Hanako took a steadying breath as she and her—hella suspicious, seriously, were they even trying to be discreet—team approached the academy. She hadn't been there in a very long time, and seeing so many grown, foreign ninja in the halls was a little off putting. Her nomination slip said the sign up area was on the third floor, so she, Kabuto, and Yoroi silently began climbing the stairs. At the first landing, they encountered a massive crowd of people struggling to fit into the second floor hallway. Yoroi and Kabuto made a show of joining them. They weren't that gullible, were they?

"Um, guys?" They stopped and looked back at her with confusion. "This is the second floor."

They and several other teams around them looked startled. "Oh? But the legend says these are the three hundred number rooms."

It was true. There, on a wall, was a sign marked 300-325.

"Yeah, but we only climbed one flight of stairs."

Kabuto put on a thinking face. "You're right! Good catch, Hatake-chan!"

Her words had set people whispering, but her name had them straight up conversing among themselves.

Great. Kabuto, you jerk.

They trudged their way up to the actual third floor, followed by a small crowd of foreign genin. Oh, well. The exam room was already pretty full, with several teams clumping together at different desks or against the walls. A flash of red hair caught her eye.

"Ah, Gaara-kun! Hello!"

The jinchuuriki turned black rimmed eyes on her, expression unchanged. "Hanako."

She walked right up to him, leaving her teammates to fend for themselves as she smiled up at the slightly taller boy. "How are you? I haven't seen you since we got back to the village."

"Fine."

She extended her chakra, pleased to see his was pretty calm. "I'm glad! Have you enjoyed your stay so far?"

"Hn." His chakra rose in answer to hers, surrounding her with a feeling of summer sun. Hot summer sun, but still. At least it wasn't angry.

"Hey, Hatake," his brother began, a smirk pulling at his painted lips. "You sure you wanna take the Exam this year? You're the littlest one here."

Translation: Gaara might like you, but even he can't stop himself sometimes. Get out while you can.

She smirked right back at him. "Mah, Kankuro-san, are you worried about me?"

He looked away with a sharp click of his tongue. Temari laughed at his expense.

Gaara's face didn't change, but his agitation came through in his chakra. Hanako rushed to soothe him, sending him as genuine a smile as she could conjure.

"Oh, Hatake-chan, you know some of the Suna ninja?"

Crap. She forgot about Kabuto.

Letting her smile drop where Gaara could see, she turned to her team. "Yep. We travelled to village together after I finished a mission to the Wind border."

Kabuto smiled and bowed slightly. "Hello. My name is Kabuto Yakushi and this is Yoroi Akadou. We were lucky enough to be put on a team with Hatake-chan for the Exams."

Before any of the Sand Siblings could respond—if they even planned to—the door to the room opened again, letting in six of the Rookie Nine.

Naruto and co. really were going to be last, huh?

"Hana-chan~!" Ino called, skipping up to her and draping herself across Hanako's shoulders. "I should have known you'd beat us here."

Shikamaru promptly chose a spot by the door and sat down, Chouji plopping down beside him and opening a bag of chips. Kiba came toward her and Ino, a cocky grin on his face—his default expression.

"Yo! I guess you finally decided to give it a go, huh?"

Hana smiled slightly under her mask, carefully letting a little bit of it show in her eyes. "Yeah. Figured it was about time, you know?"

Kiba's smile widened before freezing. He looked over her shoulder to Gaara, face paling as he took a step back. On his head, Akamaru whined.

Oh, right. They were afraid of Gaara. She'd forgotten about that.

Shino had no such reservations—or, if he did, he didn't show it—nodding his head in greeting. "Hatake."

"Aburame-kun," she returned, smiling for real this time. "I didn't know Kurenai-sensei had signed you up."

"She did. Why? Because, even if we fail, it will be a learning experience."

Ho. "Well, I wish you the best of luck."

"Likewise."

Hinata said nothing, but Hanako wasn't concerned. She was generally a shy girl—not just when Naruto was involved—and rarely took the initiative in conversation. They exchanged silent nods and that was that.

"Ne, ne, Hana-chan," Ino pestered, jumping up and down in her impatience. "Do you think Sasuke-kun will take the exams? He's gotta, right? Your dad will sign him up, right?"

