Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 2

Weak

He always thought she'd give up without any hesitation, and that made her weak.

She'd give in to her siblings' demands and their harsh punishments. He, on the other hand, could kill his siblings if they got in his way.

Therefore, he thought (because it was only logical) that Amy Fusonako would forfeit the chuunin exams—simple as.

"Next match—Amy Fusonako versus Haruka Fusonako," the proctor called out. Gaara heard the crowd's whispers.

"Aren't they siblings?"

"Well, yeah, but Haruka can beat that weakling."

One of them leaned forward in his seat. "Kick her butt, Haruka!"

Haruka smirked, giving a thumbs-up to the roaring crowd before she stood tall and proud, facing her sister. She tilted her head slightly, chin jutted out slightly in an attempt to intimidate the other girl. In an oh-so-sweet voice, she asked, "Ready to get your ass kicked, Amy-chan?"

Amy nearly snorted. "Just shut it"—a sly smile slide on her face—"Haru-Haru."

Gaara nearly cringed at the girl's lack of finesse. Really? Was that necessary at all? Feh. Girls.

The crowd burst into hysterics, some laughing, some crying, some screaming out in protest.

The proctor held up a hand and all became quiet. The only sounds that followed came from the arena. He cleared his throat. "Haruka-san and Amy-san—you may now begin." With one raised hand in the air, the match started.

And with that, Haruka attacked.

She dashed from her side, creating hand signs at breakneck speed. Mumbling a few quick words, she jutted her feet down into place, pulled a hand back, and thrust a punch in Amy's direction. Although she was about fifty kilometers from Amy, Haruka left a punch in the air that seemed to ripple, uprooting trees, overturning stones and finally, exploded. Right at Amy. Haruka smirked and placed a hand on her hip. "Too easy," she said when she saw her sister's limp form against the wall.

From the stands, Gaara watched, a little disappointed that the girl had failed in just the first few seconds of the match.

Poof!

He blinked; a small, extremely thin smile settled on his lips, and he nodded in approval. "I see…"

Haruka blinked. Then, she realized with a growing rage—

"Yoo-hoo!" The sound came from above.

—that Amy had created a bunshin.

It made sense. In the midst of Haruka's reckless assaulting, she had created a shadow clone in order to take her place, predicting her sister's first move and then creating a move of her own to counter her. "Not bad," Gaara murmured to himself.

Haruka growled, snapping her head up at the sky, preparing to create another series of hand signs when Amy slammed on top of her. Hard. With a shriek of pain, she fell. Ooh, she was going to kick Amy's ass so badly now!

And in those few moments of Haruka's fall, Amy had bought herself enough time to predict her sister's strikes, to create counter movements, and then win the entire match. Leaping off from her, she fell into defense mode, ready when Haruka lunged for her. She winced at a fierce punch. With a three-sixty spin, she landed a kick onto Haruka's face, only managing to distract her weakly before Haruka returned to assault.

In the midst of battle, Haruka managed to smirk. She landed another severe punch to Amy's chest. Another smirk. She knew that Amy wouldn't last any longer than this. The Amy she knew was terrible at taijutsu, not able to control how much force she put into her kicks or her punches. Haruka knew that the only thing Amy was good at was analyzing situations and assessing them. What good would that do?

"Here's another one for you—Fist of Heaven!" Haruka shouted, fueling a chakra punch in one hand.

But Gaara saw that she was too sloppy, the chakra not carefully formed in her punching hand. It drained her.

And that was what led to Amy capturing Haruka's fist in her palm. Amy smiled. And said: "Joker's Hold."

Gaara leaned forward slightly.

Haruka's eyes widened. She knew what that meant, beginning to struggle underneath Amy's grip to no avail. All she could do at this point was watch her sister create hand signs with one hand—and proceed to be pulled into a frightening genjutsu.

Genjutsu had always been Amy's forte, and from an early age, Amy discovered that she liked to experiment—with the help of her father, of course. She created countless genjutsus, one that kept the victim's body tightly fused into the ground or scattered into pieces or distorted like something in a funhouse. And what she was using on Haruka was one of her countless creations.

