Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji were lucky, and their entry gate was quite close to the meeting area. They were waiting until everybody got into position, so the chunin in front of them would finally open the gates. The anticipation was palpable in the air, and Ino was nearly vibrating with smug anticipation that was throwing Shikamaru slightly off.

That troublesome blonde. Sigh.

Shikamaru wanted to shake his head, but it was too much effort.

He also didn’t want to give Ino any hint of his less-than-flattering thoughts, and the girl was scarily good when it came to body language.

The Yamanaka girl was pure evil.

A devil!

An enemy of all lazy people!

A mortal enemy to the happiness of the Nara clan!

Shikamaru inwardly shuddered. To think that his parents considered a betrothal between him and Ino. Just the thought of it made Shikamaru horrified beyond words.

He could forget his early afternoon nap if that went through. He could forget his late afternoon nap, too. Or his evening nap, followed by going to bed early.

The horror!

Shikamaru decided not to even think about the fact that the Yamanaka devil would undoubtedly force him to wake up at an ungodly early hour in the morning, like nine a.m., for training of all things.

Another shudder went through Shikamaru’s body, and Ino turned toward him with furrowed eyebrows. He only just managed to give her a slightly strained smile before he instantly cursed himself inwardly, hoping she would not pry further into it.

Fortunately for him, the blonde devil just huffed and rolled her eyes at him before she turned back toward the gate, and continued to make the poor chunin guarding it uncomfortable by staring at him as if trying to hypnotize him to open it already.

Shikamaru could sympathize with the man. That was the look Ino always gave him when she waited for him to finish his daily dose of physical exercises she threw at him during their training.

Now, don’t get him wrong.

Shikamaru had gotten much stronger under Ino’s tutelage. He could admit that much. And he was also smart enough to notice that Asuma didn’t really teach them much. It was mostly Ino’s efforts that cultivated their team’s strength.

Asuma threw them a bone here and there in the form of advice, but other than that, he was very hands-off with them.

The man was lazy. Shikamaru liked him.

But no amount of increase in strength could justify the absolute torture he went through under Ino’s care. His schedule of lazing around was ruined. His future dream of having a plain wife, two unremarkable kids, a peaceful life, and living past his retirement, where he could enjoy some good shogi while lounging around, was dismissed.

Ino downright mocked him, saying that he would never live to his retirement age if he were not strong enough! And when he told his parents? They just nodded in understanding. The traitors.

He expected nothing else.

What he didn’t expect was to be ordered by his father, the patriarch of the Nara clan, to go through every training exercise Ino wanted to put him through.

His own father. A fellow Nara. The traitor.

They even confiscated his favorite pillow and held it hostage!

For the first time in his life, Shikamaru witnessed the ruthlessness necessary to be a great ninja. He stifled another shudder.

Fortunately, the betrothal talks between their families, which were practically just his father loudly asking, “Yo, Inoichi. Wanna have your daughter marry my lazy-ass son? Your girl knows how to kick his ass into gear! Hahahaha.” when they were both heavily in their cups during one of the clan gatherings, were refused by the slurring and hiccuping Inoichi.

Apparently, Ino was already spoken for. And surprisingly, it was to her tutor, the man who apparently trained the she-devil. The man who was responsible for her evil ways.

May he forever burn in hell, where all overly motivated people eventually end up.

Everybody in the Nara clan knew that the Pure Lands were only for the lazy, not bothersome folk. Duh.

Shikamaru still remembered the day when Ino came to him, put her arm around his neck out of nowhere, and sweetly asked him if he wanted to join her in training under her tutor. It was sometime at the start of their last year in the academy?

Shikamaru instantly felt an imminent danger from the way Ino smiled at him in that moment, and promptly refused, turning tail the second the pouting blonde girl released him.

He patted himself on the back for escaping the obvious plot to corrupt his pure, lazy ways.

“Are you kids ready?” The chunin suddenly asked, pulling Shikamaru out of his thoughts.

“Yes!” Ino exclaimed, and Shikamaru decided that sighing would take energy, he could instead save by not reacting. He only gave the chunin a very small, barely visible nod of acknowledgement before slowly turning his head toward Choji.

A small smile appeared on Shikamaru’s face upon seeing his friend.

Choji was still munching on his chips with a newfound intensity. It was kind of intimidating, to be honest, and the chunin shuffled a bit away from them when Choji gave him a thumb-up with one hand while not even slowing his chips-munching. But Shikamaru knew the big-boned boy was just nervous.

He, too, suffered under the vile training regime of the bothersome blonde. And he, too, became much stronger for it.

Shikamaru knew they were ready. Ready to take this exam by storm! No enemy was going to stop them. They were going to finish in three days. And then!

And then, Shikamaru had grand plans of sleeping the rest off in the tower before he was let go, and he could go sleep some more in his house.

He had already planned it. The team to their left was a genjutsu user, a taijutsu user, and a ninjutsu user. Ambushing them should be eas-

“Alright!” The chunin exclaimed after listening to his earpiece. “The second phase of the Chunin Exams starts… NOW!”

