Four reviews. Well, better than zero, I suppose.
But...for the people who did review...
too-much-romance: thanks for the first review. I totally understand your criticism, and I'm trying to work it out my own way while following your advice.
Sailor Kunoichi: yes, there shall be more grins
LaZyFMAgirl: no worries! Nejiten will certainly be developing, although if this sticks to the manga, there can't be too much development.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, b/c if I did, Sasuke would be MINE!!
Chapter Two
Upon entering the stone room inside the tower, Neji and his team were met with familiar sights. Like the year before, his cousin and her two weird animal-obsessed teammates, or at least that's what Neji thought of them, were already there, waiting patiently and looking a bit worn out.
She's improved. Neji thought silently, observing Hinata's various wounds. They were signs that she was at least doing something, instead of just being infatuated with that Naruto. Neji smirked at his own silent comments.
"Neji-nii-chan". Hinata greeted her cousin.
"Hinata-sama", Neji nodded, "who else has arrived already?"
"Well, the sand siblings were reported to have arrived within the first hour, and there is a team from the rock here and a team from the mist", Hinata replied politely.
"So how many more teams will join us?" Lee asked.
"Depends. Something could happen to the remaining scrolls," Neji shrugged. There was nothing else to say, so the group fell into silence and simply sat and waited. And waited.
"It's unlikely that all the other scrolls were somehow destroyed, isn't it?" Tenten wondered out loud, glancing at the door.
"Do not believe that, Tenten!" Lee replied enthusiastically. And, miraculously, Lee was right for once.
On the last day, without a warning, the doors burst open and the last two teams stepped inside.
"Why, fellow Konoha shinobi! You have made it as well!" Lee exclaimed, jumping up to greet Chouji. The latter gave Lee a strange look, then trudged inside, followed by Ino and Sakura and a trio of grass ninjas, who looked more than worn out.
"Sakura-san! The most beautiful flower!" Lee grinned and took a step towards Sakura, who instinctively backed away.
"Hey", she greeted breathlessly, before collapsing on the floor in exhaustion.
After reviving Sakura and gathering the rest of the six teams into a large room, the Godaime began to speak. She congratulated the genin on passing the first two exams, then explained the rules for the preliminary matches and the third exam matches. She talked smoothly, ignoring the shocked stares of the first-time exam takers and the smug smiles of the genin who had taken the exam before and knew exactly what to expect.
In reality, none of the genin would be prepared for what would happen this year. She had added a new twist to the fighting this year in order to see what the genin would do, and she had to admit that despite everything she had already seen in her life, this would be one of the most interesting events.
"Alright, there's one additional rule that has been added this year", she announced, "Instead of the usual one-on-one matches that take place during this last exam, we will be randomly assigning you to fight in pairs. This tests your teamwork and ability to communicate with others, regardless of whether you've worked with them before or not!"
The announcement was met with grumbles and confused remarks. It seemed impossible for the candidates to understand how they could work with someone who they knew nothing about.
"This is ridiculous!" an annoyed voice rang out. All occupants of the room fell silent and turned to look at the speaker, a haughty looking ninja from the rock. "I quit".
The rock-nin left the room, slamming the doors behind him. A jounin standing behind Tsunade began heading for the door as well, but the Godaime stopped him.
"If he doesn't wish to continue the exam, there's nothing we can do", she said quietly, "From here on out, each individual decides whether they pass the exam or not". The jounin nodded and the room erupted into commotion again.
"Ok, be quiet! Your examiner is Kamizuki Izumo, and here are the pairs", Tsunade motioned to the screen on the opposite side of the room, which now began shuffling the names of all the participants and pairing them together.
"C'mon… c'mon…Chouji or Sakura, or someone I know", Ino muttered under her breath, "Huh? Kiba? Oh geez".
Crap! Who the heck is that? Sakura frowned, reading the foreign name directly under hers. She looked around to see if she could spot someone who would fit the name, but had no such luck. Definitely not someone from Konoha, she thought, after all, I'd know who they were.
"Hey, looks like we got paired together", Tenten smiled at the screen as she approached her teammate.
"Hn", Neji nodded.
"This is so stupid", Sakura muttered under her breath as she stalked to the back of the room to observe the people in her room. "It has to be one of them, but this is so dumb! I can't even tell if it's a girl name or boy name!"
"Are you… Sakura?" a muted voice, thick with an unrecognizable accent, approached Sakura and she turned, her initial glare melting into an awkward smile. The speaker was a slender male with thick, long hair, eyes that were clone's of Sasuke's, and a mist forehead protector around his waist. As much as his eyes minded her of Sasuke, Sakura couldn't help thinking there was something creepy about this guy.
Maybe he's gay.
The rest of the genin finished finding their partners and moved to various corners to meet their new teammate.
