Goofy jerked his head upwards, letting out a soft grunt as he struggled to keep his eyes open in the post-sunset darkness.

"(You should sleep…)" Sakura suggested quietly, slipping her fingers under Sasuke's headband to check his temperature. She had been petrified to see Sora return supporting a half-dead Sasuke, and she immediately took him off Sora's shoulder to treat him. She demanded to know what happened, and was almost in tears by the end of Sora's description.

The trio offered to stand guard whilst she took care of him and the unconscious Naruto. But as the sun sank, tiredness caught up with them, especially the short-statured Donald, who actually fell asleep on his feet. Sora nodded off soon after him, Keyblade slack in his grasp.

"(And leave you all alone? I wouldn't feel right.)" Goofy yawned, stretching his arms above his head as he re-adjusted his seating next to the thick root. She frowned to herself, slipping her hand out.

"(His breathing is going back to normal, but he still has a high fever…)" She fell silent as she looked into Sasuke's sleeping, troubled face. Her gaze lingered there as a sigh escaped her lips. Hesitantly, she reached forward and slowly ran her fingers through his fringe. Her eyes softened as she slid her hand down the side of his face, gently stroking his cheek with her thumb. Watching this simple display of affection, Goofy gave a small smile.

"(…You really love him, doncha?)" She glanced up at him, her cheeks flushing as her jaw dropped slightly, and she stammered;

"Wh-what? Wh- what do you mean? I- I- Of course I… I care about him… I mean, he's- He-He's on my team! Why shouldn't I care? I- I mean…" She shrugged, looking away as her blush deepened. "…Alright I- I do like him, just like every girl in the village does… and definitely more than Ino-pig… but…" She hesitantly glanced back to him and a small smile crept onto her face. "I… I just wouldn't put it that… strongly, y'know?"

"Yep, I think I do… Sora's looking for someone like that as well…" He nodded towards the snoozing boy. "Kairi and Riku, very special friends of his… They're all he talks about. You haven't heard of them, by any chance?" He added.

"There are ninjas from all over the country in this exam… You never know." She shrugged.

"How are they?" Goofy asked, nodding at the comatose pair. She didn't answer, continuing to stroke Sasuke's hair, looking longingly into his face before glancing up at Naruto.

"They're fine for now, but…" She left it hanging as she gave a soft sigh. She glanced over to Goofy. "…They're always there for me, and I never appreciate it …" She looked back, drawing her hand away from him as she became more serious.

"I… I have to protect them." She said firmly, drawing a kunai and squaring her shoulders. "They were always there for me, now I can be there for them."

"Don't forget about us, too." Goofy reminded her, nodding towards the sleeping Sora and Donald. "We're gonna stick with you until we-" He stopped himself, slapping a hand to his mouth. She looked to him in surprise, raising an eyebrow.

"Until you… what?" She asked warily. He curled his hand into a fist and bit his knuckle in anxiety.

"Well… I'm not sure I'm supposed to say…" He glanced anxiously to Donald's sleeping form. "Donald knows more about the rules we're supposed to follow when visiting other… places… so I'm not sure what I can tell you without endangering you…"

"And we're not in danger already?" She asked humourlessly, nodding to the night shrouded forest. He squirmed under her gaze, but remained resolute.

"I'm sorry, but I don't wanna say anything in case I say somethin' I shouldn't. But trust me, we're gonna help you three as long as we're here." She narrowed her eyes slightly in suspicion, but nodded.

"Alright… But now I know you're hiding something, I'll be keeping a closer eye on you three…" Goofy just shrugged, smiling innocently at her.

"Sure thing."

A dark shape materialized on a branch high above them.

"(So… the boy survives…)" The woman whispered, the darkness hiding her from sight as she surveyed them. She smirked malevolently as he gaze fell on Sasuke's comatose form. "(Let's see if he is strong enough to survive the process…)" She slowly turned on the spot and clicked her fingers, causing the air to ripple and warp as a dark purple portal appeared in front of her.

"(I shall see you later, Sasuke.)" She promised, walking forward through the portal. "(Orochimaru may be seeking out your substitute, but I have other potentials to convince…)"

"Those creatures are irritating…" Neji sighed in annoyance, blinking off his Byakugan. He straightened up from his stance and walked out of the shallow depression he'd made towards the others. "They just keep appearing from nowhere…"

"Ah, but that's the beauty of them!" Lee said cheerily, shadow-boxing and kicking at the bark of the tree. "They keep on appearing, giving you endless opponents to spar with!"

