*Chapter 21*: Chapter Nineteen: Genius

Chapter Nineteen: Genius

Neither Kabuto nor Neji moved immediately. Neji settled into a Jyuuken stance, the Mantis, and stood poised, waiting for Kabuto to make the first move. Kabuto's hands were also open, sinking into a defensive stance, eyes alert and gauging. The two of them eyed one another. Neji made a slight shift to the left. Kabuto's hands angled slightly as he reoriented his shoulder to match. They paused this way for a split second, before Kabuto responded, settling his weight a little further forward and sinking lower, while raising his rear hand and inching his lead hand forward. Neji brought his hands slightly higher and sank lower as well, hips level and poised for rapid shifting. As Kabuto brought his weight off his rear leg and turned his shoulders, Neji adjusted from Mantis to Dragonfly stance, and Kabuto arrested his kick before he began it.

Minute shifts in balance and arm position flickered back and forth between the two of them, each preparing for impending assault; minor changes forestalling attacks by split seconds.

Neji's eyes narrowed. This Kabuto is far more skilled than any genin. Why hasn't he advanced before this?

Likewise, Kabuto's assessment of Neji was seeing rapid escalation. No wonder they call him a genius. Every attack I prepare, he's ready to counter before I commit to the attack.

The two paused in their duel of no blows, their weaving halting as their eyes met, and suddenly, they simultaneously charged one another, open hands flashing, weaving, thrusting, and blocking. Their clash lasted for perhaps two seconds, when the two of them sprang apart again, both bearing injury from their brief engagement.

Kabuto spit a little blood, while Neji's right hand curled inwards as though seeking his elbow.

Neji's hand was crippled; the tendons across the back of his forearm had been severed by Kabuto's chakra scalpel as Neji deflected a strike aimed for his diaphragm. But, hampered as he was, Kabuto was in no better shape. Bright blood bubbled from his nostril. It was coming from his left lung; courtesy of the double left-handed strike Neji had landed on Kabuto's shoulder and ribs.

The two combatants eyed one another carefully. The probing phase of the fight was over, and now they were going to get serious.

Naruto was walking on his own under the watchful eye of Kakashi, despite the protests and attempts to help from Hinata. Naruto seemed not to comprehend her wish to help, and wasn't accepting it in any case.

They rounded the corner, only to stop momentarily, taken aback by the sight of Neji and Kabuto blurring attacks back and forth at one another. Neji was clearly worse off. He was fighting left-handed, using a kunai to fend off Kabuto's furious assault. Kabuto bore a mad, bloodthirsty gleam in his eyes. He moved lithely, limberly, apparently unimpeded, despite the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth and from both nostrils. He lashed out high with a kunai, attempting to bind Neji's single blade so Kabuto's second blade had an open shot. That was when Neji played one of his aces; chakra glowed from his skin, and Neji spun clockwise in place.

The chakra erupted outwards in a visible sphere, impacting against Kabuto and flinging him back ten yards. He tumbled, uncontrolled, his kunai flying upwards in a narrow arc. Neji stopped his spin, grabbing the errant weapon between two fingers of his left hand, before sending the captured weapon, along with his own, at the other genin.

Kabuto brought a hand up and twisted, deflecting one of the kunai with the metal plate on his glove while angling his head to deflect the second with his hitai-ate. He bounced once — a minor price for his dodge, compared to a pair of kunai in the face — and skidded up against the wall. A pale green glow suffused his hand as he got himself back to his feet, hand passing over scrapes and scratches which were gone by the time his hand had moved on.

Naruto, Kakashi, and Hinata stared in disbelief, Hinata at the use of a technique solely the territory of the main Hyuuga family, while Naruto and Kakashi's surprise stemmed from the near instantaneous healing of Kabuto's injuries.

