Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto, or any of Kishimoto's characters for that matter.
Sakura climbed the stairs back to her teammates, the seal still burning at her neck. She could feel the gaze of the other genin on her neck, and, instead of making her feel akward or embarrassed, it infuriated her. Naruto, obviously unnerved by what he had seen, yet still trying to remain cheerful, plastered a big smile on his face, jogged up to Sakura, and reached his hand out to pat her on the shoulder. "Congratulation Sak-" as his hand touched her shoulder she lashed out, smashing her knee into his stomach. "Sorry...Sakura..chan," he grunted through clenched teeth. She was about to kick him again when a powerful slap caught her across the cheek. She looked over to Sasuke, who had struck her, hard, and she felt thouroughly ashamed. She ran out of the room, tears in her eyes.
Sasuke, after a few seconds, turned and slowly started after her, gritting his teeth. This was getting out of hand. Naruto was sprung up from the ground, and hit the floor running, right after the girl who had savagely beat him. "Naruto. Let her be." Sasuke, spoke his voice even and calm, "I'll go and see if she's alright."
"Like hell you will, you arrogant bastard." Naruto pratically spat, with more venom than Sasuke had ever heard from him before.
"Naruto." Sasuke said again, in the same expressionless monotone. It seemed like he was going to continue, but Naruto cut him off again.
"How can you help her, you always treat her like shit," Naruto said, his face filled with rage. Naruto himself was quite surprised that he wasn't feeling jealous that Sasuke wanted to go to her. He was worried about a precious friend. "You-"
"Naruto!" Sasuke's voice had the slightest edge to it this time. "Your match."
Naruto spun around, shocked. The screen clearly displayed Inuzuka Kiba vs Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto had hurled himself into the ring in seconds, throwing a curse at Sasuke as he went. His fist were clenched, knuckles white, when he faced down Kiba...
Sasuke walked at a measured pace back towards the room that team 7 shared. He slowly opened the door, and founds Sakura, her skin covered in gradually receding black tatoo's, at the sink, washing her hands, desperately. She was using, to his immediate dismay, steel wool, and the blood running in the sink wasn't Kankurou's. She was screaming, random desperate phrase. "I'm a monster!" He walked over to her, grabbed her wrists, and forcefully hauled her over to one of the beds, and roughly threw her upon it, where she she continued to scream. When she pulled a kunai out of her sleeve, and angled it towards her own wrist, he sighed, and struck her, rather delicately, on the temple, knocking her out cold.
She woke up to find herself in her bed, dressed in Kakashi's shirt, the one Sasuke had been wearing, and a pair of white shorts. Sasuke was sitting at the far end of the room, sipping on a cup of tea, which, when he noticed she was awake, her handed to her. It wasn't particularily hot anymore, but she drank it anyways, she was terribly thirsty. Her hands and wrists were gently bandaged, and a dark bruise stood out quite lividly on her battered face. She looked over at him. Had he done all this? She noticed that he was wearing the tattered bloodstained jacket, and a spare pair of black shorts. "Sasuke, did you do this?" Had he seen her naked? The thought made her blush so hard that her neck darkened. He merely grunted in reply.
"Sakura," he said, knowing that sooner or later he'd have to bring it up. "Do you remember?"
Horrible images flashed back to her. She let out a little sob, and once again he surprised her by putting his hand on her shoulder. She felt her heart beating rapidly at the unexpected contact.
Through her sobs, she managed to squeek out, "Sasuke you can't tell anyone. Please..." He wasn't thrilled about that. Personally he thought, Kakashi's aid, at very least, should be sought out. "Don't tell anyone... I can't..." she choked out again.
He looked down at her frail form and felt a shudder of pity. She didn't want to make people worry. He put his other hand, on her chin, and forced her to look at him. "Fine. No one knows. I've an idea how to control that thing as well." The look of pure joy in her eyes, the sweet smile almost made him smile back. Almost. He looked her in the eyes, ignoring the blush that covered her face. He activated his Sharingan, and felt her start a bit. He spoke, softly this time. "Don't blink Sakura, my hypnosis, isn't that fast." She stared, wide eyes, not even daring to breathe into his red eyes. Watching the swirl, the motions of the chakra. She felt herself slipping away again. She could get lost in his eyes without the sharingan, she thought to herself, dreamily.
He lay her down on the bed again, the process had been pretty draining on both of them. Hopefully his hypnosis would be enough to bolster her willpower to the point that she could control the seal.
He walked out to see a grinning Naruto watching a match. Sasuke simply looked at Naruto, the question in eyes readily apparent, "Well."
"You better be in the preliminaries, Sasuke!" Naruto practically yelled. Sasuke looked over at the board. He'd missed several matches.
Inuzuka Kiba vs Uzumaki Naruto. Winner Uzumaki Naruto. Which was obvious, Sasuke thought.
Zaku Abume vs Aburame Shino. Winner Aburame Shino. Sasuke suppressed a shudder when he saw a chunk of bone, coated in flesh and muscle, still lying at the far side of the arena.
Tenten vs Temari. Winner Temari. A slight smirk. The organizers hadn't even bothered to find out either Kunoichi's surname.
Hyuga Hinata vs Hyuga Neji. Winner- Hyuga Neji. Sasuke wished he could have seen that.
Currently one Nara Shikamaru was fighting Yamanaka Ino, his own teammate. Most of the arena laughed when Shikamaru turned around, and noticing Ino was closer to the wall than him, walked forward a few step, and started to wildly wave his head back and forth. The third time Ino had smashed her own head into the unyielding stone she dazedly yelled out that she was forfeiting. Winner Nara Shikamaru.
Dosu Kinutu was up next, fighting Akamichi Chouji. The match barely took a minute. Dosu steamrollered poor Chouji.
The next match, second last, was overwhelmingly epic, with Rock Lee getting his arm and leg mangled in the end by the sinister Gaara of the Desert.
The final match, Yakushi Kabuto vs Uchiha Sasuke. Before the match began, Kabuto waved in a friendly manner, bring a disgusted snicker to Sasuke's face. For some reason Kabuto seemed determined to stare down his opponent. A piece of hypnoisis, followed by the Shishi Rendan put a very quick end to that fight, as he devastated his seemingly hapless opponent.
After the matches Kabuto the took his leave in a quiet corner of the central tower. He didn't look at all surprised when a Sound 'Jounin' approached him. "Kabuto, I've got it," the sinister man's voice practically purred.
Sorry for so long between updates. The 'A' key on my keyboard stopped working, and it took quite a bit to get it fixed. And have you ever tried to type without a. Aaaaaaaaaaaa. That feels so good.