Silently, I sat on the windowsill and stared into nothingness. At least it looked to the others as if I were doing that. In reality, I was not as absent as I pretended to be. It was interesting what you could hear people talking about when they thought they were safe.
I still felt the glances of Kabuto and Sasuke, but they did not interest me. As long as those two didn't get on my nerves now, there was no need to worry. Still, I had to be careful with the Uchiha. He seemed to want to find out my abilities by all means, but I didn't want to reveal them to him yet.
Something held me back to show them to him. Deep inside me, a small voice that had often guided me on the right path. It might sound strange, but I often acted according to feeling and not the mind. As a thief, I had been able to rely on it, why should it be any different now?
„An interesting tactic to eavesdrop on," a bright voice beside me noted.
Even though I had been paying attention, I still hadn't heard it coming. Temari had joined me on the windowsill and smiled at me. I remained suspicious, however. Why did she sit down with me from one moment to the next? Whereas I had had nothing to do with her so far. Only with her brothers...
I froze. Both of them were standing right next to the windowsill. Kankuro grinned at me, while Gaara stared in another direction. His gaze seemed absent, but his posture said something else entirely. He heard every word we spoke here. I grinned. What he could do, I could do for a long time.
„I don't think eavesdropping is necessary Gaara, if you can converse like that," I said quietly, and the Suna-nin didn't even seem surprised that I had caught him. Which seemed to be the wrong word, since I hadn't caught him doing anything... But that didn't matter now. Why was I even thinking about such a thing?
With a deafening bang, something or someone landed in the large classroom. Startled, I pressed myself against the wall. The sound hurt my ears. Clouds of smoke drifted through the room and a deep voice spoke up.
„So, you little snotty noses. Now all of you shut up and listen to what I have to say."
Whoa. That's about as friendly as it gets. This seemed to be our examiner, but there was no sign of him yet. Through the clouds of smoke, I could make out one large and many small silhouettes. The examiner had to be at the very front and at the very back...
The fog began to clear, and I could finally catch a glimpse of the shinobi in front of us. He had not come alone. In tow he had many men in grey uniforms, which did not look very friendly. Wait a minute! Weren't they Kotetsu and Izumo? I really liked those two, even though they had often chased me when I had stolen again.
They were just funny. But now they just seemed serious. Under the arm they had clamped a block. The foremost man had many scars, which ran across his face and gave him an intimidating appearance. But somehow, he looked familiar. Maybe I had seen him together with my father before... Maybe, maybe. Actually, though, it shouldn't matter to me now. What mattered was the exam.
„My name is Ibiki, and I am your worst enemy from this moment on."
Impatiently, my pen tapped against the wood of the table. All this fuss seemed extremely strange to me. As if they were trying to intimidate us on purpose. Sure, it was an exam too, but what were they trying to scare us for?
Naruto seemed to be in a pretty bad way. No wonder. Writing wasn't really his thing. But he would make it. The Uzumaki wouldn't even think about giving up. At least, that's what I hoped.
„Don't do that. It's annoying," a deep voice sounded next to me.
He hadn't even lifted his head, instead just stubbornly looking straight ahead. His eyes were lost in nothingness, but still every single one of his senses seemed sharp, having also heard the steady tapping of my pen.
„Sorry," I mumbled softly and put the pencil aside, hanging on for dear life. I didn't want either of my two seat neighbours to be the enemy now.
Whereby... My gaze slid to the grass ninja, who watched me attentively. Quick as a flash, like that of a snake, his tongue had shot out of his mouth and raced towards me. If he wanted to scare me, then he had done so. Because this picture was more than creepy. Involuntarily I slid a little in Gaara's direction.
Only away from this guy. No. Stop. Who had said that I should keep my head down here? No one. My hands clasped around the first sharp object they could feel and threw it right at the grass ninja's tongue. In this case, my freshly sharpened pencil. At the last moment, it evaded me as the pointed projectile hurtled toward Izumo, who was sitting at the edge of the room with the other examiners, watching us.
Quickly his hand had shot up and intercepted the pen. Searchingly, his dark eyes looked around the room. The beginnings of a grin formed at the corners of his mouth. He already knew I had thrown. In contrast were the eyes. Hard and cold they seemed at first glance. So, what was the point of this fearmongering if he didn't mean it? What was the point? They were putting us under pressure on purpose.
With my arms folded in front of my chest, I sat staring at my paper. Not even ten minutes had passed since Ibiki had explained the rules to us. Most of the people in the room seemed to be trembling with fear. They were afraid of being caught cheating or being kicked out of the exam for some other reason.
Earlier, I had called in and asked for an extra sheet. I had something very specific in mind with that. But before I turned to that task, I had to answer the ones on the sheet that I understood. It was a good thing that I had paid some attention in class and had that special one with Kakashi and Genma afterwards. Because that only really brought me a lot.
Done. About half of all tasks, I had been able to answer. Only the rest was missing. But I would deal with those later. First, I had given myself something else to do. I grinned. No one would be able to notice anything, since I had mastered the jutsu of invisibility, which I could vary in many different ways. This would now be a huge advantage for me when it came to getting through this exam, but first I had to learn to assess the other genin in their abilities.
However, if Ibiki or the examiners noticed me moving or looking at the other sheets, then it would not only be all over for me, but also for the team and I could not and would not let that happen. This was a great chance for all of us to prove ourselves and that's why we had to stick together.
I grinned. No one would notice anything since I would stay in my seat the whole time.
Gently, I placed my hands together for the upcoming jutsu and concentrated my chakra before mentally creating it. Inwardly I thanked Genma for having taught it to me. Now it would be a great help to me.
„Jutsu of invisible movements."