Blarg nothing to write about here… I promise… the torture will end soon… if you want I can just skip to the parts were Jiraiya comes in, depending on how many people vote on it in the comments and PM's… so if you want me to just skip most of the Chuunin exams and go straight to the part where Jiraiya comes in I would be glad to do so… so tell me by comment how you want me to do this… if you don't, that's fine and I will just keep writing and it will take longer to get to the good stuff (cries)… if I do, do the skip I will just write a paragraph summary for what happens in the semi-finals…

Traces of Sakura's pink hair danced through the air, it was as if all time had slowed down as she thought to herself.

I had always thought of myself as a full-fledged shinobi. Proud to be and equal as I trailed after my teammates… crushing on Sasuke and scolding Naruto... even becoming friends with Sayaka. Watching them safely from the background while they would risk anything to protect me from harm Sakura slowly began to rise to her feet as her Head plate fell to the ground beside her. Lee-san says he likes me as well, and he also risked his life to come between danger and me. Even Tori tried to save me… all of you… your all my teachers, and you've shown me what I want to be… I want to be like all of you! Suddenly the look in Sakura's eyes changed, she looked serious and ready to protect everyone "now… its your turn to watch my back!" she whispered.

"Kin Finish her off!" Zaku screamed at his teammate. Kin did not hesitate; she quickly pulled out Senbon needles and charged at sakura, puncturing her in the back. In a puff of smoke sakura transformed into a log, in a blink of an eye sakura appeared behind kin and was charging towards Zaku and she directed two fistfuls of kunai's in Zaku's direction. "Feh… give it up!" Zaku sneered as he raised his hand and used air pressure to blast back the weapons. Before the redirected weapons could hit sakura, she made a hand sign and replaced her self once more with a log. "Poor, poor, poor silly child, your just a one trick loser…" he directed his gaze over head staring straight at Sakura "your obviously over head!" he scoffed as he pulled out a fistful of kunai's from his hip pouch. Sakura made yet another hand sign. "Try it twice, trice… hell you can even try four times… but that trick will never work on me. My smallest skill is more then enough for me to kill you!" Zaku said as he threw the kunai's at sakura, they hit her en masse sending trickles of blood everywhere. "Heh, Heh, Heh, come out come out wherever you are" Zaku teased looking around, all of a sudden he realized that blood was dripping down onto his face from above, looking up he realized that sakura did not use are of substitution, instead she was falling towards Zaku with a kunai in her hands. Sakura landed on Zaku, piercing his arm with the kunai and then she began to bite his other arm so that he could not perform anymore jutsu's. "GET OFF OF ME!" Zaku screamed in pain. Zaku began to punch Sakura's head trying to free the grip that she hand on his arm. Blood and bruises began to form on Sakura's face. Finally Zaku managed to throw sakura off of him and he raised his hands in a deadly manner "you little bitch, im gonna kill you!"

Suddenly Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji (who was being pulled my Shikamaru) came out of what seemed to be nowhere to sakura, creating a human wall protecting sakura from Zaku.

"I…Ino…?" Sakura whispered.

"Tsk… the freak parade just goes on and on…" Zaku sneered in delight.

"Sakura… I told you already… I would never let you show me up!" she smirked.

"But… why?" Sakura asked, she had barely any strength left to move much.

"Did you honestly think that I would let you make the big sacrifice and hog all the glory in front of Sasuke?" Ino smirked.

"More of these annoying little bugs from Konohagakure…. They crept in and started to swarm…" Dosu hissed.

"W-what are you guys thinking? Those guys are way to dangerous, they'd eat us alive! Shikamaru let go of me!" Chouji said as he tried to free his grip from Shikamaru.

"Nope! No way buddy, this is the way it is. Were the men here and we cant run away when Ino is ready to risk her life fighting. I wont let go even if we die!" Shikamaru said as he tightened his grip on Chouji scarf.

"Sorry I dragged you two into this… but we are a three-man cell together and I can't do this without you two…" Ino smiled.

"Heh, heh, heh, we'll let you off the hook if you want to run… Fat ass" Zaku sneered at Chouji. At these words Chouji's whole body flinched.

"What did he just say…? I could have sworn that he called me…" Chouji began.

"Eh?… your quite welcome to run away… if you can find a hiding place that's big enough to hid your fat ass!" Zaku mocked. There was at least a three second pause before Chouji exploded with anger.

