"Iruka?" It was Shota at her door peering in. "What are you doing still up? It's like 2 a.m."

"Oh is it actually?" She yawned out pretty drained. "Sorry I was studying and didn't notice the time."

"Your exam is tomorrow- well later today. You should've been asleep hours ago."

"I know that but I can't afford to fail this test. I don't wanna be left behind." Her voice getting quieter with each word, sleep bound to encase her in darkness.

"Kiddo I know you're worried but staying up won't do you any good if you accidentally sleep during your exam or even get too tired for practicals. So go to bed ok?" Iruka gave a weak nod before shuffling over to her bed, Shota following behind to tuck her in.

"Night Dad~" She whispered before drifting off to immediate slumber.

"Night kiddo." He kissed her forehead and went to his own room to crash on the bed.

==========

"Hey, Whiskers did you eat at all?" Katsuki questioned as he tied her hair into neat braids.

"I- uh. No." Katsuki let out a frustrated sigh and handed a granola bar to both Izuku and Iruka.

"Wha- why-" Izuku spluttered.

"Cause God knows neither of you fucking eats breakfast before an exam."

"I- I'm not like that anymore Kacchan!" Izuku whined but it landed on deaf ears as Katsuki ignored him in favour of finishing Iruka's braids. He gave in and just ate the damn granola bar.

===========

"I never want to see an examination paper for the rest of my life." Iruka groaned.

"I don't think that's possible Iruka. I mean we only just finished our first final exams." Momo pointed out and Iruka merely slammed her head onto the table.

"Look at least we finally finished our written tests!" Tooru spun in front of her happily.

Iruka hummed as she fiddled with her pen. 3 days of the written examination was enough for Iruka to go mentally insane. She was a little glad she only had practicals left.

Everyone was instructed to change into their hero costumes before meeting up at the practical exam area. There was a spur of conversations guessing what they would be doing. Though Mina was pretty adamant at it being robots they were fighting.

When they all arrived everyone seemed to notice how all their teachers were there. Iruka felt a little excited.

"Now all of you probably have speculated what you might be doing for your practicals," Shota stated.

"Ya, we're fighting robots!" Denki yelled out pretty pumped himself.

Shota reminded them that they could potentially fail this test. How depressing. Once Shota was done explaining how important it was to pass this test Kyoka voiced out her classes curiosity asking why all their teachers were there in the first place.

Before Shota could answer Principal Nezu hopped out of his scarf to tell the class how the exam was going to be completely different that year. Mina and Denki looked mortified.

The main focus this year was teamwork and combat against actual people. Which meant their class would be put into pairs and were to face the teachers as though they were villains. Iruka was practically vibrating where she stood. Heh, I haven't been up against the UA staff in so longggg maybe I'll be able to see how far I've come by doing this. This is going to be a very sweet piece of cake. Iruka thought, bouncing on the balls of her heels.

It was reasonable to see her classmates panic a little but Iruka was too busy enjoying herself to understand how scary the situation might've seemed. It seemed their partners and opponents had already been chosen which gave an extra bit of excitement and mystery. It was interesting to know that the reason for the pairings was due to factors such as fighting style, grades and interpersonal relationships.

=========

Iruka glared at All Might. They had just been giving their pairings and frankly, she was just a tad bit unsatisfied. She didn't mind her partner, Tooru was a delightful girl. She wished more than anything it was All Might she was up against. Not even for the exam at that point, she just wanted to beat the crap out of All Might before he would beat the crap out of her best friends. Even when he would be wearing weights, Iruka was sure all three of them would come out of the exam injured one way or another.

"To complete the exam you have 30 minutes. To win your objective is to either put these handcuffs on your opponent or you can win if one of you can escape the combat stage," Nezu explained as he held up the handcuffs they would be using. Denki mentioned how it was pretty similar to the combat training they did earlier in the year.

"Is it really ok to just jet?" Mina questioned and Nezu nodded.

"It's gonna be way tougher than that combat training y'all did earlier. Besides you're up against people waaaaay better than you." Mic states gesturing to himself.

"Better really?" Kyoka asked. "Wait aren't you just the announcer?" They voiced rather bluntly.

Iruka stifled a laugh as her teacher yelled at Kyoka for being disrespectful.

