Hey everyone! Sorry for the late update I've been super busy with school work and whenever I got a break – I was sleeping. Good news is I got 100% on my math test I had been spazzing out about and I got 110% on an assignment for my drawing class (I drew the Naruto hand signs Rat and bird with a rat and bird going to attack each other, looks pretty cool if I do say so myself and I usually do nothing but criticize my works. I'll upload it to my deviantart account once I actually get it back from my teacher which could be a very very long time.)
Time to respond to some Reveiws! YEAAHAHAHAAHAHAHH
Sakuramcgarden says: I can tell you one thing this is better than the original naruto seris I can tell you that so I hope you update soon
I Have to say I was super flattered when I read that. Although I personally don't think I could really compare to the original story it warms my heart to think you do. Thank you so much!
lalamnmgirl says: this came out perfectly if she was any less experienced then it would have made a turn for the worst, also one question, did sakura ever cut her hair?
Thank you very much for that! And I agree, I think had it been different it wouldn't have worked out the way it did, although there are still a few holes from last chapter and I'm not good at writing fight scenes I am glad you enjoyed it and took the time ot leave such a wonderful review! And to answer your question, no up to this point her hair has not been cut, I'm still debating whether I want her to cut it or not. In the anime it was more of a step for her to become stronger, it had symbolic meaning to it while in my story such a situation has yet to present itself for an actually meaningful reason for her to cut her hair to occur. I might throw something in the next chapter during her fight with Neji, or perhaps wait until a latter chapter if I can't squeeze it in there. Do you want her hair cut?
Angela1nwonderland says: My first ever review goes to you ;3 please keep up the good work
I love your work its so interesting and fun
I'd say just don't make it boring by writing it out so its just like the anime/manga because we already know what going to happen.
But other then that I'm in love with it ... One of my "friends" kinda got angry at me because I posted on my stautus so many times, things I liked about your fanfiction omg I was just like 'I don't give a shit xD'.
Again keep up the good work ;3
I feel extremely honored to have been your first review thank you so much for taking the time to write this and for having me be your first review! (Felt so giddy I began to jump around the room for about five minutes when reading that.) And I know what you mean, and this chapter does have some anime stuff in it but I'm trying to cut back on hanging so closing to the original and branching off into my story – like how it started out before the time skip. I'm happy to say that after this chapter (and a teeny bit of the battles in the next chapter) I shall no longer rewrite the things you've seen/read. :D Thank you again for this amazing comment I feel, again, extremely honored that you find this story to be so good.
I'll do my best.
Gintawolf says: Hey! This is an awesome story! I'm really liking the characterizations. I can't wait for the next chapter! (BTW when will Gaara acknowledge Sakura as his old friend? Will they start their friendship again by the end of the Chunin Exam Arc? I'm excited to find out!)
Thank you very much! I hope I'm sticking to my characterizations of them well enough. Gaara is a bit difficult for me because I find it hard to portray his conflicting emotions without making someone say "Wth he thought this and now he thinks this? This is to confusing I'm done reading" I hope I've done well enough at it but I suppose that's up to you readers to decide. And hopefully you're question is answered in this chapter although in his current state his idea of her as his friend is a dangerous border between 'I won't let anyone take you away' and 'if you hurt me emotionally by choosing someone else over me I'll kill you' in other words he's at this point kind of possessive. He's insecure about what she is going to do and doesn't want her to leave or be taken away so his emotions are on edge. Hopefully I didn't just give to much of this chapter away in that explanation.
Thanks and love to my other reviewers: PervertAnimeOtaku, Darkkami, moodymel, dragonfly91, MsWildfire97, heartlessyukiXD, hateme101, Mikume-chan, Nami Corso, Hopelessyhope, Dina Sana, southpearl, reviewer girl, guests', no names'
The ones not bolded are those without accounts.
Chapter 9: The Chunin Exam Arc: Part II
Gaara was just walking, there wasn't any real need to run right now, his brother and sister trailing behind him. They had yet to run into any people, and he could feel his inner demons thirst for blood growing stronger by the second. It had been such a long time since the blood feed his sand and it was getting impatient.
He stopped as a squirrel darted out of the bushes on his left, his siblings following suit. There was nothing really significant about it, but its blood might do to satisfy him for a little while. His cork popped open slightly, just enough for a little sand to trickle out and make its way to the small frightened creature. He was about to warp it into a coffin of sand when it all of a sudden started on fire.
"Paper bomb." Temari commented from behind him. "Looks like he was coming from the east, wonder if the person who set this up is still over there. They might have scroll" It sounded like she was talking to herself, but Gaara found himself thinking the same thing. It was only a bonus that if there WERE people over there he'd get the satisfaction he was beginning to crave right now. His sand turned away from the squirrel and went back into the large gourd, the cork sliding tightly back into its place.
"What do you think Gaara? Should we go check it out?" Kankuro asked checking for permission to head that way. Gaara glanced in the direction of his siblings, eyes narrowed as he saw the slight sweat that adorned their faces. Even if they had become masters of keeping their nervous facial expressions in check when he looked at them, they still gave off the small signs of fear. He turned his gaze back the way the squirrel came from, extending his chakra to check and see how many people were over there. He felt three in the general direction and three more a few miles off, it seemed two were passed out, one on each end, and the other two were fighting. It would suffice.
For his answer he simply turned his body to head east, leaping onto a tree limb. He stood there waiting for his siblings to follow, and after a few seconds he decided they thought it was needed that he speak. "Come on, you want to see if they have the scroll we need don't you?"
"Right." Temari was the one to respond leaping on to the tree limb with him and Kankuro was less then a beat behind her. When he saw his siblings were going to follow he took off through the trees, moving fast so that his prey wouldn't have a chance to get away. He kept his chakra extended so that he would know if they moved and it seemed that as he got close, the chakra signatures were becoming more and more familiar. One of the ones straight ahead was very small and rapidly depleting so he had trouble getting a pin on who it was. But another one of them -one a few miles away from the first – one that was starting to wake up – yes, that was Sasuke Uchiha. His eyes widened in excitement at the thought of the blood he could shed and a wicked grin spread out on his face. Oh that would certainly be fun. He also recognized that the signature of the blonde haired boy that had been on the same team as the Uchiha and Sakura was fighting on the same side as the half-conscious Uchiha.
His face returned back to normal, his eyes narrowing and his pace slowing as a realization dawned upon him.
"What's wrong Gaara?" Temari asked, slowing her pace to match his. Of course he didn't respond, he was to busy thinking.
If Sakura's two teammates were fighting an unknown enemy a ways off, that meant she had to be around there somewhere. His eyes widened again – this time in realization and a slight and unwanted panic. He sped up even faster then before, not caring when his siblings were getting left behind, both of them shouting after him all the way.
He sensed it now, he recognized the other signature, one that was weakening and almost vanishing entirely, it was like a dimmed light surrounded by darkness, but he recognized it none the less. It was Sakura. And it seemed like she was in trouble. Her stupid teammates left her to fight two enemies alone? He couldn't help the mental hiss that entered his mind. He couldn't' help the way he ran as fast as he ever thought he possibly could and he couldn't help the way his heart began to twist up more and more as Sakura's chakra began do dwindle into nearly nothing. He hated how just being able to sense her was bringing back so many unwanted emotions. He thought his heart would explode from it all as he crashed through the trees into another clearing, jumping to the ground, his sand snapping out of its case as it whipped out to smack the enemy ninja harshly to the right.
He heard a screech and a satisfying crack of bones as the woman's body was sent flying through one of the thick trees and out the other side, until finally crashing into the tree behind it as she fell unconscious, some of her blood pouring from her mouth or open cuts that the sand he had around her happily soaked up. However he was paying more attention to the wobbling Kunochi in front of him. And what was the first thing he did – yell at her of course.
"WHAT were you THINKING! Why don't you stop getting yourself nearly KILLED all the time so you can stop wasting MY time." He seethed, shoulders shaking in rage. He was so angry right now! He was angry that ninja almost killed Sakura he was angry that Sakura let herself almost be killed he was angry that the first thing he did when he found out it was her was dash over here to save her and he was angry that she made him feel again.
Glaring in her direction, seeing her body swaying like feather falling to the ground, he was beyond amazed that she was even still standing, in fact he thought it was his mind playing tricks on him. Her chakra was completely gone, there was nothing there anymore. She must just be a wobbling corpse deciding which direction to fall to – which meant he just screamed at a corpse. A panic embedded itself in his chest at the thought she wasn't alive anymore, in fact looking closer into her eye he realized they even looked dead.
No. His eyes narrowed as he ran closer to her, catching her body as it finally decided it would fall forward. At this proximity he could catch it, but it was only barely. There, in her right arm there was the tiniest flicker of chakra. It was so small, like a match that was burnt down to the end of the stick, but it was still there, and somehow it was keeping her alive. He sighed and all of the panic left him as he realized she would live.
He gently set her down so she was lying on the ground and kneeled by her, looking into her eyes, those dead looking and ghostly eyes. She turned them in his direction, and he was unaffected for the most part, but it was plaguing him at what could possibly have made her this way, made the normally energetic and vibrate girl look so … dead. The question made itself scarce as before his very eyes the light and life began to return to her own as she smiled a small smile up at him.
"Gaara... what are you doing here? I guess… I must be dead if I get to see you –" He barely heard anything coming from her trembling lips, in fact he was pretty sure that was the wind and that he was imagining those words because she was being so unbelievably quiet. And she was wasting energy talking. He glared down, angry she was risking her life to speak measly words, even though they did warm his heart – which just made him angrier.
"Stop wasting your energy on talking." He scolded her. She just smiled her gentle smile at him before her eyes closed and her lips parted slightly as she fell into unconsciousness.
I should just end this now. She's already caused me trouble and its hardly been that long. He glared down at her body, his fist clenching and beginning to shake as he stood up. Yes, that's what I'll do, that is my decision. I'm going to end this here and NOW! He raised his tense arm and opened his shaking fist, gathering his missing sand to swirl around the unconscious body of the pink haired girl before him. It wrapped around her in what might be described as a warm embrace – at least until the moment he decided to let it crush her very being,
He stared down at her memories flashing behind his eyes, memories of the only happy days he'd ever had.
They day they first met and she came over to play with him, giving him that bright smile and in turn letting a new light into his life, even if it was only for a short while.
Your name is Gaara. He reminded himself, closing his eyes as more memories began to flash by.
Those times he saved her life how she was so grateful to him, how she called his powers cool how she stood up for him against the eyes of the village children.
The demon that loves only itself. His eyes knit tighter together as the mantra repeated itself in his head doing nothing to slow the onslaught of memories.
Hugging her, her arms wrapped around him begging him to stop almost hurting people, her curled up next to him, laughing with her. Smiling at her. Cherishing her.
LOVE ONLY YOURSELF! His eyes shot open in anger sand growing tenser as he remembered some more memories. Those more unpleasant, of her being taken away, of Yashamaru calling him precious and then turning around and saying he hated him. She'll do the same thing he did! No one loves you, don't let that happen again! His face scrunched up as his fingers began to curl and he raised his hand a little higher into the air. But then why hasn't she done that yet?
