Chapter-36

Shikamaru and Temari stayed still for a few minutes. After that, Shikamaru took out some kunai and threw them at her. But Temari just opened her big fan and made the kunai fly off. So ninja tools are out of option. Temari once again flapped her fan but with more force than before. Shikamaru got sum cuts and then he hid behind a tree that was in the arena ground. He just saw hot the wind was being disrupted by Temari's furious blows. He linked his finger tip touching each other in downward position. Tis was a habit of his when he had to decide his next move. Then he went to the very curved edge of the stadium and performed his 'Kagemane no Jutsu' which allowed him to attach his shadow to other people and then they can perform whatever movement is desired by the user. Temari saw his shadow approaching and kept dodging and going backwards until the shadow stopped. She marked the place for reference. She understood that even after using arena's walls' shadow, he could only travel this far. If I stay at this much distance then I should be fine. But suddenly the shadow started moving forward again. When she looked up, she say Shikamaru's jacket hanging in the air like a parachute which gave him another shadow to extend his range. She started going backwards but then suddenly she felt herself going stiff. Why can't I move?

"Look behind you. Oh yeah here let me help."

Her eyes went wide when she saw that Shikamaru had used the tunnel that Naruto made in match and used the underground as his ultimate move. This guy… he's very exceptional for strategies.

"And here I had already planned 200 scenarios in my head but the most simple one worked."

Two-two hundred?! He must have an IQ greater than a genius person.

Shikamaru slowly raised as Temari could do nothing but follow. And she said it herself

"I forfeit."

The proctor nodded and ended the match by announcing Shikamaru as the clear winner.

"You're pretty sharp" remarked Temarias they went back to the stands.

"So are you." Said Shikamaru and walked off.

"MAN! Shikamaru you are amazing! How did you even think of a plan like that?"

He just shrugged and slouched down the ground having lost a large portion of his chakra.

Well he is the smartest, no doubt it. But too lazy for his own good. She thought as she looked at Shikamaru with soft eyes.

Why does she always stare at everybody like she saw them alive again they had died. Tch Annoying.

Their attention turned towards the next contestants who were already on the ground. It was Kankuro vs Aburame Shino. Shino kept hiss cool and waited for the proctor to say start. But Kankuro beat him to it.

"I forfeit."

Everyone gasped and were looking at him curiously. Except for Sakura. She knew he would forfeit to help Gaara in releasing the one tailed beast. She gripped the handle a little tighter out of nervousness. Sasuke saw her. Why is she worried. Maybe she's worried about her match. He glared at Dosu as he found him staring at Sakura.

"Allright. As Kankuro has forfeit the match, Shino is the default winner."

The crowd groaned. But then shut up when the next two people were asked to come down. It was time for Sakura's match. She clenched her fists determinedly and starting going down, she heard Naruto good luck to her and she smiled. She felt another person coming down and to her shock, it was Sasuke.

"What's the matter?"

He looked her in the eye and spoke

"Just…just stay safe."

She smiled sweetly at him and he tried to ignore the blush on his face by hiding his head in his collar t-shirt.

"I will! Bye." She said as she ran out in the arena. Dosu looked at her wickedly. Sakura knew he was going to take revenge for his teammates who were hurt by them. She stood determinedly and offered him her own glare.

"BEGIN!"

Sakura took a defensive stand as she knew about his technique. Air blasted through the huge hand guard he had that had a lot of holes for vibrations to echo greatly and cover larger distance. She stood her ground as she crossed her arms in front of her and pumped chakra in both arms and legs to avoid any damage. Dosu released strong vibrations but nothing happened to Sakura. He stopped and looked at her weirdly. Why didn't she go down? Then Dosu released supersonic waves which are harder to take. So as soon as Dosu started putting in chakra in his guard, Sakura ran to him quickly. She's fast. Thought Sasuke and Naruto. She reached near him to punch his but he side stepped which worked in Sakura's advantage as she took a clear aim for his with her other hand. Crashed her fist in the guard breaking it completely and damaged his arm as well. Then she took some steps back to observe what he would do next.

Everyone was amazed to see Sakura's agility and strength. I never thought Sakura was this strong. Thought Ino as she watched the match with Hinata.

Dosu looked livid and he charged forward and lunged and suddenly bent low to kick her feet but Sakura jumped in the air and twisted to give him a swift kick in his face. That must have broken some bones. Thought Sakura. But right now, he Is an enemy. So focus on that Sakura. she saw Dosu landing and a skidding on the ground pretty far. That sure as hell was a brilliant kick. Such power… thought Kakashi but then he just smiled when he remembered she told him she wanted to work on her Taijutsu. Hope that is helping you.

Dosu spat out blood and faced his palm towards her which had a hole like Zaku's. Her eyes went in alert mode. If he is using this as a last resort that means he will face after effects. That's where I'll land my final blow. Dosu screamed and released 100 super sonic waves at her. Sakura quickly woved the signs and placed both of her hands on the gound. Suddenly a large thick wall came before Sakura which took the full blow. Dosu stared at the wall shockingly. How come that didn't work.

"Because I laced my chakra with the wall. It took up the blast and absorbed it." She said smirking as she came forward from behind the wall.

"Damn you!" heh, Now you are much closer. I can just finish you off right now.

He started concentrating chakra and as he was about to release the vibration, Sakura kicked the ground with her heel of ninja shoes. The started breaking and Dosu lost his and fell down. Sakura quickly to him and kicked his face leaving him unconscious.

The proctor came and checked over dosu who wasn't moving. He called the medic team to take him for recovery.

"The winner of the match is Haruno Sakura." the crowd cheered for her. Well she does deserve praise for this splendid display of her variety of techniques. Sakura walked back to the floor where other contestants were. Naruto came running and hugged the living daylight of her.

