They were all lined up, eagerly awaiting the second stage of the chunin exam. Anko was explaining the rules of this round. Saori looked around at the other teams. There were quite a few.

"Saito, Senji. Listen." She whispered. "There are twenty-six teams total, six of which from Konoha, including us. One team from Suna. These teams are our allies, the rest are fair game."

"I thought you said that Gaara would try and kill us if we were against him?"

"Yes, if you were to get in his way he would likely try and kill you. Not that I'd let that happen. So just don't get in his way. Naruto's team... Ino's team... and Kiba's team. We'll keep an eye on them, maybe give them a hand if they need it. Let's be honest, we could complete this challenge with our hands behind our backs."

"Yeah, total child's play." Senji said confidently.

"Nonetheless we should keep our guards up and stay focussed. Rule number four, never underestimate the enemy." Saito said.

"What happened to rules one, two and three?"

"Oh Senji... rule one is family first, which includes teammates and the entire village. Rule two is never leave on an empty stomach, and finally rule three, Saori is the boss." She laughed.

"No, seriously, what's rule three?" They walked away from him. "Guys?!?!"

They received their scroll, a heaven scroll, and made their way into the Forest of Death.

"Five days, thirteen teams maximum will pass. An all or nothing fight. No rules." It was clear she was excited.

"Why does it have to be the Forest of Death, why can't it be something nice like the Forest of Happiness?"

"Get over it Senji." She sounded irritated. "Stay alert."

"Do you sense something?" Saito came up behind her.

"We need to get to higher ground, and watch out for traps. There's another team up ahead, they don't smell familiar so it must be a team from another village."

"Right." They all jumped up into the trees.

"Summoning Jutsu." Saori used her summoning justsu. She had summoned a white tiger. "Byakko, please scout the area ahead, be my eyes and ears." The tiger went on its way. "Get down, there's someone behind us."

She threw her kunai in the direction of the attackers. It was a team from the village hidden in the mist. She took care of them with ease.

"Ha! Luck is on our side, gentlemen. An Earth scroll!" She was thrilled. They had already completed the first half of the challenge.

"Saito, I think you should hold the scroll now." She handed it to him. "And Senji, you hold the new one."

"But, Saori, it makes more sense for you to have them, you're way stronger than us." Senji objected.

"Exactly, which makes me the obvious target, should anyone come after us."

"She's got a point. And by each of us having one it might throw the other teams off, should someone somehow manage to get one."

"I doubt any of the other teams have managed to snag themselves another scroll. So we're basically a target for everybody."

"Yeah, let's just get to the tower." Just then they heard screams.

"Sounds like that's another team down already. Should we follow it?" Saito asked.

"Hmm, if you want to check it out?"

"I'm just curious who it is." They made their way and found out it was Kiba's team that had taken someone out. They stayed hidden and undetected.

"Actually this isn't a bad idea. Why rush to finish this thing when we can keep an eye on the competition." Saori wanted to have some fun. "We could even help our fellow leaf ninja out. And maybe even eliminate more of the competition."

"You mean help Gaara." Senji rolled his eyes.

"Trust me, you'll want to see him in action later on."

"Is he that good?"

"Of course. There's more to him than meets the eyes. He's a skilled ninja. I'll explain more when the time comes."

"Why not now?" Senji asked.

"It's more of a visual thing. Like you need to see it first hand. Preferably by him fighting someone else though."

"That bad huh?" Saito was intrigued.

"Put It this way, he possesses power on the same level as me."

"Woah!" They said in unison. Suddenly she felt a chill all over her body, and her neck began pulsing with pain.

"What's wrong?!" Senji swooped in to support her as she began to collapse.

"It's nothing... come on, we need to move." She knew it meant he was here. It took a while to subside, but once it did she was back to normal. A little further ahead they came across Sakura and an unconscious Sasuke and Naruto. Sakura was putting a cold towel on Sasuke's head. Saori knew what had happened.

