As the late arrivals stepped onto the third-floor landing, a tidal wave of noise swept over them, breaking the silence of the stairwell. Their gazes swept across familiar and unfamiliar faces—the little group from Konoha stood out most of all.
The Konoha Twelve gathered in twos and threes in a corner. Sakura leaned close to Ino with her head lowered, her fingers rummaging swiftly through her ninja tools pouch. A barely perceptible tremor ran through her voice.
"Ino, help me check one more time—ten kunai, twenty shuriken, three tubes of wound ointment, two packs of soldier pills... am I missing anything? I keep getting nervous. What if I hold them back during the exam?"
Ino glanced at her reddening ears and deliberately drew out her words. "Missing something? Just the confidence to yell, 'Sasuke, save me!' when someone's chasing you down." Teasing though her words were, they hit the girl's secret feelings dead on.
"Ino!" Sakura reached out to pinch her arm, her cheeks instantly burning. "That's not true! Stop making things up! If you keep saying that, I'll... I'll stop talking to you!" She even glanced toward Sasuke, afraid he might have heard.
"Stop talking to me?" Ino raised an eyebrow and deliberately raised her voice. "Then I'll go tell Sasuke you think he was too slow saving you last time—or maybe I'll tell him you don't like him anymore."
"Don't!" Sakura hurriedly grabbed her sleeve, blurting out, "I don't... I just..."
Only halfway through did she realize what had happened. She looked up into Ino's knowing, teasing eyes and immediately understood she'd been baited. She turned away with puffed cheeks, though her ears were red enough to bleed. "Ino... you're so mean..."
Having her girlish feelings exposed in public was a little too much even for Sakura, whose