A/N – I was feeling rather random every now and then… Sorry about that :D

Chapter 11 - More Fighting

"Shikamaru and Kin," Sakura whispered, sighing.

Sasuke looked at her weirdly for a moment. "Sakura…"

Kakashi leant closer, hoping to get some kind of info.

"Yeah?" Sakura asked, her eyes trailing Shikamaru, who was at snail's pace moving towards the proctor and Kin.

Kakashi's head inched a bit closer.

"It's just…" Sasuke spoke, also looking down.

Kakashi leaned just a bit closer.

"Hn. Never mind."

Kakashi lost his balance and fell onto the ground. His three students turned around quickly.

"Sensei, are you alright?" Sakura asked, as Kakashi jumped up and wiped his clothes clean.

"What happened?" Naruto asked, scratching his head, "Did you slip on a banana peel?"

The three other members of team stared at him

"What?" he asked. "It can happen."

"Naruto," Sakura started, "Do you see any banana peels near him?"

"Well, no, but…"

"Is there a reason why there should be banana peels here?" Sakura then asked. When Naruto nodded, her eyebrows rose.

"Well, no, but…"

"How could he possible slip on one then?"

Naruto pointed behind her. Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi turned as one to see Choji munching on bananas and throwing the peels behind him, obvious that Ino was standing behind him as well.

Sakura turned towards the fuming Ino, who was dodging for the banana peels, and asked, "What is he doing?"

Ino glared at the chubby boy. "His doctor said that he should try eating more healthy food."

Ino dodged another banana peel, glaring daggers with her eyes. Wisely Sakura stepped away.

Sasuke looked at his team mates. How the hell was he put into a team with bunch of weirdoes?

"Mm… Tomatoes…"a random thought entered his mind.

"Killing my brother… Mm…" another random thought.

"…"

"Right no more explaining is needed…"he thought as a reply to his previous thoughts. Then he realized something,

"Wait were those two lined up depending on importance?"

"You're thinking to yourself. Who do you think will respond?"

"Good point… I'm stopping now."

"Good."

The three genins decided to look the match happening below them. Naruto was annoyed how Shikamaru acted, so when the lazy guy actually won, he was rather shocked.

"What?" Shikamaru asked, slowly moving past them on his way to his team. He then stopped and looked at the humongous pile of banana peels behind Choji. "Troublesome team mate," he muttered, carefully moving onto the side of Choji, where Ino was standing, obviously tired of trying to stand behind him and dodge the banana peels.

"Where does he keep those bananas?" Sakura wondered, as she looked at the display again. Suddenly all thoughts of bananas were wiped out of her mind as the names flickered. Again he was worried that Gaara could end up with Naruto. She didn't want that to happen.

"Naruto vs… "

"Please don't be Gaara. Please don't be Gaara."

"YES!" Sakura said, pumping her fist into the air. It would've looked weird, but luckily for her, a pretty large commotion was going on around her.

Naruto himself was doing a happy dance, that looked like a crossover between a tango and the chicken dance they learnt in preschool. "I got my turn, I got my turn!" He yelled.

Lee looked like somebody had told him that wearing green was illegal. "I'm going to die in old age before I get to fight," he muttered, as he sat into the dark corner [Which was hard mind you, since the room was round and started to sulk.

Kiba didn't seem too sad either, as he hurried into the required area, Akamaru with him. He was grinning like he had just won the lottery. Unknown to Sakura and others, that was exactly what he thought.

"Is he allowed to take his dog?" Sakura asked, as it appeared that Akamaru wasn't about to go anywhere.

"Yes," Kakashi answered, "It's his partner. Dog's are always tied to Kiba's clan."

"Still… the dog is distracting. I mean I know that full-grown dogs are loyal and strong companions and all, but Akamaru is just a pup."

Kakashi didn't comment. "The looks can be deceiving Sakura."

Sakura just couldn't argue with that.