He soon found out he couldn't bring himself to do it. His fist wouldn't close. His arm was just hovering there, with him just staring at her sand covered body, the only thing visible being her face. He gritted his teeth in anger. "UGGGGHHH!" He shouted tossing his hand to the side, the sand detaching from Sakura's body gently before crashing itself into a tree at the same time as he promptly punched the ground, creating a small crater. He just couldn't do it. He couldn't kill her.
And it pissed him off so much.
He just didn't want her to hurt him, to give her that power, he hated all of these emotions that were unraveled within him when she was around. He hated it. And at the same time he loved it. He loved that there was someone he felt he could trust – no matter how foolish the rest of him thought it may be. He loved that he was beginning to feel things again and he loved that it happened because of her. And it was all just so damn confusing!
He gazed in her direction, at her calm, sleeping face. So naïve about how she was just almost killed by his hand. Him – a person she seemed to trust so much for something that happened so many years ago. Gazing down at her, he couldn't help the way his eyes softened, and his body relaxed. He laughed to himself, not a happy laugh, but one of the laughs you give when your just so upset you can't do anything but laugh. I don't have much of a choice do I? I can't kill her because she hasn't done anything wrong yet. He kneeled down by her again and tucked one arm under her knees while the other went to support her head. I guess I just have to keep her close and make sure nothing bad happens to her again. He pressed her closer into his chest relishing in the feeling of having her in his arms again. Loving and hating just how right it all felt good to give into this desire instead of push it away, to give into his one weakness. Its up to her now, she decides in her actions whether she is with me or against me. If it's the latter, then she sealed her own death. (1)
He stood up and turned jumping back into the trees. Forgetting all about her teammates just a few miles away, not even noticing their presence drawing closer –not that he would have left her there anyway, that they deserved to have her in his opinion.
He just held her closer to him a little more as he got farther and farther away from the battle sight, ignoring the questioning glances of his siblings when he passed them and they turned around to follow him again.
He didn't even notice that his blood lust had vanished completely.
All seemed to be right with her in his arms.
Temari and Kankuro dashed after their brother. She had no idea what had gotten into him, one moment it was just a typical pace but then he slowed down only to take off ten times fast then either she or Kankuro could ever hope to be. Right when they were just a few leaps away from the clearing where the three had been battling, now all two chakra signatures destabilized and one just – gone, their little brother bust through the trees flying past them the other way.
Neither of the two failed to notice the extra body in Gaara's arms. Or that Gaara was actually touching a person. Or that that said person didn't have a Chakra signature.
Grunting as she used her feet to push off the next branch and turn around to follow her baby brother, she began to bombard him with questions "Gaara what's going on, who is that? Why doesn't she have a chakra signature, isn't she dead? Why are you carrying a dea-"She ceased her questions and swallowed hard when a black-rimmed glare was sent her way. She glanced over at her other brother who gave her the same look that was on her own face.
What the hell is going on!?
They didn't get any answers for a long time, it was just continuous running back the way they came until they finally landed in the same clearing they had found the squirrel in. Gaara landed first because he was in the lead and Temari and Kankuro were only a beat behind him. He glanced back at them evenly before he turned to the right and began to walk the way they were originally going before they took that small detour. Sighing, Temari began to follow not bothering to ask anything else for a while; she didn't want to know what would happen to her if she did. Instead Kankuro decided to ask after they were a short way into their journey.
"Hey Gaara are you ever gonna fill us in on exactly what you're doing carrying dead person? Or are you just gonna leave your team in the dark?" He asked, his question quite boldly stated considering they were talking to Gaara. But then again, Kankuro was just a bold person – or, as Temari would say, stupid. Gaara slowed to a stop and Temari's muscles tightened, anticipating a negative reaction. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her older brother stiffen a little too.
"She's not dead." Was the response they got. They relaxed but had puzzled looks on their faces.
"What?" Kankuro asked. "What do you mean? She has no Chakra signature." Gaara turned to face them fully at that statement eyes narrowing in annoyance.
"Are you really that stupid? If you bothered to look closer you could see she's breathing and if you expanded your chakra a little more you should be able to sense the slight signature from your distance." He scoffed at Kankuro. Kankuro tightened his jaw in annoyance and searched for her signature again, Temari doing the same. Sure enough it was there, even though it was slight and dim and difficult to sense even at their proximity. It was growing slightly because she was resting too. Looking closer, they could also observe the slight rise and fall of her chest. Sure enough, this girl was alive.
"So why are you taking her with us? Why not just leave her for dead or kill her yourself?" Temari asked. There was a slight pause as she thought about her own question. "Oh I get it, you're going to use her to lure her team and steal their scroll!"
"That's pretty clever Gaara. I'll carry her if you want so you don't have to waste energy." Kankuro added stepping forward to take the girl from him. Gaara backed away quicker then light and glared at his older brother.
"Don't. Touch. her."(2) He hissed out making both Temari and Kankuro flinch back. It was shocking enough Gaara was willingly touching another person, almost like a parallel universe but for him to be so … possessive of it was even more shocking.
"But Gaara –"
"Shut up." He gazed down at the girl in his arms as her unconscious body shifted a little closer to his own. Both siblings gawked at how peculiar this sight was, it was like he was holding something precious to him and like he'd do anything so it didn't get taken away. That as not the Gaara they knew. He looked up glaring at his siblings once more before turning his back to them again. "Come on, lets continue towards the tower, I'm sure we'll run into another team on the way."
Temari just stood there for a minute but when she saw Kankuro begin to move she followed him. She still didn't understand what was going on, or who that girl was although she did look familiar. It seemed that little pink haired girl had a huge impact on her little brother and she had no idea why or how but perhaps it would be a good thing.
Then again it could just end up making him worse.
Much, much worse.
(This has a lot from the anime at this point, but it also has the changed details cause Sakura is With Gaara and his team, I tried to do bare minimum on stuff you would have watched cause I know its boring to read that but some of it is kinda needed in order to flow smoother, so bare with me a little longer? You guys are great! Sorry for making you reminisce this with me but its kinda fun to relive the anime in a different fashion isn't it?... Isn't it? …. No?…. okay …..)
Kiba, Hinata and Shino dashed past branch after branch, Kiba howling about how lucky they were the team that fell into their trap earlier had a heaven scroll. Shino tried to get him to quiet down but Kiba, being Kiba, just kept up his loud celebration. It seemed like nothing was going to bring his mood down.
It was around that time that Akamaru started barking, sniffing people up ahead. Kiba just thought it would be genius to eliminate some of the competition and thought they should take the scroll of the group ahead. Even with Shino and Hinata's advice against it Kiba, just as he was seconds earlier, was still Kiba and they went along with their teammate.
When they got there though, there were already two teams about to fight so they hid behind some shrubbery. One of teams was made of three mist shinobi, some big scary looking guys with scars and everything. On the other side were three sand villagers, the one in front was a pipsqueak with red hair and a gourd on his back while the two behind him looked older, one girl with a giant fan and another a boy with purple face-paint. Akamaru began to shake from the level of chakra he was sniffing out and Kiba figured it meant the big Mist village ninja was going to demolish the sand pipsqueak.
"AH!" Shino and Kiba turned their heads when their heard a small gasp from Hinata.
"What is it?" Kiba whispered, his attention focused on her.
"K-Kiba didn't you s-see, the thing t-the red head is carrying… i-it's a person." She lifted her finger and Kiba's gaze was now directed to the person in the red heads arms, something he'd over looked when he had spared a glance in their direction before. His eyes widened as he saw the pink hair and the glint off the leaf village symbol on the headband.
"No way-" He breathed out.
"Its Sakura." All three of them whispered simultaneously utterly confused on what those ninja were doing with one of their own.
"It must be a trap for Sasuke and Naruto." Shino concluded and Hinata and Kiba nodded their heads in agreement. There wasn't much they could really do about it right now anyway even though both boys could tell Hinata was itching to go rescue her friend.
"Don't worry Hinata." Kiba whispered petting the shaking Akamaru and trying to calm him. "I don't think there's much that Pipsqueak could do to Sakura once she wakes up, she's super strong remember? They'll probably underestimate her and get knocked out cold!" he gave her a gentle smile trying to ease her nerves. She nodded but he could tell it hadn't done much good. He just turned his attention back to the mist and sand ninja.
"I've heard enough out of you. Lets make this quick so I don't waste time." The red head spoke as he kneeled to set Sakura gently on the ground next to him. That's odd, if she's a captive why didn't he just toss her? He shook the thought off, it didn't really matter why. The guy with the face paint suggested they gather information first so they didn't fight an unnecessary battle. "I don't care. They looked at me funny. So – they're gonna die." Akamaru's shaking worsened and all three of them stiffened at hearing the seriousness in his voice.
The mist Shinobi tossed the umbrellas from his back into the air and as they spun, senbon began to rain from the sky attacking the kid with red hair from every angle. The Mist Shinobi seemed over confident that it would work, while the red head seemed unnerved. Hinata's eyes widened and she made a move to stand, if the needles hit the boy then they'd hit Sakura too. Kiba gripped her sleeve to keep her down, surprised they normal shy and quivering girl's action to be so bold, but then again Sakura was Hinata's closest friend. She shut her eyes tight as the needles hit the ground.
"Is that all you can do?" Her eyes snapped open at the eerie sound of the red head's voice, seeing him shielded by a dome of rock hard sand, Sakura safely inside as well – body unharmed. "I have an idea, lets make it rain blood instead." His eyes narrowed and Hinata scooted back at the dark humor he had. Not a single one of them liked the idea of their pink haired friend, or anyone else for that matter, being even a mile close to that guy. Especially after what came next.
The mist Shinobi charged forward foolishly even after the face paint kid warned them they couldn't beat 'Gaara' and his unique jutsu. The Gaara kid spread his arms out before bringing them back in and forming a triangle with his hands, the two behind him just smirking knowing smirks. Gaara turned his body slightly to the left, his left hand leaving only two fingers raised as his right pushed forward with the fingers curling slightly,
"Sand Coffin." It was called. The 'sand coffin' made sand wrap around the mist shinobi's leg before soon encasing the whole body of the enemy in a thick hive of sand. It seemed taunting, the way Gaara said killing him the easy was would be to boring as he grabbed the mist shinobi own weapon – the umbrella- that had fallen to the ground upon his imprisonment, and opened it to hold it above his head digging one into the ground next to Sakura to shield her from whatever was about to happen. Odd again…Then he stepped forward and brought his right hand closer to his face, the fingers still curled slightly as the man incased in sand was raised higher and higher into the air. He brought his arm out, lift it up before clenching his fist and proclaiming the words "sand burial." There was a sickening crunch as blood so dark and thick that it was black began to rain from the sky. Kiba and Hinata's eyes opened wide, the pupil shrunk to a point where it was barely visible. They were pretty sure Shino had the same look but hey – who can really tell all you can actually see of him is his nose.
