"Temari, it would be easier to sleep if you would quit glaring at me." Amaya said before opening one eye and focusing it on her roommate in the other bed.
Temari scowled she didn't like having to stay in the same room as Amaya and they were still stuck in Konoha for six more days, six more days with her.
Since Amaya saw that Temari was still glaring she turned on her side to face her. "What is it that you have against me Temari?"
Temari began listing reasons off in her head:
I have absolutely no idea what your past is and who the hell you really are.
Your ninjutsu screams suspicious.
You piss me off.
I don't trust you.
I can't beat you in poker.
Amaya just turned back around after she didn't get an answer. "One last piece of advice Temari, don't keep glaring, your face might freeze like that and then it will be even harder for you to get a boyfriend."
'Reason number three! There it is! Reason number three!' Temari shouted angrily in her head.
(The Next Day)
Temari awoke to find Amaya gone. She found it as no surprise, but it made her wonder just exactly what Amaya was doing in the early morning in Konoha.
----------------Elsewhere--------------------
Amaya looked around at the bright morning sky and realized how much she missed the nighttime, the darkness. Another thing she missed was the Sand Village, she had only been there a month and only away a week but she missed the sweltering heat and the sand it was so nice there in comparison to Konoha which reeked with the scent of her old life. The little pink cherry blossoms were enough to make her puke.
After spending the first day of her break from the Chuunin Exams beating Temari in poker it was nice to get away from her annoying death glares. She hoped that no one would find her on the tall building she was resting on.
It was as if her thoughts were a jinx because no sooner did she think that than Shikamaru showed up.
Shikamaru's eyes widened when he saw Amaya and he sighed, "Ah, troublesome I just came up here to cloud watch but now you're here." Amaya kept looking at him but she didn't say anything. "Just who are you? You show up a month ago saying that you were Sakura even though you look, sound, and act nothing like her. Then Sakura disappeared. And now you show up for the Chuunin Exams with a Sand Village headband around your neck! I repeat who are you?"
Amaya got up and started to walk away.
"Hey!" Shikamaru exclaimed as he grabbed her wrist to stop her from leaving.
Amaya turned around to look at him. "I have nothing to say to you." She spat at him flatly as she ripped her hand away from Shikamaru. "Just what is it that you are accusing me of?"
"You tell me." He said. "Just what am I accusing you of?"
"Something I didn't do." Amaya said looking straight into his eyes.
Shikamaru had no way to tell if she was lying, because she was straight faced and all of her words were strung together with not a single thread of emotion.
"I don't know who you think I am or what you think I did but all I can tell you is that you're wrong." Amaya said leaving a speechless Shikamaru stunned as she disappeared into the stairwell.
'If I have to spend the rest of this week playing poker to avoid running into anyone then poker it is.' She thought bitterly to herself.
And that's how she spent the rest of the week, until the Third Exam finally rolled around and the three Sand ninjas found themselves standing in the arena facing a roaring crowd, and above them the Hokage and the Kazekage. Also, Genma was there again now as the Third examiner instead of the substitute for the First examiner.
"Ok. So I see that everyone is here. No one is late this year, fortunately. Let's get started. Here's the tournament layout." Genma said with his signature senbon in his mouth as he held up the piece of paper outlining the whole Third Exam.
Amaya ---------------
------------------
Shikamaru-----------
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Shino-----------------
-----------------
Taro------------------
---------------------------
Ino-------------------
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Tetsuya--------------
-------------------------
Aoki------------------
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Nobara--------------
Kankuro-------------
-------------------
Chouji---------------
-------------------------
TenTen--------------
-------------------
Ronin----------------
----------------------------
Neji----------------
-----------------------
Tsubasa-----------
------------------------
Sonia--------------
-----------------------
Naotoka----------
Temari-----------
-------------------------
Hinata------------
--------------------------
Lee---------------
-------------------------
Yumi-------------
--------------------------
Kiba--------------
------------------------
Kaname----------
---------------------------
Tetsuki-----------
------------------------
Yuki--------------
"Now it's time for the first match. Everyone but Amaya and Shikamaru clear the arena." Genma told them.
And so all of the genins in the Chuunin Exams cleared the arena as the crowd cheered for the start of the first match.
"Ah, troublesome. Why do you have to be the one I fight?" Shikamaru sighed.
"Do you plan to fight with your words?" Amaya said simply.
Shikamaru jumped back and perform the seals for his Shadow Imitation Jutsu, and when he began to stretch his shadow towards Amaya she punched a crater in the ground between her and Shikamaru. Shikamaru assumed that it was to make him have to stretch his shadow farther and weaken his hold on the shadow, but that thought was cast aside when Amaya did a flip in the air after making the crater landing on the side where Shikamaru was and right in his shadow. Shikamaru then figured that she made a mistake or didn't know what his shadow did, but…he was wrong. Shikamaru stood up out of the crouched down position he always started his technique in, and started walking towards Amaya.
Amaya didn't move.
