Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait, but this chapter just did not want to get written! Jeez! But I fianlly got off my ass and wrote it, even though it was very troublesome. But whatever. It's that time again...time to thank the reviewers!

i-dream-of-blue-eyes: LOL! Yeah, go Tenten! WOOHOO! I'm so glad you think my story's great! And no, you didn't review for any of the other chapters...and I hope that you'll make reviewing my story a habit...And Neji/Ten is my favorite couple too! I'm so disappointed though cpz there really aren't many awesome Neji/Ten fics out there that are multi-chapters. Almost all the good ones are one-shots. Hopefully someone will post an awesome Neji/Ten mutlichapter one of these days...maybe it'll even be me since I have one in the works that I havent posted yet. Anyway, thanks for taking time out to review! I really appreciate it!

xx-Tsumi-Chan-xx: WOOHOO! You didn't expect that! I'm glad I surprised someone. And I don't want Team 7 to die either, but now that I've thought about where I want to go with this fic, the chance of any of the teams being whole at the end is very slim, near impossible. I hope that doesn't stop you from reading though! Thanks so much for reviewing, even more because you're a regular reviewer of this story! And I know that Team 7 hasn't really been featured in quite a while, but I promise the next chapter will have some more of them.

Punk Sasuke: I can't believe you expected Tenten to kill someone! Damn! Well, it's too bad that I'm too poor to afford any prizes, coz I'd definitely give you one. You know, whenever I see your name I can't help but picture Sasuke with an earring, a pair of slughtly baggy black pants, converse sneakers and a screened tee while holding a guitar. LOL! Review more so I can picture that in my head on a more regular basis, ok? lol

angelgurl079: Yay! You were surprised! Actaully, I was thinking of doing that, having Neji save her, just to improve their dynamic and speed up the romance bit, but I figured that would be the obvious way to go. I hope I haven't kept you in suspense too long! Thanks for reviewing! It's always appreciated!

Asuka: You love this story? Wow! Thank you so much! And thank you so much for reviewing again!

wyldcat: and here I thought that having Tenten kill someone would be surprising...damn! And yeah, Neji sure did take a looooooooooooooooong piss! I guess he had been holding it in for some time, huh? LOL! And it's a good thing you have no clue who's gonna be the last one left oir I would just have to give up writing for good. But honestly? I can't tell you if you're close or not coz I haven't even decided who's gonna be left yet. That way, it's a surprise for me too! Anyway, thanks for the kind review!

Ijust want to thank everyone who read and didn't review. Hopefully you anonymous readers will review at least once before I finish this story, which won't be for a little while. Enjoy this new chapter!

Ch. 5

Nara Shikamaru sat on the floor of the abandoned cabin, staring at the clouds. Such a nice day...Too bad he was going to die. And Shikamaru was sure he was going to die. There were just too many strong ninjas out there. Sure he was intelligent, but he was lazy and his techniques didn't do that much damage. He sighed. Mendo kuse...why did this have to happen to me? All I wanted was a fun life as a ninja, marry an average woman, have two kids-a boy and a girl. Retire when my son has a good career and my daughter is married, and die of natural causes before my wife. Life sure doesn't work out the way you want it to.

Shikamaru studied the map in front of him. They were on a small island south of Fire Country. Apparently the island had been evacuated for this game because the food was still fresh. It looked like the inhabitants had just left one day without even taking any personal belongings. Left...or were killed. In any case, Shikamaru was sure he could spend the entire two days hiding out in the cabin where he was. He had set up a few traps, not to kill anyone, but to trap them if they got too close. He had no intention of killing anyone. Well, maybe Sound Four if he came across them. But if any of his friends came along, he wouldn't kill them. He couldn't. There was just no way.

A snap and a surprised yelp broke Shikamaru out of his thoughts. Grabbing the crossbow he had been supplied with, he cautiously walked outside to the trap he had set up. What he saw almost made him burst out laughing. Ino was trapped in the hanging net, her legs sprawled in awkward positions near the top and her head was being smushed by the rest of her body. "Ino, what are you doing here?"

"Shikamaru? Oh Shikamaru, thank goodness! When I got caught in this trap I thought I was going to die! Can you let me down?"

"Why should I? How do I know you're not planning to kill me?" Ino looked ready to burst into tears.

"How could you say that? I don't want to kill anyone!" Tears started pouring down her face and Shikamaru winced.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry...women are so troublesome.." he climbed up the tree that the trap was attached to and untied the net that Ino was in, causing her to fall to the ground. She immediately got to her feet and pulled Shikamaru into a crushing hug. "Hey, Ino.." he gasped out. "Let me go! You're crushing me!"

"Oh Shikamaru! I'm so glad you didn't kill me! I'm so glad you trust me! I thought I was going to die!" she sobbed, getting Shikamaru' shirt wet from her tears.

"Well, I guess I have to protect you now." he sighed and Ino glared at him furiously.

"You guess? You guess! You better protect me, Shikamaru, or I'll kick your ass!" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and sighed. He hated it when she got all bossy with him. Which was basically all the time.

"Come on, someone might have heard your squealing." he began to forcefully push her in while she complained that she did not squeal. Once they were safely inside, Shikamaru went back to his cloud watching. He was just beginning to relax when he was startled out of his thoughts.

"Are you just going to stare at th clouds all day or are you going to talk to me?" Ino demanded.

