Ninja Skills

5. That Damn Test Again Pt. 2

-0r-

In Which Tenten Panics

Life has been keeping me so busy! SATs are next Saturday, PSSA's the week after, AP tests after… it's one big never ending cycle of awfulness. But since none of you care about my problems and just want an update, here you go! Thanks for the support, guys. I love you all!

(Oh, and I don't own Naruto by the way!)

Ninja Skills: cuz' ninjas have skills.

"There he goes," Tenten thought to herself, letting the memories and déjà u of the whole situation drag her lips up in a soft smile. "The famous 'Tenth Question' rant. Ibiki is good at psyching people out. Half the people here look like they could go into cardiac arrest if he shouts and stares at them a second too long." She let her eyes wonder around the room and her eyes got stuck on the back of Neji's head. "They don't even know it's fake but yet they're not breaking a sweat. Now that's keeping your composure."

"… and those who choose not to take it will fail. The other rule is that if you take it and get it wrong, you and your team will lose the privilege of taking the Chuunin Exams forever…"

Tenten tried to stifle a yawn and not seem too lax or suspicious. This had been the third time hearing this speech: once her first time around, a second when she reapplied to take the exams. And every time someone let the Jounin's words get to them and they raised their hands and took off. She eyes the Genin that left and felt the urge to knock them to the ground and beat some confidence into their thick heads.

If those easily scared and selfish ninja were tossed into the mess that Naruto and herself left behind, they wouldn't last two seconds.

A flash of pink hair stuck to Tenten's conscious and the Weapon's Mistress looked over to observe Sakura, who was wringing her hands nervously and obviously debating with herself: take the risk or don't take the risk? Tenten's eyes widened as she saw her hand twitch from her other one and slightly lift.

Her heart stopped: did Sakura do this before?

When Sakura's finger tips were at the level of her forehead, Tenten stopped thinking and started doing. "Sakura, no!"

All eyes were on the brunette, who realized she was standing with one hand slammed on her desk and the other reaching out to the pink haired teen, who had promptly turned to blink her blank pale green eyes at Tenten. "Oh shit," Tenten blanked. "This defiantly didn't happen before… so much for ninja's keeping their composure!"

Sakura dropped her hand and was about to answer, but she shut her jaw and looked carefully over at Ibiki. Ibiki…! Tenten looked over at him too and happened to see herself on the receiving ends of quite a powerful glare. "What is the meaning of this?!" he barked.

"I…" Tenten looked over at Naruto and desperately pleaded with the almighty Fate or whoever pulled the strings on her fortunes to let Naruto remember his little inspirational speech and to set things back on track. She'd panicked and messed up, but she didn't remember seeing Sakura raise her hand before. She resisted smacking her face with her palm, "Of course I don't remember that! I didn't know Sakura well enough to care about what she did!"

Naruto's hand slowly raised before he slammed it down with a force great enough to put all the attention on him. As his voice started to rise and people started to really get into what he had to say, Tenten melted back into her seat and combed her lithe fingers through her bangs. "That was too close!" she chastised herself. "No more close calls like that! No. More. Panicking!"

She couldn't help it though, could she? If she would have let things go on and Naruto would have not remembered his interjection, their mission would be screwed up and they'd have to wait until he got the necklace from Tsunade again before they could fix things… if they would be able to!

Even though Tenten was saved of further drawing interest to herself, the interest itself was already there. Neji, Sasuke, and Gaara among some others all had their eyes trained on Naruto because that's what everyone else was doing but their real focus was on the weapon wielder.

"… Who is this girl?" Gaara wondered yet again, though the tone ringing through his aching head was more stern and hard than it had been the previous times. He had to know. And what was her connection to the pink haired girl who wasn't even on her team?

Sasuke was thinking along the same lines. He wanted to better understand this Tenten character and see why she stopped Sakura from… wait, what the hell did she stop Sakrua from doing, anyway?

