Chunin Exams Arc: Final Exam

Sakura stood along with the other participants as things were about to get started, and along with Dosu from Otogakure, her teammates weren't there yet either. The arena was a lot bigger inside it than just seeing it from outside. Sakura looked around and saw Ino and the rest of the genin rookies all sitting around each other.

The participants turned as Naruto flew into the arena and slid to a stop next to Sakura, who sighed and rubbed her forehead "you just have to make an entrance, don't you Naruto?"

Naruto coughed and stood up, bruising the dirt off his jacket "Haha I just wanted to make sure no one underestimates me!"

"You certainly got their attention. Man, you're exhausting." Shikamaru said in his typical, too tired for all this tone.

"Look proud of yourselves. You're the stars of today's show." Genma said.

"What happened to Hayate-san? I thought he'd be the proctor today?" Sakura asked

"He's in the hospital. He'll be fine just a problem with his lungs he's been living with for years now." Genma pulled out a piece of paper "there's a change to the roster. Participant Dosu was dropped from the fight, so here's a new line up."

Shikamaru groaned, seeing he'd have to fight whoever won between Kankuro and Shino. "Either of them is going to be a drag to fight."

The Hokage stepped up and gave his speech before announcing the start to the third and final exam. Genma spoke, "everyone, but Neji Hyuga and Naruto Uzumaki make their way to the competitor's box to wait for your round."

Sakura patted Naruto's shoulder. "Good luck Naruto beat that smug asshole for Hinata's sake."

Naruto grinned and nodded, "that's the plan."

Neji looked unimpressed as Naruto took up his position across from Neji. "you're a fool who will amount to nothing. Forfeiting now will keep you from suffering needlessly. Your destiny is not to win here."

Naruto clenched his fist "I made a promise, and I plan to keep it. I don't go back on my word, so I'm gonna kick your ass then that Gaara guy and anyone else who gets in my way!"

The match began, and Naruto immediately crossed his fingers, making ten clones who rushed Neji as he activated his Byakugan. Neji moved like water slipping between the clones and closing in on the real one. Naruto quickly substituted himself with one of his clones just before Neji struck him in the chest.

Neji turned as the real Naruto appeared on the other side of the arena. Naruto's clones rushed him with kunai and rushed Neji, attempting to at least slow him down, but it was no use; they couldn't seem to land a hit, and Neji dismantled them easily with pinpoint accuracy.

The fight dragged on like that with Naruto keeping his distance while letting clones rush and using substitution whenever Neji got too close to the real him. It was working less and less as Neji started to predict which clone Naruto was going to sub with. Naruto fell back as he and his clones threw braces of shuriken. Neji deflected them all by using his Hakkeshō Kaiten. "It's not going to work your failure! Just give up already."

Naruto growled and ran straight at Neji, who smiled and used Hakkeshō Kaiten to throw Naruto into the ground hard. Neji's stance widened, and his eyes glinted as he moved in on Naruto, who was getting up "Eight Trigrams Sixty-four Palms!"

Naruto felt his chakra stagnating with each consecutive hit as his chakra points were stopped by Neji's Jūken. Naruto collapsed on the ground, his body felt numb and like it weighed a ton. He couldn't get his chakra to move at all.

Neji smiled cruelly, "stay down or else. Someone like you is destined to be nothing but a failure. You won't become Hokage just because you wish for it. You're weak, and you weren't born for it. Those who have achieved the title of Hokage were destined to do so from the beginning. We can't escape our destiny; that is something I learned at a young age."

Naruto forced himself back to his feet and made the ram sign with his hands "I don't care. Destiny can go screw itself! If it's real, then it caused me to live this shitty life where my parents had to die! I hate destiny, and I'll plant it on its ass like I'm going to do to you in a minute!" Neji saw the flickers of angry red chakra surge into Naruto's system and forced itself through the blocked chakra points.

Neji stumbled back, "wha-what the hell?" Naruto crouched on all fours and disappeared. Neji barely had time to react, twisting and deflecting Naruto's punch. Neji's hands stung as Naruto reappeared on the wall clinging to it with his hands and feet.

Naruto pulled out a kunai and vanished before reappearing behind Neji, who rotated activating his Hakkeshō Kaiten throwing Naruto again. The two genin stumbled and looked winded. The Kyuubi's chakra was fading from Naruto's system, and Neji was starting to feel winded by using Hakkeshō Kaiten back to back.

