"What do you think Sakura's team has been up to?" Yamanaka Ino asked, idly tapping the concrete wall behind her. A vague grunt was all she got from Shikamaru, the bare minimum she'd tolerate from him. He might have shrugged too, but with the three of them leaning up against the wall and Choji in the middle, it was hard to tell.

"Probably pulling weeds and shovelling shit like the rest of us," Kiba offered from his place sitting on the floor.

"Wonder what Sasuke thought of her first D-rank," Choji mused, popping a plain chip into his mouth. Kiba snickered, and even Ino found herself smiling at the thought of Miss Rookie of the Year being handed her first assignment. She wished she'd been there to see the look on her face. Then again, she figured hers had looked about the same.

"You think they've been spending a lot of time outside the village?" she asked. "I haven't heard from Sakura in weeks." The uneasy thought that maybe Team 7 wouldn't be joining them in the exam room crossed her mind for the nth time that morning, followed by a thought far more insidious than that. But no. They would have been told if something happened. Iruka-sensei, at least, would have made sure they knew. Still…

"They better not have," Kiba muttered. "We've only been on two C-ranks and one of them didn't even go past the gates. If they've been taking all the good missions I'll be so pissed."

"Well, you know what they say. You get what you pay for." She looked down her nose at him. "We've completed five C-ranks." Kiba sneered at her and made a gesture that promptly earned him a smack upside the head from Shino. He yelped and lurched to his feet in outrage, spilling Akamaru from his lap.

"I don't know," Choji said, contemplating a barbecue chip. "If we're talking performance, I think Team 7's the most likely of us to have failed a D-rank. They've got Naruto."

Ah, right. She'd forgotten the dead last had somehow landed the third spot on an otherwise ace team. Poor Sakura.

"That idiot probably tried pranking their sensei and got them all swamped in civilian work," she agreed, latching onto the thought and holding it close. Sakura was just busy juggling crap jobs and trying to manage her team's dead weight. That was all.

Kiba cackled, scooping Akamaru up and putting him in his hood. "I bet he tried to get 'em with the eraser in the door frame."

"That didn't even work on us," Choji said, shaking his head.

"You think that'd stop him? That guy never learned-"

"Shut up, Kiba." Ino blinked, leaning around Choji to look at her third teammate.

Kiba's grin vanished. "The hell'd you say to me?"

Shikamaru cracked an eye open. "Your teammate's trying to say something."

Shino? Ino looked to the tallest member of Team 8, but it was their kunoichi that was trying to speak. Hinata fidgeted at the sudden attention, but managed to repeat herself at something closer to a speaking volume.

"I said that's not true. Naruto hasn't been holding his team back."

Ino shot a fierce look at Kiba, who already had his mouth open to spew some nonsense. Kiba had made his thoughts on Naruto clear the day he first beat him in a spar, and they hadn't changed since. Hinata's fixation with the guy drove him up the wall, and honestly Ino didn't know what Hinata saw in the guy either. Still, that didn't mean she'd tolerate Kiba sticking his foot in his mouth when she was trying to get herself across.

"How do you know?" Choji asked with a mouthful of salt and vinegar. Ino smacked his arm and he quickly swallowed, mumbling an apology.

"I… I train, sometimes. Before our team meets in the morning." Hinata fiddled with the sleeve of her jacket, looking anywhere but at her teammates. "Every time, I see him coming back from his own training. He's been working hard. He's getting strong." She started to say something more, but decided against it.

Ino hummed. "He better be. He's got a lot of catching up to do."

"Who's got a lot of catching up to do?" Naruto asked, leaning over Hinata's shoulder.

Ino tried not to laugh at the look on the poor girl's face, she really did. She smothered it behind her hand as best she could, relieved at the obvious implication of his appearance. She choked on her giggles when another Naruto leaned around her and held out a hand for a chip. A clone? When did he make it?

"You got salt and pepper?" The clone- wait, clones didn't talk- asked. Choji looked between him and the Naruto getting chewed out for surprising Hinata, shrugged, and held out the bag. "Thanks. So how have you guys been?"

