Continuing to watch was like instinct with this battle. No one in the dojo saw someone fight as beautifully as Hana, making violence look enchanting and graceful. None had ever seen a person battle like Souta, either, he was tough and smart at using words. Wherever they learned their techniques, they begged their sensei to take them.

Her other elbow swung to hit him in the gut. Her leg swung to hit him, but instead missed, and he grabbed it. He threw her over his shoulder into one of many legs holding up the second level.

Standing up, she threw a kunai at him, which stabbed his arm.

He pulled it out, cringing, before tossing it back at her.

She caught it an inch from her left eye.

"That would be a shame to lose your pretty eyes, wouldn't it," Souta asked loudly.

She ignored him to punch him in the gut. Training with Jiraiya increased Hana's power ten fold and then more sparring against Yamato caused her to appear almost unbeatable. However, Yamato sucked at teaching her to control emotions. Souta began to throw senbon, missing her as she, literally, twirled in escaping them. Some things didn't change - Hana still looked as though she was dancing while fighting at times. Not that it's a bad thing. In fact, it was an extremely good thing.

Each time he tossed a weapon, it missed, and it made him happy deep down.

Hurt her, and he just may regret it. Friends, they'd been friends during their childhood. Pain, the leader of Akatsuki, thought sending Souta into the Chuunin Exam could somehow persuade her in coming back. She was only so far away, but that damn Uzumaki Naruto was in the way of it all.

"Fighting for him won't keep him alive," Souta yelled as he ran up the wall and onto the railing, Hana hot on his tail. He felt a kunai jab into his arm and jumped onto the opposite side of the railing. He ran with his arms out at his sides, a grin on his face as he watched Hana chase after him. "That little ghoul's mine for the taking."

Ironically enough, she was right in front of her team, standing on the railing without any trouble.

Souta smiled darkly at this. "You think you're so tough, Hana? May I ask just which one is more fun?" He chuckled, "That idiot," he glanced at Naruto, "or Hibiki?"

Her appearance was calm yet full of seriousness and determination. "Are you seriously asking me that right now? And you're calling Naruto the idiot?" She scoffed.

"Between you and I, Hana? I'll definitely choose you as the idiot. I've been smart in my choices - I choose comrades over strangers. You can't even make a clear choice between two simpletons right now."

She tilted her head in a bored manner. "I bet you couldn't call Him that to his face. If He was here, you'd be dead had he heard you refer to him as a 'simpleton'."

"Changing the subject to avoid answering me?" He threw a shuriken at her then a kunai.

She caught both in her hands without moving. She sighed heavily. "Don't get hypocritical over one guy. It's irritating."

"JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION," he grew flustered, waving his arms like a mad man.

She answered with a sweat-drop, "I'd rather be near a dobe than a cold-hearted bastard, especially that cold-hearted bastard."

Naruto became aware that Sakura was eyeing him; she knew he wanted to blush so badly.

Hana flipped backwards as it was obvious to her Souta was on his way to Naruto. Blinking once then twice, the blond found he was thrown against the wall. Hana stood in front of him and Souta in front of her. She tossed Naruto back a few feet with one single, harsh push. Kunai in hand - three to be exact - she stood waiting for anything. As did Kakashi and Yamato. The cherry blossom quickly led the kids to another spot with Ebisu's help and directed by Hana.

"What's the big idea," Souta asked. "All I wanna do is properly greet the guy. It's not like I'm scheming something. Jeez, I'm not a cunning kitsune," he grinned, "or anything."

"You don't need to even look in his direction," she narrowed her eyes.

Gaara stood incase of need for help. Tsunade stood from her chair with Jiraiya back at her side. Everyone in the building became quiet with anxiety pulsing through their veins. This did not seem good anymore. Danger now took over.

Souta smirked. "Aw, come on, Hana-chan! Don't get so jealous. I won't take him from you or anything."

"Give up or we'll keep going and these kids will have to wait longer to become a Chuunin. I don't mind putting an end to this."

He appeared saddened by that. "You would kill your best friend over a simple Jinchuuriki?"

From her pouch she got out a shuriken for her left hand. "You are one of Them; you are Akatsuki." The ones standing around her immediately got at the ready to protect Naruto, should need be. Sakura and Naruto, however, gulped loudly. Hana continued, "I'll fight alongside him and Sakura, as well as the rest of Konoha to stop each of you."

"Why does that not surprise me?"

Hearing him speak helped them remember Naruto was there.

Her arm swung out as Souta flew forward. Small grunts of pain came from him while he asked if the Jinchuuriki also came before Hibiki now. Hana continued to run after him in a circle of the railing.

That attractive white haired man meant nothing to her now; Hibiki was no longer in her heart.

"I believe I already answered that question."

Something struck her in the leg, but she didn't look to see what.

