The fight kept going and going; but nobody in the audience lost interest in the battle below.
Dhana's water technique was still active. The water, or should I say: ground, tried to drown Sasuke, but with no success. Although Sasuke received some hard waves crashing into his body, he stayed strong and alert. Everybody could see that Sasuke was playing around; although he didn't mean to be mean. Let's say he was holding back.
Well sure, he was mad at Dhana, but if he was in her position, he'd probably do the same, maybe even worse.
This woman didn't do anything wrong – well, except for the fact that she loved Fusu, that was a big mistake.
Another stone-wave managed to hit Sasuke this time and this one was nasty. It hurt a lot actually.
It was the first time one of Dhana's waves could bring Sasuke so close to death.
Sasuke felt the pressure of the painful wave, trying to get him under the ground, and drown him.
Sasuke gritted his teeth in pain when he felt the rocks beneath the surface digging holes in his skin. The pressure got bigger and bigger…
Everything started to hurt; his head getting squashed, the scar in his leg, his chest, but most importantly:
The curse seal.
Sasuke couldn't help but panic when he felt the old pain from the curse seal taking over his body.
"DADDY!!" Reko cried after he saw his father disappear under the waves of stone.
Naruto had grabbed the railing with both hands to lean closer; hoping he'd see what was going on. Sakura hid her mouth behind her hands, her eyes wide.
Sasuke knew he had to get out of here; not only would he suffocate if he stayed, his curse seal would go out of control as well.
Dhana smirked by seeing she succeeded.
"Pathetic Uchiha. Pa-the-tic".
Sasuke grabbed his own throat with both hands. Panic took over. Right now, he was buried alive and he just breathed his last breath.
"I need to calm down!!" Sasuke managed to think.
Closing his eyes, Sasuke knew he had to think straight to get out, but it was almost impossible with the sharp rocks on and around his body.
Reko started to cry when there was no single sign of his father.
Kakashi had activated his sharingan when things were going out of hand. "This technique is a powerful one", he frowned, "but where is Sasuke??"
Sasuke opened his eyes, he couldn't hold on any longer.
There was only one thing to get him out…
The curse seal.
Ichiwaka stared at the ground for a long time.
"Well? I guess it's quite obvious who is the winner, don't you think?" Dhana spoke in his direction.
Sasuke squinted his eyes shut as the burning curse seal took over his body. Although his body objected, Sasuke raised his hand and dug his nails in the ground. He noticed the ground finally stopped moving: Dhana must've stopped the technique.
Sasuke felt a tear escaping his closed eyes as pain shot through his arm by trying to push the ground away.
'MOVE!!'
Sasuke tried to do the same with his knees, but it all hurt too much.
'MOVE DAMN IT!!'
Sasuke screamed when the power of the curse seal began to push the rocks away, one by one.
"DADDY!!!" Reko cried when a shaky hand reached the open air.
The audience silenced as a certain Uchiha tried to haul homself out the hole.
Reko was speechless.
Sasuke's hair was white, his fingernails sharp. He had his head bowed, but Reko could feel the sharingan from his father.
The only thing Kakashi could do was mumble a "Oh…shit…"
Sasuke's first decent breath could be heard through the whole stadium as he lay there, his legs and feet still hanging in the hole, unable to get himself more out of it.
Sasuke made choking sounds ans he shivered as hell. The curse seal seemed to disappear, making his hair black again.
Naruto couldn't care less if Sasuke would hate him for jumping over the railing.Naruto knew Sasuke lost this battle, and there was nothing left to do but help the black-haired Uchiha. Said man looked like crap.
Kakashi also ran towards the shivering form of Sasuke and Reko wanted to do the same, but was stopped by Sakura.
"Stay here, Reko, he's in good hands", the pink-haired woman said to him.
Naruto grabbed Sasuke's upper body and made him sit; letting the weak Uchiha lean against his body for support.
Sasuke immediately started vomiting blood. Kakashi knelt behind him and pushed Sasuke's hair out of his face, so that he wouldn't vomit on his own hair.
Naruto watched in horror at how much blood Sasuke vomited, and started to rub his friend's back gently. "Stop Sasuke… stop please…" Naruto softly pleaded.
A couple of medicine-ninja's came running up to them, one of them was Tsunade.
It was too risky to drag Sasuke to another room, so they had to work right here, on
the battlefield.
"It's good you made him sit up Naruto. If you didn't, he'd have choked in his own blood", Tsunade explained while placing her hands on the pale forehead of Sasuke. Chakra flowed into his body.
Kakashi gave a worried glance in Reko's direction and saw that Sakura hugged him gently. The grey-haired man turned his attention back to Sasuke when he heard a familiar groan.
Tsunade had laid down Sasuke back on the ground.
"Sasuke! You hear me?" Naruto asked while patting the Uchiha's cheek softly.
"Reko…" Sasuke groaned weakly.
"Reko is fine. Don't worry", Naruto soothed.
Sasuke rolled his head to the side, but Tsunade pushed it back. "Lie still will you? I'm not done yet".
Ichiwaka wiped the sweat from his forehead. This was a pretty nasty battle.
