A/N: Woot, next chapter! Sorry I didn't get this up sooner. U The next one should be up by Wednesday. Thanks to KrazyAsian9 for reviewing, faving, and putting this on your alerts list. w -glomp- Thank you!!

Disclaimer: I own Naruto! It's mine, all mine! Mwahahahaha-shot xx Okay, so maybe not. Owwies...

Tsukiko fidgeted in her seat anxiously, one eye on the doorway and the other on the group of kids in the room with her. She was trying to pay attention to both the conversation going on, and any sign for the examiner who would surely be coming through that door any minute now.

"Hey, you listening?"

"Uh, yeah," Tsukiko said quickly, looking away from the doorway so that she could focus on those around her. Her eyes found that of the boy who was talking to her specifically.

"Then what did I just say?"

"Um..." Tsukiko plastered a sheepish smile on her face, "something about cheesecake and jello?"

He looked at her oddly, as if she wasn't quite right in the head. Tsukiko almost agreed with him – cheesecake and jello? Where did that come from?

"What a weirdo," he said to himself and turned away from her to continue talking to the others. Tsukiko sighed.

' Nice way to make friends, Tsukiko. They probably think you're some kind of...insane airhead or something now..'

"I like cheesecake and jello," a voice said to her left. She had to turn completely around to be able to see who had spoken. It turned out to be one of the kids in the group she was sitting. He seemed to be the only one who hadn't tuned back into the other boy's conversation. Instead, he was sitting backwards in his chair, his back to the others, and was looking at her intently.

"Uh, me too," she said, and when he didn't stop staring at her, she looked away awkwardly. She focused on the door for a few moments, before chancing a glance back at him.

' Why's he staring like that? What a creep... '

She politely excused herself and moved to the other side of the room, away from the boy. It wasn't as if she was involved in the conversation with the others anyway, they wouldn't miss her. She felt relieved when the boy finally removed his eyes from her and turned back to the others. This left her time to think about what she was waiting so anxiously for at the moment.

' They should be here to start the exams now...what's taking them so long.'

She had been surprised when her mother informed her the previous night that she had the opportunity to become a ninja so quickly. Tsukiko certainly hadn't expected to be permitted to take the exam as soon as she arrived in Konoha, but in the end she decided it didn't really matter what she expected. All the better for her, right?

Shotatsu, of course, hadn't liked the idea too much. He thought it unfair that his older sister could skip going to the academy altogether, when he had to spend the next 3 years there.

Tsukiko remembered her mother's explanation at dinner the day before.

"It took a bit of persuading on my part," her mother said after she had quieted Shotatsu's indignant reply to the news. "because the Hokage initially wanted to place you in the Academy for an entire year first.

But I explained to him how you had been trained since an early age, and how you were already proficient in all of the fundamentals and basics you would have learned in the academy."

Tsukiko smirked to herself, taking a glance in Shotatsu's direction. He muttered a quiet, "So am I..." to himself, but their mother ignored it.

"So, he's giving you a chance to take the academy exam tomorrow. Do you remember how I told you that even after you graduate from the academy, there's a chance that you can still be sent back?"

"Yeah... Those people have to spend another year or something in the Academy, right?"

"They used to, yes. Those restrictions changed a little this year, and those students only have to go back to the Academy for 6 months now."

Tsukiko was able to infer the rest on her own, but to clarify she asked, "So... I'll be taking the exam with the groups of kids who were sent back to the academy?"

"That's right," her mother nodded, and Tsukiko smiled widely.

"That's fine with me!" her expression slid from the joyed one she wore moments ago, into a sly and teasing one. She cupped a hand to her mouth and leaned over towards Shotatsu. "That's three whole years you'll still have to go to the Academy, you know that?"

Shotatsu glared, and the look on Tsukiko's face when she got a face full of rice was priceless.

"The little brat," Tsukiko muttered bitterly to herself remembering what he did. She'd have to remember to get him back for throwing that rice at her.

"Who?"

Tsukiko was startled out of her thoughts, and when she managed to finally realize that someone was speaking to her, she was more than a little flustered.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!"

The boy that stood before her quirked an eyebrow. She recognized it as one of the friends of the kid who had called her a 'weirdo'.

"But I walked right up to you," he gestured to his right.

"...I didn't see you coming."

"Tch, what are you, blind or something?"

