Hello again:3 Um.. I'm afraid I pulled a blank for this chapter title XDD I'm sorry if this one's kinda boring O.o

Anyways, Oh my gosh... that you so much to all the people who reviewed :'3 you make me so happy n.n

And a special thanks to Nobukane, for reading over this for me n.n It's a big help. ( go check out his storieeeees:D)

Ok, enough of my rambling, XD this chapter starts out strangely, but please, bear with me XD and I hope you all enjoy it.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto

"Zabuza kun?"

He grimaced, the dusty straw tickling his nose as he turned to face the source of the unusually timid whisper.

"Are you nervous?"

"No," He grunted, eyes returning forwards, as the cart hit a bump in the road. "Relax, scaredy cat."

"Oh," He could hear her scuffling from somewhere above, and to his left. "But that's not fair. You've passed an exam already. This is new for me."

"You've passed three quarters of the damned thing already, Kotone."

"Yeah, but this one's the most important!"

Months of severe, though somehow less deadly training had passed. They weren't trying to kill them anymore, it seemed. They'd need all the ninja they could get following the last year's slaughter.

The months had been a strange few. Zabuza had noted two things about his partner. Firstly, she was being unusually kind, in sparing him her emotional, sappy hugging crap. At first, this had seemed like a blessing. It still did, thought he had found himself slightly unnerved by her newfound aloofness. Only slightly.

He had pushed that from his mind completely, in time. The second, slightly humiliating fact, he could not.

Much to his chagrin, she was now a fair bit taller than he was.

He knew it mattered little, in the long run, but he couldn't help glaring at her bitterly when she could reach things he couldn't, or something of the like. That 'Little imp' comment of their Kage's hadn't sat well with him, and sprang up again in the back of his mind whenever it became evident that he only came up to the younger girl's shoulder.

Another bump almost knocked Kotone from her perch on the pile of hay, and Hiraku, who was apparently allergic to cows, began another loud sneezing fit.

"I like cows." Zabuza commented maliciously, smirking as the sounds of Hiraku's obvious misery filled the chilled morning air.

For once, their exam had been explained to them long before they'd have to take it. It was in five parts. Written, analysis, genjutsu and ninjutsu, and the final bit combined all four. An all out, timed sparring session. No longer to the death, though that was an option, they had been told. Deadly force was encouraged. That was really the only encouragement they'd gotten.

The written test had been strange, and as far as he was concerned, completely pointless. He had written it off as useless after about three difficult, but not impossible, questions, and simply scribbled violently on the paper until the time ran out, enjoying how the people on either side of him edged away, apprehension apparent in their eyes. It was so amusingly pathetic.

They didn't care about paperwork, the boy had decided smugly. They only cared about fighting. As Zabuza had predicted, the written test was worth virtually nothing, and had no real impact on his score.

The analysis test, which had fallen directly after the first, had interested him a bit more. But not nearly as much as it interested his partner. The idea was to watch the proctor read out fifty pointless things about themself, any number of which could be lies. He could see the confident gleam in her eyes as she scribbled down her answers, with an assured , feline, grin.

It was lacking something, for Zabuza. There was no incentive. No danger, no urgency. It bored him. So he wasn't surprised when he found that his scores were, again, less than spectacular. He felt himself grin, however, as she received her results. He was pretty sure that, had there been a precedent, Kotone would have broken whatever record, and had undoubtedly set the bar for the next year.

He was a competitive being, yes, but this didn't bother him at all. Quite the contrary, he was proud of her. She was his partner, after all. And this was her specialty. He had his own.

For example, he had, without question, beaten her at the next day's ninjutsu test. Genjutsu was indecisive, neither was particularly adept, perhaps she liked it a bit better than he did. Either way, he preferred blasting his opponent with a good Suiton technique to making them see things, any day.

To his distaste, the taijutsu test, the final one, was held at the site of the old graduation exam.

