CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR.
- The Tournament III -
The time had passed so quickly since Sasuke and I had trekked around the sports complex in search of food and possible opponents. And since we had found them, Sasuke had been in a weirdly good mood. However, he had also put on a front which involved him acting as he were the hardest man on the planet and me trailing after him rather than the two of us walking together. Sadface. I assumed it had something to do with his manly pride but I could have been wrong.
"Sasuke," I said to him as we made our way back to our school's zone, "if you have to fight Taki, what are you going to do?"
"When I fight him, you mean."
I rolled my eyes, "Yes, when, whatever."
"I'm going to give him a taste of his own medicine, that's all. The arena is my turf. There's no possible way anything could go wrong for me now."
I almost sensed the hyped buzz emitted from Sasuke's satisfied smirk. It was as if someone else had completely taken over Sasuke; a crueller, relentless battle side of him. "Well, don't get too cocky, U-chi-ha." I teased before skipping down the hallway and turning to grin at him a moment later.
Sasuke continued to walk at a steady pace to meet me in the middle of the shallowly lit corridor. "Why?" He murmured back once he'd stopped dead in front of me. His charcoaled eyes dove into my pools of blue as he stared directly down at me, "I think you know better than anyone how cocky I can be."
I wasn't really sure whether to judge this as an innuendo and laugh or just keep staring at him. Eventually, my brain chose for itself and I glanced down before looking back up at him. An awkward, "WELL," escaped from my throat.
Sasuke's lips parted with an almost silent laugh, one he barely breathed rather than actually allowed to make a sound. "Pervert…"
My mouth dropped open in shock. SO IT WAS THE INNUENDO. That boy... "You started it—!" I began, but the rest of my sentence got lost behind the Uchiha's soft mouth as he swept his mouth over mine. I died. He always did this whenever I was embarrassed or annoyed; he'd just kiss me before I began ranting. It was his "shut up" mechanism since he OBVIOUSLY couldn't ever win an argument with me. Ha.
I responded to his kiss ferociously; if he thought he'd be able to skip an argument with me by kissing me he was so wrong. I pressed my lips against his hard before pulling back, then leaning closer again, then pulling back the second he began to respond.
He whine-moaned against the corner of my lips, "Kariiii," he said. I giggled before grabbing his wrist and pulling him behind a conveniently placed pillar that appeared to jut out of the painted white wall of the dim corridor. I reached up on my toes to catch his lips again while his back met the wall. I felt his hands secure themselves around my hips and he pulled me closer to him.
I pulled back again and just stared at him for a moment, but Sasuke rolled his eyes and leant closer to me again, pressing his nose against my cheek in an… affectionate way, or rather, as affectionate a way that Sasuke could get. "Don't we have to get back?" I breathed.
"No."
"Sasuke!" I squeaked, feeling his breath against my ear before I felt him nip at it gently. Why would he do that why why why it was like the sexiest thing ever when he did it why did he do that he knew it made me want to do many things to him ugh and now we had to go back to our zone whywhywhywhywhy. "When we get back, you're so dead."
"Why do we have to wait until we get back?" He asked, drawing his body back and seeming much more relaxed as he leant against the wall, tilting his chin up so that he was looking even more down on me than he usually did.
I gasped, "Sasuke, we can't do things like that here!"
"We can. We could fuck. Like right here. Nobody would even see us." He grinned maliciously.
I bit my lip, genuinely almost tempted by his messy hair and mischievously glittering eyes. But I halted myself. "No. You wait until we get back, Sasuke. Then we'll see what happens."
"What's going to happen?"
"I'm going to batter you with a baseball club."
"Kinky."
"Aw cute you actually want me to." Sasuke simply smirked before pocketing his hands and shrugged. I felt kind of sorry for cockblocking him so I cast him a sympathetic look before chuckling, "Well you could use the testosterone while you're fighting later," I giggled.
Sasuke closed his eyes at this, a smile tugging on the corner of his lips. He shook his head at me before taking one hand out of his pocket and throwing it around my shoulders whilst he lead us back to our school's zone. "You owe me though." He grinned to himself.
"Sure." I grinned back. I felt him squeeze my shoulder lightly in a wordless response.
I stood, once again, in the changing rooms. The girls surrounding me were doing their second change of the evening and stepping into their gi, the karate outfits popularly worn during classes. These, however were brand new, each one black with bright red trimmings, the Konoha Academy colours. Our belts, depending on our rank in our learnt martial art – i.e. taijutsu – were all black with one red spiralled leaf stitched into them.
The school had really gone out of their way to make us look good for this tournament. And of course every fighter here was a black belt. Suddenly seeing all of their ranks and realizing how many of them generally disliked me intimidated me a fair part, but I ignored it and continued to dress quietly.
I bent over, flipping my hair up into a spiky pony tail because of my layers and somehow found myself eye-to-eye with Tenten. I smiled awkwardly before turning my attention to the wall beside her and secured my hair with a black band. Then I sat down on the bench upon which I had placed my belongings and whipped my phone out of my bag. We weren't allowed to leave our changing rooms until we were told to now, and since I had nothing better to do, I rather passed my time by staring at my phone's wallpaper.