"Fine," Shikamaru said, eyes closed.

"The first few weeks were rough, but we haven't been stuck with any D-ranks lately," Choji said, shaking the crumbs out and crumpling the bag in his fist.

"Nice, nice." Naruto the clone- maybe- jabbed a thumb at his chest, grinning. "We just got back from our first C-rank a few days ago. We totally kicked ass."

"You've only been on one C-rank?" Ino asked, giddy at the thought of holding that one over Sasuke's head. Wait, no! "Hold on. Naruto!"

"Yeah?" Both of them asked.

"What the-" Kiba reeled, noticing the one beside her. "There's two?"

Ino rolled her eyes. "Clone Naruto."

"Yeah?" Both of them asked. Again.

"You're both clones?" Since when could Naruto make more than one clone that didn't look clinically ill, let alone two that could talk?

The Naruto beside her flashed a thumbs up. "Yeah, see, I'm the clone, and he's the clone on the left. Anyway, what's up?"

"You're not even standing next to each other-" Ino stopped herself. She wasn't doing this. "Where's the real you? Are you guys in the exams or did you just come here to annoy us?"

Clone on the left nodded. "Yes."

Ino punched the one next to her in his shoulder. He cried out and stumbled back, betrayed.

"I didn't say anything!"

"Idiot!" she snapped, already fed up with him. "You said you were a clone!"

"I am a clone," he insisted.

"Then how come I can touch you, huh? And how are you talking?" she asked. Kiba and Choji looked at the two copies with new interest, past their antics. "One of you is just a henge, aren't they? That's not you, is it, Sakura? Because I really thought you had better taste than this."

The Naruto she'd punched huffed. "You know what, I'll just prove it." He pulled a kunai from the pouch on his leg with a spinning flourish, and before Ino could do more than freeze up in alarm, drove it through his temple. Kiba shouted a curse and Hinata let loose a strangled gasp, all color draining from her face. Ino watched with wide eyes as their old classmate collapsed to the floor. Dead.

The clone on the left snapped his fingers. "Poof."

And the corpse turned to smoke.

"Wha- The hell, Naruto!?" Kiba furrowed his nose. "What kind of clone is that?"

"A dead one."

"Shadow clone," Shikamaru, of all people, supplied. Ino looked questioningly at him, but he only shrugged.

"One of the Nidaime's forbidden creations," Shino said, and memories of a cold winter day stuck inside a classroom studying history came rushing back. Of course! A shadow clone was the only kind that could pass as its creator for any extended length of time, even perform their own jutsu, but it came at the cost of half the user's chakra. Leaps and bounds better than the traditional clone, but not practical for anyone their age.

Except Naruto, apparently? She didn't remember hearing anything noteworthy about his chakra capacity back in the Academy. Though to be fair, she didn't think she'd heard anything noteworthy about him at all. Nothing good, anyway. Maybe Hinata was right about him working hard.

"You think that's good?" Clone on the left asked, grinning mischievously. "Watch this."

The examination doors exploded inwards, one flying clear off its hinges and the other slamming back against the wall and splintering. Ino lurched off the wall, reaching for a kunai, and she wasn't the only one. Dozens of weapons were flipped out of pouches or sleeve pockets, and more than a few projectiles hurtled at the green blur that had flown through the doors.

Before she could even think about adding her own to the mix, the green blur- the genin in green, planted his hands on the floor and flipped up into the air, half a dozen midair somersaults sapping his momentum before he landed in a crouch. Somehow, the projectiles aimed at him were all caught and dropped to the ground at his feet in the process. The clatter of each kunai and shuriken striking the stone floor echoed in the silence.

Ino processed this, and then she looked to the clone on the left. "What-"

Another Naruto came flying into the room, landing like a long jumper and skidding across the stone. He stopped a few feet away from the boy in green- wait, was that a unitard? And a bowl cut? Gross.

"How's that for a warm up, bushy brows?" The latest Naruto rolled his shoulders, grinning wildly. Bushy brows- oh god they were bushy, ew ew ew- rose to a loose taijutsu stance, lips twitching in a disbelieving smile.

