Serendipity

Chapter 4

When the participants entered the room, they turned in their paperwork in exchange for a seat number. Kimiko took her number, muttering a "Good Luck!" to Gaara, and went to her seat.

Sitting in her seat, she waited for the proctor to say start, but her attention was soon directed elsewhere.

"It is you," the person said. "Last week, when I first saw you, I had a feeling it was you, but the name you gave made me doubt myself. But here you are, my Kimiko. You don't know how happy that makes me." The Uchiha looked into her eyes with a smile.

Her heart skipped a beat before she could say anything. The very intimidating proctor Ibiki Morino spoke up, explaining the rules of the written exams.

Now in the back of the exam room sat a very angry jinchuriki. Gaara watched with a clenched fist. He never liked anyone, especially boys talking to her. It caused him to feel a feeling he didn't quite understand. But right now, he couldn't overthink about it because the proctor yelled, "BEGIN!"

The sound of test flipping over and people writing was all that was heard in the room.

She was looking at the test the girl could see that that the questions progressed in difficulty. She knew only a few (if lucky) could correctly answer this, and she was one of them.

Back in the sand, there wasn't much Kimiko could do. The Fourth Kazekage isolated her from the rest of the village in fear she would use his son to attack the town, so to prevent that, he only allowed her certain privileges, one of them being access to the library. And finally, all those hours spent in that place were paying off.

She finished pretty quickly, and right before she could flip her paper over, she felt something in her eyes. Sand. Gaara was using the Third Eye Jutsu to copy her test.

When the fifteen minutes mark came, the man spoke up again.

"Before I give the tenth question, there are some more rules you need to be aware of..." This caused the room to be filled with whines and grumbles, hers included.

Ibiki continued explaining that everyone could choose whether or not they would answer the tenth question, but if they decide not to answer, all members of that person team would be disqualified. However, if they did choose to answer the question and somehow got it wrong, they wouldn't get to retake the chunin exams.

Of course, this shocked everyone causing many to walk out. Even the confident Okami was skeptical about staying, and watching all her competition get up made her question herself even more. She, of course, could leave the exams now and have another opportunity later, but on the other hand, she believes by luck she could answer it correctly.

As she was in a lengthy debate on what she should or shouldn't do, Naruto gave a very inspirational speech which gave the rest of the teams a boost in morale herself included. He hasn't changed one bit.

With a nodded Ibiki announced that the remaining teams have all passed. He explained that there wasn't a written tenth question and their choice to stay was the question. The test's purpose was to see how the participants would work as individuals and as a team. To see how one worked under pressure. All in all, the test was designed to show the genin how important gathering information truly is. "Information could be the most valuable weapon in battle. How well you gather intelligence can determine whether a mission is a failure or a success. There will be times where you have to risk your life to get it."

As Ibiki finished speaking, something was thrown in the window, causing shatters to fly. Some would've hit the girl if it wasn't for Gaara's sand that blocked the shards from hitting her.

Before she could turn around and thank her best friend, the woman Anko Mitarashi proclaimed she was the next proctor.
What an interesting woman. I'm sure the next test will be interesting.

After what felt like forever, the remaining participants were dismissed. She couldn't wait to regroup with Gaara and ask him about the exam over a bowl of ramen.

She spotted the mop of red hair in the crown, but before she could make her way towards him, a hand reached out, causing her to face the guy. "Did you want something, Sasuke?"

"Y-Yeah, I wanted to see if you would like to go get something to eat with me so we can catch up." He asked with a slight blush on his face. She smiled up at him. "I'd love to!"

A few feet away stood Gaara. He watched the two closely the way Sasuke smiled at her and the way she smiled at him. She even agreed to go on a date with him. This ticked him off. He wanted nothing more than to kill the guy, but a voice was heard in his head. "not now but soon." with that, he stormed off. Not wanting to see anything else.

"I'd love to, but I already have plans. I was going to take my friend to Ichiraku. I've talked about it so much that now he's curious. But maybe some other time?" Giving him a closed-eyes smile.

"Is this friend that Gaara guy?" His voice laced with venom as his grip on her arm tightened.

"Um yeah, why?" she frowned at his tone and the way he grabbed her.

"Look, Kimmy, I don't want you are hanging around him anymore. He's dangerous. The evil in his eyes makes me worried he'll do something to hurt you." He spoke with concern.

The girl's red eyes activated as she yanked her arm away. "Look, Sasuke, I get your concern, and it's nice to know you still care even after all these years, but you don't know Gaara like I do. And before you judge someone, maybe you should look in the mirror. Now, if you excuse me, I have a date with my best friend." rolling her eyes, she pushed past him but not without saying one more thing.

Sasuke stood there dumbfounded as she walked away. She has never spoken to him like that, let alone threaten him. I need to figure out why she's so hung upon him.