Gaara explained there wasn't any pain, as if that would give whatever closure to the two other shivering mist ninja in front of him. They tossed the scroll, begging for their lives to be spared. "The corpse's crimson bitter tears flow and mingle though the endless sand feeding the chaos in me and making me stronger" (3) With that said he tossed the umbrella aside and had the other two meet the same fate as the one before them, their agonized screams echoing through the forest.
The three behind the shrubbery turned away, trying to blend in and not get caught. Kiba was regretting coming here now. They heard the footsteps and the voice of the face paint boy saying that the mist nin had had a heaven scroll and would be heading to the tower now. They thought they were safe until Gaara said it wasn't enough and they could practically feel the maniacal gaze burning into their backs, as if the bushes they were behind were nothing.
"Lets just go." The older boys voice seemed to be trying to reason with him.
"What you scared? Coward."
"Look this is Dangerous for Temari and me, even though its easy for you just listen to your big brother for once!"
"I don't think of you like my big brother at all, if you get in my way I'll kill you."
"You don't have to treat us like the enemy, do it as a favor for your sis – please?" The girl spoke for the first time, her voice hesitant and pleading.
"uhmmm." Hinata's eyes opened wider at the sound of Sakura's voice, murmuring in her sleep. She peeked through the leaves shielding them from the sand ninja and saw her pink haired friend stirring. Gaara glanced down at her and dropped his hand that had been facing towards the three behind the bush. It seemed like he just remembered she was there. The sand on the ground lifted itself up into the gourd and the cork sealed it tightly shut as he kneeled to pick her up again.
"Alright, just this once." With that, they continued on their way, while Hinata Shino and Kiba held their breaths until they were sure the sand ninja were gone.
Naruto poked at the Fire Sasuke had made. They currently had six fish cooking and even though they would each get three, Naruto couldn't help but think how they should both only get two, the other two would be Sakura's. His eyes were downcast as he glared at the ground. It was already day four and they still hadn't found Sakura who had gone missing Day two. They'd run over to her area as fast as they could, leaving the sound nin alive as they were only thinking of saving their friend and teammate. But when they got there all they found were two unconscious sound ninja and Sakura's body was no where to be seen. What made it all worse was the fact that they couldn't pick up on her Chakra signature because it was two small and they were both pretty weak – Naruto from using the Kyuubi (although he didn't know that's what it was) and Sasuke because of the bruise Orochimaru left on his neck.
They had rested the rest of that day, not having much energy to do anything else. Then on day three they searched what felt like their entire side of the forest for her but they couldn't find her, they still couldn't even pick up her chakra! It infuriated them to no end. It was late in the after noon right now, they took a break after their stomachs began to insistently growl and they already ate all of their packed food, even the portion Sakura left behind when she mysteriously disappeared. We probably would have conserved more if she'd been here to hit me on the head…
"Naruto." Sasuke spoke from his place on the other side of the fire. "I think Sakura may have been taken by another team, probably one trying to lure us out and take our scrolls." He grabbed one of the sticks that had a fish skewered and removed it from the fire. "Although I don't know why they didn't just wait there for us…" That comment seemed to be to himself as he observed the fish intently. "Anyway, if that's the case they're probably waiting at the tower to take our scrolls and eliminate us from the competition in exchange for Sakura. And even if that's not the case and Sakura either escaped from whoever took her or never was taken by a team and just somehow transported away somewhere so she wouldn't get killed, she'd probably be smart enough not to look around in the forest and just wait at the tower for us to show up."
Naruto squinted his eyes trying to take in what Sasuke had said but really only understanding Sakura's name. Still he nodded his head and pursed his lips as if he knew exactly what was going on.
"You have no idea what I'm talking about do you dobe." It wasn't a question but a statement as Sasuke stared at him with a flat look on his face already knowing the answer.
"Nope." Sasuke hung his head at that.
"Basically we're just going to head to the tower from here – we already have both scrolls anyway because the sound ninja had an earth scroll to match our heaven one - and if she's not there, well…I guess we assume the worst." He gripped the stick tightly. She should have been smarter then that, thinking she had to give her life so we could get away, how stupid! If she died we're out of the Chunin exams anyway so what was the point in doing all that! He thought as he took a vicious bite of his fish, Naruto began to do the same to his own. Now look at all the trouble she's caused. He sighed as he finished the rest of his meal quietly, Naruto having finished his long before – MAN could that kid eat.
He stood and kicked some sand onto the fire before turning to leave, Naruto by his side as they dashed into the forest, heading for the center. Hoping they were heading towards Sakura.
They were getting closer to the tower. It was only a few miles away when they ran into the Kabuto kid from before, the one with all those special cards. They were surprised to say the least, and defiantly surprised that Kabuto didn't have his team with him. Of course, at first they anticipated a fight before Kabuto reveled he already had his two scrolls.
"Where's your other teammate? The girl with the pink hair that likes to hit the blonde kid?" He asked and Sasuke came up with a quick lie.
"She's off somewhere else, we split up to look for scrolls and Naruto and I found the one we needed first, we already made contact with her and are meeting at the tower." No matter how helpful this guy seemed Sasuke didn't trust him, so he wasn't going to give him to much information.
"I see is that so? Well you are aware that now that the days are drawing to a close, all the teams will be heading towards the tower to get the last scrolls they need or collectors will be there to collect extra scrolls and eliminate the competition." He informed them, pushing his glasses up. "I don't know how well your pink haired friend, Sakura was it?, can handle herself or you for that matter so if you want I'll help guide you through."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "What's in it for you?" Kabuto laughed nervously as he scratched the back of his head, turning around to continued walking forward.
"Well to be honest I'm pretty scared to go there alone, I'd like some help and I bet you guys could use a third man to help you out too – just like a three man squad you know? That way it won't feel like your missing a member." Sasuke grunted reluctantly but agreed none the less.
Turned out that Kabuto did come in handy when they ran into the same mist ninja that they had originally fought – this time he had his team with him though. Kabuto was the first to realize they were in a genjutsu and was very informative on the types of clones they were using. The battle pushed Sasuke to his limits, when he tried to use his sharingan a stabbing pain would be inflicted in his shoulder but somehow he pulled through so he could see where the real mist nin's were hiding. That gave Naruto – who had actually been doing much of the fighting – albeit recklessly – the opportunity to strike, replacing them all with clones until the mist nins thought they won and showed the real them.
By the end of it all, they had gathered an extra heaven scroll - Guess they were the ones who turned out to be collectors.
They were about to head back to the tower when they heard a voice.
"So these are the ones Kankuro?"
"Guess so Temari." Two figures jumped down in front of them, both the ones they had run into before at the village.
"What are you doing here?" Sasuke took on a fighting stance as well as Naruto. Temari rolled her eyes.
"Just follow us we'll take you to your teammate."
"You're the ones that have Sakura!" Naruto shouted,
"So that's pinkies name? Thank God its been bugging me the whole way here!" Temari stated.
Losing his stance, Naruto charged forward, Sasuke held him back by his shirt. Well now Kabuto knows I lied.. if he hadn't guessed it already. "Let me at em! Let me at em! They kidnapped Sakura! They kidnapped Sakura!" Naruto chanted trying to walk forward but going nowhere.
Kankuro scoffed. "More like we saved her life."
"Gaara saved her life." Temari piped in the correction.
"More like Gaara saved her life."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed at that. Oh he didn't like that at all. Here we are worried sick and she's probably having the time of her life snuggling up to her precious Gaara. Hiding his rising temper he asked another question. "So what, you gonna take our scrolls in exchange or something?" The two in front of him exchanged a glance before Temari sighed.
"If I'm being perfectly honest, we have no idea what were doing, just follow us and I'm sure we'll figure it out once we get there." They both made a move to turn around.
"Why don't I trust that?" He asked still holding back Naruto who was still saying his mantra and still futilely trying to walk forward.
"Fine. I really don't care whether you follow us or not I don't want to deal with this! Lets just go I don't care what Gaara says when we come back without them." Kankuro huffed both making a move to leap into the trees and take off.
"Wait!" Naruto said, stopping his charge. The two paused and Naruto turned to Sasuke. "They have Sakura we know that much! If we don't go who knows what they'll do to her!" Sasuke reluctantly grunted and let Naruto go. Kabuto, who had been intently watching the seen with intrigued eyes, told them he was going to keep heading towards the spot by the tower he was meeting his team, and with that they parted ways. Sasuke gave a hard look at the Sand ninja.
"Alright, now where's Sakura?"
Gaara sat with his back against the wall of the tower, Temari off to his right cooking some bugs in a fire for lunch and Kankuro off scouting the area. Sakura's still sleeping body was lying against his shoulder and it'd already been two days since he found her. During those days they had been outside of the tower waiting for her team to show up. They had tried to enter when they first made it to the tower - the night they had received their second scroll and found Sakura - but had been turned away because they had Sakura with them and Gaara refused to leave her out here on her own where she could be hurt. His 'Siblings' were more then annoyed but he couldn't care less, he had Sakura by his side and right then that was all that mattered to him.
She was getting better steadily all the time. He felt her chakra had returned almost completely to her, though some of it had even been pooling back into her upper right arm like an extra chakra storage space that filled itself up automatically. She had a fairly large amount of Chakra, nowhere near close to his and perhaps just a little bit less then the Uchiha's but it was still a lot of chakra for someone of their age and rank. For some reason it made him feel proud. He let out a small smile - one that he had felt come to his lips at times when he looked at her - and it was then that he felt her begin to stir.
Her eyes fluttered open and she brought her hand to her mouth as she yawned and moved away from him – much to his distaste – to stretch. Then she gently snuggled back into him seemingly not knowing where she was or who she was with but he really couldn't care less about that either.
"Hey is she awake now?" Temari's voice made Sakura's eyes snap open and she shot up in the air getting a good five-yard radius from him in about two seconds. Gaara sent a glare Temari's way for startling Sakura before turning his gaze back to her – a much softer look then what he had presented his sister with. For some reason Sakura's cheeks were red.
"Gaara?" She asked relaxing her stance when seeing him although she glanced suspiciously at Temari. It made him feel good that for once some one was relaxed looking at him when normally he was the one that made people tense up. She held her head for a bit, clearly dizzy from standing up to quickly and "So that wasn't a dream…" She glanced at his shoulder then and her faced turned red again. "And I … I was just," He nodded raising what would have been eyebrows. He was curious as to her blushing although if he was anyone other then Gaara he would have admitted to himself he thought that is made her look … cute. "Ah. I see." After a short pause she sat down next to him after asking if it was okay. It was nice to have her back by his side.
"What's your name pinky?" Temari asked Sakura. Gaara felt tempted to glare as his 'sister' again at the nickname she used, but Sakura seemed to have that covered.
"I'll give you mine when you give me yours." Sakura sent her a flat look.
"Temari, I'm Gaara's sister." It was then that Kankuro dropped in.
