Sunday, October 27th, 2013.

Btw, today is Orochimaru's birthday. I hate his guts, but he's a great villain. See people? You can still hate but respect someone. Like King Bradley in FMA and FMAB. He's effing bad-ass, but he's still a jerk.

Anko's was a couple days ago, Mizuki's and Hashirama's (different days) were almost a week ago.

Chikusa's (KHR) was yesterday, tomorrow's Byakuran's (KHR). *squeal*

Mikasa's (Snk/AoT) was almost two weeks ago, the 16th.

BTW, later of the week of when I updated the last chapter late, I finished Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin. As you can see from the above line.
I was blown, and cried twice. A couple tears once, and then near sobbing another time. I think I teared up a couple other times, but these two (I think) were the only times actual tears fell.

When I was sobbing, my sister happened to walk into the room I was in and was like, "Attack on Titan"? I nodded. And then she said, "I'm probably not going to watch it," because it's made me cry twice before the thing was even over. Granted, it was one of the last few episodes that made me cry, but still.

I was totally blown.

Rec.: Of course, Attack on Titan. I'm just going to copy my rec. from DoOver:
It's a story about Eren (guy, BTW), his foster sis Mikasa, and their childhood friend Armin (guy) in their world where large creatures called Titans eat people alive, and have driven the human population down considerably, and only reside within walls that have been built. One day, in 846, a new, giant Titan appears out of nowhere and kicks a hole in the wall, allowing other normal, smaller Titans to come in and ravage the town. Another Titan breaks down another wall. At the attack, Eren sees his mother eaten by a Titan and swears revenge on every Titan alive - to kill them all. He, and his friends (Armin and Mikasa) later join training to become a fighter, making new friends along the way.

It's a compelling, heart-wrenching story about human fear, determination, humanity, and sacrifice. It's bloody, too, I warn you (people are being eaten, come on).

Practically sobbed at one moment, cried another and I think I teared up at another. Hadn't cried that hard (the sobbing part) in a while. I think that was when Ace died in OP, maybe? Itachi? No... Jiraiya? I don't remember.
But it was effing good. Anyone want to talk about it with me, PM me.
HUGE recommendation. Snagged its way in my Top 5 easily. Loved it.

Can't wait for the next season, whenever that comes out. (Not officially confirmed, but there's no doubt this isn't the end. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about)

Oh, and my fave character is probably Armin. I like Jean and Levi, too. And BTW, "Rivaille" is an incorrect romanization of Levi's name. Okay? Check out the wiki if you don't believe me.

And according to the creator, Levi's "surprisingly old". How old is he?! In his 30's, then?! He looks to be in his 20s!

Disclaimer: If you've watched FMAB, (you should if you haven't) you know Scar. Scar is a hell of a lot like Sasuke. If I owned Naruto, that's how Sasuke would have ended up. Or will end up because we don't know how he will. (I haven't finished FMA yet, so I don't know how Scar ends up). Scar is what SHOULD happen to Sasuke. Believe me, they're more alike than you think. Almost TOO alike: the family killed by a government; the brother they loved more than anything, the revenge they sought; those they've killed to get it [though Sasuke actually hasn't killed anyone, unless you count Itachi, despite popular belief: Danzo commited suicide, Itachi was dying anyway, and Karin was the closest he got]; the hatred that they felt; blondes that changed their lives... sound familiar?!

Dedication: You guys, because I love you.

AotW: That's not exactly something I could answer.

Content & Warnings: The entire Prelim part of my story. (In DoOver, it was like 10 chapters long - I'm surprised it's just one, average-sized chapter here). No warnings, honestly. But I still feel that rush when I wrote the end of the last chapter. LOVED IT!

Couples: SasuSaku, hint of NaruHina, GaaMatsu if you squint and stretch your imagination, and NejiTen if you squint a bit less.

Length:

W/o AN: ~3.8k. Shorter than lately, and I try to stay around here.

W/ AN: 5k+.


Chapter 23: The Prelims


Sasuke POV

"Is that all?" Kakashi asked me, as I finished my explanation of what happened in the Forest.

