Kiba and Akamaru were confidently walking towards the building where the Chunin exam was held. Hinata and Shino followed behind. There was a crowd gathering at the entrance, and Shino took a deep breath. He hated crowds. He much preferred being in the midst of nature, with people far away from him than having people close to him.

He felt groups of his insects leaving his body and staying between his skin and his vest. As if Shino's discomfort made them think he was in danger and decided to stay near in case it was needed. Calm down Shino, no one should attack you, this is the written exam, that's normal people are gathered here, Shino thought to himself, trying to convince his brain that he was fine.

Hinata gave him a shy smile. "Kiba, Akamaru, wait! Let's find a calm corner. They all seem to hurry to register themselves, but we have more than enough time to do so. The line will be shorter later."

Hinata didn't dislike crowds as much as Shino did, but she didn't love them either. She knew her teammate preferred to be by himself. Shino liked Hinata for that. She was always attentive to others' needs.

Shino spotted some familiar faces. Lee was chatting with Sasuke, seeming to talk about Taijutsu. Kiba was already arguing with Naruto about who would be the next Hokage. Shikamaru was joking with Temari. Ino was talking with Tsubane. Neji approached Hinata.

"Good luck with the exam. Hopefully, we'll see each other for part two."

Hinata nodded before wishing her cousin the same thing. Shino waited for the crowds to disperse before going to the registration table, Kiba and Hinata following him. Kiba had to explain that his dog was not just any pet. Thankfully, Konoha was organizing the exams, and thus knew about the Izunuka clan.

They decided to go to the room where the exam was held. Some people seemed to fall for the genjutsu, following the instructions leading to the wrong floor. But Shino's team didn't fall for it. Because they had already seen that bad trap before. They hadn't fallen for this in their previous life, though. Well, Kiba would have, too eager to get there, but it was why Hinata and Shino had been paired with him, apparently.

They were asked to pick a number from a box, to determine their seat. Shino ended up in the back of the room that was organized like a classroom.

Morino Ibiki explained the exam, and Shino was surprised to realize it was exactly the same thing as in his previous life. He didn't have the exam sheets yet, so he didn't know the content part, but the goal of it was very clear in his head: cheat without getting caught.

Papers were handed and Ibiki gave the go to start. Shino looked at which questions he could answer by himself, but sent a few bugs around to spy who seemed to be already chunin ranked and knew the answers beforehand. If that didn't work, he'd cheat on Sakura or someone else known to be smart.

About half of the exam passed before Shino needed to copy someone, but he was amused at what his bugs reported to him. Like his friend's way of cheating. Ino had been a bit obvious in cheating on Sakura, who was once again sitting up front of her. The Yamanaka mind transfer jutsu was great for this type of exam, when it wasn't Ino. She had not perfected it enough, and fainted on her desk. She only did it once, and they could cheat five times before being called out, so Shino hoped it was worth the risk. Sasuke had used his Sharingan. Tenten seemed to use some sort of mirror attached to the ceiling – how on earth did she manage to have them there?

Shino started copying over both the answer of someone who was clearly a Chunin and Sakura when he noticed his teammate very obviously trying to have Naruto copy her. He knew Hinata had a big heart, and a massive crush on Naruto and wouldn't let him fail this test, but what was she doing being this obvious? Shino had hoped Naruto would have studied more this time around. At least, this time, he couldn't say he didn't know the purpose of the exam, because Naruto had time-traveled and surely remembered the embarrassment. It didn't mean he knew the answers now. Shino shrugged. As long as five proctors didn't see Hinata's sheet too far left on her desk to be viewed by only herself or her Byakugan activated, Shino doesn't mind. His other teammate, Kiba, wasn't much more subtle in his cheating, Akamaru barking at Kiba constantly. Shino was used to those two, so the barking didn't make him unable to concentrate, but surely some people were getting annoyed. Shino prayed they wouldn't be sent away because of Akamaru being a so-called annoyance.

Kankuro asked to go to the bathroom, which Shino recalled he did on the first Chunin exam as well, and realized it was probably part of his strategy, which Shino didn't want to know what it was. Gaara used sand to create another eye. He was cheating on the teen sitting next to Shino. Temari probably used her own brain to answer, she was older than the rest of the time-travelers after all, and had always been smart.

Other teams Shino didn't know disappeared one after the other. By the time Ibiki called out for the last question, the one that actually mattered, half of the participants were gone. Shino was grateful none of his friends were part of them, though someone behind Naruto and Hinata had been caught and for a second, Shino froze into place just like Hinata and Naruto did, thinking it was over for Team Eight. Or team Seven.

A few other teams decided not to take the risk for the last question, and Shino made a mocking smile, hidden by his coat. Some of them were too naive and shouldn't be promoted to Chunin if they couldn't trust their own teammates. Shino knew they didn't need to have answered anything during the first questions, because Hinata had let slip in their previous life that Naruto had only written his name on the sheet. At least, this time, he seemed to have written something. But Shino could bet he hadn't cheated even if it was the goal of the exam, because Naruto didn't have many discreet jutsu, and this was clearly not a shadow clone or sexy jutsu situation.

After five minutes, Mitarashi Anko appeared, and Shino guessed what was next: the Forest of Death. Hopefully, it wouldn't be as deadly and dangerous as the first time. But it meant they wouldn't steal a scroll from one of Gaara's kills, making it harder. Well, they did have extra years of experience now.