"Oh look sleeping beauty is finally awake." He commented grinning before turning to his Gaara. "The perimeter is all clear, I didn't see anyone headed this way although I sensed some chakra signatures not to far off. seems like a battles going on right now."
"And this would be…" Sakura stated waiting for someone to fill her in,
"That's Kankuro, he's my other teammate." Gaara told her and she nodded.
"I'm also his older brother." Kankuro walked over and squatted down to eye level with her, reminding her painfully of what her parents did for here when she was little but she shook it off. "You've caused us quite the hassle missy we would already be in this tower two days ago if Gaara hadn't insisted we not ditch you unconscious outside. You're kind of cute though so I guess I'll forgive you."
"TWO DAYS!" Her eyes shot out of her head and Kankuro fell backwards surprised by the volume of her voice. Gaara leaned to the other side slightly, a tad annoyed by the volume himself. "Sasuke and Naruto must be worried sick! What happened!?"
"Hey cool it will yah?! You were drained of Chakra and unconscious and for some odd reason Gaara decided to take you with us and carried you until we got here. We've been camped out here for the last two days because we're barred from entering the tower with you with us." He explained eyes narrowing in annoyance. Sakura stood up and started pacing worriedly.
"Two days? That's insane! The last thing I remember was trying to stop the sound village girl from getting to Naruto and Sasuke and then my chakra was going to be all used up but then," She turned to Gaara as she tried to piece together what happened to her, "and then you. I remember you showed up and knocked my attacker into some trees then you yelled at me and –" She blushed again thinking of the next part before coughing and letting the red drain from her cheeks, "then caught me before I passed out," She turned to Kankuro now, "Wait you said he carried me all the way here?" Kankuro nodded raising his eyebrows like he thought she was slow in the head. Her eyes widened as she glanced from Kankuro's face to Gaara before her face heated up again. Kankuro smirked, seeming to know what that meant before his face became confused as he glanced from Gaara to her. Gaara was now confused by both Sakura's and Kankuro's reaction.
She stopped her pacing and returned to normal then. "So… I guess I did cause you guys a lot of trouble huh? That was a pretty stupid thing of me to do in the first place almost dying like that." She looked down somberly and laughed the last part lightly to herself. She bowed to all three of them. Which pretty much shocked them all – I mean they expected her to think - "I'm sorry for that… but," She lifted her head and tilted it to the side questioningly, "aren't you just going to use me for some trap for my team?" well they expected her to say just that. Temari scoffed.
"I wish," She looked at Gaara before returning her attention to the fire and taking off a bug shish kebab. "Here, you haven't eaten in a long time you must be starving." Sakura looked at the bugs, and contemplated taking it first. She figured if they were going to kill her they would have done it already and even if it was bugs she really didn't have room to be picky so she took it and began to dig in, finally realizing how hungry she really was. Luckily they all had enough food to fill them up comfortably.
"So can we go in now Gaara? I mean she's awake and can handle herself." Kankuro stated, kicked some dirt on the fire.
"Not until her team gets here."
"Gaara its okay, I've caused you guys enough trouble anyway and you've been far to kind, I mean you didn't even keep me as a captive but rescued me instead I'm kind of already deep in your debt anyway." Sakura said gazing guiltily at her friend from six years ago. "Besides, I'm sure Sasuke and Naru-" She cut herself off and whipped her head in the direction Kankuro had said there was a fight going on. She had extended her chakra to search for them and instantly found them a little ways away in battle. Sasuke wasn't looking to good for some reason, there was this… strange chakra battling his own, and Naruto's own chakra was getting exhausted – shadow clones no doubt. Then there was someone else… one they had meet before was with them – Kabuto she thought it was. She didn't trust that at all. "Their over there." She stood up and was going to go over but Gaara's sand kept her in place. Temari and Kankuro tensed but Sakura seemed unaffected, used to the feeling of his sand and its gentle yet firm embrace. "Gaara. They're my team I have to go help them." She set a firm gaze to him, her eyes laced with worry for her team.
He grew slightly jealous and agitated at this but didn't show it, instead fixing his own firm gaze at her. "You got yourself into enough trouble from the last battle you got in. You're staying here." His voice had an edge of finality. After a short stare off Sakura huffed and crossed her arms. "Temari, Kankuro, go get them and bring them here." He ordered his team and they stood up without questioning it, knowing it would be pointless when it came to this topic, and took off in the direction of the battle.
It was just them now, left alone together in silence. It was a nice silence though, one where you feel comfortable. Sakura leaned against the wall before rolling her head lazily to he shoulder to look at the boy beside her.
"There's something bugging me." She spoke. He raised what should have been an eyebrow, urging her to continue. "When you came to rescue me you said 'Why don't you stop getting yourself nearly KILLED all the time so you can stop wasting MY time' " She tried deepening her voice in a bad attempt at imitating his.
"And?" He asked smiling humorously at her.
"Well you said stop getting yourself nearly killed – like you've known I've done it before. You also said to stop doing it so I wouldn't waste your time – meaning those other near death experiences you mentioned you saved me in them." His eyes widened and he knew where this was going. "So that means you were lying to me. You really do remember me don't you?" She said. She's called me on my bluff. Great she couldn't remember much else when she woke up but she just HAD to remember this? "So… why? I mean did you just not want to talk to me?" Her eyes saddened. "I mean its okay if I was… bugging you or if you didn't want to see me.. I just want to know the truth is all. I can take it you know." He didn't look at her eyes, he didn't want to look at her when she was sad and knew it was because of him.
"Its not that… I didn't want to see you…" He tried to explain. "Its just I had a slight memory lapse… I remembered you later, after I talked to you at the training grounds." He came up with a clever lie on the spot, daring to look at her to see if she'd believe it. Her eyes looked at him knowingly and a childish grin broke out on her face that made him feel six years old again.
"Oh well that makes sense! I had one of those the day we started the Chunin exam! I had forgotten some people who I knew that long ago too!" he sighed mentally, relieved. She trusted people to much, that or she just trusted him a lot. He really didn't want to heave to tell her about all that had happened in the last six years especially – the imaged of Kazuna and Takeshi covered in sand flashed in his mind – especially that. She defiantly wouldn't be able to take the truth.
They began their comfortable silence again and not long after that Kankuro and Temari returned with Sakura's teammates. All four of them landed and upon seeing her team, particularly the Uchiha he felt a fit of fury swell inside of him. Sakura wouldn't have almost died if they had been there. His glare didn't go unnoticed by the sharingan wielder, and he just tried to match Gaara's glare evenly. Key word: tried.
"Naruto Sasuke are you guys alright?!" Sakura was about to stand up only to have herself kept in place by Gaara's sand again. She shot him a questioning and surprised glance. "Gaara…"
"Hey let her go!" Naruto shouted fists clenched.
"That depends, how many scrolls do you have?" Gaara asked. Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he began to pull out two of the three scrolls – if they were going to take them it would leave greater odds of succeeding the last day if they still had one scroll left.
"So this is what you wanted after all." He voiced his thought as he still held out the scrolls in his hand. "So you going to give us Sakura if we give you these?" Gaara's glare intensified as he saw both the scrolls were heaven scrolls.
"No."
"What?" Temari, Kankuro, Sasuke and the blonde said. Sakura just stared at him dumbfounded.
"I said no." He repeated. "You don't have an earth scroll, which means you can't get into the tower, which means your going to go back out there and fight again, which means you – being her unreliable team – will probably leave her to fight more then she could handle again."
"Hey I could have handled them just fine!" Sakura voiced her disagreement but Gaara narrowed his eyes at her as if to say, didn't look like it. She quieted herself.
"Wait so your trying to tell us that once we're able to enter the tower, you're just going to give her too us and not take our scrolls?" Naruto asked, scratching his head. Gaara simply nodded.
"Why?" Sasuke asked, and the look from Temari and Kankuro told him they thought the same question.
"Because you were incapable of keeping her safe before, isn't that enough?"
"Shouldn't you actually be trying to kill her or something? Or trying to eliminate us as competition I mean I really don't get your logic here." Naruto stated.
"Yeah Gaara, why are you just giving them a free ticket in?" Kankuro asked. The glare Gaara sent their way just made them be quiet.
"Fine if that's what you want us to show you." He pulled out the third scroll, their earth one. "There, happy now?" Gaara nodded in approval after a slight inspection of the scroll. "So you're going to give us Sakura." Gaara paused for a beat before he reluctantly released the hold of sand he had on her and stood at the same time she did. When she began to walk over, he walked with her by her side. Gaara stopped as soon as they were a foot in front of her team and to Sasuke and Naruto's surprise and Temari and Kankuro's slight shock, she stopped to, as if his movements had decided her own. Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You coming?" She blinked as if just realizing what she did.
"Of course I am you 're the one not making a move to go anywhere." She tried to throw it back at him. He rolled his eyes and looked at them again before locking eyes with Gaara. In their stare down, Sasuke reached over and grabbed Sakura's arm, pulling her along to their 'side' as if to say that she sided with them. Gaara seethed inwardly at the Uchiha's bold move, he didn't like how he just reached over and took her, as if she belonged to him. And her really didn't like how he just took her away from his side. Just like Takeshi had done all those years ago.
"Thanks for looking after her. We'll be going now." He turned to go to the other side of the tower entry Naruto following along with him. Sakura stayed a beat later and bowed only slightly thanking them again before Sasuke grabbed her arm again and yanked her along.
"Hey knock it off!" She pulled her arm away and shoved ahead of them. Sasuke then tried to shove ahead of her. And Naruto, thinking it was a game tried to shove ahead of both of them – and so it went until the sand shinobi could no longer see them .
"Well aren't they an interesting bunch?" Temari commented before turning back to Gaara and Kankuro again. "Are you sure you wanted to just let them go though? I mean the whole reason we're here is to destroy the leaf village anyway, eliminating those three leaf village nin from the competition could have been useful." Gaara looked at in his sister's eyes.
"I know why were here." He said. "and if they participate, then they should be weaker from the fighting." He told them – trying to cover for the fact he just wanted Sakura to be okay. Temari had reminded him they were here to destroy Sakura's home and that made him feel a little pang of guilt. But its for the best. Besides, if there's no more Konoha she could just stay in Suna…yeah that sounds good. He tried to ease the guilt inside of him with that thought. "Come one, lets enter the tower."
The first thing that happened when they talked to Iruka sensei and got into the tower was Sakura was attacked in a fierce hug by Hinata.
"Sakura! I'm so glad you're alive! How did you guys even make it here? Didn't they take your scrolls?" Sakura stood in shock as her shy friend spoke without stuttering. Her arms hung limp at her sides while she was engulfed in Hinata's tight hug.
"Yeah I did make a close call but there's no need to worry, Gaara saved me." She said trying to calm her friend before something dawned upon her. "Wait how did you know I almost died? And that I was with another team?" Hinata unlatched herself from Sakura and stared at her with a confused look.
