Chapter Eight-

Sasumi paged through the books Hanada-san had brought her. Hanada-san had done everything she could to ensure Sasumi's happiness while she was at the hospital, and Sasumi couldn't help but feel a little strange about it. It wasn't that she wasn't grateful, it just was that no one had ever cared so much about her that they would bring her books to read when she was bored, or sit with her during their lunch hour instead of doing something else. It was a nice feeling, but still a little strange. After sealing her arm, which was very painful, not to mention hard, she had healed her broken arm and only wore the cast for show. She had visited Ino everyday since she asked her to cut her hair. At first Sasumi wasn't sure that Ino really wanted to be her friend, but the girl seemed genuinely warm towards her and Sasumi had too admit that once she got to know her, Ino was a very interesting person. Mostly Ino just talked to her, but Sasumi was glad, because she really had no idea what to talk to the other girl about anyway. Sasumi had always made sure she wasn't in the room when her teammates visited, partly because she wanted to give them privacy, and partly because she wanted to stay as far away from Nara Shikamaru as possible. Sasumi wasn't really sure why she ended up staying in the hospital the entire month, it just happened.

Finally, it was the day of last part of the Exam. And the day the Sand and Sound would attack. She had delivered an anonymous note to the Hokage about the Sand, the Sound, but she still felt guilty that she couldn't do more. Well, she could, but then her cover would go out the window. The match schedule had been revised excluding her and a Sound nin who had apparently resigned. She wasn't really worried about Naruto's match, after all he had more power than he knew, and the examiner could control the Hyuuga. Sasuke's match, however, was a different matter all together. She was pretty sure that none of the Sand had been kind enough to inform the Leaf that Sabaku no Gaara was the holder of the Ichibi. However, she doubted the Leaf had told the Sand anything about Naruto either, so she couldn't blame the Sand entirely.

She sat in the bleachers now, reading her book with one hand, something she had become very skilled at over the years, waiting for the exam to begin. Ino was with her team, something Sasumi was very glad of because at this time it would be best if she didn't know anyone around her. She didn't know exactly when the Sound were going to attack, but she knew it would probably happen sometime soon. It was horrible, just sitting there, waiting for them to do something. Every second seemed to make the tension worse instead of better and Sasumi found herself just wishing the day would end. Preferably with Konoha intact. However, she doubted her wish would be heeded. After what seemed like forever the first match started. In her opinion, Hyuuga Neji was too arrogant and self-absorbed for his own good. He felt that just because of his Kekkai Genkai he was superior to Naruto. In a way she supposed, he was, but that didn't mean Naruto couldn't best him in a fight. And best him Naruto did. However, not in the way Sasumi expected at all.

He used the Kyuubi's power.

Just the thought made Sasumi surprised, confused and a little scared all at the same time. Who had taught Naruto how to do that? She was pretty sure the Jounin that Kakashi had Naruto work with hadn't done that. But that was the least of her worries, because the more Naruto used the Kyuubi's power, the weaker the seal grew. And if the seal broke…the Kyuubi would be released. But she would have to worry about that later, because Sasuke still wasn't there. She hoped he wouldn't show up because she didn't want him to fight with Sabaku no Gaara. He was a lot stronger than Kakashi knew, which made the odds of Sasuke coming out of the fight unscathed, much less defeating Gaara, very low. The next match between Nara Shikamaru and Sabaku no Gaara's elder sister confirmed (once again) her fears about the Nara. She really was very lucky she wasn't on a team with him. What surprised her about this match was that after immobilizing the Sand nin, Nara decided that he was bored and gave up. Much to Naruto and Ino's astonishment. Naruto jumped down and began to yell at Nara. Despite the situation, Sasumi had to hold back her smile. Naruto never failed to amuse her with his antics. When Sasuke and her sensei arrived, in a cloud of leaves making Sasumi raise her eyebrows a bit, Naruto quieted down and both her teammates suddenly looked serious. She turned her attention to Sabaku no Gaara who was wearing a look that didn't exactly calm her nerves. She watched him leave and then looked to the stadium again and found to her horror that Nara and Naruto were taking the same stairs as the Sand nin. Her right hand gripped the inside of her cast as she stood up slowly and made her way unobtrusively toward the stairs. She froze as the scent of blood penetrated her nose.

"Oh, no. He couldn't have…"

She walked quickly toward the scent until she came upon the sight of two dead Chuunin, their blood staining the floor of the worn down hallway. The tightness that had built up in her chest dissipated and suddenly she felt very lightheaded. As she took several steadying breaths she failed to notice Naruto and Nara running down the hallway toward her.

