Meanwhile Chapter 14, a naruto fanfic

Disclaimer: I still do not own Naruto, BUT I own the 16 OC's and the plot, along with quite a few of the original moves such as Lee's Meteor Lotus. Also, I own the idea of Shikamaru's test and the medal test for the Chuunin Exams.

Apology: Sorry, due to extenuating circumstances I couldn't do the real Battle on Three Fronts: The Leaf-nin Alliance! today. So instead you get this. Sorry.

Chapter 14

Shikamaru's Thoughts: Life at the Tower

Medal Count So Far:

Sand Team: 9

Team 8: 9

Team 9: 9

Mist Team: 6

Team 6: 3

Team 10: 3

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"It's nearing the end of the fourth day…" Genma sighed.

Shikamaru sat in the sofa across from Genma, with the other Chuunin who had been beaten in between. Kotetsu and Izumo were the ones who he knew well; Kotetsu had been taken down by Team 9 and Izumo viciously ambushed by the Cloud Team. So far, only five teams had made it back from the forest with their medals: Team 8, Team 9, the Sand Genin Team, the Cloud Team that beat Izumo with their eccentric leader, and the strange Rock Team that was led by that creepy guy who was rumored to be a Jinchuuriki.

Shikamaru had hid ever since the Sand Team got back, which was pretty quickly. After beating Team 8, they headed straight back to the tower, nobody daring to attack them- they got back around an hour after Shikamaru did. Temari was looking for him to gloat, but he promptly avoided her. Which was incredibly difficult to do for three days straight, but he made sure to stay two steps ahead of her at all times.

Then Izumo returned, beaten by the Cloud Team. Not long after that, Kotetsu showed up.

"That Hyuuga's really something." Kotetsu complained when he got there, "He closed all my chakra points with that 64 palms attack. I still can't quite mold my chakra correctly."

Shortly after that, Teams 8 and 9 arrived almost back to back, Team 8 immediately trying to pick a fight with the Sand Team. Well, specifically, Kiba did. He was pretty ticked off that the Sand Team attacked them. It ended up with Gaara asking him "Would you have preferred I kill you?" to get Kiba to shut up. And this was just on the second day.

The third day, a battered-looking Rock Team arrived. Well, correction. Two battered Rock-nins arrived. The third, the one rumored to be the Jinchuuriki, was completely unharmed, much in the fashion that Gaara was last Chuunin Exam. He got mad at the other two for "holding him back", then stormed off somewhere. As Shikamaru was watching the scene unfold, he almost got caught by Temari. She would have snuck up on him if her brother Kankuro hadn't told her dinner was ready at the last possible moment.

Genma was saying that since there was only fifteen so far, there might be no need for preliminaries. It was up to Tsunade of course, but he was thinking that seven matches wasn't too bad… Genma never really liked the idea of having preliminaries because the teams were at varying strengths… teams like the Sand Team had been relaxing here for days while other teams that arrived today or tomorrow would be worn out and battered. He didn't think it was very fair to then pit them against each other without giving them time to rest… but he admitted that there wasn't really a good way around it.

Shikamaru couldn't cloud watch during all this time. The tower had no good place to look at the sky, and he couldn't go outside because the forest made a canopy that blocked out all view of the clouds. Instead, he resorted just to sleeping… and trying to dodge that troublesome woman Temari. Seriously, what did she want anyway? He assumed it was to gloat about catching him so easily in the forest, but…

He thought of Team 10, wondering how they were doing out there. He hoped they would make it through. They deserved it. Really, they deserved to be made Chuunin more than he did- he was just lazy. A genius perhaps, but he didn't want to be made into a Chuunin in the first place- it was too much work. And yet Tsunade seemed fully intent on loading him with all sorts of work, for no apparent reason other than he hated it. But his old teammates and Sakura- they were working hard to earn it. They deserved it more than he did. Heck, they actually wanted it. If he could, he'd gladly give his Chuunin-ship to them. But he couldn't.

Come on, guys. he thought, You can make it. I believe in you.