Horay, I updated this sucker! Hahaha!

Chapter ten

All the horror stories and rumors that came from the Forest of Death turn out to be all true. For the last two and half hours, four animals, three plants, and one close encounter with another team all close to killing them. They had been lucky enough to dodge all the dangers for now but the question was, how long can they keep it up? That Rain ninja that tried to sneak on Sasuke and Sakura as Naruto was proof that their luck was growing thin. They needed to do something quick.

"Everyone got the password?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura nodded with confidence.

Naruto hesitated before he nodded.

"Good." he said

Unaware to team seven, they were being watched by a pair of golden eyes in the shadows.

Elsewhere in the forest…

Team Sasori came face to face with a team of Genin from the Rain Village. Unlike some of the Genin that they have faced, seen, or met, they haven't seen these guys before. But team Sasori did know this; these guys were pains in the asses, that's for sure.

"Look what we've got here, three little sand rats that crawled out from the ground." said the big one in the middle.

"Do they really think that they can take us head on like that." said a Rain nin.

"There either quite very brave or very stupid. I think it's the later." said the last Rain nin.

Meanwhile, hidden behind some nearby bushes Kiba, Hinata, and Shino remain silent as they watched the events fueled out in front of them. Akamaru quivered in fear inside Kiba's coat as he whined to his master about the fearsome force that the red head possesses.

"You guys talk too much." Temari commented.

"I believe you guys are the stupid ones to be facing us head on." Kankuro said with a smirk.

The large Rain nin scowled and glared.

"I'll deal with them." Gaara stated.

"Sure." said Kankuro.

With that, the youngest sibling stepped forward.

The large Rain nin laughed. "You think you could take on all three of us by yourself, don't make me laugh!"

Soon the other two Rain nin laughed with them. Gaara on the other hand remained silent and seem unfazed at the fact they were mocking him. One of the main rules of being a shinobi is that not to let the enemy ruffle your feathers and get you riled up enough to think foolishly. That's what his sensei told him and siblings at least. Their sensei also taught them to think rationally and to finish off the enemy as quickly as possible if they try to use this method on them.

"Let's make this quick, I've had enough of you and your big mouth." said Gaara.

Now the larger Rain nin looked angry. "Fine! If you wish to die so quickly then!"

Suddenly the Rain nin pulled out four umbrellas from his back and threw them up in the air, where there they hovered right over Gaara. The Rain nin wore a wicked smirk on his face as he formed a hand sign and release his jutsu on Gaara, who looked unfazed and bored. From the four umbrellas above, thousands and thousands of needles shot out and rained down on Gaara, hitting him dead center, creating a large cloud of dust.

The enemy smirked in triumph at his success as the umbrellas fell and hit the ground. But as the cloud cleared, the smirk on the Rain nin's face disappeared and was replaced by nothing but shock. Instead of seeing Gaara dying, covered by hundreds of needles, instead saw that he was unharmed and surrounded my sand, acting like a shield for him against the attack.

"W-What!?"

"Should I explain for you?" Kankuro said in a teasing and mocking manor. "Inside Gaara's gourd on his back is his sand that he carries that is infused with his chakra. The sand acts like a living being, protecting Gaara on its own free will. It's his ultimate defence for no one can get by it while he doesn't even lift a finger. Because of this no one has ever touched Gaara, ever."

All three of the Rain nin stood in shock as Gaara took another step towards them and then grabbed one of the umbrellas. In the mean time the sand that protected him quickly rushed over to the large Rain nin and grabbed him and trapped him in a cocoon. With a swing, Gaara opened and lifted it above his head, just as the sand with the entrapped Rain nin lifted to the air.

"Say your last prayer." said Gaara, raising his hand. "Sand Coffin!"

The Rain nin's scream was cut short when the sand trapping him crushed his whole body into nothingness. Blood rained down over Gaara, who held the umbrella over him, protecting him from the red colored rain.

The two remaining Rain nins watched in horror as their leader was kill just like that in front of them.

"P-Please," one said as he shakily pulled the scroll out from his pocket, placing it on the ground and step back, "H-Here's the scroll. T-Take it and leave us."

Another thing that Sasori taught them that Gaara especially took heavily to heart. When the enemy surrenders and begs to let them go, show no mercy.

