A/N: This is the second chapter! I just polished it off, the chapter's will get a little onger as I go on, but for now this is what I have! I will try to update as soon as possible. Please review and give me encouragement, it will honestly make we want to update so much faster! Thank you everyone! Much love!

Chapter Two

"I like your hair down." Akari said from where she was spread out on my bed. "It makes you seem less.. Stern."

"Should a proper shinobi not look stern?" I asked mockingly in my most official voice, causing Akari to laugh at me. I tied my hair up in it's usual topknot and allowed the braid with a feather interwoven to hang by my left eye with practiced ease.

"In a battle?" Akari asked rhetorically, pretending to think about it as she lounged on my mattress "Absolutely. In day to day life? Not if you want to attract someone special eventually."

"Just because you and Rafu have your happily ever after does not mean I would like the same." I said pointedly, suppressing my smirk when I saw the flush rising on her neck, I threw my quiver of arrows and my bow across my back.

"Shut up." Akari groaned, throwing herself back onto my bed. Akari and Rafu were very much into one another, but Akari refused to make the first move, saying a proper man should do it, and Rafu was so oblivious to her liking him that they just went around in circles. I had a bet with Takeshi-sensei that Akari's patience would never outlast how long Rafu would be oblivious, so she would end up making the first move. I tried to tease her or bring it up as much as possible in a sly way, so that it would drive the nail in the proverbial coffin a little more each time. Easy money to be earned, after all.

Finally, I secured my hitai-ite around my forehead and drew the two lines of dark green paint from the top of my cheekbones down to my jaw. Akari jumped up from my bed, knowing I was finished, and we both made our way out of my apartment to head towards the Academy. We were running a little behind, but after we dashed across the rooftops, we made it there with ten minutes to spare. Rafu was pacing outside the doors, waiting for us to show up, and when he saw us his face flashed from relief to irritation quickly.

"You guys ready?" Rafu asked, falling in beside us before as we walked towards the building and through the doors.

"Of course." I replied confidently, the corner of my mouth twitching in a smile at the thought of what challenges would be ahead of us. We had been training hard, we were ready for this, and we would become Chunin. I could feel it.

"Me too." Akari said "If we can survive a year and a half with Takeshi-sensei, we can do anything."

"Agreed." Rafu said, shivering a little dramatically before perking up as he thought of something. "Guess who else will be joining the exams this year?"

"Oh just tell us." Akari said, rolling her eyes

"You never guess!" Rafu complained "Just try it?"

"Tan?" Akari asked, playing along

"Nope!"

"Imachi?" I asked

"No!" Rafu practically chirped, his grin widening

"The Hokage." Akari deadpanned

"Oh come on." Rafu said "You'll never get it like that."

"Rafu." Akari said threateningly between clenched teeth, raising her hand up while I quickly stepped back so I was not in between them. "Just tell us."

"Please." I added as an afterthought, cocking my head to the side

"Alright, alright." Rafu said placatingly, throwing his hands up in the gesture one would use when approaching a wild animal; which was not a bad analogy when speaking about Akari. "The rookies from the Academy? The one's who were a year below us? All nine of them are competing."

We were both silent as we absorbed what he said. All nine rookies? Most Genin waited a year, some even more, before even trying the exams for the first time. It was hard to believe all three of their sensei's thought they were prepared enough to actually have a chance in them considering how brutal they exams were made out to be.

"That's certainly.. Bold." I said, contemplating what that would mean for us as a team. Strong competition or weak competition? It would not be smart to underestimate them because of their age or experience until I could learn more and deduce an opinion from observation of their skills personally. I felt a wave of nostalgia as we passed through the Academy, remembering the more simple days fondly.

"..I know I wasn't!" Akari was saying as I tuned back into the conversation. She was still discussing the rookies, I realized. "I just hope they're ready."

Akari had what Rafu, Takeshi-sensei, and I called mother bear syndrome - basically, she was overbearingly protective sometimes, even of people she doesn't really know. Rafu gave me a look from behind Akari's back and I smirked, mouthing MBS back at him. He let out a snort which immediately got Akari's attention.

"What's so funny, Rafu?" Akari asked innocently with a dangerous glint in her eye.