Naruto grinned as he stumbled. "That all you got? Come on, I thought you were supposed to be the top genin from last year. Show me what you got, Hyuga!" Naruto ran at him with a burst of chakra as Neji performed Hakkeshō Kaiten again. Naruto's fist broke through, and he landed a solid punch on Neji's face before getting ripped away and thrown into the ground. Neji lost his balance and impacted the ground at the same time.

The stadium was silent as Neji stood up and deactivated his Byakugan as he sneered at the crumpled form of Naruto "heh see I told you that-"

Naruto puffed into smoke, and as Neji started to activate his Byakugan again, he felt the heel of Naruto's foot come down on his head. Neji's face impacted the ground hard, cracking the surface of the dirt. Naruto stumbled away and grinned madly. Genma called the match with Naruto, the winner causing the stadium to erupt into cheers.

Neji rolled over and looked at the sky as Naruto celebrated. The medics showed up and carried Neji off, and Naruto made his way back up to the participant's box. Sakura pulled Naruto into a hug, "Good work Naruto!"

Naruto blushed a bit and laughed as she let him go, "I promised I would win, and I don't go back on my word."

Shikamaru groaned, "you've gone and gotten the crowd excited. Now we're all going to have to fight harder to make an impression. This is such a drag."

Genma held his hand up "the next match will be Kankuro vs. Shino."

Kankuro held his hand up, "I forfeit my match."

There was a chorus of boos from the crowd, and Genma let it die down before saying, "alright, then Shino wins by default. The next match is Shikimaru vs. Shino."

"Ugh, I want to forfeit." Shikamaru groaned.

Naruto smacked him on the back, "Come on, Shikamaru, you gotta show off your skills if you want to become a chunin."

"One match, then I quit," Shikamaru grumbled.

"If you win," Shino said before heading down into the arena.

They watched Shikamaru and Shino fights. Sakura bit her lip. "What do you think is taking Sasuke so long? He ran from the hospital, and I don't think anyone has seen him since."

Naruto shrugged, "It's alright I'm sure he's gonna make it in time for his match." he flinched as Shikimaru substituted with a log covered in paper bombs that exploded when Shino's insects swarmed it.

Despite all his groaning and going on about how much of a drag it was, Shikumaru put up a good fight, but ultimately he was cornered by Shino and the insects he huffed and held his hands up "I surrender."

The crowd cheered, and Shino was announced the winner, and the two went back to the participant area. Naruto congratulated Shino, who took it in his usual nondescript way.

Shikamaru grumbled about not being able to handle that many opponents at once with his shadow. They all braced as a gust of wind tore in from near them, and Temari descended on her giant fan, and she looked up at Sakura. "Come on, Pinky, we're next."

Sakura growled and jumped down into the arena. The only person who cheered for her louder than Naruto was Ino. The two kunoichi stood apart as Hayata started the fourth match. Sakura immediately fell back, putting distance between them as Temari unfurled her fan to show the first star. "Doton: Doryūheki!" Sakura pulled up a wall of earth just as Temari's gust of wind was about to hit.

Sakura made four clones that ran out from either side of the wall as she sank down into the earth. Temari unfurled her fan and sent out a gust of air that tore the earth wall apart and dispersed all the clones. She looked around before it clicked, and Temari jumped on her fan to hover just as Sakura burst from the ground, barely missing Temari's ankles.

As Sakura emerged fully, Temari snapped her fan shut and brought it down. Sakura caught it with both hands and nearly buckled under the force. Sakura's hair curled, and two sections of it shot towards Temari, who twisted her fan and disengaged, falling back before the hair could cut her. "You have some moves, Pinky, but it won't be enough!"

Temari unleashed another gale force of wind that cut at Sakura and sent her flying into the trees. Sakura slid behind a trunk and braced as the winds battered her. 'Come on, Sakura, think. How am I gonna beat her.'

Once the wind died down, Sakura threw several braces of shuriken as she stepped out and ran through the hand signs before stomping her foot on the ground "Suiton: Mizu Kamikiri!"

Temari blew all of it away as Sakura slipped into the ground and tried to grab her again, but it didn't work. Sakura pushed in close with a kunai trying to get inside the range of the giant fan. It was hard as Temari seemed to have as much practice using the weapon up close as she did from far away.