"Sakura, we saw you with that-that Sand village person! H-he's like a monster Sakura! He killed three mist ninja like it was nothing! Even seemed like he enjoyed it!" She clenched her fists by her chest, seemingly desperate to get this information out. "You were unconscious but we saw it all an-"
"That's enough Hinata." Kiba whispered coming up to her right. "He's here." He titled his head slightly right and sure enough Gaara and his siblings were leaning against the far wall, Gaara staring right at the group – probably over hearing their conversation. Sakura didn't notice him there because she was preoccupied just staring at her friend - way past taken aback by all that she was hearing.
"What are you talking about Hinata? Gaara is one of the sweetest people I know he's saved my life four times now after all." Hinata was shivering something not to unusual but the look in her eyes spoke fear and sakura enveloped her in a hug trying to console her. "Look its okay. Alright?" After a while, she seemed to have calmed down and, although at first it was awkward - they began an idle chitchat about what they had gone through to get here – Hinata not bothering to mention her seeing the death of the three mist ninja this time around.
They had to wait around all day and everyone fell asleep within their groups fairly quickly, well accept for Sakura who was going another night without sleeping – considering she had just been passed out for two whole days – and Gaara who just never slept. They were on opposite sides of the room and just kinda… staring at each other… there wasn't exactly much else to look at.
"So… you gonna go to sleep?" She asked trying to start conversation. With no place to train, it was kind of boring just staying awake.
"I don't sleep." Was his simple answer, and there was a moment of silence before he spoke again. "Are you going to sleep, or do you not want to be defenseless in front of me after what your friend told you?" There was a trace of bitterness when he said the word friend, and suspicion was clear throughout the whole statement.
"Are you seriously worried about that?" She asked raising an eyebrow. Then she sighed and tilted her head back against the wall as she stared at the ceiling. "No. I just don't sleep often and when I do its only because my body can't physically stay awake any longer." She let that sink in as she thought about his question more. Hinata wasn't someone to lie, and for telling her something so boldly and with such fear then it must have been true, Sakura just assumed Gaara had a good reason for killing them, they were probably threatening him or his team and it was the only way. Although, he and his team didn't look injured and she never used death as any kind of resort, she didn't know what had gone on so she couldn't really be swayed either way. "Actually, If I'm being honest out of everyone in this room –save Hinata and the blonde idiot over here –" She taped Naruto's sleeping shoulder lightly making him snore before moving into a more comfortable position, "You're the person I feel the most comfortable being defenseless around." It was true, although everyone here was her friend – Save, the jerk face Neji, the spunky girl TenTen and the person she worried might become a goofy kind of stalker Lee – she still felt the most comfortable around Gaara. She snuck a peek at his reaction, and for the most part his facial expression didn't change, but his eyes, even from all the way across the room, she could tell they held confusion.
"That's not very smart." He stated. "I'm from a different village after all and you don't actually know much about me." She let out a small laughed and looked right into his eyes again.
"It wasn't very smart to let me and my team walk in here scotch free when you had the ability to prevent us from continuing." She pointed out. "Or even saving my life for that matter – wasn't very smart. I am from a different village after all and you don't really know me all that well." She giggled as his face oh so subtly formed a pout as she threw his words back at him. At least she thought that's what it was. Her curiosity made her being to crawl forward in the darkness until she was right in front of him. He was looking at her strangely now – one would-be eyebrow raised.
"What are you doing?" She smiled and giggled as she sat down in front of him.
"You were pouting. I didn't know if I was imagining it or not so I wanted to take a closer look and you were!" She said as he made another slight pouting face.
"I was not pouting I do not pout." She held her stomach and put a hand over her mouth as she tried to contain her giggles. It was funny seeing such a serious person pouting and denying it at the same time as he was doing it. She tried to keep her giggles in so she wouldn't wake anyone and her whole body began to shake before she finally was able to breath out her next few words.
"Y-y-es-s-s you w-w-e-re-e-" She said between her laughter. Finally she calmed down and just looked at him again. Tilting her head to the side. His face was back in its usual expression. "I know it's not smart." She said after a while. He raised an eyebrow as if to ask what she meant – he wouldn't admit it but he had enjoyed seeing her laugh and had gotten so lost just watching her laughing that her voice surprised him. "I know it's not smart to trust you but - I just do." She explained, shrugging. "It might have something to do with the fact that –even six years later – you're still coming to my rescue. I mean if you go through the trouble to 'waste your time' as you put it, then I figure you wouldn't just go and kill me." That did make sense.
"Why don't you sleep?" He asked a beat later, imitating the head tilt she was oh so famous for, making her giggle again. He let out a small smile at seeing that. To him, it was like they were the only two here right now just as it should be.
"I just… think its easier not to sleep" Her giggling stopped and her tone became more serious and quiet – her eyes downcast. "I don't like the things I see when I fall asleep, its easy to just stay awake for as long as I can until I pass out. I know that's not smart either but at least then all I see is black before I wake up again." She stated. He didn't like that this subject made her sad – but he was curious about it.
"What do you see that scares you so much you'd rather not sleep?" He asked her. At first he thought she didn't hear him, because she wasn't doing anything but sitting there. He was about to change the subject when she answered again.
"Its different all the time – the beginning at least. Normally it's a memory about … my parents." She looked at the floor now. "I'm sure you probably heard about the Suna massacre six years ago, I mean you live there and all." His shoulder had become stiff at the mention of her parents but the Suna massacre – which he just so happened to be the center of –made his whole body freeze and the blood pound in his ears. Partly because he didn't want her to know that he did that, and partly because remembering the blood shed made the inner demon in him smile and thirst for more blood – another thing he didn't want Sakura to know about just yet.
"Well, they were visiting there then – it was a short trip and I had just started at the academy so they didn't want to take me with them. But they –" Her breath got caught before she got past it and continued, "they were some of the people who died that day. I don't know how it happened or who could have done that but I just haven't been able to sleep well since hearing the news." She looked up at him again. "I know its sounds silly, but I loved my parents they were the closest people to me and it just…hearing they wouldn't be there anymore… I felt like dying myself."
He didn't understand this. He didn't get why this was so terrible. It hurt him to hear her say that and that she was so sad. In his mind though, he thought it was for the best. In the long run, they were just an obstacle keeping her away from him.
"So sometimes I just see memories of the day I found out, sometimes my mind imagines them being killed before my eyes and it gets worse each time because of the more ways I know they could have died. And more recently I sometimes see my friends being hurt or killed and I can't move my body to protect them." Her body shook before she gave him a small smile, tilting her head again. "Then after that -always after that - I have the same nightmare that's completely unrelated and by now it doesn't scare me as much as it gives me an uneasy feeling." She opened her eyes and gazed at him apologetically. "Sorry for pinning that all on you – I've never actually told anyone about that before, it kinda felt good to say."
He couldn't believe that all of that happened just because two people died. What did they matter anyway? He never knew his own mother and his father had been trying to kill him for 7 years before he finally accepted Shukaku and his father finally gave up on sending assassins. So why would parents matter so much. They were the ones that took her away from him after all. He really didn't understand, but he didn't like that this had caused her so much pain.
"Why don't you sleep?" She asked – breaking him out of his thoughts.
"Me? I just don't need to." He lied. the truth was he just didn't trust anyone around him to not try and kill him, but what would that make her think? That and the Shukaku liked to take over his body when he was sleeping – and unlike her he didn't pass out because of the extra stamina the demon in him gave him.
Their heads shot to the side as they heard a door creak open.
"Finally! I thought we'd never make it here!" a feminine voice stated, obviously annoyed.
"INO!" Sakura squeaked quietly, jumping up and running over to the sound of the voice – much to his distaste. He saw the owner of the voice appear before Sakura and blink at the pinkette before enveloping her in a tight hug.
"Yo! What up forehead! Surprised you made it this far!" She said before releasing her and clapping a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "Then again you have Sasuke on your team!" Sakura rolled her eyes and pushed Ino's shoulder off.
"Whatever Ino pig. You might want to keep you're obnoxious voice down or you'll wake everyone up and then you have 13 angry ninja wanting to kill you." Ino looked behind Sakura at the group of sleeping people. There was Neji, Lee, TenTen, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Naruto, Sasuke, Temari, Kankuro, Kabuto, two ninja who were dressed the same way as Kabuto and finally there was one wide awake Gaara – just staring at them in confusion. He didn't get it, were they friends or enemies? He didn't like what the blonde haired girl was saying to Sakura but it wasn't seeming to bug her. He just continued to observe the strange behavior, waiting until Sakura would come and join him again.
"Don't try and change me billboard brow." She said lightly shoving past Sakura's shoulder and making her way over to Shikamaru and Choji. Ino's two teammates had went ahead and found a spot to sleep when Sakura had greeted Ino earlier. Both of them were already sleeping – Choji lying down right next to a bag of chips. Sakura chuckled following after her blonde friend.
"But there just so much that needs work." Sakura stated, which made Ino turn on her heal and stick her tongue out at her. "Pig." She smirked as she got the desired reaction from her friend.
"Forehead!" Ino voiced in the volume that they usually held this conversation. She had complelty forgotten about the sleeping people and a shoe was chucked at her head.
"BE QUIET SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!" Naruto, who was now sitting up and rubbing his eyes, shouted at the top of his lungs waking up everyone else who proceeded to throw the closest object they could get their hands on at him.
"SHUT UP!" They all shouted. Ino just exchanged a glance with Sakura before they both burst out laughing, in the most uncontrollable laughter ever. Gaara just stared at them – completely confused - but the humorous mood, even if it was more then just from Sakura, made him feel almost …light.
After a short while Ino fell asleep so Sakura decided to sit by Gaara. They talked here and there about pointless things. Missions they'd been on, places they'd been. He let her do most of the talking – he found it interesting to listen to her and it made him feel… happy. He wanted it to be like this. To be able to talk to her and see her laugh and smile, for her to be by his side and to protect her. He wanted her to be his, to never be taken away. Yes this is what he wanted. And this was his new decision, not that his other choice really worked out when he attempted it.
She left his side when Sasuke began to stir saying, "He'll probably be angry and I don't want to put up with a cranky-ass Uchiha." When her back was turned he glared at the direction of her teammates.
If he wanted her to stay with him then some things needed to be changed –obstacles needed to be removed.
Even if those obstacles were people. (4)
After the 5th day ended all the Shinobi that had completed the second exam stood in a group in front of the village leaders and the teams' senseis. The sound ninja Sakura had fought earlier had been the last to show up – much to her distaste, and although the Female sound nin was sporting some fractured ribs she still choose to tough it out. So there was a total of 21 ninja who made it. Right when the Hokage was about to explain the third exam, the third Exam proctor, Hayate Gekko, explained that preliminary exams had to be held first because 21 was too many. Kabuto opted out of taking these so the number was now an even 20 making for a good even amount of 1V1's and no one was going to get a freebee. Sakura started to feel like she had an edge considering she hadn't been in battle for the past 3 days and was able to recharge all of her chakra. But then again – a lot of the people here had had time to rest too, save the sound ninja.
