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Gaara paced around the dressing room that had been reserved for Sakura, Naruto, and he since they were representing the Leaf gym. His frustration was mingling with the annoying presence of his concern for the girl, the fact that her felt so much concern for her frustrating him even more. The blonde on the bench to his left, his right when he turned around to pace the room for what felt like the hundredth time, was conflicted on whether to try and calm Gaara down or stay out of his war path. Eventually, after watching Gaara torture himself enough with his thoughts, he decided to intervene.
"Gaara, come on. She'll be here. She would never miss a chance to fight." Naruto tried to reason with his friend, but let out a feminine squeak when the furious fighter turned his heated glare on him.
"That's exactly what conc-" He cut himself off from expressing his worry for the girl by quickly saying, "annoys me. What if her father began an argument about her fighting and she said something stupid back? For all we know she is fucking dead because of her stupidity!" Gaara snarled, returning to his pacing immediately after finishing speaking.
At first Naruto's expression was frightened, Gaara was extremely terrifying when he wanted to be, but then it transformed to one of fury with a glare that could rival the red head's own. "You listen here jackass! She may be loud, push her opinions even when she's wrong, and never listen to what people tell her, but you have no right to talk about things between her and her father. All you know is what I told you, an hour or so of talking does not give you insight on the years of hell she goes home to!" Gaara was taken aback and Naruto's fury, but jumped into the argument, pleased to have a vent for his anger.
"I know enough about her! So what her father hits the little bitch!" He immediately regretted using the same wording as Sakura's father, but refused to back down and admit he was wrong. "Maybe she deserves it!"
He saw Naruto's fist come at him, but felt no reason to block it. It smashed into his left cheek with a sickening sound. Because he knew he still couldn't back down, he fought back. He threw a kick at Naruto, which was block, but in Naruto's distraction he lunged towards the blonde and tackled him to the ground. They wrestled on the ground for several moments, ducking punches from each other, when a flash of pink in their vision caused them both to freeze. Gaara raised his gaze to look up and spotted Sakura in the doorway with her mouth put in a thin line, bruises lining her body and visible on the skin her Seether t-shirt and black sweatpants didn't cover.
Gaara slowly climbed to his feet, letting Naruto up and trying to figure out how much she had heard. Naruto, being the better at realizing when he was wrong or had gone too far, moved towards Sakura with his hands outstretched to hug her. "Saku, Saku plea-" As soon he was within a couple inches of her she flinched and a hurt expression spread across his face. "Saku, he didn't mean it." He again tried to hug her when Tsunade, seeming to appear from nowhere, stepped in-between the two.
"Sakura needs to get dressed; I suggest you boys get the hell out." The busty blonde snarled through clenched teeth, a bad sign for both boys. Naruto walked past Sakura with a quiet 'Sorry' and Gaara soon followed, refusing to even look at her, with Tsunade following on Gaara's heels. Sakura walked inside the room and slammed the door behind her, leaving the two boys out in the hallway with the scary medic.
Tsunade stared at the boys for a few moments, a glare settled across her features, before she let out a sigh and brought a hand up to rub her temples in an attempt to fight off her headache. "You boys will be the end of me." She grumbled, her age showing through her young appearance as her worry lines became visible.
Naruto was the first to speak up and asked, "How much did Sakura hear?"
Tsunade looked up at Naruto for a moment before murmuring, "Enough to know Mr. Moody thinks she's a bitch and deserves the shit she gets at home." The blonde woman looked utterly exhausted which only made Naruto feel worse. "You know she's angrier at herself for trusting a bastard like him," she reminded Naruto as she jerked her thumb in Gaara's direction, "Than she is actually angry at him. She won't go to see a shrink for that damn guilt issue she has." She then turned on Gaara, vainly trying to look angry. "You better have one amazing damn apology or you'll be out of an apprentice, she'll be out of a mentor, she'll get the shit beat out of her in the ring, and her dad will beat the shit out of her for not being able to continue official fighting since that brings in money." Tsunade laid out everything that was resting on his shoulders over this one apology, hoping that would motivate the asshole.
Gaara watched her in several more moments before turning and opening the door their room, closing it behind him after walking in. Naruto heard a scream of protest from Sakura and could only hope things would turn out alright.
Gaara POV
Damn girl was getting under my skin with the way everyone protected her like she was fucking glass. Her punches did not feel like they were thrown by fine china, thus I didn't understand their need to create a damn protective barrier around her. I went into the changing room, growing even angrier that inside something in me agreed with the old hag that I should apologize to Sakura. As soon I was inside I looked around and spotted Sakura sitting on one of the benches with her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands.
