Near one of the look-out towers Kabuto waited for his master to arrive. Orochimaru sped through the forest with his prize in arms. When his master landed before him Kabuto stared perplexed at the girl in his arms.

"Pretty isn't she?" Orochimaru said.

"Why did you bring her here, sir?"

"This, my useless apprentice, is the Princess of Light."

The name meant nothing to Kabuto. He gazed at the girl intrigued by her. Why would Orochimaru go out of his way to kidnap this girl?

"Why do you want her?" Kabuto asked.

"I'd like to know that myself." Xemnas asked from behind Kabuto.

Kabuto spun to face the new arrival. Xemnas floated from the canopy of the trees to land before the men.

"Let her go Orochimaru."

"Now why would I do that?"

"She is of no use to you." Xemnas answered. "Why wouldn't you?"

Orochimaru stuck his long tongue out and licked his victim's cheek making her shiver.

"I may find uses for her." He said.

"Fine," Xemnas said "I will give you one chance to obey."

He held up his hand at Kabuto and said: "Submit." Kabuto fell to the ground screaming in pain.

"Let the girl go or your servant dies."

"Kill him if you wish," Orochimaru said "he is of no use to me after you eliminated him from the exams."

"Very well then," Xemnas said "if you don't let her go you will be next."

At this Orochimaru's eyes thinned in anger.

"How about a trade," Orochimaru began "I…"

"Your servant for the girl." Xemnas said.

"I don't think I agree with those terms."

"I don't think you have a choice."

They stared each other down until Orochimaru approached Xemnas and dropped the girl at his feet. Orochimaru backed away and Xemnas released his hold on Kabuto.

"I thought such tactics were above you now." Orochimaru said.

"I may be reformed but I am still not the pure hearted Hokage of this village."

Orochimaru's face went from surprise to respect at the answer. Xemnas picked Kairi up and turned to carry her to the hotel.

"May the rest of your days be filled with pain, Orochimaru." Xemnas said.

"I thought people from your village didn't take curses lightly." Orochimaru said.

"We don't."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day Kairi awoke in her inn room none the wiser of her rescue from Orochimaru. She had no idea how she had gotten to the inn but she didn't worry about it. The others didn't even notice her mysterious arrival because the only ones awake were Riku and Sora and they arrived moments after Xemnas had deposited her in her bed.

They all woke up exited about the exams. Today they would finally be able to fight and do their part in helping their village. Sora, Riku and Kairi though, were still tired from the long night they had. They all marched to the stadium they had left the previous day.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Zuko woke up in one of the tents the benders had set up in one of the training fields in the Leaf. He could feel the tension of his teammates as they got dressed and he had to admit it was getting to him too. He had accepted the offer to come because his father had denied him the rank in their village. He would prove to him and to his sister that he could be a chunin, that he deserved the rank.

They stepped out of the tent and joined the other team to eat breakfast. They were relaxed, with the carefree attitude that he hated so much. How could they be so relaxed, when the honor of the whole village was in their hands? And there he was, the Avatar. Oh, how he hated him. His father would always remind him of how he could have surpassed the Avatar if he had trained harder. He had trained day and night trying to surpass him and he had. He was on a higher team than the Avatar and he had been recognized by the council for his great skill in fire bending but that was never enough for his father. It took every thing in his power to stop himself from trying to kill him.

He would have to control himself on the walk to the stadium.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto had hardly slept the previous night. His nerves had kept him awake almost through the night but he didn't even feel sleepy. At around 4:00 am he devoured a gallon of instant ramen and at 4:15 he couldn't wait any longer. He set out for the stadium but was distracted at one of the training fields.

Sasuke Uchiha was training and from the looks of it he had been there awhile. He was sweating and he had bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep. As he preformed his kata he repeated something under his breath. It took Naruto a few minutes but he was able to make out the mantra.

"I won't let them hurt her again" he chanted.

Naruto realized that he was talking about Sakura. Sasuke had seen his whole family slaughtered but Sakura's injury had affected him. Naruto watched him for what seemed like hours until he fell to his knees exhausted. Sasuke grabbed his shoulder in pain and Naruto supposed that he had overworked it. He approached him to try and help.

"Stay away Naruto!" Sasuke screamed.

"Calm down." Naruto said. "I just want to help."

"GO AWAY!"

Naruto couldn't understand why he didn't just let him help. Sasuke began panting heavily and Naruto noticed something black creeping down from under his sleeve. Sasuke bit his lip hard enough to draw blood as he felt himself burn up inside. Tears came to his eyes when he thought of Sakura; she could have been killed and he hadn't moved to save her. He was failing the people close to him again.

The tears caused the curse mark to calm down and the pain slowly went away. He got up and rushed into the forest without looking at Naruto.

After Naruto came out his daze he sped to the stadium. He arrived at 5:30 right after the other teams.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The stadium was filled once again with genin and the tension was overwhelming. The teams had been on edge the previous day but today it was different. The veil had been lifted from their eyes. They now knew these exams would not be pretty.

'This is not good,' Kakashi thought 'even the ones like Naruto and Lee are acting serious.'

The other jonin seemed to be thinking the same thing because they had the same worried looks on their faces. The screen started to decide the next match and everyone stared at it as if it held the secrets of the universe.

Riku

Vs.

Zuko

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters.

A/N: I shouldn't do this here but for those of you who read my other fic forgive my delay but the next chapter has given me a monstously hard time so it might take a few more days.

A/N2: Thank you for reading this fic and please review. Without reviews i don't know how I'm doing so again please review.