Yo. It's been a few weeks.
So I was originally going to put a chapter out last week, and then I was tired, and didn't really feel like it, so I ended up waiting.
It's here now, though, so hopefully that's good enough.
Yesterday was my birthday, actually. It was a small family gathering.
Nothing to report in regards to this story, other than that we probably only have 2 chapters left of fights before the real meat of the arc can begin, which is exciting, because frankly I'm getting tired of writing battles.
Chapter 20: Your Actions Were Your Own
Hinata wasn't losing per se, but she wasn't exactly winning either. That much, at least, Naruto could tell for sure.
As the girl dealt with Misumi's stretching limbs with her gentle fist technique, he couldn't help mimicking the motions himself, as if he were the one fighting in the arena, thinking about and questioning each blow that Hinata went for.
"Ah, no!" he exclaimed after a particularly brutal one-two punch to the girl's chest, which sent her flying back a few feet. "You gotta' duck under that, not into it!"
"Gah!" Naruto's heart nearly skipped a beat as the girl parried a kunai that was aiming for her chest, managing to land a good palm strike onto her opponents chest in answer. "That was a close one!"
"Nice, Hinata!" He screamed out, leaning back and using both of his hands to form a megaphone as he shouted excitedly. As it turned out, however, he'd been using those very same hands to keep his balance against the railing, and he found himself screaming once again as he fell backwards, tripping onto the cold stone balcony that he and the rest of his team, sans Sakura, stood upon.
"That looked like it hurt." Sasuke teased, smirking down at him.
"What're you smiling about!?" Naruto whined angrily from the floor, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head as he turned back towards the battle at hand, watching attentively as Hinata barely staved off her opponent.
"You, actually."
"Yeah, Ha-ha." Naruto deadpanned, not even bothering to look at his friend as he spoke. "I fell, how funny."
"Not that." Sasuke wore an amused expression, but also one that carry with it a small sense of pride. "It's just… cool to see how much you care about your friends."
If Naruto had been drinking anything, he was fairly sure he would've spat it out across the boy's face in comedic fashion.
"W-what!?" Naruto sputtered as a small blush came to his cheeks.
"First, during Sakura's fight, you were cheering so loud after she won that Zabuza smacked you, and now, when Hinata's fighting, you're getting into it. Dodging and weaving like you're the one fighting." Sasuke's smirk became teasing once again. "I just think you look funny."
He glared at his friend for a moment before deciding to not respond, leaning once more against the railing looking down on the arena below them as he checked in on Hinata's fight.
Once again, it was going so-so.
"She's mediocre." Sasuke spoke honestly as he took the spot to his right on the railing. "Not bad, just… Well, she's certainly not as strong as that Neji kid. He made the gentle fist look unbeatable. She's making it look… Okay."
Naruto didn't particularly want to agree with his friend's statement, but it was hard to argue looking at the girl's form. Like he'd said, it wasn't like it was incredibly poor, or really even all that bad.
But it was stiff, and it was clumsy, very far from the free-flowing style that her relative had demonstrated. Neji had gone from strike to strike, blow to blow, never once giving any time to respond, every movement given purpose. Hinata, in contrast, seemed to have to think about every motion, hesitating after nearly every hit, leading her to take far more hits than Neji had, even though he had faced down a far superior opponent in Lee.
It seemed, however, that Misumi's lack of skill would be his own downfall. Even though she was far less skilled than her cousin, she was still clearly superior to her opponent in the arena.
Naruto shouted out his support as the Hyuga landed a particularly devastating blow, her palm connecting directly with the man's chest, atop his heart. Even with a cloth over his mouth, the blood that Misumi coughed up was evident as a red stain.
"You've got this, Hinata!" Naruto called out, leaning forward over the railing. "He's almost down, finish him off!"
He watched a bit curiously as the girl's cheeks became a dark scarlet, and she fidgeted for just a moment as she brought her hands up before her, stepping into her opponents guard one final time as she delivered the final strike, sending Misumi, and his bendy limbs, to the floor.
"Yeah!" Naruto pumped his fist, jumping up and down excitedly, and nearly managing to plummet off of the balcony he was stood upon, only staying up thanks to Sasuke grabbing his collar, hauling him back up as he berated him for being an idiot.
Still, it didn't really hamper Naruto's mood at all. So far, Team 7 was 2-0, and, with most of the insane people were out of the competition, there was a large likelihood that Sasuke would be joining the three of them in the next round.
Ah… I probably shouldn't have thought that. Naruto realized, mentally berating himself. Now Sasuke's gonna' lose.
"In the first place, you need to be more careful, and – Naruto are you even listening to me!?"
He looked up at his friend, who appeared to still be monologuing to him about the dangers of jumping near or around large falls.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke." He put his hands on the boy's shoulders, pretending to cry. "I've cursed you! Now you're going to get matched against some super powerful ninja, all because I had to open my big fat mouth!"
"The hell are you talking about!?" The boy pushed him away, a look of annoyed disgust on his face that Naruto knew he was faking. "You didn't say anything!"
"But I thought it, Sasuke!" He sobbed audibly, perhaps hamming it up just a bit too much. "I thought it!"
The boy sighed as he flicked him in the forehead, muttering under his breath about how he'd gotten stuck with Naruto of all people for a friend. Naruto himself merely laughed, poking, and prodding at the boy as Hinata was proclaimed the victor of her match, beginning to walk nervously back towards her team, a small smile set upon her face all the while.
By the time she made it back up the stairs, to the sounds of her teammates cheering, and Naruto's own, her cheeks looked like they could've powered the entire village.
"You did very well out there, Hinata." Her mentor Kurenai smiled as she reached down and gently ruffled the girl's sweat-matted hair. "You handled his aggression with poise and countered incredibly."
"T-thank you." The girl mumbled, rocking from side to side as she took their praise, seeming both bashful and hungry to receive more of it.
"Yeah!" Her other teammate, Kiba, shouted out, the dog on his head hanging on for dear life as he hopped up and down in excitement. "You really outdid yourself out there! That was awesome!"
"Indeed." Shino, her final teammate, spoke out quietly, leaning against the back wall in an extremely edgy fashion. "It's because you used your opponents greatest asset, his stretching limbs, as your method of attacking him, it's obvious to me that-"
"Oh!" Kiba interrupted, stepping in front of the bug user. "Once all of us win our rounds too, we should all go out for some meat later!"
"Ouch." Sasuke murmured.
"Yeah," Naruto agreed, silently wishing the man well. "Imagine cursing yourself that hard. Not even I was that bad."
As the conversation died down, the roulette once again began to turn, causing everyone in the room who had yet to fight to turn towards it, anticipation eating away at them all as they awaited their moment.
When it finally stopped, A confident snarl came forth from their resident beast master.
"Heh, took em' long enough."
Kiba Inazuka vs. Kankuro
/-/
"I hate you."
"Yeah, I would too if I sucked that bad."
Sakura growled from her crater in the floor of their makeshift arena, trying and failing to rise a final time to face this snake bitch once more in combat.
"Aw, what's the matter, out of steam?"
"I'm going to kill you."
Her teacher for all of an hour walked to stand beside her, gazing down at Sakura with a shit-eating grin that could've rivaled one of Naruto's.
"You're honestly welcome to try, I don't know about you, but I've been having a pretty good time." The woman had the nerve to yawn, stifling the noise into her hand as she looked around the arena. "Still, I thought your curse mark would've activated by now." Anko stared down at her, eyes narrowing. "You're not secretly holding back, are you?"
Sakura glared at the woman with murder in her eyes.
"Does it seem like I'm holding back?"
"I mean, honestly? Kinda, you certainly didn't impress me very much."
Sakura tried with every fiber of her being to stand, gritting her teeth with rage coursing through her, and felt a small prick on the back of her neck, like a needle. A second later, she felt almost entirely revitalized, only the lingering dregs of her exhaustion still hanging on her.
"Ah, there we go." Anko spoke, sighing with exhaustion. "I was wondering how long I'd have to berate you for before your curse mark flared up."
Sakura barely heard the woman, anger and rage course through her as she drew a kunai from her bag, spinning it on the tip of her finger and bringing it into a reverse grip. She charged at her mentor a second later, bringing the weapon up from a crouching stance.
The strike was batted aside with the back of Anko's hand, diverting the blade just to the left of her, impacting into her trench coat and cutting a deep hole as she jumped away.
"Tsk." Anko sounded annoyed, dodging two more of Sakura's blows as she fell back. "I really like this coat, you know!"
In an instant, Sakura found herself blown back, landing a few feet away as she skidded to a stop. As her head impacted against the stone floor below her, she felt the anger that had been clouding her mind abruptly vanish, replaced only with pain.
"Ow." She let out.
"Aw, c'mon, really?" Her teacher crouched down next to her, looking exhausted. "Are you seriously done already?"
"W-what are you talking about?" Her head felt cloudy, and she couldn't really remember the last 30 seconds all that well. She realized what must've happened a second later. "Oh… did I – did the curse mark activate?"
Anko sighed, but nodded, sitting on the floor beside her and offering Sakura a hand, nonchalantly lifting her off the ground without even straining.
"Well, for all of 5 seconds, yeah, but then just as soon as you had it, it was gone again."
"I guess… that must just be how it works." Sakura couldn't help but feel a small bit of relief, along with a twinge of disappointment. Her curse mark wouldn't be controlling her easily, not like it did in the forest of death.
She was safe.
…That's what I want, right?
"No."
She looked up, a bit shocked, to see her mentor removing her trench coat, and throwing it off to the side.
She also couldn't help but look at the woman's figure, which was now on almost complete display before her, and silently curse her for her biological luck. It was only a second later that she questioned why Anko would do such a thing in the first place.
"Uhm, Anko Sensei… what are you doing?"
The woman looked up at her, seeming a bit confused, before her visage cracked, and she giggled.
"Right, sorry, this probably seems weird."
The woman turned around, lifted her hair to show the back of her neck, and, a second later, a black mark pulsed into being.
"That's…!"
Anko let her hair fall back down and turned back to look at Sakura with a sad smile.
"Yeah, we're… a lot alike, you and I." Her mentor sighed, running a hand through her hair as she seemed to try and think. "Which is why I know that your curse mark shouldn't have gone away so quickly."
"Wait, what?"
Sakura couldn't help but be confused. She'd had no idea that curse mark even existed a few days ago, and now here she was, being lectured about what it was supposed to be like.
"A curse mark, from my experience, acts as an embodiment of negative emotions inside of someone." Anko rubbed the back of her neck, though from what Sakura could see as she sat down across from the woman, a foot or so apart, she hadn't truly meant to. "Whenever I want to use it… which isn't very often, mind you, I think about stuff like… the people I've failed, and the comrades I've lost."
"It appears pretty easily like that." The Jonin murmured under her breath.
Sakura felt a faint sadness lingering in her mentors words but refrained from asking about it. She decided that some things were better left unsaid.
"So… what do you think's wrong with my curse mark?"
"Oh, right," She seemed to snap out of her thoughts, looking back down at Sakura. "Don't get me wrong, nothing's bad about it." Anko put her hands up as if surrendering, faking a smile as she continued on. "If anything, I'd say it's far better for you, since it's not just going to be popping up willy-nilly. If I were to guess what's hindering it, though, I'd say that you just don't have an inner darkness."
"Huh?"
Sakura hated how she sounded like a broken record, constantly asking questions without anything to say for herself, but she needed to know about what the curse mark was, and how she could control it.
After all, if I can harness it's power… maybe I can catch up to those two.
"Ok, so, super-simple? You've lived a super easy life." Anko gave her an apologetic look. "If I'm right, I'd say that you've got a mom and dad who are still together, and you've lived with them your whole life. You went to school on time every day, you made a couple good friendships, and the biggest problem you've ever encountered is school-yard bullying."
That was…
Pretty spot-on, actually.
"How'd you get all that just from my curse mark not activating?"
Anko had the nerve to laugh.
"Cause that's pretty much the only way a kid grows up without much conflict to speak of." Anko shrugged, stood, and offered her hand out to Sakura. "C'mon, train while we talk."
Sakura thought that that sounded terrible, given that her legs still felt like jelly, and she was now nursing a killer headache, but the way the woman had said it made it seem less like a question and more like a command, so she took the outstretched hand before her, and let her new mentor pull her to her feet.
Sakura brought her kunai in front of her, fully expecting it to be knocked from her hand within moments, but determined to still try and win.
As she shot forward, Anko began to speak once more.
"So that begs the question," The woman spoke as she ducked underneath Sakura's strike, smacking her in the stomach with her palm and circling around her, even as she laid on the ground, only vaguely responsive. "Why did your curse mark go out of control in the forest of death?"
She'd been thinking about that too, and she'd come up with what she thought was a pretty good theory.
"Those guys from the sound village…" Sakura let out as she got up and dusted herself off, trying and failing to take a stance once more. "They were trying to hurt Sasuke and Naruto, and they were using me to do it… I just felt… I felt so…"
"Useless?"
Her expression must have gave her away, because the woman across from her had only a sad smile for her. As Anko's words shot through her, she felt the last of her strength fade.
"Yeah." Sakura muttered, falling to the ground, feeling completely spent. "I felt like… I was holding them back. They could've beaten those guys, if not for me. That was all I could think as that… that girl held me by my hair and dragged me along. She'd just bashed me over the head, I was barely even conscious, but I could hear them… could hear them flaunt their victory, could hear Naruto and Sasuke stop struggling and… and something inside me just snapped at that. I thought "I'm not going to be the reason that they die, I refuse to be!""
Anko sat down in front of her, paying rapt attention to her.
"And that's when…"
"Yeah… that's the last thing I can remember clearly before Sasuke stopped me." Sakura shivered, not because of the cold stone beneath her, but because of her own guilt. "B-but, it's not like those memories aren't there… it's like… I felt like I didn't have full control, but when I think back, I realize…"
Anko nodded solemnly, taking her student's hand in her own and holding on to it, whether as some small show of solidarity, or just to let Sakura feel someone else's touch, she couldn't tell.
She appreciated the gesture either way.
"Your actions were your own, right?"
A small droplet impacted Sakura's leg, and then another, but she refused to give in to her tears. She ran her right arm across her eyes and kept speaking.
"I-I did it. I know the curse mark may have been influencing me, but I know that I was the one that made the decision to stab her in the stomach, and I was the one who decided to stab her in the shoulder, and… and I know I was the one who was about to bring that kunai down and end her life!"
The moment she finished screaming her heart out, the dam inside her seemed to burst, and she could no longer hold back the tears that flowed down her face like streams. The strain of fighting to survive for the last few weeks, the thoughts Naruto and Sasuke's injuries, and her own guilt seemed to crash into her like a tsunami.
She was allowed to cry alone for only a few seconds before her eyes shot open in shock, realizing that Anko had brought her into a tight hug.
W-what?
Her new mentor didn't so much as speak, but the contact, the touch alone, was enough to force the sobs to flow out of her, and she let her head rest in the crook of the woman's neck as the minutes ticked by, the both of them silent.
She's a bit of an odd teacher… Sakura thought as her cheeks began to dry. But I guess she's not so bad.
/-/
"The winner is Kankuro!"
Naruto couldn't help but let out a disappointed sigh as the defeated Kiba lay motionless in the arena below them. The match hadn't even been close, despite the beast-master's initial confidence.
"Kiba…" Hinata's quiet voice echoed from beside him. She'd watched the match along with the rest of her team, and it seemed they were having very similar thoughts.
"It was a decent performance." Sasuke spoke up. "It's a shame his opponent outclassed him. I think he could've put up a real fight against a lot of the other's here."
Hinata mumbled something under her breath that Naruto couldn't quite catch, but he thought it sounded vaguely like "Someone like me."
Shino proceeded to speak about the effort Kiba had put into his training, of lack thereof, but Naruto tuned him out, instead looking at Hinata with a questioning gaze.
He'd picked up on it before, but the girl seemed to have some sort of inferiority complex. She honestly believed she was an inferior fighter to Kiba, Shino, and probably the rest of the Genin in this room.
But she's not even all that weak… where do those feelings come from?
All of a sudden, the words Sasuke had spoken, about her being the disinherited after her sister defeated her, came back to him. Naruto couldn't help but feel a twinge of pity for the girl as she and her team watched Kiba be taken away on a stretcher. He was wounded, but not overly so. He'd make a full recovery within a few days.
Still, that meant that it was almost time for the next match. And that meant that hopefully, he'd have a second to talk to Hinata about what she was going through.
He and the rest of the Genin turned towards the screen, and Naruto silently hoped it would be a fight he didn't care too much about.
When the screen came to a stop, he audibly sighed.
It looked like that idea was out the window.
Sasuke Uchiha vs. Kabuto Yakushi
"Finally." Sasuke spoke simply, turning towards Naruto and nodding once, before stepping towards the stairs and beginning the journey to the arena below.
"Good luck." Naruto called out to him, giving him a thumbs up and his best sunny smile.
The boy returned it with one of his own, far more sedated than his had been, but one that meant the world to the both of them.
"Don't worry, I'll win."
"Who said I was worried? Of course you'll win!"
"Oh, c'mon! Now you're actively trying to jinx me!"
"After all, Sasuke Uchiha is the strongest Genin!"
"Stop!"
"Wielder of the Sharingan!"
"Naruto!"
/-/
As Sasuke stood in front of the boy named Kabuto, he couldn't help but feel uneasy.
Whenever he locked eyes with the boy in front of him, it felt a lot like when Orochimaru had gazed into him, analyzing every part of him, but not even truly registering his existence.
It was to a lesser degree with his opponent now, but it was enough to make him recall the pain in his chest as he walked.
Going to have to watch my ribs here. Sasuke planned silently. I don't know if I'll be able to get up if I take a serious hit there.
Orochimaru had struck him but a single time, and the force of the blow alone had shattered two or three of the ribs on his left side.
And he tried to place the curse mark on me… Sasuke couldn't help but think about that. What if the curse mark had landed on him instead of Sakura?
Just what would have come about? Would he have even been able to compete?
"Good luck, Sasuke!"
"Get em'!"
The voices of both Ino and Naruto caused him to shake his head, dismissing his pointless thoughts. Sakura had received the curse mark, not him, there was no use dwelling on what could've been.
The proctor ran through the rules, though it was obvious by now that everyone had listened in on them during Sakura's first fight, taken them in, and then tuned the man out after that. Neither he nor Kabuto seemed to be even remotely paying attention.
"Are the both of you ready?"
"Yes." He responded simply.
"I am." Kabuto spoke, smiling over at Sasuke in an overly happy way, and it was enough to send a small chill down Sasuke's spine.
What is it with this guy?
"Then let the seventh match of the Chuunin Exam's second stage… BEGIN!"
There was something about the way the Sharingan read Kabuto's movements that immediately set off alarms in Sasuke's head. It was as if, just for a moment, the man's entire body was poised to strike. Not only that, but from what he'd been able to see, there was some serious power lurking there, untapped.
And yet, a second later, the boy had reigned it all back in. He'd gone from a predator about to spring into action to an unsuspecting prey. It was a good act, and against anyone else, it probably would've worked too.
Not against the power of his fully matured Sharingan, however, which could read the movements of his muscles.
So… what is it he's trying to do?
There was the obvious answer, that the boy was simply testing Sasuke's might in order to see how far he had to go against him, how much he'd need to expend, and reveal to the rest of the Genin here, to defeat him. But there was a tiny, almost insidious voice in the back of his head that kept whispering, kept clawing at him…
It feels just like Orochimaru…
When he'd fought against the Snake Sannin, he'd been thoroughly outclassed from minute one. And yet the warrior had made it his mission for Sasuke to never figure that out until he'd received what he wanted, until he'd finished testing him.
Where Orochimaru was so good at playing with his food that even the Sharingan didn't pick up on anything, the boy in front of him wasn't quite as clean at disguising his true power from Sasuke's eyes.
He shivered as he charged in, determined to finish this fight off now before whatever it was the boy wanted from him was achieved. He ducked under an initial, almost lazy blow, and formed the signs for a fireball jutsu, preparing to burn the boy away from point blank range.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Kabuto wasn't even fazed, and Sasuke saw the boy dodge backwards in an instant, and then slow himself down manually. He allowed the flames to flicker across him, not burning him terribly, but making it seem like he couldn't dodge them completely.
That eliminated the theory that he was trying to probe Sasuke's power to see how far he needed to go. Unless this was an incredibly deep bait. But even so, there would've been no reason to purposefully take a hit you didn't need to.
All of this was a lie, then.
"What the hell is it you're trying to pull?" Sasuke spoke just loud enough for Kabuto to hear him, standing just a few feet to his front.
"I don't know what you mean, Sasuke, I'm just trying my best." The boy feigned innocence, his eyes going wide with confusion as he spoke.
"Don't give me that." He circled the boy, drawing a kunai into his left hand and circulating his chakra into his stomach, preparing to launch another fireball. "I can read your movements with the Sharingan! You've been holding back this entire time. Why?"
In an instant, the posture of the boy in front of him changed. He went from being slightly hunched over to standing tall, from having himself in a terrible stance to looking battle-ready.
"Ah! I suppose you saw through me, then." Kabuto smiled brightly, but it wasn't the same kind of smile that had sparked uneasiness in him before. "I was trying to see if I needed to go all out against you, but I guess if I'm to become a Chuunin, I should've known I'd need to try my hardest!"
Fake.
All of it's fake.
The enthusiasm, the disarming smile, the ninja cards…
All of it's fake.
But does that necessarily make him the enemy?
…No, I can't rule out the possibility that he's simply doing all of this for himself.
It was annoying, but even if the man in front of him was truly holding back to test Sasuke, just like Orochimaru had, that didn't automatically mean he worked for the Sannin. He could've just as easily had his own goals, hell, he might not have even been lying about wanting to become a Chuunin.
But he feels like Orochimaru.
His gut told him not to underestimate the boy in front of him, and he wasn't going to start doubting his instincts now.
They traded blows in the center of the arena, though with his Sharingan, it was more him landing blows while blocking Kabuto's. As he landed a particularly nasty shot directly to the boy's diaphragm, he leaned back and drew his chakra to his mouth.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
And once more, as he unleashed his flames, he noticed the boy in front of him instinctively start to dodge the attack.
And then, once more, he stopped.
This time, the raging fire overtook Kabuto entirely, and he was swallowed by the blast. As the fireball exploded, and heat washed over the arena, he tried to see if the boy would try and go for a counter out of the black smoke that now billowed out of the arena, it would've made for an amazing smokescreen.
But once more, nothing came.
Sasuke charged in once more, still trying to end the fight as soon as he possibly could…
And was stopped by the proctor's hand.
"Kabuto Yakushi has forfeited. The winner is Sasuke Uchiha!"
"What!?" He shouted perhaps just a tad too loud.
"Ah, I'm sorry, but your last attack really took the wind from my sails."
Kabuto emerged from the fireballs smoke, looking largely unaffected by the fireball jutsu. He possessed no burns, and even his clothes, though ripped and torn in places, seemed mostly untarnished. If anything, he'd recovered somewhat from the earlier flames, looking to have somehow healed the damage.
"I was already feeling exhausted going into this stage of the exam." The boy rubbed the back of his head in a vane attempt to appear sheepish. "But I thought "I'll try and see if I can face off against someone super weak!", but, well, I ended up getting you, Sasuke, so…"
The boy trailed off, as if his tone alone explained everything. It probably would've, if not for the suspicion coursing through him like lightning.
"Well, I guess I'm done. At the very least, I'm glad I was able to dodge that last fireball, it would've sucked to take that head-on!"
'He didn't dodge.' Something in Sasuke's mind spoke to him. 'He took the full brunt of that strike on his arms.'
…If that's the case, though, then just how did he take no damage from my Jutsu?
Unfortunately, there would be no opportunity to ask the boy, as the proctor ushered him out of the arena, saying that it was time for the next competitors to fight.
As he climbed to the top of the stairs, he was immediately tackled by Naruto, who was hollering like the end of the world was upon them.
"YEAH! All three members of Team 7 reporting for stage 3 of the Exams!" The boy turned back around and began jumping once more, smiling wildly as he did.
"Damnit kid, I told you to stay quiet!" Zabuza grabbed Naruto by the collar, holding him a foot or two in the air with one hand like it was nothing.
"Oi! Put me down!"
The assassin sighed, looking over towards Sasuke lazily.
"Well fought, kid." The Demon of the Mist congratulated him simply.
"Y-yeah," He spoke, feeling doubt worm it's way into his voice. "Thanks."
If Zabuza thought that his hesitation was odd, then he didn't care all that much about it, turning back to the small boy he held in right arm and, a bit hypocritically, began yelling at him to stop yelling.
Sasuke's own thoughts, however, were still focused on his fight. Just what was it that Kabuto was trying to accomplish?
…Was he trying to accomplish anything at all?
"Gah, all this thinking is making my head hurt…"
"Y'know, there are a lot of rude things I could say in response to that," A girl's voice echoed off to his right. "But just this once, I'll give you a pass."
He looked up, both surprised and excited, to see Sakura walking over towards him and the rest of Team 7, the same woman from earlier just behind her.
"Yo, Sakura!" Naruto called out, smiling over at her and seemingly forgetting that he was still being hoisted a few feet off the ground by Zabuza.
"See," The Forest of Death's proctor spoke up, smiling in an almost Naruto-like way. "Told you I'd have her back by 8."
Sakura looked back at her new mentor in annoyance.
"It's 1:30 in the afternoon, Anko Sensei."
"I didn't say at 8, I said by 8." Anko smirked, shaking her head. "Sheesh, what am I going to do with a pupil who can't even listen to her master's words?"
Sakura's eyes narrowed, but there was no missing the small smile present on her face. It seemed that whatever had happened between those two, it had led to them becoming fast friends.
"Hey, wait!" Naruto yelled just a bit too loud, causing Zabuza to use his free hand to chop him across the top of his head, eliciting a small yelp from the Jinchuuriki. "Since everyone from Team 7's passed into the next stage, why don't we all go for Ramen!?"
That sounds delicious, actually.
"No." Zabuza and Anko answered simply.
"Whaaaat? Why!?" Naruto whined out.
"Because the next few fights will show you a lot about the Genin that haven't fought yet. They've already gotten to watch your fight, so if you don't see theirs', then they enter the next stage of the Exam with an incredible advantage." Anko shrugged, looking bored as she leaned against the stone wall behind her. "It's not exactly super entertaining, but it is necessary."
Naruto let out a whine, but quieted down, which was about as clear a sign of compliance from the boy as you could get.
"Oh, by the way, how'd the fight's go? Who's left?" Sakura asked excitedly.
"Uhm…" Naruto seemed to be thinking about answering. "Sasuke, you do it."
"Right, of course." He sighed annoyedly, but couldn't quite hide his smile. "There are 6 competitors remaining. Tenten, Shino, Shikamaru, Zaku, Dosu, and Choji. The winner's of the previous fights were Myself, Naruto, those guys Gaara and Kankuro from the sand village, Hinata, and of course, you, Sakura. Lee and Neji came to a draw, so they're both out."
Sakura nodded, looking a bit lost in her thoughts.
"I guess that means Ino lost?" She spoke disappointedly.
"Yeah, unfortunately." Sasuke answered. "She got matched up against that Gaara guy, and when she used her Mind switch, it didn't even seem to work on the guy."
"He must have the same fortitude I do." Naruto spoke up as he finally freed himself from Zabuza's grip. "I've always been able to shake it off when the four of us train together."
"Eh, I'll ask about it later." Sakura spoke casually. "Still, I was hoping to get to face her in the next stage, sucks she's out."
"Yeah, I'm sure Sasuke wanted to face off against Lee, too, seeing as how he almost got beat by him in the hallway."
Sasuke looked over at his best friend with narrowed eyes.
"What was that, Naruto?"
"I said, you-" A hand came down on the back of Naruto's head once again, cutting him off. "OW!"
"Both of you, shut up," Zabuza gestured to the back wall, where the screen was spinning the six remaining names around. "It's time for the next fight."
The room was no where near as quiet now as the roulette turned, and Sasuke was fairly sure that was due in large part to most people having already fought. There were only 6 competitors remaining, out of the starting 20, after all.
When the turning finally did stop, it was to find quite the interesting match adorning the back wall.
Zaku Abumi vs. Shino Aburame
End Chapter 20
Heyo.
Gotta say that I still really love writing Sakura, it's like my guilty pleasure that I don't have to feel guilty about.
This was a chapter dedicated entirely to our main characters, because I realized that there was a lot of side stuff going on in the last few chapters, and barely any POV's for our main three, especially Naruto, who had like 5 lines.
That's a small exaggeration, but you get what I mean.
Next chapter will be focused on Zaku, but we will certainly see some stuff for our main three as well, mainly Sakura.
Alright, see you all next week!