Neji was the most confused. Something wasn't right. Tenten wasn't the type of person to speak out like that for someone she didn't know in a structured situation such as this. Especially when it had no impact on her team or herself. What was going on with her? Did she not realize that her actions had a direct effect and representation on not only their squad but their entire village?

Lee let tears cuddle the corners of his eyes as he sniffed at Tenten with admiration. "Tenten is taking the blossoming love of my heart into consideration and acknowledging her! What a truly remarkable friend!"

Hinata was blushing and trying to hold back her swoons for Naruto's speech. Naruto himself wasn't too sure where he was going with things. He got a brief flashback of telling Ibiki off, but he wasn't too sure he was staying true to his original complaints. It must have been working since some hesitant students got stony, determined faces and silently applauded and cheered for the blond goofball.

Ibiki, noting that Naruto was done with his long stream of breaths, set cold eyes on the 78 remaining students. "You all… have passed the first round! There is no such thing as the final tenth question!..."

He explains, Tenten doesn't even hide her yawn at this point. She knew this part of his rant by heart: the pass-fail pressure that forced everyone to cheat (minus her since she didn't care enough to and minus Naruto because… well come on, he's Naruto), the Chuunin's who were designated targets (one sitting right in front of Naruto much to his chagrin), the determination involved, yada yada yada… It was a good speech, it really was, she just didn't want to hear it.

Tenten had this spark of energy rip through her veins and made her want to take action. Now the test was over, the real mission began. The war would officially start with The Forest of Death. Speaking of which, Anko should be arriving in three… two… one…

The crash of glass through a window confirms Tenten's countdown. Anko lifts her head up and meets everyone with her sly, wicked grin. Tenten listened to her tell Ibiki that 78 out of 153 is too high a number and that the interrogation specialist was much too easy on this year's Genin, but she'll make sure to hack the number to less than half of who's here.

Tenten liked Anko. The Jounin was another of the few still around and she happened to be one of Tenten's favorite people to go out on missions with. Besides her cutthroat style and how well she worked with Tenten, Anko had this way of understanding everything even though she didn't look like the type of person who would. She was what Tenten thought an older sister would be like.

"I wonder if we can be as close as we were before," Tenten sighed to herself as Anko set a new wave of horror and/or resolve in all the Genin.

"Forty-fourth training area, eh?" Tenten hears one of the Genin boys that sat near her say to another – probably his teammate. "I hear lots of people die in there. The Forest of Death is no joke."

"Yeah, but we can handle it," his friend says cockily to him. The two stop at Tenten's desk and she looks up and blinks at them. "Yes…?" she asks slightly annoyed by them disrupting her thoughts.

"Well, you know, you could always count on us to help you through the forest tomorrow in case you lose your cool again." Tenten scowled as the boy knocked his friend away and leaned closer to her. "Pretty girls like you have our protection."

"Thanks, guys!" Tenten chirped. Then she let her serene smile turn cold and her eyes radiate death. "And as you boys are walking in front of me and keeping the area clear, I'll be behind you with my kunai ready to pierce through your skin if you so much as so much as slow your pace. Don't worry; they'll be too far in before you panic too much."

The boys came back and glowered at her together. "Bitch," they spat in unison.

"Boys," she stated coolly. She saw Neji and Lee leaving the room and she gave them a slight wave. "See you two tomorrow morning. I'd hate it if you couldn't make it."

The boys glared at her back. "Oh, it's on!"

Tenten stared up at the sky from her spot on her roof with lazy, half-lidded eyes. She missed just relaxing on her roof and letting the night sky encase her. It had been a while since she truly felt as safe as she did. She wanted to focus on the mission and on how she could have thus far screwed up the entire mission, but her mind wouldn't let her. Her head was already spinning from all that had happened and it was just starting to shut down…

Her eyes snapped open and she flipped up, spinning on her heels towards her neighbor's roof. "Come out, Sasuke."

He appeared from the night with his hair and eyes ripped from the very starry night itself. He looked at her crossly, though she could tell he was more curious then anything. She spoke Neji, after all. "What do you want? If you came here to get an edge on the competition and challenge me, than you'll be sorry because I'm not someone to be taken lightly!"

