Welcome my lovely readers to chapter 8! The second half of the final round of the Chuunin exams are here! The suspense!
Thank you once again to all of my subscribers, reviewers, favoriters, and everyone who reads this story and enjoys it. You guys are why I do what I do
Possible Trigger Warning: There is mention of self-harm towards the end of the chapter, it is the only section marked off with a G/M, so if this is triggering for you, please skip ahead. Just because Miyako suffers, doesn't mean you have to.
Thoughts are in italics
Memories/flashbacks are in bold italics
Bold if not for emphasis, is for my beginning/endnotes.
Disclaimer: Naruto definitely doesn't belong to me, because if it had he'd be Naruko and the plot would revolve around the female characters. :D
Heaven Help You
Miyako knew Temari was going to win her match, because failure wasn't an option and the girl had spent a whole extra year than average being a genin, so she was far more skilled than most of the people in the room.
But Miyako knew Temari was going to wipe the floor with Tenten the moment she realized the girl specialized in weapons. Oof. And she thought Zaku and Shino's match was uneven.
In the end the most interesting part of the match wasn't the match itself, which as Temari predicted was over in 3 moves, but Temari's behavior afterward. As it was Miyako wasn't too fond of how long she kept her in her wind vortex. At that point she was being unnecessarily cruel, but she apparently had just as merciless a streak in her as Gaara after she tossed Tenten away like garbage.
"Temari!" Miyako chastised, breathing out a slight sigh of relief when Lee caught her.
"What are you doing? Is this how you treat an opponent who fought their hardest?" Lee demanded after setting Tenten down gently. Temari, apparently deciding to exacerbate the situation, insulted both Lee and Tenten simultaneously.
Lee, impassioned no doubt by the dishonor, attacked. Temari caught it with her fan and further provoked Lee by calling him dull. Lee went to engage her once again, but Miyako had had enough at this point, she flickered down and stood between the two, facing Temari with an entirely unamused face.
"What do you think you're doing, Temari?" She hissed, and the girl had the gall to smirk at her.
"You're the one who acted like he was such a big deal, I was only trying to see what all the fuss was about." She scoffed and tossed her head at Lee and Gai, who had appeared on the field to stop Lee from attacking further. "I think you overestimated their abilities."
Miyako scowled in response. "So you decide to provoke her teammate? Real mature." Miyako rolled her eyes and turned her body slightly to the two green-clad men scrutinizing them.
Miyako wasn't sure how to diffuse the situation, but before she could even attempt, Gaara did. Badly.
"Temari, you've been declared the winner, get up here." Gaara narrowed his eyes at Lee and his sensei. "There's no need to take up time loitering around with that ugly guy and his chaperone."
Miyako was well aware Gaara was only trying to speed things along to get to his own match, but why did the siblings all feel the need to provoke the Leaf? Lee and Gaara exchanged heated stares of anger, and she could sense Gaara's annoyance, but also a tinge of excitement at the quite open and unafraid challenge Lee was posing. And Miyako suddenly whipped her head around to survey the two more openly.
'It seems Naruto is not the only one who gets under Gaara's skin.' She scanned Lee head to toe, thousands of possibilities running about in her head.
"That's Enough Lee." Gai placed a firm hand on his still determined protégé's shoulder, before smirking to himself.
"A warning if I may, Sand gentleman." Kankuro and Gaara bristled from the stands, but Miyako was more concerned with the sudden shift of Gai's normally chipper tone into dangerous territory. Not only was it abnormally quiet, it was also so self-assured that whatever he was about to say was gospel-given truth.
"This kid, he's strong. Don't underestimate him." He then looked Miyako square in the eyes, a toned down version of his smile directed at her. "Let them know Miyako." He then forcefully directed Lee, who was apparently hellbent on having a staring contest with Gaara, back to their side of the stands.
Temari looked back and forth from Gai's retreating figure and Miyako, brows pinched in question.
"We're taking up space Temari, let's go." Miyako gestured for the irate girl to go ahead of her and followed smoothly after, absentmindedly climbing the stairs she was so deep in thought. Dangerous thoughts, thoughts around potentially harming her master.
'Lee, as we can see, is just as obnoxious as Naruto is when it comes to his teammates. He's noble, if his words and reactions to Temari's mistreatment of Tenten are anything to go by. Gai is also overly extreme in both his training and his punishments, while I haven't seen much of what Lee can do with my own eyes, there's a possibility he could be holding back. He also has the added benefit of having a close relationship with his sensei, something obviously perplexing to Gaara if his confused choatic emotions are anything to go by.'
"You friends with that guy or something Miyako?" Kankuro groused, shifting Miyako back into the present.
"I've been endearing myself to all of the Konoha Jounin, yes." She pushed her hair over her shoulder, noting that all of the leaf genin, including the Hokage, were looking their way warily. "Since you lot can't seem to stop yourself from sticking out like a sore thumb."
Temari huffs, following Miyako's gaze, even going so far as to grin viciously at a nosy looking Naruto, who balked and pointedly turned his attention to Sakura. "Let them fear us, what's the problem with that?" Kankuro shot, stifling his laughter poorly behind his hand.
Miyako reached across Gaara to flick Kankuro in the ear, who, predictably, whined in protest. "It's one thing to have people fear you, it's another to provoke them." She tugged her hair between her fingers, twirling a long curl with her fingers in thought before releasing. "That's the whole point of me being here. You may think it's cute to go around showing off your strength, but rubbing it in people's faces, on their own home turf, is a bad idea anywhere you go. It's even worse when you don't know how someone can retaliate, that's what gets you killed." She lectured.
