Haruto was forced to heavily part ways from Satsuki's comforting shoulder when she was pushed away and he was tackled by an unfamiliar person. A lighter shade of blonde hair fell into his vision; he blinked, wasn't this the Yamanaka heiress? What was she doing here?
"Hey," he protested, trying to squirm out of her arms. "Let go."
The Yamanaka pulled back, pouting. "You don't enjoy our closeness?"
Haruto made a disgusted face but he stowed it away quickly when he recalled he had an audience. "No."
"But you were so close to that Uchiha!"
"You just said it yourself," replied Haruto calmly though he was already simmering with irritation. "She's that Uchiha which is why I allow her so close to me."
Ino—yeah, he remembered her as one of the girls chasing him down with the other fangirls and some people called her that—looked stunned; most likely because this was the first time a boy turned her down. The look of hurt on her face was almost enough to make Haruto apologize. Almost; because the blonde girl had rudely pushed Satsuki away—and even though the raven said nothing, Haruto knew she was offended and he was displeased with how people treated his teammate too.
Ino spluttered. "You dare—" she kept her temper in check, but barely; she threw a furtive glance at the stunned Sakura and Satsuki; so what Sakura told her yesterday was true… Haruto did have a crush on Satsuki but either he had yet to acknowledge it or he didn't know it was a mystery.
But what about Satsuki?
By the way the Uchiha was smirking smugly at her, Ino had a feeling she had already lost a battle even before it was fought. She instantly felt like punching something for that rejection—to add salt to the wound, it was in public, urgh, her reputation would be ruined if it wasn't already—and when someone bumped into her from behind, she practically snapped.
"Watch where you're going!"
"Ino!" Chouji admonished his teammate. "Don't be so rude!" Then hastily, he turned to the tall silver-haired boy who'd run into his friend. "Sorry for her attitude, she's just no in the mood right now."
Shikamaru grumbled. "How troublesome. She's a handful so it's to be expected." He eyed the newcomer warily; others surrounded them, watching them curiously.
Heck, the Nara heir already felt all eyes on the Konoha Genins—all nine of them—like they wanted to swallow them whole with just their eyes. How troublesome, if his mother hadn't talked his ear off into joining, he wouldn't even be here. Man, what a drag, pain—and any other complaints along the lines of troublesome.
Shikamaru felt the burdens complying when that idiot Senju challenged practically everyone in the room and drew even more attention to himself. He wondered how the people around the redhead loudmouth managed to even survive for this twelve years; the kid's mother must be a wonderful parent.
As if being a target wasn't enough, Shikamaru had to learn of a few bloodthristy genins in the test too, like that Sand Siblings. He shuddered when he saw another redhead from Suna's teal eyes landed on him, the lazy genius had a feeling that he'd be meeting his dead end if during the exam, he ran into him.
Calm down, Shika, he told himself. Concentrate on this test for now, deal with troubles later.
***
Even though Haruto promised Konohamaru and gang to win, he was already facing trouble in their first test. "Fuck," said Haruto, going through a few more curses as he fidgeted in line, running a hand through his spiky and messy strands, he kept squirming that he nearly elbowed Satsuki who stood behind him. She threw him a glare but he hurriedly apologize.
"Why're you acting so nervous?" asked Satsuki in a low voice, eyes darting around the room like she was scanning for a threat. "Do you sense an enemy attack or something?"
"No," responded Haruto, irritation lacing his voice, unaware of a certain Hyuuga heiress eavesdropping on his conversation and the pink blush covering her face as he accidentally bumped into her. "It's just… written tests and I never got along well ever."
"It'll be fine," snapped Satsuki as she pushed Haruto forward when it was his turn to claim his number. He glanced at his number, hoping that it'll bring him luck but he got forty-four.
He swallowed thickly. "Yeah, everything will be okay." I'm so dead.
It wasn't long before Haruto could feel the twin death glares burning into his back after the rules were explained by Ibiki Morino who was their test proctor. It was a team-based exam; meaning, if one of them flunked—and he was very likely to—the whole team would flunk and Haruto knew neither of his teammates would be happy about it. He could practically hear Satsuki's death threats.
