Zero hour; The destruction of Hidden Leaf Village begins!

"C'mon, Sasuke! Kick his ass into next year! WOOOHHHHH!" Kari cheered, jumping up and down as she watched the fight ensuing below. Although she couldn't really see it and Sasuke really didn't let it show, but her cheering gave him a bit of an ego boost as he moved around, managing to hit Gaara right in the cheek and send him flying back a few feet. Kari cheered some more, almost a bit envious of Sasuke. She wished that she had been able to actually fight, needing to get rid of the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Watching Sasuke fight made her excited and pumped up. 'That taijutsu training sensei had us go through seems like it really paid off…Sasuke's almost as fast as Rock Lee! But…He still can't manage to hit me fast enough when we spar! But I gotta give him some credit. He's doing excellent!'

Her eye's narrowed when Gaara trapped himself in a sphere of sand, seeming to use it as a means of protection. She watched with wide eyes as Sasuke ran forward to hit it, as if to stop it from completely consuming Gaara. She shrieked in surprise when spike protruded from the sphere, afraid that Sasuke had gotten hit. He jumped away from the large thing of sand, and Hikari felt herself get uneasy. The feeling of bloodlust was suddenly heavy in the air, and apparently, it was coming from Gaara.

'How the hell is Sasuke going to exactly beat this guy, anyway?'

"Kakashi-sensei!"

Kari turned around from where she was leaning over the railing to see Kakashi, Guy, and Lee standing together, Sakura, Ino, and Choji sitting in the seats near them. At the top of the stairs, Naruto and Shikamaru stood, panting heavily.

"What is it, Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"Sensei, please! You just have to stop this match!"

'What? Stop the match?'

"The guy Sasuke is fighting is completely different from the rest of us! He's about as far as normal as you can get!"

"Naruto, slow down! What exactly are you trying to say?" Ino questioned, frowning slightly.

"He thinks his point in life is to kill people! Don't you see? If this continues, Sasuke will die!"

'DIE?'

"You've gotta believe me!"

Kari turned back around to stare out at the field. 'Sasuke wouldn't let someone like Gaara take him out. Not with all the training that he's had and gone through…' She watched as Sasuke ran forward, throwing Kunai at the sphere of sand, only to have them bounce off. Sasuke leaped up and landed closer, running forward to punch the sphere, moving back when spikes protruded from it. He leaped back some more as they followed him. Sasuke jumped up and slid up to the top of the arena wall, Kari watching in awe and anticipation as he made several hand signs. She smiled when electricity began to spark around his hand, growing into a large sphere.

'So, that's what sensei taught him at the last minute…Almost makes me a bit more envious, but…I got to learn a new technique just as strong as that myself.'

Sasuke threw his arm back before taking off, the electricity making a chirping sound as he did so. He ran and hit the sphere of sand, and Kari grinned excitedly.

'Chidori: 1000 birds…and to think he was terrible at it before I left…He's come a long way…' Kari thought, smiling as the burst of electricity broke through the sand.

A blood curdling scream caused Kari's stomach to twist as she heard it come from Gaara. Apparently, Sasuke had managed to hit him. She frowned as she watched Sasuke struggling to get his arm free of the sand he had used it to break through. He managed to get free, only to pull out some strange thing with him as he leaped back a few feet. She gasped softly. "What the hell is that supposed to be?" She gulped as she watched it retreat back into the sphere where Gaara still was. A loud roar came from it, and Hikari began to tremble slightly. "W-what is that thing?"

A loud screech diverted her attention away from the field and to the sky. She made a sound of surprise as she saw her hawk that she had sent to search for Sasuke earlier flying over head. Suddenly, an instant surge of anxiety hit her, and her grip on the railing tightened. 'I sense something….something really bad. And it's not just about this match, but something even bigger.'

The sand sphere began to crack, the sand falling to the ground to reveal an injured Gaara with a crazed and blood lusting look in his eyes. Her hawk screeched again, and she looked back to the sky, her eyes widening this time when she heard what it said.

'Danger is coming!'

Something besides the hawk caught her attention. A rainbow rimming around the sun, and she narrowed her eyes. Instantly, she was moving towards the Hokage's seat. She poofed in, surprising her grandfather and Raido.

"Grandpa Hokage!"