"Because Sasuke is unable to fight any longer, the winner is Dhana!" Ichiwaka announced. He wasn't as excited as normally, and neither was the audience.
After one last glance in Sasuke's direction, Dhana turned on het heels and walked away.
"Crap…" Sasuke muttered weakly while Kakashi pulled him under the arms into a sitting position again.
"You okay?" Naruto asked when his eyes met Sasuke's black ones.
"I don't have a clue to be honest…" Sasuke muttered while almost falling forward if Kakashi didn't pull him back.
"It seems the curse seal lost control because there was a stone cutting in it, am I right?" Tsunade mumbled while winding some bandages around the curse seal on his shoulder.
"Hn. I guess…" Sasuke mumbled, clearly irritated.
"Am I right?" Tsunade asked again, this time more sternly.
"Yes", Sasuke sighed.
The medic Ninja carried Sasuke, who fainted in Kakashi's arms, away; the man needed to rest.
Ichiwaka waited until everyone left the battlefield, before starting the announcements for the next battle. "We're now at the last fight before the finals!! The winner of the following match will enter the finals together with Dhana-sensei and Kakashi-sensei! Please welcome the last two fighters: Nama from the Mist Country and Drom from the Earth Country!!"
Reko ran through the audience, avoiding the cheering and applauding people. Some people recognized him and gave him pitying looks. They knew he wanted to see his father.
Reko literally fell from the stairs to be downstairs real fast.
Sasuke opened his eyes with difficulty. Slowly, he started to recognize the lamp on the white ceiling, and when his vision wasn't blurred anymore, he turned his head to the side.
In the bed next to him lay Divano, staring up at the ceiling as well.
The man properly felt Sasuke's eyes on him, so he turned his head to meet the Uchiha's gaze.
"They asked me if I'd mind if they laid you in the same room as mine… I said I didn't…" There was a pause. "Do you mind?" Divano asked softly.
Sasuke slowly shook his head.
Divano smiled sadly. "Good", he said.
Sasuke stared back up at the ceiling.
"Are you… okay?" Divano suddenly asked.
"I mean, I heard you had a hard battle just now…" Divano continued.
"Yeah…" Sasuke said softly.
It stayed silent for a couple of minutes.
"Sasuke-san…" Divano started.
"Sasuke was surprised to hear "san" instead of "sama".
"I'm sorry… I just…" Divano whispered without finding the strength to continue.
"It's alright", Sasuke said, "You don't have to explain yourself".
Divano shook his head. "N… no… I want to explain… I always thought the Uchiha-family was incredible… I became jealous… of you… I also wanted to be a real Uchiha…you know, born as an Uchiha… just like..you.." Divano said softly, sounding ashamed.
"You don't want that, Divano-san. You want what everybody wants: happiness. You can't find happiness in an Uchiha-family…" Sasuke explained softly.
"But then…aren't you happy now?" Divano asked, surprised.
"I am happy because of Reko. I don't live in an Uchiha-family anymore, remember?" Sasuke said with a little smile.
"Yeah…but losing them won't make you happy either…" Divano mumbled.
"Can we change the subject, Divano-san?" Sasuke almost pleaded. He felt too tired for this.
Divano nodded slowly.
It stayed silent again.
"Are you afraid to die, Sasuke-san?" Divano asked while folding his arms.
Sasuke finally tilted his head again to look at the man next to him.
"No', the Uchiha said.
"Why not?" Divano asked.
To be contineuuuuud….
Hiyaaaa! –waves-
FIRST OF ALL, I want to thank my LOOOOVELYYY mother, Emmy, for typing this chapter on the computer.
(Don't worry people, I wrote it first. With a pencil and a paper, if you know what I mean hahahaha)
The thing is…because I have to work with computers A LOT at school, my arms are hurting like hell and I'm not able to type a long chapter like this.
So
mom, THHAAANK YOOOUUU!!
Back to the reviews! (yay!)
WARNING: I'm in a cuddling mood today. ;)
Aeternus-spes: about my made-up reason that Sasuke left, YEAH I agree!! I mean, what if we all get him wrong, you know? What is he didn't left for power?? And I am SOOOO glad you liked it so much!! Thank you!! You're awesome!! –hugs-
CanadaMonty, AAAAAW –hugs you too- THANK YOU!!! I'm soo happy with your reviews everytime!
Swordgirl, heeeey don't worry about it!!!! There are a lot OC's in this story, so I can imagine why you forgot, really!! And yes, Dhana's crazy. I agree hehehe. Anyway, thanks again for giving me such a long and NIIIICEEE review!!! I'm so glad. –Hugs-
AngeeeeelSachiyaaaa, Onegai shimasu:) Yeaaah about Orichi, you didn't was that one coming, did you? Hehehehe –smirk- Anyway, thank you too!!!! You're such an amazing person for reading the whole freaking story without giving up!! Thank you!! –HUGS-
Mizuki hikari, haaai!! I WILL! Don't worry!!
GaaraXhinataLove, you want more? Well, you can GET more!!
Buh bye!!
Vlissan
