Akatsuki's Blood Blossom

Chapter 8

I know! It's been forever! Please forgive me! And thank you to all of you who favored and followed and reviewed! Means a lot! Any way on with the story!

P.S. the Poll is still up!

Re-cap

After they had gotten their food and ate as everyone was called to the arena, guess the next part of the exams were about to begin.

End re-cap

Preliminary Rounds

Sakura's P.O.V.

I was talking with my teammates as the three of us walked into the arena. I took the chance to look at all to the teams that had passed, apparently all three rookie teams had passed, team Guy, the Sound team, another Leaf team but that team had Kabuto in it… probably a secret Sound team pretending to be a Konoha ninja, and finally, my team. So in total…seven teams, twenty-one participants… great! There is most likely going to be ninja who has to fight two people unless one person forfeits or maybe a whole team? I came back to the real world when I heard the proctor for the third exam, Hayate, start talking.

"Because there are still too many participants the Hokage decided to have a preliminary round to get rid of all the weaklings. If there are any people who do not wish to do the preliminary round you may leave now."

"Why would anyone not want to do the preliminary round?"

"Because, the Preliminary rounds will begin immediately."

"What! But that's not fair, some of us only got here a few hours ago and are completely exhausted and chakra depleted!"

"That's why you have the option to leave now, so, does anyone wish to leave?" when no one raised their hand or said anything he kept talking. "Now then, all of your names have been entered in the system above; when your name is shown it means it's your turn to fight. If not, then please move up to the stands and wait till your name is shown. Now then, first up is Sasuke Uchiha VS Yoroi Akado. The rest of you please go to the stands."

"Yoroi? That's one of Kabuto's teammates; let's see how this one turns out…" I mumbled under my breath and head to the stands along with my teammates.

(I'm not gonna explain everything, just the important parts, like a brief summary if you will…)

Sasuke Uchiha VS Yoroi Akado; Winner; Sasuke Uchiha.

I smirked. "That was a pretty close call if I do say so myself, that curse mark almost lost him the match, not to mention Yoroi's ability to suck out chakra. But that finishing blow, the Lions Barrage, was pretty impressive if I do say so myself. After the match Sasuke was taken away by his sensei Kakashi Hatake… most likely to seal the curse mark.

Next match! Zaku Abumi VS Shino Aburame; Winner; Shino Aburame.

My eyes widen slightly, Zaku, the sound ninja who was able to use the power of sound waves to his advantage had lost against Shino. When Shino had realized that there were tubes in the palm of his hands that had actually made the sound waves travel he used his bugs that resided in his own body to block the tubes, and when Zaku tried to use them again the chakra in his arms kept building up making them explode and allowing Shino to win. His fight was also pretty impressive.

The third match was Kabuto's last teammate, Misumi Tsurugi VS Kankuro Subaku; winner; Kankuro Subaku.

Misumi managed to capture Kankuro and threatened to snap his neck only to find out that Kankuro was only puppet the entire time while the real Kankuro was disguised as the puppet and controlling the puppet. His puppet Crow, had captured Misumi and crushed his bones, announcing Kankuro the winner… 'No surprise there.' I thought smirking.

The fourth match wasn't all that great to me, meaningful and emotional yes… but still rather stupid… Ino Yamanaka VS Karin Uzumaki; winner; none.

The Yamanaka showed strength yes but I honestly expected more out of the Uzumaki girl, although she did fight back. As they were fighting Ino had cut her hair and threw it to the ground. I was a bit confused at first but I soon realized that she used it as a medium for chakra. With both her and Karin stepping on it she surged her chakra threw it to hold Karin in place as she activated her family jutsu and switched minds. But apparently with will alone, Karin shoved her back out of her mind. The both raced to each other and had hit one another at the same time with the same force, rendering them both unconscious. I just don't get it though… they both have the potential to become powerful Kunoichi's… its just that they spend too much time on their looks… perhaps I should talk to them after the exams? Maybe they both could come back with me to Ame to train… fewer distractions that way too… maybe all the girls can?

Next match, Tenten VS Temari Subaku; Winner; Temari.

That didn't really surprise me though. It was over rather quickly. Tenten and summoned dozens of weapons and shot them all out at Temari but she countered with Wind Release, which ended up with Tenten on her back on Temari's fan. I felt bad for the poor weapons mistress… her back will definitely be sore when she wakes up.

The sixth match, Shikamaru Nara VS Kin Tsuchi of Sound; winner Shikamaru.

Shikamaru was at a disadvantage seeing as how Kin had seen his abilities in the forest of death. Kin was dodging left and right while throwing senbon at Shikamaru. Shikamaru had caught Kin with his shadows and they were both now moving in sync. They both flung a kunai at each other, when it came time for them to duck and dodge each others attack Kin who had ended up moving back ended up bending back and banging her head against the wall rendering her unconscious, which, not so surprisingly, was Shikamaru's true battle strategy all along. He really is a genius.

The seventh match was probably the funniest. Naruto Namikaze VS Kiba Inuzuka; Winner; Naruto Namikaze.