Kankuro scoffed, and Gaara shifted his gaze to Miyako, scrutinizing her lightly. "Don't you think you're giving them too much credit?" He countered quietly.
Miyako ran her fingers lightly through the ends of her hair, vague flashbacks in her brain of all of the times she'd encountered Konoha ninja and held back a shudder. "No. You're not giving them enough. And if you flagrantly continue to prod at them the wrong way you're going to regret it."
The proctor announcing the next match distracted the siblings from questioning her further, Miyako took that time to examine the remaining participants again.
'Dosu, the Sound girl, Choji, Shikamaru, Kiba, Hinata, Lee, Neji, Naruto. Naruto is obviously out, and even thought you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, I'm going to count Choji and Hinata out as well.' Miyako considered herself pretty flippant about human life, the perks of being old and seemingly immortal, but even she had limits to her cruelty. She wouldn't even dream of putting sweet little Hinata anywhere near Gaara, plus she wasn't going to be able to get anywhere near Gaara with the Hyuga's fighting style. That counted Neji out as well then. She supposedly knew what Choji's ace was, and it wasn't going to hold up to any of Gaara's jutsu.
The sign lit up with the names "Shikamaru Nara" and someone named "Kin" so the Sound girl then. That's two more to cross off the list then.
'We're down to Dosu, Kiba and Lee then.' She wasn't familiar with what Kiba could do, but she knew Dosu and his arm mechanism were quite powerful. But neither had the same "Naruto" combination that Lee had. Besides, Miyako wasn't looking for someone to knock Gaara around, she was looking for someone to…emotionally disrupt him so to speak. After managing to punch him, because that seemed to be the only way he would take anyone seriously.
Miyako noticed suddenly that Gaara seemed slightly irritated, and the source of irritation was centered around…Shikamaru?
She observed the boy she'd met not too long ago, noting his bored yawning presence as usual, hands in pockets, back bent in a shape nearly worse than Dosu's normal stance and overall "done" look on his face. She wondered if she could find someone in the vicinity would wanted to be here less. But why did Gaara find this so…distasteful? Is that what that feeling was?
Before she could analyze it further, it was gone, Gaara seemingly as confused about his own feelings as she was.
"That Zaku kid lost to that creepy bug guy, but I'm seeing it for the Leaf village this time Miyako." Kankuro sneered, also seemingly to find Shikamaru's overall demeanor unfitting. Miyako wasn't going to discount the boy so soon, but she also couldn't decide if Shikamaru was just perpetually tired of everything or if he was overconfident in his ability. Maybe both?
For the first few minutes it didn't look too good for the lazy boy, she admitted, but something seemed to shift in his aura after Kin threw her senbon and rang those little bells. Although he was beginning to look like a porcupine, his aura was a little more awake than it was before and felt…calmer, centered. Miyako kind of felt like she was in the middle of a monastery she was so at peace.
Gaara, who Miyako hadn't known was watching her out of the corner of his eye, was visibly puzzled for a second at Miyako's befuddled worry, and Miyako was pulled out of Shikamaru's peaceful aura and right back into Gaara's chaos. This time the red was striped with dark browns accompanied by the din of confused fury that had Miyako momentarily so dizzy she had to lean over the railing and breathe deeply to keep a headache at bay.
"Miyako?" Kankuro stretched his body over the railing to mimic hers, looking at her sideways with concern.
"I'm fine." She huffed out, rubbing her temples. By the time she blinked back to paying attention to that match, the girl was frozen and mirroring her movements.
"Miyako, what's that jutsu?" Temari jutted her chin to Shikamaru's extended shadow connecting to Kin's.
"Shadow Possession. The Nara clan can apparently manipulate their shadows to stretch to a certain limit and attach to their opponent's, thereby giving them full control over their movements. The drawback is, anything that happens to the opponent is mirrored to the user. So I wonder what he'll do next." Miyako still felt the calm from Shikamaru, so he clearly had some sort of plan in place, but it wasn't like he could physically attack her or anything.
Shikamaru made the two of them pull out a shuriken, exclaiming that they were going to play a game of chicken.
"No way, but if she follows his movements, won't that be futile! He'll obviously duck." Kakuro snorted, looking at Miyako in disbelief. Miyako studied the surroundings, and the only difference she could find was…
"She's closer to the wall." Miyako hummed as they both threw their shuriken, Shikamaru doing and backbend and Kin following suit.
"Wha-?" Kankuro turned to her, confused.
"Just watch."
At that exact moment, Kin bumped her head on the wall, effectively knocking herself out and blowing the Sand siblings away at his simple, yet effective strategy.
Shikamaru snickered as he flipped himself back onto his feet, explaining that he knew she wasn't taking into account the distance between herself and the wall. 'This kid is definitely a strategist.' She gave Temari a sidelong glance. 'He might give you a run for your money Temari.'
Temari caught Miyako's self-satisfied stare and scoffed. "He got lucky." She didn't look like she believed that herself.
"I wouldn't call that luck." Miyako purred back, tittering at Temari's scowl.
"Miyako." Gaara cut, his eyes settling on hers so abruptly she naturally stopped to pay attention.
"The information on the rest of the opponents, give it to me." Miyako turned completely to face Gaara, ignoring Temari and Kankuro's curious looks at their exchange again.
"Oh? Are you taking my warning seriously?" He didn't bother to give into Miyako's bait, so she simply sighed and gave in, this time. "Well I know you have someone in particular in mind, so you might as well tell me. It's a waste to go through the rest of the genin when you don't even consider them a threat."
"None of them are a threat." He snipped back softly.
"Sure, sure. Now who is it?" She leaned against the railing with interest, eyes sparking for she knew exactly who Gaara was curious about.