Because the area was so far away, they had hitched a ride in a farmer's cattle drawn hay cart, to preserve their strength. It was dusty, and itched terribly, but somehow, watching that annoying little Hiraku kid sneezing pathetically made it enjoyable. Not to mention the straw his partner had caught in her hair. That was funny too.

The cart jolted as it came to a halt, the nervous, dusty, soon-to-be ninja almost tumbling out of the pile of hay.

They hopped off the wagon, splashing in cool puddles of water, their feet disturbing the reflection of the grey sky above.

"Thank you, Mister!" Kotone shouted back at the farmer, who was hurriedly getting himself back into the driver's seat, eying the jonin who had accompanied them warily. He looked... frightened. In fact, even her friendly greeting had made him jump slightly. She couldn't begin to imagine why.

They trudged along through the hazy morning, the ground squishing unpleasantly beneath their feet. The exam setting was built much as their academy was, into the cliff side near the village. Kotone remembered a jonin pointing it out once, on a hike. Glancing over at her partner, she couldn't help but think that it had been a bad idea to do so.

She could see her partner's dark eyes roving uneasily, as they stepped inside. Truth be told, it was making her nervous as well, and she found herself walking closer to him than she normally would.

The exam area was sealed by thick stone doors, the large, ominous room behind looking like nothing more than a solid, hollowed out cube of stone. A shadowy outcropping above, and before them hid several shadowy figures from view, one she could tell was their Kage. The other judges, she could not see, or recognize. They were made to line up, facing the panel of examiners, for a more detailed explanation of their test.

Zabuza's gaze was flickering back and forth from the front, to the door, hand clenched in fists, as though he half expected to see someone charge in, as he had.

"They didn't even bother cleaning up the blood."

She jumped, hearing her partner's low chuckle. "What?"

A tanned hand pointed idly to one of the many dark patches that riddled the floor, and walls, that she had originally taken as natural discolourations in the stone. On closer inspection, however, she could see that he was correct, each splotch taking on a splattered, puddle shape.

Kotone shuddered. Somehow, this made the room's eeriness increase infinitely, it's grotesque original purpose making itself known once more.

Mizukage's voice was firm, when he addressed them. They were to all wait outside until their pair was called, at which point they'd be given five minutes to show what they could do. Straight hand to hand.

The wait was the most harrowing bit, sitting outside the heavy stone doors, not allowed to peak inside. Every five minutes or so, which to the awaiting students seemed like an eternity, a pair of shaking, exhausted new Genin would emerge from the room, and begin their long walk home.

Kotone relaxed a little each time he saw a team leave, both halves intact.

But that small bit of relief did very little to stop her knees from shaking, as their names were finally called. She took a deep breath, trying to match her partner's indifferent composure. 'This is what you've been working for,' She told herself, firmly. 'This is no time for me to be weak.'

The ten year old tried to put on her most confident, nonchalant face, as they approached the room, but her partner was not fooled.

"Hey," He grunted quietly, so the jonin by the door couldn't hear. "Relax, will you?" She nodded quickly.

"Right,"

Kotone tried not to cringe at the bloodstains, or to shudder at the thought of how this room would have seemed a year ago. She tried especially hard to not picture Zabuza, then.

"Funny seeing you again," One of the shadows said, amused. It made Kotone jump, spinning to look at the panel above. The dark haired girl inclined her head slightly.

She could swear she knew that voice.

"So you know how this works?" The same man asked, as Zabuza moved to the other side of the room. "Good, good... Alright... are you ready?" The genin hopefuls settled into their preferred fighting stances. "You may begin...now." A smile, and a quick nod from Kotone assured her partner that she was ready, and both ran at each other.

Taijutsu was another one of those things that they were even at, in their own ways, and Zabuza found that as frustrating, and unnerving as it was comforting. She could look after herself, that was good. It made her less trouble for him.

As usual with their sparring sessions, neither could really land a hit. She dodged his punches, and he blocked her kicks. She distanced herself at the right times, to avoid a blow, and he never seemed to let her find an opening for one. She'd hit him, but it was as though he hadn't felt it. He'd send her flying, but somehow, she always managed to land on her feet.