Now Shikamaru was shocked, and it was all over his face. Amaya smiled evilly. He stopped walking for a second, to try and figure out why his technique wasn't working. While Shikamaru stood still, Amaya started walking towards him, slowly just to taunt him.
When he was within punching distance Amaya told him, "Shadows can't control me, I control them." And with that she hit him in the gut, hard enough for him to spit up blood, but she hadn't used her super strength. He staggered back a few steps and crumbled down on the ground holding his aching abdomen. But he didn't take very long to stand back up and perform the seals for the Shadow Neck Bind jutsu, he still had his Shadow Imitation jutsu in effect even though it did nothing. The shadow creped up from the ground towards Amaya's neck but she smirked and the shadow retreated back into the ground. Shikamaru was again surprised as the shadow hand disappeared, but even more so when it reappeared and started creeping up towards his throat. He quickly undid the jutsu, but as he was busying focusing on that Amaya punched him in the face, this time with her super strength, sending him straight into the wall. He was injured, pretty badly but not enough to knock him unconscious.
Amaya stood still and stared blankly at Genma before he announced that she had won and then she left the arena to join the other genins waiting for their turn. Shikamaru followed he wasn't hurt badly enough to go to the hospital, but he was close.
The audience was now all abuzz with people whispering about the match and more specifically Amaya. But above them all Tsunade's mind flooded with a million questions about Amaya and who the hell she was. Her eyes then focused on Suna's Kazekage, Gaara who was sitting right next to her.
"Who is that girl?" Tsunade asked him.
Gaara looked over at Tsunade and just shrugged.
"Wait," Tsunade said getting a little frustrated. "That girl is a shinobi of your village and you're telling me that you don't know who she is?"
"I know her name if that's what you mean." Gaara told her simply. "But I don't know who she is. Not exactly, at least."
"What do you mean? How could you not know who she is?" Tsunade asked.
"I mean that I don't know her." Gaara said, "I found her lost in the desert a month ago and let her join the Sand Village as a ninja."
"You mean that you let her join your village when you knew nothing about her?" Tsunade asked.
"I knew that she was powerful." Gaara smirked.
And that was the end of their conversation.
As time went on the matches continued, until the first round ended. Team Sand made it into the next round.
Recap of the First Round:
First Match: Amaya vs. Shikamaru Winner: Amaya
Second Match: Shino vs. Taro Winner: Shino
Third Match: Ino vs. Tetsuya Winner: Ino
Fourth Match: Aoki vs. Nobara Winner: Nobara
Fifth Match: Kankuro vs. Chouji Winner: Kankuro
Sixth Match: TenTen vs. Ronin Winner: TenTen
Seventh Match: Neji vs. Tsubasa Winner: Neji
Eighth Match: Sonia vs. Naotoka Winner: Naotoka
Ninth Match: Temari vs. Hinata Winner: Temari
Tenth Match: Lee vs. Yumi Winner: Lee
Eleventh Match: Kiba vs. Kaname Winner: Kiba
Twelfth Match: Tetsuki vs. Yuki Winner: Yuki
The second round began, Amaya versus Shino.
Shino was aware that Amaya would be a tough opponent, he had seen her beat Shikamaru but he still was confident that his normal technique would work on her. He set his bugs free and they all started flying towards Amaya.
Amaya set free the black air, engulfing herself, Shino, and all of his bugs. The black air, though similar to Gaara's sand is not the same at all. Amaya had discovered in her training that the black air stole the senses of whatever it fully engulfed. A human wouldn't be able to touch, hear, see, smell, or taste anything but the black air and a human devoid of its senses would slowly go insane. It wasn't the same for Amaya; she was able to use all her senses but could easily turn them off in the black air, not that she could really feel anything. If she was ever trapped in the black air she wouldn't go insane, no, she found it comforting. But anything other than a human, let's say a bug would go insane, and die in a matter of minutes.
Amaya watched Shino and his bugs wander around confused and utterly lost in the black air, but all the audience saw was a thick blob of darkness in the center of the arena.
After five minutes Amaya withdrew the black air. No damage was done to Shino but he was pretty angry when he saw all of his bugs lying on the ground around him dead. In his anger he ran at Amaya and threw a punch at her. She dodged and used the momentum to spin around and hit him hard in the side of the head with a super strength enhased kick. Shino fell down on the ground, knocked completely unconscious.
Amaya just stood there looking down at him until Genma announced her as the winner and she left the arena, but Shino had to be taken out in a stretcher.
(Meanwhile)
"Shikamaru? Are you okay?" Ino asked her teammate. "You look pretty beat up."
"I'm fine." He said. "I just don't understand why my shadow techniques didn't work on that girl."
"I was wondering that too." Ino admitted.
"She said that shadows can't control her, she controls them." Shikamaru told her.
"Is that what she meant?" Ino asked gesturing down at the blob of darkness in the arena.