Sakura's world went black for a moment as the fan impacted the side of her head, sending her skittering across the ground. She recovered in time to brace for the winds slicing at her.

Sakura cursed and pulled kunai out while she ran for the trees, occasionally throwing them. Temari simply used her fan to swat them to the side. Sakura slid behind a tree and took a deep breath and prayed this would work. Sakura made several clones and felt the drain as they ran. She was going to run low on chakra after this plan, so if it fails... Sakura smacked her cheeks and slipped into the earth.

Temari realized they were all clones and ignored them as she prepared to jump and slam her fan down when Sakura appeared below her. As Sakura emerged, Temari brought her fan down, but it impacted wood as Sakura replaced herself with a log. "Wha- oh shit!" Temari jumped back as the log exploded, she looked over and saw the kunai all around her glow as the explosive tags wrapped around the handles went off.

Sakura pulled herself free as the explosion shook the ground. She panted and looked over to where Temari used to be. There was no sign of the Suna girl. Sakura looked around frantically for a sign of her before finally her head snapped up to see Temari twirl and unleash a gale force of wind that tore the trees apart. Sakura tumbled and tried to control her rolling, but she got the breath knocked out of her when she impacted the wall. Temari landed looking a little battered "you almost got me with that attack Pinky, good job, but this is where it ends."

Temari brought her fan down, and Sakura was barely able to roll away and get to her feet she stumbled back and groaned feeling sore, and light on chakra "I-" Sakura took a deep breath "I yield the fight."

"Huh?! We were just getting started Pinky, don't you have any more than that?"

Sakura clenched her fist "trust me, I wish I could, but I'm running low on chakra and out of ideas. I trained hard for this, but I guess not enough. I'll have to put in more effort next time."

Temari huffed and planted her fan in the ground as Genma called the match with Temari as the winner. The crowd cheered as the kunoichi made their way off the field and back to the participant's stand. Sakura waved off Naruto's concern "I'll head up to the others and cheer you guys on good luck!" she ran up to the stands and found Ino.

"Huh, I thought Hinata-chan and Kiba-kun were here too," Sakura said, sliding into the empty seat next to Ino.

"Hinata-chan's condition got worse during Naruto-Kun's fight. Kiba-Kun took her to get help, but he hasn't come back, so he's probably just keeping her company in the infirmary." Ino said, "On another note. You got thrashed, but you put up a good fight."

"Wow, thanks, Ino, that means a lot." she leaned on her friend "I'm just glad Kakashi-sensei isn't here to see it. He'd probably make me do more taijutsu training."

"That sounds like a good idea, Sakura-chan I'll be sure to make time for sparring after the exams."

Sakura glared as her sensei appeared. Her glare sharpened as Sasuke stepped out from behind him "Oh, that's where you've been I should have known Kakashi-sensei had you squirreled away somewhere. You know your match is up. You better get down there, Sasuke."

Sasuke nodded and disappeared before appearing on the arena floor. "Am I late for my match?"

Genma shook his head "right on time actually. Gaara come down, it's time for your match."

Sakura watched Sasuke as they waited for Gaara to get down to the field. Sasuke had a new set of clothes, and his hair looked like it needed a trim, but he still looked like his usual self. "Sensei, where have you two been this whole time."

He waved his hand in a noncommittal way, "oh, you know, near the village."

Guy and Lee appeared, "oh Kakashi, you're here! And it seems your students' match is about to start."

Kakashi nodded, "We made it just in time."

"On time for once, are you sure you're Kakashi Hatake?"

Kakashi looked like he was staring out into space before muttering, "there's only eight."

Guy stiffened. "The Hokage thinks it'll be enough, and besides, we're both here!"

Sakura ignored them and focused on cheering her teammate on. She could faintly hear Naruto down in the participant's area cheering as well.

Sasuke came out of the gates swinging full force. His speed caught Gaara and everyone else off guard. The sand was having trouble keeping up, and Gaara looked almost panicked as Sasuke landed several consecutive blows cracking the sand armor.

As the fight went on, a weird tension started to build amongst the shinobi present in the stands. Like they all knew something would happen at the end of this match, but no one was sure what it would be.