"Yes." I bit out. I swear, if he asks me that one more time…

"Damn…" Naruto muttered. I turned to him to see him looking down almost guiltily. "I can't believe I missed all that… I could've…"

For a moment, I actually kind of felt bad for him. All his friends got hurt and were fighting all these assholes; I nearly killed somebody and Sakura almost got-… and he was unconscious through all of it. I'd feel frustrated, too.

"Quit blaming yourself for what happened." I said tersely. "There's nothing you could've done."

He looked up at me, surprised that I was even comforting him. He is our best friend. Cut the pride down a little bit, will 'ya?

Shut up.

I looked over to where Sakura was, with a nurse and Kurenai and Anko at the corner at the front of the large building all of us genin were entered in. She was examined earlier in the infirmary in the building, but brought back here afterward.

She and Zaku (the Bastard) were the only ones who got healed after the Forest. Zaku has been banned from participating in the rest of the Exams, and according to Kakashi, it's up to Sakura whether she wished to continue. Neither of them are getting healed completely though – that's an unfair advantage.

I'm not sure why he was forbidden from participating exactly, but it better have to do with him almost… raping Sakura; not being excused solely because of his injuries. Which he deserved.

Despite the guilt we feel of how far we went.

If Sakura decided to forfeit, we would get Karin (whose teammates abandoned her and were disqualified earlier, but she still wants to participate) to fight on our team if necessary.

Sai can't participate instead because he already passed this Exam and it would break the terms for why he was here in the first place.(1) If he did it, so can we.

Team Dosu's arrangements for participating will be decided later.

"She seems to be okay, boys." Kakashi said, startling me out of my thoughts as he placed a hand in both our heads, ruffling our hair.

"Still…" Naruto said softly.

I took a deep breath, trying to quell the rising anger I felt about what had happened to Sakura.

"Why don't you guys talk to her about it later, 'kay?" Kakashi reassured us. "But right now, you guys have this to focus on for now. I'm sure she'd prefer that as well."

He looked up. "Got that, Sai?"

We turned to find the pale boy behind us, also looking slightly dejected.

"Hai, Sempai," he said, his voice duller than usual; almost sad-sounding.

Suddenly, loud claps filled the air.

We looked over at the large statue of hand signs at the front of the large room, where the Third Hokage stood, clapping for our attention.

Kakashi shooed us over to where we were supposed to line up, Sakura making her way there. She must have wanted to continue… that idiot!

I tried to hold in my anger at her participating. She's going to get hurt again!

"Attention, everyone!"

It took a few couple seconds later for the entire room to quiet down, but once the Third had everyone's attention, he continued.

"I assume you were all expecting to continue the Third and final part of the exam right now, correct?" He asked all of us.

"You sure you wanna participate, Sakura-chan?" Naruto whispered loudly to her, so she could hear from her place behind me. I stood in front of Naruto.

"Yes, I'm fine. Now turn around!" she whisper-yelled.

"But Sakura-ch-"

He was cut off by the Third's sharp and authoritative tone. "Naruto, turn around!"

"Yes, sir," he squeaked, obeying the order. I rolled my eyes.

As he explained that we were having another round, a 1-on-1 battle round, to eliminate the too-large number of participants, I felt Sakura's hand grip my shoulder.

"Sasuke-kun?" she asked.

"Hn?" I turned to her, knowing the Hokage wouldn't berate me for not paying attention. He knows I listen.

"C-can you promise me…" she started. "Can you promise me that you'll try to suppress… it?" She asked, referring to the curse.

"There's no way I could convince you to forfeit because of it, but please," she begged. "Please don't let it control you again."

I looked into her eyes. She's on the verge of tears.

"Aa." I nodded. "I'll promise. But only if you take better care of yourself. Don't over-exhaust yourself again."

She smiled in relief. My stomach fluttered.

"I won't. After my fight, I'll go rest."

I nodded, sparing one last look at her before I turned back to the front. "Good."

