(A/N) Yeah this story is done this chapter. It will end here.

Naruto didn't have many problems with his lineup in the final exams. Neji hadn't actually been that difficult of a fight.

Gaara was far worse of a fight. Even with Sakura and Sasuke backing him up, he was barely holding his own against the giant Tanuki.

He slapped an explosion tag down on the tanuki's leg, leaping away then exploding it.

"Still nothing?" Sakura shouted.

Naruto shook his head. "Nothing!"

"Should we try taking out the source?" Sasuke chimed in. "Gaara did have to fall asleep to let the tanuki fully out, what if we wake him up!"

"Good thinking!" Sakura yelled gleefully. "Let's do it! Naruto, distract him for a while longer! Sasuke, pull out whatever you can without dying, and I'll head for Gaara."

Naruto pulled out more explosive tags, creating a bunch of clones in the same breath. "I got this!"

"Thanks!" Sakura said, running up a nearby tree trunk with the clear intention to vault onto the tanuki's head.

Sasuke fired off a fire jutsu, distracting the tanuki just enough for Sakura to leap onto the tanuki's head, using chakra enhanced massive leaps to cross the head to Gaara as fast as she could, slamming her fist into Gaara's stomach, clearly waking up the boy.

The sand tanuki dissolved soon after, leaving Sakura falling through the air, only to be caught by one of Naruto's many clones.

"Good job!" Naruto chirped, setting her on the ground, what she assumed to be the original hopping down beside her, the clones all popping.

"We should get him back to Konoha, sensei and the ANBU can deal with him from there," Sasuke noted, walking over and poking the dazed Gaara with his foot.

Sakura sighed, pushing Sasuke away from Gaara and picking up the teen herself. "Don't be cruel Sasuke."

"We were just fighting a biju," Sasuke deadpanned. "By ourselves. Because his village is attacking ours. Do I really need to continue?"

"I hope the casualties aren't too bad," Naruto fretted, flapping his arms.

"They shouldn't be," Sakura muttered. "Konoha has a lot of strong shinobi. We don't get taken down easily."

"Right," Naruto said, staring worriedly at the approaching stadium. "Is it over?"

"I wouldn't be surprised, we've been away for quite a while," Sakura said.

"Konoha deals with invasions pretty quickly after we go into the second stage, and I saw that hawk a while ago," Sasuke agreed, shrugging. "Second Stage is when everyone goes in for the kill because no civvies are left outside of the bunkers. Means everyone is focused on getting rid of the invaders."

"See Naruto, everything should be fine." Sakura smiled reassuringly as they hopped back through the hole from last time. Sakura set the unconscious, although not possessed boy down in a seat, leaving him to sleep while she checked around for their teacher.

The Hokage was dead, and they needed a new one. Sakura kept Naruto tucked under her arm, letting him cry into her shirt. Sasuke was on her other side, furiously wiping away tears that be would deny existed later. Her tears weren't absent, of course, but she quietly wiped them away when she needed to, letting them fall otherwise.

They'd survive, they'd move past this, they had to.

(A/N) I am a terrible procrastinator. Anyway, this is the end, there'll be a poll up at some point, so keep an eye out for that.