DD- I seriously can't believe I'm writing this, but that's ok

DD- Okay, so I know the couple is REALLY strange, but it doesn't matter : well anyway, I used to think I did a really good job on this, til I re-read it, and realized that it was a ton of crap, so I'm redoing this story to make it A LOT better :

Gaara- Finally (rolls eyes) she's been saying she would redo it for months and she still hasn't done it

DD- Whatevers :PPP It's ShikaxGenma and here's the story : and some stuffs :PP

/\\\... – Breaks

'Yo peanut butter jelly and tuna,' - Thoughts

He thought he would never love again

It was a rainy, dark night; it would have been very peaceful to listen to the rain 'pitter patter' while trying to sleep. But it wasn't a very peaceful night for two people, two men actually, who stood on a large hill surrounded by many trees, the rain hitting them and drenching them as they stood there.

"I don't love you, why can't you just realize that?! I was using you! You're pathetic, worthless, and nobody will ever love you!" One of the men exclaimed at the other. You couldn't see what he looked like because of the darkness shadowing over him, though you could clearly tell what the other man looked like. He had silky brown, longish hair, well, long for a guy, and a bandana around his head. He wore what seemed to be a green vest and a dark blue, turtleneck long sleeve shirt under it, and blue baggy pants with black ninja sandals. All in all, he was a handsome man, but there was something ruining his appearance; the tears running down his face.

"P-please don't do this. Don't do this to me! I love you! Please, don't leave me!" The man cried out, as the other man walked away from him, not even sparing a second look at him.

"SHUJI!" the man yelled, sitting up fast in his bed, his face full of sweat. He moved a hand towards his head, wiping the sweat off his face.

"It was just a dream Genma, get a hold of yourself," the man now known as Genma whispered to himself.

He sighed as he looked over to the alarm clock that read 6:00 AM, pulled the covers off himself, and got out of bed. He walked over to his closet and pulled out his usual Jounin clothes, stripping out of his pajamas that consisted of a plain black, baggy t-shirt and black sweatpants, and pulling on his clothes for the day, and of course his usual trademark; his toothpick. After he was done with that, he walked down the creaky, wooden stairs of his small house, and into the kitchen, where he quickly grabbed a poptart, and walked out of the house with a blank stare, lost in his thoughts.

'That dream… Why was I dreaming about him?' Genma thought sorrowly, thinking about the man hidden in the shadows.

His thoughts were interrupted when he suddenly ran into somebody, falling on top of them.

"Um can you get off of me?" A voice asked, as Genma looked to see who the person he fell on top of was. It was a lazy looking man wearing the same outfit as he, and had his hair in a ponytail that was shaped like a pineapple. He knew this man from somewhere, but he couldn't figure out where. He then realized that the man asked him to get off of him a few seconds ago, so he quickly stood up, and stuck his hand out for the man, so he could help him up.

"Sorry about that, I wasn't looking where I was going," Genma apologized sheepishly, as he helped the man up.

"Eh, no problem, life's just troublesome," he said, wiping the dust off of his pants, "Shikamaru by the way."

It took Genma a few seconds to realize what he meant when he said that, and then he blushed in embarrassment, and replied back with a, "Genma."

The lazy looking boy smiled slightly, and took out his hand to shake Genma's, "Nice to meet you, though we've already sort of met."

"Hm? What do you mean?" Genma asked, shaking Shikamaru's hand.

"I was one of the participants in the Chunnin exam back a few years ago, and you were one of the people in charge," Shikamaru replied, taking his hand away, and putting it into his pockets. Genma suddenly realized that he was indeed the only boy to pass the Chunnin exam that round, and smiled at him.

"Yeah, now I remember. Pretty good for a 13 year old," Genma smirked, as Shikamaru smirked as well.

"Probably could kick your ass," Shikamaru retorted in a playful way, as Genma started laughing.

"Right, whatever," Genma replied back, rolling his chocolate eyes, "Would you like to test that theory?"

"Sure, but it would have to be later. I have to go get some papers from the Hokage," Shikamaru said.

Genma started getting curious, so he asked, "What for?"

"ANBU exam, my troublesome mother and teammate want me to take them," Shikamaru said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh good, I thought I was the only one doing them," Genma laughed a little, as Shikamaru's eyes widened.