"And one more thing, everyone!" the Third exclaimed. "Because of an uneven number of participants, 2 out of the seven teams (2) having only two members, we will add someone else to one of those teams temporarily to even things out."

Karin stepped up beside him. "Karin here will be joining Akado Yoroi's team, to replace Kabuto. That will even out the numbers." (Kabuto had quit at the beginning of this thing.

She took her place in their line.

"Does anyone have any questions?" The Third asked. No one raised their hands or said anything.

"Alright." he said. "We may begin!"

Some sickly guy took the Hokage's place as he went with the other sensei to another location to watch the "Preliminaries", as they're called.

"Let's *cough* start at the first *cough* lineup." He pointed to the screens on the front wall, which were scrambling names for who were going up first.

I saw my name pop up on the first one. My pulse quickened. I wonder who I'm going to fight.

I looked around the hall, looking over the stronger ones that I wished to battle. Could it be the Hyuga? Gaara? Or…

I looked over at Lee. I had only seen him beaten up on the ground earlier after I was done with Zaku and bringing Sakura back to the tree, after I helped the others deal with Kin and Dosu, who were taken by Anko somewhere for whatever reason.

Though I had never seen him fight,(3) and doubt that he's all that good, part of me insists that he's strong. One of the stronger people here. My instinct is usually correct.

I was then jolted out of my thoughts.

"Uchiha *cough* Sasuke and Akado Yoroi, *cough* please *cough* remain here as the *cough* others *cough* go up to the viewing stands," said the proctor, Gekko Hayato. After he completed his announcement, he had a mini coughing-attack. Why the hell is he proctoring if he's so damn sick?

As he calmed himself down and the others left, Sakura lingered for a moment.

She hugged me quickly, but lingered long enough to whisper, "Good luck, and remember what you promised me, Sasuke-kun." Her warm breath on my ear caused me to shiver, but I nodded as she pulled away (before I could reciprocate the hug, but she probably kept it short for my pride, which was currently berating me right now for wanting her to hug me longer) and walked up the stands with Ino and Naruto on either side of her.

Ino held one of her hands, and Naruto had an arm wrapped around her shoulder, leaning in close to her smiling face, and a part of me flared up in jealousy. How dare he touch her like that! Shouldn't we do something about it, Sasuke?

I took a breath to steady myself. No. Shut up and leave me alone.

It tried to say something else but my Inner suppressed it.

After some pensive thinking, I theorized that the Voice was just a part of what Orochimaru gave me. Ever since I woke up in the forest earlier that Voice was in control of me, guiding me and feeding the dark, aggressive emotions I felt such as anger and possession.

I could see what was happening, but I felt as if I was on a high. Nothing truly registered as happening. It didn't know everything that was happening was truly real.

I wasn't quite sure if what I was doing was a dream or not, but I was mostly focused on the rush of power I felt, increasing my high off of it, and killing the guy who had the audacity to touch Sakura. Who was "mine." She is.

She's a person, not an object!

Don't act like you don't want to her to be yours! Embrace that want, Sasuke!

Shut up!

Sakura kissed me, too.

I woke up to reality to find her actually kissing me.

Now, I wasn't complaining: I was a perfectly healthy (okay, maybe not so much as far as mental health goes) teenage boy with working –but suppressed and controlled – hormones.

If the girl I liked was kissing me, who was I to refuse?

But after we pulled away and I saw Zaku's body, I realized what happened.

That dream? That high and rush of power? It was all real. It wasn't a dream. Me blazing through the clearing to find Zaku whilst getting a hit or two on his teammates; Zaku touching Sakura and attempting to kiss her; me mutilating his body and nearly killing him; torturing him; her kissing me… it was all real.

Everything that I had done to Zaku and Sakura… that was real. It happened.

Since then, the Voice has been trying to get me to let it take over again. But no matter how much I –I'll admit– enjoyed that rush of power and energy I felt, I wasn't about to let that monster take me over again.

Who knows what it would make me do? What you want to do. What you deserve to do.

And I promised Sakura, too.