"IM NOT FAT!!! IM JUST PLEASINGLY PLUMP!!!!111" Chouji screamed in anger. "Does everyone here understand? Do you get me? Konoha and Oto are at war!!!!" Chouji screamed as he pointed a finger at the Oto ninjas.

"Heh, this is turning into a complete mess…" Shikamaru mumbled as he released Chouji.

"Yes… it certainly is…" Zaku agreed.

"Sakura… stay here and watch over your team…" Ino said, sakura nodded her head. " Alright! This is it team Ino! Full speed ahead!" Ino cheered.

"Hai!" Shikamaru and Chouji said in unison. While the three of led on the attack on the three sound ninjas sakura crawled over to Naruto, Sasuke, and Sayaka.

"Don't worry now guys… were saved…" Sakura sighed a sigh of relief.

"What's going on?" a voice said from behind Sakura. Sakura quickly whipped her head around and became face to face with Nazori.

"Na-Nazori-san!" Sakura stuttered. Nazori turned his attention to Tori who was laying a few feet away unconscious, he grabbed a bit of his shit and propped Tori upwards into a sitting position and smacked him across the face a few times.

"Tori…Wake…Up!" Nazori said, he had no hint of any emotion while he said this, which kinda scared sakura. Tori began to stir.

"N…Nazori…. You came for me after all… my knight in shining armor…" Tori said just before passing out again on Nazori. A blood vein was seen on Nazori's forehead and he began to strike Tori until he had completely woken up.

"I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR FANTASYS ABOUT ME, EVEN IF YOU ARE HALF AWAKE!!!!" Nazori bellowed, and punching Tori's head. After the punch Tori seemed to wake up fully and quickly.

"WHOS ATTAKIN MEH?!" Tori screamed, he looked at sakura and Nazori then at the battle between Ino's team and the sound ninjas. "Ok... what the hell is going on?" Tori asked pointing at the fight.

"I have know idea… as far as I can tell right now, the Shikamaru kid is using Kage Mane no Jutsu on that Dosu guy… the Ino chick is using Shintenshin no jutsu on the kin girl. The Chouji kid used both the baika no jutsu and nikudan sensha to attack Zaku…" Nazori said summarizing the whole fight. At this point both Zaku and Dosu were snickering towards Ino who was now possessing kin's body.

"Ino, get out of there! They're going to-!" Sakura screamed as Zaku raised a threatening hand at Ino.

"Too late!" Zaku said a he delivered a high-pressure air attack towards Ino. Ino was thrown back into a tree, blood rushed up from her stomach and out of her mouth. Ino's real body was being held by Shikamaru and blood was now dripping out of her mouth.

"NO…!" Shikamaru cried.

"You underestimated us… that was a bad move on your part…" Zaku smirked.

"Our purpose is not some stupid scroll… nor have we any interest in passing this exam," Zaku added. "We are after Sasuke kun!" Shikamaru bit his lip as his Kage mane no jutsu's effect began to wear off. "heh, so your little trick can only work for five minutes at a time? And as for that girl, from the looks of it if we inflict any harm on her host, her real body suffers as well… we can kill her by killing kin ourselves!" Dosu said in delight, he began to flex his muscles.

"Your despicable!" a voice from overhead said coldly, everyone turned their attention upwards and looked into the faces of Neji Hyuga and Tenten. "You bucolic nonentities, you think that you're so special because of your sonic jutsu's, you weren't even strong enough to beat these novices." Neji said looking down on them.

"Oh look more vermin come crawling from the woodwork!" Zaku smirked. Neji ignored the remark and turned his gaze over to lee.

"Looks like you blew it hu? Lee…" Neji said. "The kid with the bowl cut belongs to us… you hurt him so now you answer to us!" Neji hissed as he activated his byakugan. Everyone that was within Neji's white gaze were frozen in fear. "Stop while you can… or we'll give you everything we got!" Neji threatened.

"if you find us so despicable, why don't you stop posturing and start doing something about it?" Dosu smirked.

"Well… from the looks of it, we wont have to…" Neji said releasing his Byakugan and closing his eyes. From beside sakura Sasuke slowly began to stand up.

"Sasuke-kun! Your awake!" Sakura said happily. She quickly realized that Sasuke felt different, so did everyone else in the surrounding area. Sasuke slowly got into a standing position, his Sharingan eyes showed only hatred and anger, all up his arm there were weir black marks that seemed to slowly be consuming his face.

"Sakura, point out the ones who pummeled you into that state…" Sasuke hissed.