"You were truly the failure of your class?" he asked, as if his mediocrity was too good to be true.

"Dead last," Naruto affirmed.

"Yosh! Then I will prove myself the greater loser, and after that I will challenge your prodigy!" The weirdo in green shifted his stance, muscles shifting visibly beneath his skintight suit. "Prepare yourself, Uzumaki Naruto! Leaf whirlwind!"

The genin in green covered the distance between them in a single leap, and then a wave of sand hit him in midair and threw him against the wall above Ino's head. She moved out of the way along with the rest of Teams 8 and 10 as he bounced off. The clone on the left caught him, laughing as he did.

"You will not," a new genin intoned. Ino recognized him at once. The redhead from Suna, dressed in black cloth and mesh, a white sash and a massive gourd on his back setting him apart from the rest. He'd been in a corner with his teammates when Team 10 arrived, and the rest of the genin had given them a wide berth. Suna's delegation included.

Now he was striding through the crowd, roiling sand clearing a path for him. His expression was blank, green eyes dull and lined with black paint that didn't quite mask the bags underneath. The unease Ino had felt the first time she saw redoubled, and she inched further away from the sand snaking its way back to the gourd. Where was the rest of Team 7? Hell, where were the proctors?

"Uzumaki Naruto," the boy from Suna said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Gaara of the Sand," Naruto replied in a deep voice, crossing his own arms. They stared each other down as moments dragged into seconds, and from her peripheral Ino saw the clone on the left wave down another genin that appeared in the broken doorway, long ponytail and all-white eyes marking him as a Hyuuga.

"I didn't need your help," Naruto said, in that same oddly serious voice. Kiba mouthed a silent what the fuck, and this time Ino couldn't help but agree with his sentiment.

"Who said I was helping?" Sand lashed out around Gaara's feet, hands and claws of sand dragging themselves across the floor towards the dead last. Her skin crawled at the sight. "Perhaps I only wanted your blood for myself."

For a second no one moved a muscle, said a word- Ino didn't even breathe. Then Naruto's shoulders twitched once, twice, and shook as he burst out laughing. He slung an arm around Gaara's shoulders, and Ino was gratified to see that at least she wasn't the only one baffled. The Suna delegation looked like they were seeing stars.

"That poker face is way too good!" Naruto crowed, and just like that the tension in the room settled. It wasn't gone, she could see more than a few pissed off genin from other villages glaring murder at the idiot, but it was enough for her to pocket the kunai she'd been white knuckling.

"Guys!" Naruto waved, dragging Gaara over to join their rough circle. "How's it going? This one hasn't been giving you any trouble, has he?"

"I have not," Gaara said.

"Oh, not you- I meant me. Him. The one on the left." Naruto jabbed a thumb at his counterpart, who was urging a dazed bushy brows over to the unnamed Hyuuga.

"'Course not," clone on the left scoffed. "I'm not you." He snapped his fingers and turned to chakra smoke.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Forget whatever he said. Anyway, you guys were talking about C-ranks?"

"Naruto- you..." Ino didn't know where to start.

"What was that!?" Kiba picked up the slack, pointing at the ruined doors. "And who are they?"

"That guy with the bushy brows is Lee, and this is Gaara!" Naruto said, jostling the Suna nin under his arm. "Go on, introduce yourself."

"I'm Gaara."

"We'll work on it. Gaara, these are my friends from the Academy. The loud one is Kiba, that's Ino wearing bandages instead of clothes-" Hey! "- Shino and Hinata are over there, Shikamaru's pretending to sleep, and Choji's got the chips- any salt and pepper?" Choji wordlessly handed him a chip from a new bag. "Thanks."

"How'd you get in a fight before the exam even started?" Shikamaru asked, his cover blown.

