WOOT! OUTTA HIGH SCHOOL!!

Sorry for lack of update. I have no idea what's going on lately- been so outta it. I think some reviews would help, though XD

Chapter 21

Shikamaru sat glumly beside Temari in the examiner room, staring at the head examiner as he drone on and on.

As his head drooped even more, he sensed a shadow stepping over him. Beside him, Temari looked up apprehensively as one of the older examiners began speaking to them.

"You two will be part of the first exam", he ordered, "sit according to this seating chart and catch the cheaters". He handed a folded sheet of paper to Shikamaru and motioned for Temari to look at it as well.

The diagram on the paper showed a room with row after row of tables, and two long rows of chairs against the windows. Examiner names were written beside each of the chairs, indicating their seating. Shikamaru found his to be in a corner of the room; Temari's was on the opposite side, near the center.

"Just catch the cheaters, huh?" Temari smirked. She could still remember clearly her own experiences in the Chunnin exams.

"The examinees get smarter each year", Shikamaru let out a dry laugh, "but so do we".

"What do you think we'll see this time?" Temari sounded amused.

"How about 'what do you think we'll catch this time'?" Shikamaru corrected, giving her a slight smirk.

Temari's eyes lit up in response and it was quite obvious that an idea had popped into her head. "What are you thinking…?" Shikamaru asked slowly, looking at her with question.

"We're supposed to catch the cheaters, right? Just catch them? Does it matter how we do it?" she answered with a few questions of her own.

"I don't think it matters", Shikamaru thought for a moment, "the whole point is to weed out the genin who aren't ready. And if they can't even pass this exam without being caught, then they're not ready".

"Good. Then I just thought of something we can do to catch more cheaters", Temari grinned.

"I'm listening…"

Sakura did a full turn around her room, taking in the mess that she and Ino had created.

"I can't even find my bed anymore", she wrinkled her nose.

"Oh, don't worry. We can get to the cleaning later", Ino shrugged.

"You know, I wasn't even aware that I had all these clothes", Sakura commented lightly, turning back to her friend.

"Of course not. You used to care so much about your appearance, trying to hide your huge forehead and all. Remember the red ribbon I gave you? What happened? After we became genin, you just stopped caring about how you looked".

"Really?" Sakura asked softly. She thought hard for a moment, then gasped, "Of course! It was during our first Chunnin exam. Those shinobi… and Sasuke got bitten… and that one girl grabbed my hair and… "

"When you cut off your hair, huh?" Ino murmured softly, "I was hiding in the bushes, too much of a coward to come out. Well, at first. But then… "

"Yeah, the three of you did a pretty good job", Sakura smiled.

"So that was it, then?"

"Yeah, I realized, if I were to keep my hair long and focus so much on how I looked, I wouldn't attract Sasuke-kun, because he wanted someone who was strong".

"Yeah…"

"Well, no, not really", Sakura corrected herself, "he only wanted revenge".

"Sakura, do you think about him often?" Ino asked. She moved over to Sakura's bed, pushed some clothes out of the way, and sat down. This was Sakura's cue that the question was serious. She approached the bed as well, sat down, and nodded.

"How often?" Ino's voice was gentle. As shallow as her own infatuation with Sasuke had been, she still missed him. But for Sakura, who'd been on the same team as him, who'd been there to watch him suffer before leaving, it must have been many times worse.

"I don't know. Whenever I have spare time, I guess", Sakura sighed, "I keep myself busy so that there isn't time to dwell on the past. I mean, we're supposed to be training to get stronger, so we can bring him back, right?"

"Right", Ino smiled. Sakura was smiling too, but her eyes were sad. "Alright, no more wasting time", Ino jumped up, "we still haven't put something together. You said you wanted to look more like a woman, right?"

"Y-yeah", Sakura quickly wiped a tear that had slipped down her cheek, hoping Ino hadn't seen.

