Chapter 10

Matsuri had walked away from Sakura with a sense of accomplishment. The chance that she needed to take out the Hokage's apprentice had presented itself to her and she had made sure not to waste it. She had knocked the admirable kunoichi out. The pinkette would now be considered a defeated participant in the trials. Gaara would only look at Sakura with scorn from now on. He would not want anything to do with her. Gaara's eyes will now turn my way and he will accept me for the brave powerful kunoichi that I am. His smiles will belong to me and only me. I will receive the title of Kazehime and the council will inform all of Suna that Gaara and I will be married. All of my dreams are coming true with the fall of that Leaf kunoichi. She couldn't wait to fall into Gaara's arms.

Matsuri continued her journey toward Suna with a bright smile on her face. It wouldn't be long before she was there. She hefted Sakura's pack higher on her shoulders after taking another sip of water from the canteen she found in the pack. She couldn't wait to return to Suna as the victor of the trials.

XXX

Sakura laid on the desert floor thinking about what had just happened. One minute she was worried about Matsuri; another minute she was fighting a kunoichi from Mist; and then while trying to gain her breath and take in her surroundings, she had been punched hard in the side of her head. She had fallen to the ground and her head had hit the sand, but she had not been completely knocked unconscious. She knew the girl from Mist had been defeated and knocked out, so that left only Matsuri to be the one to have given her the blow to the head. Sakura quickly healed herself and got to her feet to look for her pack.

When she couldn't find her pack, she assumed that Matsuri must have stolen it. Sakura knew the girl was angry at her for talking about her crush on Gaara, but this went beyond anger. Attempting to knock her out and then steal her survival supplies and leave her with nothing was not how a friend acted. Matsuri had a lot to answer for. She had been nice to the girl. She had shared food and water, healed the girl twice and even assisted with providing shelter while on their journey. Matsuri was an ungrateful brat and once she got back to Suna and found the girl, payment was going to be extracted.

XXX

Matsuri was a mile away from the walls of Suna when a shinobi, who assisted the council, spotted the girl. She was the first kunoichi to return to Suna in an upright position. He ran down the steps to the bottom of the wall and summoned a genin to him. He told the genin to inform the council that the first kunoichi was returning from the trials. The genin took off at high speed knowing how important this message was to the council.

When Matsuri reached the entrance to Suna, she was greeted by the shinobi who had spotted her. He welcomed the brunette back to Suna and asked if she needed any water or food. She turned the offer down and told him that she just needed to rest. Before she could make her way to the arena, the Council appeared and started to congratulate her for returning to Suna. One of the members of the council had lifted her up onto his shoulders while others cheered her on. They carried her all the way to the arena.

Temari had been with Shikamaru checking the progress of the kunoichis still out in the desert when she heard the noise of cheering. She looked at Shikamaru with a questioning gaze. He just shrugged his shoulders at her. The blonde left the room to see what the noise was all about.

The sight that had greeted her eyes left her baffled. She saw Matsuri sitting on a council member's shoulders and people were cheering her on and claiming her as the winner of the trials. This is all wrong, she thought to herself. How could Matsuri have won this competition? I was so sure Sakura would win this. Temari ran back into the room she had just left.

"Shikamaru, I need you to pull any and all data we have on Matsuri during the trials. Kimi, I need you to check the sign-in sheet and see if Matsuri signed in before the competition started," she ordered. She had a sinking suspicion that Matsuri had entered the trials without permission. If that was so and if Sakura had been defeated, then everything that she had planned was going to slip through her fingers and the Council would get what they had wanted from the beginning.

"Damn," she told herself. "Shikamaru, what was Sakura's last position?"

Shikamaru looked up from the screen and informed Temari that there was no data collected on Matsuri and that Sakura's last known position was three hours south of Suna.

"Ok. Is her tracker still working? Is the heart rate monitor still tracking her as well?"

Sumire, who had been keeping an eye on the heart rate monitor, answered Temari's questions. "Yes, it is still working as I am still receiving heart beat data from Sakura-sama's tracker."

"Good." Temari exclaimed. "Shikamaru, Sumire, please print out all data we have on Sakura. I think we are going to need it. I'm afraid the Council is going to declare Matsuri the winner of the trials before Sakura gets back."

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered. It seemed that all the trouble that Temari had gone through to get Sakura into the trials was going to be a big waste of nothing. Shikamaru turned back to his computer screen and started printing all the available data he had on Sakura's time during the trial.

