Thankfully, I did not have to wait long. It was like he was waiting for me as I exited the very empty hallway. "What a drag that was, huh, Naruto?"
Rubbing the back of my head again..."Yea, sure Shika. We gotta—"
"Talk. I know…follow me. We can't be in these halls long, man! My dad told me there were spies and murderers here." "And kidnappers, too?!" He blinked. "Kidnappers? Who the—who told you that shit….never mind. A good scare tactic to train us genin. Listen, we have bigger problems…I've never seen my dad this scared before, Naruto. Not even when my mom threatens him. He followed me around all day, giving me hugs and making sure I got here, even covertly the WHOLE way here OK?! Thing is, he NEVER DOES THAT! I'm tripping balls right now…if the toughest and most secretive man I know is like that, hammer's dropping today. What a drag…I wanted a few more years to cloud watch." Putting his arms on the back of the door, leaning on it. He sighed, deeply. It was my turn to blink. "WHAT….YOU'RE TELLING ME THIS N O W! C'mon Shika, I've known you for six years and NOW the end is coming. I won't…." I sighed deep. "You won't what….?" giving me a questionable look. I saw the lightbulb go off in his head. With a smirk he said, "Oh her, yeah, she's something else. I wouldn't go near her with a one-hundred foot pole, and yet…THEY always find me. What a—" "Drag…yeah yeah, lucky you, hot girls always pestering you. Sheesh!" He simply shrugged. "Look, buddy, since I owe you and because we're as tight as me and him over there [pointing toward the big man near the snack vending machine by the big green neon Chunnin Exam sign in too bright white letters], I'll set you up. Just don't mention it to anyone, OK? I don't need more girls coming to me looking for a 'matchmaker,' oh god no." He face palmed, realized what he said and then his whole body shook. Shaking his head vigorously. "Deal Uzumaki, I want no grief, hear me?" Saluting him with a playful smirk, I said, " Yes sir. You got yourself a deal." Point his right forefinger in my face, so grabbing his hand in a very firm handshake, I walked off. I heard him groaning and out of the corner of my eye, shaking that hand out that I shook. Guess I don't know my own strength some days...
So the first round goes off without a hitch and meet this cool girl Hinata, she's real nice. Anyway, as soon as get out, Shikamaru grabs me by the huge collar on my jumpsuit, slamming me against the wall next to the door leading out covering me with his left arm. One guy sees it, Shikamaru looks at him once and waves him off. Shrugging, he leaves, taking one last look…Shika motions for a punch, and bolts. Mind you, this guy is like 6 feet tall. I have to laugh at that. Brushing off the dust I collected from the wall, deadpanning,
"What the hell, Shika? This couldn't have waited like…ten seconds?" Putting his hands in his pockets in shame, looking down then up shot bac
"Look, I'm doing you a huge favor, so don't….Just spoke with HER and—"
"AND, what did she say?Does she like me? Is she pulling my leg? What?"
Putting up his arms, I know he was trying to slow me down…"Whoa there, come here." Off another two feet away from the crows finishing testing, he let it spill.
"After the 4th round of fight of this second round, after the really big fights, she's gonna meet you. She told me to tell you it can't be long, but she'll tell you herself. If you ask me, she just likes to flirt or be annoying or something, with women, you never know. Just a thought." With that, he shrugged, and walked off with hands in his pockets.
As I get ready to fight, I throw two practice punches and then—"SHIT! I forgot to ask—'where'." I grab my golden locks, in frustrated squat position and groan. Exasperated, I run off towards my destiny.
—Another 2 ½ hours later-
Watching all the cool fighters with their awesome and unique justus, got me relaxed and pumped. I tried to predict the winners and cheered them on, or the real underdogs. More than half of those I called as winners, lost. You just basically can't win them all, believe it. Oh, I bumped into Hinata again where I surprised her and she gave me some med cream.
If she wouldn't be beet red or sick like she seems to be, she might be kinda cute. She has beautiful eyes.
So during the fight between Ino and Sakura, I was tormented. Pulling out my hair and still trying to cheer on my crush while still maintaining the illusion that I WASN'T DYING INSIDE. Normally, its, easy for me, but I never had this of my tummy doing flips and my brain hurt…it was hard. Luckily, that 'little whore' [Sakura's words, not mine] did something interesting: I saw her do signs and something amazing happened: I saw her Chakra and her sprit leave her body. Whoa…I rallied behind my teammate, I would never let her be taken, Sakura or not. I yelled at the top of my lungs and tried to think of encouraging words.