Despite the resting time, it was obvious Sasuke was in pain but refused to let anyone tell him to give up or let her or Naruto tell the teachers about the curse mark. She had scoffed and wrenched her arm out of his grip when he had stopped her from raising her hand to tell them. She had said "Fine, be in pain for all I care." Even though she was really worried about him.
Ironically he was the first match but he took the guy out like it was nothing, he didn't even use any chakra. When it was over he was taken away by Kakashi to treat his 'injuries'. The next battle was between Shino and one of the sound ninja Sakura fought before – the one she had knocked out that had those wind pressure hands. She had to say she had been extremely impressed with Shino's tactic of distraction – finally someone wasn't talking to waste time but was talking so they could do something productive. She felt bad for the sound nin though, it looked like it hurt to have the wind escape through you and destroy your arms.
Kankuro was up next and against a super flexible sound nin from Kabuto's team. Apparently he could pop out all his joints and use his chakra to make him super flexible but Kankuro got him with a puppet – equally able to perfectly control his Chakra - and then, even after he said he gave up, Kankuro used the puppet to break the mans bones. She flinched at the sight, looking away. That wasn't something she needed to see.
Temari was up against TenTen and wiped the floor with her. Sakura felt bad for her fellow ninja and acquaintance, TenTen seemed really nice and yet even going all out with her weapons she still couldn't land a scratch on Temari. And Gaara's sister's fan was really something, the way it controlled the wind like that to cut TenTen up. Sakura felt like she could have done something, her arms twitched to form hand signs and combat Temari's wind with her own so that she could free her fellow Ninja, but that wouldn't do her any good anyway. She already lost.
The ever lazy Shikamaru was next to fight and although she was nervous for her friend she knew he was a genius and, with his smarts, would be able to win. It wasn't looking so good at the very beginning, his shadow jutsu was dodged and then his opponent – the sound ninja girl - began attacking him with all these senbon. The ringing from the bells attached to the weapons seemed to be doing something to his head – although Sakura wasn't sure exactly what it was. In the end of it all, Shikamaru got her in his jutsu by having his shadow trail below the string of the senbon with strings attached to them – to hide it so she wouldn't notice, and made her hit her head on the back wall effectively knocking her out. Sakura smirked happily – after all, his opponent had been the female sound ninja that almost killed her.
The next battle Kiba's name was drawn. Kiba was a haughty and proud person, he liked to show what he could do and brag about it later. She had been hearing him do it for years. It seemed like no matter the challenge, Kiba would take it on, confident that he would win. So when he didn't even make a move to go down into the ring, and just stared at the screen, Sakura was really confused.
"Are you coming down to fight or are you just going to waste my time?" Sakura only faintly heard the voice from down below, she was a little to focused on staring at Kiba looking scared out of his whits –certainly this was a once in a life time sight.
"I forfeit!" He called out gripping the edge of the arena bars so tight his knuckles turned white.
"What? Kiba why would you forfeit?" She called and his response was just a shaky pointing at the screen. Following his line of vision she saw the name of his opponent was Gaara. (5)"So?" She asked. As much as she didn't want to see her two friends battling, she didn't understand how it being Gaara made Kiba back off. He had just shook his head and said she wouldn't understand.
She looked in the arena when she heard a scoff coming from Gaara. "What a pathetic waste of space." He called before disappearing in a swirl of sand to reappear in the stands across from them. Sakura, for one, was shocked he'd say that. That wasn't something she thought she'd hear Gaara ever say it was just… mean. And the look on his face when he looked at Kiba, like he was so beneath him. She looked questioningly at Hinata who was to her right. She looked up at Sakura and then back down at the ground.
"Still the sweetest guy you ever met?" Naruto shouted from her left. "What a jerk! I can't believe he would say that. I mean sure Kiba's being a real coward but still!"
"Be quiet Naruto." She said quietly before glancing at the screen to see who would fight next. The next battle did nothing to lift her mood.
Neji – The Hyuga prodigy who always spoke of destiny – was up against Hinata. Sakura knew they were related because of their last names, that much was obvious. However, she was unaware of the bad blood that ran between Hinata and her cousin, and the way Neji seemed to just…hate her. She gripped the bar tightly and unhappily, she could tell Neji would be ruthless the way he was already beginning to play with her mind, throwing her inner thoughts in her face. At first it seemed like Hinata was just going to give up, but luckily Naruto called out to her and she snapped out, ready to put up a fight.
Sakura cheered her friend on along with Naruto, watching in anticipation as the two fought each other in their gentle fist style – almost like a dance. She thought Hinata had hit him but… she had no chakra in her arm – Neji had hit her arm's chakra points before so her blow was ineffective to him.
Sakura's body began to shake as she watched her dear friend get beat on by Neji, still standing to fight until the very end. Her throat was swelling as she watched the match until her friend finally collapsed on the ground, spitting up blood. She even still tried to fight, only to end up in the same position a few times before she finally stood one last time, made a comment about how Neji was the one all torn up about the fate of their family and then Neji rushed forward in anger, surely about to kill her.
"HINATA!" Sakura called jumping down to be by her friend's side as Neji charged towards the younger girl. She felt the pounding of blood in her ears, she had to stop this… but before she could do anything to stop Neji, Gai, Hayate, Kurenai and Kakashi were there holding him back. So she just ran past them to Hinata's side, feeling Naruto and Lee on her heels. Hinata was going to tell them she was okay when all of a sudden a pained look came on her face and she fell to the ground.
Sakura and Naruto fell by her side and Kurenai went on her other to see if she was okay.
"Hey Losers." Neji called out to them. "Some advice: if you want to be shinobi stop the disgraceful cheering. And second once a failure always a failure. You can't change what you are."
Sakura's eyes went wide at the statement as she stared down at her unconscious friend. Again… she couldn't do anything to protect someone she cared about. Even in the forest when she was about to die, the sound ninja girl would have been able to fight if by some chance Sakura's last ditch effort had missed, and her sacrifice wouldn't have protected anyone. Why did this keep happening! Why did she keep failing!? Was Neji right? Would she never be able to protect the people she loved?
No. She refused to accept that. She refused to say that was her fate. Naruto seemed to agree to that thought as he defiantly charged to attack Neji only to have Lee stop him so he wouldn't get disqualified. She was grateful that Lee, as funny as the bushy browed kid was, was able to keep Naruto in check.
Their heads whipped around quickly when they heard Hinata cough and Sakura could see the blood spurt from her mouth. Sakura's hands began to shake when Kurenai stated Hinata didn't have a pulse. Hinata was taken to the infirmary as quickly as possible, and as soon as Sakura broke out of her shocked stupor she turned her furious gaze to Neji.
"Shut up you and your destiny crap!" She shouted. "You can't say someone will always stay the same! They can change you're not the one who gets to decide THEY do!" She seethed and stalked towards him, "If they believe themselves to be strong then they WILL be strong! If they believe they will succeed then they can!" Her fist clenched at her side. "I'll prove it! Because next time, I don't care what's going on, I won't let the people I love get hurt anymore! I vow that I will change, so that I can be a protector and defender! I will succeed!"
There was a pause.
"What a stupid goal." The Hyuga scoffed. "It's impossible and it will always be impossible. How do you expect to protect everyone you care about when in this tournament you will probably end up fighting a person you care about?" He looked down and smirked cockily. "Will you just give up then? How pathetic."
She froze as he walked away. He had a point, she hadn't thought of that. What if she did end up fighting one of them? Naruto and Ino was still in the running after all… what would she do then? Treat it like sparring? Yeah.. she supposed. All she could do was grit her teeth and wait for the next match.
And low and behold it was the two who had been chanting that they wanted to fight this entire time. Uzumaki Naruto V Rock Lee.
That was certainly an interesting battle to say the least. They both had great speed but Naruto was having a hard time keeping up so he used his Shadow clone Jutsu to confuse Lee and just to throw shuriken and kunai where he assumed lee would go. He didn't land any hits with weapons but eventually got a few punches. However, Lee then released his ankle weights and was faster then ever. No one could even see where he was! Combine that with his lotus technique and everyone thought Naruto was down for the count until they realized he had replaced himself with a shadow clone he had left hidden in the shadow of the arena walls. Of course Lee was shocked and Naruto kept proclaiming that he would never turn his back on a fight and created more shadow clones. Lee was still raring to go although the lotus had done a physical toll on him. Naruto and his clones tossed Shuriken and Kunai and charged forward, Lee dodging them fairly easily before going forward to take out all the Naruto's, to find none of them were the real Naruto, they were all clones. It was then Naruto appeared to be one of the Shuriken that had been thrown earlier, just like in the battle with Zabuza. He was able to get a few kicks and punches in, catching Lee of guard and striking him from behind.
He used his multi-shadow clone jutsu to fill the room with at least 50 of him before attacking again. It took a while for Lee to get his bearings back and by then they were both pretty tuckered out, both never wanting to give up, both striving to win. Lee even unleashed the inner gates to try beat Naruto who was only making more and more shadow clones. It was then he got the idea to apply chakra to his feet to speed him up and help dodge some of Lee's attacks, pure luck is what it was. It was obvious his body couldn't take much more of it, as soon as Lee kicked him into the air it was impossible for Naruto to defend himself and was soon lying still on the ground.. When Lee could no longer sustain the gates he stood opposite the motionless Naruto, both of them unable to move. Hayate was about to declare Lee the winner when Naruto began to move until he was sitting up, equal with Lee. Both had such a fighting spirit, it seemed no matter how many blows you land on them or how many times you knock them down they just get right back up.
They both struggled towards each other and tried to do a feeble punch that only succeed in their fists hitting each other, them falling to the ground, and the match ending in a tie.
They were taken to the infirmary, where it was learned Lee would need a lot of rest and some healing to repair the torn muscles before he got better but he would eventually recover. Same went for Naruto but he seemed to not need as much medical attention because of his body's miraculous healing ability, so he was brought back to the stands to rest.
It didn't take him all that long to wake up either. He was awake right after Chouji finished his battle with the last sound ninja. It only took about a minute for the guy to knock Chouji out, the poor cowardly guy. She knew he was awake when she heard something jump up from behind her and exclaim "OH MAN DID I LOSE!"
"It was a tie." She informed him, gently, giving him a cautious look, expecting the outburst.
"Ah man this sucks! How will I ever beat Sasuke if I couldn't even beat Bushy brow!" He whined when he had rejoined her at the stands.
"Hey its alright Naruto! Lee beat Sasuke too remember? And he's just really fast I'm sure with a little work you could match him no problem!" Sakura patted him on the shoulder. "Cheer up!"
"Sakura?" Naruto turned to her looking up with pleading eyes. "You know what would make me cheer up?"
She sweat dropped, worried about the answer. "What… exactly would that be?"
"If you gave me a hug!" He reached his arms out and tried to latch onto her but she stuck her arms out to keep him at a distance.
