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The Battle's Conclusion!

As the dust slowly settled, the tension mounted. Every ninja present was completely focused on learning the outcome of the fight. Eventually, the shadows of two figures, standing in the middle of the arena, started to become more detailed. There, Gaara and Haji stood, face to face, each panting heavily at the other. As more of the dust settled, the damage slowly became easier to see. Gaara, no longer transformed, had multiple bruises, along with a broken arm. But everyone could see that Haji was even worse off. His right arm hung limply by his side, and there was a massive laceration on his left side. The blood from that wound had already formed a small pool at his feet.

"Gaara... take this."

In Haji's hand was a letter, signed by the hokage. Blood had dampened the crumpled paper, and as a result, had torn in a few places. Gaara looked at it with a suspicious eye, but took it anyway.

"What is it?" Gaara whispered.

"It's a letter, which con...tains information regarding your father... the KazeKage. It also explains... the true objective of... your so called ally, Orochimaru."

With that, Haji promptly collapsed, hitting the ground with a soft thud. As Gaara gazed at his fallen opponent, he realized that there was no longer any need to kill him. It wasn't because his opponent was weak, or not worth the time. Haji had fought and given his all, not to kill him, but to fight to the very best of his ability. In addition, Haji had never once shown fear or disgust while in his presence, like so many others had. Instead, he respected Gaara, not just as a fighter, but as a fellow Shinobi.

"The winner... is Gaara!" the judge bellowed, as Gaara made his way back to the balcony, bloody letter in hand.

The medical team arrived soon afterward, and, after hauling him off to the sidelines, began to tend to his wounds. Kakashi appeared, helping where he could. When he returned, he found his team waiting patiently to hear about Haji's condition.

"So... How is he, Kakashi? Is he going to be alright?" Sakura asked nervously.

"I'm not sure, Sakura. The doctors say it'll take a few weeks for him to recover."

"Why so long? Doesn't he have some kind of healing ability?" Naruto asked.

"He does, Naruto. But it appears that Haji is suffering from ECD, or Extreme Chakra Depletion. Even though his wounds are superficial, it'll be a while before he can fight again."

"I see..."