It hadn't been easy convincing Shino that I was fine. That I went looking for trouble seemed a bit of a stretch. But hey, that's the kind of cat I am. Of course, he refused to let me out of his sight. He actually considered getting a leash for me! A LEASH. As if I were some dumb dog. As usual, however, he was right. I stopped wanting to see NotNatsume (or Notsume for short, haha get it?) after he nearly crushed me to death. Strange how an attempted murder will do that to a person.

"Hyah! Hyah! Hooorah!" Those and all manners of noises came from Pugly the Nin Fat as he beat up a piece of wood stuck in the ground.

"You do realize that a stick won't fight back, yeah?" I meowed to Akamaru, boredly (with boredom?) watching him defeat a defenseless twig.

"Shut up, at least I'm preparing! The Exams are tomorrow, you know. Lazy cat." He cursed the last part under his breath.

"Oi! I heard that!"

"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it?"

"... probably nothing. And anyway, I am doing something! So there!" I scrunched up my nose at him, a deadly insult.

"You do realize that means 'cake' in Dog, right?"

"Of course. I wish you to have so much cake, that you die of it. Now begone."

We sat in silence for quite awhile, listening to the training of our people a clearing away.

"What are we going to do in the exam?" Akamaru's voice was soft, and sad. I knew immediately what he meant.

"Well... we'll just have to not die."

"It isn't that simple." For the first time I heard a tint of annoyance colour his voice. "There are many many genin showing up, and our people will be the youngest. We will be looked down on. Targeted, at the worst." His voice dwindled down to a whisper "And I don't know if I can protect them..."

"Hey, hey, you have me, you know." I strode over to the little dog, alarmed at this new side of him. "And I'm fairly certain that I am awesome and terrifying enough to ensure Shino's safety." And Hinata's, I realize with a jolt. I hadn't been spending enough time with her, lately. She was no doubt hurt that I had been spending more time with Shino...

"So, do you want to practice some more?" I mrowed as my paw slashed playfully at his ear.

"Please. I could beat you with my nose plugged up."

Scritch... scratch... scrriiiiitch... … scratch... The sound of a blade running over stone jarred at my already tense nerves. I whipped around, still on Shino's shoulders and bared my teeth at the man standing behind us. He had either very baggy clothes or was rather round about the middle. He had a round, flat hat, and a sword that was dragging along gently on the ground. He was obviously an enemy. I hissed menacingly to give him something to think about as I fed his image into Shino's brain. It was something we had worked out, he didn't have to turn around to see the man, I could be his eyes for him. So, before my Bugmaster had even turned around he had already enough information to defeat him with. Then, the signal.

I pushed off his shoulders with a menacing screeching howl. It was a plan we had preformed many times, but never in action against an enemy. First, I would leap at Enemy, causing significant amount of distraction. An attempt at genjutsu would be made, but it wasn't necessary. At the same time, Shino's bugs that lived in his skin (Yes I was creeped out when I found out, too) would go for Enemy. Hopefully I would provide a sufficient distraction, and Enemy wouldn't realize that he/she was infested with bugs yada yada... You know the drill.

Well, the attack had a fine start, me being all scary and stuff, distractions distractions, which also involved a senbon to his ankle, huehuehue. The next part... didn't go so well. At the last possible minute, Enemy twisted his head around and saw the bugs. A fast kick to my ribs, and my breath whooshed out of my lungs. Enemy launched himself at Shino, leaping over the bugs, his sword slashing downwards. Chakra gathered in my paws as I leapt after the man, my intent murderous. My claws dug into his shoulder, drawing blood, and even though he didn't look around or slow his sword, it didn't matter. Because genjutsu gets stronger the closer you are to another's chakra system, and I had just dug my claws into a major pipeline. I froze him, taking hold of the chakra at the base of his skull. He struggled mightily and I could feel my grip weakening as Shino's insects drained away Enemy's chakra. I hissed at Shino, and he jumped back as I released my hold over Enemy, preparing his bugs in a cloud of condensed creepiness. I tried to leap away, but Enemy was too fast. His sword whipped around, slashed as I pushed off his shoulder. It was too late to turn and twist as my cat-brain screamed at me to do. Good thing I was a human in a cat's body.

I squeezed my eyes shut, pumping out my chakra to coat my body. Now for the hard part. It was too late to make any seals, to chant any incantations. I had to rely on sheer willpower to harden every ounce of chakra I possessed into a steel-like casing. Think of protecting, hard things... Iron beams, shields, steel plates, rivets, Iron Man. Iron man... Ohmigosh! The second Avengers movie must have come out by now! Holy crap I'll never get to see it... A sudden crushing blow to my side erased all thought.

I struck the ground, hard. My head bounced on the streets, and the sudden depletion of chakra made my dizzy. Or was that the head injury? At least my idea had worked, I wasn't cut in half. It was like getting hit with... well like a narrow steel pole. Pretty sure some ribs were cracked... I took a deep breath in and winced. Or maybe they were broken, who knows? A big friendly shadow shaded my eyes. Squinting up through the headache, I saw Shino carefully lift me up and hold me close to him, making sure my side wasn't jostled.

I tensed suddenly, hissing a little with pain as I struggled to see where Enemy had gone.

"It's okay, he's gone, it was just a test."

The bandages around my ribs were tight, and made breathing difficult... I knew I had to discard them before the second part of the Exam, but at least I could try to heal before the Forest. I gripped Shino's shoulder as we climbed up the stairs to the... the third floor. Ugh, what was that? I wrinkled my nose and sniffed. I could smell Shino, and Hinata, Kiba, and Akamaru, but no ambient smells from the walls or the floor. It was an odd sensation, but I immediately pinned what was, a genjutsu. Everyone always forgot that the sense of smell also had to be controlled, and in a big illusion like this one, it often gets overlooked. I poked Shino, and he glanced at me and raised his eyebrows. What was he.. Oh. He already figured it out. Probably something to do with his creepy skin bugs. Ew.

I breathed in deeply as the group cleared the stars and made their way over to the doors. Kakashi's trio were just done confronting those two disguised proctors, exchanging pleasantries with Hinata's cousin. Whats-his-face... Nebi or something... Geez that's going to bug me.

I gripped Shino's shoulder tighter, heedless of my claws piercing the layers of clothing. This was it. The Chunin Exam.

Author's Note: Sorry for such a short chapter, guys.