The room was silent as the first two pairs stepped down from the balcony and onto the fighting area. On one side, Sakura and her creepy, gay-ish partner took their stance. On the opposite end, a ninja from the rock and a second mist-nin faced them. The examiner stood between the pairs, toothpick in mouth, wry smile on his face.
"Begin".
The fight started immediately, but soon entered a deadlock. The two mist ninjas knew each others' movements all too well and neither team could gain an advantage. As she landed on her butt beside her teammate, Sakura motioned for the mist-nin to get closer. "This isn't working", she muttered, "I'll take on the mist-nin over there, and you get the rock guy".
Her partner nodded and Sakura took off again, shoving a chakra filled fist into the opposing mist-nin's face. She landed a clean shot, and the opponent toppled back towards the rock-nin, who stood, stunned for a moment. He moved just in time to avoid a shower of needles, but couldn't escape the explosion from under his feet as Sakura sent her fist into the ground. The rock-nin managed to land in the corner of the stadium and quickly took in the current situation.
The middle portion of the fighting ground was destroyed, and his partner was lying unconsciously on the floor. Across from him, the pink haired kunoichi and the long-haired mist-nin stood, watching him intently.
SHIT. He decided his best bet would be to take out the girl first, because her extreme strength seemed to hinder him the most. The rock-nin quickly scouted the setting and noticed the rocks and debris scattered about the arena from Sakura's most recent attack. He could definitely use those to his advantage. Forming a few, quick hand seals, the rock-nin concentrated on the rocks around him as well as the ones behind his opponents.
Using his chakra, the rock-nin drew the rocks together with a magnetic force, causing the ones beside him and the ones beside Sakura to rush toward each other with incredible speed and strength. Most of them were dodged, but a couple managed to graze Sakura along her cheeks. She quickly moved out of the way as a new set of rocks repeated the attack, but was oblivious to the rocks under her that the rock-nin had simultaneously prepared.
Taking this opportunity, while his opponent was distracted, the rock-nin sent the underground rock through the arena floor, pinning Sakura's thin frame to the ceiling for a split second before she fell to the ground.
The rock-nin then turned his attention to his other opponent, who seemed shocked that his partner was lying in a heap on the floor. He quickly set out a shower of needles, but the attack was blocked by a bunch of small pebbles.
As if on cue, the two genin threw aside their long range weapons and began a series of close combat. They rushed towards each other, kunais in hand, but without any real intention of killing. That won't get them anywhere, Sakura thought as she slowly sat up and watched the two fight.
You have to come at me with an intent to kill. Kakashi-sensei's words, from their first day of training as team 7, echoed in Sakura's mind and she sat up and took in a deep breath. She wanted to win this. She had to win this. She had to get stronger so she could get Sasuke back. And at the moment, that stupid mist-nin wasn't helping much. He was just like Naruto, charging in head-first without thinking.
Grumbling to herself, Sakura stood up and decided to end the fight at once. She eyed the fight carefully and found an opening; the two shinobi were battling and focused on each other and thus, they weren't paying attention to the area beneath them. Sakura pulled out a kunai and took aim.
The sharp, metallic blade of the kunai embedded itself in the rock-nin's leg, immobilizing him for a moment. Inner Sakura cheered. Step one: success! Sakura then quickly approached the rock-nin, taking this moment to quickly land several punches while his mind was still on the kunai in his leg. Step two: success… again! The rock-nin bounced backwards and drew out the weapon, allowing blood to gush down his legs. It was just a minor injury and he had no choice but to ignore it.
"Don't just stand there!" Sakura called out to the mist-nin, very annoyed that he still wasn't doing much. There was little reply, so Sakura decided to finish it off herself. After all, it wasn't like she needed anyone's help. The next punch she landed on the rock-nin was the last one; he was sent flying to the opposite end of the arena and crashed into the wall, causing a rumble to spread throughout the room. Izumo raised his hand and monotonously announced the winners as Sakura beamed and the mist-nin beside her smiled a little.
After the pair returned to their original positions on the balcony and the team that had lost was carried away on stretchers, the rest of the examinees turned their attentions to the screen, which was now shuffling the pairs for the next fight.
"Looks like we're up!" Tenten smiled at Neji. The Hyuuga prodigy looked at his teammate, then eyed their opponents and nodded.
So. Um. I know this is supposed to be focused on Nejiten, and don't get me wrong, because it IS, but this chapter sorta turned out to be mostly about Sakura. But then again, this fanfic IS, at the same time, supposed to mention ALL the characters, so in a way, my actions are justified!
But, don't worry. The next chapter will be ALL about Neji and Tenten. I promise!
OH, one question! Would you guys prefer it if I wrote out ALL the fight scenes? or just did the NejiTen one and then ended the chunnin exams?