A/N: As Aforementioned, Reviews are food to me, yummy.
XxCupcakeAssassinxX: You're just great. And you'll just have to wait and see if our special friend Lion comes back.
.Master: Yeah, she did, doesn't that suck? The sneaking in part was my favorite too.
Just in case you alerters and followers are feeling unloved, I love you too, I just wish you would review me my peeps! Then your name would end up in the story and you'd feel all special 'cause you reviewed and then you would do it again and then a continual circle of happiness would ensue that wouldn't ever stop. Doesn't that just sound magnificent? Anyways…
It just occurred to me that I should put a disclaimer in here, because it's quite obvious that I don't own Naruto so…
Disclaimer: Hey, guess what? I don't own Naruto.
Whoo, glad that's over.
Onwards!
Differences
In an alternate universe, Miyako would've taken her "defeat" graciously and simply fallen into the foggy terrain without protest.
Unfortunately for Uchiha and the rest of those cheering fangirls, she had some Uchiha ass to kick and an anti-social master to care for.
She easily flipped her body once she was in the densest part of the fog, summoning her magic to levitate her close to the pillar's curved side and rapidly up out of the fog, though she was still out of sight of the rest of her soon to be classmates.
She silently thanked Gaara even though he had no idea he was helping her, being so close to him made using her magic much easier, though she was still at a mere tiny percent of her power due to the unfortunate circumstances, but who wants to dwell upon those?
She was just debating on how she should go about defeating the Uchiha, quickly, which would be the preferable method in her state, or torturously slow until they both reached their limits, which would not be preferable, although it would make her feel very good.
She couldn't decide until she heard his arrogant laughter and biting words:
"What a waste of effort, why would you give me such a weak opponent Gai-sensei?" He seemed to chastise egotistically; making Miyako's decision all the more easy.
She decided on a dramatic entrance, as she wanted to observe the reactions of her peers and delight in their shocked expressions. So she slowed her ascent, fanning out her arms until she reached a gentle float, she then unraveled her scarf from her face and breathed a purple mist from her mouth the made it glow the same ethereal purple as the manifested aura from her levitation and give it life.
As the students rose into view, she put her hands on her hips in a power stance, already feeling a grin form uninhibited on her face as their mouths dropped one by one.
"You know," she drawled, making Sasuke spin around in a very un-ninja like fashion.
"For an Uchiha you run your mouth a lot."
G /M
"I don't know Temari; your Suna theory is looking less and less likely right about now." Kankuro mumbled, staring in acute shock at the levitating girl.
"Why is that?" She inquired with a far-off look.
"I don't know anyone in Suna that can fly." Kankuro deadpanned, tearing his gaze away from the girl to look poignantly at his sister.
"Well now you do." Temari shot back briskly, her attention being taken by the match again.
G /M
"How-"Sasuke groused to himself.
"I'm getting real tired of that voice of yours."
To prove her annoyance she enveloped her hand in a purple light and then shot it at him.
All the Uchiha could do was dodge the explosive force; barely, gaping in shock at her newfound strength.
"C'mon Uchiha, are you going to make this fun for me or am I going to have to just turn you into Swiss cheese?" She mocked before shooting a flurry of her purple light blasts in his direction.
She had to hand it to him, he lived up to his Uchiha name, he dodged so neatly and skillfully that it almost looked like a graceful dance.
She snorted at her own thoughts, pausing in her blasting to survey the damage.
Half the field was busted up, the pillars were now approximately the same height, with either jagged, slanted edges, creaky, unstable holes, or both.
In her pause to appreciate her handiwork, Sasuke took the advantage.
"Katon: Grand Fireball." Was the only warning she got before a, well, grand fireball came hurtling towards her.
She of course had options to counteract the fireball.
A: Dodge. Well that was easiest, but it also wasn't very dramatic or show-offy, which is what she was going for right now.
B: Use a water technique. Hmmm, maybe.
C: Use a bigger fire technique that made Sasuke's look like child's play. Now we're getting somewhere.
D: Stand there, absorb the fire and use his own technique against him. DING DING, we have a winner.
All her thinking didn't really give her time to dodge anyway, so she simply floated, looking boredly at what most people would consider oncoming death.
G /M
"Kankuro." Temari called, without looking away from the scene.
"Yeah." He answered, looking similar to his sister.
"If she's not from Suna, I'm going to be pissed."
"Same."
G /M
The stadium gasped as Miyako started to…inhale the fireball?
Even Sasuke couldn't properly school his expression of shock as his attack was eaten before his very eyes.
They remained in shock until the last tendril disappeared inside her body, but Sasuke was thrown out of his awe at the loud burp she emitted, a long smoke trail breaking free from her lips.
She grinned nervously, "ehem, excuse me?"
