Summary: Kokoro receives a letter from Naruto, graduates (again), and meets her new team. Of course she can't just meet new people and start off with a clean slate. Of course she has to be on a team with someone who already hates her.
A nervous chill swept over Kokoro as she stepped inside the Academy. She shook her arms and rolled her neck in an effort to rid her body of the tension it felt. She cracked her knuckles and clenched her hands into fists before she stretched her fingers as far as they would go. When she arrived at the door, she jogged in place and reassured herself that she would pass. She knocked on the closed door and took a step back when the door opened. A short chunin stood in front of her with a sneer, He beckoned her in and told her to take a seat anywhere she'd like. She chose a seat in the middle, one that was a far enough distance that the chunin stationed on the desk in the front of the room wasn't looking over her and close enough that she didn't appear to be scared or put-off by the chunin's presence.
The chunin grabbed a thick packet sitting on the desk beside him and slammed it on her desk. She jumped in her seat as her heart fluttered hard in her chest. He smirked at her actions and said, "Here's your exam. You have three hours to complete it. If you don't finish it, every answer not marked will take off points from your final score. If I catch you cheating, you will automatically fail and you will be banned from taking it again for a year. Your time starts now."
Kokoro gulped and stared down at the packet in front of her. She wrote her name on it and began marking her answers. The first section was multiple choice, which was easy enough. It helped that she had options to choose from instead of thinking of an answer. Honestly, she was worried about the test because she wasn't sure if she retained enough information. So much was crammed into her brain in a short period of time that she kept getting facts and dates mixed up when she studied the previous night. She felt hopeless last night as she stayed up until her eyes couldn't open anymore, trying desperately to remember every word Ao had said. She got four hours of sleep last night, and that was being generous. She had to reread questions and answers to understand what they read in her sleep-deprived brain. She was sure she got every question right so far, but she questioned every choice she made.
When she got to the written responses, she had to shut her eyes and take a deep breath to steady herself. She had to conjure the answers from the deepest parts of her mind to find the answers to the questions. And the worst part was that the questions were worded in a confusing way. It was like they wanted her to fail! At some point during her exam, she dropped her head onto her desk and her eyes watered. She was going to fail. She just knew it! She was going to fail and it was all her fault because she wasn't as smart as her dad to remember everything and she had to study to remember anything and she stayed up so late even though she knew she had to be up early and she should have remembered. She should have remembered! Why couldn't she remember! She groaned, slammed her pencil down, and rubbed at her eyes. She stared at the paper in front of her, and the words blurred together as water sprung to them. How was she going to do anything if she couldn't even pass an exam to be a genin?
"Giving up already?" the chunin asked. Kokoro kept her head downcast. "And here I thought Masumi wasn't a liar."
Kokoro's head shot up at Masumi's name. "You know Masumi?"
"'Course I do. Masumi is a very well-known shinobi in our village. They said you were smart, adaptable, and chunin material. They might've told their first lie because I barely see genin material if you're gonna give up just like that."
"Masumi thinks I'm chunin material?" Kokoro echoed dreamily.
"Yeah, and you're disgracing their name by acting the way you are. Woman up and kick it in gear if you want to pass, Hatake."
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An Unexpected Love (Book 2 of the Unexpected Series)
Fanfiction[Book 2 of The Unexpected series] Kokoro Hatake managed to get past Gaara's defenses and became the friend Gaara's always wanted. It was hard to regain his trust and to get past strong feelings of hate and fear, but Kokoro was able to overcome them...
