Hey everyone so I did say before that I wrote in advance and... I finished it so I decided why wait so that I can forget about it and just upload it all now! so yay! here is the last installment and thank you very much..

It didn't go unnoticed when the only two man squad was allowed in the inner chamber. And it wasn't an unknown two man squad at that, it was one that they had all been looking out for; but something was different.

Ino was tempted to call out to her childhood crush but the haunted look on her rival's face stopped her. The forest of death was bad but it wasn't THAT bad. Or at least that's what Ino had thought but looking at Sakura and Sasuke you would have thought that they had clawed themselves out of the pits of hell.

They were covered in dirt, grime and… was that blood?

A chill ran down Ino's spine. Sakura's hair was chopped off messily and she looked like she would break any second. And if Sasuke was suppose to be any comfort; he wasn't. Sasuke looked the same if not worse. He had bandages covering his body and his eyes looked puffy and red clashing with the unnatural paleness of his skin.

What had happened?!

She barely saw the shadow that passed her before it approached the pair and her mouth dropped,

"Oi where's Naruto?"

Shikamaru asked. Because he wasn't scared to ask at all. He could deduce something extremely bad had to have happen if the proctors were allowing a two man squad to enter when it had clearly said you needed all your members to complete the task. And Unlike the rivalry that Naruto had with many of the other Males in their age group Shikamaru was not a rival; he was a friend. His Father was close to Minato and had been his personal advisor so it was only Natural that Shikamaru had met Naruto often when they were little. Shikamaru most likely knew Naruto the best simply because he was that observant. He knew that Naruto had something that made him special and feared at the same time, he knew that Kushina had shielded him from the village when he was young, and that Naruto and his father were not on the best of terms.

But there were other things… He knew that Naruto was secretly scared. Scared of not being enough, of disgracing his family… of being alone. He knew that Naruto secretly looked up to his father and wanted the man's acknowledgement the most, that Naruto for some reason blamed himself for his mother being unwell.

Shikamaru knew a lot because he considered Naruto a friend and it was a friend's job to be there when you needed it.

That's why he had asked,

Because he knew Naruto wasn't weak and that he could protect himself and that he should have gotten through the second exam without a problem… but he wasn't here; and the dread that rose as he saw the two teammates of team 7 without that blonde haired shortie scared him.

But Sasuke just turned his bloodshot eyes to the nara with a glare,

"Shut up… i don't have to answer you."

Sakura cringed as Sasuke turned to walk away and was going to follow,

"SAKURA!"

She looked to see Ino looking at her. Ino a childhood friend turned rival. She wondered what it was that really split them up, when she looked back at it, it was really her selfish desire to monopolize Sasuke. She was the one that broke it off and Ino had gone along with it,

It seemed so stupid now.

Because in any moment they could disappear, they could die and she might not be strong enough to heal them… like Naruto.

Her body shook as the memories returned unbridled and the visions of blood and bones cracking filled her head. She turned from the platinum blonde to follow after Sasuke but before he got to far he froze. And she blinked in confusion as a feral growl left his mouth,

"Bastard… release me"

Sakura gasped as she looked behind to see Shikamaru in a weird pose kneeled on the ground,

"This is such a drag…"

But his words contradicted the anger burning in his eyes,

"But i think i have every right to know the answer"

"SHIKAMARU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Ino screeched and even Choji stopped eating as he looked at his friend in curiosity. But Sasuke with all the power he could muster began slowly but surely to turn his head and Shikamaru cursed trying to hold the jutsu,

"You have two seconds…."

Sasuke growled and usually Sakura would step in but she felt so drained and dazed she couldn't find the motivation,

"To let me go…."

Shikamaru could feel the sweat beading his brow as he wondered in horror what had happened that Sasuke could make him this terrified, that Sasuke was so strong that he was resisting the Nara clan jutsu. And then Sasuke's head turned to him and Shikamaru's breath hitched as instead of the black eyes he was used to seeing they were now red with two black tomoes spinning in clear killing intent,

"Or i'll crush you right here."