She knew he was just teasing and didn't mean anything by it, but that didn't stop her from feeling a little upset and bitter with his words.

Tsukiko chose to ignore the comment though, and turned her head to scowl over at the wall. "What do you want?" she asked sourly, getting straight to the point.

"Eh, nothing really." He didn't seem to take note of her bad mood, or how she obviously didn't want to speak with him. And even if he did, it didn't really seemed like he cared what she wanted. He sat on one of the desks in front of Tsukiko, his back to the front of the classroom and his feet on the desk's seat. "Just thought I'd come over and say sorry about my friend. Y'know, when he called you a weirdo?"

"How kind of you," Tsukiko said dryly, but she found that her irritation had already vanished. Something about his personality (even if she had only known him for what, five seconds?) kept her from holding any harsh feelings toward him. Maybe it was because that, in those five seconds or so, he had begun to remind Tsukiko of Koshi.

"Yeah, how kind of me. Anyway, I've never seen you before- ?"

"I just moved here yesterday, and I was given special permission to take the exam."

"Really? Huh. Well, my name's Shiko Takiyana," his hand sprung forward and took hold of Tsukiko's to shake it. "What's yours?"

"Tsukiko Akihana," she shook his hand and then pulled it away from his grasp. "Nice to meet you." She smiled at him, and took a chance to look at him more closely. Tall, mousy brown hair and nice green eyes... he seemed a little familiar.

"Oh!" Tsukiko's eyes widened as she recognized this boy to be the one she had seen the previous day.

"Hm... that guy. He's so... hot"

Heat rushed to her face and she shifted in her seat. Well, this was awkward.

"You okay?"

"Uh, yeah, just fine," she shifted her eyes from side to side, avoiding eye contact, and he laughed.

"You really are weird, you know that? But a good kind of weird," he grinned across the desk at her. "So, tell me a little about the place you and your family moved from..."

"I know you're there."

Shotatsu turned to look at the small group of people that had been following him for the past ten minutes. He had noticed them shortly after they had started tailing them. It was hard not to, with how loudly they were whispering to one another the whole time.

"Aw, man! Boss, how did he see through our disguise?!"

Shotatsu turned to take a look at his pursuers, and counted four of them. Three looked to be around his age, and the other one around his sister's age. In the group, there was only one girl, and she was looking at him weirdly with reddened cheeks. What was her problem?

"I didn't see anything, I heard you," he corrected the boy who had spoken earlier.

"Well, Konohamaru, you were being pretty loud..."

The first boy who had spoken, now revealed to be 'Konohamaru' turned to the older boy. "Hey, you were being noisy too, boss!"

"Uh, what you guys doing anyway?" Shotatsu asked, glancing over at the girl. She was still staring at him... it was getting kind of creepy.

"We were playing ninja," the third and final boy said, sniffling a little. He seemed to have a bad cold.

Shotatsu blinked, and looked at the older boy questioningly. He had seen the forehead protector the boy wore. If he was already a ninja, why would he i play /i ninja? Weird. Shotatsu didn't really care about that now that he had taken a good look at the boy. It was the same boy he had seen at the ramen shop the previous day.

"Hey, you're the loudmouth from the ramen shop!"

"Loudmouth?!"

Konohamaru snickered at the boy, and nodded in what seemed to be agreement. "See, what did I tell ya, boss?"

"My name's Moegi!" the girl had finally stepped forward to speak. Her blush darkened a little when Shotatsu's attention focused on her. "It's nice to meet you."

"And my name's Udon," the other boy sniffled again. Someone really needs to get that kid a tissue...

"I'm Konohamaru!" the final of the younger boys announced proudly, puffing out his chest.

Shotatsu turned to fourth member of the little group, who boasted his name proudly as well: "My name's Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to be the next Hokage!"

"My name's Shotatsu," he offered, and smiled. "So, uh... mind if I play ninja with you, too?"

"Tsukiko Akihana?"

Tsukiko's head jerked in the direction of the door at the sound of her name. Standing there was a man in the traditional Chunin/Jounin outfit. One of the first things Tsukiko noticed about him was the long horizontal scar across his face.

When the man looked up from the clipboard he was holding, their gazes met and he smiled warmly at her.

"Are you Tsukiko?" She nodded her head and stood from her seat, turning back around to Shiko briefly. He gave her an encouraging smile which she returned.