Naruto especially found the display fascinating. What Kabuto had demonstrated in the Forest of Death on their way to the tower hadn't even hinted at this level of expertise. Kabuto's hand lingered for a few seconds over the left side of his chest, and suddenly Kabuto was breathing easier, the subtle buzz of bloody phlegm reduced. Kabuto gave a single strong cough as the glow faded from his hand, then spit out an ugly wad of crud, his lungs cleared.

Kabuto looked over at Neji, whose disbelief was blatant and held undertones of growing despair. Kabuto's subsequent grin revealed teeth and lips still lined in his own blood, making an already frightening expression truly horrible to behold. "Shall we begin round two?" he asked.

Neji assessed his right hand with Byakugan. The tendons were all slashed on the outside, leaving him no way to open or even straighten his hand. His tool kit was tied to the outside of his right thigh, meaning he had to reach awkwardly across his own body to get anything out. Clumsily, he set to work unstrapping the pouch, looping the strap over his chest instead, before cinching it tight with teeth and working hand. He pulled out several kunai and a few explosive notes, holding the notes pinched between his curled fingers and his chest. As quickly as he could manage, he wrapped the notes around the handles of the kunai, but held off on activating them just yet.

Kabuto had also been rooting around in his own tool bag. After a moment, he shot a look at Neji and nodded. "Well, I think we're just about ready then, aren't we?"

"Yes... I think we are," Neji replied, flinging two of the kunai at Kabuto.

The medic-nin turned a side profile and shot a scornful look at Neji, while deflecting one kunai and completely ignoring the other as it sailed past. The explosive notes detonated as they struck the stone wall and flagstones; dust, debris, and chunks of stone kicked loose from the points of impact. Neji assessed the damage and smiled mysteriously. Hinata understood. "Neji can't use hand seals for shunshin. He intends to substitute with Kwaraimi no jutsu."

Kakashi and Naruto grew thoughtful at this.

Neji charged forward again, and Kabuto ran to meet him. As the two almost met, Neji dropped the third kunai and used Kwaraimi with a chunk of stone to pull himself out of reach. Kabuto saw the kunai dropping, and in a split second had duplicated Neji's action.

As Kabuto reappeared next to Neji he knew he'd played directly into his opponent's hands, but he'd had little choice. Point blank at the detonation of an explosive note is not a favorable place to be, especially with the possible presence of tiny, jagged bits of shattered kunai.

By the time the short-ranged teleportation jutsu had completed, Neji had prepared himself, dropping into the Eight Trigrams stance. Kabuto desperately attempted to fall back, but he was too close and at optimum distance for Neji's deadliest technique.

Had Neji been uninjured the fight would have ended immediately. Despite Kabuto's skill in his desperate defense, Neji had picked apart those defenses with almost absurd ease. It might not have been the full sixty-four palms, but Kabuto still felt the impact of some thirty tenketsu strikes. His right hand and arm were all but useless, and his right leg didn't want to support him. Something fell out of his right hand that he snatched up with his left, some kind of small bundle. His thumb slipped into a hanging loop, and the bundle flew out, tethered now to Kabuto's left hand.

It was a net. As it opened, it enveloped the expanding sphere of chakra Neji raised through rotation, but instead of being deflected, the strands of the net instead began dragging along the surface of the rotation. Neji's rotation slowed. What is this? he wondered. The rotation should be forcing the net away from me!

The byakugan gave him the answer. A small but steady stream of chakra was being channeled down the cord from the Isha-genin to every strand in the net, catching his own ejected chakra and creating a drag effect across the surface of the sphere. In moments, the rotation slowed, then stopped, as the net tangled itself in his limbs. Neji collapsed, his balance lost, as Kabuto stood and smirked at him. "Hyuuga Neji... You have been hailed as a genius. And I'd say you've certainly lived up to that name. But this is a net woven from my own hair, a part of me that can conduct my chakra through it. You can't use Kwaraimi to get away as long as my chakra causes interference, and you are completely at my mercy. Give up now; or I will end your career and win anyways. It is all the same to me."

Neji's common sense warred with his pride; it was the strength of his pride that sealed his fate. "I'm not finished yet!" he yelled.