It was Karin and I suspended in mid-air somewhere in Suna with our hands together as we jumped from a low rock into the brilliant blue water beneath us. Sasuke and Suigetsu were in the water up to their shoulders with their wet hair plastered to their faces and Juugo sitting with a content smile on another rock across from where Temari had been standing when she had taken the photo. It was something I really loved to look at; all of us. Together. Smiling.
At that precise moment, my phone vibrated in my hand and the screen darkened with Karin's caller ID appearing. I answered it.
"Hey, I was just thinking about you!" I said.
"Well, honey, I was thinking about you too which is why I called." Karin's voice replied happily, "I just wanted to let you know, me and Sui are here. We have hot donuts and so many cans of soda. Hurry up and get fighting so I can eat it all oh my god."
I laughed quietly, wishing not to draw attention to myself. I was close enough to Sakura as it was. "I wish I could. I think we're heading on soon. What's the crowd look like?"
"Massive." Karin responded, "It's huge! There are cameras and everything. There's a big screen flashing with the contestants names as well. You're going to be completely overwhelmed."
At this, I felt my stomach drop and all my nerves cave in on themselves. I was now utterly terrified for the event. "Thanks for the vote of confidence there, Karin…" I murmured.
"Oh! Babe, don't worry! It's not that bad. It always seems like it's going to be so terrible but when you get in there it isn't so daunting. Just relax and prepare yourself."
"AND KICK ASS!" Suigetsu's voice shouted from somewhere beside Karin.
I giggled my thanks before bidding them goodbye. Karin and Suigetsu wished me luck. I crossed my legs and folded my arms and leant my head against the brick wall behind me. I sighed. Sakura came and sat opposite me after a minute.
"Hey." She said gently.
I smiled at her. "Hey."
"Are you nervous?"
"Kind of."
"Don't be!" Tenten scraped in, she was re-coiling the two brunette buns on the top of her head, "Once you're there, you barely even notice anyone outside of the actual platform you're fighting on."
"Really?" I smiled hopefully.
Sakura nodded, "Yeah, it's like everything just gets blocked out. Kakashi described it as that moment when you're trying to thread a needle and you blur everything out just to focus on the task in front of you."
"That's actually probably true. I've been in competitions before but, of course, I've never fought in this one. I was never really confident enough to even sign up." I laughed weakly.
"Naruto and Sasuke told Kakashi and Gai to give you and Tenten a shot this year. And Neji. It's always just been me, Naruto and Sasuke from our year group." The pinkette said, her bright green eyes fixed with my shades of blue.
"I see," I nodded, "And the others?" I shook my head in the direction of the top of the change rooms where girls from the year groups below us stood.
"Sometimes little groups are chosen for the first few rounds, just to give them a feel for it; especially if they want to pursue this sort of career."
"Do you?" I asked.
"No, I want to do sports therapy or work towards becoming a doctor, but the awards I've gotten through this competition in particular should help me with whatever I want to do in the future."
"Oh I understand." I nodded. It was strange how I'd tried my hardest to avoid Sakura and Tenten today, they were actually calming me down and relaxing me before the fights would begin.
"Yeah, well, you seemed like you were bored so we thought we'd try to make a conversation." Tenten said suddenly. I chuckled at her.
"Well thank you, I wasn't bored. I was. Nervous as hell. Now I feel a lot better. So thanks!"
"No problem." They answered at the same time.
The door to the changing rooms swung open and our very own Anko-sensei marched into the room. "Alright! Everybody out! Let's go, let's go! We have a tournament to win, Konoha! Let's move!"
The girls filed out, an electrical buzz suddenly rushing through all of us as we met with the boys in the corridor and Kakashi lined us up into year group order. Sasuke purposely slipped his way in front of Neji to stand beside me. He gave me a raised eyebrow look, one of his slim fingers reaching out and playing with the material on my gi.
"Ugh, shut up, you look just as much of a fool." I hissed at him, glaring at his identical uniform with distaste.
"Rude."
"Love you~"
"Hn."
"Quiet, you are representing Konoha. When we make our way through there remember the history of taijutsu; you march across to the red zone as soldiers, understood?"
We nodded silently and in unison at Kakashi –sensei who had spoken these words before following him, Gai-sensei and Anko-sensei through the many corridors. Finally, we reached a huge wall with a pair of glass door placed in the centre of it. The room itself was a basketball court, but it was clear where it lead to. Through the glass doors we could see people, hundreds –maybe even in numbers close to thousands – sitting in stalls surrounding five coloured zones, and in the centre of the coloured zones, a raised, white platform with black stripes indicating the areas that meant that any opponent pushed out would forfeit their round, giving the win to the opposition.
