The preliminary rounds finally began. The first fight of the preliminary rounds were 'sasuke uchiha vs Yoroi Akado.' Sasuke seemed pretty excited although after what happened in the forest of death naruko and sakura were worried about sasuke.
Everyone went up to the stands to watch the fight. Before the fight began, kakashi told sasuke that he can't use his sharingan or his jutsus or else the curse mark will be activated and he'll get disqualified. This left sasuke with no other option than to just use taijutsu.
When the battle was over sasuke was declared the winner. Naruko and sakura were really happy and relieved because a couple of times during the battle they watched with baited breath. They were honestly scared that something bad was going to happen. "Way to go teme, I knew you could do it!" Naruko shouted with a big smile on her face. Sasuke looked over at naruko and smiled.
After that kakashi took sasuke aside even though sasuke wanted to stay and see who would get to go to the finals. He really didn't have a choice as they were walking away. Naruko noticed that sasuke was holding his shoulder, she was starting to get concerned about him.
"Hey sakura" naruko said. Sakura looked at her and said "yes?" "Maybe I'm just crazy but did you see any weird marks on sasuke's neck during the fight?" Naruko asked. Sakura was shocked and remembered back to what sasuke told her while they were still in the forest of death.
'Sasuke was sitting on the ground with sakura kneeling down in front of him. "You've got to promise me you won't tell naruko about the curse mark" sasuke said. "What why?" Sakura said. "There's nothing she can do about it and we're a team. It doesn't do us any good if she's worried about me" sasuke said.'
Snapping back to reality sakura said "what mark? I didn't see anything." "Oh ok" naruko said. The two people who were gonna fight in the the second match was 'shino aburame vs Zaku Abumi.' Shino ended up winning.
The third match was 'Tsurugi Misumi vs Kankuro.' In the end Kankuro won the fight. The fourth match was 'sakura haruno vs ino yamanaka.' Sakura fought against ino with all her strength but in the end the match was declared a draw since they both knocked each other out.
Although naruko was standing with kakashi to watch the next fight she was secretly looking at sakura waiting for her to wake up. After a bit sakura woke up. "So you've finally woken up huh sakura." Sakura looked around and saw rock lee, might guy, naruko, and kakashi in front of them with lee and guy cheering on tenten. "Our match is already over" ino said.
Sakura feeling sad said on the verge of tears "so did I… did I lose then?" Ino smirked and said "that's no fair. I'm the one who wants to cry. To think I tied with you. I still can't believe that happened." Ino handed sakura her headband. "Here guess you finally got a flower to bloom a beautiful flower" ino said.
Sakura started crying and said "ino." Ino just smirked. Sakura then took her headband back and put it on. "But sakura the next time we fight you don't get to take the easy way out by fainting and don't forget I won't just hand sasuke to you. Understand sakura?" Ino said. Sakura got mad and shouted "oh yeah, well that goes double for you ino you ugly pig!"
'Are. you. freaking. kidding me! They were actually getting along with one another for the first time in years but then they had to bring up sasuke and ruin it. Can't they just have a heart to heart moment without their stupid rivalry ruining it?' Naruko thought mad. When naruko thought about sakura and ino's rivalry she realized that their rivalry, fight, and heart to heart moments were similar to the one she had with an old friend.
Flashback
(Naruko was living in the village of light at this time.) One day when I was at the academy there was a new transfer student. Her name was Amy Rossi. She had long black hair, purple eyes, and she always wore a black hoodie. She was a beautiful girl but she was mean as hell. She would always bully the other kids and make fun of them.
Believe it or not, I was actually kinda popular. Mainly because of my looks, my smarts, my strength, and my family even though most of my classmates didn't know that I was adopted. Amy was one of them. When Amy found this out she was not happy about it.
"hey pigtails!" Naruko looked around her confused because she didn't think that Amy was talking to her. Naruko then looked at Amy, pointing to herself and said "me?" "Yes you. You're the only one here who wears pigtails!" Amy shouted.
"Umm… ok" naruko said confused. "Look pigtails you may be the strongest novice here for now but you better enjoy it while it last because you're not gonna have that position for long" Amy said. "And what is that supposed to mean?" Naruko said annoyed. Amy looked away and said "wow someone from the Hashibira family doesn't understand what that means. I thought that you're family was supposed to be smart." "Excuse me!" Naruko shouted.
Amy started giggling and said "what I'm saying is that you better enjoy the attention while it last because I'm going to beat you and take it and when I do and you're not popular anymore everyone in this academy will see you as nothing more than a failure."
