Now, Sasuke's fight was the only one left. There is a difference between fashionably late, and annoyingly late. Sasuke was already easily into annoyingly late, and still hadn't turned up yet.
Gaara was already in the field, and was waiting for Sasuke to show. He was showing uncharacteristic emotion. Impatience. He was clearly annoyed with Sasuke getting in his way, without being there for him to crush and toss aside. Being in his way by not being there at all was something Gaara had not been expecting to deal with.
A swirl of leaves came, and Sasuke and Kakashi stood in the arena.
"Has Sasuke lost yet?" Kakashi asked.
"Be glad you came when you did, or he would have been forfeited." Came the proctor's response.
"Good." Kakashi eye-smiled. "Well, Sasuke, you're up." Kakashi leaped out of the arena.
"You should have waited 5 more minutes. Then I wouldn't have to wait to fight Naruto." Gaara glared at him.
This ticked Sasuke off. He would prefer to battle Naruto over him? Absurd. "How dare you even suggest Naruto's better than me!" Sasuke charged at Gaara.
"Begin, I guess." The proctor said seconds before they attacked each other.
"You aren't even worth the dirt on his boots. At least Naruto can use that dirt, whereas you couldn't." Gaara said past his sand wall. Sasuke hadn't seen the battle between Naruto and Neji, so Sasuke didn't have a clue what he was talking about.
Sasuke merely grunted and sent fist after fist in Gaara's direction. It was kind of pointless though.
"Fire ball jutsu!" Sasuke shouted, but the flames weren't hot enough to do anything.
"This is getting boring...Sasuke...!" Gaara glared at him, then began to perform an impenetrable sand shield. Sasuke tried to hit Gaara before it closed, but he was too slow, and was punished with several scratches for his failure.
"Well, whatever you're doing in there, it suits me just fine. Because this will take awhile too." Sasuke jumped onto the wall, and began a long and complex jutsu.
Up on the wall, Gaara walked up to his siblings.
"Gaara? Aren't you supposed to be down there?" Kankuro asked.
"Sasuke isn't worth the effort. A clone is enough for him, you'll see." Gaara responded.
"What happens if they catch you?" Temari asked.
"They don't have any reason to suspect me, so they won't bother to look." Gaara was gazing at the battle.
Sasuke was still signing. He had his eyes closed.
"What's your clone doing, anyway?" Kankuro was curious.
"Waiting patiently for the perfect moment. It'll come, soon enough." Gaara had his eyes locked on Sasuke. The timing had to be perfect.
"Chidori!" Sasuke yelled. He ran down the wall, picking up speed, and plunged his hand into the sand sphere. It made a nice hole of glass in the sand.
Then Gaara put his own plan into motion.
The sphere began to rotate, and ran Sasuke over. The sand grabbed his arm, so he was stuck to the outside of the ball. He was thrown against the ground, rolled over by the solid sphere, then peeled off the ground again so the cycle could continue.
If the fangirls could have taken some of the ground away, they would have imprints of a Sasuke shape in the earth, well preserved of course.
Thump! That was the fourteenth time Sasuke was hurled against the ground, and his skeletal structure barely resembled a human anymore. After rolling over him and peeling him off the ground again, he was thrown into the crowd.
"Uh, the winner is Gaara!" The proctor shouted out. The match was, unexpected. Sasuke was thrown about like a ragdoll. The unassuming were coming out on top in this tournament.
Gaara had the sand ball come past where he was standing, and melted into it. He rolled back down into the arena, and the sand slowly dissipated, leaving Gaara standing in the arena with the gourd on his back.
"Ok, now I have an announcement to make..." The proctor said slowly.