Throwing the umbrella carelessly aside, Gaara raised both of his hands as the sand quickly wrapped around the last two Rain nins. Both screamed in shock, horror, and mercy. But the red head soon silence them as he closed both of his fists, crushing the two. Blood rained down from the sky and hit both Temari and Kankuro as it missed Gaara completely.

"Gaara!" Temari yelled, clearly annoyed as she looked at her now blood colored clothes.

"Could at least wait long enough for Temari and I to get out of the way!" Kankuro complained.

"My apologizes." said their younger brother.

"Ah, maybe if Sasori-sensei saw us like this he might give us a little more respect for us for working so hard." said Temari.

"That's if we're lucky." Kankuro muttered as he picked up the scroll from the ground.

The blonde frowned at the truth of her brother's words. It's true, if they were lucky there sensei might praise them about how hard they worked when he saw their state. But getting praise from their sensei was like getting Gaara to laugh and hug them. In other words, never gonna happen.

"Let's just get out of here before something shows up." said Temari.

"Yeah, yeah," said Kankuro.

Soon team Sasori left, leaving behind a shaken up Kiba, Hinata, and Shino behind.

Sakura watched in horror as Sasuke screamed in agony as Orochimaru's neck stretched out and bit Sasuke on the side of his neck. Orochimaru pulled his neck back as Sasuke fell toward and hit the ground as he was out cold. Sakura rushed over to Sasuke's side and held him gently in her embrace, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"If Sasuke wish to seek the power he wishes to destroy his brother tell him to come and seek me out." was Orochimaru's last words before he disappeared.

Now she was left all alone with both of her teammates unconscious and hurt. And to top it off night was quickly approaching and will be face more dangers during the night. She cried as she didn't know what to do and wished that this was all but one big bad dream that she needed to awake from. But she couldn't, for this no dream but the ugly truth of reality that was happening around her. Her tears ceased as she pulled herself together to think of a place to hide for the night. Lifting Sasuke over her shoulder, Sakura jumped down from the large tree branch and landed on the ground with a gentle thug. Carefully she place Sasuke on the ground and went to retrieve Naruto.

Two hours later, Sakura found a safe place to hide with her team for the night as she watched over Sasuke and Naruto. So far they have been fine for no one has been through this way yet to see what happen with the fight. She was sure that big of a fight would attract some other enemy teams that wish to catch the winning team that was weaken from fight. But the fight against Orochimaru was quite terrifying so it was most likely that the other teams were staying away because of the fearsome power of the snake.

She sighed and turned her attention to Sasuke to see that he still wasn't doing so well. As soon as Orochimaru left, Sasuke would not stop shaking and broke down in a cold sweat, as if he was running a fever. So for, the passes two hours, all she could do was placed cold wet washcloths over Sasuke's forehead and hope for the best he'll recover soon.

For the past several hours, Sakura stayed awake and watched over her team all night, fighting off the need to sleep her body was demanding from her. But she couldn't, she couldn't leave her team unprotected and let the enemy have a chance to attack them like this. She must stay awake for the sake of her team and their lives. But it was easier said than done when she was so exhausted right now. She just prayed that at least one of them would wake up soon and help her.

"Some watch you are, you're almost ready to sleep on the job."

Sakura jerked her body awake and turned out to the clearing to see three enemy Sound shinobis. Scrambling to her feet, Sakura stood in front of her teammates in a defensive position with a kunai in hand.

"W-Who are you? Are you in league with Orochimaru? What did he do to Sasuke!?" Sakura asked shakily.

"Orochimaru…" Dozu muttered to himself. "What his up to?"

"Are you listening to me!? Answer me!" Sakrua demanded.

"Shut up!" Zaku yelled.

"It doesn't matter at this point, all we've here for is to finish off Sasuke." said Dozu.

The pinkette growled. "I won't let you near him!"

"Look at that she really thinks she can take us on." Kin said mockingly.

"Hn, we'll see about that." with that said, Dozu, Zaku, and Kin all charged right at Sakura.

But before they could even reach her, Sakura smirked and quickly cut a wire near her, releasing a booby trap. As soon as she did a large log from above fell and hurried right towards the Sound shinobis. All three looked up in surprised and barely had enough time to dodge the log unharmed. But when they did one of them stepped into another trap that released more logs above Zaku and Kin. But they dodged those to.