"Nothing!" Rafu said quickly, looking at me for help when she wouldn't look away. There was no way I was getting involved, so I shrugged in response and kept walking down the hall while the other two stopped. I supressed my laugh when I heard her fist connect with the back of his hand.

"No lasting damage before the exam." I called back to Akari just as I reached the staircase, pausing to wait for the other two. A moment later Rafu passed me with a mumbled "thanks a lot", starting to climb the stairs while rubbing his head.

"What was that?" Akari asked again, coming up behind. I glance over and saw the satisfied look on her face as she saw his spine go straight. I shook my head at their antics, beginning to climb to the third floor where the exams were taking place. We were running tad behind, there was only about ten minutes left until the exam was due to start. We entered the room together and stood at the door for a moment, taking stock of the ninja gathered in the room. There were so many different shinobi from the villages around the lands: Sand, Rain, Grass, and of course from our own village as well. Standing off to the side was TenTen, with her teammates Neji Hyuuga and Rock Lee, who I waved at; we had been friendly in the academy, but fell out of touch since.

"Yosh! Look! It is our comrades from the Academy!" Lee exclaimed, spotting the three of us entering.

"Oh geez." I muttered in exasperation, sharing a look with my team. Akari muffled a giggle at Lee's antics behind her hand and Rafu just smiled at him. Lee had changed since the academy, his hair was in a bowl cut and he was wearing the same kind of green outfit as Might Guy does. The bushy eyebrows were the same though and he still had a cartoonish amount of energy. "Hey Lee, you ..good. How have you been?"

"Ren, thank you I have trained very hard to become the best shinobi possible under the greatest sensei!" Lee basically shouted, his eyes shining with determination.

"Hey Akari, Ren, Rafu." Tenten said, waving at us as she walked up next to Lee. Neji followed his teammates but barely spared us a glance, as stuck up as usual. Neji never thought much of us, he didn't see us as competition because we didn't try very hard back in the academy days but he was in for a surprise because we have all been training extraordinarily hard for the last year and a half.

"Hey Tenten, you look great!" Akari said, sparing her fellow kunoichi a smile. "Are you guys ready for the test?"

"Yeah, I think so. How about you three?" Tenten responded, looking us over "It looks like you've done a lot of training since we saw you last."

"I think we're ready." I said confidently, cocking my head to the side as I evaluated some of the other shinobi loitering around the room. I saw three genin from the sound village, which surprised me because it was a rather new village that popped out of nowhere. I also saw nine leaf genin gathered at the front of the room and automatically pegged them for the rookies, they were a loud bunch. I saw Naruto as well, it was hard to miss the orange jumpsuit and that spiky blond hair.

"Yosh! We are stronger than ever as well! We will prove it in these exams!" Lee said, smiling at the three of us.

"Have you guys heard about the rookies this year?" Akari asked

"We ran into them." Tenten said, a small smirk playing at her lips "That Sasuke Uchiha is something."

"Which one is he?" Rafu asked

"The cute one over there, with the black hair." Tenten responded cheekily

"He is cute!" Akari agreed, looking over where the young Uchiha was scowling at Naruto for something he had said.

"He's not that impressive." Rafu said, a slight hint of jealousy on his face as he looked at Akari with a frown. I rolled my eyes, knowing Akari had probably said that just to try to get a reaction out of Rafu. Those two were nothing if not predictable.

"Let's get ready." Neji interjected before anyone could say anything else, heading slightly away from us. It was good to see that he was just as rude now as he was back in the academy days.

"We better go with him." Tenten said apologetically, turning to go. "Good luck, you three."

"You as well." I responded, just as Ibiki-san called the room to attention. Ibiki Morino was going to be the proctor for the first part of the exam, the written test. He called us forward to receive a number that correlated with a seat, successfully dividing us from our teammates. I sighed, going to get my number, and found the seat that said 34 on it.