Gaara was put on the defensive more than usual as he formed a protective shell of sand and created some sort of eye to keep watch and direct his attacks to keep Sasuke from getting in close.

Sasuke fell back, and up the arena wall, while channeling chakra into his hand, it started to take shape like lightning arcing from his hand to the wall.

"Oh, so that's why you had him do such heavy physical training. You taught him the Chidori."

Guy went on about Kakashi's only original jutsu as Sasuke tore down the wall leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. The crowd erupted with cheers as Sasuke punched through the sand wall.

As the crowd died down, Sasuke screamed as something tried to pull him through the hole he made. Sasuke freed himself and fell back quickly as a huge monstrous hand shot forth and attempted to grab him. It quickly slithered back into its hole as an eerie silence fell over the stands.

Sakura saw the feathers and felt the foreign chakra invade her senses; she quickly made the hand sign "Kai!"

Her eyes scanned the stands seeing everyone was unconscious or fighting. There were Konoha shinobi fighting Suna and Oto shinobi all across the stands, and smoke from the east gate was billowing. She had a kunai out and thrusting forward before it fully registered an Oto shinobi was jumping at her.

The kunai slid between his ribs, and she felt the blood warm and thick as it poured from the wound and onto her hands. Sakura's attacker's body went limp and nearly fell on her, but Kakashi pushed the body to the side.

Sakura stared at the lifeless corpse; it took a moment to realize Kakashi was saying her name, "Sakura, are you ok?"

She nodded hesitantly, "Uh, y-yeah- Yes, sensei, I'm fine."

He looked at her for a moment before turning back and dispatching the Oto ninja, who came at him. "Good. Get down to the participant's area and release Naruto and whoever else then bring them back here. Be quick about it, and avoid fighting if you can. Do you understand?"

She gulped and glanced at Ino. Kakashi patted her head, "I'll keep everyone safe, I promise."

Sakura nodded, "understood sensei I'll get whoever I can and bring them back."

Up in the Kage's seating area, the Hokage looked over at the Kazekage as his men deployed smoke signals. The Hokage smiled as his bodyguard was hit with shuriken and puffed into smoke. "We knew you were coming." was all the Hokage said before puffing into smoke as well, and the entire seating area exploded.

As the invaders crossed the village walls, the Anbu hiding in the woods began flanking while the Jonin fought them head-on, and the rest of the shinobi evacuated the civilians.

Sakura slipped out of the stands and took the back stairs on her way. She heard some struggling in a supply closet and cracked it open to check. Sakura fell on her back as a small white dog jumped on her growling "Akamaru?!" she looked past him as he calmed down and saw Kiba tied up.

A few moments later, Kiba was untied, and Sakura filled him in on her mission as they moved quickly, and quietly it looked like there was only fighting in the stands and that the back hallways were clear. They found Shikamaru, Shino, and Naruto laying on the floor unharmed. Kiba released Shino while Sakura got Naruto. Akamaru chomped down on Shikamaru's ankle.

Shikamaru stopped pretending and looked annoyed as he sat up. Sakura saw the slightly horrified look on Naruto's face. "What's wrong, Naruto?"

"Y-your hands are uh covered in blood."

The others seemed to notice it as well Sakura hadn't even realized it was there. "I- uh, it's nothing I had to fight an Oto shinobi before coming here. He's... dead. Come on, we need to get back to Kakashi-sensei."

Sakura did her best to ignore their eyes on her as they got back to her sensei. There was a newly made hole in the wall and more Oto and Suna shinobi than last time. Kakashi nodded as they approached and summoned Pakkun. "This is Pakkun, he'll lead you to Sasuke, who's pursuing the three Suna genin. Go help him, and once the enemy is dealt with, find somewhere safe to hide and wait for further orders."

The five genin affirmed their orders and followed Pakkun through the hole in the wall. They set a face pace as Pakkun informed them of the number of people Sasuke was pursuing. The sounds of fighting started to fade as they passed the village's wall and headed into the woods. After some time, Pakkuns head twitches back, and he growled low before speaking, "there's a pursuit team after us. Eight... no Nine Shinobi behind us, they're a way off but gaining."

Shikamaru groaned, "probably chunin at the least. This is such a pain."

"We can't outrun them, we could try an ambush. It will make it harder to catch up to Sasuke, but at least we'd actually have the chance to." Sakura said as they kept their pace. She was technically the team leader, but it felt odd she had never been in charge before, and it didn't feel quite right.