Imagining their faces made him sink further into his seat. It was all over. He felt like bawling but he didn't think that was heroic at all. He tapped the end of his pencil to the table repeatedly, creating noises which annoyed the rest of the kids—well… some of them were twice or thrice (yes, they sucked that badly) his age—but he didn't care; if he couldn't answer, they didn't deserve to be able to answer either.
Haruto glanced around, seeing everyone writing down their answers already; was it that easy to everyone?
He groaned, shifting again to keep his anxiety in check but his knee bumped into the wooden table, creating a dull bump. Huh, if it was anything other wood, it would've sucked badly for his knee. Come to think of it, the pencil was made of wood too and so was the paper, from a tree—why am I thinking of wood all of a sudden?
Haruto paused. He could cheat, he could feel the movements of the pencil and what was etched onto the paper—wood and tree. He grinned deviously; why didn't he think of that sooner? The answer was to cheat without getting caught. But who should be this target? Just as he turned his neck around to scan for some smart-looking geek, a kunai flew past his cheek, embedding itself in the paper of the test candidate behind him.
The Senju blanched, growing pale as he took the opportunity to turn around—as did almost everyone in front. While the cheating boy was being chewed out by Ibiki-bastard, he made eye contact with Satsuki and Sakura. The Uchiha threw him a glare, her eyes crimson with tomoes in it whirling around; and he knew she'd found her own way to cheat, he flashed her a thumbs-up sign, grinning as he did so to show that everything was all right.
Satsuki scoffed, looking back down at her test paper while Sakura winked at him, returning the thumb gesture. When he felt a shadow looming over him, carrying a foreboding aura of dread with him, Haruto turned, paling further but he tried for an easy grin.
"Yes?"
Ibiki's eyes narrowed none-too-nicely. "Concentrate. No cheating now."
"Yes, sir!"
That didn't seem to placate the man much but he moved away, surveying the other Genins and generally terrifying them. The redhead turned back to his exam paper, reading the printed texts over again—he didn't even understand what the question asked—before he decided to really start cheating. However, no one even presents themselves as smart. He should copy Satsuki's or Sakura's.
"H-Haruto-k-kun?" Said boy turned to face the stuttering speaker. His eyebrows rose to his hairline when he saw the shy Hyuuga heiress sitting by his side. He didn't even notice her, and her chakra wasn't even that large, just… unnoticeable.
"Yeah?" he lowered his voice to a whisper when one of the other proctor of the exam looked up sharply in his direction. Not a moment too soon, a kunai whizzed past him and the Hyuuga—Hina-something, Hinamori, Hinako? Hinagiku? Or was it Hinata?—to bury itself in another older boy's test paper. He swallowed heavily. "Whaddya want?"
Hyuga blushed redder. "I-I-I c-can l-let y-y-you c-o-o-py m-my a-a-answers i-i-if y-y-ou w-w-want."
It took Haruto a few moments for him to decipher her sentence through all that stuttering. "Uh…" He was tempted to accept but a suspicious part of him nagged as to why she was even helping him. They weren't friends, they'd just spoken when they met up at this room. He barely knew her and yet… "Why are you helping me? I mean, I don't even know your name." All he knew was that she was a Hyuuga, is shy and rather sweet, and is the clan's scion.
Hyuuga-chan looked hurt. "M-my n-n-name is H-Hinata. A-and I-I'm h-h-helping y-you—b-b-because w-we're f-from t-the s-s-same v-village. W-w-we c-c-can't l-l-let o-others w-win u-u-us, r-r-right?" Nevermind the fact that her father had practically ordered her to get closer to her crush and help him in any way possible.
Haruto brightened. "Thanks, but I can manage on my own. You're nice Hinata-chan; can work on your stutter though."
Hinata blushed an even brighter shade of red, looking down sheepishly, not noticing the irked looks thrown her way. She poked her forefingers together, she didn't particularly mind her father's new orders—she liked it even— but she did not understand why they had to get closer to one another. This was a team-based test and yet her father had ordered her to pass the test together with him.
She wondered did her father know of her crush and was trying to help her through her shy ways. Somehow, she doubted it. Her father wouldn't involve himself in something as petty as his daughter's love life; it would be nice if he cared though, instead of just paying Hanabi attention…
Stop, Hinata chided herself. Don't go down the dark path.
For now, she should just enjoy the calm and cheerful presence of the Senju beside her.