"Hikari! Child, what's the matter?"

"I.." She stopped, noticing how the Kazekage was staring at her grandfather. The Hokage turned to stare back when he felt the gaze on him.

"Now, shall we begin?"

The two ninja that had been body guards for the Kazekage ran forward, setting off a smoke bomb. Almost everyone's attention turned towards the area.

"Lord Hokage!" Guy exclaimed, Kakashi and him getting ready to go see what was the matter, only to be stopped by several ANBU members.

"Lord Kazekage, what is this?" The Hokage demanded, Hikari's anxiety levels beyond normal. As the smoke seemed to grow, she began to cough some.

"Honorable granddaughter! You must not stay!" Raido grabbed her and threw her, causing her to go flying out of the smoke. She began to fall towards the ground, quickly summoning several tree roots to catch her and set her down gently. She ran towards Genma and Sasuke.

"Hikari, what's going on?" Sasuke asked quickly, frowning as he could see her shaking slightly. She didn't answer immediately, her attention turning to the sky, her eyes filled with worry when she looked at the rainbow.

'That rainbow…no!' She turned back to face the area she had just been, gasping loudly as she saw Kazekage come flying out upwards from the smoke with the Hokage, his arm around the older mans neck with a kunai. She growled when she saw the ANBU members just standing on the roof. "DON'T JUST STAND THERE! DO SOMETHING!"

Suddenly, a barrier was created on the roof, blocking out any view of the Hokage.

"What's going on here?" Sasuke asked again, frowning at her even harder.

"Stop it, Gaara!"

Everyone's attention went to Temari as she was yelling at Gaara. Gaara looked at Sasuke and Hikari with a blood lust gaze, causing Kari tremble even more.

"I must kill him…"

Hikari glared, stepping in front of Sasuke and holding her arms out. "You're not going to touch him!"

"Then I'll just kill you with him…"

"There's no point in continuing this fight," Kankuro said, stepping in front of Gaara as means to stop him from moving towards Sasuke and Hikari anymore.

"That's right, don't forget our mission!" Temari reminded, and Kari's eyes narrowed.

'What mission?'

"Out of my way!" Gaara mumbled, pushing Kankuro aside and sending Kari and Sasuke a sinister sneer. Gaara was stopped by someone jumping in front of him, Hikari guessing it was his sensei. He asked them what they were doing, asking them if they yet realized that the operation had already began. Genma appeared before Hikari and Sasuke, standing in front of them.

"What is going on? TELL ME!" Sasuke demanded, looking up at Hikari and Genma with a frustrated look. He was ignored.

"Do you really think things will go according to you plan?" Genma asked.

"I'll make sure, that they do." Gaara's sensei said. He ordered the three to go once more, so they did. Hikari frowned at their retreating forms before looking back at Genma.

"Uncle?"

"Is the host of this party…Orochimaru?"

"Don't know…don't care. Now, let's heat things up, huh?"

Genma bit down on his senbon, "Sasuke…I'm sorry, but the chunin exam ends here for you. You've already achieved Chunin level, Hikari as well. You're both Leaf Village Shinobi, so put your training to good use."

"In other words, I'm supposed to take down Gaara, right?"

"That's why Hikari is going with you. It wouldn't be fair if I had her go do something that didn't allow letting off that pent up energy, plus the both of you are equally as strong, so I have a feeling you can handle it."

Sasuke nodded, glancing up at the Sarutobi girl. "Let's go."

"Right! Uncle Genma, be safe! C'mon, Sasuke!"

As the two took off, Baki tried to stop them by throwing Kunai at them, only to have the knocked away by Genma's own kunai. The two teammates made it out of the arena, safely.

With the Hokage and Orochimaru~

"I knew, or at least thought that this day would eventually arrive. However…You're not going to defeat me that easily!"

Orochimaru smirked. "I told you…you should've picked the fifth Hokage before now. Because, Third Hokage, right here, right now, you're going to die just like your two children did."

The Hokage closed his eyes, a look of anger on your face. "I thought that you had gotten your revenge on me and this village when you took their lives! What was the point in them both dying when you obviously haven't had your revenge? What did Takashi and Kaori do to deserve to die?"

Orochimaru began to chuckle, "I didn't kill them to get revenge, no. You see, I merely ran into them while they were on that mission. I was only after Kaori."

