Chapter 11

We zipped through the trees, running face first into bees, which Katsu quickly expelled.

The scenery flew by as we hurried to the tower; fear of out limit being up pumping through our veins.

And then we landed by the door.

We looked up at the towering building (hence the name) and stood in silence. Then Aika broke it with a comment.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go in!"

She led the way, and we walked in the doors, and were faced with a framed poem.

What the heck is that? I thought.

Hikara turned to Tsukiko, who was leaning on her shoulder, but conscience.

"Should we open the scrolls, then?" Hikara asked. Tsukiko nodded.

Slowly, Tsukiko reached into her back pocket, pulling out the heaven scroll, and Hikara copied. I followed suit, since i was holding both. Slowly, we peeled open the scroll, and looked at it.

"Its, it's a summoning scroll," said Ryota.

Pop.

Two jonin appeared, Chie, and the other team's sensei, it looked like.

"Chie!" said Aika, walking to her, Katsu following.

"Wait, why are you here?" Tsukiko asked.

"The spell was designed so that chuunins could greet you at the end of the test," said Chie, "Congratulations, you've all passed the test."

"Yay!" said Hikara, accidentally letting go of the white-haired kunoichi.

It was apparent that her legs still weren't strong enough to stand on. "Yaaaah!" Tsukiko shouted, as she fell to the ground.

Chie leaned toward us, as her sensei laughed, and walked toward them.

"You guys just barely made it," she said, "Let's go in.

"Good plan," said Aika.

We walked toward the other door. I think I heard Tsukiko say my name, but I didn't look back.

The room had many other people in it, including the 3rd Hokage and all the other rookie cells. We lined up by Hinata's cell, and stood, waiting, for about two minutes, tehn Tsukiko, Hikara, and Ryota walked in.

Aika looked at them, "Where were you?" she whispered.

"Just having a bit of sensei-student talk," Tsukiko responded, but was shushed by Hikara when the Hokage started speaking.

(A/N: I'm not gonna do all of the dialogue because there is a whole lot of it and I don't want to type it all out. So, we'll start right here.)

"So, umm," said the new proctor, "Not to hurry you all to slaughter, but let's begin. We'll now announce the first two names."

We all looked up at the screen, well everyone but Tsukiko, who was examining her nails.

UCHIHA SASUKE VS. AKADO YOROI

Winner: Sasuke

ZAKU ABUMI VS. ABURAME SHINO

Winner: Shino

TSURUGI MISUMI VS. KANKURO

Winner: Kankuro (yay!)

HARUNO SAKURA VS. YAMANAKA INO

Winner: Neither

TEMARI VS. TENTEN

Winner: Temari (I just realized that I'm rooting for Suna.)

NARA SHIKAMARU VS. TSUCHI KIN

Winner: Shikamaru

UZUMAKI NARUTO VS. INUZAKA KIBA

Winner: Naruto

HYUUGA HINATA VS. HYUUGA NEJI (Oh, jeez)

Right before this match, I found Gaara. He stood away from the rest of the group, arms folded, staring down at the field. I looked at him, and made up my mind.

I teleported behind him, and slowly walked next to him, heart pounding, my stomach turning somersaults.

He looked at me, and I leaned on the balcony, looking down at the battle.

Then I spoke, my voice barely going above a whisper.

"Good to see you again."

He stared at me, and I felt my heart jump to my throat. If he didn't remember me, I was as good as dead.

But then he blinked, and said, "Amaya?"

I smiled, and felt my heart sink back down.

"It's been years."

It seemed that he wasn't done talking.

I nodded.

"I know I left just as you needed me," I said.

This was true. The day after Yashamaru tried to kill him, my mother picked me up early from school, and we moved back to Konoha.

"But I never forgot about you,' I finished.

I looked back over to him, but he only nodded, still looking at the match, which just ended, leaving Neji as the winner.

We looked up at the screen expectantly; my heart sank lower (it's very good at doing that) as the words flashed on it.

GAARA VS. ROCK LEE

I turned to wish Gaara luck, but he had disappeared, only to appear in a swirl of sand down on the thingy where you fight. (A/N: I totally forgot what it was called.)

I gripped the balcony, watching them, but Gaara's power had improved greatly in 6 years. He won, with a few roadblocks on the way, but he won all the same. He came back to stand next to me, and looked at him, eyes wide.

"Creepy," I said, but he didn't respond.

I looked back at the scoreboard, and saw two more names appear.

NARASHI KYOKO VS. DONO HIKARA

I heard Hikara whisper, "Wait, that's me."

"Yeah," said Tsukiko, "Now get down there."

Hikara obeyed, watching a boy with short blue hair and a blue shirt do the same thing.

The whole thing happened very fast, but what I saw was gruesome. Kyoko was from The Village Hidden in the Mist, and thus had water-based attacks.

He disabled Hikara's whip, and cast a genjutsu.

Next thing I knew, Kyoko won and Hikara was on a stretcher, coughing up blood and water.