"Sasumi?"

She looked up, startled, to see them staring at her.

She suddenly felt the need to explain herself, "I smelt blood and I thought…" she trailed off, "We should go back up there."

"Yeah, we have to stop that match!"

She raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Stop the match?"

"That guy wants to kill Sasuke, he lives to kill people and if we don't stop him…"

She blinked, he was babbling now in…fear? For Sasuke? Or was it because of what he had just seen?

"They have Jounin refereeing the match for a reason," she said, "They'll stop the match if it gets too violent."

"B-but what if Sasuke ends up like that fuzzy eyebrows guy? We have to-"

Nara held up his hand to stop him, "She has a point, you know. The Jounin know what that Gaara guy is like now. They should be able to control him."

Naruto didn't look convinced.

"Ch. How troublesome," Nara looked down at the remains of the two Chuunin.

"Let's go, Uzumaki-san. I'm sure Uchiha-san will be fine."

The three of them walked up to the balcony too see Sasuke standing on one side of the stadium's wall and a huge ball of sand that presumably enveloped Gaara in the middle.

"What are they doing?" asked Naruto.

Suddenly a huge ball of blue lightning erupted from Sasuke's hand, which Sasumi recognized as the same jutsu Kakashi used during their trip to the Wave Country called 'Chidori.' Naruto and Nara both looked shocked, as well as did the rest of the audience. Sasuke ran down toward the ball of sand with speed that Sasumi didn't know he had. His Chidori broke the ball of sand and she heard unintelligible screams come from inside the dome. Naruto looked kind of jealous. Sasuke pulled his hand out and with it came a strange looking arm. The Ichibi's arm. Sasumi inhaled sharply. If Gaara had let the Ichibi out…there was bound to be a lot of trouble. But then the arm retracted leaving a hole. Sasumi couldn't see what was inside but Sasuke could. And by the look on his face it was nothing good. The ball of sand fell apart and Sasumi braced herself. Luckily, what immerged was not a demon, but a very human Gaara with blood running down his shoulder. Before he could do anything Sasumi noticed that Naruto and a bunch of people around her were…falling asleep? A few of the Jounin made hand seals, which protected them from whatever, it was.

"Uzumaki-san? What-" Then in a flash she realized it.

"Genjutsu!!"

She grabbed Naruto by the shoulder, ignoring the pain in her arm. He immediately opened his eyes.

"What the hell was-" he stopped staring the scene before them. The entire crowd around them was either asleep or engaged in battle. Gaara's siblings stood in the middle of the arena, though not for long. After all they left, carrying Gaara, the instructor said something to Sasuke and he followed them. Sasumi's eyes widened as she realized what he was doing.

"This is way out of control! If Uchiha-san catches up to that Gaara…he's dead."

Nara Shikamaru lay on the floor, doing what he did best: playing dead. In his opinion, whoever decided that today would be a good day to start a war was plain insane. He didn't know why the Sand had decided to betray them and he really didn't care. All that was on his mind right now was finding a way to stay alive and the easiest way at that.

"How troublesome," he thought, "What's the point of starting a war anyway?"

"A-class? What…Sasuke…that…alright."

Shikamaru strained to hear what was going on. He was pretty sure that it was Naruto who was talking.

"Hurry…Shikamaru…get…back…Sasuke…" said who he was pretty sure was Hatake Kakashi. Oh, no way were they involving him! Suddenly he felt a bite on his leg.

"Ite!! What the hell was that?!"

He sat up to see Naruto, Shino, and that weird girl Sasumi crouching down next to him.

"Hey, you bastard! You were pretending to be asleep the whole time, weren't you? Huh?"

"Ch, excuse me if I don't want to get killed. And I don't care about Sasuke either, so…"

The small dog bit him again.

"Why you little-"

"C'mon! We got to go!" Naruto looked like he was about to wet himself.

A Sound nin appeared behind Naruto. Before he could say or do anything. The sensei with huge eyebrows and a weird haircut punched him through the wall.

"Hurry up, now," said Kakashi, "Naruto and Shino will explain to you what your mission is on the way."

He turned around to whack another enemy nin across the room.

"Great. Exactly what I didn't want to do today. Stupid Sand and their stupid war."

"I'm coming too."

He turned around to see the red-haired girl in a cast behind him.

"But Sasumi what about your-"

She cut him off, "I still have one arm. Let's go."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "How troublesome."

Naruto briefly explained that Sasuke had ran off after the three Sand nin, which in Shikamaru's opinion wasn't very smart, and that their job was to stop him and bring him back. The four of them (plus the dog which was following Sasuke's scent) had only been running for five minutes when the dog told them that there were nine Sound nin tracking them.