He blocked a small fist, only to have a foot fly at his head, as his partner spun in his grasp. He ducked that with more difficulty, before sweeping his elbow across her face, an inch or two too shallow, as she skipped back. Zabuza frowned. He hadn't expected it to be this difficult.

Perhaps it was being in this room again. But somehow, his fight from the year earlier was coming back to him, vividly. And none of them had fought like she did now.

"What?" The man to Hachidaime's right, one of the academy's chief instructors, leaned forward in his seat. "That's impossible. Genin don't move that quickly."

The older man to the far left laughed, pushing platinum blond hair from his face. "Apparently, these ones do."

"The demon, I know, I was here last year, remember? But I didn't expect the girl to keep up."

"As was I, " The blond man chuckled again. "That little girl set the record for our second exam. Hey... Weren't you the proctor? My, my, she saw right through you, didn't she?" He taunted, still smiling, thoroughly amused. And besides. She'd have to be able to keep up with him, or she'd have died years ago."

The other jonin fumed, gritting his teeth angrily. "I was going easy on them, during the exam,"

"That's enough," their Kage interrupted sharply. "Time's almost up, am I correct?"

The jonin to his right, fumbled with the stopwatch in his hand, muttering numbers to himself under his breath. "Five... four..."

"What do you think, Mizukage Sama?"

"They pass," He frowned. "But I do not like that boy."

"Time!" called the jonin.

The two students stopped dead, their fists an inch away from one another's faces.

The boy was arrestingly collected, weight shifted to his back foot, as his eyes shifted around the room. The girl, however, stared at them expectantly, leaning forward on tiptoe.

She waited anxiously, wringing her hands. There was no reply, for a long, silent moment, before something sailed over the railing, glinting in the dim light. "Catch,"

She stumbled forward, catching the thing, as she regained her balance. Kotone blinked at it in disbelief, a smile spreading on her face as she reverently traced the village symbol carved into the metal. A Hitai ate.

She'd passed.

"And here," The same voice from before said, as another flew at her partner. "We kept it for you. We thought you might like to have your old one back." Zabuza examined the metal and fabric. He wasn't sure how he recognized it as his own, but somehow, he did. And he was glad.

This one meant more to him.

"Thank you very much!" He heard his ecstatic partner call, bowing respectfully, eyes lit with joy, and relief.

The blond man's smile widened a fraction. "No need to thank me. You earned this yourself, kunoichi." Kotone practically glowed with pride.

She was really a ninja now. A kunoichi of Kirigakure no sato.

After all those cold nights, and backbreaking trainin... After four years of blood, sweat, and tears, she was finally a genin.

But something was bothering her.

"Now," The pleasant voice was heard once more. "Congratulations. You're both excused. Please get the next pair. "

She swore she knew that voice. Vaguely, as thought from a dream, or perhaps a past life, even.

"Hey," She felt her partner nudge her gently, as they both turned to leave. "Congratulations."

"Thank you!" She faltered, eyes shifting to the forehead protector in her hand, "This is nothing for you, is it?" Her voice was low, and unusually timid.

"No," He replied, tying his hitai ate around his forehead, "Not really." His partner glanced over, and immediately took to giggling. "What?"

"It makes you look like you're balding."

"What? Oh damnit," He sighed, pushing it back slightly. "I hate this stupid thing. I could never find a way I liked."

"What about how you have it?" She said, still laughing, as she fastened her's around her waist. "It looks good that way."

"What, tilting?"

"Yeah! It's... unique."

"Fine, whatever, I don't care either way," He shrugged, securing it in place near his ear.

The blond man leaned back, chin resting thoughtfully on his chin, as he watched them leave. Misao's green eyes sparkled, as he chuckled, shaking his head, slightly.

"You certainly are full of surprises, little one."

Sorry, that one was kinda boring XDD The next few may be, I'm afraid DX So I may skip ahead quite a bit for the next chapter XD twelve, eleven ish? Does that seem like too much to you?

Anyways, thank you very much for reading this! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review, and have a nice day :3