"Really? You're doing them? Thank god! I thought I was going to be all alone," Shikamaru sighed with relief, as Genma sheepishly laughed. 'Yeah, except for the fact that I haven't exactly signed up and wasn't planning to.'

"Okay then, I have to go get those papers, I'll see you there I guess," Shikamaru said, saying his goodbyes to the older man, as Genma sighed. What had possessed him to lie to Shikamaru and say that he was doing the ANBU exam? Now he was going to actually have to do the ANBU exam, well, unless he didn't want to be called a liar or a jackass by Shikamaru. Troublesome.

He sighed, he'd have to get the papers either later or tomorrow so that Shikamaru wouldn't think he was some kind of stalker. He decided later, since 'the sooner the better' he thought bitterly.

Genma sighed for what seemed the millionth time that morning, and walked to the grocery store to get his grocery's and run his errands for the day. As he picked up the milk to put it into his cart, he froze and almost dropped the milk he was grabbing to put in his cart as he saw the back of a person with spiky, short red hair. He stared at him with wide eyes for a while, until the other man turned to Genma could see his face.

"You know, it's really uncomfortable for me with your staring," the man said, as he walked away from Genma, who let out the breath that he was holding in.

"Jeez, why does everything remind me of you?" Genma whispered quietly to himself, as he got the rest of his groceries, and hurried out of the store. He could wait to do the other things later. He quickly walked to his house carrying the brown bag of groceries, opened the front door, got inside and set the bag down on the kitchen table, and locked the door.

"I'm so paranoid," Genma muttered, as he put his groceries away in the cabinets and the refrigerator. When he was done he went into another small room with red shag carpet, a beige couch in the middle, and a TV. He turned on the TV and began to watch with no interest, trying to take his mind off of everything; trying to escape the world.

/\\\...

Genma sighed as he entered the door to his house once again. He just went out to go get his ANBU papers that he needed to fill out and return to the Hokage by tomorrow afternoon, and he had to say that he had had an eventful evening.

Flashback

"Thank you Hokage-Sama," Genma said, bowing respectfully at Tsunade, as she nodded back to him, as she handed him the ANBU papers.

"Just remember that you need to fill out and sign these before tomorrow. I have to say this is pretty late for you to be signing up. I mean usually you aren't a procrastinator, and you usually want to get done with things the minute you find out about them, but I'll allow it anyway. There was another person who just signed up today too. I swear he's the laziest boy I've ever met, though the smartest. But I do have a question, if I may ask," Tsunade said, curiously.

"Go ahead Hokage-Sama," Genma said, completely fine on the outside, but extremely nervous on the inside.

"Why the sudden interest in the ANBU exam? It's been about 5 years since you became Jounin, and you've had no interest to go further than that. You even said so yourself that you didn't even want to do the ANBU exam at all," Tsunade questioned, as Genma started thinking for an excuse.

"Well, I've changed my mind recently and I decided that I should go even further, and try my hardest as a Konoha nin," Genma lied easily.

Tsunade looked a little like she didn't believe him, but she knew she wasn't going to get anything out of him, so she sighed and excused him.

Genma with relief, thinking it was all over, as he closed his eyes, and put his free hand on his head, until he heard a voice.

"Genma, what are you doing here?"

'Shit, shit, shit,' Genma thought as he suddenly opened his eyes, and put his hand down.

"Oh, hey Shikamaru what are you doing here?" Genma questioned.

"Oh, just turning in the forms, troublesome," Shikamaru muttered the last part, "But what are you doing here? Why do you have the forms? Didn't you turn them in already?"

'Crap, what am I going to say?' Genma thought nervously.

"Um, well, I was told a few days ago that there was going to be an ANBU exam, and well, being the lazyass that I am, I waited 'til the last minute and almost forgot, until you reminded me, so I came up here to get the forms," Genma lied, though Shikamaru looked as though he believed it.

"Oh, okay. You don't really seem like the 'lazyass' type," Shikamaru said, as Genma smirked.

"Well, people aren't always what they seem," Genma said, as he started to walk a little towards the door to go outside, "I'll see you later 'k?"

"Sure," Shikamaru nodded, as they made their separate ways. 'That was close' Genma thought, as he sighed, again.