"Lee, not all of us have your enthusiasm. (Or your lack of a sense of danger…)" Tenten noted, taking a sip from the drink canister. "And it's kinda stupid to fight something you don't even know about."

"That just gives me the chance to prepare for the unexpected!" Tenten sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Back to business." Neji ordered, taking out a kunai and swinging it loosely from his fingertips. "We were able to secure food and water within the first 12 hours, and right now there should be a lot of teams who are resting." He glanced up. "As planned, we'll use this time to our advantage. We will all separate and scout the area. However, whether you see another team or not, come back here." He flicked his wrist and the kunai impaled the ground between them.

"Got it?"

"Okay."

"Roger!"

"Lee, we're not using headsets, no need to say 'Roger'."

"Oh, Roger!"

"Lee… (I swear you're going to drive me mad…)"

"Okay, Break!"

Sakura awoke with a start in time to see Naruto stretching his arms as he sat up.

"Aaagh… That was a nice nap!" He yawned loudly, shaking his head to clear it.

"At least it was until you woke me up…" Donald complained grumpily, getting to his feet and rubbing the back of his neck. "(I hate sleeping outside; you always get stiff necks in the morning…)"

"At least you got some s- s- sleep…" Goofy said as he stifled a yawn. "Me and Sakura were up all night keeping you guys safe…" Sakura's face, already smiling from all this praise, suddenly lit up as Sasuke sat up with a groan.

"Naruto! Sasuke-kun! You're alright!"

"…what? Did… did you nurse us?" Sasuke asked blearily, pulling the now-dried compress off his forehead and looking to her. Her grin widened as she noticed he was actually sending her a small smile! And it looked genuine!

"And Goofy." She added truthfully.

"Thank you, Goofy, Sakura!" Naruto grinned widely, looking between them. "I feel a lot better now!"

"(I'm… so glad…)" She whispered, tears of happiness welling in her eyes. The long, sleepless night had been quite traumatic on the young girl.

Something rustled the bushes, and she snapped her head round.

Standing there in the open was the strangest woman she'd ever seen. Clothed in a long flowing dress/cloak, the dark purple fabric covered her up completely, sans the end of her sleeves where her pale green hands wrapped around a long thin staff topped by a bright green jewel. A tight-fitting hood surrounded her head, which tapered out into two curling horns, and her pale, green-tinged face was both beautiful and dangerous, and she had a haughty, proud expression on her face.

"(One who is prey needs to always strain his mind and run around.)" She whispered, and Sakura was surprised she heard it from the other side of the clearing. The woman suddenly stiffened, and an insane grin spread over her face as it rapidly morphed into the face of the Grass Genin. "In front of a predator!"

Without warning, his head shot out of the body on a long neck, and the cloak collapsed in an untidy heap as he slithered along the forest floor. Sakura's eyes widened in shock, and she turned and yelled to the others;

But wait. Something was wrong.

Sakura grabbed at her throat, opening her mouth wide as she tried to speak. The others didn't notice, talking calmly amongst themselves. She tried again, but still nothing. She looked back in fright in time to see a dark creature with yellow eyes lunge at her face, mouth open, elongated claws bared-

She gasped loudly as she jerked her head up, the horrible vision waking her abruptly from sleep. She put her hand to her chest in shock, and she felt her heart racing in her chest.

"Sakura? You okay?" A voice said, and she looked up to see Sora led back against the tree root right next to her, hands behind his head. It took a few second to compose herself.

"N-nothing… Just… Just a bad dream…" She looked out towards where she had seen that strange woman, frowning to herself. "Sora… I am awake, aren't I?" She heard a light tinkling sound, and something metal tapped her gently on the head. She glanced over to Sora, Keyblade summoned and a grin on his face.

"Yep, you're awake. You just need a bit of morning pep."

"…morning?" She frowned, glancing around the sunlit area. "Is it dawn already?"

"Well, it has been for at least an hour." Sora said, getting to his feet and stretching his arms above his head. "If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna see if there's anything to eat round here." He started off across the clearing-

"WAIT!" Sakura suddenly yelled, grabbing hold of the back of his shirt and yanking him back in mid-step with an 'Ack-!' He shot her a confused look from down on the floor. "Erm… Heh, you… don't know the area that well…" She said bashfully, scratching the back of her neck. "You… could get lost…"

"… You could've just said so." Sora muttered grumpily, picking himself up.

