🌻 At last, it has reached the day of the Chunnin exam. Everyone gathered in front of the academy where the first phase will take place in. I scanned the crowd, hoping to catch at least a glimpse of pink. I was aware of her participance in the exam and the fact that she may harm the village, it is my duty to watch her. However, nobody looked suspicious. I couldn't guess which village she would represent, she wasn't wearing a headband on the night I met her. If Sakura had disguised herself, this would be difficult. The only team that looked interesting were this pair of twins from the village hidden in the sound.

Before the exam started, each team had to enter the hall one by one to register. When it was my team's turn, we were asked to draw lots from a box.

Number 1.

"Please enter the class according to your number." The chunnin ordered.

"Oh noooooo I'll be parting from you Hinata-chan!" Naruto cried.

I sighed, but a smile appeared on my lips. He was innocent and cheerful, always providing a positive vibe. Back then, I probably would have ignored him but after spending some time with him, I learned to appreciate his affection towards me. On top of the fact that he was annoying—and still is, I probably pushed him away because I was not accustomed to the term: love. He had always prioritised me and cared for me, he definitely deserves to be treated better.

Maybe one day...I'll be able to return his feelings.

"It's just for a little while, Naruto."

I turned to the Uchiha next to me, "Good luck, Sasuke."

He only nodded and uttered a simple, "You too."

He was still very affected by Sakura's defection. I frowned at the thought, debating if I should tell him that Sakura would be taking the exam with us. Because more than anyone or more than I, he wanted Sakura to return. The impact she had left was the greatest on him.

"Sasuke, I.." I started, but the receptionist brushed us off because there was a long line outside.

After parting from my team, I chose a seat near the back and waited for participants to flood in. A person with pale blue hair sat on my left and he was dressed in a white kimono with a black obi around his waist.

"Excuse me." He politely said, trying to get my attention.

"Yes?"

"If this is a written test, would you mind reading me the questions?"

I was silent for awhile, not understanding the situation. He had his eyes closed the entire time, perhaps he was blind. He would not request such a thing otherwise.

"If the rules allow it, of course." I answered.

He gave me a heartwarming smile, "Thank you. What's your name?"

"Hinata."

He held out a hand and I shook it.

"My name is Toneri."

🌸 I snickered when Hinata looked around, probably in search for me. It wouldn't make sense if I did not disguise myself from the public especially when I was quite known in this village. Being the only two inhabitants from the Moon, Master Toneri also disguised himself to be in my team. The third person was just a mere clone of myself, a strong clone with Master Toneri's chakra infused in it to ensure it will last long throughout the exam.

My disguise was an appearance similar to Master Toneri. I transformed myself into a teen with silver white hair and yellow eyes, my clone bears an identical appearance, but her hair was down while mine were in pigtails. All of us were dressed in white kimonos and a black obi around our waist, but we had different accessories because of our battle styles.

Briefly after Hinata and her team entered the building, it was my team's turn. We were asked to draw lots after registering and we had to separate ways.

The number I had was number 3, which meant the class with that number is the class I should enter. When I opened the doors, I was met with a very familiar hair style which I have secretly missed over the years.

No Sakura, you mustn't have those feelings.

Right.

He suddenly turned to look at me, straight into my eyes and I was afraid. Is it possible for him to recognise me? I shook my head, he wouldn't. He knows nothing of my return to the village and my disguise gives nothing away. I walked to the other side of the room, far from him and sat next to a wall.

Finally, the door closed shut once the last examinee entered the classroom. The speaker buzzed a little and a voice spoke from the other side, "I'm Ibiki Morino and I'll be your proctor of the first test. This will be a written test, get your question papers from the teacher's desk."

Once everyone had their papers on their desk, Ibiki explained further about the test.

"There are only 3 questions, 30, 40, and 50 marks respectively. Your team has to score a total of 100, no more, no less. You only have 45 minutes, good luck."

Very quickly, the room erupted into complaints. They could not understand what the exam was about and that this task was too difficult. They complained the proctor was being ridiculous and unreasonable. So much complaints, but they did not realise they were wasting time. After all, time waits for no man.

If we have to score a total of 100 points, then two persons from the team must score 50 whole the third person must score 0. Another possibility was 30, 30 and 40.

I smirked triumphantly, I knew what I had to answer. Master Toneri is blind, he must be counting on my clone and I to answer the 50 points question. All I could hope for was Master Toneri thinking of the same thing as me.

When I glanced at Sasuke, he was already answering. At first, I pondered about how he knew what his teammates would answer, but I remembered they have Naruto on their team. That idiot knows nothing. I rolled my eyes at the thought of the sun-kissed knucklehead.

🌻 Neji explained to the entire class about the purpose of the test and how we had to pass. I understood what he was saying, but their trouble would be how to communicate through the wall? Thankfully for my team, Naruto was never a studying type. He definitely wouldn't be able to answer any of these questions; thus, Sasuke and I have to answer the 50 points. Sasuke definitely thought of it too.

As I was writing down the answer to my question, Toneri simply had his arms crossed on his chest.

He can't read.

"Um.. Toneri? Do you need help?"

He turned to me and smiled, "No thank you, my teammates would definitely answer the 50 points question, knowing that I can't read." He laughed after he said the last word, but he sounded a little bit bitter.

"You must be strong.." I said quietly.

"I guess?"

I jumped when he answered to that, it was not intended for him to hear.

Maybe it was because of the silence that he figured out I was probably talking to myself. He explained, "The senses of a blind person is much sharper than a normal person."

"Oh.. I see." It was silly of me to not think of that. I thought shinobis from other villages would be unfriendly since we are enemies during the exam and most of us aren't allies, but this guy seems very friendly.

I kind of like him.

🌸🌻🌸🌻

Dedicated to Taidana_Senpai for voting for this story in the Naruto Wattys Winter 2015! Thank you so much!

*inserts my own fanart of Sakura

This was a piece of early last year or the year before 🤔 haven't been drawing any Naruto fanarts but I'll probably start soon. I used a reference btw, I merely tried to redraw the photo.

Anyway, I'm AWARE of the actual story of this Chunnin exam but let me remind you again that this is a FANFICTION and as the author of this fanfic, I'm allowed to choose what to not include in MY story and what to change in MY story and I'm not obligated to follow the exact same storyline/format of the manga/anime.

I'm putting this out there because over the past few months I've been getting more comments about how my fanfics are different from the actual story and people have been correcting the details and I just thought this needs to be emphasised.

Thank you for reading and look forward to more updates!

~Joelle

Published: 8 May 2018