The classroom was still noisy, and Kiba's shout had only just faded.
Shikamaru leisurely stretched in his seat.
Only after he finished did he lift his eyelids to look at Kiba.
"Aren't we getting assigned to teams today?"
"Think about it. Our test was on the Three Body Technique, and the whole class took it together. Hayashi seemed to have an individual test, especially since his opponent was that Copy Ninja, Kakashi."
"If the tests were different, the teachers we get assigned might be different too. Maybe-it was all arranged beforehand."
"Arranged beforehand? What was arranged?" Kiba scratched his head.
"How would I know?" Shikamaru yawned. "I'm not the Hokage."
Kiba paused. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. He nodded firmly, then turned back with an admiring look.
"Shikamaru, you're really smart!"
"Being smart doesn't help." Shikamaru slumped back onto his desk, muttering, "What a drag."
It was a drag, all right, but there was something even more of a drag.
The test was a drag, team assignments were a drag, and the missions ahead would be an even bigger drag. He really wanted to lie there and sleep until next spring.
But if he didn't see Hayashi today, once everyone started going on missions with their own teams, who knew when they would meet again?
They had been classmates, after all. From now on, all this bustle in the classroom would have nothing to do with him.
As for ending up on the same team-he wasn't holding out much hope.
His dad had told him long ago that every generation of Ino-Shika-Cho was always assigned to the same team.
Outside the window, clouds drifted slowly past, one after another.
Shikamaru watched them for a while, then sighed again.
Akamaru sat on the desk and