It's Not Forever *Shikamaru/OC/Gaara* (Book 1) COMPLETE

Chapter 4

 We meet up with the boys under a tree by the testing site a while later. Shikamaru gives me a strange look when he catches sight of my face but I ignore it and we file inside. We all follow the steady stream of other ninja headed toward the testing site. A lot of people stop in front of two men who made a genjutsu to fool the stupid into believing that they are on the proper floor. We all see past it instantly and continue past them. Shortly after, the others make their way up complaining about the two below.
We're brought into the testing room, a larger scaled version of a classroom. We're all separated and instructed to sit at randomly assigned seats throughout the room. After everyone is seated, all of us are told that it's a written test, causing most everyone to groan in complaint. Shikamaru and I are highly intelligent, so it shouldn't be too hard for us, though my concern rests with Ino and Choji. I look around to track them down. Shikamaru is in the center of the room in the front while Choji and Ino are on the right side, Choji in the back, Ino in the front. I've been placed on the left all the way back next to some creepy looking guy from the rain village. As I glance over at him, he returns the look with a sadistic grin. I roll my eyes and turn back to the front. Once everyone is situated, the proctor goes over the rules and we're allowed to start. During the explanation, he seemed adamant about not cheating, leading me to easily discover the point is our information gathering skills. I glance over the sheet and manage to answer them all to the best of my ability, leaving number ten blank, as there is no question written. I watch with vague interest as a team gets eliminated and removed from the room. Something materializes on my desk and I glance down to see a small eye made of sand staring at my paper. I know it to be Gaara's handy work so I let him copy. After a minute or two it trickles away and I feel a push in my head from Ino. I lay my head down on the desk and let her voice enter my head. She screeches her irritation about the test and I wince before telling her to shut up. I hear her apologize before feeling a strange sensation that I recognize as her trying to dig through my memories for answers. I clamp down on them and tell her the answers instead, reminding her she isn't allowed to mess with my personal thoughts and such. Ino apologizes before thanking me and disappearing from my mind. I yawn and slide my headphones over my ears to block out the sound of pencils scratching.
A short while later, I'm woken up by the rain village guy, and I raise my head while sliding my headphones down. Ibiki, the proctor, is at the front of the room telling us we have the option to quit now and not hear question 10, but if we quit, the whole team is disqualified. I look around and notice several teams gone already. Several ninja raise their hands and walk out with their teams. All is silent for a moment until Naruto suddenly stands and starts prattling off some inspirational speech. After that, no one else quits. Ibiki then tells us that we all passed and that it was about our information gathering abilities and something else but I'd already tuned him out. A woman crashes through the window and starts to shout something about the second round. We get up and follow her out of the room and to a place called the "Forest of Death", cue creepy music.
The forest is dark and menacing, surrounded on all sides by a fence and several gates. In the center of it all is a tower. Anko, the new proctor, tells us all about it and tells us we have five days to protect our scroll while getting the other from another team and make it to the tower. She gives out liability waivers and we all sign them before handing them back in. My team is led to the gate but Anko stops us.
"Teams can only be groups of no more than three. I need one of you to be solo for this."
The trio with me begins to complain and try to justify us staying together. I hold up a hand to silence them all before volunteering myself.
"You three can build off of each other. I can handle myself I promise. I'll be at the tower within five days. Make me proud!"
"But-"
"No buts, Ino. I'll be fine. I always am, I was trained by the best after all." I say, feigning a smile.
"We don't even know who 'the best' is that you're talking about!" Ino pouts.
I roll my eyes and hug them all before heading off to another gate with Anko. She hands me a Heaven scroll and wanders off. I place the scroll in the false bottom of my backpack and wait for the gates to open. It's been a change of plan with being separated, but I know I can survive. I slide my silent headphones on and feel myself relax. This will be easy. Find an Earth scroll and get to the tower without dying. No pressure there.
A buzzer sounds and the gates open, causing most everyone to immediately bolt inside, causing screams and explosions to echo out. I smirk before walking in. Amateurs don't even take into account the likelihood of traps and hazards just inside the entrance. I pull my hood up and adjust my mask before finding hidden wires and exploding tags littering the area around me. I maneuver through them all with ease while more screams erupt and explosions shake the ground. It's been maybe ten minutes since this has started. I sigh and move further into the forest, keeping my senses on high alert. I detect several presences nearby but recognize most as other Konoha teams. I want to leave them alone as much as possible and find a scroll from someone from a different village. There are two weak signatures and a strong one a little ways ahead of me that I don't recognize, so I head in their direction in hopes that I can find an Earth scroll and rush on to the tower. I feel a tickle on my wrist and look down to find a thin band of sand circling it as a bracelet. I make my way through the woods with little complication while tracking the team. They stopped in a clearing so I jump up into a nearby tree to listen in. The team is made up of two males and a girl. A smirk crosses my face as the rain nin from the first exam is in the team, seated underneath my tree.
"This is so hard! I don't know if we can do this!" The girl whines while pulling her dark hair back.
"Shut up Nami! We got this, I have the scroll right here. All we need is a Heaven scroll and we're set." The guy below me snaps.
"Shh! don't broadcast it Hideki."
This is so easy. Too easy. I flip off of the tree limb and land silently in front of the one called Hideki.
"Hi there. Thanks for waking me up earlier, but I kind of need another favor. I need the scroll." I smile sweetly, holding out my hand.
"Not a chance." He smirks before standing.