Sakura cursed inside her head that her traps that she worked so hard to set up all failed.

The mummy nin chuckled. "Your smarter then you look, I'll give you that. But it looks as if that was the last of your traps."

Sakura just scowled and ready herself to attack them and protect her teammates.

But before the Sound shinobis could take a step forward, a green blur jumped out with a gust of wind and landed right in front of Sakura.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Kin.

"I am Rock Lee of the Leaf village." Lee flashed them a smile.

"Lee… what are you doing here? We're enemies right now." Sakura stared at his back.

"Sakura, no matter what I'll always protect you." The boy stated.

Tears built up in her emerald eyes but she refused to let them fall. Shinobis should never show their emotions to their enemies let alone tears in front of them. Fighting the tears back she looked up at Lee and smiled.

"Thank you." She whispered, enough for him to hear.

Lee smiled and got into a fighting position as he stared down his opponent, the mummy freak. They soon charged for each other, Lee with a kunai in his hand and the Sound nin with that weird thing on his arm.

Lee through his kunai at the enemy but had it block by that metal thing on his arm. Dosu, smirked and send a sound wave at Lee. The black haired boy tried to dodge it but fail as it hit his left ear, forcing him to drop to his knees.

"Lee what's wrong, are you alright?" Sakura called out.

"It's my ear." He held his ear.

"What's wrong, didn't I tell you that you're done for." Dosu chuckled.

"I'm far from giving up." Lee stood up. "It ends here now."

In a flash Lee disappeared before the Sound nin's eyes. Suddenly Lee's foot came in contact with Dosu's chin and sent him flying in the air. Lee quickly appeared behind him and wrapped Dosu around in his bandages and soon sends them down to the ground. But before they hit Lee jumped out of the way and left Dosu in the dirt.

"Nice one Lee." Sakura cheered.

"To bad it's not good enough." Zaku spoke.

Dosu squirmed in the dirt and soon popped out with very little harm done to him.

"I owe you one Zaku. That attack could have killed me." The mummy freak spoke.

Lee glared at the two Sound shinobis as he winces at the sudden pain. He held his side and feel to his knees as his body shook.

"Lee!" Sakura quickly ran to the injured boy's side.

"S-Sakura, I'm sorry…" he whispered out as he was out cold now.

'Lee…' the pink haired fought off her tears.

"You're all alone now."

Sakura gasp as she realized that the girl called Kin was behind her. But before Sakura could do anything Kin grabbed her by the hair and held her in place. Sakura hissed at the pain but tried her best to hide it from the enemy.

"Hey Zaku, why don't you kill Sasuke front of this little bitch." Kin smirk.

"Hn, sounds good to me." The Sound nin made his way towards her teammates.

Sakura couldn't help but cry now at how pathetic she was. How could she sit by and watch her own teammates die before her. She was weak that's why, if only she was stronger. Maybe she would have been able to fight the Sound freaks off; maybe she could have helped Sasuke from Orochimaru. She wished that she was stronger than this and could show everyone how strong she really was and prove that she wasn't weak. But most of all she wanted the ones close to her to be proud of her, like Naruto, Itachi-sensei, Kakashi-sensei,... and even Gaara. She really wanted to show him the most of all how strong she was for he was always the one that was pushing her forward in this exam.

Taking a deep breath Sakura pulled out her kunai and cut off her hair. Kin was shock and fell backwards with Sakura's pink locks in her hand. Running pass the sound kunoichi Sakura head towards Zaku with three kunai in each hand. She threw the kunai at the Sound ninja but he dodged every one of them. He smirked to himself and looked over to Sakura to find that she was gone.

"Where'd she go!" he looked around.

Suddenly he looked up to find her flying towards him with a kunai knife in her hand. She plunged her kunai into his right shoulder and bit down hard on his left arm.

"Get off of me you crazy bitch!" Zaku started to punch her.

But Sakura refused to let go, Naruto and Sasuke's lives were on the line and she would never forgive herself if something happen to them. Even though Naruto got on her nerves and Sasuke can be a jerk sometimes, but they were like the family she never had. Her parents were hardly ever around and she had no brothers and sisters. But she looked to Sasuke and Naruto like they were her brothers and there was no way she was going to lose them.