Kabuto's smile brightened. "I thought you would say that." Kabuto formed several seals one handed with the hand that held the tether. "Issen Kirinuki no jutsu."

Chakra pulsed down the cord. Neji screamed once and went entirely limp.

Hayate watched Neji's unmoving body, not even breathing. "Winner, Yakushi Kabuto!"

The medic-nin rushed over. A quick chakra scan indicated the reason for his not breathing. One of the medic-nin began manipulating his breathing with chakra, while the others hoisted him onto a stretcher and rushed him out of the room. One of the medics remained behind, gesturing to Maito Gai.

Minutes later, as he heard the medic-nin's assessment, Gai stood numb with muted disbelief. "You... you must be mistaken. You must be. It can't… He can't..."

The medic-nin was grim. "I fear we are not. As I said, every tendon and ligament in his body has been severed. If it was just this, we could expect a full recovery after a suitable period of convalescence. But the jutsu used against him is based on a surgical chakra scalpel which cauterizes and partially heals the wounds it leaves behind, in order to prevent the patient from bleeding to death. With the wounded ligaments and tendons sealed this way, there is too much scar tissue that remains behind. Even with the best medic-nin we have, his joints will never be the same. Every movement will be hampered. If he's lucky, he may be able to assume a normal civilian life, but he will never recover his normal flexibility and strength. His career as a shinobi is... over."

Gai stopped listening at this point, although the medic continued talking for a minute or so longer before he understood that Gai no longer heard him, and walked away. All this time, all the effort I spent training Lee so that he could prove himself to Neji... And now Neji is crippled. Neji faced a test of his skills and was found wanting; and it's my fault. I didn't pay equal attention to Neji's training, and he has paid the price for it.

Intellectually, Gai knew that, perhaps, he wasn't being fair to himself. Yakushi Kabuto had entered the test as an unknown, and displayed a level of skill that would easily rival the average jonin. Yet he was not the only exceptional genin in the exam. Neji, too, had been an exceptional entrant, as had Uzumaki, Uchiha, and Choji. And Sakura, especially, had displayed not only skill and talent, but also the most difficult to attain trait of a superior shinobi; one that could not be attained through training, but only through instinct and experience — the temperament of winning.

What right did I have to extend my attention almost exclusively to one student? Not really true, of course; he had endlessly tried to engage both Tenten and Neji in his training regimen, but only Lee had stuck to them and trained equally hard on his own. The real issue was Neji's choices. Neji had chosen to rely solely on his 'superior abilities' and hadn't trained them to their fullest potential. Or maybe he just wasn't ready? Perhaps, even now, he had still not been prepared for the trials and rigors of the Chunin Exam. Perhaps a year hadn't been enough.

Gai sighed and a tear fell down the side of his face. Perhaps Neji was even correct in his own philosophy.

Perhaps, this was simply fate.

The next match went forward despite the rubble. Evidently, they were not cleaning up after the last match. Either they were starting to run out of time, or else they had run out of patience. There wasn't much to clean up in the way of blood, at least; there was this to be thankful for.

The names of the next two were chosen.

Mamochi Haku. Subaku no Gaara.

A troubled wave of restlessness washed across the assembled jonin and proctors. The most dangerous genin in the exams was up next. And of all the remaining possible opponents he could face, a member of Team Akachi would be the worst.

It was no secret among the proctors and jonin that Team Akachi was being shaped specifically to be an assassination team. The three core members — Uchiha, Nara, and Uzumaki — had shown a great synergy together. Although some had mentioned a need for a kunoichi on the team, the Council of Elders had been impressed with their collusive talent for constructive violence. They mentioned that its current makeup could be augmented according to whatever situation in which the team was placed by the addition of any member they were lacking. A few veterans, however, most notably their jonin-sensei and the jonin-sensei of Team Eight, had expressed a desire for the mellowing influence of a female in their grouping on a permanent basis. One had mentioned that they were still people and would burn themselves out without some sort of balance; while the other had complained that they were drowning in their own testosterone. As the complaints were made anonymously — after a fashion — no one was certain which of the two had made which statement... but considering the infamous unpredictability of both of these particular jonin, either statement could have come from either one of them.