Naruko gritted her teeth and said with a taunting smile "hey pinhead, what makes you so confident that you'll be able to beat me? You've never seen me in a battle before and I hate to burst your bubble but I came from a family full of prodigies. Let's not forget that my dad is Riba Hashibira, leader Tenshi's righthand man. I've been training with him for years so I highly doubt that you'll be able to beat me in a fight. Sorry not sorry." Amy clenched her fists and said "just you wait and see pigtails, I'll make you eat those words. I'm looking forward to punching that cocky ass smile off your face." "I'd like to see you try pinhead" naruko said then walked away.
Ever since that day we've always been trying to one up each other, trying to prove who is stronger. Then one day when we were heading home from the academy and Amy had me follow her into the forest for a battle to see who is stronger and we both agree to only use taijutsu to fight.
Amy ran towards naruko trying to punch her but naruko dodged her attack. Naruko then kicked Amy, sending her into a tree. Amy stood up and ran towards naruko again. Expecting an attack, naruko was getting ready to dodge again but then Amy jumped over naruko taking her by surprise landing four feet behind naruko. They both rushed at each other trying to punch and kick each other but they both kept blocking each other's attacks. After a couple of minutes naruko managed to get behind Amy and kick her away.
Amy got back on her feet. Naruko and Amy were knelt down breathing hard. Both girls were getting tired. They once again rushed at each other. Once they were a couple inches away from each other they punched each other in the face. Naruko fell on her hands and knees while Amy was passed out. After that naruko carried Amy to where she lived, went inside and placed her on the couch. She then went home.
The next day naruko was at the academy. When she was about to head to class she heard crying coming from the roof. She went to the roof wanting to know if the person was ok. She walked over to where the crying noises were coming from and asked "hello is anyone here?" "No duh idiot buzz off" someone said.
Naruko recognized who it is and said "Amy? We're you just… crying a second ago?" "Pigtails? I wha-no of course not" Amy said. "It's ok to cry if you're sad" naruko said. "I know it is… but-but I'm not crying" Amy said. "You're a bad liar" naruko sighed "are you crying because you couldn't beat me?" Naruko said.
After a bit of bickering, "ok fine! I'm crying because I trained hard and you still beat me" Amy said. "I don't understand why are you so obsessed with beating me?" Naruko asked. Amy sighed and said "I-I-I just want all the attention you get." "Why?" Naruko asked. "Because it makes me feel important" Amy said. Naruko was confused and said "what do you mean?"
"I-I'm actually originally from the village hidden in the leafs. I had a mom, dad, and a big sister. My parents never paid any attention to me. They saw me as a failure and no one wanted anything to do with me or even bothered to help me. There was only three people who would give me any attention. It made me feel important. I wanted to find a place where I could live a better life so I found this place. When I started the academy I hated that you were hogging all the attention so I thought that if I showed them that I was better than you then I would get all the attention that you get… I'm sorry I acted like a jerk" Amy said.
'S-she wanted attention like I did' naruko thought shocked. She then walked over and pulled Amy into a hug. She told Amy everything that happened to her to comfort her.
"I-I'm really sorry" Amy said. "Don't worry about it. It's all in the past now but I understand why. If you want to you can hang out with me and my friends after class" naruko said. Amy wiped away her tears smiled and said "yeah I would love that."
Naruko and Amy stood up. Just as they were about to leave, naruko put her hand on Amy's shoulder and said "wait." "What is it?" Amy said. "Do you remember when you said that you were looking forward to punching that cocky ass smile off my face?" Naruko said. "Yes way?" Amy asked. Naruko smiled and said "go ahead." "What?" Amy said. "Go ahead and punch me" naruko said. Amy was shocked and said "a-are you sure about this?" "Yes I'm sure. Go ahead and punch me and don't hold back. Punch me as hard as you can" naruko said. Amy smiled then punched her in the face as hard as she could.
Ever since that day we've been best friends. Amy really is a good person once you get to know her. When she stopped bullying the other kids and they got to know her they really seemed to like her. It also earned her a lot more attention. She was almost as popular as me. It always made me feel a lot better about myself knowing that there was someone else who knows my pain.
Flashback end
Naruko was brought out of her thoughts was she heard sakura and kakashi shouting her name. "H-huh" naruko said. "Finally. Do you know how long we've been calling you?" Sakura said mad. Naruko chuckled and said "I'm sorry. I got lost in my thoughts. So what did I miss?" "Well you missed the fight with tenten and Temari and the fight with shikamaru and Tsuchi Kin" kakashi said. "O-oh sorry" naruko said. "There's no time to be sorry, look" sakura said. Naruko looked at the screen to see who was next.
The screen said 'naruko uzumaki vs kiba inuzuka.' 'Looks like I'm up next' naruko thought. "Well look at that. It's us against the kid. Hey akamaru, I think you and I just won the lottery" kiba said with akamaru agreeing with him.