Sakura yelled in pain as she heard something. She let go and fell to the ground as her vision spin out of control, her body was worn out from the beating and couldn't find the strength to move.

"You little bitch." Zaku stood over her body. "I'll make sure you die a painful death for that."

But before he could even a touch the pinkette, a large gust of wind suddenly appeared and blew Zaku away from Sakura, right into a tree.

"What the…?" Before Kin knew it, an ugly looking puppet fell from the sky and landed right on Kin, wrapping its arms painfully around her.

Dosu stared in shock at the events happening around him. Suddenly he heard a strange hissing sound and felt something grab him ankle. Looking down, his one visible eye widen in shock and horror to see that it was sand that grabbed his ankle and inching its way up his leg. Quickly he using his iron glove thing and send a powerful sound wave to the sand that was enough for it to break. Once out of the sand's grasps, the Sound nin jumped back away to see a red head not too far and standing near the wounded pinkette.

Sakura stared up in shock to see Gaara standing protectively in front of her. But was even more shock to see both of his siblings jumping out of the forest and standing close to Naruto and Sasuke.

"G-Gaara." her voice came out as a whisper.

"Are you alright?" He asked, keeping his back to her.

She stared dumbfound at him for a second before she replied. "Yes, I think so."

"Don't worry I'll deal with them." Gaara said before his sand came to life and charged at Dosu, who stared wide eyed at the attack before dodging it.

The sand chased Dosu around as if it was a game of tag almost, but one that would end up getting you killed. Kin was struggling with the puppet that trapped her until it squeezed her so tight that made her fall unconscious and hit the ground. Zaku, still alive from the impact of the tree, soon join the game of tag as the sand quickly went after him to. But sadly Zaku wasn't as fast Dosu for the sand grabbed his arm and crushed it. He let out a painful scream and hit the ground while nursing his crushed arm.

Dosu soon appeared beside Zaku with Kin over his shoulder and looked up shakily at Gaara. With one hand available, Dosu pulled out their team scroll and placed it on the ground in front of them.

"Please take this and let us leave in peace. We were ordered to attack and kill Sasuke when we found him. At this point of the condition of my team I would not wish to risk my team's lives right now. Let us leave peacefully." Dosu pleaded peacefully.

Gaara glared angrily at the Sound shinobis before him, furious that they were pleading for their lives when they were so ready to take Sakura's. His gaze harden even more of the thought of her death by the hand of these bastards and there foolishness. He was about to raise his hand to command his sand to crush them, that is until Sakura intervene.

"What does Orochimaru want from Sasuke, tell me!" Sakura demanded.

The mummy nin said nothing at first, almost as if he was thinking over something. "Orochimaru… I do not know what he has planned for Sasuke and I do not know entirely why he ordered us to attack and kill him either."

"Do you even know what that mark is on Sasuke that Orochimaru left!?" she demanded again.

"Mark?" he said. 'Did Lord Orochimaru place a curse mark on him? But why and why have us kill him?'

"Answer me!"

"I'm afraid I don't know." he said.

Before Sakura could demand anymore from them or let Gaara have a chance to attack, Dosu quickly picked up Zaku with his free hand and escaped. The red head cursed in his head for letting them go as Shukaku was thrashing around in his head for letting them get away. Letting out a frustrating sigh, Gaara finally turned around to face Sakura and kneeled down next to her.

"You okay?" he asked, examining the large bruise on the side of her face where Zaku hit her repeatedly.

"Yes, I'm fine other then the fact my head feels like it's going to split but I'm okay I believe." said Sakura.

"Come on." he helped her up to her feet, supporting her with his sand as he took her to their teammates.

Kankuro and Temari stared worriedly at their brother and to the girl that was being supported by his sand. This was the first time they've seen their brother interact so quickly someone so unfamiliar to him. It took forever when they became a team under Sasori for Gaara to interact with them. But it surprised them even more when he wanted to help the girl when their little brother demanded them to stop and help when they sense the struggle.