End Flashback

"Of course this always happens to me," Genma rolled his eyes, and filled out the papers. They were mostly things like 'Name, Sex, Village, Rank, and Age.' Of course age didn't really matter, but they had to know anyway. They also had a few ridiculous questions like 'What are you allergic to?' and 'Have you ever killed anybody?' To those questions he said, why the hell would they need to know what I'm allergic too, and of course I've killed somebody, hasn't almost every ninja killed somebody? But of course he wrote down what he was supposed to, so he wouldn't get in trouble or anything.

After he was done, he left the papers on the counter in his kitchen, and headed up to his room to change into his pajamas(AKA his black shirt and pants), and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. When he was done, he headed to his bedroom, and then to his bed, where he got in and immediately fell asleep.

Dream

There was a fair going on in the village of Konoha, where there were tons of games, rides, booths, and of course food. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves, even Genma.

"Shuji, let's go on that ride!" Genma yelled excitedly, acting like a little kid, as he pulled a man whose face was covered by shadows, so you couldn't see what he looked like. All he did was nod slightly, as he allowed himself to be pulled to the ride by Genma.

'Why, why is he being so quiet? Did I do something wrong?' Genma thought sadly, but then cheered up as soon as he saw the ride. He dragged Shuji onto the ride, and they rode it.

They were having a fun time until it started to rain, and they had to shut down all the rides, though everyone seemed to still have fun anyway, and people were dancing and singing, having the time of their lives.

"Come with me," Shuji said, pulling Genma into the forests of Konoha. After about a mile or two of walking, Shuji stopped, and Genma along with him. They were stuck in an awkward silence for what seemed like an eternity. Genma was about the open his mouth and ask him what it was, until Shuji started to talk.

"I hate you."

End Dream

Genma woke up panting and sweating like the day before, and like yesterday, he stripped, put on his clothes, got a poptart, and headed out the door, with his ANBU papers of course. He walked towards the Hokage's building and admired his surroundings. It was a beautiful spring day, flowers and trees blooming, and birds chirping throughout Konoha. The sky was a light blue and everybody was chatting around, it seemed like nothing was wrong with the world.

But he knew that wasn't true. His life was extremely messed up, as were most of the people in Konoha's. People like Kakashi, a good friend of his, still went to the gravestone with his friends and teammates names engraved on it and just stared at it everyday for hours, which was why he was always so late to everything, and Naruto Uzamaki, he had friends now, and people were starting to respect him, but then there were the die-hard people who didn't want to give away the hatred they felt for the boy who had the demon sealed inside of him, so therefore, he still received glares from most of the village, and every so often people would even complain to the Hokage and say that he should be killed(Of course she would say no).

People just wanted to pretend that nothing was wrong in life, and forget all the horrible memories in life. But that was never going to happen.

He broke out of his thoughts and came back to his surroundings, and walked up the stairs to the Hokage's office. He opened the door, and saw Tsunade working on a bunch of papers with an irritated look on her face.

"Um, Hokage-Sama?" Genma asked, as her head lifted up, and her eyes met with his.

"Yes Genma?" Tsunade replied back.

"I have the papers that you wanted me to fill out for the ANBU exam," Genma said, as he walked towards her desk, and handed her the papers. She looked over them to make sure that all the questions were filled out, and nodded with approval when she was done.

"Okay, the ANBU exam is going to start in two days, and you have to be at the testing room 2A in the ANBU building at 7:00 AM ready to go, understood?" Tsunade asked, as he nodded, and she put his papers into a drawer.

"Then I'll see you then," Genma nodded, as Tsunade excused him, and he left.

/\\\...

Two days had passed quickly for Genma, as he entered the ANBU building, dressed in his usual attire. He walked down the hall with doors on each sides of the wall.

'1B, 1C, 1D… 2A! Found it!' Genma mentally patted his back, as he opened the door and looked around the room. There looked to be about fifty or more people in the room, and all looked like they had been waiting there whole lives for this, which made Genma feel really stupid that he was only doing this because of a little lie. He found the nearest seat, which was one of the last except for the one next to his, and sat in it.

