The Legend of Konoha's Shooting Star

The Tenth Question!!

"Ha?" Naruto whispered back, not believing his ears.

"You can look at my answers, Naruto-kun..." she repeated timidly.

'What is she saying? Why?' he wondered, puzzled by her sudden generosity. "..." He stared at her, frowned slightly and furrowed his brow. "!!" he gasped, startled when a dangerous thought occurred. 'Could it be...'  he wondered, narrowing his eyes slightly, 'some kind of trap?'

"!" Hinata's blush deepened under his intense gaze, and she looked down at the desk, fidgeting nervously under his scrutiny. "..."

'Nah... Hinata wouldn't do something like that...' Naruto thought, still tense. Hinata might be a little weird, but he knew she was a nice person. '... But if Kiba told her to...' He could totally see that jerk pressuring her into something like that. "Hey, Hinata, why are you willing to do that?" he whispered warily.

Hinata flinched a little at the blunt question. "Because..." she whispered, playing nervously with her fingers.  "..." Her blush deepened. "... I..." she gulped, swallowing the lump that formed in her throat. "... Don't want you to disappear here." She knew it was important for him to pass the Chūnin Exam in order to fulfill his dream to become Hokage.

"...?" Naruto stared at her, still a little skeptical. What was that supposed to mean? It still didn't explain why she was willing to risk her neck for him.

"See... the ten of us are the only rookies..." she continued anxiously as an excuse, not ready to reveal her deeper feelings for him yet. "We need to work together..."

Naruto looked at her for one moment longer before breaking out in a smile. "Hehe... Oh, I see..." he whispered, feeling relieved. "I was kind of confused..." He felt sort of bad for suspecting her now. 'Anyway... How lucky I am,' he thought. 'Good thing I'm next to Hinata.' "Hehe," he laughed quietly as she leaned over, pretending to cover her paper, while she subtly slid it a little closer for him to see.

"!!" Naruto flinched, stopping in his tracks when he heard the sound of another pencil moving. He glanced sideways at the testing officers and saw that one of them was writing something down. "..." He frowned and furrowed his brow, worried he might have been seen.

The testing officer smirked.

"Hinata... you don't understand," Naruto whispered nervously, keeping his eyes away from her paper.

"Huh?" Hinata whispered, confused.

"An incredible ninja like me doesn't need to cheat," he explained with a reassuring smile.

Her brow furrowed slightly with concern. "... Naruto-kun... But..."

"Plus, because you helped me cheat... you could get in trouble too," he pointed out.

"Huh?" Hinata gasped, surprised. She had been so worried about him that she had almost forgotten about that. 'Naruto-kun... But...' she thought, still concerned. The fact that he seemed more worried about her than himself made her want to help him even more, but...

'And if I get caught it will cause problems for April, Sakura-chan, and Sasuke... I can't blow it  here...' he thought with a frown, sweating nervously. He didn't want to drag them down with him, and the thought of what they might do to him if he got them all disqualified for a lame reason like cheating was even more terrifying than being caught by the testing officers.

Hinata saw the expression on his face and looked down at the desk. Even though she wanted to help him, she could tell he wouldn't accept it, and she wanted respect his resolve. "I'm sorry..." she apologized quietly. "You're right..."

"No problem," Naruto whispered back confidently with a smile, before turning away to mourn the tight situation he had just put himself in. 'Damn... I'm an idiot...' he thought with trails of tears streaming down his face. Why did he have to act so big? 'Now what am I going to do?'