Here's the fourteenth chapter!!!
Pretty long since I had some extra time on my hand today.
I took all my finals last week. Whoo!
I hope I passed. lol
This chapter is mostly Sasusaku.
Thanks to my reviewers, You guys are awesome!

Pairings: Nejiten, Sasusaku, Shikatema.

Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto.

Someone Other Than Yourself

Chapter 14

By: turtlechick

Sakura-

"Guys we've got a problem!" I had been stuffed in the bathroom with Tenten all morning, something was definitely wrong. She had been throwing up and a fever to go along with that. She looked horrible.

"What is it Sakura?" Shikamaru asked, toothbrush hanging out of his mouth.

"Tenten's sick." I answered him as the others met us in the hall. Today was the day of our race against team Hawkeye, so everyone was up pretty early.

"What?" Neji asked, he seemed just as concerned as Shikamaru…I knew it!

"She's been throwing up all morning, and she's got a pretty high fever." I explained, everyone seemed equally concerned. Sasuke ran off to his room and came back with his cordless phone. "Who are you calling?" I asked.

"Shizune…Hello." The person on the other end had picked up the phone.

"Shizune is one of Tsunade's oldest friends, she also a doctor." Temari said, running a brush through her blond hair. Hopefully this Shizune person could help Tenten.

"She's on her way." Sasuke said when he hung up the phone.

Shikamaru and I went to go check on Tenten. She was in the same place I had left her, lying on the floor, curled around the toilet. Her hair, not in her buns, was all over the floor and, her face was pale white, so in other words, she looked like shit.

XxX

Shizune was a skinny woman with short black hair, she seemed nice enough and the others trusted her. I had thought about what could have been making Tenten sick and a few things came to mind; it could have been food poisoning from that sushi but if that were the case then Temari and I would be sick as well. I thought it just might be stomach bug, but it was strange was almost never sick, she always made sure to take her vitamins and was in good shape.

Shizune stepped out the room and sighed. "It seems that Tenten's got a food allergy. What has she had in the past twenty four hours that she hasn't eaten before?" So it was the sushi.

"Well we had some sushi last night." Temari admitted.

"That's what it is. She should be fine by tomorrow but she won't be able to race today." That was a like a kick in the butt to the rest of us. Now what were we going to do? We looked around the searching for a suggestion. The only two available people were Shikamaru and me.

"What about you Sakura?" Sasuke suggested.

"Yeah, Sakura you always give the best advice, I bet you're a great pilot!" Temari exclaimed, happy that her mistake was being easily being remedied.

I waved my hands in front of my face. "Look guys I'm not much of a pilot. I've only driven a mecha like twice. What about Shikamaru?" I don't think they were going to buy it.

"Sakura you'd be a much better candidate than me. You should do it. It's only for this one race."

I couldn't believe I was giving in so easily. "Fine." I sighed. "But wait who's going to look after Tenten?" Maybe I wouldn't have to race because obviously someone needed to take care of my best friend who, at the moment was sprawled out on the floor of her bathroom.

"That's alright I'll look after her today." Damn. I forgot that Shizune was here.

XxX

We were a little early today because we had all thought that we were late because of the incident with Tenten. I hope that she was better when we got back, I couldn't bear to see her like that. Shikamaru was giving us a rundown of the other team before we got suited up.

"Hinata and Matsuri are their forwards, there not too fast it's the other two we have to worry about. Ino is there defender and she's good. Sasuke you've got your hands full. And last is Karin, their attacker, Neji and Sakura watch your backs." I had forgotten about Karin. I definitely wasn't looking forward to this.

Speaking of Karin, she came in our hangar. I could spot that flaming red hair from a mile away. She immediately spotted Sasuke and ran up to him.

"Hey Sasuke!" She batted her ugly eyelashes in his direction. All of a sudden I felt a surge of jealousy. I don't know why, it was probably was just the fact that we were teammates. I was glaring daggers into her back. Sasuke gaze went to me and Karin followed it leading right to me. "What are you doing in here? What are you saying they didn't dump you yet?" Her eyes locked with mine. "I would have thought that even Temari would have been smart enough to not keep you on the team for very long. Oh well I guess I was wrong."

"Actually Ka-rin, Sakura is replacing Tenten in the race today." Temari snapped, she obvious was as happy to see her as I was.

