Chapter 25: The Chunin Exams-Part 1

The test room was fairly quiet except for the group of genin standing next to the door. Oh great Shika is here. Sighhh, this is going to be a long day. I walked over to a random corner and sat in it, cultivating chakra at a slow rate. If I do it any faster than this people will be able to sense it. damn it this is going to take forever. "Shikamaru I can tell you're here you know." I said opening my eyes and looking up at his familiar face. "I just wanted to check on you. I know you are probably going insane with all these different chakras in the room." I smiled slightly and got up. aww, he still cares. "Yeah, everyone's chakra is so loud here, it's insane." He looked at me a bit surprised. "so you're done ignoring me?" I rolled my eyes, "When did I ignore you? I call that selective responding." He just sighed at me and leaned on the wall. "this exam is already such a drag." I can't even imagine what's going through his head right now. I mean, I know exactly what��s going to happen and I'm still freaking out. "Hey Shika, just be careful out there. Also, be sure to stay away from any weird redheads." He looked at me like I was insane but nodded either ways.

-time skip-

It has been a couple of minutes of my team being obnoxiously loud and Ibiki didn't show up yet. Even Kabuto was done with his whole card thing. I guess it's going to happen any minute now. Like my thoughts summoned him, Ibiki poofed in the room with the rest of the chunin and sent everyone to their assigned seats. Of course, with my amazing luck, I ended up sitting next to kabuto all the way in the back. Just great. I sat down and tried to ignore the chilling cold chakra radiating from next to me. Ok Elle, get your head on straight. Focus on your mission. I have to restore my chakra. Also, I have to plant some chakra on the girl Orochimaru will possess. Damn, that's going to be hard. I ended up just ignoring the test completely and working on cultivating chakra very slowly throughout the whole test. It was painstakingly slow but I had filled up almost all of my reserves. I was snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of glass breaking. I jumped in my seat and felt my heart rate rise from the shock. Fun fact, when I feel my heart beat while I'm not moving, it triggers my anxiety. I know weird, but it happens. So there I was, taking slow deep breaths in, trying to calm myself down before the attack even starts. It wasn't really working since I was hyper aware of all the people around me so I had to enclose myself with my own chakra and block my senses to prevent myself from spiraling. It felt like time was slipping away from me until I felt someone's hands on my shoulders. Since that person was really close, I could feel their chakra clearly. The once cold chakra became welcoming and refreshing around me. Once I had finally regained control. I took down my chakra bubble and looked up at the Uchiha behind me. "Thanks, I owe you one, but how did you even know?" he just shrugged, put his hands in his pockets and left the exam room. I guess he isn't so bad after all.

I followed Sasuke out and we met up with Naruto and sakura. We were all following Anko to the forest of death. This is going to be so hard. Ughh, why did I do this to myself? We sat there for what seemed like hours to me before Anko was finally done talking. As each team went in to get their scroll and sign the form, I slipped away and started what might be my hardest mission yet. I walked over to Kiba, my heart rate picking up at the sight of Akamaru. No Elle, you have to do this. Get it together. "Hey Kiba, do you have a minute?" he turned away from his team and looked at me weird. This was the first time I ever talked to him so he must have been really confused. He shrugged and followed me away from his team. "What's up?" at that point my hands were shivering at how close I was to Akamaru but I sucked it up. The sooner this is over, the sooner I can get away from him. "well, I just wanted to warn you. If Akamaru starts acting weird and scared, don't ignore it. Head to the other direction and don't look back." Once what I had to say was done, you bet your ass I was going to get away from him and his dog as soon as possible. I walked/jogged/ran over to the direction of my team, when I remembered the other person I had to talk to. Damnit, I'd rather go back to the dog. I walked over to Shikamaru's team, avoiding eye contact as much as possible. "Hi guys! Before we start, I just wanted to wish you luck." I spread a sweet smile on my face, hoping to seem friendly. Ino scoffed loudly and a smirk spread on her face. "Save your luck for yourself. If Sasuke wasn't on your team, you'd be out within the first minute." Bitch. I kept my smile on my face and looked over to Choji. "oh I almost forgot." He was in general one of my favorite characters in Naruto even before I got here, so I had prepared a little scroll for him before the chunin exams. I reached into my pouch and pulled out the scroll filled with every type of chip I could find (and afford). With a big smile on my face, I held out the scroll to him. "I prepared this a while ago and I thought you'd need it more than me, so here." He looked at me smiling excitedly. "what's inside?" I laughed at his adorableness. "a few different flavored chips." His smile got wider before he glomped me in a big hug. I instantly tensed at the contact. His hug was so tight that I started feeling like I couldn't breathe. Damn it, damn it, damn it! this is not happening right now. My breathing started to pick up and I was on the verge of leaking chakra when Shikamaru pushed Choji off of me. "idiot, she can't breathe." I took a couple of deep breaths in and focused back on the three. Shikamaru had his usual disinterested look on his face and Ino, well… she still looked like a bitch. I spread another smile on my face. "I have stuff for you two as well." I turned to ino who looked confused at why I was being nice. "I got you these." I said pulling out a pair of hair scissors. She kind of looked offended. "You might need them for the chunin exams. Also," I turned to Shikamaru. Go ahead, you're doing the right thing. I pulled out the kunai and handed it over to him. He raised an eyebrow at me. "I borrowed this kunai from you in the training grounds and I know I held onto it for a while but I think I'm here to finally let it go. I held onto it because I was just too scared of being defenseless but I want to give it back now. I'm sorry it took me so long." I was basically rambling at this point. My nerves were on fire as I just waited for his response. He sighed slowly, "What a drag. I thought you'd never return it." He had a slight smirk on his face making me smile too. I walked up to him and hugged him, feeling so grateful that I had my only friend back. He tensed for a second before hugging me back. I leaned over to his ear and whispered "please be careful, promise me you won't jump into anything dangerous. He whispered an 'I promise' back before I let go and headed over to my team. They had just finished signing and got the scroll so I joined them on the way to the gate. "Are you guys ready?" I said getting somewhat excited about starting. "OF COURSE, BELIEVE IT!" with that, the gates busted open and we rushed into the forest.