"Great! Just what we need! Since they're probably all above Chuunin level we'll be annihilated!!"

"Shit, how about we wait until they pass by and ambush them?!" Naruto yelled with vigor.

"That sounds advisable," said Shino.

The red-haired girl didn't say anything.

"They're Sound nin though," the dog cut in, "Which means they were former ninja of Konoha."

"Shit! I guess it's no use then!"

"Huh?" said Naruto intelligently.

He attempted to explain to him what was vital to an ambush, but he didn't think Naruto understood. Idiot.

"The only way we can get out of this is if one of us becomes a decoy and distracts them, however, that person will probably die."

Naruto looked crestfallen, but the others showed no change of expression.

"So…who's going to do it?"

He weighed their chances and was dismayed to find that the person who had the best chance of surviving and distracting the enemy was probably him.

"Alright, I'll-"

He cut the blond off, " I guess I'm the only one…" he sighed. Stupid war!

"I see," said Shino, "Your Kagemune no Jutsu…"

Shikamaru was surprised; he had expected that he would have to explain it to them. He grabbed a tree branch and flipped himself so that he was on top of it.

"Shikamaru…" Naruto sounded uncertain.

"Hurry up! I'll catch up with you later."

Naruto and Shino turned to go but Sasumi didn't. He saw her bite her lip slightly and her hand grip the inside of her cast. He opened his mouth to say something, but she beat him to it.

"I'll come with you."

"What?"

Naruto had turned around and was staring at her.

"One person won't be enough. Besides, if you trap them with your jutsu and miss just one they'll kill you right there."

Shikamaru blinked in surprise. Well that was…logical.

"But what about Sasuke?" he argued.

"We're wasting time arguing," she gestured to Naruto and Shino, "Go."

"Sasumi…" Naruto trailed off, "We're counting on you two."

Shikamaru just waved, still shocked at Sasumi's behavior. He never knew she was so…troublesome. It made sense though, she was a girl, after all. He watched the two of them run off.

"Right… We'll block this way. You stand behind a tree on one side and I'll stand on the other. I'll trap them with my jutsu and you take them out… you can throw with your left hand, right?" She nodded. "Good. If I miss one, you'll have to deal with them, alright?" She nodded again. He didn't have enough time to say anything else because they were running out of time to lay false tracks. After they were done they stood on opposite sides of the grass path and waited until the Nin came. And come they did. Quickly he ensnared them with his jutsu.

"Heh, that was easy. Too easy. The last one is probably hiding somewhere."

He counted them and found there were only eight. Sasumi drew some shuriken and threw it towards them. But, before they reached their targets a barrage of assorted kunai and shuriken hit them out of the way.

"To the left, Sasumi!"

She threw a few kunai up into a tree on the left side of the path. They were blocked and the last nin dropped out of the tree.

"Nice try, brats," he said, a smirk evident upon his face, "But you can't keep that jutsu up forever…"

"He's right. I don't even have the strength to create another shadow to trap him."

Finally, all his chakra was used up and the jutsu disintegrated.

"Go find the other two," the last nin ordered.

"SHIT!"

He pulled out a kunai and launched it at them but it was easily blocked. Dammit, he had so many ideas, but no power! Four nin attempted to break past him and Sasumi and both of them launched their weapons at them. Shikamaru was not surprised when his were blocked, but he was when two of Sasumi's kunai found their marks in through two of the Sound nin throats. He glanced at her noticed she was sweating heavily. Shit, they were so dead! The two nin that Sasumi hadn't killed disappeared after Naruto and Shino and Shikamaru didn't have the strength to think or do something about them. Suddenly the remaining nin were all around them.

"Now," said one of them, "Let's finish this."

He attempted to kick one out the way, but his foot was caught and he was thrown against a tree. He barely rolled out of the way in time to avoid a barrage of shuriken. He heard a yell and a crash a Sound nin was kicked out of the way. He picked himself up and stood back to back with Sasumi in the center of the path surrounded by angry Sound nin, whose numbers seemed to have depleted since he last checked. Hadn't there been five of them? Now there were four and one lay on the ground a kunai through his throat. Sasumi had done that? Ever since the preliminaries he had known that she was stronger than she looked, but hadn't the whole thing with Ino have to do with some sort of curse jutsu? That's what Asuma said anyway. There were no strange marks on her now so did that mean it hadn't anything to do with the curse? He inwardly shook himself. They had more pressing matters to worry about. One of the nin made a hand seal and suddenly he blew fire out of his mouth. He pushed Sasumi out of the way and threw himself to the right. Pain erupted in his shoulder and he looked down to see a kunai lodged there, just above his lungs.