"Sleeping on the job and ordering your boyfriend about? That's not a very good example a Ninja…" Sora and Sakura looked up in shock at the three figures that had appeared, unnoticed, at the edge of the clearing.

The one who spoke had his face wrapped in bandages so that only one eye was revealed. He was hunched over, so the extra long sleeves of his jacket dragged across the ground, with a large amount of what appeared to be wolf-skin draped over his back. The other boy and girl were dressed in simpler clothing, and shared the same headband design from the Village of Sound.

"Can you wake Sasuke-kun?" The bandaged one asked in a mocking tone.

"We want to fight him…" The un-masked ninja said, a nasty grin spreading over his face.

You are weak…

"What are you talking about? Who are you?" Sakura ordered in a voice a lot braver than she felt, jumping to her feet. "And he is not my boyfriend!" She added, jabbing a finger towards Sora.

"We don't care about your silly social interactions." The girl, Kin, sneered. "Just wake the Uchiha up."

"Answer her!" Sora snapped, dropping into a ready stance, watching Goofy and Donald, awakened by the noise, slowly sneak away out of the corner of his eye. "We know that a guy called Orochimaru is behind this! What did he do to Sasuke? And why is he using Heartless?"

This caught the Sound Nin by surprise.

"We don't question what he does." The black-haired boy, Zaku, sneered. "And we're not exactly gonna blab about his plans either. Just get Sasuke!"

"You want to fight him while he's in this condition?" Sakura asked in bemusement. "What are you, cowards?"

"Nothing of the sort." Zaku replied. "We want to test his abilities. But now you know about Orochimaru-sama, we can't let you tell anyone about him…" He looked to the others. "I'll kill these two. I'll even kill the Sasuke guy…"

You are useless…

"Kill him? After all the trouble Orochimaru-sama went through to get this guy?" Kin asked in mild surprise.

"This Sasuke guy is a weakling." He pointed towards him. "Look at him. He can't handle the power like we can. It's best to put him out of his misery." He made to get up, but the bandaged one, Dosu, stopped him with a raised hand.

"Wait." He had been observing them for the past few minutes, and he now narrowed an eye at Sakura. She stared straight back over Sora's shoulder, her face determined despite her lack of sleep, kunai in hand. "You… are too calm…" He lowered his arm and took a few, slow, deliberate steps towards them, studying Sakura's face.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Ste-

He suddenly stopped mid-pace, keeping the tip of his foot raised off the ground by the heel, staring at Sakura. He let out a quiet chuckle. He drew his foot back and squatted down, reaching a hand forward to gently brush the grass where he'd almost stepped.

"…how unoriginal." He said disdainfully, grabbing a handful of grass and pulling it aside to reveal a thin wire half-buried in the dirt. "The colour of the dirt indicates that it has just been dug up. The grass doesn't grow here. There's no meaning to a trap if it isn't well made…"

'N-no… no way…' Sakura thought despairingly. They'd managed to figure out her trap? How long had they been watching…?

"Ah, so that's why she dragged here boyfriend away." Zaku realised. "She didn't want him to trigger it prematurely…"

"Enough talk…" Dosu said quietly, tilting his head to the side as he stared Sakura down. "Let's kill them right away…"

Sasuke gritted his teeth in his comatose state as he felt a cold shiver slowly creep through him.

"At least, after we've played with them…" Kin added as she stared at Sora the way a cat stares at a cornered mouse. In unison, all three of them lifted their hands and formed the Ram seal before slamming them on the floor, sending three thin tendrils of purple energy flowing over the ground.

"No way… they can use them too?" Sora sighed angrily, readying the Keyblade. The energy stopped halfway across the clearing, and several Heartless, mostly Silent Masks and a Soldier or two, burst out of the ground like jack-in-the-boxes, twitching and clanking. Sakura gave him a look of confusion.

"Use… what?" Sora did a double take, raising an eyebrow at her. Was she kidding?

"What do you mean, 'What'?" Sora said irritably, swinging the Keyblade to the side and running at the crowd of creatures. "The Heartless!"