Haku, as something of a transvestite — and a disturbingly effective one at that — was a poor substitute for a female on the team, even if he did seem to lean towards the pursuit of a male romantic interest. He still tended towards competitiveness over common sense and hated to come out second best in anything. And since he was also in possession of a fairly powerful kekkei genkai, he might be just strong enough for Gaara to take a deadly interest in.

Win or lose, Haku threatened to make this portion of the exam very lively. Was he strong enough to beat Gaara, who had never been so much as scratched on a mission before? If so, that could be one way to solve the problem of the Sunagakure jinchuuriki. But if he couldn't, how much damage would Gaara do to win?

Gaara shunshined to the arena floor, but Haku elected to walk. After all, there was no point to wasting chakra to show off. It weakened you and put your enemy on guard.

Once Haku made it to the arena floor, he and Gaara looked one another in the eye. As they did so, Haku suddenly commented, "You have sad eyes."

Gaara's face was a welter of conflicting emotions. "What do— What are you talking about?" he demanded.

Haku smiled softly in response. "You remind me of him. Naruto," he clarified. Haku's eyes were shadowed, full of pain.

"You have been lonely for a long time."

If anything, Gaara's confusion only increased. "Wh-what? Why would you— What do you care about me?" he snapped. "Why do you care? Why does HE care? Why, why, WHY?" Gaara suddenly groaned, clutching his head and bending forward. Hayate was on his guard now, but he could detect no chakra flow, no genjutsu, no techniques, only rapidly rising killing intent.

Suddenly, Gaara straightened back up, murder in his gaze as he stared intently at Haku. In a voice as sharp as splintered glass, he said, "I will kill you."

Hayate glanced at the two of them as Haku sank into a fighting stance. In a loud voice he said, "Begin!"

Haku did not hesitate. The moment the words left Hayate's mouth, Haku was already throwing senbon. The cork on the gourd Gaara carried on his back popped out and sand flew out in a stream, deflecting the precise little weapons before they could land a hit. Gaara simply stood stationary, arms crossed, his face impassive... but his eyes alight with malice. Hissing sand was punctuated by the light ringing of multiple senbon striking the flagstones of the arena.

A dozen more senbon followed in rapid succession as Haku maneuvered, trying to keep Gaara on the defensive. More sand poured out of the gourd. Before long, it was Haku on the defensive, dodging against pounding wads of sand that forced him ever backwards, closer and closer to the wall.

"What is Haku doing?" wondered Naruto out loud.

"Ah, that's right," Kakashi said after a moment. He was still next to the remaining members of Team Akachi after bringing Naruto back with him. "You never saw Haku's fight with Sasuke on the bridge, did you?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"Haku is testing Gaara, like he did against Sasuke," Shikamaru explained. "He's feeling out Gaara's defenses, testing the waters, trying to get a feel for Gaara's style. Haku rather prefers finesse."

"Finesse nothing. He better stop feeling and start fighting," Naruto said grimly. "He keeps playing with Gaara like this, he's gonna get himself killed. Gaara's not the type you can play around with."

"How's that?" said Choji from nearby around a mouthful of vegetable chips.

Naruto gave it a moment's thought before he said, "Gaara's like me. Anyone who ever tried to play around with me has regretted it."

Haku didn't think he was playing around. He wanted to know exactly where Gaara's sand defenses were weakest. Where there might be some hesitation, if there might be a blind spot. Somewhere outside of his line of vision that Gaara's sand tended to gather the weakest.

He didn't find anything of the sort. It was like the sand had comprehensive vision of its surroundings and a mind of its own. He wanted to win. He wanted to live. He wanted... something; he wasn't sure what, acknowledgement or something, from Naruto. But more than anything, right now, he wanted to help this Sunagakure nin with the sad, lonely eyes.