"S-Sasuke kun?" sakura whispered in disbelief.

"Tell me… who was it?" he growled.

"It was we!" Zaku sneered.

"Looks like you're the one who im gonna kill then?" Sasuke sneered. Zaku bit his lip and glared at Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun… your body…?" Sakura whispered. Sasuke looked down at his hand and smirked.

"Its nothing… I feel strong and bursting with power… power that I got from him…" Sasuke said taking a step towards Zaku. "I understand now… I am and avenger, on the path that I walk I have to do whatever it take for me to gain power, even if it means selling my flesh to the devil…" Sasuke lowered his head and bit his lip; the marks began to consume more of his face, as his glare towards Zaku grew darker.

"Ino! If you stay in that form you'll be dragged into this, get back into your own body!" Shikamaru yelled as he ran towards the bushes while carrying Ino's limp body in his arms. "Chouji lets get moving!" he added. Ino mad the appropriate hand sign to and sent her mind back to her body. "Welcome back!" Shikamaru said when he noticed Ino back in her body, a little farther way Kin began to wake. The chakara and the look that Sasuke was given reminded everyone around him of Orochimaru.

"Holly… his chakara is immense!" Dosu said in shock and eyes widened too shocked for any more words.

"Snap out of it Dosu! Just because he refuses to die…" Zaku began as he clasped his hands together.

"Zaku no, don't you get it?" Dosu screamed at his partner. Zaku ignored him and aimed his arms at Sasuke and Sakura; he smirked as he let out a supersonic air-slice attack. Immediately the surrounding area became immensely engulfed with Zaku's attack. Sayaka's eyes began to slowly open as she felt her body being dragged by a familiar grip.

"N…Na…Zo...Ri…?' Sayaka said weakly as she looked up at her comrade.

"Finally awake hu?" Nazori said without emotion. Nazori landed safely beside Tori, Sakura and Naruto.

"Hah! Blew that pipsqueak to bits!" Zaku smirked

"What pipsqueak are you referring to?" the chilling voice of Sasuke said from behind Zaku. In one swift moment Sasuke lifted his arm and hit Zaku, throwing him forward several feet. Sayaka now fully awake grabbed onto Nazori tightly when she noticed Sasuke's Crimson Sharingan eyes and black marks on his skin.

"His… his eyes… like…his…" Sayaka whispered as she tightened her grip on Nazori. Sasuke began to make several hand signs and in an instance several fireballs began to form from Sasuke's mouth and headed towards Zaku.

"You're getting overconfident! I can just blow these out!" Zaku said raising his arms once more and blowing out the flames with his jutsu. Beneath the fire it revealed shuriken that Zaku was not able to block. As the shuriken hit, Sasuke made his move and appeared below Zaku, before he knew what was going on, Zaku could feel his arms being pulled behind him and a foot resting on his back. The look in Sasuke's eyes turned to pure enjoyment as he gripped tighter onto Zaku's arms.

"You take such pride in your arms… its time to bid them farewell!" those were the last words that Zaku heard before he felt his arms being yanked at and hearing the sounds of his bones breaking. Sayaka bit her lip till it began to bleed, everything about Sasuke now reminded her of Itachi, not wanting to stick around to watch the slaughter of Sound ninjas, Sayaka stood up and booked it as fast as she could through the forest.

"Sayaka!" both Tori and Nazori screamed. Nazori was the first one on his feet to run after Sayaka.

"Tori you stay here, im going to go after her!" Nazori yelled running after Sayaka. Tori obediently obeyed Nazori and sat still.

---With Sayaka---

Sayaka was dodging branches and various other things as she ran through the forest; she could feel her heard pounding in her throat.

"I cant… I cant… I cant…" Sayaka repeated to herself over and over again. Behind her Nazori was desperately struggling to catch up to Sayaka.

"Sayaka get back here!" Nazori cried as he jumped over a fallen tree. Sayaka ignored him and continued running with her eyes closed. She felt herself impact into something soft and falling backwards onto the ground, she looked up with teary eyes to what she had just bumped into, staring back at her was Hinode, Kikei and Tsume.

"Sayaka!" Hinode cried in surprise and kneeling down in front of her and brushing hair from her face. "What happened?" he asked. Sayaka's eyes were wide and her pupils were dilated.

"He… he looked… just... just like…" Sayaka panted. Nazori finally caught up with Sayaka and fell to his knees beside her, breathing heavily.

