a punch on him. Lee merely swung a roundhouse kick at Naruto and kicked him aside. He didn't even break a sweat.

My jaw dropped open in shock.

"You cannot defeat me." he insisted directing his attention to a now interested Sasuke who immediately accepted Lee's fight invocation.

"Sasuke-kun, we need to register in thirty minutes." Sakura reminded him worriedly.

"Hadn't noticed." Sasuke retorts impatiently and drops into his fighting stance, ready to take on Lee.

I sighed exasperatedly before going over to Naruto who was rubbing his sore head and glaring at both Sasuke and Lee, and helped him to his feet. Naruto turned to me with a quizzical expression on his tanned face.

"Aren't you gonna stop them?" He asked curiously.

I shook my head and slouched against the wall, glaring at my raven-haired best friend while my blonde-haired best friend stared at me in disbelief.

"No point. Sasuke's too stubborn for his own good." I explained.

"Besides, Sasuke wouldn't hesitate to knock me aside, despite the fact that I'm one of his best friends and a girl." I added distastefully as Sasuke charged headlong at Lee who promptly kicked him in the face.

I smirked.

"Ouch! That's gotta hurt." I drawled causing Sasuke and Sakura to look at me as though I suddenly sprouted two extra heads.

I shrugged nonchalantly at Sasuke's questioning glance before just as nonchalantly examining my fingernails and cleaning them. Naruto looked between the two of us and decided that I was right and wisely stayed out of the fighting - obviously realising Sasuke was making an ass out of himself.

Sakura got into my face.

"What the hell is your problem talking to Sasuke-kun like that?" she snapped scowling at me.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Problem? I have no problem. I'm problem-free." I replied breezily just as Sasuke got to his feet and looked slightly hurt at my reaction to him fighting.

But just as quickly he shrugged it off and activated his Sharingan which made his deep pools of black he called his eyes a sinister blood red colour. He charged at Lee again only to get kicked in the face and sent crumpling to my feet, struggling to get up again.

This continued for ahwile before I realised had a little too bitchy and hasty with my judgement. I crouched down beside Sasuke who turned and looked at me - his red eyes blinking into my light brown ones, demanding an explanation for my smartass comments.

"What I said before was uncalled for. I express my nerves in the wrong way, and I'm sorry for taking them out on you." I explained.

Sasuke looked sceptical for a few moments before nodding curtly and struggling once again to get to his feet. Sighing, I extended a hand towards him. He looked at it for a moment before relenting and taking it as leverage to get to his feet.

"So how come it's taking you so long to land a hit on this guy?" asks Naruto coming forward and frowning at Sasuke who glowers at him and shrugs looking irritated.

I had a theory - I had been studying Lee the moment he and Naruto had begun fighting.

"Remember when you and Zabuza described the Sharingan to us back in Wave Country?" I asked.

They nodded, Sakura looked at me suspiciously while Lee waited patiently for Sasuke's next move.

"Well, the Sharingan is used to copy the opponent's movements, right?"

Another nod.

"The reason why you haven't been able to land a punch or whatever on Lee is because his fighting style isn't illusionary. He's just being using hand-to-hand combat." I said.

"You can't be serious." muttered Sasuke dubiously.

I shook my head.

"Lee is moving too fast for you to detect his movements, even for your Sharingan to detect it."

Sasuke scoffed, not believing me. "That's complete and utter bullshit."

I scowled at the stubborn Uchiha before placing a hand on his shoulder.

He looked at me silently demanding for me to let go of his shoulder. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, but don't start bitching to me when he kicks your ass." I said shortly and moved away to observe the one-sided fight.

Sasuke growled at me angrily before attacking Lee again. But every time, Sasuke was kicked in the face by Lee. However, Lee didn't stop there. This time he used a completely different technique that threw Naruto, Sakura and I off guard for a second.

Lee flashed a blinding grin at the three of us, Sakura in particular.

"This next move is called my 'shadow dance' technique." He bragged before moving to pile-drive Sasuke into the ground.

I winced - that really did have to hurt.

Lee goes to remove the bandages he has wrapped around his arms, but is stopped by a green flying, talking turtle. I raised an eyebrow and turned to see the same expression mirrored in Naruto's and Sakura's faces. Now I've seen everything.

"LEE! That move is forbidden!" The flying, talking turtle warns him, glaring sternly at the green clad ninja.