"Heartless?" She frowned, eyes flicking all over the clearing. "What Heartl-?" Her eyes widened in shock as she realised what he'd stumbled into. "Sora! Wait! It's a Genjutsu!" Sakura yelled- but too late. The Pseudo-Heartless flickered and vanished before Sora's eyes, and he skidded to a stop in surprise in the centre of the clearing.

You cannot defeat him in this state…

Without warning, all three of the Sound-nins sprung high into the air over Sora's head towards Sakura. Sora, frustrated at being deceived, tensed his legs to jump but Sakura held her hand up, warning him not to jump. He shot her a confused look.

"Wait." She smirked, spinning the kunai round in her free hand and flexing her wrist-

Cutting through a hair-thin wire that Sora hadn't noticed before that was tied to another kunai, leading high into the treetops. With a loud booming sound, an enormous log crashed through the canopy above them on a rope, directly in the path of the Sound-nins.

"So there was a trap above us too?! Crap!" Dosu cursed fearfully, unable to stop his trajectory, only watching as the wooden weight barrelled through the tree branches towards him-

"Not." He suddenly smirked, clasping his hands together in a familiar seal.

Without warning, the entire log suddenly exploded, sending shards of wood flying as the newly materialized Darkball Heartless shredded the log from the inside out in a rapid burst of movement.

"A Darkball?" Sora gasped in shock. The Darkball twisted in mid-air and leered down at them evilly before dissipating into smoke just in time for the three ninjas to pass through it unharmed.

Sasuke let out a quiet groan, his face twitching as a tiny curl of black smoke escaped his lips.

"To be blunt, little girl, you have no talent." Dosu called down to Sakura, trailing wisps of Darkball behind him as they fell towards them. "People like you need to work harder!"

Sakura slowly shook her head as terrified tears welled in her eyes. This… was it. Even though Sora turned and drew back the Keyblade, readying a Strike Raid, Sakura had already worked it out. He wasn't going to make it. They were out-matched, out-numbered and Sakura had already reached the limit of her strength guarding the others.

The three Sound-nin were almost on top of her, kunai drawn. The strange Heartless shot down towards her in a column of smoke, ready to re-form behind her.

Shinobi blade and Heartless smoke loomed over her.

Sora could only stop one.

But whichever strike got through, Human or Heartless, it would finish her.

Gaara stopped walking, turning his head to look over his shoulder. On hearing his footstep falter, Kankuro and Tenmari immediately halted and looked back at him.

"Gaara?" Kankuro asked warily. Gaara ignored him, studying the treetops with his dark-ringed, sleepless eyes.

"Carry on." He muttered eventually, folding his arms over his chest. "I'll catch up."

"Catch up?" Tenmari frowned, glancing over the treetops. "What do you mean? Is someone there?" She reached behind her back and gripped the top of the giant fan attached there. "Who is it?"

"…I said I'll catch up…" Gaara repeated slowly.

"But Gaara," Kankuro started, but Gaara glanced over to them and narrowed his eyes at them. While no obvious movement was made, they winced at the level of killing intent they felt emanate from him.

"Ai-yah… Alright, alright, we're going!" Tenmari frowned, turning and jumping away in a huff. With a last annoyed, but wary, glance at Gaara, he leapt away to join her.

Gaara was left alone in the clearing.

The stopper of the gourd on his back loosened and shifted, allowing the sand inside to ooze out and trickle to the ground, where it pooled around his feet, bubbling and writhing like the surface of a swamp. Gaara himself hadn't moved, staring impassively into the forest.

"Come out now before I crush you." He ordered, an arm of sand rising from the pool around his feet. He looked to his left to see a dark figure slowly melt out of a tree trunk.

"…I have a proposition for you, my boy…" The figure whispered, a strange smile spreading over their face. With a mere whim, Gaara sent a torrent of sand blasting at the figure. They didn't react, even as the wave of sand opened up and clamped over their body like a giant claw, pinning them in place.

"…No-one sneaks up on me," Gaara said, dragging the figure forward into the light. "Though I'm impressed you got so close before I could pinpoint you exactly. What is it you want?"

Without warning, the figure vanished- simply vanished- from the sand's grip, making it crumble in on itself as Gaara's eyes widened in surprise.

What?! Nothing ever escaped the Sand Coffin…

"I despise being man-handled…" An annoyed yet silky voice muttered from behind him. Gaara's surprise slowly faded, and he closed his eyes, impassive once again.

"…Alright, you've got my attention…"