Later, after she did more damage, she found that it had been a shuriken that struck her leg. Like medical tape, just rip it off, she told herself. Yanking the weapon out didn't hurt a bit, either. Ebisu made a disgusted noise as if he were going to puke. Not even a whimper or whine came from her.

Weapons back in their pouch, Hana began making hand seals. "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!"

Fireballs were then spat at the red-headed Souta. Unaware of each shuriken hidden within the fire, he received multiple cuts as the fire diminished and each blade slid past his speed, still catching his clothes.

"Damn!"

Now he finally realized she was serious about hurting him.

Tsunade didn't know whether or not it could be handled without her or Gaara's intervention. Out of the blue, Hana caught sight of one team-mate Souta made way for. Except it was only an illusion caused by Souta's mist jutsu. She understood as she flew into his kunai, it stuck into her abdomen.

Letting her violet orbs look up, she saw the own shock in his eyes. It wouldn't bother anyone back at the base that he hurt her but Souta himself. Maybe Hibiki, but Souta doubted that. His heart crushed when Hana tried to say something and all that came out was a rough gasp.

"Nng! Mist…"

Souta tense as she leaned into him, the mist clearing around them, causing gasps.

"I didn't t-think you could actually hurt me. Good for you. You've learned to keep your emotions hidden. That's real good." She jumped flinched away, aiming for distance between them. A few inches away was as far she could go, even then she was hunched over.

"What?" Rough coughs echoed through the arena from his opponent. "You can't even breath without coughing up blood! You're going to keep fighting me even though you could bleed out and die?! All because of that idiot?! He has the Kyuubi inside and They'll eventually catch him! Why put up such a fight?! Hana-chan doesn't usually go so far for guys…Must be special."

The team stood leaning over the railing. Naruto sweat-dropped, "Why do I always get the role of the boyfriend?"

"It's a shinobi's duty to help a comrade, isn't it?" Hana straightened up, "Besides, I promised Tsunade that I would do be part of their team. I don't know about you, but I take being a shinobi pretty damn seriously."

Blood still seeping out, she did several back flips to avoid Souta's swings. Once his fist was caught then, she threw him into a wall. He bounced back and sent a gust of wind at her strong enough it knocked her in the air then he kicked her down. There wasn't a single cry and Konoha shinobi began fearing the worst. Souta walked cautiously towards her knowing something that trivial hadn't the impact to kill.

Not this girl, at least.

Though, it did knock the breath out of her. She laid gasping once he came close enough. He yanked her up from behind by the hair. On her knees, Hana's jaw clenched in pain.

"Should I cut your hair off? I always liked it better short." He laughed. "If I killed you now, there's nothing blaming me. Is that what you want? To die for a guy you've only known a short while?"

"If I die protecting a comrade, at least I can die with honor. But you," she smirked, "you can't kill me because you don't have the guts. You cried while pulling my pigtails once so I'd have someone to cry with. You care for me too much. It's your downfall. But if you want to attempt to try and be the man you wish you could be, go ahead. Kill me."

Tsunade's eyes widened as she bolted from her seat. She took three steps towards the platform with Gaara at her side. He flickered his forest-green eyes from the girl to the boy, both looking rough. Before he could take any more steps with Tsunade, Souta's grip faltered. Neither Kage knew if it was because he really couldn't kill her or because she was getting to him. Either way, Hana kicked him into the Kage seating area.

One Kage moved out the way while another merely ducked. The one called "A" raised his brows at the impact Souta made with the wall. "Impressive," his deep voice muttered.

Out of nowhere she came again. A clone of her kicked the opponent over but he quickly disposed of it. He threw a series of weapons that would've ended the match but she bent backwards. Rapid hand seals formed with her hands for the Great Fireball Jutsu and hurled towards Souta, who had already been wounded multiple places.

Being kicked into a wall made them worse and it only took her jutsu to end the match.

The metal Konoha symbol on her forehead protector, which she wore on her left bicep, clanked against the floor as she fell.

Hayate Gekkou, the proctor, had not the chance to even declare her as the winner yet. Not that he needed to. Hinata rushed down in order to stop her blood loss.

Team Yakashi followed into the infirmary where they could give her immediate medical attention.

Sat up too quickly and she fell back with her hand clutching her stomach. Rolling to her side, Hana felt her knee budge something.

At her side, a young man was snoring obnoxiously loud. To her right, she noticed Konohamaru was asleep in the bed next to hers. The cherry blossom was sitting at the end of her bed and a rosy-cheeked girl in her lap. Udon was lying at the foot of the bed with his feet on Konohamaru's.

"You shouldn't have gotten up too fast."

Her eyes drifted back to the those around the bed and, finally, Kakashi at the window. "Hn."

"Right after the match, you collapsed and were rushed here. All of them refused to leave you and that one even made Ebisu-san move his bed by yours." He indicated to Konohamaru.