Haruka blinked, struggling to get out of the genjutsu. She found herself hanging from a tree by her arms in a world full of wrong colors. The trees were blue; the water was red; the sun was green; and the grass was purple. Amy was standing on top of the branch that Haruka was dangling from.

"Now," Amy said almost too sweetly, the same tone that Haruka had used on her the beginning of the match, "let's see what you're afraid of, dear sister." She grabbed her sister's hand—and sent an invasive chakra pulsing into her sister's chakra system.

Haruka yelped, her mind now frantic. Okay—her training. Sensei had taught her how to break genjutsu. Break your chakra—break it with your mind—pretend like you're dead, and the genjutsu will all be over. Concentrating, Haruka blocked out the feeling of the invasive chakra and imagined a stream of chakra suddenly collapsing.

When Amy gasped, Haruka knew that the illusion was broken. Straightening up, Haruka saw her sister's surprised face—probably because Amy didn't prepare herself for that little tidbit of genius. Her eyes narrowed at her sister. "No more mercy, Amy," she said. With another set of hand signs, she used the rest of her chakra, keeping her aim on her sister who was frantically trying to escape her sister's wrath.

It was no use. With an enormous punch to the air, the world came crashing down onto Amy. She felt as if gravity had captured her and forced her into the ground a thousand times, effectively breaking a couple of her ribs. Wincing from her injuries, Amy knew that she wouldn't last much longer at this point, a little ego-bruised by the fact that she had miscalculated her sister's moves. She wanted to continue, to keep going—she didn't want to give up and give everyone the satisfaction of seeing her as just another loser shinobi. No—that wasn't her nindo. That wasn't her ninja way. Pulling herself to her feet, she stood, facing Haruka once more. She tried to smirk when she saw Haruka's mouth hanging wide open.

The crowd seemed to have Haruka's exact reaction. They didn't know who to cheer for anymore.

And Gaara had his breath held. Why wouldn't this girl give up? The staggering pressure from her sister's attack had already gotten her to bleed from every orifice on her body, and she still wouldn't give up?

"Heh-heh," Amy said, wiping some blood off of her mouth and off of the red trails that came from her eyes and mouth. She put a thumbs-up. "No way are you going to beat me with that measly ninjutsu." She smirked, her teeth red with blood. "It's too obvious; you use it too much."

Haruka roared in indignation. "I'll show you, repetitive, brat!"

The two of them created hand signs. It wasn't until after that Gaara realized that their hand signs were the complete opposites of each other.

"Take this!" Haruka sent a barrage of invisible fists flying through the air at her sister.

Amy countered it, catching them in her palms with mysterious, renewed strength.

Soon, it looked like a dance—Haruka punching the air, Amy catching them, leaning into and away from each other in an attempt to attack and to defend.

Gaara simply stared. 'Come now,' he chanted inside his mind, 'End the match, Amy.'

Then, when Amy's guard revealed an opening, Haruka thrust once with a fist and sent Amy spiraling to the ground.

Amy tried to get up, pressing her hands into the ground to push herself off of it. Without any more chakra and any more energy, the most that she could do was roll herself over. She couldn't get up.

As the crowd cheered and roared for Haruka, the medics carried Amy away.

And Gaara, disappointed and slightly relieved for some reason, followed the young girl to the hospital.

Amy put up a good fight.

-0-

"Why didn't you just give up?" Gaara asked her coldly in the hospital.

She levelled her gaze with him. "I promised my mother I would never give up, and I'd like to keep to my word."

Her sentence triggered a memory from when he was fighting Naruto. He could almost hear the familiar, happy blond's voice overlapping Amy's.

Naruto flashed inside his head, that insane, gigantic grin plastered on his face with his mouth formed into a familiar Dattebayo! "I like to..."

"..keep my word." Gaara jolted when he heard Amy's voice.

Their philosophies and beliefs were strikingly similar. Naruto and Amy—maybe... maybe one of them taught the other that.

Gaara felt the corners of his lips turn up. Maybe Amy wasn't so weak after all.

A/N: Thank you to my beta, annee loves sasusaku (who also helped with Rest and Warmth). She created the fight scene for me and she is awesome! Please review.