I hope it worked. To this day, I still don't know how much it helped, though she tried to tell me a few times. That's for another story. At the end of that s wearing down match, pun intended, I just looked down on her knocked out form and silently said how proud I was of I was and how amazingly strong she looked.
As I looked to Kakashi, who didn't look so bad as a master anymore, I smiled, then out of nowhere, I see a finger out of the corner of my eye, with my dream girl attached. I tried not to leave my mouth agape, but failed miserably. Everyone was still talking about the fight over the two girls, so I silently grabbed my mouth, both hands, standing and creeped over to her, my ten out of ten.
"Your teammate was pretty good. Not as good as I am, mind you, but…still …"I was staring at her. She was GORGEOUS. Oh no, no, please don't tell me my mouth is open…again. Now?
I cooly closed my eyes and then gave her my best dashing smile.
"OOO, Mr. Cool is here, I see." Her voice was smooth as velvet, rich as any ramen broth my mind could cook up.
*Ahem* "Well, they don't call me Mr. Smooth for nothing." That's right…she's totally buying it, you have her in the palm of your hand, Naru-chan. She's all yours.
"Were you fatally drawn to me because of my big muscles or my smile, baby?"
She laughed a glorious laugh, a sound like a bell I could listen to all day and all night, high, but with tinsssge of royal lusciousness in it, like her hair and her voice. I must have given a goofy smile, because she laughed harder.
" No, silly," eyeing me now, with her finger on her nose(?) maybe, in the dark, sparsely lit hallway, lighting only her silhouette. Then I felt something, then embarrassment. Something unexpected happened: she fawned over me, wrapping her arms around my neck. Oh god, what now? What do I do? Taking me by he shoulders she kissed my left cheek then the right, then, she looks down and grins.
"Oh, hey…."
Not moving, out of I don't know, guilt, almost shame or fear, blushing like mad I turn my head right to behold the magnificent mane of Old Chicken—Butt. *Chuckles* I love that nickname…I didn't come up with it, I think Kiba did, and boy, is it accurate. I was glad it was dark in that hallway..I didn't want people to see a future HoKage blushing like the way I was. Glancing back at my female counterpart who just dropped her right hand off of my shoulder, not seeing much, bit still that awesomely hot silhouette, I blurted, "Hey Sasuke, just in time to see our first kiss as boyfriend/girlfriend." I said all too quick for her to hear.
"Here to wha…"Surprised, I dove her into that classic movie kiss, and at first she was confused and fought it, but then as soon it registered, she kissed back with her everything, like nothing I have to compare to, even to now, my dear Hinata of five years.
Looking up from my bold maneuver, I saw Sasuke standing there like scarecrow, He was shaking…I could see it from ten feet away where I was. Then, I swooped back into her chest, smelling her sweet perfume, then bringing her to her feet. Stunned, she only catch her breath, now in the light, putting a hand to her chest and then a hand to her mouth. A deep breath later, she poked me in the chest with her middle and ring fingers and breathed out loud enough for everyone to hear, "Don't do that again, loverboy, I may not fall for it again." With that, she gave me another kiss, moaning into it and then walked off, smacking Sasuke's butt on the way out, and waving goodbye facing me.
Walking up to my rival, best friend and brother (I knew it years before Father Hogoromo confirmed it), I snickered, "Didn't I tell you, Sasuke?" Waggling my finger at him. He just stared back at me as I walked out, frozen, with a curious look on his face and then a smirk. "You finally grew balls. Good for ya. Karachi is looking for you. Round 3—Forest of Death is coming up soon. He wants you to look after Sakura…she just woke up. I can cover you this time if you wanna look at your girl's match." "Thanks, man." "Hn."
Ten minutes after cheering Tenten on, I babied Sakura back to health and the rest is history from there.
One last thing, though: On the way out, "Tenten" and i were coming out of different gates: I was closest to the big East gate and she was by the end gate by the wall, and she got close enough to wink at me and blow me a genuinely felt air kiss. Needles to say, I blushed. Cause I knew there we would be doing what we did in that dark hallway all too soon.