The orange one is finished beating up the kid who thinks he has problems. Pah. One day in Gaara's shoes would crush that pathetic loser. But the orange one...he possesses an interesting power. It is Gaara's turn next. He will fight the blue girl who beat her opponent easily in the preliminaries with some borrowed taijutsu.
Gaara will force the girl to show her true power so that mother will accept her blood. Gaara turns and walks to the stairwell.
There are two men waiting for him. Gaara ignores them. They are not worth his time.
The two men do not seem to realize this as one of them has the stupidity to grab Gaara's shoulder and stop him from going to the arena. "Listen here, kid," says one man. "Our boss has a lot of money riding on this match, so you had better lose."
"Go away if you want to live." These guys are not really worth killing, but one more word that is not "goodbye" and they are dead.
"Don't talk tough to us, brat," sneers the other man. "You're just a genin, but we're chunin."
Dead it is, then.
Gaara walks away a few seconds later, leaving blood splatters all over the walls. He wonders if he should find the janitor and have it cleaned up. Nah.
The orange one is standing on the stairs, staring at the bloody mess Gaara just made. Gaara walks straight past. Someone needs to admire his handiwork, after all. Besides, he has a little girl to kill.
Fugaku swells with fatherly pride when the proctor, Genma, announces that the next match is "Gaara of the Sand VS Sasuke Uchiha".
"That's my daughter," he says, grinning and pointing to Sasuke.
The ANBU who has come to report to him about the plan's progress sighs and says, "I know."
Lord Third turns to look at Fugaku and the ANBU, and smiles. "There isn't a breach in village security, is there?" he asks the ANBU.
"Not presently," reports the ANBU. "I am here to pass on a message from Deputy Kinoko. She wishes to inform Chief Fugaku that she has solved the pizza mystery, but since the apprentice in charge of the case still has no clue, she is going to laugh at him while he solves it. Deputy Kinoko wishes to report her findings to the Chief after the chunin exams conclude so that you can get in on the fun. That is all."
Fugaku has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud. "So what did Deputy Kinoko bribe you with to get you to deliver this message, ANBU san?" he asks.
The Anbu leans down and whispers, "Everything is in place - we are now waiting for the attack to begin. Also, the Deputy gave me pizza vouchers."
Fugaku grins. Sasuke and the Sand genin who fought Lee in the preliminaries are standing across from each other.
"Could you delay the match a few minutes?" asks the leader of the Hidden Sound. "I need to use the Ladies' Room, and I don't want to miss anything."
"Of course!" Lord Third and Lord Kazekage trip over themselves and each other to accommodate the woman. Fugaku is fairly sure the leader of the Hidden Sound is manipulating to two men to get the royal treatment. The sad thing is, it is working.
Lord Hokage has one of the other guards tell Genma, then turns towards Fugaku and says, "Would you escort the Lady to ensure she makes it there and back alright?"
"Yes Lord Hokage," says Fugaku, stiffly. He is not pleased about his daughter's match being delayed.
As he escorts the Hidden Sound leader Fugaku studies the woman, who looks around 25. She is tall, graceful, large-busted, has long black hair and golden eyes. Fugaku thinks this woman seems familiar. Aside from the fact she fits the description of a character in Make Out Paradise, Fugaku feels as if he knows the leader of the Hidden Sound.
When the pair arrives at the arena toilets, one of the contestants, Kabuto Yakushi, is leaving the mens' toilets.
"Aren't you one of the contestants?" asks the Leader of the Hidden Sound, addressing Kabuto.
"Yes I am," says Kabuto, smiling.
"That was quite a tough act to follow," says the Hidden Sound Leader, apparently in no hurry to use the Ladies' Room. "Aren't you nervous about your chances?"
"No," says Kabuto. "In fact, I very much look forward to seeing who I fight in the final round."
"You are awfully confident. But I look forward to seeing you in the final round." The woman laughs and heads into the Ladies' Room.
Fugaku wonders what that was about.