"Could he snore any louder? I mean really," she glanced at Naruto.

"Actually, he could," Kakashi chuckled.

Yamato informed her that she'd been out for two days. One in the infirmary at the arena then yesterday after being transferred back to Konoha. That was fine, just not what she'd been wondering about. Would be a stupid question to ask how Souta was doing. Not suppose to be worried about someone that was trying to take Naruto.

Body was too sore to persuade herself to ask them anyhow. Her stomach was in such pain, causing a gasp. Her sudden movement caused a domino effect. Udon jumped in his sleep, making Konohamaru sit up screaming. He whacked Udon in the leg with his crutch, which caused him to scream also and wake the others.

"What are you two doing?! You're gonna wake up Onee-sama!" Moegi growled.

"Too late," Udon pointed at her.

"Hana-sama! Are you okay? Is your shoulder okay? What about your head?" Konohamaru poked and lifted her leg then her arm. "Or your stomach?" When he went for her stomach, she caught his hand.

"Do it, and I swear I'll rip your arm off, and beat you with the bloody stub of it."

Suddenly she felt a hand lying on hers. She looked to her left and saw Naruto still asleep, and was clutching her hand in his. A squeeze made her snap out of her thoughts. She pinched his hand and he snapped up, waving his hand in the air from pain.

"Ouch!"

"Watch who's hand you hold," she roared with sharpened teeth.

Sakura returned with painkillers, and gave Hana took them gratefully. She slept like a baby. Her pain was gone for a few hours and it felt like she was brand new again. When she woke up, the side effects had worn off, causing the pain to return. Not wanting them to worry, she kept silent. Konohamaru ordered Ebisu around for water and anything else he could think of. It was then that she remembered what she had promised him.

"Hey Konohamaru?" He looked to her. "You got through the match..."

He was confused, "Eh?" She swiftly leaned over, placing a kiss on his cheek. He turned beat red while his sensei told her not to get so close.

Moegi narrowed her eyes before Naruto plainly let his thoughts escape, "Gross!"

Again, Tani Hana found herself in Tsunade's office except this time she was in big trouble. The entire team was there while the Hokage yelled at her for egging Souta on during the match. Naruto pretty much figured out she was put on the team to watch over him. Shizune quickly lied that Hana was brought here because her family passed, which was part true, and Kakashi offered to have her living with him. In addition to that, he found out how strong she was and knew she could help keep Naruto safe.

It didn't bother him though. At least now he knew why she was so serious about having his back.

"So Hana watches over him in return for Sensei letting her live with him," Sakura wanted confirmation.

Hai, Shizune reassured, like a deal.

But why did it matter, if she carried out her part of the deal?

"Because," Tsunade snapped, "Hana went overboard. Hana is suppose to do whatever it takes to keep Naruto safe, but when the opponent makes no actual move, she does not go after him. He was playing with your head and you let it get to you. And the attack used on him did not go unnoticed, Hana. My point is that a shinobi does not torture their victim. You were playing a game of cat and mouse."

Their masked sensei attempted to defend Hana in an adult way, but the way he was glared at stopped him.

"And acting with such haste because you let Souta get to you caused you to lose a whole pint of blood! I had to listen to Jiraiya whine like a child a -"

The small yet muscle toned Tani sighed. "Whatever. I did my part and fought my match, which I won and became a Chuunin because of my quick actions, as Kazekage said. And Souta got what he gave."

They departed the administration building after Tsunade told them to just get out before she blew up again. While they trained lightly (for Hana's sake), she wondered how long Tsunade would be upset. During the few weeks she's been in Konoha, they spent a lot of time together, when Hana wasn't with Jiraiya or her team. The Hokage was like her mother.

It made her feel weird knowing she was fighting with her. But in her defense, Hana only protected a comrade, and isn't that what Tsunade would've done?

Sakura believed Ichiraku was their regular hang out since Kakashi and Naruto always dragged them there. Everything seemed alright, even with Hana. Of course she was still a little down but the village's atmosphere tonight made it all okay. When they received their food, Hana cocked her head at the food.

"What the hell's this?"

"What's wrong," Sakura asked before tasting some of the diet version Ayame added to her outo-san's menu a while back.

Holding it up with chopsticks, Hana said she thought they were eating ramen. Much to Ayame's dismay, Naruto just dumped the soup onto Hana's noodles.

Ayame screeched, "Why did you do that for, Naruto?!"

"It's annoying when she yells, and I didn't want to hear it while eating."

After she glared at him, Hana threw an egg at him then mixed the soup and noodles. Sakura watched as the flower tasted. It tasted just like regular ramen, she noted, then allowed the blossom to try it for herself.

Seconds later, and Hana felt something hit her cheek. Wiping it off and looking down, she saw it was the egg from earlier. Naruto acted as though he didn't do anything by innocently talking to Kakashi. While his back was turned, she chuckled with mischief.