In the beginning it seemed like Kiba would win, especially when Kiba's dog Akamaru joined the fight looking like an exact replica of Kiba, not five minutes later Naruto had the ingenious idea of transforming into Kiba too, now there were three of them 'Great, like one wasn't enough…' I thought. Kiba had accidentally attacked Akamaru thinking it was Naruto making Kiba furious. Kiba then circled around Naruto to attack from behind until Naruto accidentally farted in Kiba's face. And with Kiba's keen sense of smell it momentarily stunned Kiba. Naruto, taking the opportunity and created shadow clones and defeated Kiba. But when Naruto farted it made pretty much everyone laugh or look disgusted… me? I was rolling on the floor almost peeing my pants along with Kyo while Jirou just shook his head in disgust, feeling bad to the dog nin. I looked up to the area which the Hokage was in to see Naruto's dad shake his head but with a smile on his face.

The eighth match was between the two Hyuuga's, it really pissed me off. Hinata Hyuuga VS Neji Hyuuga; winner; Neji Hyuuga.

A lot of people had urged the girl to give up but it seemed like she didn't want to go down without a fight. At first Neji was attacking her psychologically, using her own fears against her to make her think she had no chance of winning. But with Naruto's encouraging words Hinata fought to prove that she's just as brave as anyone else who was here. They both used the Clan technique; Gentle Fist and the Byakugan. While the seemed evenly matched Neji had managed to interrupt Hinata's chakra flow in her arms, disabling her ability to use the Gentle Fist. But despite her clear disadvantage she still tried to go on. Neji seeing her still fighting got into a whole brouhaha over their clan, I didn't bother to pay it much attention for my worry over Hinata over came every other one of my senses, but I did manage to catch part of his speech about destiny which made me scoff. The proctor stepped in along with Kakashi, Guy and Kurenai before Neji had delivered the killing blow.

After the match was over and Hinata was taken away Naruto had vowed to win against Neji in the third exam which made Neji scoff.

"You don't know what you're talking about; it was her destiny to lose against me, as it's your destiny to lose against me as well."

All this talk about him and destiny finally got to me and made me snap.

"What gave you the idea that this was all destinies decision when it seems as though you, yourself had changed your own destiny." I spoke with such malice in my voice I hardly recognized it myself, it also made everyone around me back up a few steps save for my teammates.

"What are you talking about girl?" he asked with a blank face though he was probably scared shitless inside.

"From what I've heard you're only a branch member of your clan. As in… you shouldn't have the abilities you have now which are only supposed to be for the main branch… did you not change your own destiny that way?" when I mentioned that he was only a branch member her glared at me but that glare soon morphed into a look of curiosity… had he changed his own destiny?

"Not only that but you had nearly killed your own clan's Heir… is that not punishable by death?" at this his face paled and he cast his eyes downward… 'So it is huh?'

After standing there for a few awkward moments the proctor called the next match. Rock Lee VS Gaara Subaku; winner; Gaara.

When they had first announced the match I knew something wasn't going to go right. At first nothing seemed to get passed Gaara's defense, that's when Lee decided to remove his leg weights. 'Like he wasn't fast enough before… he might actually be able to get through Gaara's defense… this is bad.' I guess I was right; Gaara was actually hit for the first time in his life. Lee had used his Front Lotus only to find out that Gaara was a sand clone all along. Lee then used something called the Five Inner Gates, making his strength multiply immensely for a period of time but also severely injuring him. He continued to beat Gaara until Gaara was thrown back; his sand gourd dispersed and was used to break his fall. Gaara's sand then captured Lee's left arm and leg. I knew what was going to happen next so I jumped down into the arena and tackled Gaara to the ground.

'Dammit! I knew this would be bad.' I thought as I saw the blood lust still in his eyes as he completely ignored me as I sat on his chest, his eyes still trained on Lee who was on the ground with the other sensei's surrounding him, Lee's left arm and leg both twisted at odd angles and his skin all red from opening the inner gates.

"This match is over! Gaara Subaku of Suna is the winner!" announced the proctor, but that still didn't stop Gaara as he reached his sand out to Lee.

'He's planning on killing him!'

"Gaara stop! The match is over! You've already won!" I yelled as everyone was now looking at us both.

"No, I still need his blood!" I cursed under my breath as everyone else started to back away in fear, I silently head Kyo, Jirou, Kankuro and Temari calling my name and warning me to be careful. I forcefully turned Gaara's head to face me, our eyes lock. "Panda please…" I pleaded, using his nickname which seemed to bring him back to reality. His eyes turned sad and shameful… full of embarrassment for loosing his cool like that. We both got up and he started to walk away.

"Gaara…" I whispered, he turned around and muttered, "I know, I'm sorry." Before he used his sand to disappear and re-appear between his siblings. Because it was so quiet I'm sure everybody heard everything but I paid it no mind as I went back to the stands between my two teammates. I silently watched as medics came and took Lee away, his sensei following behind. It was only moments before everyone had seemed to calm down as the proctor called next match. Chouji Akimich VS Dosu Kinuta; winner; Dosu.

At first Chouji didn't seem like he wanted to fight but his sensei had promised to buy him food if her did so without a second thought he jumped down into the arena, because Chouji had seen his moves before he knew of his sound-based abilities so he used Human Bullet Tank to plug his ears but Dosu has transmitted his sound through the water in Chouji's body, defeating him.

It didn't take me long to realize I was fighting next and whom I was against. A smirk had crossed over my face as I had already jumped down to the arena, Kabuto following not two seconds later, a whole ten seconds before our names had appeared on the listing above.

Sakura Akatsuki VS Kabuto Yakushi, winner;…


Haha! Evil I know! sorry if Gaara's OOC here but its important for later on! untill then!

R&R

Ja ne!