"So we were coming upstairs, right? And then bushy brows shows up and challenges Sasuke because she's a prodigy or whatever, and she's being a bastard about it, big surprise, so I say I'll take him on instead but he's not feeling it, and she goes-"

"You're not worth the chakra." Sasuke's appearance was as abrupt as Naruto's in its silence. Ino lost whatever grasp she still had on the situation when their Rookie of the Year pushed Gaara away - ignoring the murderous glare that crossed his eyes - and draped herself over Naruto's shoulders, resting her cheek against his.

"Which just fired him up even more," Naruto kept on going like nothing was deeply, horribly wrong. "One thing led to another, and here we are."

"Lee!" A girl in an exotic pink sleeveless shirt with twin buns in her hair sprinted into the room and made a beeline for the genin in green. Following close behind her was Sakura.

"You two!" She pulled up beside them, panting, and Ino didn't miss the sneer on Sasuke's lips when she looked sidelong at the other kunoichi of Team 7. What happened to them after graduation?

"Sorry about that, Sakura. Got a little carried away," Naruto said sheepishly.

"I told you we could get disqualified for starting fights," she scolded him. Only him. Sakura didn't even look at Sasuke. "Do you want to be promoted or not?"

"I do!"

"Then act like it!"

"Be quiet, Sakura," Sasuke murmured. A protective sort of anger was building in Ino, and it only got worse when Sakura's eyes flickered to meet hers, chagrined. Ashamed. She went quiet, as told, and only then did Naruto address the girl hanging off him. With exasperation more than any real anger, she noted.

"Five minutes. You couldn't last five minutes, bastard. Don't you have a friendly bone in your body?"

She smirked. "Not at the moment."

Choji choked on a cheddar and sour cream chip. Hinata looked like the sky was falling down around her. Was this really the same girl that had struck the dead last down each and every spar, looked at him with contempt every time he tried to make excuses for his failure? Sasuke's eyes met hers as they lazily scanned the room, and her answer to Ino's wordless question was nothing but careless amusement.

"What happened to you?" she found herself asking. Gray-blue lips curved at the edges.

"Our first C-rank went a little wild," Naruto answered instead. He gesticulated with both arms, each motion jostling his teammate side to side. "So we saved another team of Konoha nin and their client from a squad of Iwa nin, right? But we can't just leave them, and our mission's already dusted, so we decide to escort them back to Wind Country- but get this! Gaara here shows up," he pats the boy from Suna, who nods along, "And his team wants the client too. So we go at it-"

"You what?"

"Yeah, and Gaara's all Why won't you bleed!? and I'm all Be my friend, motherfucker! and then he drags me down into these caverns because we were in River Country and we beat the crap out of each other for a while." In the corner, Gaara's teammates were whispering heatedly to one another, the boy in the creepy desert cat suit jabbing a finger at their circle while the girl in lilac cloth and fishnet tried to silence him. Ino filed that one away for later.

"So after we work things out we go to meet back up with everyone a few days later, but Iwa shows up again, and this time they're bringing serious heat." Sakura sighs at that, but doesn't deny any of the increasingly wild claims. "Me and Gaara make it to the surface and the whole forest is wrecked, everything's on fire, there's meteors and lava everywhere, must have been a dozen Iwa nin, Sasuke's over here fighting a jonin with a broken wrist and no chakra and somehow I'm the idiot-"

"You are," Sasuke affirmed.

"So of course me and Gaara take 'em all out and save the day." Naruto offered an open palm to his apparent enemy turned friend, who stared at it blankly until Naruto grabbed his wrist taught him how to give a high five.

"Right..." She noticed the older Konoha team, bushy brows and his teammates, had edged in to listen Lee himself was bouncing on the balls of his feet and asking Naruto about the details of his fight with the Iwa jonin while Kiba hollered at him for being a liar. Ino asked Sakura, "So what really happened?"

Sakura shrugged and smiled in a resigned sort of way. "Pretty much that."

... What? "You can't be serious." She refused to believe it. Sasuke fighting a jonin was already beyond reason, Rookie of the Year or not, but Naruto? "A dozen enemy nin, including a jonin? Seriously, what happened?"

"They were all jonin," Sakura corrected her. She paused. "Well, some might have been special jonin. Everything happened so fast, it was hard to keep track." Sasuke hummed derisively at that, but aside from a flexing of her jaw Sakura ignored her. "But yes. That's what happened."