"I guess…" Shikamaru trailed off in thought, "I just really wanted to beat that girl, she claimed she was Sakura and the same day Sakura disappears. Then a month later she shows up at the Chuunin exams with the Sand. I didn't want to lose to her…"
"Looks like she beat Shino too." Ino said watching the end of the match. "I'll win my next match and then I'll face her in the third round. I'll kick her ass for you Shikamaru," She smiled at him and then paused before adding. "And Sakura."
----------
Recap of the Second Round:
First Match: Amaya vs. Shino Winner: Amaya
Second Match: Ino vs. Nobara Winner: Ino
Third Match: Kankuro vs. TenTen Winner: Kankuro
Fourth Match: Neji vs. Naotoka Winner: Neji
Fifth Match: Temari vs. Lee Winner: Temari
Sixth Match: Kiba vs. Yuki Winner: Kiba
-----------
Third Round, First Match: Amaya versus Ino.
The start of the match was announced and Ino didn't wait a second before launching a punch at Amaya. Amaya dodged it but Ino kept throwing punches, so Amaya kept dodging not even bothering to try to hit her. What Amaya didn't realize was that Ino was backing her against the trees. She caught on right before Ino started to pin her to a tree with clear wire, Amaya could have escaped from it easily but she wanted to see what Ino was going to do.
As soon as Ino made Amaya immobile she performed the seals for her Mind Transfer Jutsu. Ino launched herself into Amaya's mind. Yet…it didn't work out the way she wanted.
A few minutes passed…and Ino performed the release seal. Once she was back in her own body she screamed. What she saw in Amaya's mind was almost the equivalent of hell.
Amaya broke the wire tying her to the tree, and started walking towards Ino. Ino shot up suddenly and got on the offensive again. But now Amaya just wanted to end the fight so she didn't just dodge Ino's blows, she started throwing hits at her too.
The fight wore on a long time, and Amaya was starting to get frustrated. Her anger grew everytime Ino dodged a hit, or landed one on her. She couldn't help but start to think back to when she was Sakura and was fighting Ino the time she took the Chuunin Exams. They were equals. No one won the match. Ino was her rival and Sakura wasn't able to beat her. But she was Amaya now, she was stronger. But she was still stuck in a standoff with Ino.
'Why can't I beat you?' Amaya kept thinking to herself before she began to snap, "I AM NOT YOUR EQUAL!" she shouted in a harsh whisper as she reached out at Ino with the black air and grabbed her throat. The black air was thick around Ino's throat and thin enough around Ino's head to be able to see her struggling to breath but thick enough to where Ino couldn't get any oxygen.
Amaya had completely lost it. The rage written on her face and around her wide eyes made her appear psychotic. She continued to tighten her grip on Ino's throat. Genma would have tried to stop them but didn't know how to so he didn't interfere.
The audience watched in horror as Ino came close to her last breath. And just as Ino was about to die by Amaya's hand, Amaya heard a voice breathe into her ear, Stop.
Like a trigger the black air retreated and Ino fell to the ground, unconscious but she would live.
Horror and shame struck into Amaya's eyes as she looked up at the person who had stopped her from killing Ino. Gaara. He stared down at her with a disapproving look and narrowed eyes. Amaya's turned her eyes away and hid them with her dark hair. She walked out of the arena without another word.
………….
Recap of the Third Round:
First Match: Amaya vs. Ino Winner: Amaya
Second Match: Kankuro vs. Neji Winner: Kankuro
Third Match: Temari vs. Kiba Winner: Temari
"Okay." Genma began to announce to the audience. "Because of the way this exam was set up the last match will be a battle between these three genin." He said gesturing over to Amaya, Temari, and Kankuro who he had called into the arena.
Amaya walked over to Genma. "We're a team." She said simply to him.
"Well, that's just how the tournament turned out. You guys will have to fight." Genma told her.
Temari and Kankuro walked over next to Genma to listen to the conversation about the match.
Amaya narrowed her eyes slightly at Genma. "I'm not going to fight my teammates. Anyone who betrays their teammates is not worthy to be a shinobi." And with that she walked out of the arena, without a single look back.
A/N: Ok, look I'm really sorry that I didn't update this story sooner, I really am. I really like this story, its one of my favorites. I was busy with school, but I could have written this chapter in my free time but I kept putting it off because I'm not very good at writing fight scenes and dramatic scenes, I always rush things in them. And that's just a nice way of saying that I really suck at writing dramatic/fight scenes, this chapter was hard for me to write.
Now that I have finished with this chapter the rest should come pretty easy to me. I don't want to promise anything (since last time I said I would update in a few weeks) but I have the rest of the story planned out so, hopefully the next chapter will be up in a few weeks. Oh, and sorry if there is any OOCness in this chapter.
Please Review!
P.S. June 21st!! It's the first day of summer!! My birthday - partly the reason I updated this story today. So I hope you guys enjoyed it - see ya next time! Got to go eat my cake, it's Maximum Ride themed big surprise lol. Bye!!! Time for me to go get sugar high!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!