Second Chances Exist •Naruto Fanfic•

The Written Exam

"I am brave and you can't take that away. I will break and make mistakes but I will always be brave."

Shout out to aimlava for making the new cover for this story! Thank you so much, it means a lot ^_^

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"You wanna be failed before we've even begun?!" Ibiki boomed across the room, pointing at the Sound ninja. "There will be no combat between candidates, no attacking each other without the permission of your proctor and even then, the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited! Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately, got it?" The room responded in silence. No one even daring to argue. I had my head tilted with my hand on my hip. I still hate this guy. Always acting like he ran the show... I guess in this case he does but still. "Now if we're ready, hand over your paperwork. In return, you'll each be given a number. This number determines where you sit. We'll start the written test once you're all seated."

People started shifting around the room and through the crowd, I caught a girl maybe my age staring intently at me. I only got a few glimpses at her, being people kept getting in my field of vision but she didn't bother to move or even look away. She had caramel hair tied in a loose ponytail that fell over her left shoulder and her bangs covering her right eye completely, but I can see her left eye was an azure blue.

She had on a rosewood colored kimono that fell at her thighs, one arm was sleeveless while the other was too long. The kimono was trimmed black at he hem while having a scarlet obi wrapped at her waist. It was hard to tell for a moment but on her exposed arm, I can see her headband tied there and showed she was from the Sand.

She continued to stare at me anyway, seeing that I can see her staring so I took this as an indirect challenge and glared at her. I don't even know who she is so why is she staring at me so hard? What's her problem?

Finally, she smirked then turned her back on me, moving to the front of the room. I mentally declared myself as the winner of this little staring contest and kept moving along with everyone else. I still couldn't help but wonder what the hell that was all about in the first place.

Naruto freaked out about having to take a written test... Which was understandable-for Naruto anyway. As we all started to walk up to the front and hand in our forms, I wondered what exactly this test will have on it. What ninja takes written tests? Why do they even need this?!

I felt a tap on my shoulder, making me turn and see Haru. "I just wanted to tell you not to really worry about this test."

I cocked my brow. "What? Why, is it easy?"

Apparently Haru found this funny. "No, not in the slightest. But just don't think too much about it okay?"

I blinked, remembering something. "Wait! But you're an Anbu, right?" I whispered. "So you should know all of this... right?"

Haru gave me a closed eye smile, holding his number up which was 180. "Remember what I said." On that note, Haru turned and walked away towards the back seats.

I stared after him dumbfounded. What? He wasn't going to help us? What the fuck, Haru? I scoffed to myself as I got my number; 98. Knowing Haru, he'll want us to figure this out ourselves. I thought, walking to my designated seat which lead me right next to Kankuro, causing him to smirk. "Hey, Doll, don't flunk out yet, ya hear? I still need to figure out your secrets." He chuckled as I sat in my seat.

I fought the urge to blush at the nickname he used. Doll? What the hell is that about?! How can I focus on this test when I have him calling me things like that?! "Boy, I have more secrets than you'll ever know."