Chapter 2

And, I was right.

The next day, when Aika showed up, she was holding a filled out chuunin exam form. Chie smiled, she also knew that Aika would end up agreeing; she's a sucker for peer pressure.

So Chie-sensei directed us to the building where we were supposed to turn in. And she left, again. Chie was really indolent, but was a fine ninja. So Katsu led us toward the building that she had pointed at.

As we walked we had to side step some sand nin, one with red hair and black rims around his eyes . . .

My head followed the boy, thinking, Is he? No! No, Amaya, cut it out.

I had caught myself, and quickly snapped my head back. But it was too late. Aika had caught me staring, and was giving me questionable looks. I shook my head, and looked at her, trying to telepathically tell her I'll tell you later.

Well, it seems that I can teleport, and I can use telekinesis-both my father taught me before he died-but my telepathy sucks. Aika continuously looked at me, so much that it got incredibly annoying. I was about to snap at her when I ran into Katsu.

"Ouch," I said, rubbing my nose.

But I didn't complain. He did that too often to be able to get mad at him.

We were there. Katsu led us in, and we landed right on the third floor just in time to figure out that it wasn't the third floor.

Team 7, Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto, had broken the illusion. Well, actually, only Sasuke and Sakura did. Naruto just stood there like the doofus he was.

But, indeed, it was only the second floor, so all of us had to troop up another floor.

We turned in our forms, and my team ended up being one of the first ones in the waiting room. We took a seat, but we didn't stay there for long. As soon as we saw all of the other rookie cells grouping together, we stood up and walked over to them.

"Hey guys! We really all made it?" I said.

"Amaya," said Aika, "How many times have I told you not to talk to talk to idiots?"

Naruto glared at her, and she stared back, raising her eyebrows in a 'what're ya gonna do about it?' pose.

I looked over at Katsu, but he had moved on, examining a dirty window.

"What's up with him?" asked Shikamaru.

I looked back at Katsu. He never really took time to introduce himself to the others, so I doubted that anyone could really give any inside info on him like Aika and I could.

"Nothing," I said, "It's one of his favorite pastimes."

Shikamaru raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything.

Aika whispered in my ear, "Doesn't he watch clouds half of the day? He shouldn't think that would be too weird."

I snorted, agreeing with her.

And then this incredibly annoying boy who introduced himself as Kabuto walked up to us.

He told us that all of the ninja sitting in the room were extremely tough, as if we didn't know that already, and that, wow, he'd been taking this test seven times now!

And then he showed us his shinobi skill cards. He showed us a holographic bar graph showing all the cells from every village that came.

And Sasuke asked for Kabuto to show him two shinobi in particular. Rock Lee and . . . Gaara.

My heart leapt at his name, and the knowledge that he was here, in Konoha, just made my day. Kabuto showed the cards, and I stared at the one labeled, Gaara.

I could feel tears well up in my eyes, but blinked them back. The greatest friend that I have ever had is here, and he probably doesn't even remember me.