I found the seat, one next to a genin from the grass village and the other seat next to mine was empty for now. I took my seat and waited, looking around to find where Akari and Rafu had been put. Akari was two rows down and a little to the left of me, and I could not find Rafu with all of the other people standing around and looking for their seats. I felt the chair next to mine shift as someone took the open seat next to me, and spared a glance their way; it was a leaf shinobi, one of the nine rookies fresh out of the academy. My gray eyes met his half-lidded brown ones and I flashed a quick smile, glad to have a comrade next to me instead of another foreign ninja. Granted, we were all competitors here, it was still nice to have a somewhat friendly face beside me instead of a hostile one. He had spiky brown hair and wore a short jacket over a mesh shirt, his hitai-ite was secured to his left shoulder on the jacket.

"I'm Ren." I told him quietly as the rest of the genin found their seats.

"Nara Shikamaru." He responded, his voice a little raspy as though he had just woken up. I nodded to indicate I had heard him before focusing on Ibiki-sans words about the guidelines in the first exam. He told us about the nine questions in front of us and how we would be failed if we got caught cheating more than three times. The chunin lining the walls of the exam room were to watch us and try to catch us if we cheated, marking it down on clipboards they had in their hands. In my head I wondered why they wouldn't just try to fail us straight off the bat, like most tests. Something was definitely not right with this because these questions were far above genin level and we could not be expected to know the answers. Knowing Ibiki-san was head of T&I for Konoha, I figured there was a meaning behind the test that was not completely obvious. Looking to my left, I saw Nara Shikamaru had laid his head down and closed his eyes.

'Good thing he's taking this test seriously.' I thought to myself, stifling a snort at the ninja.

I saw Akari ahead using sign language to communicate with someone, most likely Rafu, so I waited until she made eye contact with me. We were all taught standard leaf signs in the academy, but the three of us had altered it so that we could communicate with just the three of us in case of an emergency. She glanced at me, scratching her ear and putting a hand on her thigh before clenching it, then using a couple of letter, before touching her neck. She asked if I thought anything was off with the way Ibiki-san had said do not get caught, instead of do not do it.

Realizing what they had deduced, I responded by saying we must have to cheat to be able to win. That was why the questions were so hard, it must be testing our resourcefulness, stealth, and teamwork while we are at a disadvantage. She nodded slightly, before looking over at Rafu and speaking with him. I waited patiently, eyes scanning the room casually, and it wasn't long before Akari told me Rafu was sitting beside someone who had the answers and he would relay them to her, then Akari would relay them to I. Shikamaru lifted his head after about fifteen minutes into the exam, causing me to take notice as he looked over at a blonde girl who had slumped over in her seat.

'I bet that is his teammate.' I thought to myself, wondering everyone on his team had a thing for sleeping through the exam. I saw him smirk out of the corner of my eye, and glancing back to where his teammate dressed in purple with long blonde hair, I saw she had gotten up and was furiously scribbling onto her exam paper. 'So, she got the answers somehow - that's interesting.'

When I turned back around, I saw that he had noticed me looking and was staring at me. I raised my eyebrows and cocked my head to the side, which only got me a smirk in return. Rolling my eyes, I noticed Akari was signalling for me to pay attention with her - she had gotten the answers to the first three questions and was ready to relay them to me. I looked down the aisle at the Chunin who was supposed to be watching us and noticed him looking at a guy a few seats down from me with interest, so I told Akari to go ahead and give them to me. I wrote neatly as she signed to me, trying to be as casual as possible so I did not attract any attention to myself. 'Just act like you know the answers yourself, not like you are getting them.' I told myself

Shikamaru had noticed me beginning to write the answers and it was my turn to give him a smug smile as I finished the third question and then looked pointedly at his blank exam. The tan Nara just shrugged and looked around the room, not appearing to have a care in the world. After about ten more minutes, Akari had gotten the next set of three and I copied the answers down diligently. It was then that the Nara basically collapsed on his desk for a moment, a glazed look in his eye and I wondered if I should be worried. I jumped slightly as another team got disqualified before shaking my head and returning to my test. As I finished filling out the sixth question, his eyes cleared up and he sat back up, writing the answers down on his previously empty paper. My eyebrows rose of their own accord, wondering where the sudden inspiration came from and what it had to do with his blonde friend, when he noticed me once again watching him.

"You're pretty cute!" Shikamaru almost squealed, his voice slightly less raspy than it was earlier. My eyes widened, wondering where the hell that came from, before noticing the flush creeping onto his cheeks.