Hana sighed, adopting a deadpan expression Shikaku swore looked exactly like Kakashi's. "Mah, Ino-chan, I don't know. He hasn't told me anything."

The older girl pouted. "No fair! What's the point of having a sensei for a dad if you never know any of his secrets?"

Oh, she knew his secrets, alright. She just hadn't learned them the normal way...

Team Guy stepped in next and Hanako braced herself for further bombardment.

"Nuhuh," Ino said, sticking her tongue out at Lee as he made to pounce. "It's my turn with Hana-chan. You had her for a whole month!"

Lee's dramatic tears inspired zero sympathy. TenTen rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Sorry you had to go in my place," she said. "I know how much of a handful these two can be."

Neji didn't deign to respond, pale eyes scanning the room.

Hanako shrugged, once again reaching for Gaara with her chakra. So many people crowding her—and, by extension, his team—had to be straining his patience.

"It was no trouble, TenTen-san. I made some new friends on the way."

Whew. Crisis averted.

Finally—finally—Naruto and co. came in. Ino promptly abandoned her to glomp Sasuke, immediately picking a fight with Sakura. Hanako took the opportunity to breathe.

"You have a lot of friends, Hatake-chan," Kabuto said with a patently fake smile. "They seem really fond of you."

Hanako scoffed just loud enough to be heard by her team, Gaara's, and maybe Kiba. "Nah, they just like small things."

Self deprecation was a wonderful deflection tactic. Kakashi taught her that.

Seeing the trouble brewing between Kiba and Naruto, she sighed and threw an apologetic glance at Gaara.

"Sorry," she said. "I have to go contain my idiots."

At least Temari laughed.

"Boys." They stopped their roughhousing instantly, separating with sheepish expressions. "This is neither the time nor place for such casual attitudes."

"Sorry, Hana-chan," Naruto said with a grin, rubbing at the back of his head. "It wasn't my fault this time, honest!"

Sasuke had managed to extricate himself from Ino's embrace and was now sidling up close to Hanako—likely planning to use her as a buffer for any other fangirls in the area. *cough* Sakura *cough*.

Kabuto stood uncomfortably close, smiling down at the gathered Rookies. "She's right, you know. You're the most inexperienced group here. There are a lot of people who take offence to your participation."

"So?" Ino asked brazenly, hands on her hips. "It's not like we made our senseis sign us up."

"But you are the ones who decided to act on that nomination," Kabuto replied, nonplussed. "As your senpai, I feel the need to tell your these things."

He squat down and began his card trick routine. Hanako looked away, uninterested. Yoroi also stood to one side, arms crossed. His sunglasses made it hard to know where he was looking, but Hanako had a feeling it wasn't at her.

"Oh? Hatake-chan, they're asking about you."

"Eh?" Her surprise was genuine as she turned back to the huddle of Konoha genin. "Wait, what?"

Kabuto chuckled. "Your friends are asking about your info card. Should I show them?"

Hanako shrugged. "It's your prerogative, Yakushi-sempai. You're team leader, after all."

Something shadowed his gaze, but it was gone in an instant. He turned back to the Rookies with a smile. "Alright, one Hanako Hatake, coming up."

His chakra brought up her stats on the card.

"Eh? That doesn't look right."

Naruto's words were echoed among her friends as they looked at her card.

Her stats were...less than average, to be honest. Taijutsu – passable. Ninjutsu – meh. Genjutsu? – nonexistent.

Heck, she really didn't look like much, did she?

Kabuto rubbed at the back of his head, as was his wont, and Hanako felt his embarrassment was somewhat genuine, this time.

"Sorry, my cards don't account for fuinjutsu. Most people don't use it, nowadays."

"Holy—! Look at her missions!"

Uh oh.

Sure enough, listed right there for everyone to see, was her mission record. Well, the public one, anyway.

"Hana, you've gone on A ranked missions?"

She shrugged helplessly. "Not on purpose? They just, sorta, ended up that way. Honest."

Naruto rubbed at his nose in a display of arrogance. "Heh, we know how that goes, don't we, teme?"

Sasuke met Naruto's gaze before looking away. "Hn."

Mah, these boys. At the very least she should be grateful Naruto wasn't challenging the whole room to a death match.