I have to apologize to you all; this chapter and the previous chapter have been uncharacteristically short. My apologies friends. I promise my next chapter will be longer.
disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Chapter 11: The Chuunin Exams part 1
A poof was heard from the front of the room, and a cloud of smoke appeared.
"Take your assigned seats," a man stated without emotion. He stood in front of a group of chuunin and jounin. He had long scars on his face, and emitted a scary aura. "We'll get started now."
Sakura took her seat quietly. She noticed dimly that Gaara of the Desert was to her left, and one of the sound shinobi from earlier were to her right.
"I will make an announcement before we pass out the exam," the tall proctor exclaimed. "I am Ibiki Morino, and this is the chunnin exams. Fighting will not be tolerated unless permission from a proctor is given; also killing your opponent will not be permitted.
"Anyone that disobeys the order will be kicked out of the exams immediately," Ibiki continued. "And severe punishment will be taken. Does everyone understand?"
"Good," he said with a nod. "Now let me explain the rules to your written exam. Questions are not allowed; if you ask one you and your team will be disqualified and asked to leave. Also, if we find you cheating you and your team will be disqualified and asked to leave.
"Now I'm sure you all realize this is a team test; if one of your team members fail, you all fail. Each member of the team has ten points to begin with, no member is allowed to have zero; that is all. We will begin now; the exam will be an hour long."
'I'm glad I helped Naruto study,' Sakura said mentally. She glanced over to her blonde haired teammate; it appeared he had already finished with his first question, and moved on to his next.
She then glanced over to see Sasuke. His sharingan was activated, and he appeared to be moving his hand without looking at his paper.
'Sasuke realized he could cheat,' Sakura said mentally again. 'As long as he didn't get caught.'
Taking a deep breath, Sakura began to answer the questions herself. Finding them easy enough, Sakura finished in a matter of minutes. She leaned back to see her teammates had also finished; they were all just waiting for the tenth question to be given.
Glancing over at the clock, Sakura realized the tenth question would soon be given out.
"It's time to give out the tenth question," Ibiki said with a sadistic smirk. "You can choose to take this question… or you can choose not to."
"What are the advantages and the disadvantages of answering versus not answering the question?" Sakura found her voice speaking.
Ibiki's eyes glistened at her, and his smirk widened. "You will be asked to leave if you do not answer the question; along with your teammates of course," he stated swiftly. "But if you choose to answer the question and get it wrong, you will never be allowed to take the chuunin exams again."
Sakura felt the tension flow out of the room, as many people stood up to leave. Sakura smirked. 'This is a part of the test,' she said mentally.
She frowned when she saw Naruto begin to shake violently. After many of the genin shinobi left the room, Naruto burst up with a load laugh. "Stop underestimating us," Naruto said as he stood. He slammed a hand on the desk in front of him. "Hurry up with the question."
Sakura watched Ibiki glance around the room; there were more teams left than she had expected.
"You all pass," Ibiki said with an uncharacteristic like grin on his face.
Sakura ignored the unnecessary questions about the tenth question, and the previous questions. The other shinobi had obviously not let it affect them that they had passed the first part of the chuunin exams; either that or they hadn't let it sink in yet. Sakura was most likely thinking the latter.
A sudden loud shatter caused Sakura to stare up at the unexpected sinister chakra coming into the room. She glanced up and noticed a woman with purple hair.
"This is not time to be celebrating!" She glared. "I'm Anko Mitarashi, and I'm going to be the examiner for the second part of the exams. I'll give you a break, but tomorrow you won't be so lucky. Meet up at Training Area 44; 7 sharp."
She disappeared as quickly as she came; Sakura shook her head slightly.
"We need to go tell Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled out as he pumped a fist.
"Hn," Sasuke smirked. "That was rather easy."
"It's only going to get harder," Sakura said as she sighed.
---
"I'm glad you three were able to pass the first test," Kakashi said with a smile. He and his team had met up at their regular training field to talk after the first part of the exams. "After I heard it was Ibiki, I was slightly worried."
"Why?" Naruto muttered confusedly. "He wasn't that scary."
"He's apart of the interrogation team," Sakura said from beside Naruto. She sat across from Kakashi; it seemed like he wanted to sit as far away from her as possible. "He's a special jounin."
Naruto shivered. "No wonder he was so scary."
"I thought you just said he wasn't a big deal, Dobe," Sasuke said accusingly. He smirked when Naruto glared at him.
"I'm going to beat your butt Teme!" Naruto yelled as his fists flew at Sasuke. Sakura just ignored her two teammates.
"We really need to talk," Sakura said quietly to the jounin. "Will you walk me home?"
Kakashi looked nervous at first, but nodded his head slowly. "I'm walking Sakura home," he called to the boys. "Don't get too tired out; I want you to be able to do well tomorrow."
"Sure thing Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto called as he tackled Sasuke.
Sakura just giggled slightly, and she and Kakashi left the two in the clearing. After two minutes of walking silently in the woods, Sakura cleared her throat.
"You didn't really give me a chance to think about my feelings," Sakura said quietly. She had slowed her pace, and Kakashi had done the same. "My mind was rather confused when you confessed your emotions to me. Kakashi-"
"Stop, Sakura," Kakashi said interrupting her. "Just forget I ever told you; I was confused about my emotions as well. I feel nothing for you more than a deep friendship."
Sakura felt her heart sting. "That is all?" She asked even quieter than before.
"Yes," Kakashi nodded his head sternly; he knew he was lying, but he couldn't stop himself from doing so… It was in Sakura's best interest.
"Um… okay then," Sakura said in a bit of a sad tone. "I guess I'll see you later then."
"Yes," Kakashi nodded. "I'll be able to watch your progress tomorrow… "
"Bye, Kakashi," Sakura said with a slight wave. "Kakashi-sensei."
When Sakura said 'Kakashi-sensei' if felt like someone had stabbed him in the chest with a kunai.
'Its for her own good,' Kakashi reminded himself mentally. He glanced at the spot the young pink hair girl had disappeared. 'She's too young; and you know it would never work out.'
---
Sakura sat on her couch silently. She had just tried to confess her feelings to Kakashi, but he had turned her down.
He had practically rejected her… So this must have been how he felt.
Sakura felt a little bitter toward her sensei; she knew she would have to avoid him for a while. Hopefully her silly crush (that's what she told herself it was) would end before she saw him again.
Sakura walked to her room. She took out a rather worn out looking box from under her bed, and opened it. She smiled when she saw the bright red Haruno shirt her mother had given her so long ago... She didn't know how she was able to save it, but she did.
Sakura placed the shirt on top of her dresser, along with some black shorts, and a tan skirt. White skirts would instantly label the person wearing them as a medic, and that would label her as an easy target.
Rethinking it, Sakura brought out a white skirt from her drawer, and replaced the tan skirt with it. She had a lot of built up frustrations to get out; labeling her as weak would easily allow her to be targeted. So much so, that Sakura could get out her frustrations, and then some.