"Ok, then, let's start over. We've got all these clothes out here…"

Ino continued to talk as Sakura slipped into her own world. She allowed her friend to wander around the room, putting together outfits, while she stared out the window. She felt rather silly for becoming so upset over something like this, because really, it'd been a while since she'd seen Sasuke, or even heard anything about him. But, still, the memories were so strong she couldn't push them away. Everything was so vivid, so…

"Sakura?"

Sakura jumped as Ino placed a hand on her shoulder, looking at her friend with concerned eyes.

"You're blanking out", Ino accused, "I thought we were going to -"

"Um, you know, I'm tired. Maybe we should do this another day", Sakura said suddenly, "I'll just clean things up later. Thanks, Ino".

The blonde look at her friend strangely, but understood the underlying meaning of her words. "Alright, I can tell you need alone time. Sorry for bringing up the subject", she murmured.

Sakura nodded and watched as Ino let herself out of the room. Then, when everything was silent again, she cried. She finally allowed her walls to break down and cried.

The exam started. Shikamaru had expected to be bored out of his mind, but Temari managed to surprise him quite a bit. She'd developed a system between the two of them that consisted of blinking as the main means of communication. A blink of the left eye meant the first row, two blinks meant the second. A blink of the right eye meant the first person on the right, two blinks… well, it was a rather easy system to understand.

What made the plan work was the fact that the two of them were seated on opposite sides of the room. This ensured that there were no areas of the room to be missed. Shikamaru had laughed aloud, a rare action for him, when Temari suggested that they rank the level of cheating. Just for fun, she added. He thought the idea was ridiculous at first, but she reminded him that her own brother had cheated, been caught, but still allowed to continue.

Shikamaru searched his memory and found this to be true. It was incredibly clever, at the time, anyways. Kankuro had set one of his puppets as an examiner so it could collect information. Then, he'd asked to go the restroom, even enabling speech for the puppet so it could tell him that it had to follow him. All to make it more realistic, right?

Everything worked, of course. Kankuro got the answers, passed them on to Temari, and did everything within the time limit. Thing was, the head examiner had seen through it all.

Shikamaru smirked at the memory. Temari was right. These exceptional methods of cheating- no, "information gathering"- had to be rewarded. So, he'd agreed, that if they thought the manner of cheating for an examinee was interesting enough, they would reward the genin, but keep closer watch during the other exams.

Sakura knew that, as much as she wanted to, and as good as it felt to let everything out, she couldn't sit around and cry all day.

She was due at the Hokage's office in an hour or so and she'd never been late before. Against her body's wishes, Sakura hoisted herself off her bed and walked into her bathroom. Her reflection in the mirror looked horrible.

Crying shouldn't be an option for me, she thought, staring at her puffy red eyes. She didn't really know how to "unpuff" her eyes, so Sakura simply splashed some cold water on her face, then returned to her room.

The outfit she had on was wrinkled and tear stained. Definitely not something she would wear in front of Tsunade-sama. So, not really thinking straight, Sakura grabbed the nearest clothes that Ino had strewn all over the room and put them on. It wasn't until after she was halfway down the hall that she realized the clothes she had on could actually make a great new look.

Of course, they needed some fine tuning. Sakura recognized this as an opportunity to clear her mind and focus on something more relevant to the present, so she hurried back to her room and began sorting through the mess of clothes lying around.

She was currently in a black skirt, with leggings underneath and a rather simple top. She tugged on a pair of boots and looked at herself in the mirror. Maybe some elbow protection.. or… gloves! Sakura tossed on a few more articles of clothing, then returned to the mirror.

It wasn't perfect, and Ino would probably have a fit, but she was satisfied. Besides, if she waited any longer, she'd be late.

Two minutes into the exam. Neither Shikamaru nor Temari had caught sight of any cheaters. They occasionally exchanged bored glances at each other, then went back to looking around the room.

Shikamaru always followed a pattern he'd set. Look at the front of the room, look at the back, then scan the center. Every time he looked at the center of the room, he'd catch a glimpse of Temari. Sometimes she was looking back at him, sometimes she was not.

This time, however, Shikamaru noticed something strange. There was an irregular glare of light that hit the wall behind Temari at moments, then it would disappear for a few seconds before returning to the same spot.

He frowned.

