Erina narrowed her eyes at her brother as the proctor officially started the match and jumped a safe distance back. She hadn't been able to see Naruto's fight—she had to expect anything from the blond jinchuuriki. Luckily, she hadn't shown her hand either, giving away as little as possible in her match against Tenten. This match would be as blind as possible for both fighters, but Erina knew that she could probably beat Naruto down hard and fast enough that she'd avoid major injury.
"I won't be holding back, no matter what!" Naruto shouted with a brilliant grin on his face, drawing a kunai and lowering himself into a ready stance.
"Stop telling me and show me."
"I already am," the blond said with a happy smirk. Erina's eyes widened as her senses picked up a new source of chakra coming at her through the ground. She leapt back as quickly as she could, but not soon enough—a clone burst free from the ground, grabbing her ankle with one hand and preventing her from escaping. Erina slammed her free leg into the clone, dispelling it into a burst of smoke, and landed roughly on the broken ground. Cursing under her breath, she reviewed what she remembered of the arena after Naruto's fight with the Hyuuga boy.
There had been so much damage. A Hyuuga's attacks wouldn't have had that large an effect on the area—it had all been Naruto. He beat a Hyuuga in close or mid-range. I need to get farther away.
When Erina looked for Naruto, however, he was already long-gone, having used his clone as a distraction. She growled under her breath, drawing her sword with one hand and her small fan in the other.
"I didn't think hiding was your style," Erina called, hoping to goad the boy into the open. She was left caught between happy and disappointed that it actually worked as a volley of kunai flew out from the tree cover. Deciding that it would be best to keep an eye on the weapons so that Naruto couldn't use them again, Erina snapped her fan shut and ducked low, avoiding the majority of the weapons and deflecting the rest with her sword.
Dodging the weapons instead of sending them off course had bought Naruto time to make his move. He charged out of the trees, creating a dozen clones without any indications that he was tired from the jutsu. The clones surrounded Erina and she found herself in the middle of a mob. The clones fought like brawlers, grabbing at her ankles and wrists, attempting heavy haymakers, and caring little for their own safety. It was only years of practice against Gaara's sand that kept Erina from taking much damage from the onslaught, ducking and weaving through the blows and slicing where she could. The mob never seemed to end—Erina was convinced that Naruto was creating more clones as quickly as she was destroying them—but she couldn't disengage. She could slide a few feet in any direction, but the mob was constantly surrounding her and, at times, she was surrounded by three rings of blond genin.
"Enough!" Erina shouted, opening her small fan and whipping it in front of her, clearing a path for her to escape. Clones started to fill in the gauntlet and Erina sprinted out of their reach, dancing away and wielding her fan with extreme prejudice to sweep the clones out of her way. Sheathing her sword and drawing a tagged kunai from her holster in one fluid motion, Erina let the explosive do its work and take out the rest of the clones as she got the distance she needed to catch her breath after the onslaught of clones.
Erina took a steadying breath and moved her hands into seals for the first time.
"Suna bunshin," she muttered, forming a half dozen sand clones, taking care to load each with as much chakra as she dared. Naruto could have his clones—now she had hers. The only difference was that he needed to constantly recreate his clones, while hers would recreate themselves until the chakra she'd formed them with was depleted. With the last few moments of peace she could risk, Erina directed the clones to where Naruto's original mob had attacked her.
Strategy—I need to put him down hard and fast. If he's anything like I am, I won't be able to let him tire himself out. Our battle of attrition could go on for days if I'm not smart… I normally get in close to take people down, but he defeated a Hyuuga in close-combat. I don't want to risk too much energy on those odds alone. I was cleared to pull him out, but I'd rather avoid that if I can.
Can you just shut up and pull me out? I can feel it—my other half—biting at the bit on this one. Hearing the Kyuubi speak made Erina's decision slightly easier, but it was still risky. The intel Suna had suggested that Naruto had no sort of training with the Kyuubi, but she still had to be sure that she could win. If that information was false, and Naruto had been trained to harness Kurama's energy, she could possibly lose.
That strain of thought reminded her of the resentment Naruto seemed to face in the village, which cemented the truth in Erina's mind. There was no way he was actually trained to harness the power the village feared and hated.
"Fight me yourself!" Erina roared, her order echoing off of the trees she had caught her breath among. She stepped out of the relative safety back onto the open ground. Naruto was standing on one of the large boulders breaking out of the earth, overlooking the battle of clones that was taking over part of the field, and he turned to meet Erina's eyes with a grin.
"I thought you'd never ask!" he bantered back, leaping down and settling down into a ready stance. Erina also slipped into a ready stance, but she took it a step further. She closed her eyes, focusing for a brief moment.
In the stands, Sarutobi Hiruzen's blood ran cold as he realized what was happening. His hands tightened around the ends of his armrests. Beside him, the Kazekage's lips turned up in a smirk.
A rush of wind whipped around Erina, causing her cropped red hair to flare up around her face. Chakra gathered around her on the wind and, when they opened, her eyes were a dark red color. Undisguised battle lust shone in those eyes and light glinted off of her sharpened canines when her lip curled into an anticipatory grin.