Lee is immediately remorseful.

"God dammit!" snarls Sasuke when he realised he had been beaten by the weirdest ninja we had ever seen.

Suddenly, a man who looked like an older cloned version of Lee appeared out of nowhere scaring the shit out of Sakura and I. He cuffs Lee over the head for almost using the 'move'. The next thing we know, both Lee and the weird look-a-like were suddenly hugging and crying.

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

The entire corridor sweat dropped at the extremely creepy display in front of us. I shuddered feeling incredibly awkward. I was relieved to see the same emotions on the faces of my teammates as well.

"Lee! As punishment for almost doing the forbidden move, you have to run 100 laps around the Academy during the sunset." 'Gai-sensei' ordered Lee.

Say what?

"But because the examination turn-ins are going to happen soon, you shall carry out this punishment AFTER the chunnin exam is over. UNDERSTOOD?" demanded Gai a little too enthusiastically.

"Yes, Gai-sensei!" bellowed Gai standing ramrod straight.

Gai turned his grinning face towards the four of us and his eyes twinkled cunningly. We took an uncertain step back.

"You must be the students of my eternal rival, Kakashi Hakate!" Gai-sensei guessed correctly.

"Eternal rival?" Sakura questioned, still looking creeped out.

Gai jumped into the 'nice guy' pose Naruto sometimes did when he was feeling particularly confident about something.

"You are correct my pink-haired friend!" He answered still grinning insanely. Is he on uppers or something?

"Why don't you join my team? I am much stronger than Kakashi is!" He bragged then suddenly vanished. Thank fuck he's gone, we breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm also faster than he is!"

I screamed in surprise when he suddenly reappeared behind us - standing directly behind me when he said that.

"Good to know…" Naruto agreed pulling me away from the overly-enthusiastic teacher, trying to help me breathe properly after my heart leaped into my throat from shock.

Sakura looked half-amused that Gai-sensei scared me and half-sympathetic that he had been the one to do it. Sasuke glared at the crazy teacher, but also looked a little troubled that he was as fast as he claimed. If he was this fast - imagine how fast, not to mention powerful his students could be. We ignored him and turned to watch Lee re-wraps the bandages on his arms and winked flirtatiously at a thoroughly repulsed Sakura who moved away from him and moved to stand next to Sasuke who sighed in frustration and moved away from her.

"I've joined this exam to fight against one of my teammates who is the strongest of all the Genins!" He told us before winking and blowing another kiss at Sakura (who dodged) and moved into the classroom, presumably to find his teammates.

Naruto walked over to Sasuke who was looking pissed off and placed a reassuring hand onto his shoulder.

"Don't worry about it, Sasuke." He suggested. I appeared over Naruto's shoulder and looked him directly in his eyes. I wrapped Naruto into a headlock and gave him a playful noogie.

"Yeah, Naruto's right. He's just making himself out to be better than he probably is." I added as Naruto fought his way free from my arm and grinned looping an arm around my shoulders.

Sasuke looked at us uncertainly before cracking a small smile. But then the bubble burst in the form of Sakura.

"Besides, you're WAY better than he is." Sakura added unhelpfully.

I scowled at her, as Sasuke suddenly smirked and sauntered into the room. Even Naruto's grin dropped. When I was sure Sasuke was out of earshot I turned on Sakura and hissed angrily at her.

"We were trying to cheer him up, not inflate his ego even more, you complete moron."

Naruto nodded in agreement just as Sakura's figurative 'hackles' stood on end and returned my glare.

"Who are you calling a moron? I was telling it like it is." she protested, claiming her comment innocent.

"And returning him to his conceited, biased self in the process." I interjected exasperated.

Sakura's face dropped slightly.

"Sasuke is much more agreeable if he's not so convinced that his shit doesn't stink. Thanks a lot, Sakura." I grumbled and moved into the room.

Sakura looked at Naruto who avoided eye contact and followed me in.

The moment we stepped into the room, we were stopped by Kakashi. He beamed at us and happily accepted us into the exam.

"I thought we were accepted the moment we handed in our applications." said Sakura frowning in confusion.

Kakashi nodded.

"You're half correct. But you would only progress in the exam if ALL of your team members participated in the exam as well, otherwise you would be disqualified the moment you stepped into this room."

Now he tells us.