It had been about ten minutes since he came into the room, and he was starting to get impatient. Where the hell were the examiners? He was thinking about leaving when he saw the door open once more, and everybody turned to look at him. The person was wearing the Chuunin/Jounin attire and had spiky-pineapple hair.

"Shikamaru…" Genma whispered so quietly, that he was the only person who could hear it. 'Dang, he looks good.'

Shikamaru looked around the room, trying to spot a chair, when his eyes landed on Genma, Genma waved to him, motioning for him to come over. Shikamaru nodded, as he walked over to Genma, and took a seat next to him.

"Didn't think you'd be here earlier than me lazyass," Shikamaru started with a smirk, as Genma smirked back.

"Well, I was only about ten minutes ahead of you, excuse me for trying to be a little on time," Genma replied back.''

"Nah, I think you were only here earlier than me so you could find two empty chairs and make me sit next to you," Shikamaru's smirk grew, as Genma blushed slightly.

"Oh shut up," Genma said, rolling his eyes.

"So it is true?" Shikamaru said, now grinning.

"Whatever," Genma retorted back, hitting him playfully, as another person entered the room, and the chatting immediately stopped. Everyone turned to see three people enter the room wearing full ANBU outfits, though each person was wearing a different kind of mask. The first one was a man(from what they could tell), who was wearing an Eagle mask with the colors of black and yellow. The second was also a man(from what they could tell), and he was wearing a cat shaped mask with the whiskers, and the colors on it were of white and black. And the last one, who was obviously a girl because of how curvy she was in the ANBU outfit, was wearing a Tiger mask with red, orange, and black colors.

The one with the Eagle mask spoke first, "Hello to all. You may call me Soaring, you may call him," he pointed to the other man, "Neko, and you may call her," he pointed to the girl, "Scarlett, and we are you're examiners for this ANBU exam. First, we will be taking a writing test to see who is smart enough to go on, and for the people who do go on, we will tell you what happens after you pass. This test is going to test your knowledge about what you know about ANBU."

They passed out the tests to each person; most of which were gasping or their mouths were dropping down to the ground. It wasn't because of what they had learned about what the test was going to be on, but the fact that these people were very famous throughout the fire country, and even parts of the other countries.

"Do not cheat, because if you're caught, you will be asked to leave the room, and are not aloud to ever again become ANBU. Ever," Neko spoke, as everyone nodded, their attention back to the exam.

"Any questions?" Scarlett asked, waiting for a few seconds, and then continuing on when she found that nobody had raised their hands, "Okay, you may begin. You have one hour to complete this exam. Good luck."

Genma started the test as soon as she said begin, not even paying attention to the rest of what she was saying. He saw Shikamaru lazily skip through it, looking at the questions to see what there was on the test. He would have watched longer, but he was afraid they would think he was cheating, so he went back to his own work. He then realized something, why did he care if he was caught cheating? It would just give him an excuse to get out of here. Was it because of Shikamaru, was it because he didn't want to leave him behind? No, it wasn't because of Shikamaru; it's just that he didn't want to be called a cheater throughout Konoha. Yeah, that's the reason… Right…

He then continued to his test.

After about twenty-five, thirty minutes, Genma was done, so he flipped his test over and watched the people surrounding him. Many people were still working on the test, some were done and smirking happily, thinking they were going to definitely make it. He hated people like that. The people who thought that they were the best at everything, and were overly self-confident. It annoyed the hell out of him. He then looked over the Shikamaru, who was sleeping with his head in his arms, and his eyes closed. Genma smiled at him. 'He's pretty cute when he's asleep… Wait, where did that come from?' He thought, blushing, as he continued to stare at him. It only seemed like a few minutes for Genma, but it must have been longer, because the timer went off, signaling that it had been an hour.

'Well, there's a good way to spend time.'

After collecting all of the tests, the three ANBU stood at the front of the room, gaining full attention from all of the people in the room.

"We will now check the tests to see who will pass, and who shall not. It will probably take about ten or fifteen minutes, so wait. We'll be back, do whatever you'd like until we get back," Neko said, as they walked out of the room swiftly, taking the stack of tests with them.

Almost right after they left, everyone began talking, some saying about how they probably failed the test, or how they were definitely becoming ANBU.

"So how long did it take you to take the test?" Genma asked, turning to the now awake Shikamaru.