Gaara pretended to think, making a show of looking at the remaining genin before turning back to her. "That green-clothed atrocity, why does his sensei seem to think he's on par with us?" He narrowed his eyes in disgust at just the thought of it.
Miyako sighed and combed her fingers through her hair once more. "Well, to be fair, Gai-san thinks that way about all of his students." She shrugged. "But he has a particular soft spot for Lee."
"Miyako, be straight with us…is that his son?" Kankuro accused, hand over his mouth dramatically as he motioned to the two with his eyes.
"Idiot…" Temari scoffed, though Miyako could secretly tell she thought the same thing.
"No Kankuro, that's not his son, they bear no relation at all. Lee is just fanatical and Gai-san is the perfect fit for him honestly." Miyako waved dismissively and turned back to Gaara, who was impatiently waiting for the answer to his question.
"Lee is, as described by Gai, a Taijutsu specialist." The siblings hummed. "But Taijutsu won't work on Gaara." Kankuro scoffed.
Miyako skipped her eyes over to a determined Lee, punching the air in place next to a practically frozen Neji and continued without even looking at them. "Well we won't know that until we see." She drawled.
Kankuro shook his head, "I'll concede that some of these brats aren't half bad." He snorted. "That bug guy and that lazy looking kid were alright." He then shook his head vigorously. "But you will never get me to admit that any ninja wearing bright green or orange is a threat to me." He deadpanned.
"Think whatever you want." Miyako droned. "But if you stay stuck in that mentality, you'll be a genin far past just this exam." The boy bristled, mouth open to go into a retort, but the proctor announced the next match so he dropped it to look at the screen instead. Miyako's eyes briefly flashed a purple before settling again and the names appeared on the board shortly after. Uzumaki Naruto vs. Inuzuka Kiba.
Both boys on the opposite side of the arena let out obnoxious cheers, Miyako beginning to understand that while no one was louder than Naruto, Kiba came pretty damn close. Temari was already massaging her temples; Gaara was vibrating from annoyance now.
'This…this is going to drive the siblings insane.' Miyako leaned herself against the railing intrigued to see how the match would play out. The siblings didn't seem as excited.
"Miyako, this one is on the team that got to the tower after us, right?" Kankuro yawned and straightened up.
"Yeah, the team I don't know much about." Miyako intoned dismissively. "But judging by his ninja hound, the whole team must be made up of trackers." She offered, biting back a giggle when Naruto protested Kiba's use of his dog.
"Tch, really? You want me to take a kid who doesn't even understand what constitutes as ninja tools seriously?" Kankuro shook his head. "I'm giving it to the dog-kid. Aside from Sasuke, this team doesn't seem that impressive. And weren't they the last to make it in?"
Miyako hummed noncommittally, after all she couldn't comment because she wasn't there, but put out a weak defense for Naruto. "While it may be true that Kiba's team made it to the tower faster, I've seen Naruto train and I don't know a person more…tenacious than he is. What he might lack in skill he makes up for in a crazy amount of stamina."
They didn't seem convinced, but Miyako was pretty much through trying to convince them of anything at this point, the Sand siblings were stubborn and like many teenagers had the false sense of invincibility. She stopped herself from straying her eyes to Gaara, 'because having a brother no one could touch probably wasn't helping their view of reality much.'
The match began with a lot of smack talk and the parallels between Naruto and Kiba were even starker than before. They both easily got riled up when their strength was questioned, and they both obviously considered the other weaker.
'Naruto's aura is still off, but there's still something quite spirited about him despite the Kyuubi chakra missing.' Miyako had no doubt that Naruto would win by sheer will alone, but if he didn't take Kiba seriously he was going to drag this out far longer than it needed to go.
Miyako blinked when the center of the arena was suddenly covered in smoke, obscuring Naruto and allowing Kiba and Akamaru to fly into the fray.
"A smoke bomb? I understand the dog because of its heightened sense of smell, but wouldn't that kid have a disadvantage because he couldn't see?"
Miyako observed the smoke, detecting all three presences inside, and noting that Naruto seemed to be receiving blows from all sides, and with Akamaru on the outside, it must be Kiba.
"Ah, Kiba must have a heightened sense of smell, that's the only way he could navigate through the smoke without seeing." Miyako deduced blinking rapidly as Naruto emerged from the smoke only to be driven back in by Akamaru.
Miyako watched nervously not detecting any movement for a bit, but the smoke cleared with Naruto on the ground and Akamaru wagging his tail happily.
"Geez, beaten by a puppy, that has to sting." Kankuro sighed, but let out a confused noise at Miyako's twinkling eyes.
Kiba welcomed "Akamaru" into his arms, only to get bitten much to Miyako's amusement. When Naruto was revealed Kankuro perked up, suddenly interested, as he revealed his tricks, holding Akamaru triumphantly.
"His timing with jutsu is good, I'll give him that." Temari remarked as Kankuro muttered that he was better than he thought under his breath.
"Don't get too excited Miyako, I'm not admitting defeat yet!" Kankuro cried indignantly, and Miyako waved him off to pay closer attention to the match. When she turned back Akamaru had released himself from Naruto's hold, his fur entirely red and initiated a jutsu that transformed Akamaru into a clone of himself.
'Kiba's aura has become wilder now, it scrapes like fangs and claws. Along with Akamaru's synced combined power, it's like feeling the overwhelming press of dominance.' Miyako narrowed her eyes in concentration. 'This feral, offensive, oppressive style of fighting is no doubt akin to a wolf proclaiming himself as alpha.'