Sasuke leapt at her, kunais in both hands, intent on bringing her down to his level of the playing field, for he could do hardly any damage if she continued to float as she did.
Miyako saw this and immediately inhaled a large breath of oxygen, reigniting the quelling flames inside her stomach, and shot them out in a continuous burst of flame at the fast approaching Uchiha.
Forced to dodge, he was sent careening off his chosen path, and even as he landed shakily on one of the many broken pillars, she continued to blast him with his own fire.
He hopped from pillar to pillar as he played mouse to her cat, a game he was not enjoying mind you, his mind whirring with strategies and observations and just plain aggravations.
'How?' Was the star thought in his head at the moment, for he was so stunned that that was the only word he could pin to his emotions, 'how?'
Eventually the stream stopped and Sasuke looked up curiously to the still floating figure of Miyako, taking care to be cautionate in case of a trap.
He saw that she was thinking again, he could only tell because her face got this far-away look and her eyebrows twitched, which meant that her thoughts were plagued with trouble or worries which he had gathered from the first half of their fight; the first half of their fight when she was losing.
He took his chance as he grabbed a handful of shuriken from his back pocket, flinging them at the preoccupied floating menace, intent on knocking her out of the sky.
It seemed it would work, and for the tiniest second he let a victorious grin stretch over his face, the crowd's intense gazes only fueling his fire as they followed the path of the shuriken with bated breath.
No such luck.
Not only did Miyako not get hit with shuriken, she completely incinerated them.
Sasuke looked in awe as a purple fire clone manifested from out of her body, grinning widely at the shocked Uchiha as the original stared intensely down at him with bright, glowing purple eyes.
Damn, could nothing stop this girl? What had happened to the timid girl who had almost fallen to her death ten minutes ago? Where was she? Sasuke wished she would come back so he could get this battle over with.
Suddenly the clone shot itself at him, looking much like a large flamethrower. He jumped back in evasion, but found that he apparently wasn't her target at all.
The clone descended down into the foggy pits, confusing Sasuke more than he thought was possible, but he used his opportunity to think up another strategy, there had to be some way to get her out of the sky, maybe he should taunt her? That seemed to piss her off last time.
"Hey!" He uncharacteristically yelled.
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him, as she was also just as observant.
"What do you want Uchiha, a truce?" She mocked.
"I can't ask for a truce without a real fight, Maki." He sneered back.
"Are you mad because I'm kicking your ass?" She guessed, smarmily.
"Please, I'm waiting for you to get down here so the real battle can begin." He threw in a smirk just to get her blood steaming.
He received a blank look for his efforts, which was just his luck that he couldn't read her blank looks, so he had no idea the effect his words had on her.
"Nice try." Then suddenly the fog enveloped around them, plunging Sasuke into total white.
"Dammit." He cursed, figuring that the fire clone was only conjured to make the fog rise to their level.
He jumped onto his previous pillar to see if he could find an edge to the fog, but a loud crash and the sudden falling sensation alerted him to one fact: The clone was knocking down the pillars.
He jumped to another only to have a sense of déjà vu, which clearly told him that either the real one or the clone could somehow see or sense him.
He closed his eyes as he continued to play his hopping game, trying to sense Miyako through the fog while at the same time trying to avoid falling.
He sensed her almost immediately, even though she was a force to be reckoned with, she couldn't hide that blaring chakra signature of hers, even though she was currently trying to.
He hopped onto the last pillar that was currently standing, crouching down to its face and preparing his legs for a powerful spring that would take him to Miyako, even going so far to charge his legs with chakra to make it that much easier.
This battle would end with this finally strike, he decided as he felt the pillar shake with the clone's force of attempting to knock it over.
He readied his kunai and sprang.
G /M
Miyako was hanging off the wall nearest to the audience, after all it was still a free show, her front facing the fog and patiently awaiting Sasuke's arrival.
She figured that she and Sasuke had much the same idea, to finish the other off, quickly. He probably wanted to because he was tired of looking like a buffoon in front of his classmates, but she had more pressing reasons.
As aforementioned nearly a thousand times before now, Gaara did not believe in her, and as such she could not fully access her magic, yatta yatta, life sucks.
One of those affects was happening right now.
She fought to keep her thoughts straight and her head from spinning, exhaustion from using so much magic on the Uchiha without a viable source of belief to draw from taking its toll on her.
She faintly heard her clone knocking down the pillars and there resounding booms as background noise to the symphony of thoughts buzzing in her pounding head.
Most had to do with Gaara as a master, some had to do with Gaara platonically, more had to do with plans to even have a platonic relationship with Gaara, and a lot more than she expected had to do with Gaara not-so-platonically.
God she hated puberty.