The light was no bigger than a shuriken, in the shape of a rectangle. Shikamaru scrunched up his eyebrow and looked closer, suddenly realizing it was reflected light. His eyes followed the reflection to its source and a smirk grew onto his features.

Aha, a cheater.

He caught Temari's eye and blinked with his left eye. 8th row. Two blinks with the right. The cheater was only a seat away from the side of the room where Temari sat. She blinked with both eyes, signaling that she understood. He returned the gesture, then turned away.

Temari brought her attention to the young shinobi that Shikamaru had hinted to and watched him carefully. He was sitting normally, head facing forward and tilted down slightly to look at his paper. His hand moved for a few moments, then stopped, then started again, as if he were pausing for a few moments to read the next question.

But something was off. His head was positioned awkwardly every time he read a question and Temari quickly realized he wasn't looking at the paper. The genin was wearing his forehead protector on his arm, much like the way Shikamaru did. The only difference was that the metallic part was facing the opposite direction.

Every time the boy moved his arms, the forehead protector reflected a spot of light. At one point, the light hit Temari in the eye and she quickly blinked. But this was enough for her to gather the information she needed.

"Number 215, you're out!" She called. The genin jumped, then looked warily at her before dropping his pencil. His hand went unconsciously to the forehead protector around his arm and Temari smirked.

He'd been using the reflective portion of the band to see the paper of the examinee behind him. It would have worked well, had it not been for the brightly lit room with sunlight streaming in. It was the light's reflection that gave the genin away.

Across the room, Shikamaru watched as the genin left the room, shoulders hunched, head down. He cast a quick look at Temari, who gave him a triumphant smile. They quickly averted eyes after that and returned to their duties.

The next time they caught someone, it was Temari who signaled Shikamaru. Her eyes had simply been passing over the area when Shikamaru called out, "Number 105. you're out!"

She saw the examiner beside Shikamaru jump a little. Perhaps it was because it'd been so quiet for a while, that the examiner was simply startled by the noise. But something still didn't feel right.

Catching Shkamaru's eye, she began blinking signals. But they'd reached a flaw in the plan. The suspicious examiner was sitting beside Shikamaru, not in the rows of examinees. She tried anyways.

There were 20 rows, but she blinked 21 times. Shikamaru looked at the end of the room, obviously realizing there wasn't a 21st row. Temari continued blinking- the 12th person in that row. Shikamaru frowned. His eyes rested on the examiner beside him and he subtlety tilted his head, asking Temari if this was the person she was pointing out. She blinked once with both yes. He understood.

Shikamaru lowered his head slightly, as if he were tired, then looked out of the corner of his eye. An examiner seemed suspicious? What did that mean?

The examiner wasn't sitting with the confidence or poise that the rest of the examiners had and Shikamaru took note of this. But at the same time, she could have just been new at the whole thing. He studied the examiner beside him carefully. She seemed quite young, with a unique red colored hair. Her hands gripped the clipboard in her lap and her feet moved nervously, rubbing against the floor.

Definitely suspicious.

A few seats away, an examiner called two cheaters out and Shikamaru watched as the girl jumped slightly. It still didn't make sense, though. She couldn't have been a cheater if she was sitting here. That was a bit too obvious.

Shikamaru looked back at Temari with a questioning look and she blinked back at him. Three with the right, five with the left. Shikamaru looked, then suddenly understood.

There was a girl sitting in the seat Temari had pointed out, who had the same strange shade of hair as the so-called examiner beside him. Shadow clone. He nodded once to himself, then placed his hands together, forming a few seals. A shadow grew from under him and attached itself to the examiner beside him.

Shikamaru quickly jabbed himself in the stomach with his elbow and watched with satisfaction as the girl beside him was forced to do the same. A second later, she disappeared into a puff of smoke, causing the entire room to break into noise.

A few rookies sounded frightened- was there an attack? What had just "poofed"? Over the noise, Shikamaru called out the red hair girl and she stood up, pouted, then left the room. The head examiner was trying unsuccessfully to get the genin to settle down and Temari watched with amusement as the genin panicked amongst themselves.