"Sakura-chan you are amazing! That was so cool when you kicked him unconscious!"

"Haha, thanks Naruto."

Meanwhile Sasuke was in shock after watching Sakura fight. She's this good? I can't believe I underestimated her. She actually won against that sound ninja. He just watched with his mouth open trying to say something but couldn't find any words. Sakura noticed him looking at her. She asked with his brow raised 'what?' he shook his head and leaned on the railing watching the arena and not the contestants. Sakura sighed. Well he's always been this. When he's ready, he'll talk on his own. She came and stood beside him.

"It's your turn, Sasuke. Make Gaara eat his sand or something!" she said cheerily

Sasuke looked at her bewildered but then he just gave a small laugh and nodded.

"Teme! Don't lose until I beat you!"

Sasuke looked up at him and just walked away smirking.

Sakura looked at him worriedly from the audience seats in the arena. Hinata was also sitting with them alongside Ino. Sakura's curse mark was throbbing because she used healing ninjutsu on herself to heal the severe cuts but left the small ones so she wouldn't look suspicious. She was tensed like last time but his time she was even more than that. She was worried what would Sasuke do to win. I know they'll interrupt the match to cause distress to quickly make Gaara leave. Suddenly Kakashi came behind her in the corner seat.

"Good job, Sakura. you showed your skills excellently."

"Thank you, sensei."

"it seems like you were right. I heard some Suna and Oto shinobi talking about some kind of plan. And Orochimaru is here. He is pretending to be the Kazekage who was invited as a special guest. I've asked to raise the security but there is only so much they can do."

"thank you sensei. This helps a lot. I know Konoha wont go down just because of some scaredy cats."

Kakashi chuckled and agreed.

The match started. Sasuke tried to land blows but it was useless. Ninja tools will are also going to useless. That means, only nin jutsu will work. He weaved signs in the air and released a fire ball quickly came behind to kick him in the back. Gaara fell forward. Then Sasuke quickly formed Chidori in his palm and ran towards him before hind sand started reacting. He was almost there when a wave of sand came towards him. He had to use the Chidori blast the sand away. Gaara now stood again with his arms crossed casually. This guy is seriously pissing me off. He remembered that Kakashi told him even though he had mastered Chidori, he could only use it 3 times in one day. He had already used it once. 2 chances left.

He started running around Gaara to create a whirl wind to make the sand fly up and as soon as he saw an opening, he took out a kunai threw it at his shoulder. It was in blind spot so hit on the mark. Gaara grimaced as he took out the embedded kunai. Kunai had blood on it. His blood. Is this what they call pain. I like it. Sasuke landed another blow when he was watching the kunai. And then Gaara started screaming, "More. More! Uchiha Sasuke give me pain, if you can." He said. Then he rotated the sand around and trapped himself inside a sphere made of sand. When Sasuke tried going near it, the sand attacked him by flowing in point cones shape.

Temari was panicking. This isn't good. Gaara is starting to lose control early than we expected. Did that Sasuke actually made Gaara bleed and Gaara had to do this jutsu to protect himself? I have never seen anybody capable of doing that.

Sasuke threw weapons from all sides but the sphere wouldn't budge. It kept reacting. I have no choice. I'll have to break the sphere with Chidori. Sasuke ran up the arena wall and formed a bigger Chidori than before and started running towards the sphere. Sasuke screamed as came near the sand in a zig zag pattern and finally reached the sphere and jammed his Chidori inside. He grabbed Gaara's neck inside. Gaara was angry. He started rotating the sand around Sasuke. Sakura understood immediately what Gaara would do. She screamed

"Sasuke. Get out of there or you'll be crushed!"

After hearing Sakura's voice, he forcibly made another Chidori and with its push he dragged his hand out just seconds before he was about to be crushed. Panting heavily, he saw as Gaara undid the sphere and there looking at him with a crazy look. Before he could do anything, everyone heard a bomb being disposed. Then one of the Konoha jonin said

"Konoha is under attack! Suna and Oto are working together! We have-"he was cut mid-sentence as a kunai jabbed in his neck. Temari and Kankuro took off with Gaara who was holding his head in pain.

Sasuke was about to run after them but then he remembered that that was where Naruto and Sakura were sitting. He quickly climbed the wall saw that everyone was sleep except Sakura.

"Sakura! what the happened here?"

"they casted a genjutsu on the audience and ran off to attack the village, Only the Jonins and I could be able to get releaved from this jutsu as we could see it clearly that it infact was a genjutsu."

"Okay." Sasuke said but was amazed to learn that Sakura could release herself from such a strong jutsu. Sakura walked towards Naruto and tapped her fingers on it. "kai"

Naruto instantly shot up and looked around to see shinobi fighting. Then he remembered the announcement.

"Oh man! What do we do?!"

Kakashi and Sakura locked eyes and nodded.

"Naruto we will go after Gaara. He's the dangerous shinobi in Suna so its sensible we stop him." Said Sakura.

Kakashi nodded approvingly. "sorry but we jonin have to protet the villagers. Here, I'll lend you Pakkun, my summoning jutsu creature." Kakashi made the seals and appeared a small dark brown dog.

"Pakkun, you know Sasuke's scent right? You have to follow that and lead this three there. Got it?"

"Yeah okay." Replied the then suddenly went to bite a sleeping Shikamaru who was lying on the floor. Shikamaru jumped up from the pain and started muttering curses.

"What the hell? You were awake, Shikamaru?" asked a shocked Naruto.

"Troublesome. Let me sleep. Im not going to come with you guys." He replied indicating he had heard their plan to go after Gaara

"Shikamaru, go with them. It's necessary." Said Kakashi with finality in his voice

Shikamaru uttered 'okay' followed by a groan.

"Let's go." And they took off.