"Damn… when you run… you really run…" Nazori panted. Hinode moved towards Nazori and took a fist full of his shirt in his hands.

"What did you do to her?" Hinode hissed looking at Nazori with a deadly glare. Nazori brushed off Hinode with a swipe of his hand.

"I didn't do anything to her…" Nazori hissed back "I have no idea what happened, when she looked at Sasuke she freaked out and ran" he explained. Hinode looked at his two teammates and they got the idea, Tsume nodded at him and Kikei kneeled down beside her and tried to calm her down as Hinode dragged Nazori a safe distance away. "Ok what's this all about?" Nazori demanded, glaring at Hinode.

"Her family…" Hinode began, he knew if Sayaka ever found out that he had said anything to Nazori, she would probably kick his ass. "Her family…was killed by Sasuke's older brother…when she was younger… after that she has been traumatized since that day. She doesn't like to talk about it, heck… she apparently blocked it out of her memory until I accidentally reminded her about it the last time I ran into her, back in Grass Country…" Hinode explained, "every time she looks at Sasuke, she sees his older brother, she's probably blocked it out of her memory again but a part of her still remembers it. Its really dangerous for her to do this, because if she's reminded of it again, im afraid that she might go ballistic or just become an empty shell of hate and full of revenge…"

"How do you know all of this?" Nazori said as he turned his head to look at Sayaka who was talking to Tsume.

"Heh…" Hinode grabbed his head in his hands "I have been her friend ever since we were kids… I practically know everything about her, and what goes through her mind…" Hinode laughed. "just promise me something…"

"What?" Nazori asked in a deadly tone.

"Can you look after her for me? I wont be around much after these exams, and she needs someone to look after her…"

"She has that Naruto kid to look after her though…"

"No, she needs someone who acts like a brother and not a lover towards her…" Hinode whispered. Nazori raised his eyebrows at him, "look, im not asking much… and I already know that you think of her as a little sister, even if you try to hide it, I know…" Hinode snickered.

"How…?"

"Im really good at reading people" Hinode grinned and with a flick of his hair, he walked back to his teammates and Sayaka leaving Nazori looking dumbstruck.

---With Sasuke---

Sasuke watched with interested eyes as he watched Zaku fall to the ground in pain, turning slowly to look at Dosu, he smirked with a murderous grin.

"An then there was one…" Sasuke hissed evilly, he began to slowly walk towards Dosu, who was now walking backwards. Sakura now looked upon Sasuke with sad eyes, every bit of Sasuke now reminded her of Orochimaru, and she bit her lip before grabbing Sasuke around the waist to hold him back.

"Stop it… please… just stop it…" she whispered. Suddenly, the marks on Sasuke slowly began to retreat and fade. Sasuke fell backwards into Sakura's arms.

"Your pretty tough…" Dosu complimented, she pulled out his teams earth scroll and placed it in front of him. "Its obvious… in your current state we would have no chance of winning against you, Sasuke…please accept this as a token of my appreciation and as some reparation for you trouble… and please allow us to leave you in peace, after what we have caused, this may seem like a lot…" Dosu added as he slowly begun to walk away with both teammates in his arms.

"Wait!" sakura shouted, stopping Dosu in his tracks. "You have got to tell me… who is Orochimaru? And what did he do to Sasuke? And why is Sasuke the one he chose?" sakura looked at them with confidence.

"I don't know, we were just following orders…" Dosu said, and left leaving.

After it was sure that they had left, Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji ran out of the bushes towards the group.

"Hey are you all right?" Shikamaru called. Sasuke grabbed his shaking wrist and looked at it.

"What…what happened to me?" Sasuke asked, as if he did not remember what had happened.

Shikamaru and Chouji crowded around Naruto and Tori.

"What shall we do about this one then? Shall we kick him until he is awake?" Shikamaru asked looked down at Naruto.

"Oh, oh can I?" Chouji asked, he sounded just like a child. Tori looked up at the two of them with a grin.

"I would advise against that"

"Why?" Shikamaru said, looking at him with pouted lips.

"Because Sayaka-chan would surely kick your ass for that." Tori smirked happily. Shikamaru bit his lip and mumbled under his breath something like 'Troublesome women… ruining our fun…'

"Hey Shikamaru, can i still poke him with a stick until he wakes up?" Chouji asked picking up a stick that was near him and grinning. Shikamaru looked down and picked up a stick as well.

"Ok!" he smirked.