XXX

After searching for her pack and not finding it, Sakura decided to check on the Mist kunoichi. They had both fought a hard battle against each other and she wanted to make sure that Kasumi did not have any serious injuries. Sakura had actually enjoyed the battle. Being that she had spent most of her time in the hospital, she hadn't had a really good spar in a long time. Kasumi had offered up a good challenge. She really put Sakura through her paces. She knew the girl would be taken back to the arena shortly and her injuries would be taken care of there.

The pinkette hoped that she could meet the Mist kunoichi when this was over and that they could be friends. Not finding any serious injuries on the girl, Sakura made her way over to the oasis to get a drink and to wash her face. She then sat under the shade of a palm tree and waited for the medics to arrive and take Kasumi away.

Fifteen minutes later, the medics arrived and Sakura watched as they put Katsumi on a stretcher and then disappear from her sight. Sakura felt that she had recovered enough of her chakra to finish her journey back to Suna. She figured if she kept walking straight north, she should be able to come across Suna in a couple of hours.

XXX

Shikamaru had informed Temari that Sakura was on the move again and that she should be arriving in a couple of hours. The blonde thanked the Nara and told him that if she was needed, he could find her at the Suna walls. She was going to wait there until Sakura returned.

Three hours later, Sakura finally saw the walls of Suna. Oh, how glad she was to see those high walls. Soon she would be able to get a decent shower and fall into a comfy bed. She smirked at the thought until she saw who was waiting for her. Temari. The smile she had on her face turned into an instant frown and the anger she had at the beginning of this competition returned with a fierceness that she rarely let loose.

She walked up to Temari with her left hand balled into a fist and pointed a finger into Temari's chest. "YOU! I don't know if I want to talk to you right now," she angrily spat at the blonde. "What did you think you were doing, throwing me into this competition?"

Temari saw how angry the pinkette was and could only give her a stupid grin while rubbing the back of her neck. "Well… you see.."

But Sakura cut her off. "I don't want to hear it, Temari. I need someplace to clean up and rest first. Then, we can discuss how you broke my trust - and possibly - the trust of Konoha."

Temari gulped and led Sakura to a shower room in the arena.

After Sakura finished her shower and dressed, she exited the shower room, towling her hair dry and sat down in front of Temari. "Ok. Let's talk about what happened, Temari," she commanded.

"Sakura, I know your angry right now, but I have a good reason for what I did," Temari started with. "I know that I only requested you to participate as a medic, but I needed for you to win this competition. The council had sinister purposes for the winner of this competition and I knew that if you won, then that would put a stop to whatever the council was planning." Temari didn't like lying to Sakura, but she was not ready to reveal the whole truth to the pinkette just yet.

"You wanted me to win, so whatever plans the council had would be ruined. I can't believe you, Temari. Why didn't you talk to me about this beforehand? If you had talked to me, I would have agreed to help you. I know how Konoha's council works and I assume Suna's is the same. I would have been more than willing to help you." Sakura felt like Temari had no trust in her. She thought their friendship meant more than that to the blonde.

"Sakura, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. There is more going on with this competition then you know. I can't tell you everything… yet. But, believe me - I do trust you and when it's the right time, I will tell you everything. Can you trust and have faith in me?"

"I don't know if I can right now," Sakura dejectedly told her. "What can you tell me that will make me want to help you now?"

"Well… I shouldn't tell you this, but… it also involves Gaara. That's all I can tell you at the moment. So, pleeeaase say you will forgive me and help me stop the council with their plans," Temari desperately asked.

Sakura could see how earnest Temari was being with her request and that this did involve Gaara somehow. Going up against the council was going to be hard. I've seen the many times my mentor had come back from greuling sessions with the council in Konoha. How stressed she had been. She had survived the desert and the many battles she had had out there. There was still more going on then what I'm being told. If Temari had been so desperate to defeat the council's plans that she needed my help, then who am I to stand in Temari's way? "Ok. I'll forgive you for now, but when everything is done, I want to know the full truth," Sakura told the blonde.

"Of course, Sakura. I'll tell you everything, then." Of course, by then, the whole truth would be out of the bag before she had to tell her the truth, Temari mentally told herself.

"One more thing. Remind me before I leave for Konoha that you and I need to have a spar. I'm sure I'll still have some aggression that I will need to work through because of all of this," Sakura stated, grinning at Temari.

"Sure. Whatever you say, Sakura," Temari answered, rolling her eyes at the pinkette. "Now let's get going. We need to stop the council from officially naming Matsuri as the winner of the trials."