But we don't always get what we want, Haku thought to himself. At any rate, I won't be able to get anything I want if I'm a wet smear on the ground.

Haku's kekkei genkai was an innate mastery over ice: its formation, control, shaping, and more. But to make use of it he had to have a ready source of water. Because of this, he carried three sources of water on his person at all times.

The first source was a small canteen, which he hurled in Gaara's direction. As expected, a large wad of sand flew out, smashing into the canteen and splashing the water everywhere. Some of the sand splattered to the ground, soaked, but Haku formed two rapid seals, and the water collected into a single mass, freezing solid. A sharp blade formed on the leading edge of the icy block and Haku flung it forward with his chakra as rapidly as he could manage, the frozen mass hurtling at Gaara like a spear.

Gaara brought his palm up, thrust outwards, and his sand rose up. It took the majority of the sand he had deployed to deflect the hurtling block of ice, and even then it hadn't lost all of its momentum. It tumbled to the side, smashing into dozens of shards that glittered in the light of the arena room. Haku pulled the plug on the second source of water on his person, and the water filled vest gurgled liquid onto the floor as Haku's chakra pulled the shards of ice back towards him.

The action was not lost on Gaara as he drew more sand from his gourd.

The genin in the balcony watched as what had been a match between ninja turned into a contest between sand and ice, each thrust out at one another, blades of ice turned aside by barriers of sand, pounding waves of sand thwarted by walls of ice. Gaara's face grew gleeful and savage as more sand flowed from his gourd, its sheer mass and weight forcing Haku's defenses closer and closer. Small pieces of ice were melting; Haku used the resultant water to enact Kirigakure no jutsu. The last clear sight the spectators had of Haku for the time being was him pulling what appeared to be a scroll out of his sleeve.

Sealing and storage scrolls are among the most useful and underrated tools in the shinobi arsenal. With proper use and only a modicum of skill, large volumes and weights may be easily transported and stored in these carefully crafted scrolls. With sufficient skill, sealing scrolls might even be used to contain objects and materials that would ordinarily be highly destructive to a simple sheet of paper, such as fire...

... or water.

Haku allowed more of the ice to melt, freeing more of his chakra reserves to channel to his ears in the thick mist. In seconds, he had blanketed the entire arena floor. Near the wall, he created an open pocket in the mist in which he could see well enough to activate the scroll and waited, listening for sound. Specifically, he listened for the sound of shifting sand.

His ears homed in on the sound, pinpointing its location; the hissing, slither-scrape of thousands of miniscule pieces of silicone oxides, the sussurant whisper of moving sand.

Haku opened the scroll.

Sealing scroll can be made in a number of ways. Some simply store the mass. These are by far the simplest such scrolls. Others give the option to direct the stored mass in any direction one chose upon activating the seal in the paper. These were the most complex, although highly versatile. But there was an intermediate degree of storage scroll which gave momentum to stored mass as it was summoned, albeit in a single direction in regards to the orientation of the scroll. Since the chakra granting this momentum was expended on crafting the seal, only a minimal amount of chakra is needed at the time of activation. And, properly used, this sort of scroll could be every bit as dangerous and flexible as the more advanced versions.

Haku carefully adjusted the orientation of the scroll with of the sound of the sand, before he channeled the necessary trickle of chakra into the scroll to discharge it.

In answer, water rushed out in a roaring fountain, several thousand gallons of water in total, its momentum sweeping away mist in swirls. Far more water than he ever expected to need — or even be able to use for any great length of time — but Gaara's power had clearly indicated that this was not a time for half measures. To penetrate Gaara's defenses would require a hammer-blow of monumental proportions; and Haku meant to be on the wielding end of that hammer. As the water flooded outwards, Haku channeled his chakra into the torrent, creating several hundred tiny, razor-sharp shards of ice, to be carried along by the water, ready to flense away the flesh and bone of any mortal body in its path.

Gaara's startled expression was gratifying as his body was swept up by the water and slammed into the wall… before the body came apart in a mass of sodden sand.