Watching the Kibas dart around the field was dizzying, but Naruto somehow managed to dodge until he was caught in a spot perfect for a jutsu that turned Kiba and Akamaru into twin wind turbines. Miyako visibly winced as Naruto landed with a thud, but let out an audible sigh in the silence that followed when he started speaking in retaliation to Kiba's jab.
"I will become Hokage, I can't lose here."
'So that's your dream huh? To become Hokage.' Miyako smiled gently to herself. She looked around at the faces of the Leaf ninja lining the stairwell and could tell that for most of them, they felt the same way as Kiba. Everyone in this room at one point had underestimated Naruto.
"You know deep down that you can't become Hokage, so stop acting all tough!" Kiba bit out through a cackle, his head thrown back so far Miyako hoped he broke his neck.
'Naruto…you're used to being laughed at aren't you? Used to being mocked, used to being told no…' Miyako frowned in thought, 'it's amazing to me, how someone who could be denied at every turn could still somehow thrive enough to be as determined and welcoming as you are. Meanwhile Gaara who was told yes all his life ended up so cold. You were both treated with fear and disdain and yet you're so different.'
It was a bit of a struggle, but Naruto eventually managed to stand, and even to smirk. "If you compete with me for the title of Hokage," Naruto scoffed, "you'll be the loser."
Miyako felt a slow smile spread across her face. 'It's settled then, even if my purpose for believing in you isn't the best, even if it's a selfish wish of mine in the end, Naruto…I'll believe in you even if no one else will. And when this is all over, when we're all in a happier place in our lives, I hope I get to watch you become Hokage.'
The recommenced, Kiba proceeding with his same strategy, though slightly altered, blind Naruto with smoke bombs and hope to hit him in the ensuing fray. Miyako thought it was ironic that Kiba pointed out the repetition in Naruto's movements, while he himself thought so little of him that he kept using the same strategy multiple times.
The smoke cleared to three Kibas and Miyako commended Naruto for his strategy, in her head of course, scolding herself to give the boy more credit in the future. However, her guess that Kiba had a heightened sense of smell was correct, and she knew that Kiba knew he had punched Naruto when it happened, but his play by turning in Akamaru managed to fool the boy enough into knocking out his own dog. 'One element down, keep it up Naruto. Prove every person that ever doubted you in here wrong right now.'
The dance began again, except this time, in their auras Miyako could see that Naruto was brimming like a field of wild flowers, his confidence risen at proving himself. Kiba, while still brimming with much energy, was tamer without Akamaru, it seemed the removal of the ninja-hound had shaken his own confidence.
From her left, pulling on her own thoughts was Gaara's vague intensity and thin layer of shock. It was hard not to turn and beam at him, or to childishly mock Kankuro and Temari's own openly shocked expressions, but she managed to hold herself back and promised to wait until the end.
'One thing is certain, the kid can take a beating.'
"Tch, he doesn't know when to quit." Kankuro muttered after Naruto rose for the third or fourth time. "Miyako I still have no faith in your orange loser, but I honestly don't care which it is at this point."
Miyako rolled her eyes at Gaara's agreeing hum. "I told you Kiba couldn't outlast Naruto in stamina. If this new technique Naruto is claiming to have doesn't beat him, Naruto will probably win simply by tiring Kiba out." She blinked as Kiba charged at Naruto again, his speed rivalling the speed at which Naruto could activate his jutsu. Miyako tensed as Kiba went to swipe at Naruto's back and then lost all color in her face at the clear explosion of flatulence.
'Did he…in Kiba's face?' Miyako couldn't hold it in, breaking out into a peal of laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of it all, practically falling over the rails as Kiba held his nose in excruciating pain.
Gaara sighed lightly next to her while Temari and Kankuro ping-ponged between looking amused and looking absolutely flabbergasted. Miyako managed to calm herself down in time for Naruto to perform a Shadow clone jutsu and his final move, something he claimed was a new technique, but really…
'You little brat, you just copied Sasuke and labelled it something different.' Miyako let out little snickers, but was secretly pleased at all of the shocked faces of the crowd as Naruto gave a final kick right in Kiba's abused nose and knocked him clean out.
"Whoa, that kid…he managed to do it." Kankuro drawled, looking over to Miyako, suddenly suspicious.
"Oi, oi." He called, and Miyako pointed to herself innocently.
"Yes you! Do you know more than you're telling us? Are you psychic? Oi, answer me!" Kankuro demanded attempting to reach around Gaara to grab Miyako who only laughed and scooted away from his reach.
"Kankuro." Gaara droned, an obvious warning given without even looking at the culprit, though the tick between his eyebrows was an obvious sign.
Miyako moved back to her original spot next to Gaara, riling Kankuro up further with an immature face that delightedly was as affective as she thought it would be.
"Miyako." Gaara gave her the same warning drone, though Miyako was special enough to be looked at while he did it.
"Don't be a stick in the mud Gaara, I'm sure it's almost your turn." Miyako teased despite both Kankuro and Temari's looks of frightened warning. Contrary to what they believed would happen, Gaara only gave her a glare and a signature displeased scoff before focusing back on the main arena.
Miyako ignored the questioning looks the siblings sent their way and looked across the field to spy something very interesting happening on the Leaf side.
'Oh-ho Naruto, is this little blue-haired cutie a special little someone? I can see that blush from here!' Miyako wished she could amplify her hearing just so she could spy on their conversation, but she was content with simply watching Naruto taking something from the shy little Hinata.
The announcement of the next match drew Miyako into looking at the board, her eyes lighting up subtly once more before settling when both Lee's and Gaara's names were skipped, except…
"Haaa, Miyako. Two Hyuga, now this should be a fight." But Miyako ignored his prodding, focused solely on the blue-haired girl's sudden look of terror. Miyako trailed her eyes to Neji, who was already glaring moving past Hinata with confident nonchalance.
