Ayame's P.o.V.

Kabuto glanced over the brim of his glasses to see where I was pointing and sighed. "Unfortunately, those nin are from the Village Hidden in the Sound. They're a mystery. I can tell you right now that I don't know much about them." I felt my shoulders slump in brief disappointment, but my spirits were lifted again when I saw a familiar group of people out of the corner of my eye.

Yuki's team was standing idle, silently evaluating their opponents. I could see it in their eyes that they were sizing up each and every one of them. By the time I saw them, Neji's soundless team had wandered away, almost like they were never there in the first place. I hurried over to Yuki's team with a warm smile on my face.

"Hey, Yuki-chan," I greeted. The darked hair girl turned in my direction, surprised to hear my voice. "Ryo and Himeko, right? I didn't forget your names, now, did I? That'd be rude of me." I tried to begin small talk. "If you'd like, there is a small group of my friends just other there that would surely enjoy your company. So you don't have to be all alone?"

"Thank Kami you offered," Ryo sighed with a smile. He leaned towards me and lowered his voice. "Between you and me, I don't like people from my own village. Too..."

"Troublesome?" I suggested and he snapped his fingers.

"Exactly!"

I laughed lightly and motioned them to follow me. I brought them back to wear we all were; Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, and our new aquaintance Kabuto were all still raving about the stat cards. The thought of how he got all that information occured to me. He's really knowledgable. He would make an astounding asset during the exams. Just maybe...

"WHOA! ARE THOSE POKEMON CARDS!?" Ryo shouted with glee and the room fell silent. Someone coughed in the back of the room.

"THEY AREN'T BETTER THAN BAKUGAN."

"YOU SHUT YOUR DIRTY, LYING MOUTH."

"Please, continue with your daily ninja lives," Himeko said, waving her arms around in attempt to stop the awkwardness. The chatter continued as if nothing had happened at all. Himeko punched Ryo in the head. "BAKA! Are you trying to get us killed!? Kami, you are so stupid, Ryo!"

"Shut up, Himeko! You're lucky mom said I'm not allowed to hit you back!"

"Stop acting so foolish," Yuki ordered, shoving both of them apart with force. "You are on the same team, so start acting like it." Both of Yuki's teammates staggered backward, nearly tumbling over from her push. She's a lot stronger than she's letting on. I tried to listen to her heart beat and it was even. Steady. Relaxed. As if assaulting her teammates took no effort whatsoever.

"Itai, Yuki. The heck was that for?" Ryo pouted, rubbing his shoulder from where Yuki grabbed him.

"For showing ignorance to enemies," Yuki gestured to the people behind her by putting her thumb over her shoulder. She was right, we had caught the eyes of a couple of teams and formed smirks on their faces.

I strained again to hear what they were saying, but something startled me beyong belief. That moron is going to get us killed. I thought Yuki said this at first, but her lips weren't moving. I gasped and staggered backyards, eyes wide. I was staring at Yuki and she was staring back. "What's the matter, Ayame-chan?" Using honorifics is going to take some getting used to.

"N-N-Nothing, Yuki-chan," I was reading her mind!? Holy kuso, what!? This isn't in my job description! "I just- um- I-"

Was it something I said? I felt like I was going to faint. The room spun around in a swirl of colors and lights and shapes. I leaned against the wall and slid down so I was sitting on the ground.

Is that the maximum power my ears hold? Listening to the thoughts of others? But they aren't actual words! You need vibrations to produce sounds! This scientifcally should not be possible. I glanced over at Ino and smirked internally. Maybe I'm secretly a part of the Yamanaka clan. That was a lot of sarcasm by the way. But I really should ask for her opinion. Later. After the Exams are over. For now, I'l just keep this newfound ability to myself.

"Ayame-chan, what's wrong?" Sasuke asked, kneeling down to my side. "What happened?" I dismissed all the extra chakra from my ears so I could calm down and stop hearing her thoughts. Damn, I thought I had better composure than to breakdown like that. This is what we call character development.

"I-I'm fine, Sasuke-kun," I said. He took my hand and stood me up. I rubbed the back of my neck. "I-I think I'm ust tiredis all. Really I-"

"All right, victims!" Thankfully, a booming voice interrupted my stammering. All voices fell silent and everyone looked in the direction of the one who spoke. "I am Morino Ibiki. I am your Chunin Exam Writing Portion's proctor."

Ibiki had a large, tall, dominant frame that made him look vicious and menacing. He had facial scars from Kami knows what to compliment his stature. His forehead protector was more like a cap and wrapped all the way around his head, concealing whatever was underneath. His expression made it seem like he thought- or knew- that we were anxious and he was loving every ounce of it.

"I can't wait to hear you beg for mercy," he said witha mischievous, crooked, almost sadistic smile.

. . .

All of us ninja that were in the waiting room were led into another room that looked like a classroom. But not an academy one, more like a university type scene. We had assigned seats to seperate us from the rest of our team. I was pretty far from the other members of my team, but I could see Naruto's golden spikes popping out of the crowd. I looked around where he was and saw that Hinata was right next to him.

At least he's with her, I sighed silently. I looked to my sides and saw one of those Suna-nin next to me. The blonde girl with four pony tails, Temari. I gulped. She was rather intimidating last time we met. I cleared my throat and prepared to attempt conversation.

"Temari-san," I said quietly, but loud enough to get her attention. My head was turned to her direction and hers to mine. She glanced up and down my body, sizing me up, analyzing me. I chuckled. "You probably don't even remember me. I was with my team and we happened to come across yours and another team from Amegakure."

"I remember you," Temari said, narrowing her eyes slightly. "You were with the Uchina, right?" I nodded.