"I don't think that's a good idea. You, Shino, and I are low on chakra, Naruto is- well, he's Naruto."

"Oi Shut it, Shikamaru!"

"My point made, and we have Kiba, who doesn't have any equipment."

Kiba petter Akamaru "don't need any when I've got Akamaru with me."

Shikamaru sighed and rubbed his face like this was all too much effort. "We wouldn't stand a chance even with an ambush. Our best bet is to have someone stay back and buy as much time as possible to let the others get away and hopefully let the pursuit team lose the trail."

The group staggered to a stop and looked around at each other. Sakura took a shaky breath seeing the eyes of the man she had killed earlier before she spoke, "whoever does it is going to die. If they're all chunin, none of us will last long."

Shino was unreadable, Kiba looked torn while Naruto looked ready to volunteer. Shikamaru grabbed all their attention with a loud groan as he cracked his neck. "This is such a drag, but I am the best suited. Suppose I'll have to do it then... get going before I chicken out alright."

Sakura looked him in the eyes and nodded "be careful and... bail if you think you'll die. That's an order from your team leader."

Shikamaru waved them off lazily as he dropped to the ground, and the group got moving again. They traveled in silence and started to close the distance between Sasuke and them. When the explosions erupted from ahead, they kicked it up a notch and got to him as he was avoiding explosive tags and ninja wire. He looked over his shoulder as they approached, "What are you all doing here?"

Sakura stopped and assessed the situation; it was only Temari here keeping him at bay. "Kakashi-sensei gave us a mission to help you take the enemy you're pursuing down."

Sasuke smirked, "and he put you in charge?"

Sakura blushed and clenched her fist. "Yeah, he did ya got an issue with that?"

"No, considering the options available." he looked at Naruto. "It was the right call."

A gust of wind blasted the area, and Temari snapped her fan shut, "Don't think just because there's more of you that you'll be able to get past me."

Everyone prepared for a fight, but Kiba held a hand up. "You all go on ahead, don't let the others get away. I'll take her down and join up with you."

They looked to Sakura, who nodded, "be careful and try not to die."

Kiba grinned as Akamaru hopped off his head "will do Taichou."

As they moved past Temari as Kiba and Akamaru did their man-beast transformation and engaged her in combat. Once they were away from the fight, Sakura asked 'How many are we following, and who are they?"

"It's just that Kankuro guy and Gaara. Gaara was injured from our fight, but he'll still be the biggest threat. There's something... off about him and his powers, we'll need to be cautious with him."

"Alright, Shino, do you think you'll be able to take out Kankuro on your own?" Sakura asked.

Shino nodded, "I've seen how he fights. I am confident I can win against him."

"Alright, I'll leave him to you. I get the feeling it's going to take a lot to take Gaara down, so the three of us will have to hope we're enough."

Naruto grinned "oh, don't worry so much, Sakura! We'll be able to take them out, no problem."

It didn't take long for them to run across Kankuro; they didn't even slow down except for Shino, who immediately engaged him in a fight. Sakura heard Kankuro curse as they sped past him, heading straight for Gaara.

Temari jumped up into the branches of above as one of her two attackers barreled into the ground. She had managed to alter one of their courses, but they were attacking from two different sides, and it was hard to do that wide of an area with the chakra she had left.

Kankuro cursed his luck and hoped Gaara had enough sense to keep running until he was ready to let his demon loose on Konoha. Kankuro quickly deployed Crow hoping to end this fight fast and get back to his terrifying younger brother.

Sakura tried not to curse as Sasuke kept pouring on the speed. "Slow down, Sasuke, we're going to catch up to him. Like you said, he's dangerous. We'll need all the strength we can get."

Sasuke gritted his teeth but fell back to their pace "I have a bad feeling that we're going to be too late to stop their plan."

"Pft doesn't matter, we'll beat them no matter their plan," Naruto said as Pakkun stopped.

The pug sniffed, "he's dead ahead. Something fowl is on the wind, so be careful pups."

Sakura patted his head, "thank you, Pakkun; we'll be careful."

They moved in closing the distance but staggered to a stop as they saw Gaara he looked... wrong. His arm was enlarged and the color of sand with spiky protrusions, and it didn't stop on his arm. Half his body was covered like that. He was staggering and practically foaming at the mouth, calling for blood and death.