"Thankyou... Sakura." She said under her breath. They pressed on and that's when they found Gaara and team. They were about to start a fight with a team from the hidden rain village. Kankurō tried to talk Gaara out of fighting, to no success. The rain ninja sent a rainstorm of needles from one of his umbrellas. Gaara's sand protected him and Kankurō explained about the sand. Kiba and team were directly below Saori and team, so she overheard him say the sand smelt like blood. Gaara then used his Sand Coffin attack, rendering the rain ninja unable to move. He then picked up one of the umbrellas and used his Sand Burial to kill the ninja. Sand and blood rained down, the umbrella prevented any landing on Gaara.

"There wasn't any pain. I crushed him with more force than was necessary so it was over quickly. The corpses bitter crimson tears flow and mingle with the endless sand, feeding the chaos within me and making me stronger." Gaara lowered the umbrella.

"Your boyfriend is so poetic..." Senji said with obvious sarcasm.

"He's not my boyfriend!"

"Shhhhh. Keep your voices down. They'll hear us." Saito pointed down towards Kiba's team. Gaara stretched his arm out towards where Kiba's team was hiding. He knew they were there. His thirst for blood still unsatisfied. Kankurō argued with him saying that now they had both scrolls they didn't need to bother with any other teams. He just wanted to finish this stage of the exam. Gaara told him he didn't see him as a brother and that if he got in his way, he would kill him. Temari also tried to stop Gaara.

"I would appreciate it, Gaara, if you wouldn't kill them." Saori jumped down and was stood between Gaara and Kiba. Saito and Senji used this opportunity to tell Kiba's team to leave while they could. "You see, they're from my village, and I consider them friends. What you do with any other teams is up to you, but I'd hate to have to fight you to stop you killing any leaf ninja." She was smiling the whole time because she knew he wouldn't fight her.

"Fine. For now." He put the sand back in his gourd.

"Thank you. So you've got both scrolls now too?"

"Yeah."

"That's cool, if not I was going to offer one of ours. We've got two sets."

"Why bother getting two sets?" Kankurō asked her.

"Let's just say I want to make sure certain people get through and others don't."

"And we're one of the teams you want to go through?"

"Of course. We do go way back after all." She turned to leave. "I'll see you guys later then. Plus, I know how much you want to fight a certain someone."

"Sasuke Uchiha." Gaara began twitching with anticipation.

"Yup, and I for one am looking forward to seeing that. I'll be conflicted with who I should support though. After all, I have a deep connection with both of you."

"Who is it you want to fight so badly?"

"Well admittedly at first I also wanted to fight Sasuke, but I'll be nice and let you have that pleasure. So now I'll say Naruto Uzumaki."

"That blonde, spikey-haired knucklehead? Why him?" Kankurō asked out of genuine curiosity.

"Well, let's just say he has something in common with me and I want to see which one of us is stronger because of it."

"And what 'something' might that be?"

"Surprise. You'll just have to wait. But Gaara knows too, don't you?"

"So, there's another?"

"Indeed. Two within the hidden leaf. But which one of us is stronger. Anyhow, we're gonna get going! Places to be, people to kill."

"Jeez, you two really got a lot in common, no wonder you're friends." Kankurō said to Gaara after Saori had left.

Some time later they found Sakura's team again, this time they were all conscious.

"Hey!" She shouted.

"Isn't that the girl from the written exam and before with those sand ninja?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah. Wonder what she wants." Sasuke stood up and readied himself.

"I just wanted to see if you guys were interested in a scroll you see, we ended up with two sets, so whichever one you want, you can have it."

"What's the catch?" Sasuke asked her.

"Just a little test. To see if you're worth letting through."

"So a fight."

"You don't have to beat me, just impress me."

"Hm. I think we'll pass. The whole point of this exam is to test us. It wouldn't be right to just have a scroll handed to us." Naruto shouted.

"Very well then. I admire your morals. Well then, I hope to see you in the finals." She thought to herself how much she wanted to fight Naruto or Sasuke.

They were at the tower. Finally Kiba's team arrived, thinking they were the first team there. Then Gaara and his siblings appeared and it turned out they had been there for half an hour.

"We did get here earlier too, but we went back out for some food. There's nothing here." Saito explained.

They had completed the second part of the exam in just over an hour and a half.

They went off to their own rooms and opened their scrolls.

"Sharuka Sensei!" They said together.

"Hey. Well done. I knew you guys would have no problem with this exam." He went on to explain to them what would be involved int he next stage. They just had to wait for everyone else to arrive.