Both girls walked out of the room and found Shikamaru waiting for them at the entrance to the arena. Temari led the two Konoha nins to the outside reception area. They spotted the crowd that surrounded the council and Matsuri. Everyone was still congratulating Matsuri when the trio walked up to them. The crowd separated, creating a path for the trio to make their way to the council and the brunette.

Temari raised her hand in order to silence the crowd and began speaking. "Matsuri cannot be declared the official winner of the trials. She was not the last kunoichi standing. About an hour ago, Haruno Sakura, a participant in the trials, made her entrance into Suna. Haruno Sakura had never once been knocked unconscious during the trials."

At this announcement, the crowd started to murmur amongst themselves. The council hearing this became angry. "Temari, what is the meaning of this?" one of the council elders spoke up. "Matsuri returned first. She should be declared the winner. Not this outsider from Leaf." The other elders nodded their heads in silent agreement.

Temari was going to continue arguing with the council about how wrong they were when Shikamaru nudged her arm. "Temari, I don't think the council is going to listen to you at this point."

Angrily, she looked at Shikamaru and asked him "what should I do?"

"The trials ended with two kunoichi still standing and the council has already made up their minds on who the winner should be. I think you should allow a tribunal to make the final decision on who the winner is. Both sides will be able to argue their points on why their chosen participant should be the winner."

Temari listened to Shikamaru's wise words and thought the process through. A tribunal would allow her to show evidence of both the council's and Matsuri's treachery. She would still be able to have Sakura come out the winner. She quickly agreed to his plan. Turning to the council, the blonde stood before them and told them, "Since we can't come to an agreement on who the winner should be, I request that a tribunal be created and that the mediator of the tribunal make the final and official decision on who the winner is for the Kazehime Trials."

There was an immediate hush over the crowd as they waited for the response from the council. Nothing like this had ever happened in Suna before.

Sakura stood in aghast silence. This was the first time she was hearing the official name of the competition. Kazehime? Is that what this whole competition was about? Sakura started thinking about her conversation with the Mist kunoichi and how she said this fight was about a man. Then how Temari told her that Gaara was sort of involved in whatever scheme the council had planned. Some of the puzzle pieces seemed to be coming together, but she still had more questions than answers. Was the reason Temari wanted her to be involved in this trial to protect Gaara from the council? What role did the Kazehime play in regards to the Kazekage position?

Shikamaru turned and saw all the emotions that were playing out on Sakura's face. Shock, confusion, hurt and then anger. He knew and understood what Temari was trying to do for her brother and he knew that Sakura was going to feel used. He, in a way, could understand why she was angry. He turned back to watch Temari and mumbled a silent "troublesome."

Temari spotted Sakura out of the corner of her eye while she waited for the council's response. She could see anger spread across the girl's face. She could also tell that Sakura was probably coming to the conclusion on why she was thrown into the trials, but she knew that Sakura didn't know the full truth and that some of her assumptions were going to be wrong. Temari figured she should have confessed everything to Sakura, but then that would mean exposing Gaara's secret crush on the pinkette. I just have to keep going with this plan and hope that in the end Sakura will forgive me, she thought to herself.

The Suna council spent quite a few minutes discussing Temari's request. Once they came to a concise agreement amongst themselves, the head elder walked over to Temari and stood in front of her. "The council has decided to agree to your request. We will hold the tribunal here at the arena tomorrow morning," the head elder told her.

Temari bowed to the head elder and requested that Baki be made as the mediator for the tribunal.

"Agreed," he answered. "Both participants may return to their rooms and rest before the start of the tribunal."

After his words were spoken, he returned back to the side of the other council members. In a group, they turned and left the arena. After the elders had left, the crowd of people started to disperse to their own homes looking forward to the next day's events of the tribunal.

Temari grabbed Sakura's wrist and started to drag her out of the arena. Shikamaru just followed the two girls, figuring they were returning back to the Kazekage mansion. Matsuri was left to make her way home by herself.

Right before they entered the walkway of the mansion, Sakura shrugged off the hold that Temari had on her wrist. "I need to go for a walk," Sakura told her friends. She wanted some time to herself. She was confused and angry at the moment. It seemed even though she asked Temari what was going on that the blonde was not going to give her the whole truth. For some reason Gaara needed to be protected from his council, but from what? And why was Temari including her in on her scheme against the council? So many questions and not enough answers.

After walking around Suna for two hours, Sakura decided to return to the mansion and to get some rest. She would confront Temari after the tribunal and would force the blonde to tell her the whole truth about why she was in Suna and why Gaara needed protection from his council.