Karin let out a laugh. "You've got to be kidding me! Have you even been in a race before?"

"No."

She stopped laughing. "Well you're in for a rude awakening." She glared one last time at me and then smiled at Sasuke. She flipped her hair in our direction and was gone. What a great way to start my first race.

Sasuke-

I was able to grab Temari before we all left to suit up, I had an idea for our race today, that just might be able to pull out the win.

"Switch me positions."

"What are you talking about?" She snapped, obviously she hadn't catching on quite yet.

"Think about it. Karin is going to be our biggest problem, if we send you in front of her, she's going to rip into you but, if we put me out there, she won't touch me. All I have do is hold her off, and you just have to get past Ino. Neji and Sakura can do the rest."

She was on the fence about it, I could tell. "Fine." She said hesitantly.

XxX

Sakura-

On the track, I was feeling even more nervous. I felt like I was going to throw up all of the butterflies fluttering around in my chest. My hands were sweaty and I had the biggest lump in my throat. I had actually only driven a mecha about three times, I guess you could say I was inexperienced. I was good at giving advice but I don't know if I would actually be able apply it in a race. It was like the saying, "those who can't do, teach." I hope I didn't let the others down.

Right after we arrived team Hawkeye came rolling in and soon after that the race started. "Sakura." It was Neji. I wasn't really expecting him to keep me in the loop, for the one reason, that I wasn't Tenten. "We need to get as far ahead as we can. Our mechas are a lot faster than Hinata's and Matsuri's. The only thing we need to worry about is Karin. Got it?" I nodded into the camera and Neji's face went back to the race. He started going faster and faster until he was a way ahead of me, it was then that I realized that I needed to speed up as well.

Neji was right, we were easily faster than Hinata and Matsuri. When I looked around I noticed that something was different. Usually as a defender, Temari would be closer to me but that wasn't the case. She was near Ino ready to attack while Sasuke hovered near Neji and I. I couldn't see Karin at the moment, but she was close, I could feel it.

We passed the start line and the second lap started, it was then that all chaos erupted. At that moment Neji shot like a bullet ahead of the pack and left me in the dust. I quickly hit my throttle and tried my hardest to catch-up with Neji. I was satisfied when I could barely see him but was far enough ahead of Matsuri and Hinata. All I had to do was come in second, right?

I saw a blip coming up on my scanner at an incredibly fast speed, Karin I was guessing. I started to go faster but she still gained on me. I tried to stay calm but at that moment it was impossible. I bet if I could see her face she would be laughing her ass off as she sped up to catch up with me. But there was also another mecha coming up from behind… was that Sasuke's? Something was up, usually it would have been Temari who would be coming to help me out.

I could feel Karin right behind me but I just kept trying to go faster, but it felt like nothing I did made me go any faster. After this was all over I was definitely going to appreciate the others more. I finally looked behind me and it was right when she was going to pounce, but something jumped in the way and that something happened to be Sasuke's black mecha. Karin stopped her attack immediately.

"Sasuke what are you doing?" I said into the mic.

"Temari and I switched positions for this race, now go before Neji gets too far ahead." It was funny to see Karin try and get past Sasuke without touching him. She would move and inch and he mirrored every movement like it were his own. I can only imagine the curse words coming from her mouth.

We passed the start line again and it seemed like clear sailing from there on out. Temari must have been doing a good job because I hadn't seen Matsuri or Hinata in a while. And Sasuke just kept moving in front of Karin. It was a good strategy alright. She was never going to intentionally hurt, "her Sasuke." The finish line came soon after and we had won. I can't believe that I survived that, it was actually sort of… a rush.

We were all happy that was for sure and so was the crowd, but you could hardly hear them over Karin's screaming. I guess she didn't take losing too well.

XxX

On the way back to apartments on the radio was the results of today's race.

"The winners of today's race and will be racing in the finals are team Katsuyu and team Akatski."

I guess that Kankerou's team had lost to them as well. Sure we had made it to the finals but was it enough to beat the champions. Well at least Tenten would be able to race.

Yeah I know it was kind of low key but this story is winding down a bit.
I gonna make a guesstimate and say there will be... three or four more chapters left.
I hope you liked it!!!

Please review and even if you don't check out some of my other stories XD

turtlechick...out