Kankuro shakes his head, goes for a weapon, and a rock from the ceiling hits him in the noggin. Jenna, needless to say, is overjoyed.
"God answered my prayer! I beat him!"
Anko gives a snort of disgust. "No, you didn't. The ceiling beat him. Sand, choose a new champion." A boy with red hair dressed in black with a gourd on his back jumps down from his seat.
Jenna leans over and whispers to Cathy, "Who is this guy?"
"That's Gaara. He's the best Sand village ninja." Cathy gulps in fear for her friend.
Jenna seems to be more outraged than afraid. "Then why wasn't he the champion?"
"Probably didn't want to waste his chakra or skills on you. He barely ever uses his energy for people like us."
"I feel so appreciated." Jenna's eyes narrow in her determined look, the one she wears for every competition. She glares at the ceiling and raises an eyebrow.
"Your bad luck is our gain." Gaara's voice is deeper and rougher than Naruto's, like he doesn't use it a lot. What might be a smile plays over his face.
Jenna pulls out one of the unfamiliar weapons, not knowing that she's holding it wrong. "Well, then. Let's see what you've got Raccoon Boy." The would-be smile dies on his lips, replaced by a look of pure hatred. Sand comes streaming out of the gourd on his back and moves quickly towards Jenna. She dodges it and starts running. Gaara's sand chases after her.
It's like watching Pac Man avoid a ghost, Cathy thinks as her eyes follows her sprinting friend around the arena.
Gaara's sand retreats. He closes his eyes in thought, trying to come up with a way for his sand to catch his opponent unaware. A rock comes whistling towards him and smacks him in the head.
"Yes!" Jenna throws her hands up in joy. She doesn't see the sand clone until it's too late. Cathy doesn't even have time to warn her as it whacks her over the head.
"Sand Team wins," Anko declares as medics drag Jenna out of the arena. One of them reassures Cathy that her buddy will be fine.
"The next match starts now." Anko sits down, hoping this match will be better than the last one.
Sasuke pulls out a kunai and smirks. "I heard you've got super strength. You just might be a challenge. Your friend sure wasn't." Cathy covers the distance between them in two big steps.
"I choose my own fate." With that she flicks the kunai into a thousand sharp shards. Sasuke hops back and whips shruiken at her. Cathy stomps her foot on the ground, creating a mini earthquake that knocks Sasuke off balance and a sheild from the shuriken. He steadies himself and goes for more weapons as Cathy rushes him. Her fist slams him into the stone wall, sending spider-web cracks through it. Sasuke collapses.
"You may choose your team." Anko thinks, And I thought this was going to take forever.
Slouched back in his seat, Gaara grins faintly. Wonderful. Two new members. She'll follow her friend to our team.
"I pick Leaf Team," Cathy declares happily.
Simultaneously, a single thought passed through everyone's heads, with a few variations: ooookay, that's weird.
Good old Cathy. Means every word she says. Jenna smiled widely attheir shock and almost laughed in glee. Ha, ha! That Gaara guy looks pretty upset. Probably 'cause he's stuck with crappy me!
The masked ninja beside taps her on the shoulder and leads Jenna into a corridor much like the one she first arrived in, only with more tasteful wallpaper. Cathy is already there with the rest of her new team. Jenna's team members are ignoring her. Gaara seems to be trying to persuade them about something.
Anko gestures to the groups and they follow her down the hall. Cathy and Jenna lag behind. Cathy waves Jenna over. "Wow! Those medic ninjas work fast!"
"Yeah. I caught the end of your match! Cathy, who are these people and what do they want with us?"
Cathy begins with comprehensible words but slowly degenerates into blah-blah-blahs. Jenna tries to listen intently. A silver haired ninja with a mask obscuring all but his right eye races out of the arena. I don't want to be late for the next challenge! I almost missed the last one. He skids to a halt when he sees Cathy talking and Jenna nodding. Hey, those are the contestants. I wonder why one is so good and the other is so… BAD. Sasuke's a tough opponent; the blond girl must be a really strong fighter. Gaara's no walk in the park but that match was embarrassing. Something's not right with the bushy haired one…why would the Sand Team pick her?
"Hi Kakashi sensei!"
"Ahh! Naruto, don't sneak up on people like that!" Kakashi turns around to find that the girls have walked on to the next room. Anko and the teams are waiting for them in a medium size school room. The left wall is lined with tiered desks
"It's time for the IQ test."
"What?!" Cathy protests. "You never said anything about a test!"
"Don't worry," Jenna whispers out of the corner of her mouth. "Just do what we do when you forget to study."
"Are you sure? There was the test episode and…"
"I know." Jenna cuts Cathy's anxious argument off. "You told me. But I bet that they've never seen our methods."
And so begins the test. Their new team members fill the seats around the girls to stop any form of cheating. Cathy bites her pencil from time to time, a normal nervous habit. Temari, Kankuro, and Sakura focus in on Jenna when she shows no signs of panic. Occasionally, on a particular problem that deals with a code or requires a detailed answer, she twirls her pencil in elaborate patterns and seemingly impossible ways. Cathy's eyes drift when she does this, but only for a few seconds, and she looks at the pencil, not at her friend's paper.
"Time's up." Anko's voice breaks the tense silence that sits in the room. "Hand in your papers."