The next morning, Temari, Shikamaru and Sakura made their way to the arena. When they arrived, a noticeable crowd could be seen standing outside the arena. The trio entered the arena via a side entrance. They found Matsuri, Baki and the council in a conference room on the second floor of the arena. Baki was standing in the front of the room. Matsuri and the council were sitting on the left side of a long, square table. The trio sat on the opposite side of the council. Everyone looked forward giving Baki the signal to start the tribunal.

Baki opened the meeting by thanking everyone for being prompt. "Per the request of the council, this tribunal will be a closed door meeting," he announced.

Tch, of course the council would request such a thing. They wouldn't want their dirty secret coming out to the public, Temari scoffed to herself.

"The opening argument will be given to the head council member. Only one person may speak at a time. Please keep your anger to a minimum and let's respect each other's opinions," Baki instructed. Baki preceded to sit down at the front of the table and nodded to the head elder to begin his argument.

The head elder stood up from his chair and started to speak. "The council decided to conduct the Kazehime Trials in order to find the strongest kunoichi. One who could survive the desert and be ready to fight at a moment's notice. The participants that we chose were from Suna and as this was an issue for Suna, it should have only been open to kunoichis from Suna."

Before the head elder could continue speaking, Temari spoke up and told him, "None of the rules or guidelines that were handed to me contained any information stating that the trials were only open to Suna natives. I will remind you that it was one of you that had chosen the kunoichi from Mist to be a participant in the trials. That in itself showed that this was open to all kunoichi from any village."

The head elder glared at Temari's interruption and continued with his arguments. "Be that as it may, Matsuri was the first to return to Suna. She is a native of Suna and therefore should be given the title of Kazehime." When the head elder finished his opening argument, he returned to his seat.

Temari then stood up from her seat and started her opening argument. "Matsuri should not be declared the Kazehime. She should be disqualified from the trials as she broke many of the rules for the trials."

A quiet murmur arose within the members of the council.

"What rules were broken?" council member Kaara asked.

"The age requirement for all kunoichis was set at 18 or older. Matsuri is only 16," Temari responded. "That should be reason enough that she should be disqualified."

Council member Kaara refuted Temari's argument again. "The original age for the trials was 16. I think in this case we can let that pass."

"That would not be fair to the other kunoichis who are of the same age as Matsuri and were not allowed to participate," Temari argued. "If the council had changed the age requirement, then they should abide by it."

"I will also bring to your attention that at the beginning of the trials each kunoichi at the time of sign-in was given a tracker," Temari continued. "Matsuri did not sign in nor was she given a tracker. She somehow made her way out to the desert and participated by battling other kunoichis. We had no way to track her location in the desert or if she was ever in a time of danger. We don't even know if she was ever knocked unconscious while out in the desert. By not wearing a tracker, it gave her an advantage over the other participants."

At hearing this news, Sakura was in a state of disbelief. She had personally asked Matsuri if she had a tracker. Matsuri had told her it was in a place where it could not be damaged during an attack. That girl had lied to her. It seems that Matsuri was really not someone that could be trusted.

"How do we know that the tracker that Haruno Sakura was wearing worked during the whole time?" one of the council members asked.

Temari picked up a thick file folder and answered, "this folder contains all the data from the tracker that Sakura was wearing. I even personally asked her if she had been knocked unconscious while she was out in the desert. She told me that she had defeated each and every kunoichi that came across her path and had never been knocked unconscious."

Matsuri, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly jumped from her seat and angrily yelled out, "That's a lie. I knocked her out right before I returned to Suna."

Temari looked to Sakura and asked that she tell everyone what happened after she defeated the kunoichi from Mist.

Sakura looked around the room and then settled her eyes on Matsuri. She began by saying, "After my battle with Kasumi, I fell to my knees to catch my breath and assess my injuries. I looked around to see if Matsuri was doing ok. I had sent a clone to rescue her from the oasis, but I did not see her. I was then punched in the head and I landed on my side. I could only assume that it was Matsuri who struck me as she was the only other person there. I was low on chakra and stayed in that spot for an hour trying to regain enough energy to return back to Suna."

"But I saw you close your eyes," Matsuri cried out.

"My eyes closed as a defense against the sand. Not because of your punch. I've taken harder hits than that from my mentor," Sakura growled out at the girl.

Baki cleared his throat and asked for the room to come to order.