"I think it's going to be…" Kankuro started, but Miyako interrupted, "It's going to be Neji."
"Oi! Don't take my answer." He scoffed, but Miyako continued to ignore him and study the two who were now in the center field.
"And how do you know, smarty pants?" Kankuro grumbled. Miyako blinked herself free of the whirlpool Hinata and Neji's auras created—they were so starkly different.
Hinata was the softness of cotton and spring breezes. She'd never felt something so beautiful in a ninja's aura before now—hell if she wasn't currently seeing a ninja battle before her eyes, she would've sworn it couldn't belong to one. Neji on the other hand felt like the harsh grip of leather, she could sense that he was grounded and level-headed, but it had been replaced by welts of memories, echoes of being restrained that were amplified by Hinata's presence.
"Because he doesn't care about winning or losing, he cares about hurting." She intoned blandly. "Specifically, about hurting Hinata."
Before Kankuro could prod further into that hypothesis, Neji began to speak, his face growing colder with every syllable. Miyako wasn't paying much attention to what he was saying after he urged Hinata to give up, instead torn between how Neji's aura fed off of Hinata's fear and Naruto's increasing aggravation pressing down on her skull. She annoyed the agreeing hums from Gaara beside her and tried to pull herself back into reality. 'I wouldn't get so caught up in all of these other people if Gaara and I's bond wasn't so weak.' She thought to herself angrily.
"Oi, Miyako, what does that kid mean the head family and the branch family?" Kankuro murmured.
Miyako answered before she could filter herself, the memories of a younger Hinata flashing through her mind thoroughly distracting her into providing the information.
"The Hyuga consists of two families, the Head and Branch. The Branch is said to be subservient to the Head family, though I'm not sure where the difference lies or how this is decided. All I know is that it is the Branch's responsibility to protect the Head."
Miyako ignored Kankuro's hum of interest, the ever dampening feeling of Hinata's panicked aura clogging up her nostrils, and Naruto's ever mounting frustrated pressure tap dancing on her head. Finally some of it released when Naruto interrupted Neji's never-ending speech.
"She can, she can change!" He roared, fists echoing on the rails with a rattling bang. "You don't have the right to decide who someone is, dumbass!" He swung his eyes to Hinata, and, somehow, got even louder. "Give it to him Hinata!"
Gaara scoffed from beside her while the siblings grumbled something to each other about the "blonde kid that never shuts up". Miyako breathed a sigh of relief when the tension loosened some, but she wasn't saved from much, her muscles bunching right back up in concentration when they charged and began to fight.
"Ahh, I feel as though I'm missing something in this fight." Kankuro groaned. "Miyako, what are they doing?"
"It's a Hyuga taijutsu called the Gentle Fist, it only works in conjunction with the Byakugan which is why it can't be learned by anyone who doesn't possess it. The Byakugan allows the user to see the chakra network, and the Gentle Fist in turn targets the chakra points in that network to shut off the flow of chakra." The siblings' eyes widened slightly, scrutinizing the fight further.
"It definitely isn't much to look at though." Kankuro grumbled. "Without the ocular jutsu we won't know who's winning."
Miyako hummed noncommittally, barely holding in a gasp as Neji struck Hinata twice in succession. Gaara bodily shook as Hinata spat blood, the siblings edging away and Miyako twitching beside Gaara, fighting the urge to comfort him through his bloodthirst.
'Does he really deserve comfort in this situation, if this is what he chose?' She slammed the door on that thought immediately, slightly surprised at herself and the sudden turn her thoughts could make. Self-loathing at this point wasn't anything new, but she'd never had a vindictive thought about Gaara since she'd met him.
Despite Neji's urging, Hinata continued with shouts of encouragement, charging at Neji once more. Miyako watched the back and forth with baited breath, the wind of Hinata's aura whipping up tufts of cotton in a frenzy, it smelled so fresh that it was slightly invigorating. And then, it wasn't. And then it was streaked with red, the whole scene freezing as Neji landed a final blow that shook the whole room.
Hayate was in the middle of declaring the match, the middle of declaring Neji the winner, Gaara had even stopped shaking, but again Naruto interjected, seeing something in Hinata no one else could see.
'Hinata can't do any more than this, but still she struggles to prove herself, to herself.' Gaara's insides were a mixture of surprise and mounting frustration, and Miyako didn't have the energy to figure out if it stemmed from the fact that Hinata kept getting up, or that Naruto kept encouraging her to.
"Why?" Gaara breathed quietly as Hinata finally stood. "Why does she continue to stand? Why?"
Something in Miyako told her to be quiet, the same part of her, she realized, that wanted her to fight natural instincts to comfort Gaara, the same voice that urged her to give up on him.
"To prove herself, to prove to him that she can change." Miyako turned to Gaara. "Don't tell me Gaara, that you don't believe people can change?" 'You changed.' The twisted voice in her head challenged. 'For the worse.'
The redhead really seemed to think about that question, closing his eyes even before re-opening them and looking on the scene calmly again. "To become better? No. It's as that boy says— she's too soft, she can never become stronger that way."
"Mercy and kindness aren't weakness." Miyako set her eyes back on the match, though she doubted Hinata could really do anything more, it was the principle that counted.
Gaara scoffed. "She should've withdrawn at the beginning, it would've saved her the embarrassment."
Neji charged while they weren't paying attention, all four of the Konoha Jounin acting immediately to hold him back or protect Hinata. Miyako blinked in surprise as Neji snapped from his hold about the Head family getting special treatment.