"So good on you for making the right decision." He said 'grinning', then he wished us all good luck and beat a hasty retreat out the door.

We took a look at the room and realised there were a lot of Genins participating in this exam. I heard Sakura gulp audibly in anxiety - and I reluctantly admit - I did as well. I noticed Ino from across the room, standing with her boyfriend/teammate, Shikamaru and her other teammate, an overweight boy with spiky mousy brown hair who was eating a packet of chips called Chouji Akimichi.

She noticed me and waved the four of us over and I waved back smiling slightly. I could feel the knots in my stomach changing rapidly into gigantic butterflies as I we went over to them. I glanced around for somebody else I knew.

"Hey idiot!"

I bristled instantly, knowing that comment was directed at Naruto who was standing next to me oblivious to my rage and turned to face the person belonging to that rude comment and decide whether I should rearrange their face before or after the introductions for insulting my best friend.

Team Kurenai had just entered the room.

I recognised one of them as my friend Hinata Hyuuga - she was dressed as usual in her beige jacket zipped all the way up to her throat which had a fuzzy hood, navy blue ¾ length pants with her weapons pack strapped to her thigh, a pair of navy blue shinobi sandals and her navy-blue forehead protector was tied around her neck instead of her forehead.

Her blue-black hair had been cut into a concave bob and was a dramatic change to all the other female Genins in this room who all had long hair.

There was some ridiculous rumour going around that Sasuke apparently preferred girls with long hair, which was why Sakura's bubblegum pink hair was almost to her waist. But Hinata wasn't interested in Sasuke (thank kami) and preferred her hair at a short sensible length so it wouldn't fly into her eyes during missions. Her interests lay elsewhere.

Hinata smiled softly at me and I grinned back in greeting, but almost laughed when she turned a nasty shade of red the moment she clapped eyes on Naruto. It was obvious to everyone except Naruto himself that Hinata had a huge crush on him and it was sort of endearing to see the affection so plainly in her mauve opaque eyes.

Walking beside her was Shino Aburame who always gave me the creeps every time I saw him. He had spiky deep brown hair, pale skin and was always seen wearing a pair of black sunglasses, even at night. He wore a grey jacket with a widened collar that hid his mouth, brown leggings and navy-blue shinobi sandals. Like most shinobi, he also had his forehead protector tied around his forehead. He specialised in bug jutsus and after curtly nodding at us, turned and focused his attention towards a lone ant that was crawling along on the ground.

The third and final ninja was Kiba Inuzuka, whose family worked together with and specialised in dog ninjas (which they also breeded and trained) was the one who made the comment. Kiba was grinning cruelly at Naruto and oblivious to the massive amounts of hate rolling towards him in waves - from both me and Sasuke.

He was dressed in a smoky grey jacket with a black lined hood that hid away his spiky chocolate brown hair, charcoal grey trousers and navy-blue shinobi sandals. His weapons pack was strapped to his thigh. The most unusual features that Kiba had were the red triangle tribal tattoos on his peach coloured cheeks that indicated his clan, the animalistic teeth that made him look vaguely like part-human, part-wolf, and the fact that his partner, a small white dog with brown patchy ears named Akamaru was sitting on his head.

Kiba smirked at Naruto who blinked back at him in confusion. I growled underneath my breath drawing Kiba's attention towards me briefly before focusing on Naruto again.

"What are you doing here? Thought you'd be too stupid to get this far."

Naruto flushed red indicating that he was getting angry.

"Spoken directly from the horse's mouth." I drawled defensively.

Everyone's attention was now on me. Kiba glared.

"Wanna try that again?" He snarled, cracking his knuckles threateningly.

I smirked maliciously, not at all threatened by the bully-like behaviour Kiba was presenting.

"I don't like repeating myself. Almost as much as I don't like people who insult my friends for no reason." I retorted casually. Kiba growled angrily at me.

"Doesn't matter anyway. We're going to ace this exam and leave you in the dust." He bragged only fuelling the fire underneath Naruto and igniting one underneath Sasuke who also (although he didn't freely admit it - except to Naruto and I) didn't appreciate his friends being bullied OR threatened.

Which meant that Kiba had just committed a cardinal sin against the youngest Uchiha heir.

Hinata waded in before any fights could start.

"Please s-stop f-fighting. I apologise for K-kiba's behaviour." she said blushing badly.

