A speck of blood landed on Shikamaru's cheek. Slowly, shaking, his hand rose up, and wiped it off his face. Now staring at the blood on his hand, he stared in disbelief at the psychopath that had killed his best friend. Crushed him; squeezing Chouji's body until nothing remained but bloody sand and a smear on the wall.
"You… you killed him?" He asked, his shock turning the statement to a question.
Gai, Asuma, Kurenai, Kakashi, as well as a number of ANBU were there instantly. Gaara turned and looked at them, a maniacal smile spreading across his face.
"Oops," he drawled, walking back up the steps to the stands.
"Now, wait here." The cigarette gone from Asuma's mouth, and his eyes burning in righteous fury. "You just killed a fellow Genin. You think you can just walk away from that?"
Gaara slowed, and turned around, looking at Asuma, then at the stunned Hokage and an amused Kazekage.
"It was an accident. He did not yield, so he…" The Suna shinobi shivered in pleasure. "Was killed."
Asuma's face tightened up, before blanking; leaving an expressionless mask. His body posture, however, gave away his feelings. Shoulders slumped. Knees and legs unnaturally straight. Elbows locked. Tightened fists.
'My student… Only if I could have—'
The hand placed on his shoulder made him tense, before he felt the chakra signature.
Kurenai. The pretty woman who had plagued his mind ever since returning from his trip. She looked at him sadly, rubbing his back, and led him out of the arena. If any of the Konoha ninja had come to their senses, they would have heard shaking sobs on the way out.
Ino didn't know what to do. Her mind was moving slowly, and simply, too stunned to think basic thoughts and state the obvious. She knew she wanted to help. She knew she wanted to cry, to scream, to run, to get far, far away. But, she didn't. She didn't move. She tried. Her feet were stuck. Her arms had been nailed to their sides. What was this? She was moving, but backwards. No, she wanted to move forwards. The ceiling was getting farther away, odd. Wondering what might happen when—thud.
The ANBU glanced around, unsure of what to do. What happened was obviously on purpose, but was still within the rules.
Baki shot to the floor, standing behind Gaara.
"I am not exactly sure what is wrong here. What happened is well within the rules."
"I do apologize for the death of your ninja, but this is the Chunin exams. Were you not aware of the consequences for entering your Genin?"
The Kazekage, who since hadn't moved from his seat, rose.
"I agree, Baki-san. Hokage-dono, if we could continue with the matches? I am quite eager to see the rest of them."
Gai ground his teeth, the masquerade of 'youth' gone. The normal exuberant man lowered his head and walked back up the stairs. All he could do was be glad it hadn't happened to Lee, or his other students. Lee was his pride and joy, and someone who he could share his 'fires of youth' with. He took a large amount of pride in Lee, as if the boy was his own son.
But…
'To see a boy so viciously torn apart… The unbelievable guilt Asuma must be feeling.' He thought, taking his seat. He glanced at his team, wondering how they would react to such an event.
Lee had taken one look at the smear that was Chouji, and vomited. It wasn't even the gore that had bothered him. But get to know someone— meet with them and talk with them— only to watch them slowly massacred.
Tenten was in a state of shock. She hadn't moved. A small line of drool hung from her mouth, leaking to the floor. Her eyes were beginning to move dangerously far back in her head, and her hand was twitching. The one thing that she couldn't get out of her head was, 'Could that have been me?'
Neji's face was a stony mask. Tipping at the edge though, just leaking through, was his true emotions. Disgust. Anger. Disbelief. Horror. But, a thought went to his head that made him want to hit himself. 'He was weak. It was his destiny.' There it was, the vomit pushing at his throat. Buried deep past his 'destiny, fate' bullshit, Neji hated himself. Far more than his uncle, than Hinata, than the head branch, Neji held a loathing unparalleled against himself.
'Too young,' Gai thought. But they were going to have to learn, sooner or later. Because that was the way of the ninja.
Shino didn't show anything different, besides a certain lack of buzzing that was usually around him. He needed to not show emotion. He was of the Aburame Clan, and they did not show emotion. So he would not do it. How could he? He was going to be the next head, and it would be shameful if—
Shameful if he—
Shamef—hurk!
Shino had lost more than just his honor that day.
Kiba was a particular case. He tried to play it cool. He tried to pretend he saw this every day. But he didn't just see it, no. He smelled it. The blood, the sand, the fact that Chouji had defecated as a result of his heart stopping before he had been turned into a pulp and a stain. Akamaru dug himself deeper into his coat. Kiba just wished he a had a coat to dig deeper into.
Hinata was scared. One look. One look at it all and Hinata's brain went into overdrive. 'The blood and the sand and the scary look on the murderer's face oh god MURDER someone died Chouji I knew him we were friends and now he's gone he's
dead'
Sakura didn't really understand what had gone on. She had been messing around, fantasizing about Sasuke… Until she realized the arena was silent. She looked around, seeing everyone in shock. 'Even Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei?' She thought. Tapping a stunned Naruto on his shoulder, she asked, "What happened? What did I miss?"
Naruto turned to looked at her. The pure, unfiltered fear in his eyes was enough to change Sakura forever. But there was more.
"Chouji is… He's… He…" Naruto faltered, hands shaking. He was scarred. The thing he had seen was death. He had seen it. It would never leave him. That was scary on its own. But the scarier part for him was the there was something—something inside of him— that had done that at a much, much worse level.
"What, you baka!" Smacking him on his head to urge him on, Sakura listened impatiently.
Instead of screaming like he usually did, Naruto looked back at her with the same expression, pointing to the red smear on the wall.
"G-Gaara… ended him."
"…"
"Huh?"
She couldn't comprehend it. In the one minute she had been messing around, someone had lost their life? Someone she knew? That just didn't seem possible, in Sakura's little world.
Sasuke was conflicted. On one side, he didn't care. So, this weakling lost his life, what did he care? But the other side… The side from that night. He remembered the red. The corpses. The pain of watching it over and over. And, unintentionally, he was doing the same thing with Chouji's death. The dripping of the red sand, and the soft giggling coming from somewhere inside of it. He was scared too, deep inside. Deep inside, he wanted his parents, just like any other child. But, the life of a ninja is different.
My heart had fallen empty
to a point where it was dead
It wouldn't beat for me
and the blood filled me instead
My head had overflown
with the crimson paint inside
An ugliness had grown
from my bloody water slide
Now I'm left alone to finish this
Bloody
Lonely
Scary
Ride
~Poem by Arlo Disarray, except the last bit. Go check him/her out!
Feel free to PM me if you see a mistake! Hope you enjoyed!