"Look, you don't have to pretend you guys have been out saving the world while the rest of us ran escort missions and D-ranks. It's not a big deal if you haven't done anything-"

"My dad told me to keep an eye on Team 7," Shikamaru said, and Ino whipped around in shock. He looked at Naruto, babbling away with Lee, and then at Sasuke. He was sharp. Focused. "He told me to avoid them in the exams if I could."

"A good thought, but ultimately pointless." Sasuke blinked, and Ino jerked as her eyes changed. Charcoal turned to blood red, pupils warped to stars. "There's no avoiding these eyes," she promised them in a voice of arsenic and honey.

Then Naruto slid her headband down over her eyes, and her blue-gray lips twisted in a scowling pout. It was such a ridiculous shift that Ino couldn't stop a hysterical giggle. Whatever had really happened to Team 7 on their mission, Ino decided she could wait to hear about it until after the exams. Until then she'd take the Nara head's advice and stay far away. They'd clearly had a few screws knocked loose.

Still... There was one thing she had to know. "What's with you hanging all over Naruto? You two dating? Boyfriend-girlfriend?"

All conversation within the circle hushed. It was such a ridiculous thing to consider that she felt silly for even asking, but come on! She wasn't the only one wondering. Hell, she wasn't even the one who wanted to know the most. But really, the dead last and the rookie of the year?

"No," Sasuke said at once. Right, of course not. She had standards- "We're closer than that. More than brother and sister, husband and wife. Our souls are forever intertwined." Ino's thoughts stuttered and stopped.

Naruto grimaced. "Do you really have to say it like that? You make it sound so weird."

"Hn." Sasuke tilted her head, peering at them from under her headband. Her intent drilled into Ino harder than a clenched fist. Don't touch him.

Yeah, sorry Sakura. She was wiping her hands of this.

In my eighteen years of life, plus or minus a few weeks done over again, I've learned a lot about myself. My weaknesses, for a surety, but also my strengths. Sure, I did most of my learning in the final stages of my life, and sure, I might not have a lot of strengths, but I'm pretty damn confident in the ones I do. I have a mean right hook, I can take a hit like no one else, and I have great taste- in food, clothes, friends, you name it.

What's not a strength of mine, and hopefully never will be, is academics. So when Morino Ibiki slapped a stack of written tests on his desk and told the chunin proctors lined up on walls to pass them out, I started to sweat a little.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a total lost cause - old man Danzo and granny Tsunade made sure of that - but when it comes to the real abstract stuff, well. Let's just say Shikamaru earned his pay.

Speaking of, where was Shikamaru sitting? Maybe I could bum a few answers off him. I glanced around, noting the positions of the rookie nine and Gaara's team, along with a few other notables. My clone had taken stock of the foreign nin in attendance before I showed up, primarily those from Suna and Oto, and those I made sure to keep a general awareness of. It'd be a helluva lot easier to just tap a bit of nature's well and keep an eye on them that way, but the effect of that wasn't exactly a subtle one.

I still wasn't sure how much Kakashi had told the old man about me and Sasuke. On the one hand, he had a duty to the Hokage and the village, and for all his jokes and general attitude he didn't strike me as the type to keep something this serious under wraps. On the other hand, I hadn't had any ANBU breaking down my door since we'd returned home. A thorough debrief and an absolutely miserable stint in the hospital to make sure we were all in tip top shape, sure, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Hell, we'd been let off easier this time than we had the first time around. If Kakashi had really gone elbow deep into the issue of our transmigration, my senjutsu, Sasuke's matured sharingan- something told me we wouldn't be sitting in this room taking a promotional test for genin.

The question was why? He had to know that the old man would have about a thousand questions for us. So why leave it out? Did he really trust us that much?

It was a nice thought. Made me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. But it also cemented the fact that I needed to keep certain abilities to myself for now, and I needed to nail step two of plan save the world. Also, because half a decade of teasing was more than enough, I really needed to become a chunin this time around.