'Amazing, all it took for something as strong as leather to snap,' Miyako rested her eyes on the fallen Hinata, 'was something as soft as cotton.'
Naruto, attempted to attack Neji, but was held back by Lee. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she heard loud and clear when Naruto vowed to win on Hinata's blood.
Gaara's temple was bulging at this development, Miyako decided to see if she could make it pop. "He's why she didn't withdraw." She commented offhandedly.
Gaara looked like he was fighting so hard against following the line of conversation, but he was as drawn to Miyako as she was to him, even if neither realized it. "Because he wouldn't keep his mouth shut."
"Exactly." Miyako agreed easily. "His true power lies in his words. His words gave her strength."
"Strength, power." He scoffed. "She lost the match, she's in critical condition—if his aim was to ruin things for her than I will concede that he has powers unparalleled." Gaara watched her being carried away and closed his eyes again. "He should've let her forfeit when she wanted to."
"We'll never know if she really wanted to forfeit now, but Naruto's aim would never be to hurt someone he cares about." Miyako breathed quietly after a beat. She pointed the leftover bloody handprint on the field. "And whether you acknowledge it or not, this is his power. His promises that he sees through for the people he cares about, his words that strengthen them." Before Gaara could refute her further, she interrupted, as if she could read his mind. "And no, there's nothing wrong with having friends," she whispered firmly, "you've just forgotten how to do it."
Obviously some of that was an unchecked grudge, leaking out into her speech and reviving a side to herself she hadn't seen in a long while. She doubted it would become a problem, for now, but she had to keep an eye on it, or Gaara would be in trouble. He didn't deserve a malicious genie, he'd already been through enough.
Kankuro waltzed over to them, perhaps sensing the tension and being the only one brave enough to break it. "Miyako," he started, hands on his hips and blatantly ignoring Gaara's laser glare, "I'm going to the other side." He proclaimed.
Miyako quirked an eyebrow, her expression clearly reading: "elaborate please".
"To gather reconnaissance on that trusting blond kid." He pointed triumphantly at a serious looking Naruto.
Miyako titled her head, still unsure why he was announcing this to the two of them.
"Good luck?" She tried shrugging and grinning sheepishly at his affronted look.
"No! I need you to come with me! You're already friends with some of these people, right?"
Miyako blinked rapidly in understanding. "Oh, you want me to make an introduction for you?"
Kankuro nodded sagely but Miyako deadpanned right back at him. "But Kankuro, you do know that I don't actually know any of the genin right?"
Kankuro scratched his chin, but plowed on. "Well you're charming, so it ought to be okay regardless." He hummed faux thoughtfully.
"You just don't want to go over there and be outright rejected, right?" She guessed and was ignored in favor of being pulled to the other side of the arena.
Gaara didn't protest, probably because he didn't care to be around her right now and simply watched a Kankuro dragged an unamused Miyako by her wrist to the other stairwell. He silently agreed as his sister called him an idiot under her breath.
Naruto was at the end of the stairwell, moping it seemed, and noticed them almost immediately.
"Hey, what are you doing over here all by yourself? Shouldn't you be with your friends?" Kankuro made a flourish with his arm towards the other leaf genin gathered at the other side of the stairwell. Naruto huffed and Miyako saw Kankuro smirk out of the corner of her eye.
'Kankuro, just what are you planning to get out of Naruto?' Miyako's eye twitched slightly.
"I see, that Neji guy," Kankuro jutted his chin towards the stoic Neji, "it seems he didn't reveal his full power during his exams. Well then, what's he all about, hm?"
'You can't be serious Kankuro, you dragged me over here because you wanted to find out more about Neji? And you thought Naruto was going to help you?' Miyako huffed as Naruto proclaimed that he was going to crush him.
"You're a funny guy, I like you." Kankuro smoozed after a round of laughter.
"I don't like you." Naruto shot back, much to Kankuro's annoyance. Naruto finally fully turned to face them, and blinked curiously at Miyako who was still in Kankuro's grip.
'Well, I guess this is helpful if I want to follow through with a plan involving Naruto. Might as well get to know the kid.'
Naruto suddenly gasped as if solving a math equation. "Oi, oi, you're the girl from the forest who Konohamaru followed!" Then he put his finger on his chin, before snapping it, "And, from the Academy when I met Bushy Brows and—" Naruto abruptly cut himself off and glared in Neji's direction again.
"Hmm, that's right. You're Naruto, Kakashi's student, right?"
Naruto's eyes lit up as if Miyako had just given him candy. "That's right! Say, say—" He scratched his head, tongue poking from the corner of his lips. "You're also the one that winked at Kakashi-sensei earlier, could it be—" Miyako's eyes went from narrowing in bewilderment, to wide as dinner plates when the boy held up his pinky and grinned cheekily behind his hand.
"W-what?" She floundered. "I just met your sensei a week ago, there's nothing like that going on!" She said too loudly, face bright red in embarrassment.
Naruto was cooing in childish excitement about her reaction being telling while Kankuro loudly accused her of fraternizing with the enemy. Miyako was sure they made quite a scene, a loud-mouthed blond cheekily shoving his pinky in a flailing red woman's face while a cat-boy in Kabuki paint waved a finger in her face demanding answers.
"Enough!" Miyako roared, slapping a hand each over both loud boys' mouths while she tried to regain normal face color and dignity, though her still flushed cheeks obviously spoke otherwise.
Naruto removed her hand and continued on with their conversation as if he hadn't just accused her, who was only supposed to be a teenager, of being in a relationship with a grown man.
"Say, nii-chan, you told those two bullies in the Academy you weren't a genin."
