My alarm clock went off and I let out a huge sigh of annoyance and of stress.

Today was the day I'd be forced to interact with Anko.

I took about twenty minutes to get ready and I walked to the academy, where we were told to meet on the day of the exam. We had to be here super early since the exams started soon.

I already saw that Ibiki and Anko were already here. They were talking about something and Ibiki looked over when he saw me.

"Hey, you're not late this time," He teased. 

I rolled my eyes in a joking way. "Hey, I couldn't control that a black cat went in the same direction as me. I had to take the safe way,"

"Now I know where Kakashi gets it from," Ibiki replied. "You own a black cat,"

I chuckled. "Okay fine, you got me this time,"

Anko purposely turned away from me. I saw Ibiki nudge her a little and she turned around.

"I already have the way we're going to manage the Forest of Death planned out. I'll brief you on that," She said. 

Typical of her. She always likes to plan ahead and jump into things. I at least wanted a say on something, but it's whatever. 

She started explaining to me how it was going to go, then told me that we wouldn't be starting our part until tomorrow since Ibiki's plan is going to be hard and will take a while. I hope he has mercy on them. We all know how he is. 

Everyone else walked in and the Hokage stood in front of the classroom to start our meeting.

He started explaining how each round was going to work.

"And if there is too many genin, we'll have to hold a preliminary round before the third stage starts. We can't have too many candidates," the Hokage said.

I heard Anko and Ibiki snort quietly after that.

"As if there'll be that many," Anko muttered.

I remember Kakashi once saying that Ibiki was a sadist and I've only been on one mission with him. I can definitely say he is.

"Alright Ibiki, you can go start the first rounds now," Lord Hokage said to him.

Ibiki smirked and walked out of the classroom.

I silently prayed for them. Especially Naruto.

The Hokage continued explaining how it would work.

"When we start the second stage of the exam, Anko and Hana will start explaining to the candidates how they're going to run the Forest of Death,"

He finished explaining everything and the jounin left after that. 

Me and Anko were the only ones left in the classroom.

I awkwardly started walking out and she stopped me.

"Wait a minute," She said.

My heart raced in anticipation. 

"Uh, do you want to go get lunch or something? So I can go over the plan and how we're going to manage our part?" She asked. 

I could tell she felt very awkward.

I kind of felt crestfallen, but what did I expect? 

"Yeah, that would be fine," I replied. "Do you already have something in mind?"

"Dango," She said. 

I mentally chuckled. Expected of her. I'm the same way with ramen.

I followed her out of the classroom and I heard Naruto shouting immediately. 

"WHAT?! WHY A PAPER TEST!"

I got hit with a flashback of when I shouted that. I didn't realize that our personalities were similar. Well, my personality back then.

I smiled at the memory. I remembered when our proctor back then kept singling me out, then Anko and Ibiki jumped in to defend me at the time.

We made it to the dango shop and we sat at a table. 

"I'll go order for us, I'll be back," Anko said and lef the table to go order.

I'm very surprised that she just stated she's paying for both of our lunches.

It only took her about five minutes and she came back with a plate full of dango and two drinks. 

She awkwardly handed the drink to me. "I just ordered water for us,"

I nodded and took a sip of it.

Once she sat down, she started talking about the plan she made. She told me she already scoped the forest out and made note of certain landmarks and all of that. She also told me no one is allowed to die in there and went over an emergency plan if someone did.

I was surprised that she already had this planned out. I didn't even think about it. I thought we'd get it done today or something.

Anko then took a huge banner out of nowhere and placed it on the table.

"What is this for?" I ask.

"It's for later," She replied and started writing her name down with a purple marker. Then she grabbed a blue marker and started writing my name down. I read what she was writing. It said: Anko Mitarashi and Hana Uzumaki - Second Exam Proctors.

"Uh, Anko?" I ask.

She looked up. 

"I actually don't go by Uzumaki anymore. It's a long story, but I changed my last name to Namikaze,"

"Oh, I forgot about that. We'll have to stop by the craft store to get another paper then," She said. 

She crumpled up the banner and then we finished our dango in silence. She was talking to me, but she was all about business. She didn't ask anything about me or attempt to make conversation with me. It was forced on our ends.

We finished our dango and then got up to go to the craft store. She threw the banner and our garbage away, then left the shop.

The craft store was close thankfully, so it didn't take us too long.

She then rewrote our names. 

"Anko Mitarashi and Hana Namikaze - Second Stage Proctors"

She then rolled it up neatly and attached a string and a kunai at the end.

"Let's go see if the kiddies are done now," She said and we walked back to the academy. She was pacing next to the window where Ibiki had them in and she pulled the kunai out of her pocket.

"Wait a minute Anko, they're-" I was cut off by her throwing the kunai through the glass. "Still talking to Ibiki..."

She jumped in the window and that was my cue to follow her. I sighed and saw that kunai landed on the desk where Ibiki was sitting. Her banner was covering him.

"Jumped the gun," Ibiki muttered. "As usual,"

"Heads up boys and girls!" Anko shouted, capturing everyone's attention. "This is no time to be celebrating! I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi!"

Then she looked at me.

"And I'm also the next proctor, Hana Namikaze," I introduced, sheepishly. 

She turned back to the students. 

"You ready for the second test?" She asked, not waiting for an answer, and threw her first in the air. "Good! Let's go. NOW FOLLOW ME!"

I looked over at the desk and was about to take the banner off of Ibiki, but he moved the banner and stepped out from behind us.

"You're early...again," He sighed.

He knew it was all her. 

Anko widened her eyes and blushed out of embarrassment. She quickly changed the subject to avoid further embarrassment.

"How many are there?" She asked and looked over the classroom. "Ibiki, you let all of these guys pass? Your test was too easy. You must be getting soft,"

Ibiki smirked at her.

"Or it could be a stronger group of candidates this year,"

Anko now smirked. "Stronger group of candidates? We'll see, after I'm done there'll be half of them left,"

I was about to start speaking, but she cut me off.

"Alright, you maggots! You've had it easy so far, but things are gonna be different first thing in the morning. We'll let your squad leaders know where to meet me. Dismissed," Anko finished.

Some of the genin just looked baffled at her words.

The genin stood up and a certain genin caught my attention. He had dark blue hair and he almost looked like he was glaring at me. I looked back at him and he looked away. 

I observed him and took note of his appearance. He instantly seemed suspicious to me. Maybe I'm just being too paranoid. There's no way a kid could be one of the assassins. 

"Alright, let's go," Anko said to me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

We left and met up with their teachers to let them know where to meet and parted ways after that.

Anko left without a word to me.

It stung.

I just wanted my friend back. 

I lied down in bed, kicking myself for the stupid mistake I made. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The closer I get to the entire chunin exam arc, the sadder I get about the Hokage :(