Temari was the first to move towards the girl with caution before she took her from the sand. The sand quickly returned to Gaara's gourd as he watched his sister take Sakura over to her teammates and gently set her down, getting to work on her condition right away. Kankuro brought Lee over and gently placed him down next to Naruto as he got to work on healing him.

"Are they alright?" Sakura asked, worried for her friends.

"They'll be fine." said Kankuro.

"I would be more worried about yourself right now then them." said the blonde next to them.

She stared at them with a slightly dumbfound look, not sure what to do with their offered kindness to them.

"Sakura," Gaara started as a small amount of sand poured out of his gourd and out into the clearing, "Meet my teammates, Temari and Kankuro."

"Teammates," Temari snorted lightly, "Is that what you really think of your own family."

At this Sakura looked slightly taken back.

The older girl smirked. "What, have you ever seen a family work as a team before?"

"So, you guys are all related?" Sakura asked.

"Yup, we're siblings." Kankuro answered.

"Now that I think about it I think I can see the faint relation between the three of you." said the pinkette but then hissed when Temari placed some alcohol to her cuts from the beating to the head.

"Hold still, it's a bit worse than I thought it would be." said Temari, placed the cloth more on her cuts.

Sakura groaned. "This is great, first we get attacked, then separated, and attacked again by that bastard, then he did something to Sasuke, knocked Naruto, leaving me alone to watch over them, and the attacked my those three sound nins! And to top it all off, the bastard ate our scroll whole! We're never going to pass."

"Man it sounds like you guys been though a lot of shit." the puppeteer commented as he finished up with Lee now.

"You still have a scroll." said Gaara.

"No I don't know Gaara, were you not listening to me when I said the bastard ate it whole!" Sakura yelled.

"Yes, but you still have one." just then Gaara's sand came back with the Sound team's scroll, placing it carefully in his hands, "See."

She stared at it in surprise. "B-But what about you guys, don't you nee-"

"We've already got our scroll. And was heading towards the tower before stopping here." said Temari.

It was then that Sakura noted that both Temari and Kankuro's were stained with blood.

"Yeah so you can have this one." said Kankuro who was looking over Naruto quickly.

Sakura smiled as she took the offered scroll from the red head. "Thank you, you guys don't know how much these means to us."

"Ah, it's no problem. It's not like if we collected any more then we need we'll give us a bounce or something." Temari stated as she now finished the younger girls head and stared examining her hair, figuring the best way to fix it.

"But still." Sakura said with a smile as she fought off the tears of joy.

"So what happen to you guys before those freaks showed up and what were you and that mummy guy talking about." said Kankuro.

Her joyous smile fell. "Well… it's kind of complicated and I'm not sure exactly what happen. All I know is the reason that Sasuke is in this condition and send those freaks at us was all because of Orochimaru."

"Orochimaru…" Temari muttered behind her.

The pinkette turned to look at her. "You know him?"

"Well, not really. I've heard of him as well as everyone in the Five Great Nations."

"Then why haven't I've heard him before?" asked Kankuro.

"That's because you fell asleep during the lecture at the academy that day, idiot!" she yelled at him.

"I did?"

Temari sighed in frustration and turned back to the younger girl. "Anyways, Orochimaru is very well known throughout the ninja world for he is one of the three legendary sanin. He was actually from your village if I remember correctly. They say it was him along with Master Jariaya and Lady TSunade that caused the great turn of events during the third great ninja war that claimed many victorious. His power as well as the other two possessed power that was both amazing and frightening. Though after a few years after the war something happened and Orochimaru was soon lambed as a rouge ninja for some horrible crimes he committed in the Leaf Village. I've heard that he dead long ago… are you sure that is was him?"

She nodded. "I think so, he was extremely powerfully and terrifying to. I thought he was going to kill us…"

"But why would he be here?" asked Kankuro.

"I don't know, but it must have something with the Uchiha." said the blonde.

"Sakura," Gaara spoke up, "You said to the Sound ninja something about a mark on Sasuke, correct."

"Yeah, Orochimaru bit Sasuke on the side of his neck and left a strange mark on it." she said.

"I see," Gaara mumbled to himself before he moved over to the Uchiha with Kankuro.

The puppeteer move right next to Sasuke and removed the washcloth on his forehead before turning the side of his head. He then pulled the collar of Sasuke's shit down enough to see the strange mark that was on his neck.