The mist finished dissipating, as the water settled. Haku hemmed in the water with a solid boundary of his coldest ice. Hayate held an extremely annoyed expression as he perched sideways on the arena wall, and Gaara stood on a hovering platform of sand several feet above the water. His expression was disdainful as he looked down at Haku. "Did you honestly think I wouldn't know that you were targeting me by sound?" he asked in a voice dripping with scorn.

Haku shook his head. "That doesn't matter anymore." He made a flurry of hand seals, and water sprang into the air, more of it, until the water on the floor was only a collection of irregular puddles, while the rest of it floated in air, forming a spherical formation of icy mirrors with Gaara at its center. Haku crouched and leaped, directly into one of them… and then, suddenly, his reflection was held within all of them.

Up in the seats, Naruto blinked his eyes, then activated his Kamigan, noting with pleasure that there was no longer any pain from the chakra parasite.

What he saw was beyond anything he could have expected. "Whoa!" he whispered reverently.

Shikamaru glanced over at Naruto. "What?"

"There's another... angle," Naruto said in a voice tinged with excitement. "And Haku's inside it!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Shikamaru. "What do you mean by 'another angle'?"

"The mirror, it... it goes in a different direction," Naruto elaborated with frustration, fumbling, unable to describe accurately what his eyes were telling him.

"What do you mean?" Sakura said from nearby. "Which mirror?"

Naruto's frustration began to mount. "No, you see, that's just it; there's only one mirror!" he said. "Those things aren't falling 'cause they're all attached. It's all one mirror!"

Everyone nearby looked at Naruto in blank confusion, except Sakura and Kakashi, who were looking at him in disbelief. Kakashi broke the silence. "Naruto… are you saying... No, wait. What does it look like?"

Naruto's scowl deepened. "It... bends in a different direction than everything else. The area around all the sides of it, they are bent and join together at an angle that the rest of the area doesn't join it. Gaara's inside it where you can see it normally, but Haku's inside it where it really is. They're... right next to each other, on top of each other practically, but they aren't... touching in any way. Does that make sense?"

Kakashi turned his gaze back to the mirrors and lifted his headband, but the result was much the same as the first time he'd seen it. But he was pretty certain he understood what Naruto was trying to say. "No wonder the ice is so hard to break. It can channel any shock or heat along a four-dimensional structure."

Shikamaru frowned, then fell into his meditation pose, trying to understand. Sakura had a look of semi-comprehension on her face. "So Haku is making a four-dimensional object... How is that even possible?"

"It seems," murmured Kakashi thoughtfully, "that there is more to Haku's kekkei genkai than we could have suspected." "But why isn't it connected where we can see it?" pressed Sakura.

"Oh, it's weird," Naruto said. "It's like... the space around it is folded over the edges until all that pokes out is the sides we're able to see. You could walk right through the middle of the thing and not touch it but he's right next to you the whole time, and the only way where he's at is touching where we're at is those sides that are still there where we can see them. But none of the sides fall because it's keeping its own shape and all the weight is resting on that one side on the bottom there." Naruto pointed at the bottom-most mirror.

Kakashi rubbed his chin. "I wonder how it would be possible for anything based on a three-dimensional framework to damage it. Even if it is only ice, having a four-dimensional structure along which to transfer-"

"Shh!" interrupted Choji. "They're starting again."

Gaara and Haku had assessed one another for almost a full minute now; Haku periodically throwing senbon from several directions at Gaara any time his sand seemed to make a move, and Gaara attempting to discern the best angle from which to attack Haku. The ice seemed impervious to any pressure he threw at it; it didn't seem to even scratch.