"Why should I talk to you? You're only going to tell me how lazy I am and how much better Sasuke is than I am. Then you'll go on and on for hours about how silky his hair is, though you've never touched it, and how smooth and manly his voice is, though he's never actually spoken to you." The blond kunoichi's jaw dropped in shock. How could he possibly know everything she had been planning to say?

"N-no! You're wrong! I wasn't going to say that at all! Shows how much you know." he eyed her skeptically.

"Oh? Then what were you going to say?"

"I...well, I was...I was going to tell you that...that I think you have a good chance at winning here because no one really knows how strong you actually are." Shikamaru's eyes widened and Ino looked away. Did I actually say that to him? Oh my god, I actually complimented Shikamaru! How is that even possible? Ino's cheeks reddened and Shikamaru sighed.

"Nah. I'm definitely going to die. This game is too troublesome to participate in."

"Too troublesome? This is your life! Are you saying it's too troublesome to live?"

"No. There are just too many people who are going to kill that the chances of someone like me, a person who has no intentions of killing anyone, surviving are very slim. Too slim for me to bother." Ino gritted her teeth.

"How did I manage to get stuck with a lazy bum like you, who can't even be bothered with saving his own life?" she yelled. He shrugged noncommittally. That was the last straw for Ino. She huffed and went to the door.

"Where are you going?" Shikamaru asked.

"To find Sasuke-kun. I'm sure he won't be too lazy to protect me."

"Wait, Ino!" Did I just voluntarily ask Ino to wait? Do I actually want that loud-mouthed, bossy, Sasuke-obsessed, troublesome kunoichi to stay with me? I must be out of my mind. She turned around and looked at Shikamaru with a strange expression. "Don't go." Ino was shocked. Her mind was reeling.

Does he actually want me to stay? Could it be that he... "Why shouldn't I leave?"

"Because it's dangerous out there." Does Shikamaru like me? "And if you go outside, I'll have to go after you because you're a girl and I don't feel like getting up."

"ARGH! Why didn't I accidentally stumble on Sasuke-kun's hideout? Why did I have to get stuck with you of all people! Even being with Chouji wouldn't be this bad!" she whined, but took a seat on the floor next to him. "I'll stay. But from now on, you have to do what I tell you." Shikamaru rolled his eyes. It was pointless to even try arguing with Ino.

"Hai, hai." Why do I even bother to get along with her? She just enjoys bossing me around. How annoying. But the most annoying thing is when she talks about Sasuke. At least I don't think she'll start that now. Even when her life is in danger, all she can think of Sasuke. What's so good about him anyway? Okay, so he's good-looking, and he excels at everything. So what? He's a bastard who has no friends. Why does she like him so much?

Inuzuka Kiba ran through the trees. He had picked up Hinata's scent not too long ago and was hoping to find her. He knew she would be defenseless and would need someone's help to survive. He only hoped it wasn't too late to find her. He'd also picked up the scent of another ninja, but he didn't recognize who it belonged to. Which could mean one of two things. That it wasn't the scent of a ninja at all and it was just the scent of one of the former inhabitants of the island. This possibility wasn't very likely seeing as the scent was fairly strong. The other option was that it was the scent of one of the new students, the three from the desert. I hope Hinata's alright... He thought. I hope I'm not too late.

The worst thing was that he didn't even have Akamaru with him. That bastard Orochimaru must have hidden him somewhere. They weren't allowed to use any weapons other than their ninja techniques and the weapons that they got in their bags. The first thing he had done when he left the school was check out his weapon. It was a handaxe. Not too bad. At least it was something he could use. I wonder what sort of weapon Hinata has...I hope it's something useful...

Kiba was so distracted, he didn't notice the trap until it was too late. The exploding notes that had been carefully hidden on the tree trunk blew up, pitching the ninja into the air. He hit the ground with a dull thud, unable to get up for a moment. After lying in the grass for s few seconds, Kiba pushed himself up on his feet, inspecting his body to see how injured he was. Discovering that he was bleeding from a few places, he turned around to pick up his bag and came face to face with Aburame Shino.

"Shino!"

"Kiba."

"Why were you being so quiet? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" he yelled at his silent classmate.

"Forgive me. I didn't mean to startle you." It was then that Kiba noticed the pair of sais in Shino's hands. Swallowing nervously, he picked up his bag.

"Well, I'll just be on my way then. Good luck Shino." He hadn't even taken one step when something plopped onto his shoulder. He looked at the centipede that was crawling down his shirt and slowly turned his head to look at Shino. The other ninja was staring at him, his expression unreadable.

"Don't bother to fight me, Kiba. You of all people know that I can defeat you very easily."

"W-what are you talking about?" Kiba asked, not willing to believe that his classmate and friend would want to kill him.

"If I don't kill, then I'll die. I'm not willing to die for anyone here." He brought the two sais up in an attack position.

"Shino, don't do this!" But his words fell on deaf ears as Shino ran to attack. Kiba hurriedly unzipped his jacket and took out the handaxe he had hidden in the waistband of his pants and held it up. "Shino, you don't have to kill anyone! We can figure a way out of here!" But the other ninja didn't bother to reply as he slashed his sais downward to cut Kiba in half

Muahahahahahahahahah! How's that for a cliffhanger?What do you think's gonna happen? Who's gonna die? I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review!