The Final Exam had finally arrived and my brother shook me awake that morning in excitement. I smiled at him when I decided to open my eyes, and he was already dressed and ready to go.

"Come on! There are important people who'll be watching our matches that are arriving!" he was jumping up and down. "There're loads of villagers cheering for them! Get ready and let's go!"

I stretched and sat up lazily in my bed. I glanced at his impatient look and sighed.

"You know what? Why don't you go without me and I'll meet you at the stadium." I yawned.

"Really?"

When I nodded, he grinned and ran out into the streets. The smile I'd faked disappeared when I couldn't see him anymore. I got out of bed and quickly got ready for the day, Gaara had agreed to retreat when the invasion would start.

I walked out of the apartment and locked the door behind me, I walked down the crowded streets filled with excited Leaf citizens. Everyone was going in the same direction, to where the Final Exam would take place. I should've been stressed like a normal person would be, but I knew that Dosu, my opponent, was killed by Gaara on the fish roof a while ago. I arrived just as they were about to close the doors. I stood between Shikamaru and Naruto, and noticed that Sasuke hadn't arrived yet.

"Hey, stop looking around and face the customers." ordered the Jonin standing in front of us. "In this main tournament, you guys are the stars."

It was only then that I noticed the cheering and I gasped when I looked up. Thousands of people were sitting in seats above us, it felt like I was a gladiator and they were the mad people who thought it was entertaining to see someone fight and be eaten by a lion. I swallowed hard. I looked in Gaara's direction and followed his gaze up to the Hokage and the… Kazekage. The Third rose from his seat and walked to the edge of the stadium.

"Thank you all for coming to the Hidden Leaf Chunin Selection Exam!" he shouted for everyone to hear. "We will now start the main tournament matches between the 10 participants who made it through the preliminaries. Please stay and watch until the end!"

With that the Jonin turned to us.

"Does everyone remember who they're up against?" he asked.

We all nodded and Naruto raised his hand.

"What?"

"Sasuke isn't here yet, what are you gonna do?"

"If he doesn't appear in time for his match, he will receive a default loss." he responded. "Alright guys, this is the final test. The arena may be different but the rules are the same as in the preliminaries, there are none. You fight until one of you dies or acknowledges defeat, but if I determine that the fight is over I'll stand in and stop it, got that?"

I accidentally yawned, receiving a deadly glare from the Jonin.

"Now for the first fight, Naruto Uzumaki against Neji Hyuga. The rest of you go to the waiting room."

As the rest started to walk away, I pecked my twin on the cheek.

"Kick his ass!" I encouraged, making sure Neji heard my comment and ran to join the others.

I ran up the stairs, bumping into the others in the process, and got to the balcony, not wanting to miss a second of my brother's match.

"Go Twin! You're the best, show that Hyuga who's boss!" I yelled.

"Why do you even bother? Encouraging is such a drag." muttered a lazy voice.

I looked at the pineapple haired Genin to my left and sighed.

"You're a drag." I retorted.

"Troublesome woman." he mumbled.

I suppressed a giggle and looked behind me to see Gaara walking up to us, he stood to my right and covered my hand with his. I glance at him from the corner of my eye, he was watching the match, his expressionless mask on. I resisted the urge to caress his cheek while staring at his pale skin, my eyes moved to his red hair, messy and wild. I gasped as the color reminded me of Orochimaru's plans, he heard me and looked me with worried eyes. I span round and ran out the back door. I quickly started to run up the wall with my chakra-enhanced feet, heading to the tallest tower, where I knew were the Third and the "Kazekage". I got to the roof and jumped in front of a shocked Orochimaru.

"April? What are you doing?" he yelled as I took out a kunai and aimed to cut the snake's throat, only to have the imposter grab my wrist and push me over the edge of the building.

"Run Sarutobi!" I screamed as I fell.

"Don't worry, April. I've got your back!" said Foxy.

I felt myself consumed by the red chakra and power. The tail that it had formed wrapped itself around the nearest pole, sadly only slowing down my fall, not preventing it. As I thought that all would be left of me would be a stain on the floor, I landed on something soft and hands helped me up.

"Oh God, that was a close one!" said Foxy, letting out a sigh of relief.

I looked up to find that my savior was Gaara, holding me still. He was looking at the two Kages, and watching as Orochimaru revealed himself. He grabbed the Third and dragged him up to roof, followed by his four bodyguards, who made a shield around the roof top. I swallowed hard, I knew that Gaara knew about the invasion plan, but he didn't know about the part where the Sound kills his father, the Kazekage.

"It's time for me to retreat." he whispered and lowered me to the ground.

He turned to leave, Temari and Kankuro running down the stairs to join him, but I grabbed his shoulder, and turned him to face me once more. Before he could ask what I was doing, I crashed my lips down onto his. It was short, but it was great. He pulled away and smiled at me.

"I'll see you soon and that's a promise." he said and kissed me again before retreating with his siblings on his heels.

Kakashi and Sasuke appeared in a poof of smoke and the raven saw his opponent running, and chased after him. I looked up at to see that all the audience was fast asleep and that some of the Shinobi were fighting off the Sound. A loud crashing sound was heard and even from where I was, I could see three giant snakes attack the village. I watched in horror as a small dog followed by Naruto and Sakura also chased after Gaara, Temari and Kankuro. I had to stop them from hurting each other, and so I ran after the group.

I ran through the forest, jumping from branch to branch, but I couldn't find them. I heard someone yelling and followed the noise, what I saw had me frozen. Sasuke was standing on a nearby branch and Sakura was attached to a tree trunk with sand pressing against her, but that wasn't what shocked me, what shocked me was the Nine Tails jumping over the trees, attacking a giant raccoon, a raccoon with Gaara on his forehead, unconscious. I watched as Naruto ran off the Fox's head to the raccoon's and delivered several punches and kicks to Gaara, who opened his eyes wide. When he'd woken, the raccoon turned to sand and they both fell to the ground. I jumped off the branch I was standing on and raced to where they'd landed. I used Foxy's chakra to increase my speed and eventually reached them, Naruto was lying inches away from Gaara, my Twin was unconscious. I ran to them and knelt down.

"He's still alive." said Gaara quickly.

I smiled at him.

"You two scared me, thank God this is all that happened."

"You see a worst case scenario?"

I shuddered at the thought, and he noticed. He squeezed my hand reassuringly and I brought it to my cheek. The moment was shattered when Sasuke ran over to us and stood next to Naruto, followed by Temari and a weakened Kankuro who stood on Gaara's side. The Uchiha glared at the obvious relationship between the redhead and myself. The raven held a fighting stance, mimicked by the two siblings.

"That's enough, stop it…" said Gaara, his voice now barely a whisper.

I lowered our hands as they turned to help him up. Kankuro lifted Gaara's arm over his head and held it there, standing up slowly.

"Your brother, he fights for the people he loves." stated Gaara, locking eyes with me. "He is strong because of it, and I shall do the same. I will protect the ones important to me, I will protect you."