Across from Erina, Naruto was frozen with fear, shock, and what might have been shame.
"What's wrong, Naruto? You don't want to fight me on even grounds?" Erina purred, the Kyuubi slowly surfacing. Erina, in the most rational part of her mind, was recoiling from the betrayed look on Naruto's face
"You—how do you—" He was so utterly shocked that Erina almost didn't attack. She almost explained herself, but Erina wasn't one to monologue. It might have been more honorable to wait until he had recovered some of his wits, but Erina was a shinobi, not a samurai. She rushed forward, cocking her fist back.
To be honest, Erina hadn't expected the hit to land cleanly. It was because of that, she told herself, that her fist slammed into Naruto's jaw with enough force to create an audible crack a split-second before he went flying. He hit the ground harshly, rolling and eventually sliding to a stop just a few feet away from the arena wall. Erina followed after him, but didn't attack immediately. An irrational part of her forced her to look at the aftermath of her haymaker before she could decide her next move.
Taking a look at the boy, the air was knocked from Erina's lungs and she fell to her knees. He had managed to get to his knees, but no further. His arm was bent in an unnatural place and he was covered in dirt and gashes that bled onto his orange clothes, dying the material. He probably could have continued fighting, but the look he was giving her froze her in place.
I hate bullies… Weren't those my words?
Naruto stared up at Erina with all the hurt and pain that she had buried in her heart. Those were the eyes she had looked up at the chuunin woman with all those years ago, right before she had stabbed her attacker in the gut and left her dead eyes staring at the hot sun in an alley.
"I'm—"
But Erina couldn't even apologize. Just like all those years ago, her apologies had run dry again.
"This match is over!" The proctor jumped down beside Naruto and Erina, holding a kunai in one hand as if to keep the Suna jinchuuriki away from her latest victim. Erina took a step back, willingly backing down and forcing Kurama's energy to ebb.
Killjoy, Kurama muttered as he returned to the seal, but he gave no other complaint.
"Namikaze Erina is the winner of this match," the proctor announced, looking as if he wanted to use the kunai in his grip to claw the girl's eyes out. Instead, he turned his head and called for the medics.
Erina remained rooted to the spot as the medics came, all whispering and peering at her out of the corner of their eyes, to take Naruto away for healing. It was only when he was out of her sight that she was able to move at all, but she still couldn't close her eyes without seeing his eyes—bright, blue, and betrayed, staring up at her. She told herself that it was unreasonable to feel that way—they were nearly at war, for Kami's sake!—but that wasn't as convincing as she'd hoped. Those eyes never forgave her, and that hurt never fully went away.
"Erina." Gaara's voice was soft as Erina entered the competitor's box. She felt numb, even as Gaara's hand reached out to grab her wrist. She jerked at the contact—Gaara rarely, if ever, initiated physical contact. It was a habit from his years of semi-isolation. If he didn't let anyone close, no one could hurt him as Yashamaru did. Erina understood, and she had never pressured him to be anything he wasn't. It wasn't like she exactly knew how to show affection for him or anyone else, either.
A bloom of warmth spread from Erina's wrist where Gaara had grabbed her and she started to look up at him. Behind the male jinchuuriki, though, Erina could see Naruto's teammate—the Uchiha. He didn't look sad for his teammate, but there was an anger about him that alerted her that he was more dangerous than his roughed up physique—still semi-injured from the battle with Rock Lee—suggested.
"Are you okay?" Gaara asked softly. Erina started to nod, but stopped herself, eventually settling into a frown.
"Does it matter?" she shot back just as softly. Her job was done for now. The Konoha jinchuuriki was knocked out of the fighting for the invasion. She could focus on protecting Gaara. Just because it was her brother that she had to defeat to accomplish her goals should mean nothing.
A shinobi must always put the mission first.
"Doesn't it?" Gaara replied as the proctor called for the next two semi-finalists.
Sasuke pushed past the pair and Gaara was careful to keep an eye on the other boy until he was well out of the room. Even with the two of them alone, Gaara was stunned as he realized that he had never released Erina's wrist from his grip. He let her go as if her skin had burned his, but she was too lost in her thoughts to notice his reaction. Before he left, however hesitantly it might have been, Gaara still took care to tap his forefinger against her palm twice—the oldest code the two had ever needed while on missions.
With just that final message, Gaara followed Sasuke down to the arena floor, leaving Erina in her turbulent thoughts and slightly shaky hands. Those hands eventually tightened into fists, though, and she stared out of the competitor's box with a patched-up resolve and a quiet determination.
The code had been simple—survive, or I'll kill you—but, as the years past and the two became more comfortable around the other, the code changed from a demand to a hope—survive, and we'll deal with the rest later.
Erina would follow that code. She would make sure that she survived long enough to sort out her head on her own time. She needed her head on straight if she wanted to make it through the battle ahead, and no bright blue eyes could distract her from that ultimate goal.