What A Drag... || Shikamaru x reader

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Edited: 30/05/24

Reuploaded: 06/06/24

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A/n: because I'm lazy, we're hitting a time skip :)

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Quite a few months later_

I have been in Team 9 for a while now, Hyousuke sensei is actually quite a nice guy once you get to know him. Apparently he was just cold hearted on our meeting because all the teams he has had previously never beat any of his tests, they all thought about themselves instead of each other and the most important thing in a team, teamwork. He's also told us on numerous occasions how proud he is to actually have a team for the first time in all the years he's been a sensei.

He seemed excited to have a team.

I've also become quite good friends with Yuuto and Riku. They're like family now and it's kind of strange to have a bond like this. They both have gotten really good at their unique skills, but I've only improved in taijutsu and in my ninja tool handling because I just can't figure out who my trigger is and it's starting to not only annoy me but also my Dad and Hyousuke sensei.

From what I know the other teams, 7,8 and 10, have been improving a whole lot as well. But they haven't been on as many missions as my team had because they had teamwork issues for a little while, but it seemed they caught onto the trick after a while.

I see the Nara's every weekend because my Dad insists on having dinner together at least once a week, Shikaku does too, it usually ends up with the pair of them getting incredibly drunk and so we end up having sleep overs every Saturday to Sunday.

Shikamaru still hasn't beaten me at the card game, so he decided to introduce me to shogi. At first it was incredibly confusing, but I got the hang of it. I could never beat him though. Strategies were his thing, not mine.

Kakashi came to our house every night after training during the weekdays whenever he was able to and started training my senses and reflexes while also helping me to become a stronger fighter and stronger against attacks that was need me to resist a lot. He didn't hold back, I almost pity Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura to have him as their sensei with how hard he pushed me in our training.

And now the time has come, the chuunin exams have come around and that is exactly where we are heading towards now, walking through the academy with my teammates by my side as we finally reached the third floor after almost being tricked by a genjutsu we'd somehow accidentally stumbled into.

"I'm glad you three decided to come," Hyousuke sensei met us at the entrance to the waiting (class)room.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because, if one of you decided not to do it, then none of you would've been able to do it. You do it in teams of three until after the second round," he told us.

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Riku asked.

"I thought it'd be interesting to see how you all made your own decisions. Anyway, go on in and make me proud," he told us with a big smile before patting us all on the head and allowing us to pass into the room.

Once in the room, the first thing I noticed was most the people in there were older than us by quite a few years and we were definitely the youngest group, but that changed when more groups came in until eventually, for the first time in months teams 7, 8, 9 and 10 were all reunited again.

"Oh, look it's the 12 of us, back together again," Kiba pointed out, I smiled.

"It would seem so," Shino nodded from under his coat.

"Come on, guys, I have a feeling it's going to get loud around here," I told Yuuto and Riku as I glanced across the group and the room. They both nodded and we moved to the back of the room where three familiar looking sand ninja sat.

"n/n..." I heard someone say, I look to my left to see a red head boy with no eyebrows staring at me rather intensely. For a moment, I was confused who it was before it hit me.

"Gaara?" I asked, turning completely to face them, "so that means, you're Temari and Kankuro? Wow you guys have changed a lot."

"Y/n? So have you! Girl, you used to be at my waist, what happened?" Temari asked, quickly pulling me into a hug before returning us back to our previous positions.

"After we left the sand we went to the Land of Waves, and I guess I grew quite a bit. Anyway, this is Yuuto and Riku. They're my teammates. Guys this is Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara, friends of mine from Sunagakure," I introduced each of them and they all nodded to each other.

"I hope you pass, it'll be great to see you more often again," Kankuro said as the proctor appeared in the doorway and ushered us into another room where we were separated from each other. I looked around the room to see Yuuto at the back and Riku at the front while I was in the middle.

"No cheating or you'll get disqualified," the proctor announced, around the edge of the room were chuunin of the leaf village. All were getting ready to catch anyone who dared to cheat out.

"Begin!"

I looked at the questions in front of me. They were all easy and you'd have to be drop dead dumb to not know how to answer them, but it seemed like a ton of people were struggling.

Near to the end of the test I heard aimless tapping coming from the back of the class.

Must've been Yuuto or Riku. We altered standard morse so we could use it without definitely getting caught out by any outsiders who could be listening in.

'Stuck on last question'

Tapping started from the front.

'Just think about the 5th mission in the Land of Tea.'

I tapped as well.

'It's easy once you scribble out the unnecessary characters'

'Oh, yeah! I got this, don't worry guys'

"Times up!"

We all put our pencils down and watched as the proctor straightened himself up again.

"Now for the 10th question. I suggest you leave now if you don't think you'll be able to answer it, if you fail to answer it correctly, you fail completely and you will never be able to take the chuunin exams again," he announced, we all froze. What the hell?

One by one a few people stood up, apologising to their teammates as they also stood up and left with their self-conscious partner.

"I won't give up!" Naruto shouted, standing up and starting a long speech about something completely unnecessary to the situation. But it seemed to make people more confident, and I turned to Yuuto who smiled down and then to Rika who was looking at the both of us. We all nodded and stayed still.

"No one else is leaving?" the proctor asked before nodding his head, "ok the 10th question is..."