"Interesting." said Gaara.

"Never seen a mark like that." his brother commented.

"Neither have I," Temari placed the kunai down she was using to cut Sakura's hair with before she pulled out a piece of paper and a pen.

"What are you doing Temari?" asked Kankuro.

"I'm drawing that mark down so later we can show sensei it. Maybe he'll know what it is since he's an expert on seals and this other stuff." she said, drawing it down.

"I hope so, I'm worried about him. He had a fever and wouldn't stop shacking before." said Sakura, stiffening a yawn.

"He'll be fine," Gaara said looked over to her, "Why don't you rest for a bit, I'll watch over you."

She blushed slightly and looked down at her lap. "Sleep dose sound nice right now."

"Then sleep, don't worry." he said.

She looked up at him with one of her beautiful smiles. "Thank you, Gaara."

"Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!"

"Stop whining and be glad that I manage to get us out of there alive."

"If only those sand brats didn't show up we could have killed Sasuke and that stupid bitch."

"Calm yourself Zaku, we'll have another chance."

Zaku snorted. "Yeah, yeah," he then eyed their last teammate on Dosu shoulder, "What about Kin?"

"She's just out cold is all." said Dosu.

"Well let's wake her up and go finish what we started!" Zaku barked.

"Very well, I to want to finish this as soon as possible as well." Dosu said as he set Kin down.

Zaku chuckled evilly. "I can't wait to see the horrified look on the bitch's face of what I have in store for her."

"And what prey till is that?"

Both Dosu and Zaku whipped around and looked up at the trees above. There, they were greeted a by Genin team that were from The Village Hidden Among the Rocks, team Deidara.

"That was an interesting display of fighting we saw with that sand team." Loki said coldly, glaring down at the two that made both Zaku and Dosu shiver.

Aika sneered in disgust. "It's also quite pathetic to attack a team that's out for the count and beating up a weak girl."

"It's not very honorable." Yuuen said quietly.

Aika snorted. "What honor, clearly they have none." she then burst out laughing.

"You're all weak." Loki stated.

"Weak, what makes you the judge of our strength!" Zaku shouted.

"Zaku." Dosu hissed in a warning voice to tell him to be quiet, but Zauk ignored it.

Loki closed his eyes. "To attack a team at their worse state and cannot fight to defend themselves or their team is a show of weakness and cowardliness. And it's more inexcusable to beat of a girl like that when she's in no shape or form to fight." His eyes snapped open as he glared in pure furry down at the Sound shinobis. "And for that all of you are not allowed to live for that."

Aika smirked in excitement at the looks on their faces.

'There's something different about this boy. His eyes… there so intense, almost as if they are staring right into my very soul, no, right threw it' Dosu thought in fear.

"Yuuen," Loki said in a fearsome and yet calm tone, "Show them the consequences for hurting dear Sakura like that, and so them no mercy."

"Very well." Yuuen said as he formed a few quick hand signs, "Ninja art of Genjutsu…"

Four days later…

Team seven camped out under a large tree that hid their camp site and near a small river. Sasuke was wide awake and back to his health self. Gaara and his siblings stayed with Sakura long enough until Naruto and Sasuke woke up and were able to handle everything themselves. Lee woke up before them though, in time for his team to come and get him and take off. She was very gratefully to Lee for his help and would never know how to repay him back for his kindness. But Lee told her it was nothing and that he was just happy to have helped.

It wasn't long before her teammates awake when Lee left, much to her relief that they were okay. But when they did things turn a little ugly. When Sasuke woke up first things got a little ugly. First off when he saw Kankuro sitting not too far from him, he immediately went into defensive or attack stance. But when he tried to sit up he fell back and let out a small scream of pain, apparently that fight with Orochimaru took more of a toll on Sasuke's body then they thought. But once the Uchiha settled down on his back again, he glared at the three Sand nins and demanded Sakura of what they are doing here and what happen. After she explained everything to him about the three Sound nins and all, Sakura looked very unpleased and wouldn't stop glaring at Gaara. And he wasn't very polite to the Sand nins either. Naruto on the other hand was better than Sasuke. When he woke up he screamed angrily at the sight of Kankuro and stared to make threats he didn't have the chance to make the first time they met. But Sakura quickly calmed him down and explained everything of what happen and why the Sand nins were here which he took it all in quite well and was nicer to Gaara and the others then Sasuke. But the red head seemed to mostly ignore Sasuke's glares during the whole time they were there. Once they were sure team seven were good on their own, team Sasori said their farewells and took off to the tower, leaving Sakura and her team behind.