He let out a low chuckle. "Right. Says the girl in her underwear."

Tenten didn't so much as twitch. She already knew she was in a tank top and boy-cut panties. This didn't bother her: she had been seen in so much less in her later years. It came with the job description. She felt no girlish shame in hiding herself unless she needed the modesty to feign innocence on a mission.

And she certainly wasn't going to tremble in front of the killer.

"Then wha-"

"Why?"

Tenten decided to start feigning innocence and she hugged her arms around her chest. "Why what?"

"Why did you stop Sakura from raising her hand?" he asked point blank. "I asked her about it and she told me she had no clue why you'd do something like that, which is why I'm here asking you."

She scoffed. "I don't have to tell you anything," she said stubbornly.

He shrugged. "The sooner you answer the sooner I leave."

She glared at Sasuke, Sasuke glared back.

"He's not the same as he is now," Tenten told herself, letting her shoulders slug and her arms swing down to her sides, opening herself up to talking to him. "He's not… he has a chance at being better than he was. Fighting for the right side. He's so different now. So much… I don't know if nicer, but it's more pleasant to be around him. He's not the same person who took Neji's…"

Her body shivered and her eyes pulsed as she shot him a glare that made the great prodigy lift up the lids of his eyes and lean back.

"I knew she was on your squad," Tenten answered slowly.

Sasuke resumed his lax expression and smirked. "So, you wanted to keep me in the exams? Any reason for that… Tenten?"

Her body shot stiff when he said her name and the manner in which he said it did little to comfort her. She turned her nose up and gave him a confident smirk all her own. "Actually, I was interested in keeping Naruto around. I want to see what he's got. Looks tough if you ask me."

Sasuke's light eyes went dark and he clenched his fists. He looked like he wanted to say something but he just shrugged and left. Tenten knew he was still hanging around as she slipped back into her window and between her sheets.

Sasuke had a feeling she knew, too.

He smirked to himself. "There are four people I want most to fight…"

Neji couldn't sleep.

His insomnia seemed to strike whenever he thought too much about something. This being noted, he was often having trouble getting a proper rest. He'd lay calm but awake as the minutes reached in and pulled hours forward. Before he knew it it'd be time to get up and he'd have had not a moment of slumber.

Not that he complained. In fact, he thought his poor sleeping habits made him a better ninja.

But he did wish he could get to sleep this one time. He was so sick of thinking about Tenten.

She'd been acting strange all day. One moment she'd be in tears the next she'd be more jovial than she is during the holidays. It was all so perplexing! No proper woman – ninja or not – behaved that way. They kept themselves in check, as she should.

Then she was yawning as Ibiki was making them feel like lowlife scum. Since when was she so unaffected? He even tried to use his special glare on her – the one that made her nervously bite her lips and rub her arms when he stared avidly at her with it for more than a few moments – and she didn't so much as tell him to knock it off. She just waved him off and went home.

And she called him Neji-kun…

If she didn't get her act together and she screwed up their chances at becoming Chuunin, there would be hell to pay.

Ibiki laughed as he looked at Naruto's answers… or rather lack thereof. "That kid is something," he heard himself say. He put the blond's paper to the side and was shocked to see yet another blank one. He blinked up at the name.

"Tenten?" He stared hard at the name and recalled a brunette with buns in her hair shouting out at a girl with pink hair. "So, she's a slacker or not too bright…."

He put her paper aside and nearly fell over when he saw the next paper was also blank. "Gaara…?" He reread the Sand ninja's name in disbelief. That kid didn't put any answers, either?!

"Maybe Anko was right…" Ibiki muttered miserably, dropping the pile into the wastebasket. "Maybe I was too easy on this year's group…"

Take note to the change in genre (the action will exist – no worries, but it won't be as prominent I think as drama and romance). Also the main characters are Tenten and Naruto. Why? Because I'm not sure what to do pairings wise. It could go any which way, so if anyone has any opinions on that I'll take them into consideration guaranteed. Oh, and the mystery boys will be identfied next chapter too.