Ok, arigatou for the reviews, minna. (Ok, thanks for the reviews, everyone) Here's chapter nine, the suspence is over! 900 words, enjoy! Yeah, I changed the title.

Standard Disclaimer Aplied.

Read and review!

---(Recap)

Sasuke and Sakura charged each other with a ball of visible chakra in their hand(s).

And at the same time, the two yelled, "Chidori/Chakra Kai Burst!"

Boom! (Shaka Laka Laka! XDD)

The collision was massive.

But, who won?

The smoke cleared.

Genma started, "And the victor is..."

---(Chapter Nine - Commencing The Mission)

Genma started, "And the victor is..." a pause. "Its...a tie!"

"NANI?!?!" the audience yelled, most jumping out of their seats to see.

They saw Sasuke on one side of the stadium, collasped onto the soft ground. Same with Sakura.

"Now---" Genma was interrupted by an explosion.

The sound team thought one thing:

'Commence the mission!'

They disappeared.

The audience slumped, genjustu was in effect. Mostly sound-nins appeared.

Kakashi poofed down to Sakura and Sasuke. And mumbled a "dispell" for both. Though they were extremely tired, they got up.

"Kakashi-sensei?!" they yelled in surprise.

"Sakura, Sasuke. The sand have joined forces with the Sound. They're invading Konoha this instant. We have to stop them."

"Hai. Is Naruto under the genjutsu too?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, dispell the jutsu for Naruto and Shikamaru."

"Why Shikamaru?"

"His abilites may come in handy."

Sakura nodded, going to Naruto and Shikamaru.

"Dispell." she whisper and tapped Naruto in the shoulder.

"Sakura-chan? What wrong?" Naruto said, rubbing his eyes awake.

Another explosion was heard as Sakura did the same to Shikamaru was really...

"Nani?! You were awake the whole time?!" Sakura said, temper rising.

"Jeez. Can't a guy get a good nap after fighting." Shikamaru said.

"Um, Sakura-chan." Naruto mumbled. "You said something about a mission."

"Oh, um, yeah." Sakura said, trying to remember every detail that Kakashi said.

"Dobe. We have stop the sand ninjas. And the sound." Sasuke said.to Naruto

"Sugoi! Its been a long time since a mission! And this one sounds big!" Naruto exclaimed.

Quickly, a sound-nin got behind Naruto and was about to slash him.

They yelled. "NARUTO! WATCH OUT!!" Naruto's eyes widened.

Boom!

Gai appeared and kicked the nin to the wall. Leaving a hole.

"A ranked." Sakura said. "We have to go. Now."

"Hai." Naruto said. "But why are we fighting the sound and sand anyways?"

"I'll explain on the way." Sakura said, grabbing Naruto's arm and jumping out the hole.

The other two quickly also jumped out of the hole that Gai made.

After a while...

"I see, thats what's been happening." Naruto said.

"Why are am I here! Its too troublesome." Shikamaru said.

"Its not our fault! Kakashi-sensei ordered us to!" Sakura said.

Sasuke sensed a different chakra. "This way!!"

They followed.

Sakura looked around and said. "They're over there!"

Sasuke looked back. "Two platoons. Eight people behind us."

"Wait, there's one more." Sakura said. "Nine."

"Nani? Already?" Shikamaru muttered. "You've gotta be kidding me."

Sasuke stopped.

"Oi! Why'd you stop?!" asked Naruto, in an irritated way, flailing his arms at Sasuke.

"Retrace your footsteps. Making them look like they were never there." Sasuke ordered.

Sakura blinked, and said. "So they'll get confused, then impatient and slow their pursuit."

"Aa."

Naruto walked slow, in a thinking way.

"Hurry up!" the other three yelled, as they were ahead of him.

"I'm coming!" the blonde called out, and followed.

After a while...

The sound-nins' footsteps were soon heard.

"Kuso." Sakura muttered. "They're gaining speed instead."

"We have to be careful." Sasuke said. "If they catch up, then we'll get annihilated."

'Annihilated...' they thought.

"Then...Then we should stop and ambush them ourselves!" Naruto said.

"No. One of us will have to stay behind to distract them. The decoy will most likely..." Shikamaru said.

Everything seemed to slow down. In a suspenceful way.

Shikamaru continued, and whispered lout enough. "...Die."

They stopped and landed on a branch.

They expressions. Saddened, angered, mixed.

"...The only choice is me." Shikamaru said.

"Why you?!" Naruto said.

Shikamaru looked down. "Its better than being annihilated. Also, I'm the guy who could pull off this decoy perfectly with a high chance of staying alive on this team."

The others looked surprised.

"The shadow imitation is originally used to drive the enemy away anyway." he said. "I'll see you later. Now go."

They nodded.

Shikamaru lifted a hand as a 'ja ne'.

They leaped and Shikamaru went the opposite way to them.

One question.

Did he run away?

---(Naruto No Preview: Shikamaru's)

Shikamaru - "Aa. The Shadow Imitation is sucessful. For a while. I wasted too much chakra on the third exam."

Shikamaru - "...Stay tooned...Chapter Ten - How Troublesome."

-Insert Shikamaru standing in front of the sound-nins-

Shikamaru - "I was supposed to the number one coward, but it looks like my character's changed a bit this time... How troublesome..."

---(Naruto No Preview: Team 7's)

Sakura - "They've stopped! Which means..."

Naruto - "Shikamaru stopped them!"

Sasuke - "Hn. How long can he hold them off?"

All - "...Stay tooned! Chapter Ten - How Troublesome."

---(End Chapter Nine)

Review please! Remeber, I need at LEAST 80 for the next chapter! Um, and Pakkun wasn't there 'cause Sasuke was. Gaara's showing up soon! It'll explain why he wasn't at the third exams! Nuff said.

Jade-sama