Which was going to be pretty hard if I failed this fucking test.

"Hinata," I whispered. She made a funny little sound, but didn't look up from her paper. "Hey, Hinata."

"You in the orange, that's one." Damn. How many more of those did I get, four? No, three, right?

"Hinata, what'd you get for the pressure point question? Number six?" The Sakura of tomorrow wouldn't have even needed time to think, as the master of all things medical, and it wouldn't surprise me if current Sakura could answer it too. But my knowledge of medicine was far more specialized, and pretty much useless here.

If no one else, though, the Hyuuga knew pressure points. They were the masters of causing hurt without throwing a punch like a normal person, whether it be by jabbing pressure points, disrupting chakra networks, or saying really mean things. They were huge assholes, basically. Though that could have just been Neji.

Hinata ignored me some more. Was it my breath? Did I have something on my face?

"Pssst. Hinata."

"That's three, orange." Son of a bitch!

"... Naruto," Hinata whispered. She hesitated, knuckles turning white around her pencil. She was probably debating whether or not to help me cheat. She was the kind of girl that would feel just as bad about saying no as she would letting me do it, I knew. Please, Hinata, just this once. I'll buy you ramen, and I'll save the world, I really will. C'mon! "Are you... really dating Sasuke?"

What?

"You, next to orange, that's one for you. And four for him."

What!? I didn't say anything! I grit my teeth and hunched over my paper, cursing Ibiki for all I was worth. Prick runs the Torture and Interrogation department and a written exam is the best he's got? Why couldn't it have been something easy, like a stress test, or a little captivity simulation? I'm good at being tortured. It's one of my strengths!

I'd never hear the end of it if I failed the very first task of the chunin exams. Sakura would be disappointed in me, and Kakashi would find a way to slip it into conversation until one of us died again, but Sasuke. She'd be the worst by far. I could see it now, those smug crimson eyes, wicked gray-blue lips curving just enough to drive me up the wall.

Poor dead last, maybe you'll make it to chunin in your next life? They say the third time's the charm.

No, no, no! I refused! Uzumaki Naruto would not, could not fail this test. If nine bijuu and death itself weren't enough to stop me, there's no way in the Shinigami's stomach I'd let a little ink on paper win. I just needed to focus. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Maybe a little meditation was the key.

"Five minutes," Ibiki called.

Yeah, nah, this was a loss.

Ah, I know this. Asura murmured. I went very still. These two between the eyes, they're the drilling bamboo points. At the base of the skull, those are the gates of consciousness. Those two are the shoulder wells, and that's the third eye- you really should know that one, Naruto.

I scowled and picked up my pencil.

The saying goes that there's more than one way to skin a cat. Or shoe a horse, or catch a rabbit.

Or break a man.

Morino Ibiki, for all that he acted the part, took no pleasure in his work. Even so, he was good at it. He could turn hardened shinobi to wailing wrecks with nothing but a cracked pipe and a steady drip of water. His knowledge of physiology rivaled any medic within Konoha's walls, and while a layman might think his abilities lay entirely in the realm of tearing rather than mending, that wasn't so. The truth was, nearly anything could break a man under the right circumstances. Even good health.

The shinobi life wasn't a kind one, and he was to be the assembled genin's introduction to that reality. This first task was the kindest the Sandaime could afford to be while getting this particular point across. And it was a kindness. In fact, it was a mercy. There would be death when Anko took the reins, and Ibiki had no illusions as to how the genin that couldn't handle the first task would fare in the second.

Still, putting the squeeze on children was far from his idea of a good time. Ibiki glowered, watching another child raise a trembling hand, an all too familiar dull terror in their eyes. He marked them off along with their teammates and sent them on their way. Another Konoha team out of the running. A shame.

"This is your final chance," he said, when there finally came a lull in withdrawals. One last twist, to wring out the last of them, and it would be over. He silently willed the remaining Konoha teams to remain strong.

The Hyuuga heiress' hand slowly rose from the desk. Ah. Ibiki sighed. There would be consequences for that one. He raised his clipboard and sought out Konoha's Team 8 on the list of candidates, pencil dipping to mark them out.