"Yeah that's me," I confirmed. "I just wanted to wish you luck on the Exams. And, if push comes to shove, no hard feelings." My tone was soft and warm, my expression was welcoming, and I made sincere eye contact. The things one would do when they try to establish friendship. Temari snorted.

"Thanks, kid, but I don't need it," she said, high and mighty. "When push comes to shove, as you call it, try not to get killed in the second part of the Exams. That's all my advice for you." She turned forward and faced the front of the class. I exhaled a breath from my slightly parted lips.

"Maybe after this Writing Portion part is finished, our teams could grab a bite to-"

"Do you take me for a fool?" Temari hissed and turned back to glare at me. I raised an eyebrow. "Are you attempting to manipulate me and my team into some lame alliance? Because I can tell you right now that won't-"

"Temari-san," I interrupted her and she seemed surprized that I dare do that. "Konohagakure and Sunagakure are supposed to be allies. I only want to strengthen the bond between their shinobi. And like I said, I only wanted to wish you luck and treat you nicely while you're staying in my home. I apologize if my motives seemed anything like what you were thinking."

Temari's jaw flexed from clenching and unclenching her teeth. I got to her. Whoopsie.

"Yeah, well you know-"

"SHUT UP!" I didn't say that, I swear. Ibiki slammed his fist on his desk that was in the front of the room. Again the room fell silent. "Thank you for your cooperation. Now then, I am going to explain the rules and regulations for this stage of the exams. You all will recieve packets with questions related to various ninja subjects that will include code decrypting, mathmatics, strategizing, and so on."

The ninja that were in the room guarding all of us began handing out packets of papers and pencils. The front pages were covered in ink from the extensive questions and I sighed. It wasn't like I didn't know what I was doing (despite the rumors, I was the top acedemic student, not Sasuke (even though he was really good in physicalities)) but it was just too entirely troublesome.

"Bathroom breaks will be provided whenever needed," Ibiki said as received my paper and passed the stack of paper and writing impliments to a grass ninja. "Oh and also, let's talk about cheating. If you get caught, that's two points off your total score. If you're caught three times, you and your entire team will be kicked out of the Exam and have to wait another six months to try again. Questions? No? Excellent. You may begin."

Everyone flipped over their papers immediately while I took my time in turning it over. All I needed was confidence. Kakashi believed in me, my team did, my brother did, my mother did. I have to pay them all back by believing in myself, too. I grabbed my pencil and got down to business.

Yuki's P.o.V.

I was one of the top students in the Amegakure Ninja Acedemy. I am a highly skilled female ninja that's been on countless dangerous missions. I have no idea what I'm doing.

I'm still on the first page and I've got no clue on how to solve the problem. I casually raised my eyes up and looked at the back of Ayame's head that was two rows ahead of me. I exhaled air through my nose. I'm doing a crappy job at trying to form an alliance with her team. I think Ryo either forgot that I agreed to do this or he is carefully devising a plan.

If you are on a tree branch suspended thirty feet in the air and your enemy is twenty two feet in front of you and ten feet below, how hard must you throw a kunai and/or shuriken to be able to take out your target? Please write in the form of an equation and use newtons per second squared.

This is one of the questions? Really? It seems so overly complicated. You wouldn't normally think about mathmatics in battle anyway. You have to think in an instant and just be your strongest. There's no calculated way to kill someone.

I took a break from trying to solve this problem and though about what Ibiki said. He said that if we cheated, we would be deducted two points. Normally, they would take away the paper right then and there and you would recieve a zero, no questions asked.

"Nani!? What the hell!?" Someone cried. Everyone looked in that direction, including myself. A boy with cropped brown hair was standing up from his seat and had a shocked expression. There was a kunai stuck in his desk. He was from Iwagakure, the Village Hidden in the Stones. He had smooth, tan skin and his dark face had a bead of sweat going down it.

"Strike three," Ibiki said. I turned to look at him. So he threw the kunai. "Please gather your team and leave."

"N-Nani!?"

"Way to go, baka!" Someone else called from the front row. "What are we gonna do now, Itsuke!? You suck!"

"Kuso," the ninja next to me muttered before standing up. "Shut up. Yamaru. Itsuke. Let's go." He had to have been the leader or at least the dominant member of the team. The three ninja exited with no further protest. I understood.

We were supposed to cheat. To test our intelligence gathering. It's a rather brilliant way of testing it, in all honesty. Sadistic, sure, but brilliant. And the strikes are supposed to represent the enemy ninja finding you out and eliminating you, thus ruining the entire information gathering mission and killing your team. That's why all of you would have to leave. Because it symbolizes a failed mission and the real life consequences- succes as a team or failure as a team. How surreal. I wonder how amny other people have figured this out.

All right, now that I know what I'm really supposed to be doing, all that's left is to find someone intelligent-seeming and cheat off of them without being caught. I nonchalantly scanned the room for my teammates. I easily spotted them because Ryo, being the genius he is, was having a panic attack. I put my hands under the desk and made a couple handsigns. I brought my hands back on top of the table and pointed a finger at Ryo.

Gomenasai. I silently said as I shot a rolled up piece of ice parchment into his arm. I didn't penetrate the skin of anything, but I'm sure it stung. He flinched back and rubbed his arm. He looked at the ice and unfolded it under the desk. I wrote We are supposed to cheat. Do it carefully. -Yuki I knew he would have never figured it out on his own, so I had to help him. He kept his gaze to the front of the room and nodded slightly.

I did the same to Himeko and she stayed forward, but nodded just as her brother had. Now that that was taken care of, I had to start cheating like I've never cheated before (which I haven't) but there is a first time for everything.