Apparently Kiba wasn't satisfied with Hinata's bold move and moved to bash my face in. Almost immediately, Sasuke and Naruto stepped forward protectively, with Sasuke pushing me behind him gently and shielding me with his body. A move that I didn't entirely appreciate, since I was more than capable of holding my own in a fight. Kiba was pulled back by both Shikamaru and Chouji who told him to 'cool it' before they get into trouble with the teachers.

Kiba threw them off, straightening his clothing before huffing and turning to walk away from us. Hinata shrugged apologetically before turning to follow her fuming teammate. Shino managed to stop Chouji from stepping on the ant before also turning and following Hinata and Kiba, still blindly focused on the insect.

"How troublesome." Shikamaru muttered, as everybody except for Sasuke picked up their jaws from the ground and turned to gawk at me. None of them apparently thought I had it in me to be almost as 'badass' as Sasuke was.

Well, that's what happens if you badmouth my friends.

"Woah. Remind me not to piss you off." said Naruto who grinned at me and hugged me gratefully for defending him looking extremely touched that I cared.

I relaxed into his hug.

"You're welcome." I whispered just a silver haired Genin with large, shiny round rimmed glasses sauntered over to us radiating an unusual calmness that I immediately found suspicious.

"I hope all of you are prepared for this. We've all got some stiff competition this year." He reported.

"How do you know that?" asked Ino also frowning at him, but not with suspicion, just curiosity.

"This is my 7th attempt at this exam." He answered as he lay down some cards onto a nearby table.

"And during those attempts I managed to pick up statistics on every village participating using my chakra."

That grabbed my attention and apparently Sasuke's too as he stole a look over at an oblivious Gaara who was still casually leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, and appeared to be brooding while radiating a very dangerous aura.

"So hypothetically, you would have information on me for example?" I asked sceptically.

The Genin smirked slyly at me before choosing one of the cards from the table and tossing it at me. I snatched it out of thin air and scanned it. I felt Naruto leaning his chin on my shoulder as he read the information on the card too. The information contained on the card was extremely accurate. It contained everything from my name all the way to how many missions I had completed successfully.

"Wow. That's…impressive-"

"Kabuto." the Genin said smiling pleasantly at me. His glasses shone wickedly in the sunlight.

I nodded reluctantly feeling strangely exposed as I returned the card to him. However the card was suddenly snatched away and I looked up to see a gleeful Kiba.

"Yoink! I'll take that."

I rolled my eyes and moved away from the table. I apparently had made it onto Kiba's personal bingo book.

"I'd like to see your information on Gaara and Rock Lee." demanded Sasuke briskly.

Kabuto complied and I felt a little annoyed that he didn't flash Sasuke a self-satisfied smirk like he did to me, if anything he looked more reverent. In my eyes, that only made him out to be even more suspicious.

According to the card that Sasuke had in his hand about Rock Lee - he was a year older than us and was unable to perform any type of Jutsu. This exam is his first one. Gaara on the other hand was the same age as us, also taking this exam for the first time and had completed a B-ranked mission.

"Hn." said Sasuke flicking the card back onto the table and moving away.

Naruto was shaking beside me. I looked over to him with concern.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked him softly.

"You're not scared are you?" teased Sakura intending to wound, but Naruto barely recognised the jab and instead grinned at her.

"Nope. I'm really excited - let's do this!" he yelled looking pumped.

I grinned in amusement.

"I won't lose!" Naruto declares.

Kabuto excused himself and moved off, taking his cards (and the one Kiba had clutched in his hands possessively) with him. A ninja from the Sound village suddenly pounced on him and started whaling on him, apparently offended by a comment he had made earlier about their village being minor.

Naruto frowned.

"OI!"

The sound ninja looked at Naruto with a sneering look but make no move to back down. He continued beating the crap out of Kabuto when suddenly a door at the far end of the room bursts open and a scary looking Jounin with a scarred face steps through the threshold, glaring at the fight.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!" He bellowed and elbowed his way through the sea of Genins to reach the brawl that was attracting a large crowd.

"KNOCK IT OFF OR YOU'LL BE DISQUALIFIED!" He threatened.

Immediately the Sound Ninja backed off practically kissing the scary, scarred Jounin's ass. Kabuto looked suspiciously unscathed.

Hmmm…

"Sorry 'bout that. I'm just really excited about this exam. It's my first one." He said with this really fake looking smile on his face.