"Ugh, about ten minutes. Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed tiredly, as he put his head in his arms, but didn't close his eyes, he just looked over the Genma.

"How about you?" Shikamaru questioned.

"Eh, about twenty-five or thirty minutes. You're so lucky you're smart," Genma said jealously.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes before speaking, "Right, it's just so great. I just want to have a normal life, where I can sleep forever and watch the clouds."

Genma laughed, "You have some wild fantasies there."

"You're just jealous that I have so much more fun than you," Shikamaru pouted.

"Right," Genma laughed.

"Be that way," Shikamaru pouted a little more, and then stuck his tongue out at Genma, which made him laugh harder.

"You're such a child," Genma said, smiling at Shikamaru, as he turned his head.

"Am not!" Shikamaru argued playfully.

"Are too!" Genma retorted back, grinning. 'I think this is the most I've smiled and laughed in a long time. Why is that?'

After a few minutes of their playful argument, they were interrupted with the three ANBU walking back into the room. Everybody was completely silent once again.

"We are going to call some names, and when we do, we would like those people to stand up," Scarlett said, as she began reading the list of names. Genma noticed that his name wasn't called. 'Great, well, I didn't really want to be ANBU anyway.'

The people who were standing smiled proudly, and they seemed to think that they were better than everyone else. Others standing were smirking at the others who's names weren't called, which weren't many. There were about ten people sitting down still, including Genma, and from what they could tell, there were no more names. Then he noticed something out of place.

Shikamaru. He was sitting down.

"The names we just called leave this room immediately. None of you have passed the exam," something in Soaring's voice made it sound sort of harsh, and Genma was silently smirking on the inside at the people who thought they were so much better than everyone else. Their happy expressions turned into scowls and faces of disbelief in a matter of milliseconds. They packed up their belongings(if they had any), and walked out of the room, their heads down, trying to make sure that nobody could see their faces.

As soon as everybody left, Neko started, "Everybody else in this room has passed. I would now like to announce what we are going to do for part two of your exam. Everybody will be put into teams consisting of two people. We did the choosing randomly, just to let you know, so don't get mad at us if you don't like the person you're with. You'll just have to live."

It was now Soaring's turn to speak, "All of you, with your teams, will be set loose into a warehouse that is as big as the forest of death. It has many hiding places, many secret passages, and many fiends, or dangerous animals. I'm saying this now so you all know. You could die so if any of you don't want to take the risk, get out of here."

Nobody left, so Scarlett continued, "You can bring whatever weapons or supplies that you think you might need, and you can kill if you need or want to. You will become ANBU if you pass this exam. To pass this exam, you must stay alive for five whole days in this warehouse, and you must collect two different scrolls. One blue one, and one red one. You can not only have one scroll by the end, you must have both. Do you all understand?"

"Now that you know what to do, I will separate you all into your teams," Soaring started calling off names of people that Genma had never seen or heard about, so he doubted that any came from Konoha except for Shikamaru and himself. His theory was proven correct when he noticed that there were four from Cloud, one from Sound, three from Thunder, and two from Rain. So twelve ninja's in all.

"Hikaru Nobi and Hanako Nana team 5, and team 6 is Nara Shikamaru and Shirunai Genma. Now that you know who you're teammates are, you may speak to them about what you think you need to bring, and any strategies that you might have. Oh, and before we leave, be at the Konoha gates at 3 AM tomorrow morning. Got it?" Soaring asked, as everyone nodded, and the three ANBU left.

"Jeez, I think you're stalking me. First you bump into me, then we see each other again at the Hokage's office, and then you save me a seat in the testing room, and then we end up on the same team, I think you really are stalking me," Shikamaru teased Genma, who smirked a little.

"Well, I think it's the other way around. I think you knew that I wasn't paying attention when I was walking, so you had to take advantage of that and crash into me," Genma smiled, as Shikamaru blushed.

"Did not! You're so troublesome," Shikamaru said, crossing his arms, as Genma laughed a little at Shikamaru's pouting.

"Oh, so do you want to go out for dinner or something so we can talk about what strategies we want to use tomorrow, and what we should bring?" For some reason, Genma really wanted Shikamaru to say yes. He didn't know why though, it wasn't like they were going on a date anyway if he said yes. It would just be a meal they would be sharing together for something important that was going to happen the next day.