"You ready to get beaten, kid?" I turned to Yoroi, glaring at him for interrupting my thoughts.

"Hn." Was my only response, getting into a fighting stance.

"Begin!"

And our fight commenced.


Sasuke POV, about an hour later

"Aghh!" I yelled from the intense pain in my shoulder. "Aagghhh!"

"It's almost over, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura encourage me from the very edge of the sealing circle Kakashi had made.

I could barely hear her as I continued to scream. It hurts!

"I'm almost done, Sasuke." Kakashi said, voice straining. "Just hang on a little longer."

Think you could speed this up a bit!?

Kakashi was putting some kind of seal on the Curse Mark to weaken its reign over me, though whether or not it took over again would rely on my "willpower", as Kakashi put it.

Frankly, I would almost rather not have it at all, if it hurts this bad. It hurts almost as much as getting the actual curse did!

After a couple moments of yelling and wearing my voice out from pain, I slumped, still on my knees, exhausted into Sakura's arms as she quickly made her way over to me on the ground. My eyes fell shut, sighing.

Though I would never admit this, in Sakura's arms were officially one of my favorite places to be, right up there with my mother's embrace. Mama's Boy. But I'm proud to admit it. *grin*

It felt so good to be held by Sakura, and hold her back. Well, back when I could.

It felt as my feelings for her grew little by little whenever we held each other; and I was more at peace than I had been in a long time.

From what I could see from peripheral vision, Kakashi leaned against a wall, panting from the energy it took to seal the curse mark. Anko stood up from her place at that wall and walked up to me, checking my bare shoulder and giving my shirt to Sakura, since I was too tired to put it on now.

"Is it talking?" She asked. It took me a moment to realize she meant the Voice that came with the seal.

I was surprised earlier to learn that not only was Anko a student of Orochimaru before he defected, but he also gave her the curse mark. She was the only person who knew what it was like, and the knowledge that someone else did, and may be able to help me even the slightest bit, comforted me.

I gave a grunt in response to her question, slightly muffled by my face being buried in Sakura's collared neck.

"No," she translated to Anko, adjusting her kneeling stance into a more comfortable position for our bodies.

I heard and felt Karin walk up to us, having also been waiting with Anko. Apparently, she was a former experiment of Orochimaru's. That caused me to be wary of her, but Sakura seemed to trust her, so I decided against randomly attacking her and grilling her for information.

"The presence has weakened considerably, and is almost impossible to detect." She said. Karin was a sensor, and she could sense the dark chakra inside of me of the Curse Mark.

She turned to Kakashi. "It's dormant for now, but I'd keep a close eye on him."

After a second of silence, Karin left the room we were in, heading to an interrogation with the Third and some of the sensei, where the fates of Kabuto and his team, which were revealed by Karin to be subordinates of Orochimaru, as well as the Sannin himself, who was disguised as a sensei, will be decided.

Anko trailed after her.

I sighed as one of Sakura's hands began playing with the hair at the back of my neck, the other making designs on my back. Both of them hummed with healing chakra, soothing me from the intense strain my body felt during the sealing session.

"Can we come in now?" Naruto's head poked in from where Karin and Anko had exited. Sai stood in front of the doorway.

"Yeah." Kakashi said, standing up and making his way toward us.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked me, as I felt our teammates kneel around us.

I frowned when the activities of her hands stopped, but still responded to her, my eyes still closed. "Hn?"

"I need you stand up." She said. "We're going to the infirmary, okay? Do you need help?"

Before I could answer, though, I felt someone jerk me up roughly. I opened my eyes abruptly. I struggled to keep standing

"Naruto! Be more gentle!" Sakura scolded.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan," he said sheepishly. He scratched his head in that usual habit of his.

Still slightly out of it, I was very surprised to find my sense balance skewed and the world moving. The next thing I knew, I was looking over someone's shoulder, slouched across their back.

"I'll carry you to the infirmary." Oh, great. It's Sai.