It was rather interesting when they were told they had to think of their teachers as villains. It was scary to think of them as such, all of them being very capable of committing more than petty crimes.

"Assuming you come across your enemy if you think you can win against them then fine. However-" Snipe paused.

"In instances where you're outmatched, it would be smarter to run away and find help." Shota continued. "Todoroki, Iida, Midoriya, Ito. I am sure the four of you understand." Iruka swallowed hard.

Everyone was given the choice to either watch the other examinees or strategies among each other. Iruka managed to convince Tooru to watch the others promising she had a plan in mind and would relay it to her 30 minutes before their own exam. It seemed Izuku, Ochaco and Yuuga were there as well.

"Is Kacchan not here too?"

"I uh- no. He didn't really want to talk strategy or talk to me at all really." Izuku slumped where he stood but quickly stood straight upright when he saw how worried Iruka was.

"He was fine this morning though..." 

==========

Iruka and Tooru were in the back seat of the transportation car, furiously writing in Iruka's notebook probably planning how they would win during the exams without Snipe knowing.

When they reached their examination ground the students went up to the top floor of the building and were told to wait while Snipe went off and "hide" giving them a bit more time to plan.

"Where do you think he is?" Tooru asked as she stretched.

"Bottom floor? Maybe 5th or sixth? Either way, he's either going to make us find him or he ambushes us."

"Than plan B?" Iruka nodded.

They both headed to the stairwell at the end of the hallway Iruka was a bird to easily manoeuvre around in the building. They went down 2 floors being surrounded by some kind of gas that filled the room.

"What the hell is this!" Tooru squeaked as Iruka changed back tryna to look through the gas.

"Keep your mouth and nose covered Tooru we don't know what kind of gas this might be." Iruka had covered her face with her own scarf before grabbing Tooru and running a few more flights of stairs.

Thankfully the fog hadn't spread throughout the entire building so they took a moment to recollect themselves. That gas, it's some kind of tear gas? Or maybe it was a distraction. But Snipe doesn't have gas bombs, does he? So building malfunction? Wouldn't they call off the exam if there was a malfunction? Deep in thought, Iruka didn't realise a bullet had been shot until it crashed into the wall, right next to her ear.

"Shit Tooru, plan C!" Iruka yelled out as they ran down the other side of the hall. I should've paid more attention damnit.

Iruka grabbed Tooru's gloves and changed into a bird in search of Snipe. Taking a few educated guesses and following his scent she found him surrounded by another fog gas. She was running out of stamina so she had to knock him out now while he couldn't see. Iruka swiftly changed before trying to kick Snipe in the neck.

Her foot snagged something instead.

"Tut-tut Iruka, you shouldn't underestimate the enemy just because you know them." Snipe tried to knock Iruka down to the ground though she transformed, slipping out of his hold.

She detransformed again landing on Snipe's shoulders, hooking her leg around his neck and grabbing his arms behind his back. Snipe struggled out of her hold but tripped over something sending him stumbling back which Iruka enough lift for her to bend backwards, catching herself on her hands and slamming Snipe onto the ground.

With a click from the cuffs, Snipe was subdued and Tooru and Iruka passed their finals.

"Wooh we did it Iru-Chan!" Tooru cheered taking her gloves from Iruka to high-five her partner.

"Yup! Are you injured anywhere?"

"Just a bruise. Snipe Sensei your boots hurt a lot." Tooru whined.

"Heh, were you the thing I tripped over?" Snipe chuckled, getting off the ground.

"You won't know our super-secret plan." Iruka laughed along.

After a quick checkup with Recovery Girl, Iruka headed back to the viewing room to watch the matches. Izuku was still there, ready to congratulate her. With a smile, she joined her classmates. She was so happy, proud even but nothing could silence her worry for Izuku and Katsuki

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Ok so technically speaking, because I have no set ending to this story, it'll either end at the end of an arc or I'll announce the ending when I'm like 10 chapters ahead or sumn.

Don'tcha worry about this story ending though cause I have until the war arc drafted(?).

If you enjoyed this chapter do leave a vote and/or comment. Every comment makes my day (♡˙︶˙♡).

Have a lovely day, night, weekend, whenever, wherever you are.

Stay safe,
Bye Lovies~