"Sasuke, Sakura, come to the front."Gai-sensei said seriously, his eyes narrowed beneath his enormous, creased eyebrows. Sasuke left me to obey this order and stood with his arms folded and chin pointed up arrogantly at the front of the boys' line. Sakura stood beside him with one of her hands on her hip and her eyes narrowed, staring through the glass doors.
"Naruto and Kari," Anko-sensei barked. I stepped out of line to stand myself beside Naruto and behind Sakura. I smiled at the blonde beside me who was almost bouncing off in excitement.
"Tenten and Neji, together, here." Kakashi-sensei ordered from behind his mask. Tenten slipped herself into the line behind me and Neji stepped smoothly into line behind her. "These six are the students performing in the serious rounds of the tournament, they are the most experienced fighters in our school, and they are your captains. Watch them closely. Learn their moves." Kakashi announced to the groups past us. "It'll be useful to you in future taijutsu – or any martial art you wish to pursue. Good luck everybody. Make Konoha proud of you. And do not misbehave when you are sitting in the red zone, Naruto."
"Aw, come on!"
Kakashi's eye visible from behind his messy silver hair creased in what could have been a smile before he shot a look at Anko-sensei to open the doors. Silently, we began our march into the roaring arena.
There were so many people. I was just utterly unprepared for the amount of... people... Luckily, Naruto was quietly muttering to me not to look up and to stay looking ahead.
"If they catch you looking around they'll know you're new meat!"
"Okay."
"So keep your eyes focused on Sakura's hair."
"What about my hair?"
"I'm telling Kari to look at it."
"Okay."
"She's scared."
"No, I'm not."
"Oh Dobe, you're scared, silence yourself."
"I'll destroy you."
"I will step on you."
"Boys, stop it." Sakura finally growled at Sasuke and Naruto as we reached the padded red zone where us and our teammates were to wait until it was our turn to fight. The six of us lined ourselves across the back of the half-a-pizza-slice shape area whilst the other members of the Konoha Academy squad queued themselves into lines in front of us. I glanced at the colours either side of us, a light green colour bordered our left, indicating students all the way from Iwa and to our right, a bright yellow, letting me know that there were students from Kumo too. That just left Suna and Kiri and that would be all five of us. I wondered how long this tournament would last.
I glanced up at the large screen that Karin had spoken of when she'd called me, and sure enough, it was displaying the map of the tournament and how it would play out. The first few rounds were the less serious ones, the matches that did not demand broken bones. But part two of the tournament presented my name matched with four others. I recognized none of them and continued to scan the programme.
Tenten's name was matched with Temari's! Temari was here! And Sakura's name lined up notably with the headmaster of Iwa's daughter, Kurotsuchi . It was going to be an interesting thing to watch, let alone the other three that they were signed to fight, I didn't know those people or their abilities either, but there had to have been a reason that they were placed into the second rounds. The serious rounds.
My eyes skipped across to Sasuke's name. I was alarmed when I noticed that here I actually recognized some of the names presented. Sasuke would be fighting Gaara! And Taki – two from Suna? I looked a little closer before realising that Taki was actually from Kumo by the line of colour beside his name. This was a little terrifying. Gaara was crazy as hell when he wanted to be and Taki was from an entirely different city than what we had predicted. I glanced at Sasuke. He seemed to have noticed this too and was frowning thoughtfully, running a finger across his lips.
Naruto had been pinned against Kimimaru, whom I'd heard of long ago as well as someone named Kyuubi. There were a few people whispering about it in front of me which is what made me cautious of it.
Of course I recognized very few of the names on the board written down to face Tenten and Neji, except for Kidomaru whom Neji was predicted to fight. He was known for having intensely fast skills with his hands, so perhaps it had been a good match up, since Neji was basically famous for his old-school moves.
I shuffled past Sakura to sit beside Sasuke, purely for the fact that I knew he'd make me feel a little calmer. Even if it was just his confident presence that might seep into me, it'd help.
The stadium lights spun and dimmed, and the crowd immediately hushed.
It was about to begin.
Hey guise. I suck at updating let's just leave it at that feel free to throw rotten fruit at me wha. ;( I'M REALLY SORRY. Anyway, I just want to make a note on the upcoming chapter after this one; I've already placed some of the sound ninja into Orochimaru's home room class, but I want to use Tayuya to fight Kari or Tenten, so please just ignore my terrible plot holes there and enjoy it hahaha. You all know what I say, right? This thing writes itself. S'NOT MY FAULT I DIDN'T KNOW THERE WAS GOING TO BE A TOURNAMENT WHEN I BEGAN IT WAA. Anyways, so there you go! I hope you've enjoyed this and I do hope you'll review! – And thank you all so much for your kind reviews. You know how much they motivate me, I'm really grateful I have such amazing readers. c: Also, Naruto will be having a little internal battle in the next/upcoming chapters, hence why I put down the Kyuubi as a person. HA. Okay, t'ra beautifuls, I need to sleep. Thanks again for reading and pleeeeaaaase review!
-YourChemicalRomancex.
