Sakura wasn't sure what to say to Makuro, wasn't sure where she should take him, and she certainly didn't know what to make of him. He was polite enough and seemed quite content to let her take the lead, but Sakura found it flustering to not be able to talk to a face.

It was one of the things that annoyed her about master Kakashi—it would be so much easier for her to learn under him if he would show them his face once in a while at least. Or even both eyes—Forget the Sharingan! Now Sakura felt uncomfortable ushering this tall Yorugakurene mummy around her home.

"I am making you uncomfortable." Makuro stated. It wasn't a question. He stopped walked and looked her right in the eye, "Are you afraid of me?"

"Well yes—I mean no." Sakuro swallowed, and could feel her cheeks flushing, "It's just…well…I find it easier to talk to people when I can see their face…"

Makuro peered down at her, and she stared back. She could make out his nose and where his eyes should be under the linens, but other than that there were no distinguishable features. His body was hidden in that strange trench coat. This genin was certainly a real man of mystery. Sakura could feel herself blushing even more.

"I—umm…why don't we get something to eat?"

"I don't need to eat Makuro said simply, pointing to his face, "But if you are hungry…"

"O—right." Sakura was steadily becoming more and more undone, "Forget it then, I just wanted to…Um…well then why don't we...uhh…"

Makuro cocked his head.

"You know what?" Sakura scowled, and seemed t become a different person. She plunged her hand into her purse as though drawing a kunai, and pulled out some mascara, "COME HERE!"

She reached up and grabbed Makuro's head. He laughed and let her drag him down into a bizarre sort of headlock. She held him still and quickly unscrewed her mascara, and gently drew eyes, a nose, and a mouth on his linens.

When Sakura released him, she beamed, "That's Much better."

Makuro's hand strayed up to feel where she had drawn at him, but the pink-haired kunoichi slapped his hand away.

"Don't touch it!" She grinned and returned her mascara to her purse, "That's so much better,"

"Glad I can make you happy." Makuro gave a little bow. He was in a fine mood in a beautiful city with a beautiful girl, "Where to? Now that I have a new face."

"Sakura Haruno!" An all to familiar voice came in from the north. Makuro and Sakura both looked up, and saw none other than Ino Yamanaka stalking down the street looking amused.

"The genin from Yoru have been here a grand total of a half hour, and already you're hitting on one?" Ino shook her head and tossed her hair prettily, "That's low, billboard brow. Really low." Ino cut in front of Sakura, and stuck out a hand, "Hey there, stud. I'm Ino Yaman…Y-Yaman…"

Into caught sight of Sakura's on the spot face job, and stopped. Obviously she thought that it was real instead of a hasty mascara job because she looked morified.

Makuro leaned in until his face was mere inches away from Ino's. He unraveled some of the linens from his skull, and waved them around in the air like medusa snakes, and said sweetly, "It's nice to meet you."

Ino gave a small shriek, and stepped back.

Sakura and Makuro laughed. Suddenly Shikamaru was among them.

"Ino I told you to stick close," The boy complained, jamming his hands in his pockets and scowling.

"Where are you guys coming from?" Sakura demanded, whirling, "Ino just came out of nowhere, and now you pop out of the ground like a daisy?"

Shikamaru ignored Sakura, and instead took in Makuro.

"It's nice to meet you, you must be Serioyuki Makuro." Shikamaru inclined his head, and extended his hand, "I'm Shikamaru Naru. That annoying chick who just screaming in your face is Ino, but you must know that already."

"HEY!" Ino aimed a smack at Shikamaru's head, but he was to quick for her, sidestepping her easily and laughing.

"Yes." Makuro nodded, "It's nice to meet you both, Ino and Shikamaru. Team Asuma, correct?"

"That's right. You know your stuff." Shikamaru said with a rather approving tone in his voice, "Ino wants to go shopping this afternoon, and refused to go alone, and I got pulled into it. What a drag."

"A Drag? How is shopping a drag?"

This time Ino aimed a kick at Shikamaru's shins, but once more she was too slow.

"Just ditch her." Sakura said darkly, under her breath, "I would."

Ino's glare could have boiled water, "Hey I heard that!"

"If she ditched me I'd have Makuro here to thank." Shikamaru grinned,

"Shouldn't you be training for the exam?" Makuro asked the lanky genin politely. Ino was deterred from her mission of destroying her fellow cell member, and answered the tall Yoru genin.

"Yeah, we are training. I'm getting some new clothes for the third part of the exam." She seemed to have gotten over her initial fear of Makuro, and was now looking closely at the mascara on his face, "Is that….face…real?"

"Very real." Makuro said solemnly, "My people char the bones of their enemies, grind them into powder, and then add water to make this facepaint."

Ino glanced at Sakura, "Is he serious?"

Sakura nodded, "oh yeah. Watch out for the Hebigiru tribe, Ino."

With Ino looking worried, Makuro posed his initial inquiry to Shikamaru, and waited for a response.