Having dumped half the side dish of wasabi into his bowl then mixing it, she carried out revenge. She watched him eat out the corner of her eye and saw his face twist bitterly. For the first time since she'd stepped foot into Konoha - er, been carried into Konoha, Hana laughed, really laughed.

Though he was irritated at her joke, her laugh was somewhat nice. She quit laughing when she saw him smiling. "What are you smiling about? You're suppose to be mad, not happy."

"You want me to yell at you?"

"Yes," she emphasized. "That's what we do. You do something stupid and I make a smart comment; I make a joke or prank you and we start fighting. It's our thing."

"What do you want me to do? Reenact it?" He thought, we have a thing, and his face felt suddenly warm.

"No, moment's gone now," she sighed.

Milliseconds passed by before Ayame pulled out a box of sugary goods. Immediately digging in, the blossom reveled in her sweet tooth's addiction - warabimochi. But the ordinary flower had no idea what Ayame was offering her.

Naruto snorted, "Never had wagashi before?"

Quizzically looking from the box, Hana's face turned innocent with big eyes, "No."

Ayame's jaw dropped in shock. In all of her years, Tani Hana never touched wagashi once. "Do you see any that you'd like to try?"

"I...like strawberries."

Holding a round, faded pink rice cake, she eyed it curiously. Ayame said, think of it as perfection, pinkette agreeing. A good idea would be poking her tongue at it first. Had it been gross she still could spit it out without tasting it long.

Except Naruto just pushed it fully in her mouth. Cheeks bloated, she looked like a chipmunk. And, God help him, he thought it was somehow cute. He flushed deeper than ever.

Because her mouth had no room for chewing, Hana was forced it down whole; not that it mattered. The flower just found a new love. Eyes sparkling from endearment may have been more emotion she'd ever shown. "Um, where did you get those?" She looked over the rest of the sweets with a rounder face and drool slipping from her mouth at the mere thought of it being inside it.

"A tea shop my friend went to yesterday had these. I came back earlier because of the ramen shop. When she came back this morning, she gave me some more. Did you like it? I can give you a recipe but making them isn't my specialty."

Hana held out her hand and simply said in a child-like voice, "Gimmie ~"

How do you go about making wagashi, she read the recipe over and over again. It had been the first time she tried it yesterday. Eating them was easy except creating one seemed harder. Sakura knew a lot about them, the generous blossom jumped on chances for girl time. Much to the Tani's confusion, Sakura left home a few minutes ago with Naruto.

"Arigatou."

Even though that usually meant people left, Hana got stuck listening about how happy the pair seemed.

Pay a visit to Sakura and ask for help, make wagashi, eat and repay Ayame. That's all she wanted from the trip to Haruno's home. Not listen to the head female brag about her daughter's date with a guy Hana started whatever-ing for. She couldn't even bring herself to say it.

Jealousy actually resided in her. A jealousy streak. Well, isn't that ironic, she thought bitterly.

Whilst kicking at the dirt, she ran into someone. Irony seriously hated Tani Hana.

The pale pinkette stood up then brushed herself off. Hana got up as well before giving a small apology and glanced in anything that could take her attention. That is, she tried but Sakura and Naruto quickly hid what they held behind their backs.

Love trinkets?

Was it normal - feeling like this seeing them together?

"Oh, uh, h-hey, Hana!" Sakura blabbered.

Pause for a second then keep walking, they planned. All their hard work may go up in smoke should they be found out. A while now they'd been keeping this a secret and it was too late in the game to get caught.

"Hn," Hana kept walking.

Just as the other two thought the flower got use to them she pulled herself closed again. Quizzical looks followed her and Sakura sighed. "Go on, I'll carry this back to my house." Naruto thanked her before running after Hana. The cherry blossom shook her head. "Sasuke, if you could see him now, you'd call him a love sick dobe."

Inner Sakura wanted to reminisce of old times, which she allowed back home.

It wasn't long before her male team-mate came knocking on her door. Sakura stepped to the side so he could come in. Gloom surrounded him. "Hana-chan is so pissed at me and I don't even know what I did."

"How do you know she's upset?"

Tea came sat on the table while he explained. "She ignored me." Oh, that's definitely a bad sign. With Naruto, Hana always smacked him in an attempt of showing her anger. If she's really ignoring him, he did something horrible. "I yelled at her thinking it would get her attention. I tapped her shoulder and I knew she was ignoring me then."

"She seemed upset with me too. Are you absolutely sure she's ignoring you?"

He brought his head up showing a faint blush. "Sakura-chan, I even acted perverted and was again ignored."

"How did I know you pulled a stunt like that? I don't even wanna know what you did. Just get that and that, then mix them together. Once you're finished, I need help buying a present. Earlier, we got everything but I forgot the important thing: A freaking present."