Miyako nodded, whacking Kankuro when he decided to lick her hand in order for her to remove it. She wiped it on his hat while he was recovering. "I'm not a genin, I'm a jounin."
"Really?" Naruto's eyes sparkled as he grabbed her hand earnestly. "But, you can't be older than this guy here." He exclaimed and pointed to a disgusted Kankuro who was looking at their interaction in displeasure.
"I'm not." She confirmed just as Kankuro protested that it was his idea to come over here and make friends. "Oi, why are you being so nice to Miyako and not to me?" He huffed, hands on hips.
Naruto deadpanned. "Miyako-nii-chan seems much nicer than you." And he nodded as if to answer his own question. Kankuro wallowed on the ground pitifully. "I told you, it's because you and the other siblings give off mean vibes, Kankuro." Miyako lectured, making the boy sink even lower into the ground if that were possible.
Naruto seemed prepared to ask Miyako all sorts of questions but the next match was ready to commence, so they all put their attention on the board.
Miyako's eyes glowed slightly and the board stopped on Rock Lee and Gaara, Kankuro had since arisen from the floor and looked mighty nervous to see Gaara already on the field.
Since Miyako was closer to the action, she could now hear everything going on in the Leaf ninja's conversation, and of course Gai was giving Lee a pep talk, a poor one at that.
'Gai-san, don't tell me you didn't notice that Gaara's gourd is a weapon until now? Is Lee taking notes? Have a made a mistake?' Miyako shook her head out of her spiral of thoughts. 'No, I have to have faith, if anyone can do it, it will be Lee.' She sighed as she looked over at the duo though. 'Please let this work.'
"I don't know what kind of moves that bowl-cut guy has," Kankuro scoffed, crossing his arms as he looked down to Lee, "but he'll never be able to take down Gaara."
Miyako stood in the middle of Kankuro and Naruto, hands already gripping the railing tightly as she raged an internal battle with herself.
'Would it be better…if I left? If I stayed…I might interfere if Lee lands even one blow on him. But—' she looked warily around to all of the ninja watching the match, knowing Gai would protect Lee, but, 'who can stop Gaara if it isn't me?' This plan was risky for sure, it obviously had some risk beforehand when the Sand squad was just going to let Gaara's opponent be up in the air, not knowing if or when he'd snap if someone did manage to break his defenses, but Miyako had doubled the risk by ensuring Lee battled him. She had to remember that this fight was set up to show him that he wasn't invincible, that he couldn't play God with people's lives, but wasn't that what she was doing right now? Shouldn't she feel more awful about putting Gaara's life at possible risk? At this very moment her magic was buzzing through her in protest, itching to manifest itself and protect, protect, protect—kill the threat!
'No, I can't go! I have to stay, because at the end of the day, Lee is the one who is at greatest risk here, not Gaara. It's my responsibility to ensure Gaara is safe, yes, but it's also my responsibility to ensure others are safe from him.' Miyako let Naruto's defense of Lee bolster her, Lee is strong.
Still she swayed under the intense bloodlust radiating from Gaara's every pore as the match commenced, drowning in it. She felt like a tuning fork that wouldn't still, every cell in her body vibrated at Gaara's frequency. She tried to take as subtle a deep breath as possible to calm herself down.
'I thought I knew the scale of Gaara's power, but this…it's worse than when he was a child.' Miyako gasped quietly and slid down sit cross-legged against the bars.
"Huh? Miyako-nii-chan? Are you okay?" Naruto patted her hand sympathetically. Miyako gave him a shaky smile. "Yeah, don't worry about me, I just haven't slept enough, it's catching up to me." She crawled away from the railing and sat cross-legged against the wall instead, "I'll watch from here instead." She gave him a pacifying wave and he nodded and turned back to watch the match.
Lee had a good go at it, but found he couldn't penetrate the sand at his current speed. Miyako was watching through one eye and breathing shallowly to not attract attention to herself, her muscles jumping in protest as Gaara's emotions surged.
"What's going on, even at Bushy Brow's speed…?"
"It's no use, a physical attack isn't going to work on Gaara." Kankuro looked back at Miyako who made a show of leaning her head back on the wall and seeming as if she was bored instead of having an internal struggle with herself. He turned back, eyeing Naruto sideways. "The sand shields Gaara without his conscious effort, no one has ever been able to injure him."
Miyako wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees, her whole body nearly jumping and racketing up with tension at Gaara's call for Lee to entertain him more. Miyako faintly heard Sakura and Gai's conversation, smirking in self-loathing when Gai confirmed that Lee couldn't do Ninjutsu or Genjutsu.
Miyako smushed her cheek into her knees, watching Gai and Lee's interaction and the removal of weights around his legs. Miyako watched them drop, faintly feeling the freeing pull of Lee's aura and when they landed with a loud thud, his presence echoed, like a fuse being lit on a rocket. The next moment he was gone.
'Holy shit,' she turned, gaping at Gai, 'he's raised a cheetah on steroids.' She blinked her whole body winding up at the movements her eyes could follow, as Lee danced around Gaara's sand with incredible speed and dexterity.
Gaara was rattled, she was rattled, their emotions were mixing dangerously, but Miyako tried desperately to keep herself in the real world, and out of his screeching world of red that was crackling with confusion. She grasped onto Lee's aura of exploding joy like a lifeline, it and Naruto's wild flower- rose, she blearily realized—was the only two things keeping her able to watch this at all.
Kankuro couldn't decide between shock and nervousness, but shock eventually won out when Lee managed to land a hit on Gaara. The blow was a canon to both Gaara and Miyako's psyche, but the only person who physically let out a sound was Miyako, who desperately covered the squeak that escaped with both hands.