Before going back to the contestants' box, Kabuto heads up to the roof, where a cloaked man is waiting in the shadows for news of the invasion.
"So when will Orochimaru have you give the signal to begin the invasion?" asks the man.
"I am to continue on to the final round," reports Kabuto. "Have the invasion force stand down until further notice."
"Of course," says the man, and shunshins away.
"Did you get that?" Kabuto asks the man waiting in the shadows.
"I will inform the others. You inform Temari." The man vanishes.
Kabuto returns to the contestants box to tell Temari to inform Baki and her team mates of the delay.
Fugaku returns to the Kage box after what seems like an unreasonably long amount of time.
"Sorry for the wait," apologises the Hidden Sound Leader and sits back down in her chair. She does not sound sorry at all. "Now please, don't let me prevent you from beginning the match."
Fugaku would have choked if he had anything to choke on. Instead, he settled for a dignified face-palm. I am surrounded by idiots, he sighs internally.
"I apologise for the delay," says Genma, his voice carrying around the arena. "But now the second match of the chunin exams shall begin. Sasuke, Gaara: are you ready?"
Sasuke nods and Gaara closes his eyes, inclining his head ever so slightly.
"Very good," says Genma. "Begin!"
The cork pops out of Gaara's gourd and sand spills over the sides. Sasuke runs forward and punches at Gaara, who blocks with his sand. Sasuke punches a few more times, and tries a kick. Fugaku wonders what his daughter is up to. She did watch the fight Gaara had with Lee after all.
Then Sasuke vanishes.
Fugaku leans forward slightly, wondering what, exactly, Sasuke is up to.
Sasuke reappears an instant later, kicking aside Gaara's defending sand. The smile on Sasuke's face shows Fugaku that Sasuke was testing to see if she is fast enough. Sasuke continues her assault on Gaara's defenses, and Gaara get increasingly more agitated.
Fugaku narrows his eyes. How did Sasuke get so fast so quickly? He thinks back the the last month.
At the end of the first day of training, Sasuke drags her feet tiredly and throws herself onto her bed as soon as she can. She does not emerge until her mother summons her for dinner. Sasuke still drags her feet, despite the rest she had. Even though she still looks exhausted, Sasuke goes outside, into their back yard, and attacks the old training post she hasn't paid attention to for years. Fugaku sits by the window and watches.
As the days go past, Sasuke's routine does not change at all. She gets home, rests for an hour, then goes outside and beats up the old training post until her curfew. Fugaku watches sometimes, making sure that Sasuke does not notice he is watching. It seems to him that Sasuke is getting faster and faster, but she still moves much, much slower than usual.
Once a week, Sasuke takes a break from training with Kakashi (on Fugaku's orders - Sasuke is still grounded, after all). On those days, she goes to the Uchiha training ground, which she is allowed to train in (between certain hours) while grounded, and trains like her life depends on it.
By the end of the month, Sasuke is faster than she was before, but something is still odd. Fugaku wonders why Sasuke is wearing legwarmers, when she despises them so much.
Fugaku jolts out of his musings when he realizes that Sasuke is not wearing the legwarmers right now.
Sasuke runs in a circle around Gaara, kicking up dust. She keeps running, her skirt flying behind her. She is moving much faster than she did while training.
Sasuke had leg weights under the legwarmers, Fugaku realizes.
But why?
Gaara's eyes follow Sasuke for a while.
Sasuke continues to run, no longer visible; only a cloud of dust is visible. Then Sasuke reappears in the air above Gaara, throwing a volley of shuriken down on Gaara. Gaara's sand blocks, but does not quite manage to block the following kick Sasuke aims at Gaara's head.
Sasuke flips backwards and throws a kunai at Gaara. Gaara's sand catches the kunai and throws it back at Sasuke. Sasuke dodges to one side.
Gaara seems to be getting impatient. There is a strange look on his face - a look of bloodlust which unnerves Fugaku. Gaara makes the standard chakra-moulding handsign and his sand begins to form into a round shield, concealing him completely.