The loud slap of flesh against wood and a gasp stopped him just short. When Ibiki looked up, he saw the Kyuubi jinchuriki's hand pressed firmly overtop the Hyuuga's, holding it flat against the desk. She stared down at their joined hands in shock, face slowly turning red. Ibiki raised an eyebrow at Konoha's jinchuriki. The boy had the sheer temerity to give him a wink.

I could disqualify you both for that.

Blue eyes danced merrily. Mockingly.

But will ya?

Ah, hell. Ibiki would give it to him. Less work for him anyway.

Besides, he thought with grim amusement as he began his closing speech, the boy would be receiving more than his fair share of punishment for the little stunt later. For a thirteen year old girl, the Uchiha had some mean killing intent.

Later, when Anko had taken control of things the only way she knew how and the genin had left for the Forest of Death, Ibiki made the rounds through the aisles. The results were about what he'd expected. The notable families had made good use of their techniques to scry through the plants, save for the Hyuuga heiress, who hadn't had the courage. Yamanaka Ino, Hyuuga Neji, and Aburame Shino had all achieved full marks. Inuzuka Kiba had finagled a few correct answers with his dog, though its yapping had sorely tempted Ibiki's patience.

There were, of course, exceptions. The branch Hyuuga's teammates had both suffered through the task through grit and little else. The girl, Tenten, had only managed a few partially correct answers, while Gai's little pet project had filled the page margin to margin with entirely false information. Ibiki wondered for a moment what Gai had been teaching them all year, before remembering who Might Gai was. They'd have their time to shine in the next task, he supposed.

Oddly enough, the Nara and the Akimichi boys had the exact same answers for the first five questions, down to the handwriting- all of them dead on. After that Akimichi Choji's answers were more neatly written, but wrong. The second half of Nara Shikamaru's paper was entirely blank. Cheeky brat.

Then there was Konoha's Team 7. Ibiki considered Haruno Sakura's test sheet, neatly filled with perfect answers, each worded distinctly different from all of the chunin plants. He hadn't noticed her cheating, so she was either very intelligent or very sly. Or both. It wasn't surprising for the Nara heir to be able to answer these questions, but a genin from a civilian family with no notable ties? That was exceptional.

And Haruno Sakura was clearly the least exceptional of the three.

Uchiha Sasuke's answers weren't answers at all. The girl had simply written down the seating locations of each planted chunin, one for each answer. Then, in the margins, she had copied the notes that his proctors against the walls had been taking word for word. All of them. She'd also written up a list of each and every genin that had cheated by seat number, and how.

Of all those in attendance, Uchiha Sasuke had grasped the intent of this task by far the best. Still, he wished she hadn't taken the extra time she had to sketch on the back of the test. A child shouldn't be thinking about such things, kunoichi or not.

Finally, the jinchuriki. Uzumaki Naruto.

Ibiki stared at the all but blank piece of paper with some incredulity. The boy had been so confident, so smug, and this was all he wrote?

"A single answer, and it's wrong," he muttered, scanning the list of nonsense points the kid had listed in place of acupuncture points.

"It's not."

Ibiki froze, snarling a curse through clenched teeth as Jiraiya of the Legendary Three suddenly existed beside him. No displacement, no whirling leaves. One moment Ibiki was alone. Then he wasn't.

"My bad, my bad," Jiraiya chuckled, clapping his shoulder. Ibiki wrestled his heart rate down and exhaled, offering him the test sheet.

"I didn't realize you were in town, Jiraiya-sama."

"Wasn't meant to be, but Sensei called me back for a consult," Jiraiya said genially, rubbing the pads of his thumb, index, and middle fingers together and summoning an inked brush to his hand. He began marking the diagram of the human body that had been provided for the acupuncture question, obscuring its labeled points entirely with whirling lashes of ink. "At any rate, the kid picked his battle well."

The Toad Sage tapped the diagram he'd made and then the points the boy had listed, a glint in his eyes. "These are exactly right."