He turned and immediately locked onto Sasuke, who dove to the side as Gaara's hand extended at a frightening speed nearly shattered the tree it hit. Sakura realized as they moved to avoid Gaara's attacks that he was aiming for Sasuke the whole time, he showed almost no interest in either her or Naruto unless it was to swat them aside so that he could pursue Sasuke. "Sasuke, just keep him running, Naruto help me try to slow him down."

They nodded, and Sasuke slipped his kunai away, and Naruto made a handful of clones. They rushed Gaara from all sides, but he was too fast, and his transformed arm tore through them all in a single swipe. Gaara's arm absorbed Sakura's shuriken and fired them back at her. She nearly avoided all of them, but her arm flared in pain as two of them embedded themselves in her upper right arm.

Sakura stumbled and kneeled, pulling them out. She didn't think he would come after her, but she was wrong. Gaara was in front of her in an instant calling for blood as hers ran cold. Sakura poured as much chakra into reinforcing her body as she could just as his transformed hand impacted her sending her flying.

She impacted the ground hard, and blackness consumed her vision as everything felt like everything was broken. Naruto's cries and Sasuke's curse were faded and distant as she fell unconscious.

Sasuke and Naruto regrouped as Gaara started to pursue them. His interest in Sakura gone as she didn't put up enough of a fight. "Keep him busy Dead Last, I'll hit him with a Chidori and end it."

Naruto wanted to protest, but they needed to end this quickly and get Sakura somewhere safe. "Fine, but if it doesn't work, it's my turn to try and take him down."

"Ha fine if I fail you can try as much as you want, now come on we need to take him down."

They split Naruto, making ten clones while Sasuke tried to disappear into the surroundings. The clones rushed Gaara from all sides with more care this time, trying to avoid Gaara's massive arm and the tail he had sprouted after throwing Sakura.

Most of his clones were quickly taken down, but it created an opening that let Sasuke rush in and delivered a Chidori shot to Gaara's arm, reducing it to a sand pile. Gaara screamed in agony, and his tail whipped around and smashed Sasuke into a tree trunk as his arm reformed.

His tail morphed and turned into a hand that pinned Sasuke to the tree "You're all just so weak! Is there nothing that can satisfy me?!" Gaara screamed as more of his body was covered in sand and morphed into a monstrous state. Gaara's tail detached a chunk of sand, leaving it to hold Sasuke in place as he stumbled around before firing off shuriken made of sand at the rest of Naruto's clones.

Naruto tried to pull the fight away from his two teammates using his limited futon and his clones though the former didn't have much effect when put against Gaara's wind attacks. Naruto was thrown around and battered from all sides by the unrelenting attacks, and his clones couldn't get in close or overwhelm Gaara, who constantly blasted wide area of effect attacks.

Gaara was getting more and more frustrated as Naruto avoided him for the most part and simply peppered him with clones and shuriken. He managed to get in close by making clones and substituting himself with them as he was about to be hit and planted two paper bombs on Gaara's back that quickly exploded. The blast threw him into a tree trunk, and Naruto staggered back to his feet, feeling drained as the smoke cleared, and Gaara's half exploded self was on his knees.

Sasuke appeared next to him, panting and covered in black markings. "Sorry I'm late, Dead Last. I moved Sakura somewhere safe after I got out."

Naruto grinned "Kakashi-sensei is rubbing off on you. I expected you here thirty seconds ago."

Sasuke huffed "now isn't the time for lame jokes. He's getting back up, we need to take him down quickly."

Naruto held a hand up "it's fine. I got this. I swore to become Hokage one day, which means I'll need to protect everyone. You just sit back and see how much I've trained."

Sasuke watched in bewilderment as Naruto seemed to explode with chakra, and the trees suddenly filled with Naruto shadow clones. They rushed the still recovering Gaara and delivered a combo move that ended with several hundred kicks to his stomach, making him hit the ground hard enough to leave an impact crater.

Sakura stirred and woke to the sound of thunder, and the feeling of the earth-shaking she looked up bleary-eyed as a huge pale monster covered in blue markings was stabbed by a giant toad. "O-oh, I'm still unconscious. I'm dreaming, obviously."

