[center][sub][@Hey Im Jordan] [@KZOMBI3][/sub]
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	In an ideal world, Mori slept well the night before his chunin exams, because he was a perfectly functional child soldier who didn’t feel the mounting weight of academic pressure squeezing all the air out of his lungs. Instead, after Iza had dozed and Karu was making a reasonable attempt at it, Mori just closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, all the while dreaming of what it would mean for him to graduate from the ranks of genin.

	Pros: his arrangement with his clan and his country would continue as planned, and he would be on track to becoming the fuuinjutsu specialist of his wildest imagination.

	Cons: his arrangement with his clan and his country would continue as planned, and he would go back to the Land of Whirlpools for an indefinite period of time, without a doubt leaving Team 3 behind. Dowsing that pesky Will of Fire that tried its damnest to rear up in his heart.

	He kept adding conditions to his own future. He’d only disappear once he was a chunin was one of the first. He’d wait until Team 3 disbanded. He’d wait until Karu had achieved his Sharingan. He’d wait until Katsumi-sensei had taught them all they needed to know from her encyclopedia. Well, at that rate, he might as well as wait for them all to be married-with-children in a picturesque vision of adulthood, their dreams all achieved, except his.

	Come morning he was no quieter than usual, careful to hide any lingering sense of doubt beneath respect for his team. Beneath duty –– and something much warmer. If he dozed off during the Hokage’s speech, well, it was fine. The Academy had taught him how to daydream with his eyes open, looking for all the world like he was listening intently to the content of a lecture. 

	Plus, she was Karu’s mom. And Mori practically lived in her house five nights a week. On the off-chance that he was caught out, forgiveness would surely come easily, right?

	Tuning out Karu’s endless panicked babble, he answered his concerns silently in his head, waiting for a pause to answer that never came. ‘Lunch would most likely be after the test. You’ll be fine, you’re sensei’s favourite and you must have picked up something helpful in three years,’ and so on, until he directed them to split up, with special instructions to both himself and Iza. 

	[color=58b2e4]“Summoning Princess Nurunuru would be a waste of chakra,”[/color] Mori said, staring down Karu’s retreating form, face blank. Absently, he noticed that Iza had already left, but he was fully committed now; if he had to explain the problems of this plan to an audience of one, himself, then he would. [color=58b2e4]“The genin from other countries – our opponents – will see her, and will thus be able to plan accordingly if we ever come into conflict. That’s not even mentioning the fact that she hates being called for trivial tasks.”[/color]

	But no matter how wasteful, how show-offish, how Kaminari the order was, he just let loose a long-suffering sigh and slit the tip of his thumb with the edge of a kunai.

	One long-suffering kuchiyose no jutsu later, a blue-green slug slid over the floors of the auditorium. Obligingly, Mori knelt down to pick her up; a purely pragmatic move that delighted Nurunuru with his deference. In a chiming voice incongruous to her whole slimy everything, she said, [color=58e4d0]“Lift me, peasant.”[/color] And he did, letting her slither up the sleeve of his hoodie to settle on his shoulder. [color=58e4d0]“What do you require of your benevolent future-queen today?”[/color]

	[color=58b2e4]“This one would humbly ask for your aid with his reconnaissance of the room.”[/color]

	[color=58e4d0]“I refuse.”[/color] Mori began to make his way into the crowd anyway, careful not to jostle the slug on his shoulder. More than one would-be chūnin paid him a quizzical look as he passed them by, and one Iwa-nin even went so far as to scribble something down in a small pad. [color=58e4d0]“To do so would debase me. I would lose all respect as a heiress–.”[/color]

	He interrupted before her pitch and volume could increase even further. [color=58b2e4]“Karu thought that Your Benevolence would be the best one for the job.”[/color]

	[color=58e4d0]“Oh. Well, that certainly changes my answer. Why didn’t you say so earlier?”[/color] Her eye-stalked wiggled an implication at him that was troubling to see, and the chakra within her pulsed, warming her ‘cheeks’ like a blush. [color=58e4d0]“If young sir Kaminari believes that to be the best course of action, then of course, I will oblige him. Onwards, steed!”[/color]

	Not for the first time, Mori wondered if he was really the summoner here – or indeed, if he should have ever signed the contract in the first place.

	Nurunuru whispered in his ear superficial information about people of note as he walked towards the commotion. She could, in fact, be quiet when she wanted to be, but she only wanted to be when she had Karu’s appreciation as a carrot on a stick. Of those she pointed out, she recognised a few nin on the older side of genin, as well as a lone shinobi from Mist who glared at anyone whose eyes made contact with his eerie gaze, and a kunoichi from Suna who played with a set of scrolls so worn they were fraying at the edges.

	After that, before he could stop her, she began to comment on those Mori actually knew. His classmates. In no world did he need a second opinion on Shirou’s adorability, Kanehara’s rugged masculinity, or the Hinoiki cousins’ edibility – whatever that meant.

	[color=58e4d0]“Will young sir Kaminari be pleased with my services rendered?”[/color] she asked when they circled back around.

	[color=58b2e4]“I’m– I mean, this one is sure he will be.”[/color] Mori paused as he caught a glimpse of the conflict on the other side of the room, one that Iza had firmly planted herself in the middle of. He made a noise in the back of his throat, the progeny of a groan and a sigh. [color=58b2e4]“Although, he would surely appreciate it if Your Beauticiousness would so kindly stick around to help in case of injury. Perhaps he would even appreciate it so much that he might reward you with a kiss.”[/color]

	[color=58e4d0]“Hohoho, a kiss! How scandalous that would be; I could never accept it from such a rogue!”[/color] She wibbled and wobbled as she giggled, until her voice dropped into a thoughtful whisper, [color=58e4d0]“[i]Unless...[/i]”[/color]

	Okay, maybe Mori did have a spike of mischief in him. Blame Hirameki.