"But that still doesn't explain why you killed both Takashi and Kaori!"

"You see, I wanted Kaori's special power: The Legendary Godaigon of the Kietsu clan. But before I could manage to deal the final blow…Your son had to come along and interfere. He took the deathblow. Kaori managed to get away from me, and Takashi died."

"Because of your foolish actions, two children were left behind without parents! You must really have a hard stone cold heart."

"Can't win them all, I suppose. Because Kaori managed to get the slip up on me, I never got the Godaigon. But now, your precious little granddaughter has seemed to finally unlocked it. I saw her birthmark on her shoulder when she came up here earlier. It was fully formed. It's a shame I didn't mark her back in the forest during the second exam. Oh, well…I can always do it after you're gone."

"You will not touch her…Because you're the one who is going to die."

Hikari and Sasuke leapt down to the ground, Sasuke kneeling down and picking up some dirt, gently pouring it out of his hand to find sand mixed with it. He smirked, tightening his fist before glancing over at Hikari. On her arm, a hawk was perched, staring at her intently.

"Scout ahead for us. Report back if you sight them from the sky. Go!" She raised her arm up into the air and the hawk took flight, disappearing from view. She looked back over at Sasuke and nodded, the two taking off into the trees again.

"How do you know if that bird will even do as you asked? Animals don't understand orders as complex as that."

"Well, that's part of the Godaigon, I suppose. The ability to communicate and understand animals. I ask them for a favor, and they do it for me. That's how I managed to get through the 1st exam, finishing the test. I had a bird sneak in once the window was open and fly around up on the beams of the ceiling, reading someone's answer and having the bird tell me what the answers were."

"Who's paper did you copy off of?"

She smiled at him, "Yours."

She stared up at the sky, frowning at the rainbow.

At the same time, elsewhere, Konohamaru was staring up at it as well. Both Sarutobi siblings recalled the time they had first heard about it.

Flashback~

Konohamaru ran ahead of the Third and his sister, staring up at the sky in wonder as he saw the peculiar shape of the rainbow rimmed around the sun. "Hm? Hey, what's that? Old man, what's that weird rainbow?"

Hikari stared up at it in curiosity. "Wow…"

The third chuckled as he came to a stop next to both of his grandchildren. "That's a real unusual one, huh?" Konohamaru asked.

"I think it's pretty!" Kari exclaimed.

"So, you both like rainbows, do you?"

Both Sarutobi children nodded. "You bet, but I've never seen a rainbow as pretty as that one before."

"Me neither."

"I see, I see. Did you know, Konohamaru and Hikari," Sarutobi began, both of his grandchildren looked up at him in curiosity, "Rainbows are beautiful, it's true, but they were once used to symbolize snakes, and it's said they foretell the arrival of evil."

"A pretty thing like that?" Both grandchildren said in unison.

"C'mon, that's not true, old man!" Konohamaru exclaimed.

"Konohamaru, don't be disrespectful to grandpa!" Hikari yelled, earning laughter from Sarutobi.

"Alright, alright! Hahahahaha!"

End flashback~

'Today was supposed to be a good day, not a bad day…'

"Hikari!"

"What?"

He gave her a concerned look. "Calm down. Your anxiety levels are completely off the charts. Are you trying to give yourself an anxiety attack?"

She looked away from him and ahead at the trees they were going through. "I'm sorry, but I'm just a bit worried…I don't know what's going to happen next, and-"

"Not knowing the next move or action scares you, doesn't it?"

She nodded in confirmation. "Mhm…I've always been able to figure out what the next move is when I'm faced against an easy and readable opponent, but people like this…not even my smarts can guess what the next move is."

He smirked, "You shouldn't be worried. After all, with my Sharingan, I can tell the next move beforehand. As long as I'm around, nothing should really go wrong."

"But how do you know that it won't? I mean, it's not like you can see the future with your Sharingan. You can only tell so much…"

He frowned at that, looking back ahead. They had made it deeper into the forest, where more trees were. They had to flip around in order to get to certain branches. As soon as they had passed over one, Hikari heard a small click followed by a loud explosion behind them. Both of them turned to glance back, gasping as they saw that they had fallen into some type of explosive trap.

