VIII: Apart
"Really sure that you can't take the Exams with me, Ino?" Sakura asked her best friend as they stood outside the Hokage Residence, where the Jonin exams were set to begin in less than an hour.
"Yeah, I'm sure," Ino replied.
Sakura sighed dejectedly. "Is there anyone else from our class whose's taking it?"
"Nope," Ino answered simply.
"What about Shino? I'm sure he's ready," Sakura asked, looking for anything.
Ino laughed at her friend's desperate tone. "Probably is, but apparently he's thinking about retiring from active duty and becoming an academy instructor."
"Really?" Sakura responded, surprised. "OK, OK. What about…Kiba! He must be raring to take these exams."
Ino laughed again. "You'd think so but apparently he's sitting this one out. From what I heard Akamaru hasn't been feeling well for a few weeks now."
"Oh…I'm…sorry to hear that," Sakura said. "What about Lee? Tenten? Or maybe Hinata."
Ino shook her head. "No. Word is Lee was going to take the exams, but then he lost a bet or something and he's not going to take the exam because of that."
Sakura stopped abruptly, confused. "Um…what? Because of a bet?"
Ino shrugged her shoulders. "Don't ask me. Anyway, Tenten is helping him now with…whatever it is that he's doing and Hinata is, well, she just isn't taking part."
Sakura took a deep breath. "OK. And we know your teammates aren't taking it."
"Yep," Ino replied. "Choji told me as much and Shikamaru…actually he never told me whether he was going to do it or not. But, you know him, he's not going to do anything if he doesn't have to."
"Yeah, you're right," Sakura said, "I don't even know what I'm so worried about." Steeling herself and filled with a sudden surge of confidence she turned away from Ino and began walking towards the Hokage Residence. Waving back at her friend she said, "wish me luck!"
The admission process was rather unlike that of the Chunin Exams. It was less formal and bureaucratic, no paperwork needed to enter, only a simple, verbal declaration of intent to take the exams before entering the Jonin Briefing Room, where the Hokage would explain the first part of the exams to the applicants.
There were also fewer people taking these exams than the chunin equivalent. That was only natural, jonin are supposed to be the elite, best of the best. That wouldn't be so if everyone applied to be one. Only the skilled, the ambitious, and the overconfident took part in these exams.
Looking around Sakura searched for faces she recognized. Among the applicants were many of the village's best and brightest young chunin excepting, of course, nearly every member of the Hidden Leaf 12.
It was only her. Quite surprising, really, because their generation had been hailed as one of the most promising ever seen. But for one reason or another Sakura was the only one of her peers in these exams. One only needed to look around the room to see that. Except for one thing.
"Shikamaru?!" Sakura exclaimed as she saw him laying on some chairs in the corner, approaching him with a look of total surprise on her face.
The man in question, who had been been trying to get some shut eye before the exams started, opened them slowly and looked at Sakura lazily before closing them again. "Oh, hey. I guess you're taking the exams too."
"Ino told me that you weren't going to be here," Sakura said, surprise evident in her tone.
Shikamaru glanced at her before lowering his eyelids again. "I don't remember telling Ino anything like that."
"Oh…right," Sakura said. "She said that you hadn't told her anything. We just kind of…you know…assumed."
Shikamaru turned over so that his back was facing Sakura. "Well, that is what happens when you do that."
One of Sakura's eyebrows raised as a thought came to her mind. "So why are you taking these exams?"
The response came in the form of a shrug. "I just figured it was time."
Sakura smirked as she got an idea. "Did Temari help you with that?"
Shikamaru shot up into a sitting position and stared at Sakura. "No." His eyes flitted back and forth nervously. "…maybe."
Sakura giggled. "Well at least I've got some gossip to share with Ino, if nothing else."
Shikamaru smacked himself in the forehead in annoyance. "Great, another troublesome thing that I have to deal with."
"Oh come on, Shikamaru," Sakura said. "I think it's kind of sweet."
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Shikamaru replied. "What a drag," he mumbled to himself.
Sakura sighed shortly before Kakashi entered the room and started briefing the applicants on the exams, cutting the conversation short.
Temari sat in her bedroom, the door open, polishing her fan. It had been a few months since her return from the Hidden Leaf. The first few weeks had been great, visiting her favorite restaurants that she'd been missing, seeing old friends, and generally settling back into her desert home. It helped that Gaara gave her only light duties for a couple weeks after they got back. But now she felt like there was something missing.
"Something on your mind?" Kankuro asked, bringing Temari's attention to the fact that he was standing in the doorway, for how long she did not know.
Temari continued with her polishing. "What makes you say that?"
"You've been polishing that fan for the past half hour," Kankuro answered.
"You've been watching me?" Temari asked without looking up from her work.
"Not the whole time," Kankuro replied. "I've walked by a few times and seen you doing it. Been standing here for five minutes and you didn't even notice."
"Is there a point to this?" Temari asked, agitated.
"Oh, nothing," Kankuro said lazily. "You just seem…agitated…or maybe anxious is a better word. Distracted? What do you think?"
Temari stopped her polishing and roughly slammed her fan onto the floor. "I'm not a thesaurus, Kankuro."
"No, you're not," he replied. "Now, what's going on with you? You've been acting like this for weeks now."
"Nothing," Temari answered. Kankuro didn't leave and after a moment she said, "the Hidden Leafs jonin exams are starting right about now, aren't they?"
Kankuro stayed quiet for a moment as he thought about it. He generally didn't keep track of anything remotely political, he left that to his siblings. "Yeah, I think they are, now that you mention it."
"Are they going to tell us who passes?" Temari asked.
She didn't know why she asked that, she knew the answer, which Kankuro quickly provided. "Well, no. Last I checked, villages aren't required to inform other nations how many joinin they have or who they are. Why are you asking?"
"Just curious," Temari answered.
"About Shikamaru?" Kankuro guessed exactly what she was curious about.
Temari didn't want to admit to that, but she knew couldn't really talk about it with her brother, so she didn't say anything.
Kankuro took the silence as a 'yes.' "I'm sure that he'll be fine. Assuming he actually takes it, he'll pass. He's a great ninja, could have made jonin a while ago."
"Yeah," Temari said mostly to herself. That was the answer she had come up with herself on multiple occasions. Still, believing that did little to soothe her anxious feelings, a certain tightness in her chest that went unabated.