A few were convinced this was a part of the exam, a few were trying to ignore the commotion and return to their work, and a few were just completely lost. But as she glanced across the room, Temari noticed that, amidst the chaos, one genin was taking full advantage of the distraction.

Interesting… she thought, he's using the opportunity fully. She guessed the genin was probably a rookie, as he looked quite young. His green eyes were darting quickly and carefully from his paper to the ones around him. None of his neighbors seemed to notice, as they were turned in various directions, confused. Temari saw that even some of the examiners, who were trying to settle down the examinees, were blind to the obvious acts of cheating.

Well, Shikamaru did agree to award those who were… hmmm… Temari tilted her head to one side, thought for a moment, then grinned to herself. She would let it slide. She quickly studied the boy and memorized his appearance. Plain brown hair, and dressed in a rather generic blue shinobi outfit. But his green eyes, which had been skillfully searching for answers, were engraved in her mind.

"ANYONE WHO MAKES ANY MORE NOISE WILL FAIL AUTOMATICALLY!" The head examiner had resorted to yelling and almost immediately, the room fell silent. The genin turned back to their tables and Temari settled back into her seat. Not another noise was made from then until the end of the exam.

When all the genin who passed had emptied out of the room, Shikamaru found his way over to Temari and nodded at her. She stood up and followed him out the door, where he asked, "Catch anyone and let them go?"

"There was this one kid", Temari began. Shikamaru looked at her expectantly, urging her to go on. "Yeah, when you revealed the girl who made that shadow clone, the room got all crazy. But that kid- oh, wait", Temari darted away quickly as she saw the green eyed kid walk by.

"Excuse me", he mumbled when she nearly ran into him.

"Hey, that was pretty good", Temari grinned. The young boy recognized the examiner outfit she was wearing and his eyes suddenly grew wide.

"What do you mean?" he played dumb, but it was pitifully unbelievable.

"I didn't call you out because you took advantage of the situation, you know", Temari shrugged, giving him a reassuring smile, "That's something shinobi should do".

"Oh", the boy was stuttering now, "th-thank you".

Temari returned to Shikamaru, looking quite smug. "It was that kid", she told him, "Took advantage of everything that was going on and got what he needed".

"Smart", Shikamaru nodded, "but how would he fare in the next round?"

"Yeah, it'll be interesting".

Tenten breathed in deeply as she stared at the large structure in front of her. She had no idea what it was and could only guess that it was the result of some sort of jutsu. It was basically a large cavern, erected from the ground by some unnatural means. There were entrances along the outer perimeter of the cavern, one assigned to each team.

They hadn't received any instructions from the examiners since they'd passed the first exam, which, in Tenten's opinion, was the only easy part of the whole deal. They were told to wait outside the structure, until further instructions were given.

"So, when are we going, again?" Chouji walked over, eating out of a bag of chips.

"The exam starts in an hour", Tenten replied, "we're waiting for them to bring the scrolls".

"Mmhm, right", Chouji crunched in reply.

Shino stirred slightly and Tenten turned to see what he was doing. Once she did, she wished she hadn't. Swarms of bugs emerged from his sleeves and dove to the ground, falling inconspicuously into the grass.

"What are you-"

"Scouting out the area", Shino cut her off.

"What?"

"It means he's gathering information about -"

"I know, Chouji, I know what that means", Tenten sighed, "but is that allowed?"

"Why not?" Shino shrugged. Almost immediately, an image of Lee telling everyone to follow the rules popped into Tenten's mind and she quickly held back a laugh, lest her teammates think she was insane.

"It's a weird place we're going to go in", Chouji commented casually, "so it'd help if we had some hint".

"Yeah, weird", Tenten agreed, looking back at the structure in front of them. If she didn't know better, she'd say it was an indoor maze. But, of course, nothing could be that easy in these exams.

"Eh, we'll be fine", Chouji finished the last chip and grinned.

"Yeah, hopefully", Tenten sighed.

NEXT TIME: the second exam. I have a feeling this will be interesting to write, because it won't be in a forest like it normally is.