So now four days later, here they were, tired, hungry and scroll less. The scroll that Gaara gave to Sakura did put them back in the game but they still needed one more scroll to complete the second exam. And so far they haven't had any luck in that.

"Well, what do we do now? The second part of the exam will end first thing tomorrow morning." asked Sakura.

"We just need to find another scroll, that's what!" Naruto declared.

"That's easier said than done, by now must of scrolls are probably taken by the other teams, and all at the tower by now to." said Sasuke.

Naruto frowned. "It's not looking to good for us, is it?"

Neither of his teammates answered and just stared at the fire with depress expressions.

Naruto sighed and stared at the fire with a depress expression as well.

Suddenly a noise from the bushes caught their attention from the fire. Quickly both Sasuke and Naruto stood up and stood in front of Sakura as they prepared for the coming intruder. After a few more seconds, the intruder appeared out of the bushes to be none other than…

"Kabuto." said Sakrua in surprise.

The older boy looked up in surprise to see Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura before him before he smiled and waved at them.

"Hi." he said.

"Kabuto, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked happily.

"Well…" Kabuto ribbed the back of his head with s nervous smile, "You see…. I kind of lost track of my team."

They all gave him a weird look.

"You… lost track of your team?" Sakura answered; to be sure she heard it right.

He nodded.

"How'd you do that?" Sasuke asked.

"It's a long story but we kind of got separated after we've gain our second scroll. By now I'm sure my team is heading to the tower." said Kabuto."

Naruto pouted. "Lucky!"

"What's wrong?" the older boy asked.

Sakura sighed. "We've hadn't had any luck finding ours."

"Really? Have you thought about heading to the tower and gaining it?"

"Why would we head to the tower if we don't have it?" asked Sasuke.

Kabuto smiled. "Because during the last day of this test, other teams become desperate of passing and usually hide around tower where they can hopefully ambush another team and take their scrolls. It's risky though, the enemy teams will do anything to pass."

Team seven looked at one another for sec.

"Would you give us a moment, please." said Sakura.

Kabuto nodded.

Quickly Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura huddle around together.

"What do you think, should we give it a try?" Sakura asked.

"We're kind of at a dead end here." said Naruto.

"Perhaps, but what Kabuto said is true, other teams will become desperate to pass and will surely pull out all their tricks." said Sasuke.

"But if we don't do something soon, will never get a scroll." said the blonde.

"Naruto's right, we've only got until tomorrow morning to get our hands on a scroll." said Sakura.

Sasuke sighed, "I guess we're getting kind of desperate ourselves."

"So should we go for it?" asked Naruto.

"We're going for it." said Uchiha.

The three of them pulled away.

"We'll try looking for a scroll near the tower." Sasuke said to Kabuto.

"Glad to hear that, I just hope you guys can handle the enemy is all." said Kabuto, "I hope you guys don't mind if I tag along, I have to go there and meet my team there anyway. I just hope they won't be to pissed at me."

"Sure."

Hours later, twilight time…

Team seven along with Kabuto trailed through the Forest of Death towards the tower, which they could see clearly off in the distance. All was quiet in the forest that the only sounds that they could hear were the inhabitance of the forest, such as the frogs, birds, and all that.

Suddenly Kabuto halted his steps and stopped Sasuke and the others.

"What's wrong Kabuto." Sakura asked,

"Shhh…" was his reply, placing a figure to his mouth. "Someone's coming."

As soon as he said that, they heard approaching footsteps coming along with a few twigs and leaves cracking.

Quickly team seven and Kabuto prepared themselves for the coming enemy. The steps grew louder and louder until they round the corner to reveal…

Anyone who can guess who it is get's a cookie!

A stole and copy the Sound and Sakura fight scene from my other story 'You Belong to Me', because I was to lazy to write it again and it would be the same scene in the end. Yes I'm lazy, aren't I.

Please review!