"DOWN BOY!" She said keeping him at arms length, unable to raise a hand to hit him without leaving an opening for him to latch her into a hug. That was until Ino came to her rescue, hitting him on the side of his head. He was knocked out for about a second before jumping back up to yell at Ino. Wow, did he bounce back fast, even after becoming completely exhausted he was able to have all this energy just a few minutes later. She exchanged a glance at her friend before they burst out laughing at Naruto's ridiculousness.
"This isn't the time to be laughing." Kakashi commented.
"Will the last two please come forward." Hayate asked. Sakura then realized that she hadn't fought yet, getting to caught up in watching all the other fights she hadn't been keeping track of who was left and was curious to see who else it was. She jumped gracefully down into the ring and stepped forward, noticing another body jump down beside hers. She turned to look and her green eyes meet equally wide blue ones as she stared head on at her best friend.
This was going to suck.
Reluctantly the two took up their places and got into a fighting stance. Sakura was treating it like light sparring, she didn't want to hurt Ino, so she wasn't going to go all out. In fact, she didn't even throw any punches, she was just dodging. Unfortunately this made Ino really angry.
"COME ON FIGHT ME ALREADY BILLBOARD BROW! STOP TOYING WITH ME!" She shouted, aiming for a kick to the gut but only getting air. Sakura jumped away and got a two yard radius from her friend. Her face was conflicted as she stared at the angry blonde.
"I'm not toying with you Ino, I just don't want to hurt you." Boy was that the wrong thing to say. Ino looked like Sakura had just slapped her.
"So what? You don't think I'm strong enough to face you in a fair fight!?" She flung her arms in the air in a fit, her nose scrunched up in anger. Sakura glanced at the ground before looking directly into Ino's eyes and telling her the truth.
"If you want me to be honest with you, then no I don't think you can yet." Ino looked like she had just had the wind knocked out of her. "I know you've improved Ino really, but its not like I've been sitting back and you've only actually seen my chakra control not my actual ninjutsu, I just don't want you to get hurt." Sakura desperately tried to explain what she meant, making her voice come out quickly
"YEAH! I haven't seen everything! How could I when you wouldn't let anyone near you! Heck no one wanted to go near you! You were so creepy!" She huffed, still flailing her arms around angrily. "The only reason you're any good is because you were an emotionless FREAK who could only focus on her parents death and getting strong enough to kill her parents killer for FOUR years!" Okay now THAT was below the belt. Sakura was pissed of now too.
"That was a long time ago! I fight for something different now!" She defended.
"Yeah, Yeah you fight so you can 'be strong enough to fight by a certain someone's side'" She retorted in a lovey dovey voice, batting her eyelashes and holding her hands to her face in a swooning way. "But oh wait, I forgot you're not 'into relationships'." She dropped her pose and spat venom at the pinkette.
"Hey I'm not the one who only became a ninja to impress a boy!"
"At least I'm not hung up on someone I met six fricken years ago who doesn't even remember who I am!" Sakura was appalled by all of this. Ino had NO idea how many lines she was crossing.
"I am NOT hung up over him what is wrong with all you people!" She shouted – fuse blowing. "And at least I'm not chasing a guy I've known all my life who doesn't even realize I exist! Face it Ino you do EVERYTHING for Sasuke its SO ridiculous! You even grew out your hair only because you thought he liked girls with long hair! YOU LIVE your LIFE on whims that are centered around him! And News flash! He doesn't recognize It OR care." If Ino was going to throw all her baggage in her face then Sakura would throw it right back.
Ino screamed. "WHY you little! I do NOT live my entire life by what he likes or doesn't like!" She took out a kunai and raised it up to her long pony tail before promptly slicing through the thick hair and tossing it in Sakura's direction. "Now whose living her life for a guy?!"
"Still you." Sakura stated in a 'duh' kind of manner.
Ino scoffed before putting her hands on her hips and glaring. "Actually I feel really bad for you." Sakura stiffed, already expecting a bad statement to come from this. " I mean, you're so far from being a normal person, not only because of your ridiculous hair color and large forehead but also you're behavior." She gestured one hand out towards Sakura. "I mean maybe you would have turned out normal if you hadn't wasted half your life focused on killing a person you'd never met before. Isolating yourself from everyone else." She returned to her evil disposition again. "I guess you were just doing us all a really big favor though cause you kept us all away from you and your creepy ass personality!"
"THAT WAS A LONG TIME AGO!" She screeched out, while inside, her heart was breaking. Ino was really hurtful when she was angry and right now Sakura didn't know if she was saying these things only to hurt her but or if she was saying the truth. "I made a mistake to do that! I apologized didn't I! Besides its different now, I'm fighting to protect you! To protect Naruto and Sasuke and Hinata and everyone I care about!" She whispered the next part, dropping her loud voice. "Please Ino I don't want to hurt you."
"I never asked for your protection and no one else did either! Stop acting all self righteous and like you're so much better then me!" She took her head band off of her waist and went to tie it on her forehead. "If you really want to help me like you claim then fight me for real." Sakura remembered that. Remembered the day they got their headbands and made a pact that they would only tie it in the right way once they had become real ninja. Was this really the time? She had to think about it.
She knew the day was coming when she had to fight someone she loved and it was the day she was dreading the most. Then again, all ninja had to battle their loved ones at one point or another didn't they? Yes, she supposed this was the deciding factor that would finally make her a real ninja.
"FINE! If that's what you want." She undid the headband from her hair to tie it tightly around her own forehead. "I'm not going to go easy on you."
"That's all I ask."
In an instant its like the fight was just starting. Ino charged first, Sakura easily being able to block and dodge, scoring hit after hit against her blond friend.
Dodge right punch, block round house kick, grab punch pull Ino forward and deliver my own inverted punch to gut, head-butt her, Knee her face so that she stumbles back a little, then a side kick to the stomach. Her friend was successfully thrown across the field. Though she said she was going to go all out, she wasn't planning on using any ninjutsu. Only taijutsu, she had to save her ninjutsu for the finals and she wanted to give Ino at least a fighting chance. (6) She didn't hit her friend with all her strength either, had she done that then Ino would need some serious facial reconstruction and probably would have never been able to each solid food again.
Ino was laying on her side, bangs covering her face before she pressed her hands to the ground to push herself back up. It seemed to take longer then it should but none the less she got off the ground albeit a bit shaky. They were two yards away from each other again. Ino looked Sakura right in the face and smiled.
"That all you got forehead?" She mocked, but Sakura could tell Ino was far worse for ware after taking only a couple of those hits. She herself was unscathed.
"You still want more?" She clenched her fists and was about to charge forward when she realized something. She couldn't move her feet. "What the?" Glancing down she saw Ino's hair at her feet, leading in a glowing blue line all the way back to Ino. "No way." Great now she was stuck and Ino had her hands set to use the mind transfer jutsu. She gritted her teeth. Forming some hand seals of her own she created a wind clone to charge for Ino right when Ino used her jutsu. It was a race now.
Ino made it first, entering the body of Sakura that was stuck in Ino's hair trap.
"NO SAKURA!" Naruto shouted as the body Ino took over smirked and was about to get rid of the clone before it reached her real body. When said clone turned back to smirk at her.
"Sorry Ino, but, that's not me." Then the Sakura Ino too over puffed away into wind, leaving the soul to laze around until it could enter the body again. Sakura, now at Ino's side, brought a Kunai to her friend's neck, and was declared the winner.
"Woah Sakura what did you do!" Naruto asked.
"Nothing much, I just created a clone to substitute with my real body, she didn't notice because she activated her jutsu right when I did. After that I just got rid of the clone." She shrugged and helped Ino stand up when her soul re-entered her body.
"Thanks." The blonde muttered before they both began to head to the middle of the room. Sakura was going to stay down there where the other winners would join her while the ones who lost the preliminaries stayed in the stands. Before Ino left she looked at the ground and turned to Sakura. "About what I said… I'm sorry… that was way out of line, and actually I really was scared for you those years ago and I was… so happy when you came back." Sakura smiled at her friend.
"I know Ino, and I'm sorry too. For what I said and for underestimating you. You actually almost had me." She admitted. That made Ino smile and look up at her.
"And next time I WILL get you!" The two laughed as Ino went back to her original spot and the fellow winners joined Sakura below, where the Hokage had them draw ballets. This turned out to pick who they were facing in a tournament, although Shikamaru questioned if there would only be one winner the Hokage explained it just gave you more chances for your skills to be assessed but the winner of the tournament didn't necessarily become a Chunin. With that they all drew slots.
Gaara had watched all the exams with faint interest, only really gauging their skills. The Hyuga boy seemed like a strong competitor and obviously he wanted to fight Sasuke – not only because his inner demon would appreciate the blood of the prodigy, but also because he was a threat to taking Sakura away. Sakura's own cheering gave him interest when the young Hyuga girl fell, obviously another emotional attachment that needed to be severed, as well as with that Naruto kid, the way he tried to throw himself on her made Gaara's sand rage violently. As the Chunin exams went on he could feel Shukaku calling out for blood, and because he didn't get to fight do to his opponent being a coward, he was in a particularly bad mood.
Sakura's own battle got his emotions riled up, seeing as everything that blonde girl was yelling at her, the look of pain and anger Sakura had at the things Ino said. He had been interested hearing about her past, how she had been 'an emotionless freak' as Ino put it, and trained hard all the time. He felt satisfaction at the fact that part of the reason she worked so hard was to be able to be by his side – he definitely approved of that. However, knowing the other reason was to kill her parent murderer was not something he was too happy with so that goal being left in the past made him feel better. But her plan and vow to protect those she loved… would that mean she picked them? Only time would tell, but either way he was beginning to see her as his, even though nothing much had progressed between them since the night on the fourth day.
When it was all over they drew slots to see who they would be fighting. He almost felt like twitching his mouth in a sadistic smile when he saw he'd be fighting Uchiha – to kill two birds with one stone. He wasn't to happy Sakura was fighting an extra round – first the sound ninja and then Neji. Kankuro was going to fight Shino while Temari was going to fight Shikamaru.
Things would get interesting soon.
Sakura was Royally pissed off as she punched a large dent into the wall.
Kakashi had just blown her off because he 'needed' to train Sasuke. MAN Sasuke this Sasuke that, whether it was fan girls or the teachers pet it was always Sasuke. Sure she was worried about the guy and sure she's been training on her own for as long as she could remember but HEY sometimes she wished to have someone experienced actually teach her something instead. A position in which Kakashi was obviously not going to fill.
"Sakura-chaaaannnn!" Naruto called out as he ran up to her about to grip her in a vice like hug before she hit him upside the head and he fell, twitching, to the ground. "Why Sakura? Why do you have to be so cruel?" She turned to leave and he immediately bolted up. "Hey WAIT!" He raced to catch up to her as she stormed off. "What has you so angry Sakura?" She rounded on him, knowing he wasn't the source of her anger but not being able to control her fury's target.
"I'm angry because baka Kakashi refuses to help me train! He's to busy with Sasuke!" She huffed before beginning to storm off again.
"Wait Sakura why don't I just help you train!" He called out trying to catch up to her again.