Finally, Haku appeared to have a plan. Senbon launched from all the mirrors inwards. In response, Gaara's sand formed a shell around him, completely defensive and, as it did, the rate of senbon launching inwards increased. Haku's feet began appearing from the mirrors nearest to the ground, slapping puddles and splashing water upwards, and as the water splashed, it formed needles of ice, which too began to pound the outer shell of sand. Within thirty seconds, the exterior of the sand shell was studded with hundreds of icy and metallic needles, Haku was looking fatigued even from within the shell, and the first of the ice needles had melted and soaked into the shell of sand. Droplets of water began dripping down the outside, leaving small runnels in the packed mass of sand.

Finally, the barrage ended, and a portion of the sand shifted aside to reveal Gaara's emotionless face. "Is that it?" he asked.

"Not... not quite," Haku said between breaths, his stance declaring the progression from fatigue across the thin line into exhaustion. "One... more trick... remains... before this... is over."

Haku threw more senbon from multiple mirrors. The wet sand responded… and suddenly froze into sandy ice. No longer able to move freely, Gaara's chakra broke the ice and forced his sand to obey his will... but not... quite... fast enough.

Past all of Gaara's defenses, two senbon slipped, burying themselves within an inch of one another into and through his shoulder. Gaara's left arm went dead, and Gaara's eyes widened in disbelief. Slowly, he reached up and touched the needles, then the dribbles of blood soaking through his sash.

Haku attempted more senbon, but Gaara's gourd collapsed into sand as well. Waves of sand pounded ineffectually at the mirrors, even as senbon embedded themselves into the sand shell, but neither competitor had any noticeable effect, though Haku grew exhausted, sagging more and more, while water began dripping from his mirrors.

Hayate knew the signs; Haku was approaching chakra exhaustion and still wasn't letting up. Then Haku's image pitched forward in the mirrors, the mirrors themselves suddenly gushed water out onto the arena floor, and Haku fell into the water from the mirror he'd stepped into. From his position, Hayate could see clearly that Haku was unconscious and likely drowning. "Winner: Subaku no Gara!"

Much of Gaara's send had been caught in the downpour and swept into the arena ring, but Gaara still floated in mid-air, standing on what he had left, as he collected up the errant grains and pulled them out of the water. Seeing his prey out where he could finally reach it, a long arm of sand shot out at the unconscious Haku, even as Hayate ran on the water towards him. "The match is (cough) OVER!"

Suddenly, just as the sand was about to reach Haku, it parted, hesitant, as one of the Konoha jonin-sensei stood on the rocking water, still confined in the icy barriers Haku had frozen earlier. The jonin's eyes held Gaara transfixed as he stood with arm stretched to the side. In those eyes was somber determination, warning, and grief.

"There will be no more helpless opponents killed or crippled today," Gai spoke softly.

Gaara's sand made no further move, but Gaara's rage, if anything, intensified. "Why do you defend each other?" "Because I failed to act once today... And I will not see that failure repeated," Gai answered solemnly.

Gaara stared at the Konoha jonin for a few long moments, holding his head, before dropping his arms to the side. "Whatever..." he muttered, levitating himself up to the balcony, the rest of his sand following him through the air and reforming his gourd as he did. He found himself drawing grains of sand from all over the entire arena, now that he was able to devote the attention to tracking them down: in corners, between tiles in the floor, and even peoples' clothes.

Must be a quality of water, Gaara thought to himself, shifting uncomfortably as he retrieved sand from inside his own clothes. Sand gets in the damnedest places.

End Chapter Nineteen

-AN: Another chapter down, although this one needed more refining than others to get it to a point where I felt comfortable with people reading it. My earliest chapters, now, I am seeing them as rather... bad. I'm going to have to rewrite them because I think they are hurting my recruitment of new readership.

Thanks to all who have posted reviews! I've enjoyed writing this thus far and I'm sorry that it has been so long — relatively speaking — since I last updated. Hopefully nobody gave up on me in the meanwhile.

Little else to add, except a thanks to BTB and G. who have stuck with me since long about chapter eleven or so. I'm a frustrating person to pre-read for, I know. Thanks for putting up with me.

Next time: We wrap up the prelims, deal with some politics, and see the roots of the fall of Rome.

Ja mata.

-AXENOME