Shikamaru seemed surprised at Genma's request and his eyes widened slightly, "Oh, yeah sure. I just want to go home and get dressed in something else. Where do you want to go and what time?"

"How about that new place that just opened? I heard it's got pretty good food, and they have good drinks there," Genma said.

"Won't that be expensive?" Shikamaru asked him.

"It's fine, I have enough money. Come on, my treat," Genma said, who was almost ready to get on his knees and beg.

"Troublesome, well, okay," Shikamaru sighed smiling, "So should I wear something slightly fancy?"

"I guess if you want to. Whatever's fine," Genma said, "How about tonight at sevenish, 'k?"

"Sure," Shikamaru smiled, as he left the room, as well as Genma, but then went their separate ways to their homes.

'This will be an interesting night' Genma thought excitedly.

/\\\...

Genma had been looking through his closet for three hours and still could not find what he should wear tonight.

"Why am I so worried about what I'm going to look like tonight?" Genma said to himself, groaning. Suddenly he saw something from the corner of his eye.

It was a white button-up shirt with a collar. It looked nice enough to wear for tonight, not to mention he had nice, not-to-baggy blue jeans to go with it too. It was perfect. He quickly threw it on, took his bandana off and took out his toothpick. He brushed his hair and put a little gel in it. He went to go look at himself in the full body mirror in his room, and looked at himself.

"Damn, I look pretty hot," Genma said, whistling at himself. Shikamaru would be drooling over him tonight, he knew it for a fact. 'Wait, why do I care if Shikamaru thinks I look hot or not? Why do I keep thinking about him? I can't seem to get him out of my mind. Why?' Genma sighed at he rubbed his temples.

"I just need to have a good night tonight, he'll be out of my head in no time," Genma said quietly to himself.

…/\\\...

Boy was Genma wrong when he said he would forget about Shikamaru. He just kept thinking of him more and more. He had never been that way with any other person, even him. Shikamaru was wearing a sexy black muscle shirt that showed off his toned body, skinny dark blue jeans, and black tennis-like shoes. That would be enough to make any man, straight or not, drool over him. But what made it even more sexy was that his usually pineapple styled hair was put down, and it looked even better than before, even though Genma thought he already looked hot with his other hair, he was in heaven with Shikamaru's hair down.

"Um, wow, you look good," Genma said to Shikamaru, as they went to go sit in a booth.

"You too," Shikamaru said, as he looked Genma up and down, with Genma not noticing of course.

"So what would you like to eat?" the waitress asked the two boys, ogling them.

"Hm, how about a salad and I'll have water," Shikamaru said politely.

"Make that two. I'll have the same thing he's having," Genma said politely as well.

"Sure thing, sugar," the waitress said, winking at them.

"Crazy lady thinks she's going to get some action tonight," Genma muttered to Shikamaru, who started laughing.

"Probably, but it's not going to happen anytime soon," Shikamaru laughed, as Genma joined in.

'He has such a beautiful laugh.' Genma thought.

After a few seconds of their laughter Genma stopped, and started to get serious.

"So what do you think we should bring with us that would help?"

Shikamaru stopped too and turned on his serious face as well, "Obviously food for the next few days, maybe some soldier pills too. But the food would have to be not that much weight and couldn't be frozen food or food that needs to be in a refrigerator or heated up. Maybe snacks that could keep us going and have enough protein. A lot of water that's for sure."

"Yeah, that sounds good. Our weapons of course; as many kunai and other weapons that we can carry. Oh, and a first aid kit, or some medical supplies. I have quite a few medical supplies and weapons, so I can provide those things," Genma stated, as Shikamaru nodded.

"How about a flashlight, or matches and a lighter too. You never know if it's going to be dark or not, so we might as well just take them," Shikamaru said, as Genma nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds good. I can bring a lighter and some matches, can you bring the flashlight?" Genma questioned.

"I can do that. And I'll get the food, since I can't trust you to find good food. Probably get some alcohol or something," Shikamaru joked, as Genma got a joking fake look of betrayal.

"How could you think that of me? I would never do any such thing! Me and alcohol, we don't mix!" Genma retorted, as he started laughing.