It was just when she started thinking of other things that had less to do with Gaara and more to do with defeating the Uchiha, although still with Gaara in mind, that the Uchiha actually decided to come out of hiding.
He was soaring at her fast, a single kunai in hand and ready to strike with not lethal, but not gently intent.
Her mind was so bleary that she barely managed to overpower the Uchiha, slapping the kunai forcefully from his hand after a bit of struggle.
She had both his wrists in one grasp, her other hand still using chakra to pin her to the wall, when Sasuke started to attempt to kick away from her, she transferred the chakra to her feet and slapped a hand over the Uchiha's face.
With the pitiful amount of magic she had left, she forced the Uchiha into a sleep state, and waited until he went limp in her grasp before unceremoniously dropping him.
The crowd, who had been oddly silent, gasped at the action, causing Miyako to roll her eyes at the uniformity of it all.
To appease them she fell after Uchiha, her living scarf finally exhibiting its usefulness as it wound around the two of them and gently lowered them to the ground.
She yawned as the scarf wound itself back around her neck and lower face after setting the sleeping Uchiha on a gurney.
She was just thinking of joining him on said gurney, when Gai-sensei appeared before her, ruining all chances of sleep.
"EXCELLENT MAKI-SAN, THE PANEL WILL BE MOST PLEASED WITH YOUR BATTLE I'M SURE!" He gestured for the medics to take the Uchiha.
"WE WILL SURELY SEE YOU SOON!" He enthused, shaking Miyako's hand vigorously and nodding to someone else behind her.
She turned sleepily to see Lion, who gestured for her to follow him, and so she did.
G /M
As soon as Miyako left the silent room with Lion whispers, shouts and general din erupted.
Gaara did none of that.
It wasn't that he was too stunned, or shocked, or generally at awe of Miyako's strength or abilities that had him so quiet, it was actually the exact opposite.
He wasn't impressed.
Sure she beat the Uchiha in a seemingly effortless fifteen minutes, even after projecting herself as a weakling, so what? It didn't change his opinion of her, but it did change his opinion of the Uchiha.
It would be even more satisfying to destroy the Uchiha now, after all he deserved it with his humiliating and crushing defeat at the hands of a girl that Gaara could decimate with a mere look.
Most would think it would be the exact opposite, but killing was in Gaara's blood, and once he had chosen his target he would destroy them. Yes, he would prefer they give him a challenge, but he did love the struggle they made to cling to life just as much.
If the Uchiha did that and managed to provide a challenge, Gaara was sure he would be in tip top shape for his next challenge.
As for the girl she wasn't a threat, he was surprised that she survived that fall, and could easily replicate Uchiha's techniques, but he was sure enough in himself and sure enough in her abilities that he could easily convince himself of her weakness.
But it would be interesting to instill in her the fear that everyone on this country, on this earth, should have of him.
That was his challenge for her, fear.
G /M
So, I expect seven reviews for my next update please. If I get only get five though and some new follows and alerters then I'll update, but begrudgingly. So make me happy my friends! Oh, and if you guys give me more than the quantity above, I'll update early, Thursday at the latest. Okay? Good, good. Here's some incentive, a sneak peek!
She was nervous, terribly nervous. She knew that she shouldn't of been nervous because, hell, it was only Gaara, right? Sure he was emitting cold and violent vibes the last time she had saw him, but that didn't guarantee that he had totally changed, right?
She fidgeted with the plaid skirt of the Academy's uniform so she wouldn't wring her hands, and she was biting the inside of her cheek so she wouldn't chew her lip until it was bloody mess.
'Oh god, what if I can't do this? What was I thinking trying to come here and rekindle a dead relationship with my master of all things? It's not like I didn't already see this coming the moment he let me out of the lamp, so why am I giving extra effort to someone who clearly doesn't want anything to do with me, and…and-'
He thoughts were cut off when she ran into something solid, and she stumbled back only to discover it was Lion, her personal escort and keeper around the campus.
They were in front of a cherry stained wooden door with golden script written in the rain glass that read: Japanese Literature, Hatake Kakashi.
Lion was looking intently at her through the mask, and somehow she could interpret that to mean: "Calm down, you have nothing to fear."
And she did, but only a little.
Satisfied, Lion opened the door and gestured her inside, waving once before closing the door and disappearing from her radar.
Instantly noticed a few things.
The room had gone silent, that was the second time she had caused that to happen, but not because they were curious, she could tell, but because they were sizing her up.
She saw Sasuke glower at her, his eyes promising a rematch in the near future, a cocky grin from one male with…a dog tucked in his jacket, and intent stares from everyone else, all except…Gaara.
His eyes were blank, devoid of emotion, to all except her.
And suddenly she remembered why she came back for him.
G /M
K, bye!