Chapter 16

-A few weeks later-

The festival was a blast, well for some people. Nozomi on the other hand was bored out of her mind. Misa was hugging a HUGE stuffed puppy, although Marco wasn't as thrilled. "Man, we seriously need to get some food, I'm so hungry!" complained Ai. "Can I just leave?" Everyone turned to Nozomi with a shocked face. "C'mon Nozomi, lighten up a bit." Nozomi just looked at Suoh with a bored face. "I don't do festivals. I like fights, blood, and ore. NOT FESTIVELS." Nozomi emphasized "not" just to prove her point.

Misa just sighed; she knew the real reason why Nozomi hated festivals. 'People at Kohana Maru would always shun her out of social things, so then later Nozomi just decided to ignore them all together.' BONG! Misa looked up to a stand, where numerous targets posted up I the stand. Misa also noticed a small crowd starting to gather around the stand as well. That was when the merchant of the stand spoke up. "Come one, come all! Ladies and gents, this is very simple! Just hit the target with a kunai and you get a prize! Hit the special target and you get even a BIGGER prize!" That got Misa's attention. "Hey let's go to that stand!" Everyone's attention averted to the stand that Misa was pointing at. "Why? I mean we're like…masters at throwing kunai at stuff." "Yeah, but still!" They could literally see poki in her eyes.

While that, Nozomi had walked up to the stand. When Suoh, Ai, Misa, and Marco realized Nozomi was doing, the kunai Nozomi had thrown had hit the special target. The crowd gasped. "What?" Nozomi said in a bored tone. "It's not like you've never seen a ninja throw a kunai before." It was the merchant who spoke up, "We've only seen a few Jounin do that and hit the special target, especially with their eyes closed like that. But you…your just a Genin right? And you're….just a girl too." Anger flared in her eyes. She asked hotly, "What do you have against us girl ninjas?!" The force in her voice had literally scared the wits out of everyone in the crowd.

The merchant was thoroughly frightened. "N-N-Nothing miss, it's just that w-well, we haven't seen anything like it, s quick a hand before." "Yeah right, well what's the prize?" "Excuse me?" "…You said that anyone who hit the 'special' target got a big prize." The merchant blinked, then it looked like something in his head clicked. "Right, right…The prize is a lifetime supply of poki." He then handed a coupon to Nozomi, and then went to help the next customer.

(The Ramen Shop)

"Ohmigoshthankyousomuch!!" Misa squealed, embracing Nozomi, tightly. "Can.not.breathe." huffed Nozomi. Misa had let go of Nozomi when Team Kakashi walked in. They sat down at the ramen bar. Misa said to Sakura, "Good luck tomorrow!" Sakura glared at her and retorted, "I don't need luck, because I will win." Nozomi's eyebrow twitched, thinking to herself, 'She has no idea who she's dealing with…' "Hey guess what?!" Misa asked Naruto. "What?" "Nozomi won a lifetime supply of poki!!" everyone was quiet. "What?" asked Misa. "You mea you were the girl the merchant was talking about?" Sakura said, glaring with envy at Nozomi. Nozomi just nodded, half paying attention to the conversation. Naruto was looking at Nozomi in amazement. "He said you shot the special target with your eyes closed!" Nozomi looked at Naruto with one eye opened; she then closed both her eyes then nodded once more. Naruto was looking at her with amazement-and with a little jealously. That was when Suoh finally noticed Kakashi. Kakashi of course was reading his, oh-so-'wonderful' orange book of his. His eye twitched.

"So how DID you do it?" Sasuke asked, who was unusually sitting very close to Misa, who answered his question, "It's very easy if you have complete control of your chakra and an excellent aim of course!!" Misa then went back to eating poki. Nozomi nodded to reassure Sasuke. "Ramen on the house for you Genins!" The owner of the ramen shop exclaimed. Naruto asked, "Why?" "So you'll be strong for the finals tomorrow." "Yay! Thank you!" said Misa. After that, Misa noticed Sasuke eating her poki. She slapped Sasuke's hand gently and said, "Hey, get your own poki!" He swallowed the last bit he ate. Misa giggled, "You got chocolate all over your mouth!" Everyone (meaning the Genins mostly) watched as Misa wiped his mouth. (Sakura was fuming) Everyone ate their ramen in silence.

After they finished, the two teams bid each other goodbye and headed separate ways. But Sasuke and Misa took longer to say goodbye, so their teas didn't even bother to wait. "Hey Nozomi, wait up!" Misa said, having to run to catch up with her team. "Oh so you and your boyfriend are done kissing each other?" Misa blushed, but managed to stammer out, "H-He's not m-my boyfriend! W-We are j-just really go-good friends! A-Anyways, it w-was Neji's b-birthday thirteen days ago!" "Oh, so he's YOUR boyfriend?" Nozomi loved getting Misa embarrassed sometimes. "N-No! I'm just saying that it was h-his b-birthday!!

Team Nozomi went back to the hotel room to rest for the finals the next day.

The next day was the big day! Everyone was outside on the streets, either watching the parade or in it. But two ninjas overslept and were not going to be late if they don't hurry. Yeah. Nozomi and Naruto. "Jeez, they didn't even bother to wake me up…" Nozomi mumbled, eyeing the alarm clock that read 11:55.

(Meanwhile…)

"Hey where's Hayate?" Misa asked he new proctor, Genma Shiranui, when she was supposed to be standing alongside with every other finalist. "Just get back in line and present yourself to the crowd…" He just mumbled as she was spinning around in circles.

"Is that…a Kohana Maru ninja?" Kazekage asked the Hokage. "Yes, the very same famous ANBU leader Wolf also." That surprised the Kazekage. But he said calmly, "And your still letting her and her teammate, whom I suppose is leader Wolf's partner, Fox, still competes?" The Hokage was expecting this. He responded, "A trustworthy group of Jounin had said they witnessed a chakra sealing." The Kazekage thought to himself as the Hokage made a little speech to the crowd, 'They will NOT mess with my plan…'

"First up, Misa Inuzuka versus Sakura Haruno!!!