The council and Temari argued their points on who the winner should be for another hour. There were times that Baki had to interrupt the two sides and quell some of the heated arguments. Matsuri kept listening to the arguments that Temari made against her. She also noticed how the council kept staring at Sakura with hatred. Not once did any member of the council look her way. It was as if the council was taking this personally. What did the council gain by having me as the winner? What would they lose if Sakura was declared the winner? Matsuri couldn't help but feel slighted by these thoughts.

Matsuri continued her thoughts while the meeting dragged on. She remembered the conversation Sakura had with her during the sandstorm. Sakura had asked her what she would do if Gaara never returned her feelings or if the council chose someone for him to marry and that person was not her. Would she be able to move on from her crush?

The Kazehime Trials were set up to choose a wife for the Kazekage. The council were arguing on her behalf, but she had not been their first choice. They had mentioned that there were other kunoichis that they had chosen. It seemed as if Sakura had been Temari's first choice, but why her? Why not some other Suna kunoichi?

Gaara had always been pleasant with her. He had even given her some training tips on how to be a better shinobi. She loved Gaara. Why couldn't he see that? What made Sakura so special besides her pink hair? Matsuri could feel her heart breaking. She wanted to start crying, but didn't want to give the council the wrong impression of what her tears were for. Sakura's words were finally sinking in.

The council was not fighting for her; they were fighting for themselves. If they didn't want her to marry Gaara, they would find a way to be rid of her. They also didn't want Sakura to marry Gaara as well. That was a small token of consolation she felt. So, what would she do if she couldn't be with Gaara. Would she wallow in misery for the rest of her days or would she let herself move on and find someone who would love her back?

Sakura had been able to move on from her crush. She was even able to maintain a friendship with her crush. If Sakura could move on, then so could she. Matsuri starting feeling guilty for the way she had betrayed her new friend out in the desert. The leaf nin had only been generous with her the whole time.

Matsuri determined right then and there that after this tribunal was over she was going to apologize to Sakura for everything that she had done. She would ask Sakura to forgive her and allow her to start their friendship over.

Just as Matsuri had finished making up her mind, she heard Baki speaking.

"As the mediator of this tribunal, I Baki, have decided that due to Matsuri's illegal entrance into the Kazehime Trials, she will be disqualified. The official winner of the Kazehime Trial is one Haruno Sakura from No Sato Konohagakure." Baki lifted the gavel after he finished speaking and hit the table with it, closing the meeting.

Temari leaned over and gave Sakura a big bear hug after hearing Baki's words. She couldn't believe it. All her hard work had paid off. She had just saved her brother from an arranged marriage. The council would have no say over who Gaara married. Now, she could move on to the next step of her plan by helping Gaara to realize his true feelings for Sakura. She felt all giddy inside. She couldn't wait to inform her brother on who the winner of the trials was. She would just have to be patient for now.

The council members stared at Baki with angry glares after his announcement. He had sided with the Kazekage's sister and now a Konoha nin would be their new Kazehime. One that they would not be able to control. Being that she was an apprentice to Konoha's Hokage, they knew that she would have experience dealing with a village's council. All their planning had slipped through their fingers and the only ones they could blame were themselves. They should never have put Temari in charge of the trials. That was their biggest blunder. They would have to wait and see what their new Kazehime would bring to the table.

The council members left the conference room with sullen faces. Temari and Sakura were standing next to the door allowing the elders to leave first. Matsuri walked over to Sakura, ready to give her the apology she owed her when the pinkette started pointing a finger at her.

"Matsuri. Just because the tribunal is over with, doesn't mean we are finished," Sakura told her.

A surprised Matsuri asked, "What do you mean?"

"Tomorrow you are to meet me on the arena floor. We are going to have a battle to determine who the last kunoichi standing is," Sakura evilly smirked at the girl.

Temari gave Sakura a shocked look. "Sakura are you sure you want to do that? You don't have to battle Matsuri over this."

Sakura looked over at Temari and told her, "Be quiet. You have a lot to answer for, Temari. Now that the tribunal is over, I have a lot of questions that need answers and you are going to tell me the whole truth, but for right now, Matsuri and I are going to have this battle to prove who the rightful Kazehime should be."

Smiling, Matsuri looked at Sakura and said, "Bring it on."

Author Notes

Thanks again for the reviews, the follows and the favorites.

Last time in my author notes I mentioned that I would not kill Matsuri off. I was asked that Sakura be allowed to kick her ass. Well, here we are. Next chapter will include the battle between Sakura and Matsuri.

I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next one. Gaara will be coming back into the next chapter.

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