"Is that any way to warm up for a fight? You should be over at the punching bag." She snapped out of her daze and looked up at me when I said that. She seemed to instantly realize how weak she looked because she jumped to her feet and managed a pitiful glare.
"Get the fuck out of here. I don't want to see you right now." Her voice was low and threatening, but I didn't pay any attention to that. All my attention was on studying her. In her short and sports bra I got a better look at how badly bruised she was and I didn't like it. Her right ankle was swollen, probably twisted, her knees were bruised, and the right side of her ribs were one huge blob of purple, black and blue. While the only damage on her face and arms remained a few bruises here and there, they didn't help my building anger towards her father.
"Those ribs are probably broken, one punch there and you'll be down." As I spoke I sounded disgusted that she was making such a sad attempt at fighting, managing not to give away my concern.
She studied me with an incredulous expression for several moments before dipping her head down so her hair masked everything except for the grin that spread across her face. With a sharp laugh she whispered, "I'm not going to back down. I need to prove to people I'm not a useless bitch." With that she walked past me, slamming her shoulder into mine as she went by. Only after I heard the door close behind her did me let my anger take control and I slammed my fist into the locker on my right.
Normal POV
Sakura entered the ring, the screams from all around her sending her mind into overdrive as she planned attacks, studied her opponent, and bounced on the balls of her feet. Behind her stood Tsunade, whispering encouragement to the pink haired fighter. In the crowd sat a man with blood colored hair and a loud blonde beside him. The both anxiously awaited the beginning of the fight, the blonde yelling cheers for the fighter known as Bloody Thorn who was fighting against a red headed girl that was called Flamethrower because of her tendencies to bring lighters into fights and use them to breathe fire at her opponents.
Gaara studied Sakura's opponent with growing worry. The other girl had at least twenty pounds on Sakura along with a year's more experience. The Sound's gym would be hearing from him about putting experienced fighter up against a new fighter. He definitely did not see Sakura as weak, after all she was his apprentice, but he was not happy about this arrangement. When the shrill bell signaling the beginning of the fight went off Gaara tensed, all of his muscles flexing beneath his clothing as he subconsciously prepared himself to run up and stop the fight at any moment.
Sakura POV
I stepped forward as soon the bell went off, rushing the red head. With all my anger at another red head at the moment fueling my movement it was easy to pretend she was Gaara and I was about to beat the shit out him. I started off with a few teasing punches, testing her fighting style. She lazily blocked my taunts, throwing in a few punches of her own. I quickly grew tired of that and upped the speed of the fight, jumping back and circling around her until I threw a kick at her left side. She twisted out of the way and I lost my balance, falling forwards slightly which was enough for her to throw a punch that hit me square in the nose with a loud crack. She had definitely broken it. If the crack wasn't enough proof of that then stream of blood that spilled from it after the punch was.
I stepped back, pointlessly wiping the blood off my face as more continued to fall from nose, assessing her actions. She was the type to wait for her attacks until her opponent messed up, so I needed a quick take down to beat her. I also noticed she was keeping her mouth closed and that her cheeks were slightly puffed out, only breathing through her nose. Tucking that fact I away I fought with renewed fury , my punches now backed with the confidence that I knew how to deal with her.
She landed a punch on my right eye almost right after I moved at her and my ankle was getting annoyingly more swollen and painful from all the movement. I was contemplating my next move, trying to figure out what required little pressure on my ankle, when I saw her suddenly move and flash of silver. I then focused all my attention on her in time to see her open a lighter and flick on the flame. It was too late when I realized what was going on. She spewed her mouthful of chemicals into the flame and it exploded at me. I put up my hands in defense and felt the heat envelope them and lick at my arms. I let out a scream and fell back against the mat, holding my burned hands against my chest. With fury boiling through me I kicked outwards and took her legs out from under her. She fell down against the mat and I hissed, "I won't have you at a higher level than me. I kicked out my legs again and smashed her in the face with my left leg, sparing my hurt ankle, and watched in satisfaction as she fell back against the mat with a thud, unconscious.
That was when the overwhelming pain hit me and I screamed again, pulling my hands even closer. I felt muscular arms pick me up and saw flash of red, but the pain was distorting my vision and things grew more distorted so I closed my eyes. As the pain worsened I heard someone yelling, "You're not a useless bitch, so you better not fucking die!"
A/N: Good? Completely utterly terrible? Thanks for reading!