The gates opened, and Shikamaru reluctantly followed Ino, who led their team, into the forest.

“Ino.” He opened his mouth, deciding to persuade his teammate to follow his plan while they ran on the tree branches, deeper into the forest. “We need to steer a bit to the left. We can intercept the team from the nearest gate on our left side. Their composition should not be a problem for us. I also noticed that their genjutsu user had a nasty cough, their taijutsu user seemed to be easily angered by being compared to his ninjutsu using teammate, who detested both of the others. We can use this information to-“

Shikamaru suddenly stopped speaking, frowning. “… Ino, are you listening to me?” He raised his voice a bit, despite the effort it required.

He was a little miffed.

Ino owlishly blinked, turning her head a bit to him. “Hm? Oh. Sorry, Shikamaru. Were you saying something?” She asked with such sincerity that Shikamaru was rendered speechless.

He glanced at Choji, who also didn’t pay attention and just kept eating while following them.

Shikamaru’s head dropped. “No, Ino. Nothing important.” He helplessly said, lazily deciding that trying to lead this team was bothersome. Ino wanted the position, so she could deal with it.

No. He was not sulking. Not at all.

“So, what’s the pla-” He started asking Ino but then the foliage to their left shuffled and their team abruptly stopped in their tracks as they jumped onto the ground and got into a defensive formation just as three genin, those that entered from the gate to their immediate right, walked out of the bushes toward them.

Shikamaru inwardly cursed.

Two ninjutsu specialists and a taijutsu specialist. A heavy combat-oriented team from Kiri that was known to be bloody as hell.

A bead of sweat dropped down Shikamaru’s temple as he subtly gulped, his nerves getting to him. His palms started sweating. Their team fought a few bandits outside the village, but that was it. They have never fought other ninjas in a proper life and death situation. This was the first time for them.

He idly wondered if that was the reason why their clans all demanded the younger generation of heirs and heiresses participate in the Exams.

But it wasn’t important right now. Now, he had enemies in front of him, and he was going to deal with them. They were in a dark forest, under a heavily overgrown canopy that cast shadows all around them.

This was going to be easy, he tried to encourage himself.

Shikamaru’s hands quickly joined, making a hand sign-

When one of the enemy team members, a ninjutsu specialist standing between his teammates, suddenly flung his arms at his teammates, his fingers brutally striking them with great precision directly into an acupuncture point with chakra poke, sending both genin crashing down onto the ground unconscious before they even realized what happened.

Of course, the Kiri genin’s untrained fingers instantly snapped in multiple places, both from the force of his blow and the chakra he channeled through them.

But that wasn’t important, was it?

Shikamaru’s eyes bulged out, and his jaw almost dropped.

That… Gentle fist!?

‘How!?’ He inwardly exclaimed in utter shock when the Kiri genin reached into his pouch and threw the smug Ino his scroll. The exact scroll that their team needed.

‘What a lucky coincidence.’ A part of Shikamaru’s consciousness dryly remarked, but for the most part, he was still too shocked to react properly.

Suddenly, the Kiri genin seemed to come as if out of a trance.

A second of silence ensued.

Then the screaming began as the genin felt his shattered fingers flaring with pain. But it was short-lived as a split second later, he just collapsed forward. He was unconscious before his body hit the ground.

Genjutsu, Shikamaru reckoned.

But again, how? He had no idea. Ino didn’t even twitch her fingers!

The fifth second passed since the Kiri genin walked out of the bushes, and Shikamaru had just managed to regain his wits as he gave Ino a blank look, expertly hiding just how much his hackles were raised.

He knew that his troublesome teammate was troublesome.

But, he glanced at the trio of unconscious genin, he had clearly underestimated just how dangerous she could be. This called for some more in-depth thinking about his most troublesomest blonde teammate.

And a nap. Can’t forget the nap. That should help with the headache.

“Oh. Would you look at that, boys?” Ino foxily grinned, noticing Shikamaru’s blank look and Choji’s surprised, wide-eyed expression. “A free scroll had just landed in my hands! Let’s go to the Tower. Momma wanna break a record for some bragging rights!” She almost vibrated with excitement at the thought.

Shikamaru and Choji looked at each other, exchanging a wordless, ‘What the hell?’, before they both sighed as they started following Ino to lead them through the Forest.

They both knew the blonde was fully capable and willing to drag them to the Tower by their ears if they disobeyed.

… Troublesome memories were troublesome.

At least the way to the Tower was peaceful as Ino somehow managed to avoid every team with the idea to rush to the Tower first to set up an ambush, and not an hour and a half later, Shikamaru was falling asleep in their room, giddily grinning.

He had to admit, there were small upsides to being in the team with the blonde she-devil.

Like the very big and very comfy bed she had unsealed in their room, and Shikamaru had to spend ten whole minutes negotiating with Ino to use part of it for himself.

Ah. The sheets were so soft! Hehe. He idly wondered how the other participants were liking their first night in the Forest.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep