It's like, 3 in the morning, because who needs sleep? Ha. Haha. (me pls).
Firstly, I'd like to thank John Wick for inspiring me to write this chapter (and this story shhhh) and second I'd like to thank google for teaching me how to fight in ten minutes. And last, as always, I want to thank the lovely people who left a review last chapter, you beautiful people keep this story going and I'm literally writing for you (kiss).
Chapter thirteen – prove
There's a radio playing in the room where Tenten tests me. The static grates like insects over the words, setting my teeth on edge. I think she's done it on purpose. Trying to throw off my game.
It's not working.
She tests me on over a dozen different firearms, all with different weights, recoil, firing time, bullet size, you name it. I try not to show off, but once I relax into a routine it's hard not to. I want them to know I'm good – good enough to keep close, good enough to keep around – but not too good. Not good enough to be suspicious. Not good enough to set the bloodhounds on my trail.
Tenten reminds me of a bloodhound. Loyal to a fault, deadly, once her sight is set on something she won't let it go.
And she's good with weapons. Scary good. Good enough to impress me, and that's a feat in and of itself. Good enough that I want to know who the fuck she is, because I've never heard of her before and that's unnerving. She could pin a fly with a kunai from fifty feet away. (She's not quite as good as me, but she doesn't know that and she doesn't need to know that. She's close though. Close enough to be uncomfortable.)
I wish she'd turn that damn radio off, though. She wears a little smirk on her face that's almost as irritating as the static, and I wish she'd wipe it off. She's probably enjoying my annoyance. Psychopath.
But when I've fired at least one round from all the weapons in the room, she takes me over to some mats. "Wait here," she says. "You need to try out one last weapon before we can place you. You're pretty good, I'll give you that. Better than I was expecting, honestly. Probably better than half the guys out there, if I'm being honest with you. Neji doesn't like you and I don't like you much either, but I'm not stupid, and neither is he. If you can be of use to the Hyuuga and to Hinata, we'll use you. Simple as that."
I take her compliment, a bit of pride trickling through my veins. I know I'm good, but it's nice to have it confirmed.
Better to have it confirmed by someone who doesn't like you. But still, I have to ask, "What's the last weapon?" There's no other weapons in the room; we've tried everything; I've nailed everything: every gun an extension of my arm, every knife hit its mark.
"Neji," she tells me, and leaves the room, presumably to get His Royal Constipated-ness. It sounds pretentious, Neji is a weapon. I want to laugh at how absurd it all is, but knowing that I am also, technically, a weapon sobers me. Nothing like being lethal to ruin the mood, I guess.
I think about taking one of the weapons, a small one, one they won't notice missing, but the glint of a camera quickly erases the idea from my mind. I'm being watched. Of course I'm being watched. Taking a weapon, even a small one, will land me a one-way ticket to a Hyuuga cell, and if they're anything like the Uchiha cells (which I can hazard a wild guess that they are) then they'll be impossible to break out of. And I can kiss sweet goodbye to death and all of his friends for the foreseeable future, which'll be a lot longer than I'd like.
If I'm caught. Which I would be. Because killing people is bad, Gaara, geeze. If you're going to kill someone at least make sure you're not caught by cameras. Stupid.
But I know one thing I can do that won't land me in prison.
I almost gleefully turn that fucking radio off. And oh, silence is glorious. Sweet, sweet, non-grating silence. It's like music to my ears, but better, because there's no music playing.
The door opens and I turn back to where Tenten left me. Play by their rules, Gaara, like the good little Demon you are.
"You turned the radio off," says Tenten, entering first.
"I did," I reply, unable to hide a sliver of happiness.
She narrows her eyes at me, then goes to turn it back on. I want to stab her.
But my attention has shifted, because Neji has entered the room, followed closely by Hinata. Of course. They're her watchdogs. As if they'd let her go anywhere without either of them. Especially after her stunt in the library.
"How's your hand to hand, Sabaku?" Neji calls out, and starts stretching. Hinata goes to stand by the door, and Tenten stands next to her, the radio back on. I watch her from my peripherals and start warming myself up.
"Pretty good," I reply. Better than good, I think to myself. Second only to Itachi. Always second only to Itachi. The man's a freak. The man's a prodigal contradiction: of course the best fighter in the whole of the Uchiha Corporation is a pacifist.
I'm not.
"Tenten said you're half decent with the weapons," he continued, a question hiding behind the façade of a statement.
"I was the best shooter amongst my comrades," I lie, but he doesn't know it's a lie.
"True."
We finish preparing. We've both taken our shirts off until we're in singlets. And I'll give it to him: Neji is built. Underneath all those clothes he usually wears he's a fucking tank. His long dark hair has been pulled back off his face and his eyes are narrowed at me.
"Just fists," he says. "No head-butting. Use whatever martial arts you know. No eye sockets or anything like that. A clean fight. Got it, Sabaku?"
"Sure," I say, getting into position. Find my centre of gravity, lean back on my right foot, left fist in front of my face, right next to my cheek. Thumb wrapped over the top of your fingers, not underneath Gaara, you'll break your thumb, stupid. Don't go for the jaw or cheek or forehead, they're too hard, you'll only hurt yourself. Floating ribs, nose, groin, throat, knees. Those are the places to attack.
Neji mirrors me, and I can see thoughts swirling behind his irises. Where's he gonna strike?
"Best of three," he says, and then the fight starts.
He goes for my ribs first, and I lean into the hit, taking it with my abdominals, protect the liver. It hurts like hell, but I'm not winded at least. I take the chance to go for his knees, but he avoids my kick, and we quickly fall into a routine of strike, dodge, miss, repeat.
Neji's punches hit with the force of a truck, and I quickly realise that he's the worst kind of fighter: he knows what he's doing. Whoever trained this guy did their job, and they did it well. He's a fucking good fighter.
He gets me in the nose, and I can feel blood start to gush. It runs down my throat and I spit it out before I choke on it.
I get him back in the ribs, and though I don't wind him properly I do knock the air out of him. His movements start to slow, and so do mine, but neither of us lose focus. This is the testing round. What are his strengths? What are his weaknesses? He's stronger than I am, but I'm faster than he is. We can both take a hit. Time slows around us, but I know I have to let him win. I reckon I could beat him, just. But only if I was really trying. Only if I needed to win. It'd be a hard fight, but I could do it.
Within minutes the fight is over. Neji wins with a swift kick to my knees, wrecking my balance, and he's got me in a headlock before I can blink. We're both panting, sweat trickling, and that fucking radio is grating in my ears again.
Hinata watches silently from the sidelines. If our fight has fazed her, she doesn't show it, and I feel a begrudging respect.
Neji and I take a break before the next round. One minute. Enough time for some water, to come back up for air, and then we're at it again.
Our movements are slower this time, but we're more familiar with how each other fights. Play it smarter. Don't take unnecessary risks.
I win the second round, just to prove to him that I can. I hit his nose hard enough to make him stumble, and strike his ribs before he can recover, and then he's on the ground and I've won.
We're tied. I know he's going to win the final round. I have to let him win the final round. If I beat him two out of three, it'd be suspicious. I know that Neji is their best fighter. The Hyuuga have a hard on for him something chronic. If I were to beat him I'd risk exposing myself. Winning one round was a risk, but a necessary one. He needs to know that I'm good. He needs to know that I'm valuable. Valuable enough to keep close. Valuable enough to let the guard down around me. But not good enough to be a genuine threat. Not good enough to suspect me.
They've built the legend of the Demon – the legend of me – up enough that they have no doubt he'd finish them all off within seconds if he wanted to. And I could finish them off if I wanted to. Maybe not within seconds, but certainly within a few minutes. Should the opportune moment arise.
We take a break and then the third and final round commences. No shock to anyone, Neji wins. We're both panting and sweat stained by the end of it, blood running down both our faces and I can feel bruises forming all over my torso. But it's over and I reckon I've proven myself to them both.
What shocks me is when Neji offers me his hand to help me up. "I still don't like you," he tells me as I stand, and I wheeze out a little laugh at that. What a surprise. "But I can respect that you're a very talented fighter. No one's challenged me like that in a while. Not since the last time Hinata and I sparred, anyway."
I look at her, surprised. I didn't know she could fight. I'll have to ask her about that.
Neji walks away then, and I retreat to the nearest bench and collapse onto it, holding my side. Christ Neji can throw a hell of a punch. I sit there a moment, trying to control my breathing and ignore the blood still running from my nose. Just lean forward and try not to choke on it.
But then a towel is held out to me, and I look up to see Hinata's eyes looking at me, concerned.
"He hits hard, doesn't he?" she says gently, kneeling to get a better look at the damage. I glance over and see Tenten holding out a towel to Neji, watching Hinata like a hawk.
"Does he pump his fists full of lead or something?" I asks, though honestly it wouldn't surprise me.
"No," she replied, procuring an icepack. I take the towel and hold it beneath my nose. "He used to practice punching so much that now he can barely feel anything in his fists."
Wonderful, I think to myself, taking the ice and awkwardly holding it against my side.
"Here, let me," she offers, seeing my inept juggling of towel and ice pack.
"I stink, Hinata," I tell her, and it's not a lie, though it's not the reason. I just don't want her to get too close. It's… uncomfortable.
She ignores me and brushes my fingers aside, holding the ice pack against my bruised ribs.
"You were good out there," she states, not a question. "Really good. You actually managed to beat Neji in a round. I haven't seen that happen in a while."
"And you can fight," I say, though the sound is muffled by the towel.
She blushes a little, but nods her head. "I've been trained in Aikido since I was about five."
"You must be pretty good then."
"I can match Neji and beat Tenten," she answers, keeping her eyes down, though there's a smile on her lips and pride in her voice. "But Tenten's not really a hand-to-hand fighter. She's the weapons expert. Though, to be honest, she doesn't really need hand to hand. It's not like anyone could get close to her anyway."
I concur, though I don't tell her that.
My nose stops bleeding and I wipe the last vestigial pieces of blood off my face, then use a clean part of the towel to try and wipe some of the sweat off my body. Hinata sits silently next to me, those curious eyes of hers burning a hole in my soul. I refuse to meet her gaze, and won't admit that it's because I'm afraid of what I might see there, swimming in those pools of moonlight.
But then Tenten calls her over and the moment's broken, and I feel my muscles relax when I hadn't even realised they'd tensed.
"I'll see you soon, okay?" she says, handing me the ice pack and taking my bloodied towel.
"Yeah," I reply, finally meeting her gaze. She smiles at me, then goes back to Tenten.
"Showers are in the back corner, Sabaku," Tenten calls over to me, brown eyes fixed firmly on me now that Hinata's back with her. "I'll meet you out the front of these doors in fifteen minutes, understood? Get yourself cleaned up."
I stand up (with some difficulty) and walk towards the showers, ignoring her words. And as I pass it, I turn the radio off, a satisfied smile on my face.
I've become obsessed with Hamilton lately. I'm not sorry.
Thank you for reading. If anyone happens to favourite, please leave a review. I have a lot of silent readers and it does hurt a bit. I write for you guys, and hearing your thoughts means to world to me.
I hope your day is as wonderful as you :)
- Alia, xoxo