"This exam isn't worth my time anyways," Shikamaru said, shaking his head, "I wouldn't have even entered but the rest of my cell wanted a crack at it."

"You bet we did!" Ino whooped, punching the air and looking suddenly murderous, "Yeee-Haw!"

Makuro did his best to ignore Ino. What Shikamaru has said caught his attention.

"Why wouldn't you want to be a chunin?" Makuro was bemused. He kept trying to read Shikamaru's aura, but couldn't get anything on him. His entire manner seemed to be a dull sort of gray, there was nothing overly happy or sad or even interested about him. He wasn't even aloof or vague…he just honestly didn't seem to care.

"Like I said, it's not worth my time." Shikamaru had a note of finality in his tone, and his gaze suddenly became a little darker, and quite chilling.

Makuro let it drop. Ino was still watching him as though he were a rather thrilling television program. He couldn't get a reading on her, either. Her moods were constantly swinging and changing so much that she was practically a whirlwind of aura's and energies that not even he could decipher. He could say the same for Sakura, although he found her much less aggravating than Ino…

"Well if you two will excuse us, Sakura has some escorting to do." Makuro pulled on the pink-haired kunoichi's elbow, nodding at Shikamaru and ignoring Ino, "I will see you both in two days, and good luck when that time comes."

"Same to you." Shikamaru replied, inclining his head once more.

"You two are dating, aren't you!" Ino shouted triumphantly.

Sakura looked ready to do some serious gut stabbing but Makuro put a calming had on her shoulder.

"Why yes, we are! And where is your dashing beau? A girl like you would certainly have one, am I right?"

That shut Ino up. The Yamanaka kunoichi looked hopefully over at Shikamaru, but he gave her a murderous stare that said, "Don't even think about it…"

"Well..uhh…I've got a lot of shopping to do!" Ino said brightly, grabbing Shikamaru and hauling hard on his arm, "Nice seeing you again Sakura…good luck in a few days…"

And as quickly as they had come, they were gone.

Makuro put his head in his hands, "Her shrill annoying obnoxious voice was really started to give me a headache. You're lucky Shinri wasn't here else he seriously might have killed her just for some peace and quiet."

(AUTHORS NOTE!!!!!!!!I REALLY DON'T LIKE INO!!!

Sakura snorted, "And we're lucky he didn't do that? I've had to deal with her growing up…we used to be good friends."

"And what happened?" The pair of them started heading east.

"Well…It was actually over a guy."

Makuro groaned, and Sakura gave a faint grin, "Yeah I know what you're thinking. Now that I look back on it, it all seems a little silly. After the second part of the exam I think I grew up a bit." Here Sakura's hand drifted up to her short hair, "And I think Ino did too…but we'll never be the good friends that we used to be."

"I never understood girls, ever." Makuro said mildly. He stopped to inspect the wares of a small shop selling beaded necklaces, "How can they be such good friends one minute, and then claw each others eyes out the next? They are one mystery that I have never been able to unravel."

Sakura laughed, "So what is it like being in a cell with Satora Tasogare?"

"Well.." Makuro paused in the act of returning the necklace to its origonal position, "She's a little like you, though I suppose most girls are the same."

The pink haired kunoichi gave a snort, "I'm guessing you haven't been in contact with many girls before."

"Actually you're right." Makuro set the necklace down, and moved on—Sakura tagging along at his heels rather than leading, "I don't think you understand how small my village really is. There is only one genin cell, and the one girl in that cell is still a mystery to me as well."

"What about your sensai?"

"Yoake?" This time It was Makuro's turn to snort, "She can be like a little girl at some times, but mostly she's about as anti feminine as you can go."

"What about me?" Sakura stepped in front of the tall Yoru genin, and put her hands on her hips. She had the grace to blush, "What do you think of me?"

Makuro cocked his head. He could tell that this girl was already very taken with him, but that didn't bother him. It was interesting to watch all her conflicting moods, she was still a little scared of him, angry at herself for liking him after only being with him for about a half hour, a little frightened that he would reject her…but she was also happy that he was talking to her, and worried that someone else was going to take him away…

"I think that you're still trying to find who you want to be," Makuro said quietly, trying to get a decent reading, "On the outside you're generally pretty agreeable and mild mannered but on the inside there's a pretty nasty piece of work wanting to get out…but as long as you can pretend to be a pink haired princess you'll be fine. I also think that you're still reeling from something pretty emotional…maybe that thing you mentioned in the forest? I don't know."

Sakura blinked. She had been aiming for maybe a curt nod and a, "You look fine today Sakura, is that a new lip gloss?" not a full personality profile.

"You can tell all that just by looking at me?" Sakura asked rather grudgingly, and Makuro knew that he had scored.

"Yep." Makuro said.

"What else can you see?" Sakura stepped a little closer to the night genin.

"Well, you want me to kiss you right now very badly, and I would but I don't think you want mascara all over your mouth. Oh yeah, and I don't have a mouth to begin with, so good luck." Makuro beamed, and grabbed her hand, "Come on, I want to see the rest of your city!"