Child of the sea (Neji X OC story)

Chapter Ten ~ Chunin Exams start

~Umiko~

Five days later, Neji and i have officially started dating, it's nothing to brag about though since we are just kids and we're both starting to get used to the whole relationship dynamic so we haven't rushed into anything, we've also only had one date so far which is fine, anyway.

Today i met up with Naruto and Sasuke we headed inside the school where they were holding the first part of the Chunin exams, we walked in and i noticed a genjutsu right away, besides it was pretty obvious, they marked the second floor as third.

Anyway there were these two guys giving trouble to Tenten and Lee, i caught Neji glancing at me from the side and smiled at him, he gave a quick and subtle smile back before focusing on his team, i ignored the two guys at the door as Sasuke revealed it was a genjutsu "A pretty sloppy one at that"I cut in "Anyone who paid attention would know this is only the second floor from the flight of stares they took"i added.

One of the guys went to attack Sasuke who went to attack back but they were stopped by Lee "Hey what happened to the plan? I thought you were the one who said to keep a low profile and don't let anyone see our skill level"Neji said "I know"Lee muttered lowering his head, then Neji walked over, i couldn't help smiling as the closer he got the happier i felt "Hey you, what's your name?"he asked referring to Sasuke.

Naruto glared and i rolled my eyes a bit "It's common curtasy to give your own name first" Sasuke told Neji even though he hadn't done the same when he asked Gaara's name a while back, oh yes i remember him, i'm good with names "You're a rookie aren't you?"Neji asked even though he knew Sasuke was on my team and i'm a rookie there for he's a rookie, anyway.

We went to the third floor where we were stopped by Lee wanting to challenge Sasuke, Sasuke accepted and i decided to go on ahead and dropped off my application form, Neji and Tenten were already there, i sat next to Neji acting like i just randomly chose that spot since we had decided to keep the whole dating thing quiet until we're older.

Neji discreetly grabbed my hand and hid the fact we were holding them as i hid my smile, Lee joined us not much later and soon after my team followed, Naruto and Sasuke stayed at the front as the rest of the teams joined in too, they were making a bit of a racket but i was used to it with the loud mouth that is Naruto.

I didn't pay much attention to what was going up there, then later some guy popped up, he was wearing a pretty cool coat and a cap on his head with his leaf headband, he introduced himself as Ibiki Morino and spouted about some rules, then he told us to hand in the slip and take an assigned seat.

So i had to let go of Neji's hand and step in line with the others, i handed in the slip and got a number which was my seat, i went to my seat which happened to be no where near anyone i knew, all those around me were total strangers, i felt a little uneasy until Neji sat next to me, i smiled to myself and focused as Ibiki was telling the rules.

In short he basically said go ahead and cheat but be careful not to get caught, the test began and turning the paper it all looked like gibberish to me, seems i've ran into a bit of luck though since i have Neji sitting next to me, i slipped my hand under the table and tapped his leg using Morse code, he put down his hand too and tapped the answers to me as he used his Byakugan to cheat.

I still answered the questions i knew the answer to, which was half out of these ones, the others were pure gibberish and that's what i had Neji for, i finished writing my answers and waited until a half an hour was left for the last one, in the meanwhile i gladly held hands with Neji.

There was still the problem of Naruto though, if even one of us gets a zero we're all disqualified, i wasn't too worried about Sasuke, i knew he'd figure a way to cheat, maybe Naruto will be too nervous to answer the questions, we do have all points at the start so another way to pass is to not answer any of the questions, i just hope Naruto will be too nervous to put pen to paper.

Time passed rather quickly as the teams were weeded out one by one, fifteen minutes left, time for the tenth question "Alright listen up here's the tenth and final question"Ibiki announced but also said there were more rules to be added then Kankuro walked in with his obvious puppet posing as a proctor.

"These rules are unique to rule ten so listen carefully and try not to let them frighten you"Ibiki said, i rolled my eyes, just get to the point already "Rule number one, you can choose not to take the final question" that's surprising "If you choose not to, you and your team are free to leave and try again next year, if you do and answer wrong you will be stuck as genin"Ibiki said, i glanced at Neji a little worried Naruto might crumble under the pressure.

Neji glanced back at me and just squeezed my hand, i smiled a bit and squeezed his hand back intertwining our fingers, yeah there's nothing to worry about, Naruto's too stupid to give up, "Now then if your ready, those who don't want to take the question raise your hand, your number will be recorded and you and your team are free to go"Ibiki said.

I watched as many of the weak minded fodder lifted their hands and they as well as their team were forced to leave, pathetic, then Naruto started lifting his hand, what are you doing you idiot?! This better be some grand gesture or i'll gut you! i thought glaring a hole through the back of his head.

Naruto then slammed his hand down "Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and i don't run, act tough all you want, you guys aren't scaring me off, no way! I don't care if i do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life! I'll still be hokage some day!"he yelled and huffed sitting down.

I sighed a bit in relief, that was too close you dummy, after that no one was leaving so Ibiki revealed there was no tenth question, rather the tenth question was the choice to stick it through even the toughest situation or to run away, i had a hunch this was the case, anyway after that the next proctor jumped through the window, told us where to meet tomorrow and we were on our way, i went home with Neji never letting go of his hand for the rest of the day.