"Kakashi-sempai is tired from the sealing, and Dickless and the Hag are both quite tired from today. Not to mention they were fighting only a small time ago." Sai began to walk towards the exit of the room and toward the infirmary. "Being at full strength, it would make sense for me to take you there."

I had no strength to protest. Hell, I was even fighting sleep right now.

Naruto jogged ahead of us, turning around. "I'm gonna meet you guys there, okay? I'm going on ahead." And he sprinted away.

I sent a questioning look to Sakura, who was beside me.

"Hinata's in there. Remember she was fighting Neji-san?"

After a moment of thinking, I remembered.

Before I let Kakashi seal the Mark, I wanted to see some other fights.

The first I saw was Naruto and Kiba – Naruto won by a fucking fart. Sometimes I wonder how we're friends. But I think Naruto was strong enough to win without it.

Sakura and Ino tied, surprisingly.

I expected Sakura to win. But her body was already exhausted from earlier today, regardless of the healing she got. She was also exhausted mentally.

Ino was also pretty tired from earlier today, too, just not nearly as much as Sakura. That would mean Sakura, at full strength, is stronger than Ino at full strength in a normal circumstance, if Sakura, with far less strength than Ino, could tie with her.

Thus, they had a draw. They were both knocked out by each other's final punch.

They woke up shortly afterwards.

Afterward, I saw Neji and Hinata's fight.

Ever since I met him and saw a look he had in his eye, I knew we similar in some way. I had no idea why or how, but whatever it was, it pissed me off. I didn't like being similar to anyone, much less him.

Then, during the fight, I learned why.

Neji was angry for the unjust loss of a family member. He was angry and jaded by it and he wanted revenge for it. He'd make those responsible pay.

Because of that, he nearly killed his cousin.

His teammate Tenten, who he seemed to be fighting with, and his other teammate Lee told us about his history with Hinata and why he was acting the way he was.

When Tenten went off to stand by herself later on in her teammate's battle, unable to talk with us any longer about Neji, we asked Lee why she and the older Hyuuga were so hostile with each other. Or really, why she was hostile toward him.

"It's his attitude," Lee had explained, sighing. "All this anger and stuff toward his clan, and the way he deals with it… It, frankly, disgusts Tenten. And pisses her off. I'm the same, actually. But not nearly to her extent." I narrowed my eyes at this statement. What would they know about something like this? Sure, maybe there's better ways but how would they understand?

"But that's not all." Lee said. "We've known Neji since we were around 5, just before the death of his father. When he changed. We know all there is to know about him. And because of that, we know he's better than the way he's acting."

He looked us in the eye. "I could tell from the way you're looking at us and him that you all think Neji's just some jackass that misplaces and can't handle anger. Right?"

We had to admit, he was right. Despite that I said we were similar, if I was him, I doubt I'd try to kill my innocent cousin. I'd go for the uncle first, at least. It's pretty obvious there's nothing Hinata could have done to prevent it, and she was not responsible for what happened.

He disgusted me, and that was why I hated this feeling of similarity I had. I'm not like him!

Lee continued. "He's not, though. Okay, he is a jerk sometimes, but he's a much better person than he's showing himself to be. He's letting his anger consume him." He sighed. "He and Tenten have had several fights about this subject, and I usually stayed out of them because I hated conflict and it's almost impossible to stop them when they really get into an argument anyway. They're violent, sometimes, even. Just a few days ago, they had their worse fight yet. In the end, Tenten said wanted as little to do with him as possible until, as they told me later, 'that better part of him, the person we know he is, is back. Until our best friend his back and realized he was wrong.' We're really disappointed in him."

We didn't say much more on the matter after that.

After their fight was the only member of their team who hadn't fought yet; Lee. Tenten had fought and lost against that Sand girl earlier.

He was up against Gaara, and this was the fight I felt most eager about. Two strong guys facing each other… I can't wait.

But as I watched the fight, Kabuto's earlier words echoed in my head as I realized just how strong Gaara really was. "Gaara doesn't show mercy. He can, and will kill you if you give him the chance."