"Shit, that hurts!"

Blood trickled down his shoulder, staining his shirt. A hand grasped his throat, cutting off his air supply. He choked trying, to force the hand off, but he was too tired and he had no energy left.

"Is this it? I'm going to die right here choked to death by some stupid Sound nin? Ch, how troubleso…"

Something fell onto his chest. It was heavy. The hand around his throat loosened and he gasped for air. He looked at the thing on his chest and froze. It was a head. The severed head of the nin who had previously been choking him. Above him stood Sasumi, her arm that was formerly in a cast covered in blood. The cast had been stripped off and from the motion she just made with that arm made it clear that it was definitely not broken. He was just about to ask what the hell was going on when two other Sound nin came up behind her.

"Sasumi! BEHIND YOU!"

She whirled around, but they were stopped before she could do anything. Asuma had both of them under his arms and snapped their necks like twigs. Shikamaru pushed the dead body off him and then noticed that Sasumi's arm was wrapped up again as if she had never moved it. He saw behind Asuma another nin who had fallen victim to Asuma's power.

"Geez, you two put up one hell of a fight."

"Asuma…" He coughed out painfully.

"Let's see that shoulder of yours." He knelt down and pulled the kunai out of his shoulder slowly. Shikamaru cried out in pain and dug his hands into the ground. He barely heard his sensei ask Sasumi if she was okay. He looked up to see her nod, breathing as if he had run the marathon.

"They must not have been very strong." He heard Asuma say, "You'd think Orochimaru's underlings would be at least Chuunin level."

"They were Chuunin level! That's exactly the point, they were Chuunin level and she killed four of them!" he wanted to yell, but he felt very weak and couldn't do anything but sit there.

"I think it's all over now. When I left they were clearing out the bodies." Asuma lit a cigarette and stuck it in his mouth, "Yamaki, take Shikamaru to the hospital. You shouldn't run into anymore trouble. Good job, both of you."

The red-haired girl nodded and draped his arm over her shoulder. On the way there Shikamaru fell asleep from pure fatigue and confusion.

Shino dodged the kunai that the Sound nin threw at him. He and Naruto had been forced to split up after two Sound nin had attacked from out of nowhere. Naruto had followed Pakun, after Shino had taken one out just by chance and the remaining nin went after him instead. He sent some bugs to suck up his opponent's chakra and he could tell his opponent wouldn't last much longer. Finally he collapsed and Shino turned back towards where Uzumaki Naruto and the dog Pakun had gone. It wasn't hard to find them; in fact he could smell them after traveling in one direction for a few minutes. He came upon the scene of burnt trees and soon spotted a blotch of orange in the distance. He lay unconscious on the ground. It looked like he had dragged himself a few feet forward and stopped; amazingly there was hardly any blood on him. Uchiha Sasuke, however, was a different story all together. When he first saw him, he thought for sure he was dead. His blood was everywhere. It was dripping down from a branch where he lay and Shino felt sick. Then he saw his chest rise. His breath was shallow, but he was alive. Shino took off his jacket and secured it around a huge gash around the other boy's middle that seemed to be the source of most of the blood. He was slightly confused. What had happened here? He was sure that that Sabaku no Gaara, if he had won a fight with them, would not have left them alive. Yet Uzumaki Naruto was barely hurt at all. Had he beaten the Sand nin after his teammate became injured? Or was he merely rendered unconscious after he interrupted their fight? Either way, the Sand nin was no longer there, something Shino was very glad of. A few nin who were scouting the area found him and they took all three of them to the hospital. Shino was pleased to find that Nara Shikamaru and Yamaki Sasumi were alive, though; the Nara was unconscious and hadn't woken up yet. After receiving a light checkup, he was deemed fit enough to go home and was surprised to find that half his house was in pieces. His father said something about giant snakes and Orochimaru. Shino just wanted to go to sleep.

A/N: Uggh…you would not believe how long it took for me to finish this chapter. Anyway, there's probably be a lot of things you don't understand about this chapter so you could always REVIEW and ask me. The AU-ness begins from now on! Itachi + Kisame will probably appear in the chapter after next, but I'm not promising anything. Also, I just wanted to say, for the record, that there will be no pairings in this fic. If you have ever read any of my other fics you'd know that I really can't write romance. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, so sorry if I have: Shi no Me means 'Death's Eyes' or 'Eyes of Death.'