By the second blow, Lee had knocked Gaara off his feet and cracked the sand armor, Miyako had to bite her own hand to keep from screaming. The red world of Gaara's mind gripped onto her desperately, warping to sound like the crying Gaara used to do at night when he thought no one was listening, the melody a small cry for help. But she could feel it, the writhing red growing steadily stronger, the bloodlust engulfing the whole room as the armor rebuilt itself.
While the red world scratched at her flesh, it slithered around Lee, nipping at the heels of his joy, like it was coaxing him to play. Miyako tried to distract herself by closing her eyes and occupying herself with her thoughts. 'Well, this is going better than I thought.' She wiped some of the sweat off of her brow, chuckling quietly to herself at all the exertion she was using to not act, while Gaara was hardly breaking a sweat. Yes, perfect, she twitched again. She ought to get a medal for the effort she used in holding herself back.
Lee started to run rapidly around Gaara, whose face was unchanging in expression, his aura was pressured, recoiling and watching the movements eyes couldn't track.
'This…is bad.' Miyako forced herself to sit back up and melded herself with the wall, knowing that from here on it would only get worse. And there was no amount of tricks and mental agility to keep her from betraying her own plan.
G/M
Slowly, without anyone the wiser, Miyako disappeared into the wall, her eyes closed the whole time, so she couldn't navigate back to Gaara unconsciously. She curled into the fetal position wherever she was, feeling wood underneath her and not feeling with her senses farther than that.
'How did I get through these kind of things with my other masters? It's all a blur…' She rolled restlessly to her other side, bringing her arm up to her mouth to bite down when her brain started bouncing around in her skull.
'It probably helped that I didn't like any of them.' She tried to force herself to take deeper breaths, but choked midway and welcomed the idea of asphyxiating if it meant this would be over.
'Also, most of the battles masters engaged in, I was there and didn't have to fight my own instincts.' She thought sarcastically.
The blows kept coming, at some point Miyako's whole arm was lined with half bleeding, half healing rows of bite marks made so she wouldn't give her position away and cause alarm. She was sweating as if she'd ran two marathons in the middle of summer and tried to go for a swim directly afterwards, and she was half out of it that her thoughts and Gaara's were melding into blurbs of sentences mixed with random curses and threats to Lee's life.
Still she held herself back, gripped onto the wooden boards of the floor wherever she was until her fingertips bled until the rapidly racing red tendrils of confusion, anger and frustration changed into a wicked delight. And then her eyes snapped open.
G/M
She let out a little cry when she tried to stand up, the sudden release of tension in her body making it hard to maintain balance. Her eyes took a minute to adjust, but she quickly recognized the room where Gaara had interrogated her after the second exam and wobbled to the wall, tracing Gaara's aura back through the building and falling through to the exact spot she was beforehand.
Uncaring of lingering wounds, she rush/waddled, still exhausted, to the railing to find that Lee was on the ground, sand encasing both his right arm and his leg. Her hand pressed the material of her scarf more firmly over her mouth as she muffled a cry of shock, self-loathing thoughts already stabbing her in the brain.
'They're broken, I know they are.' She thought hollowly, slowly turning her head to face Gaara, who was lying in a bed of sand, hand extended in a fist. More sand flowed, ready to follow Gaara's bidding for more blood, but Gai appeared, knocking the sand away, tears collecting on his lower lids.
'Gai…Lee. I'm sorry.' She let Gaara's weakness wash over her; she couldn't even take full satisfaction in watching his red presence crumble in on itself into a mass of wrought pain and confusion. She couldn't do it because her eyes were glued to the still Lee, knowing that this was her fault.
'Gaara, you and I…we did worse than kill Lee. It might've been better off he died.' Miyako was no medical ninja, but she knew Gaara's sand, and she knew how merciless he was now. Lee's bones, were as good as dust.
"Why?" Gaara breathed, so, so confused.
"Because," Gai sniffed, arm still outstretched in front of his precious pupil, "he is a subordinate that I love."
'Oh…wow. This couldn't have gone better than if I'd directed it.' Miyako wanted to laugh sarcastically, but all she could manage while Gaara held his head in confused pain was a sordid smile. She knew that Kankuro and Naruto were probably trying to get her attention, were at the very least looking at her oddly, but she didn't care, everything was white noise to the scene before her.
When Gaara's sand started reacting Miyako was suddenly in front of him, facing Gai and the blearily standing Lee with a sad smile. She directed a small current of electricity through her feet to the sand lying before her, watching it still and fall like rain from Lee's skin.
"Lee, you…" Gai reached for Lee and Miyako forced herself to look, to watch for the first time how a life she ruined was affected, ghosts of people sacrificed before writhing around in the shadows behind in a dance only she could see.
She closed her eyes to it momentarily, but Gaara's grunt of pain brought her back, Gai softly whispering to Lee that it was enough.
"You heard him Gaara." Miyako's voice drifted like cold mist backwards to Gaara. He stared at her foot, still running electricity into his sand in slight terror. "That's enough."
Miyako didn't move from the scene before her until she heard Gaara collect all of his sand and rise to his seat, she still didn't move as he made his way to the stairs. She didn't move as the others rushed down to hear the news of what would happen to Lee, the medical ninja announcing, as quietly as they could, that the damage was extensive, and that Gai shouldn't hope for much.
Miyako whispered "I'm sorry" to seemingly no one, yet everyone seen and unseen and walked out of the arena without another word, the white noise of the world around her be damned.
Whooooa that ended up being a lot more than I anticipated. Hehe. Let me know what you think lovely readers! See you in the next one~!
.Acronym (I'm not, it's honestly the first thing I came up with ^.^')