"Thanks." I said quietly in return, winking at the ninja next to me. "You are too."

"Uh-oh." Shikamaru said under his breath, tearing his eyes from mine and going back to writing on his paper. I frowned slightly at the weird turn around in behavior, but figured he was just focusing on the test so I looked to Akari to see if she had gotten any more of them from Rafu. She was ready, so I finished the exam and sat back for the end of the hour to be here. It was not long until the Nara genin next to me finished his exam as well, and once again he slumped over with a sort of glassy expression in his eyes, before straightening up in his seat. Our eyes met once again and I winked at him, enjoying the way his cheeks heated up a little before he sent a death glare towards his teammate for some reason. I shrugged off the weird behavior; being around weird characters was pretty standard in the shinobi world, we all learned to get used to it.

As the test was almost over, that was when Ibiki told us about the tenth question. He told us that if we stayed to answer and we got it wrong, we would have to remain genin for the rest of our shinobi career. However, if we got up and left the room now, we could always take the next exam in six months. At this point, half of the room had gotten up to leave, and a few got up after Ibiki-san told them the consequences of the tenth question. I saw the question in Akari's eyes as she looked to me to decide whether we stayed or left, so subtly putting my head into my arms I activated my dojutsu so no one could see my eyes, and glimpsed a couple of minutes into the future.

A couple more people had left, more than half the seats in the room were empty, and there was Naruto with one leg on his desk pointing a finger at Ibiki. Naruto shouted that he was not afraid before telling Ibiki that even if he was a genin forever, he would still become the next Hokage. As Ibiki waited to see if anyone else was leaving, he seemed to nod to himself as he noticed the resolve on the faces still sitting in the room, and he smirked to himself as he announced that we had all passed.

I rose my head up and looked right at Akari, putting the stay motion up, and seeing how sure I was in my face, she nodded her head and relayed the message to Rafu. Then, after a few more people left the room, Naruto stood up and told Ibiki-san that he was not going to scare him into quitting and the rest played out exactly as I had seen it. Ibiki told us they were testing our abilities at intelligence gathering and getting that intelligence to our allies without being noticed, as well as our resolve. That was when Anko-sama burst into the room and began her lecture. I suppressed a laugh when I noticed Ibiki-san's face as he told her that she was, yet again, early. Anko didn't seem to care very much and simply told all of us she was the proctor for the second part of the Chunin exam and that half of us would be eliminated in the next part. Then we were to meet her at a training ground tomorrow; after that, we were all dismissed. I got up to leave and smirked one last time at Shikamaru, who muttered something about someone being a pain, and then I met up with Rafu and Akari.

"Who were you flirting with?" Akari asked, eyebrows raised in question. My hand jumped to cover her mouth, glancing around to see if the Nara boy had heard her rather loud proclamation.

"Would you be quiet?" I hissed, sending her a dirty look

"It's okay, Ren." Rafu said, clapping me on the shoulder. "Whoever it was, I think Akari is just happy for you."

"Thanks, Rafu." I muttered sourly, taking my hand off of Akari's mouth as she licked me, groaning in disgust as I wiped my hand off on my pants. "It's not like we are going on a date or anything, I met the guy today."

"But you do think he's cute?" Akari asked, being her ever nosy self

"Lay off, Akari." I rebutted, turning to make my way out of the door. "We have way more important things to think about. This next test is the survival portion, so we need to get our bags packed for however long we will be out there and we need to be prepared for the worst."

Akari opened her mouth, most likely to protest that she could do both at the same time, but Rafu cut her off. "Ren is right, we need to get going so we can get a goodnight's sleep and a good meal after we pack. We should see if Takeshi-sensei is allowed to help us and see if he has any advice on what we should pack extra besides what we would for just another mission."

I threw Rafu a grateful look as we exited the academy. The three of us promised to meet up at a tea shop that night in three hours, Rafu would let Takeshi-sensei know to come, to celebrate our passing the first portion of the exam and see if we could get a game plan together for the second portion. We split off in different directions, Akari heading home to her parents and Rafu doing the same, while I made my way to my apartment. I had moved into my own apartment when I became a genin and started making money, however little, from missions.

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