"Move!"

Each branch they landed on or barely touched exploded as soon as they moved off of it. Sasuke managed to jump up and hang upside down, grabbing Hikari's hands when she didn't jump high enough. Both stared down at the trap that had exploded, Hikari letting out a sigh of relief.

"Well, that was close…" Sasuke mumbled.

"Like I said, you can only tell so much…"

The hawk from earlier flew over head as soon as they had managed to get standing straight up. Hikari looked up at it before closing her eyes.

"Well? What'd it say?"

She reopened her eyes and looked up at him. "They're all just up ahead. About….2 or 3 minutes away, give or take."

They took off again, reaching the area that they had been spotted in. The three sand ninja stood on a tree branch, and Hikari and Sasuke made themselves known.

"We finally caught you. Did you really think that we'd let you get away?" Sasuke asked, Hikari smirking.

"They must be stupid if they thought that we would."

"Oh jeez…" Kankuro muttered.

"If it isn't Sasuke Uchiha and Hikari Sarutobi…"

Sasuke smirked, flipping a kunai around in his hand. "This is as far as you guys go."

"So, what're you gonna do, huh?" Kankuro asked, a bit frustrated by the interruption. Temari leaped up into the air and barked some orders.

"Go Kankuro! Get Gaara away from here!" She launched several Kunai at Sasuke, who merely leaned his head out of the way, causing the Kunai to lodge themselves in the tree instead. "I'll take care of these two."

"Don't be a fool, Temari. That Sasuke kid alone is too much for you too handle by yourself, and that girl is twice as much."

"Don't argue. Our mission is to make sure that Gaara is safe. He's our first and only priority. Don't worry about me. This is what I've been waiting for. Get going, Kankuro!"

Kankuro took off, and Sasuke growled, throwing several kunai. "No you don't!" Sadly, they missed. "Damn!" Sasuke took off, making the move to go after the two, only to stop as Temari appeared up on the branch opposite of him. She whipped out her large fan and sent a gust of wind at Sasuke. It blew him back, and Hikari jumped up and landed next to him.

"Listen to me carefully, Sasuke; Just before you and Kakashi arrived at the arena, Shikamaru faced off with this chick. She's super low on chakra supply, so she can't really use any powerful jutsu at this rate. She's pretty slow since she's so exhausted, so we stand a pretty good chance at beating her."

Sasuke looked back at Temari, 'Should I use the Chidori and try to take her out quickly?' He tightened his hand into a fist. 'Hell…why not?'

'She uses wind style jutsu, so any type of weapons we throw at her, she can use that fan to blow them right back at us…' Hikari leaped up after Sasuke, moving out of the way with them as Temari sent a gust of wind at them. They hid behind a tree as the gust seemed to get more powerful.

"I thought you said she was low chakra?"

"She is…That fan of hers is the obstacle. Throwing kunai and shuriken at her are pointless and a large waste of weaponry if she just blows them away. I know what you're doing…you're holding back so you can have enough chakra for the Chidori, but…at least use a powerful jutsu that doesn't require too much chakra…"

He smirked, "I've got just the one." He jumped out from behind their tree and made several hand signs. "Fire style: Phoenix flower jutsu!" Temari jumped to the ground, getting trapped in by the flames surrounding. Sasuke smirked, performing several more hand signs. "Fire style: Fireball jutsu!"

"Wind scythe jutsu!"

Sasuke dodged it and landed on branch, slipping on some sand that Temari had summoned there. He fell towards the ground and Temari leaped up into the air, throwing several kunai and hitting him successfully. Temari had been so sure that she had killed him…until Sasuke turned into a log with a paper bomb attached to it. Temari went flying backwards, hitting the ground roughly. Sasuke and Hikari appeared in a nearby branch.

"Gotta run! I've wasted too much time on you already. C'mon, Hikari!"

The two took off, leaving Temari behind.

"How far ahead did they get?"

"About 10 minutes away now. If we keep going at this rate, we'll reach them in no time. Also…I have a plan."

"What kind of plan?"

"One that involves a lot of explosives and surprise attacks."

"I like the way you think, Hikari."

"I like the way I think too!"

And so, the two continued on.

A/N: Surprisingly, this went quite well! So, yeah…Review and…stuff. LATER TATERS!