"Look, its not that I don't appreciate it but I don't want to practice stuff I already know, I want to have someone besides me and more experienced then me actually teach me something for a change!" She let out before storming off for the last time, Naruto just staring after her before a grin broke out on his face.
"I KNOW! I'll find Sakura a teacher and then she'll beg to go on a date with me!" He rubbed his hands together before taking off.
It was by pure coincidence on his epic journey to find Sakura teacher – he found one for himself instead. He just happened to be passing by the bathhouse when he found a man peeking on the girl's baths and reprimanded him by calling him a perv. Which he was later corrected to pervy sage after the wild white haired man explained he was 'the great toad sage Jariah' Naruto, not knowing what a sage was, prodded to learn more and upon hearing of his rank began to beg the old man to teach him some stuff – this would be an excellent way to beat Sasuke! It took a LONG time and a sexy jutsu to get the old perv to focus but Naruto was finally getting some training in, he was going to learn to summon a toad!
He forgot about Sakura….
Meanwhile in the course of two weeks, Sakura was busy training her butt off, She needed to expand her chakra if she was going to be able to use her complicated ninjutsu's. She worked on storing chakra, building her endurance, and practice how long she could hold out certain jutsu. She worked on her range for her wind shuriken. And found out how to encase herself in a dome of earth for protection, although it took a second or two to put up so wasn't as fast as just activating a wind prison around herself, it might just come in handy one day. She worked on using Chakra to manipulate the earth and the wind, but after it all she still didn't feel like it was enough. Maybe she did just need a sparing partner, and hey, might as well take Naruto up on his offer. Why go lone wolf? That's something the idiot Sasuke did.
And Thus she made her long journey through all of Konoha searching for the blonde idiot, asking everyone she knew where he could possibly be and getting nothing. Finally she just huffed outside Ichiraku's as the sun was setting, sighing as she ordered some water – not being allowed to stay unless she selected either a beverage or meal.
"Say have you guys se-"
"PERVY SAGE! This is great you're really gonna teach me the shortcut to summoning a big toad!" Sakura recognized that voice and irritatedly lifted her tired head from the table as the curtain of the ramen bar swung open to reveal Naruto followed by some old man with white hair. "And you're treating me to Ichiraku too! You really are the best!"
"NARUTO!" Sakura jerked up from her seat and hit the boy upside the head. He clutched his throbbing noggin.
"OWWWW! That sounded like Sakura-chan and that most certainly felt like Sakura." He glanced up into the emerald-eyed fury that was her gaze and a grin broke out on his face as he tried to hug her, "Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!" He chanted like a little kid. Just like she did when he tried this at the preliminaries, she pushed him back by his head at arms length as a vain pulsed on her head. And just like at the Preliminaries it was Ino that came to her rescue.
"Well well well, how are you too love birds doing." Sakura looked at her best friend after hearing the voice. Ino stood there holding the curtain with one hand and in the other was a package of flowers. "I was passing through on my way to make a delivery when I heard Naruto's irritating voice screaming 'Sakura-chan' I just had to see what kind of mess you were in forehead girl." Sakura smirked at her friend.
"Nothing I could handle without you. Thanks." Ino smirked right back and, deciding the delivery could wait, the four sat down to enjoy a meal. It was then Sakura learned Naruto was learning how to summon an animal and she really wanted to try too but the pervy man she found out was a Toad sage named Jiriah said she didn't have enough chakra to complete it and that she probably wouldn't have enough for many years. This upset her, Naruto had enough and she'd been working on expanding her Chakra since she was 6, how could this be. She would just have to work harder, but at least she knew Naruto could take care of himself, although she became worried when she heard Jiriah mention something about "This meal might be his last." She shrugged it off and started up a conversation with Ino.
"So where have you been? I haven't seen you for two whole weeks not even to come to bed. Are you sleeping in that tree again, or perhaps your indulging in some kind of forbidden romance with a certain sand nin?" Ino bumped her shoulder playfully into Sakura's arm. "You know, like him rescuing you from near death for the fourth time or carrying all the way to a battle tower, refusing to leave you in unfit hands?" Sakura blushed dark crimson at hearing this, although the likes of which she didn't know why.
"Stop talking nonsense I was training! Where did you hear all that anyway?" She yelled at her grinning friend who raised her arms in a sign of surrender.
"Hey, don't blame me, it was those other two sand ninja who stopped to look at the flowers at the shop. They were talking about how startled they were when their brother came flying past them with a dead body in tow, only to find out it wasn't dead and it was a girl. A Girl with pink hair that Gaara wouldn't let them even get close to touching." She shrugged. "They were just talking about what happed during the Forest of death with each other but I just so happened to overhear them."
"Well whatever. Like I said, I've been training although I did just waste a whole day looking for Naruto." Sakura rested her cheek in her palm and sighed, to exhausted to fight Ino about whatever 'romantic indulgences' supposedly happened between her and the red head. She figured tonight would be the night she either fell asleep willingly or just passed out.
"Why would you be looking for him?" Ino asked, her nose scrunching up.
"I needed someone to spar with, practicing on my own isn't going to cut it when I need to actually fight some people, and not just some simplistic tricks. I was hoping Naruto and his shadow clones would give me a lot of people to fight, and using my own clones wastes to much Chakra and I can only do it for taijutsu since making my clones know ninjutsu would wear me dry in no time." She banged her head on the Ichiraku bar.
"That is quiet the predicament." Ino said, observing her friend. "Tell you what, two days from now I get the day off from the shop, why don't you rest for two days and then the next day I'll help you train." She smiled as Sakura looked gratefully at Ino. "I know I can't do clones and I might not fight as well as you but I think I can whip up something special that even you'll feel is a challenge to spar."
"Sounds good." Sakura stated, fire returning to her eyes as she sat up strait again and clenched her fist in a determined manner.
"Oh! And tomorrow at my lunch break why don't we go visit Sasuke at the hospital?" Sakura's eyes widened when Ino said this and a new found fury returned to her.
"HE'S AT THE HOSPITAL! THAT LYING LITTLE BRAT OF A SENSEI!" She stood up abruptly and in one gulp scarfed down the rest of her ramen before leaving the premises, forgetting to pay. Ino quickly followed after her. "I HAVE TO TRAIN SASUKE! I'M BUSY WITH SASUKE! YEAH RIGHT TRY TRAINING A HOSPITALIZED PERSON!" She fumed as Ino trailed behind her, jogging to catch up to Sakura's speed walk. People giving the girl's funny stares.
"Sakura! Wait up!" Ino called dashing after her.
Meanwhile Naruto just finished his eleventh bowl at the Ramen stand and was about to turn to the Pervy sage to thank him for the meal when he saw empty air beside him. The owner of the ramen stand looked expectantly at him holding out their hands for money and smiling. Naruto sweat dropped and turned to ask Sakura and Ino for help only to see more empty air. More sweat formed on his face as he pulled out his wallet. WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME SAKURA! I EXPECTED THIS FROM PERVY SAGE AND THE MEAN INO GIRL BUT YOU?
"I HAVE NO MORE MONEY!"
The next day went just as planned. Sakura spent most of the day just resting in a nice shady tree of Konoha that was in the Yamanaka backyard, a toothpick in her mouth after she just finished a sandwich.
She sighed in contentment liking the feeling of being lazy and finally understanding what Shikamaru felt when he stared at the clouds. Although she would never wish to just be pulled where she was taken as her lazy friend did, she was more of a go getter like Ino and Naruto, someone who chose for themselves what to do even if they had to fight the wind.
"Sakura! Come one lets get going I only have a 40 minute break and that's because I begged!" Sakura opened her eyes slowly and jumped down from the tree to go up the small hill, in the backdoor of the flower shop and out the other way, grabbing \ two lilies as she did so, making sure to give Ino the money to pay for them. Ino herself grabbed a rose.
"Why'd you take two flowers?" Ino asked as they were walking towards the hospital – a good ten-minute walk at that.
"One for Sasuke and the other one for Hinata." Ino's eyes widened in recognition. "You knew she was hospitalized after her battle with Neji right? Apparently her heart still isn't in the best shape so their making sure she gets some rest and they're monitoring her condition. For now it seems she's stable but still needs rest." Sakura explained.
Although she had been very busy training she made sure to keep up to date on her white eyed friend's condition when she came through town for food. She would just ask around to see what was heard, and her main resource was the owner of the dango shop, who seemed to know everything about everyone. Plus… she had Dango…
"Poor Hinata" Ino whispered as they finally approached the hospital doors.
Turns out Sasuke wasn't in his room which didn't surprise Sakura all that much and made her feel less angry at Kakashi seeing as he was at least busy with something after all. They both visited Hinata next, who was awake and eager, in her own Hinata – eager – way , for conversation which the other two girls supplied more then happily. Gradually she was improving, although she slept a lot of the time. Sakura was relieved her dear friend was fine, that Kakashi technically hadn't lied to her and that all seemed to be at peace. Things were bright, right, and happy.
Little did either of them know it wouldn't be the same tomorrow.
Basically he feels he has not choice but to care about her because he can't put it aside to kill her the way it is now. However, he thinks if she were to do something that would make him feel like she's sided against him he believes that would give him the ability to end her.
Gaara is basically possessive over her – like how he didn't like the idea of Sasuke and Naruto being closer to her. Because she's the only one he's letting in he doesn't want anything to happen to her and feels he's the only one who can protect her. (This idea is only strengthed by the fact that She got hurt and her nearly died while her team was no where in sight.) He doesn't really trust anyone with her. That and he wants to keep her close to him for as long as he possibly can.
Put this quote here just because I find it interesting and poetic in a creepy way. Can you tell that by putting Sakura down his blood lust his back? Yeah….
So Gaara basically feels a need to have her with him and she is the only person he really actually cares about what happens to her so to reach his goal it doesn't matter by what means he has to do it. He also figures that it will only hurt her emotionally a little bit and that she'll get over it, but if she picks them over him he believes he'll be able to kill her too and then it really wouldn't matter. (Note that I said he BELIEVES not that he can) Basically he want to cut her emotional ties to other people so that only he is left..
Okay so I chose for Gaara to face someone who knew what he was capable of and not fight him – because lets face it, if Sakura saw Gaara injury Lee mercilessly the way he did then she probably would avoid him for a while and then Gaara in his unstable emotional state would take it as a rejection and the whole thing will fall apart, That's why she doesn't see his full strength until later.
Okay I KNOW she sounds really arrogant but the truth is, the sakura I've been writing far exceeds Ino because she's been working so hard since she was 6. She, in the anime and this story, was easily able to master chakra control like it was second nature and thus able to learn jutsu far easier then normal people. She's already at like 10% her chakra infused punching and kicking state from shippudden so no matter how arrogant it may be coming across as it's the sad truth for Ino to face.
NEXT TIME ON AN ALL NEW: WHAT FATE BRINGS FORTH! (Que naruto music.)
Hinata - life on the line
Sakura hears the truth
Sasuke's deadly challenge
Found out in the next chapter: The final Test & Attack on the leaf!