It took Gaara's siblings, sensei interference, Sai's interference, Lee's teammates, and that Matsuri girl to stop Gaara from killing the green-clad boy.

Everyone but Matsuri tried to physically stop and separate Gaara from Lee. Matsuri tried to sooth him through talking. In the process, Gaara shattered an ankle, hand and wrist of hers, as well as cutting her on her forehead with the sand he was able to sneak around everyone restraining him.

Eventually, though, he calmed enough to no longer try and kill anyone and he and his siblings went up to the viewing platforms, his sister helping Matsuri make her way up there and keep her balance since she refused to be taken to the infirmary for "such minor injuries".

I was, I'll admit, a bit shaken by Gaara's cold brutality. I second-thought my desire to fight him. I-I… I just won't approach him, that's all. But, if he approaches me for a fight, or we end up slated against each other later, I won't refuse.

Just because I second-thought it, doesn't mean I still didn't want to fight him. I'll have to be even stronger than this guy to beat Itachi.

After that fight, I was taken by Kakashi to get sealed. Sakura followed after checking on Lee for a moment, not letting Kakashi keep her out.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura said. I was brought back to the outside world and looked around me, as Sai set me on a hospital bed, the blankets pulled back. Sakura was beside me. "We're here, now."

I used what was left of my strength to put myself in a relatively comfortable position as the others said their goodbyes and left the room. Soon, it was only me and Sakura as she pulled the blankets over me similar to the way my mother used to.

The urge to sleep was almost unbearable. I blinked heavily to try and stay awake.

"Sakura…" I mumbled. Her name came out almost warbled from the slur induced from sleepiness.

She leaned over me from her standing position beside the bed. "Go to sleep, Sasuke-kun." She put a hand on my cheek, sweeping my bangs from my eyes. "I'll be in the next room over and check up on you later."

I gave her a tired look, hoping she'd understand what I was trying to convey.

She smiled. "I'll be fine, Sasuke. I promised to rest right? I'll be okay, so don't you worry so much." She giggled. "You should focus on keeping yourself safe and taking care of yourself."

She leaned closer to my face as my eyes drooped closed, ready asleep. I felt her place a kiss on my forehead.

"Rest well, Sasuke-kun."

She moved away and my eyes remained closed. "Mm…" I hummed.

I felt her steps toward the door and she closed it behind her.

Sleep finally consumed me.


(1): Check two chapters before this one, if I remember right. The first chapter of the Chunin Exams.
(2):
There were seven including Team Dosu; the others are: Team 7, Team 8, Team 10, Team Gai, Team Baki (Sand Sibs), and Kabuto's team. The two teams missing a member were Team Dosu and Kabuto's. That's 19 people. Adding one person to one of those teams makes 20. Even number.
(3):
Remember? They didn't fight when they met in this story.
BTW:
last chapter, Sasuke and Naruto knew their respective Rendans/Barrages, and I said that I just felt like it or something. White Tiger of Onyx Star came up with a better reason: they saw it in their dreams. I hope to have Sakura ask them about it later, because she knows they got it from Lee after Sasuke copied while fighting him.

Like I said, I don't like this chappy much, but whatever.

YOU CAN STILL VOTE FOR COUPLE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS FOR DOOVER, EVEN IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT!

I just need present ideas between couples - like from Sasuke to Sakura and vice versa, for SasuSaku, AsuKure, NaruHina, SaIno, NejiTen, KibaTsuki, JiraiTsu, GaaMatsu, etc. Basically any couple you see here. But you can also give ideas for the single guys - Gai, Lee, Chouji, Akamaru, Anko, maybe, Tsunade, etc.

But the point is, I need ideas. Seriously. It's coming up soon.

QotW: Halloween plans? Does anyone celebrate Dia de los Muertos? (I don't; just curious because it's coming up soon)

Love,

Cherry.

PS: Don't forget to review! ;D

PPS: Let me know if one of The Voice's lines is not underlined, because that's how he's visibly differentiated from Inner Sasuke and ffn's against underlines. Now you know.