Shikamaru started laughing too, "Yeah, you without alcohol is like a baby without its candy."

"Oh shut up, you need to experience the taste of alcohol, maybe a margarita or something. Oh! Maybe some good wine too!" Genma sighed dreamily, as Shikamaru rolled his eyes, and the waitress brought their food to the table.

"Thank you," they both said to the woman, as she blushed and replied back with a wink and an 'Anything for you sugars'.

/\\\...

Genma shuddered as he realized he was in the place that he always was during his dreams, the hills. He looked around, searching for the man that was always there with him, beside him, breaking his heart. After a while of Genma searching and searching, he started feeling a little strange. There was something not right about this. It looked like the dream, since the surroundings were the same as in the dreams but usually he couldn't control what he did in dreams since his dreams were played back memories. Plus, Shuji was no where to be found.

Genma, giving up on trying to find Shuji, which excited him a little that he might actually have one night of peace, decided to walk further on into the forest. He sighed and sat on a rock that was big enough to sit on, and he put his hands on his head.

"Why can't I just wake up already? It's not like anything's happening," Genma muttered, rubbing his temples. Suddenly, he heard a scream of a man. He shot up, and sprinted in the direction he heard the scream. Who was screaming?

He then heard the scream again, and noticed he was coming closer and closer to finding out where the scream came from. He stopped suddenly when he noticed a figure tied to an oak tree. It was a man, of course, and his hands were tied together at the wrists, hanging him from the tree. He had swords going through his stomach that went through the oak, making it no way possible for him to get out of the tree. There was tons of blood pouring out of him, most landing on either the ground beneath him, or on the side of the tree where he was on. The last thing about him was he had spiky, brown, pineapple-shaped hair.

"Shikamaru!!" Genma screamed in despair. He fell on his knees and was shaking. He put his hands on his head and his pupils became small, and his eyes widened with fear.

"You can never have love, my dear Genma," A figure in the darkness said, cackling.

"Nooooo!!" Genma screamed running to Shikamaru, before everything disappeared into darkness.

…/\\\...

"Shikamaru!!" Genma yelled, panting and sweating, even more than usual. 'That,' he thought, 'was the worst dream I've ever had. It was so… realistic and Shikamaru…'

After sitting in his bed for a few minutes, his alarm clock went off, signaling that it was indeed 2:00 AM. He sighed and went to the bathroom to take a shower. Right now, he really needed to clear his head.

/\\\...

It was 2:56 when Genma made it to the gates of Konoha. He noticed that everybody was there except the one person he really did not want to see at that moment; Shikamaru. After his night of barely any sleep and the nightmare he had, he was not in a good mood, not to mention he could not close his eyes without thinking about Shikamaru lying lifelessly with blood surrounding him and swords going through him. Genma shuddered to even think about it.

Of course, Genma knew that Shikamaru was going to show up, for it was the big day where they would be participating to see if they would become ANBU or not, so he tried to reassure himself that he would be fine, and to just act like he normally would. He had doubts that he would actually do that though.

'Well, now's the time to test it out.'

Shikamaru lazily walked down the road slowly towards the gate. He held one hand by his mouth, trying to cover a yawn, while the other was in the air waving to Genma slightly. He looked like he would trip and fall down at any moment, obviously not used to waking up this early.

'He looks so cute!' Genma thought, completely forgetting his 'dream'.

"H-h-hey," Shikamaru yawned in between his words.

"Didn't want to wake up this morning?" Genma smirked, as Shikamaru sat down on the ground and got into a comfortable position.

"Tch, troublesome," Shikamaru muttered. Suddenly, a gust of wind started in front of them, making all the people who were waiting shield their eyes with their arms.

When the wind came to a stop, everybody put their arms down to see that it was Soaring, Neko, and Scarlett.

"I see you are all here. Good," Neko said, "Now, you will follow us to the place you will be taking your exam."

Genma nodded, as did the others, as they started on their journey to becoming ANBU.

/\\\...

DD- Okay, so I got lazy… heh heh XD I was going to make it all a one-shot, but I decided I'd make it either a two-shot or three-shot… if there's such thing as that XD

Gaara- (rolls eyes) whatever, just review, and we'll give you cookies!

DD- YES REVIEW!!