But Shikamaru wasn't someone to take lightly. Sure he liked to take a nap and watch the clouds but his father had in no way been lenient in his training. Having some weird obsession with making sure he was strong 'tossed around by little kids'.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Sakura's eyes widened at the familiar green jumpsuit the bowl cut boy wore.

"WE ARE COMRADES WE SHOULD NOT BE FIGHTING ONE ANOTHER!"

And something about seeing him relieved her.

"Who the heck…?"

"Neji…?"

Shikamaru looked behind him to hear the whisper of the hyuga heiress as she looked surprised and then looked back to see two other figures walking closer one with those same pale eyes and a female with buns.

They're related.

Shikamaru concluded.

"Princess Hinata"

The pale eyed boy bowed as he looked at the girl and she nodded back,

"Forgive the loudness of my teammate but he has a point we should not be fighting"

"OI! Where's naruto anyway?"

Sakura wanted to facepalm, really why did everyone have to be in there business? And when did Naruto become so popular?

"I said shut up…"

Sasuke growled and Sakura could see he was losing patience...if there was any left at this point…

"Neji is correct we should not be fight, why? Because the others will see it as disunity."

Shino said And Tenten nodded,

"I agree, in these exam we represent Konoha we can't dishonor it."

Shikamaru sighed,

What a drag

All he wanted was a simple answer and for some reason or another the whole konoha genin team was on their case; He released the jutsu. There was no point fighting, it was just a waste of energy.

But Sasuke didn't see that at all. He was high strung as it was with what had happened and all these people reminding him of Naruto pissed him off. Especially that Nara kid looking at him like Naruto not being there was his fault… Like he could have changed things….

If he had more power…

Naruto would not have…

Than Naruto wouldn't have…

And now Naruto was….

Sasuke grit his teeth and turned fiercely palming a Kunai as he spun toward the Nara.

IT WASN'T HIS FAULT!

"SASUKE!"

Sakura cried out and Ino's eyes widened as did Choji's as he called to his friend,

"SHIKAMARU!"

But before the Kunai could graze him Sasuke stopped.

"I am well aware that some Leaf ninja are rash as they are reckless but i did not think they all were."

And Sasuke froze as the sand that had stopped his movement crawled up his leg,

"WHAT THE….?!"

"SASUKE!"

Sakura screamed in panic as the sand had seemingly had appeared out of nowhere,

"Gaara, stop if you go too far we may get disqualified."

The genin turned to see a red haired boy with his arms crossed over his chest and a gourd on his back. Behind him stood a blonde with a weapon on her back and a man with too much makeup on in a black jumpsuit.

"LET GO!"

Sasuke yelled as he tried to get out of the sand encasing him, but the redhead ignored him and instead turned to the frightened pink haired girl,

"Is Naruto not coming?"

Sasuke grit his teeth,

Naruto knew sand ninja's?!

Sakura gulped as she looked back at cold sea foam green eyes,

"He...he was disqualified"

Whispers rang through the group, but the sand retreated and Sakura was at Sasuke's side immediately,

"I see"

The Suna nin said as he turned to walk away with the group when the doors to the inner chamber opened once more. It was most likely the last group as time was just about running out. And no one cared… no one but the pale faced genin team.

"No...no way…"

Ino turned a gasped,

"SAKURA!"

She quickly knelt down and drew everyone's attention to the girl hyperventilating,

"SAKURA CALM DOWN!"

Ino tried to get her attention but the girl seemed lost in her own world, She looked to Sasuke to see if he could help but even he was paler than she had ever seen as he stared in horror at the last team that filtered through.

And Ino couldn't help wonder why.

Because the team that walked in seemed relatively normal, perhaps nerdy but fine regardless. A team of three with two of the three with cloths covering their faces and the third guy walking in the center with messy white hair and large glasses that had a crack in one lens. And sure the guy looked a bit smug but other than that he seemed hardly dangerous. But whoever he was he was causing both Sakura and Sasuke to look like they had seen a ghost.