Sasuke grunted as his markings receded, "afraid not. Naruto is up there taking on that... thing that Gaara has become."

Before Sakura could really process what was happening, Sasuke tensed as someone approached but relaxed when it was just Kiba and Shino dragging unconscious and tied up Temari and Kankuro. "Yo- what the hell is that?!" Kiba said, noticing the fight going on.

Sasuke gave them the short version, and the group sat there unable to do much.

Naruto made the signs and channeled the chakra for a transformation jutsu as Gamabunta jumped at Shukaku. When the smoke cleared, the toad was replaced with a huge orange fox with nine swirling tails, and Naruto heard the voice of the Kuybi laughing. "It's a wonderful likeness, but it's not quite right. Why don't you just let me out, and I'll show you how I really look?"

'Shut it ya damn fox!' Naruto squatted and got ready to jump as Gamabunta held Shukaku in place. Naruto sprung forward and punched Gaara's face, shattering his sand armor and making Shukaku stop his movements.

Sakura and the others watched as the demon fox changed back into the toad and started to get pushed back by Shukaku. They all felt the explosion of chakra and saw the red mist on top of Gamabunta. A single thunderous crack echoed down from the giants, and Shukaku cracked and crumbled to dust.

Naruto fell into the tree line. The team grabbed their prisoners and moved to find him. Once they found him, Sasuke tied up Gaara while Sakura and Kiba helped Naruto sit up and lean against a tree. "Thanks, I'm beat I don't think I have any more chakra in me."

Sakura patted his shoulder "good job Naruto. Now-" she stopped as the Suna siblings woke up, and Kankuro and Temari immediately struggled and looked around at each other.

"Damn it, I guess we lost didn't we sis," Kankouro said.

Temari looked panicked as she saw Gaara knocked out and tied up "Y-yeah they- they beat Gaara."

Sakura stood over them "we have orders to deal with you. My sensei wasn't very clear on whether that meant prisoners or not."

The Suna siblings got the idea right away, not that Sakura actually felt like she could do it, but she also didn't think it was right to make the others do it either. Temari spoke up first, "please, we were just doing as we were told. We didn't have a choice. If you're going to kill someone for all this, let it be me. Please let my brothers go."

Sakura felt the pit in her stomach grow, but she set her jaw and looked at the others who looked back at her. Sasuke spoke first. "Like you said, Sakura Kakashi put you in charge, so it's your choice what to do."

That didn't make her feel better. She tried not to wince as pain in her ribs flared; something was definitely broken. "We can't manage three prisoners in our state; we're all exhausted or beat up, an-and." she stopped herself, not wanting to say it.

She pulled out a Kunai and freed Temari and Kankuro. "Run and don't ever show yourselves again. I don't care what you do, but don't ever step foot in the Land of Fire or else."

They looked horrified and relieved at the same time as they grabbed their little brother and ran without another word. Sasuke kept Sakura from falling over as she nearly collapsed "We should be able to find a patrol station or something in these woods." Sakura said as she let her teammate support her.

It took almost an hour, but they found one of the little huts used by the patrol route. A chunin showed up as they approached, "Halt! Pass Phrase!"

Sakura started the phrase, "A flower bud ready to burst."

"A flower in full bloom," the chunin responded.

"Gentle as a falling leaf."

"Sturdy as the tree that bore it."

"This is the cycle."

"This is life" Sakura ended it feeling woozy as she leaned on Sasuke more.

The chunin nodded and motioned to approach, "What are a bunch of genin doing out here?"

"A mission from our sensei he wanted us to track and capture some enemies, but... They got away." Sasuke said, helping Sakura lay on the cot inside.

The chunin nodded, "I'll send a message once my partners get back, and hopefully, someone will be able to get here soon and get you back to the village."

Time seemed to crawl by as they waited for anything to happen. Eventually, after nearly three hours, the all-clear signal was sent out, and a team showed up to help the injured genin team back to the village. The news about the Hokage spread fast, and everyone knew within a couple of days.

The funeral was held, and clean up started. Naruto was in the hospital for chakra exhaustion, Sasuke had a few fractures and low chakra levels but nothing as severe as Sakura who had several broken ribs. Everyone visited them in waves. Ino and Hinata showed up at the same time to see Sakura, who took the chance to convince Hinata to see Naruto. Ino agreed to help push her along.