By the time she made it to the doorway, Tsukiko could feel herself beginning to grow a little nervous. What if she didn't pass the exam? She was given special permission to take the exam, so there were expectations she had to meet. She didn't want to disappoint her mom, or make the Hokage think that it was a waste of time giving her that special permission.

Tsukiko didn't know much about what she would be tested on during this phase of the exam. The written part of the exam had already been done around a half an hour ago, and she thought she did pretty well on it. That part of the exam was all the things that she had been able to easily memorize from text books and the like, but this part of the exam... well, it wasn't just something you could memorize from a book.

The man smiled again and introduced himself. "My name's Iruka. I'll be the one testing you for this part of the exam, okay?"

Tsukiko nodded again, and as he led her out of the room he continued, "Don't be so nervous. I'm sure you'll do just fine."

Something about his kind nature really did make her feel better, and she relaxed a little as she walked alongside him.

"Thanks, I sure hope so..."

"Oh yeah! I rock!" Tsukiko pumped a fist in the air as she left the academy, a forehead protector placed around her neck. She couldn't help but feel unbelievably happy right now.

The practical part of the exam went well enough. She created the required amount of clones (though, admittedly, the first had a finger or two missing, and the third had one or two extra and she had no clue how that had happened). After her practical exam, Iruka had graded the written part of the test. She had waited a whole ten minutes before Iruka gave her her grade on the written exam (87, not that bad) and announced that she had passed. The only thing Tsukiko had to worry about now was not getting sent back to the academy and having to wait out another six months to take the exam again.

"You passed too, huh?"

The elder Akihana sibling was startled once more, and she looked across from the Academy to see Shiko leaning against a tree there. He, too, had a forehead protector, only his was tied around his forearm.

"What? How did you get out here before I did? You weren't called until after I was..."

"There was more than one examiner, Tsukiko," he raised an eyebrow. "I just finished before you," he then finished with a shrug.

"...oh. Right."

He pushed off of the tree and walked over to Tsukiko. "So do you have to be home now, or what?"

Tsukiko shrugged. "I don't know. I'm assuming that as long as I'm back by sundown, I'm good. Why?"

"You sure? Good! Let's go get some ramen to celebrate."

Before Tsukiko could even agree or disagree, Shiko had loosely gripped her lower arm and began pulling her along in the direction of Ichiraku's. She blushed at his forward nature, but after shaking her head a few times to she managed to regain her senses.

"Hey! Who said I even wanted to go out for ramen?"

He stopped quickly, letting go of her arm, and Tsukiko almost ran into him.

"You don't want to go out for ramen? I'm paying."

"...yes."

"Okay then!" He grabbed her arm once more and started to pull her along again.

Tsukiko still felt a bit flustered, but allowed him to pull her along. Hey, if he was going to pay... Besides, the ramen at Ichiraku's was so good... better than any she had ever had before. Why decline such a tempting offer?

"I hope you have a lot of money on you, 'cause I'm i really /i hungry..."

"I'm home!"

After pulling off her shoes and setting them with the rest , she noted that her brother's were there and that there were a few pairs that she didn't recognize. Her mother's shoes were not there; she had run into her mother a little earlier in the day while she was with Shiko, and knew that she would be home late. Somehow, her mother had already managed to find a part-time, second shift job, so she wouldn't be home until around midnight.

After a moment, Tsukiko could distantly here the sound of voices coming from the direction of the bedrooms, and decided to check it out. One of the voices sounded vaguely familiar, two of them she didn't recognize, and one sounded sort of like a woman's voice.

'Intruders ' She pulled out a kunai and carefully followed the sounds of the voices. It turned out that the voices were coming from Shotatsu's voices. 'I saw Sho's shoes, but I don't hear him in there...'

As she neared the door to Shotatsu's room, she grew increasingly more nervous. Part of her didn't want to open up the door... for all she knew, the people on the other side were likely to kill her or something. But for all she knew, Shotatsu could be hurt too, or worse... dead.

She shook her head. No, she couldn't think like that.

She took a deep breath and quickly threw the door open. She then jumped into the room, kunai at the ready. But when she saw who exactly it was in there, she lowered her kunai slightly.

Two little boys, one older boy ('Hey, that's the loudmouth from the ramen shop') and...

Tsukiko's eye twitched.

...a naked woman, who fortunately had puffs of smoke covering her more...private areas.

"What the hell?!"