Naruto was grinning as he took in the position. When the proctor started the fight, he was also surprised that the pup stuck around. He asked about it and again the answer was that yes, Akamaru was allowed in the fight.

Naruto shrugged. His enemy was Kiba. The dog didn't disturb him.

"You don't have a chance," Kiba smirked. If Naruto was anything like he was in the academy…

"Yeah, well, you can talk now, but let's see what you say after the fight!" Naruto yelled, determination lighting his face. He'd do it. He'll prove everybody that he has grown. He will become a hokage. HE WILL!

For a good while, Kiba and Naruto snapped insults at each other, until…

"The battle starts… NOW!"

Sasuke and Sakura were utterly shocked when Kiba's hit seemed to knock Naruto out. Kiba's first hit. It wasn't possible. They had been training with Naruto for some time now. He had improved. He had showed that to them. The fight against Zabuza had showed them that he can actually think of good plans and the fight against Haku showed how powerful Naruto could be if he wanted enough.

So the question was, how did he let himself be knocked out with one hit?

It was a deadly quiet moment as Kiba strode back towards Akamaru. Sasuke was staring as hard as ever and Sakura had no idea what to think. She had sometimes underestimated Naruto, but today she had been so sure, he'd…

"Look," Sasuke spoke after a moment.

Sakura opened her eyes which she had closed in frustration. Naruto was getting up. A small smile appeared on Sakura's lips.

"I wasn't wrong about him," she thought, "He just doesn't quit."

"SHOW THEM NARUTO! CHA!"

Naruto rose onto his feet and wiped the little blood near the corner of his mouth. "Don't underestimate me, Naruto Uzumaki," he growled.

"YEAH!" Lee screamed. Sakura smiled a bit wider. Even Shikamaru wasn't left untouched. Actually the only ones who didn't react visibly were Sasuke and Gaara.

When Naruto said that he just wanted to see how Kiba hit, Sakura shook her head. Trust Naruto to do that. What if Kiba had had more strength? What if he'd be down just because he wanted to test him.

"He's a moron," Sasuke spoke, obviously thinking along the same lines.

"Yeah, we'll he's our moron," Sakura replied. She didn't know exactly where she stood with Sasuke right now, but then again, she never did. Sasuke was about as talkative as Gaara. Even less so maybe.

Kakashi smiled at his team's antics. They've finally begun to bond. Maybe it'll be soon when they finally realize the importance of their team.

Sasuke looked to the other way coldly.

Or maybe it'll take more time for some people…

The fight was winding up again. Naruto was surrounded by purple smoke. He couldn't see a damn thing. Kiba had thrown smoke grenades at him.

"What is happening?" Lee yelled, "We can't even see the youthful match."

"Youthful match?"

"More morons," Sasuke muttered, as he placed his hands onto the railing and his chin onto his hands as he looked down.

Sakura was getting more and more annoyed with Sasuke. Honestly, the guy was so irritating. Lee had probably saved their necks in that forest and here Sasuke was, acting like a kid whose lollypop was taken. And the whole thing in that room… What was that about?

Sasuke's expression ever since they had left that room showed no signs that it had even happened.

Suddenly Naruto ran out of the smoke. Then he stumbled back into the smoke, since Akamaru had lunged at him.

"Argh, we can't even see the best parts," Shikamaru whined. Sakura wanted to punch the guy. Yet, she also hated the smoke screen.

When it finally faded and she saw Naruto lying there, she didn't think about how sad she was that Naruto had lost. She didn't think that Naruto had lost at all. She thought that something about the chakra's didn't add up. Again, her abilities weren't trained enough for her to know exactly what was going on. On times like these, Sakura wondered if the powers were meant to help her or confuse her more.

Probably both.

She glanced at Kakashi who seemed to be smiling. It's hard to say when it comes to Kakashi, because the mask he always wore. Sakura assumed that he was smiling anyways.

If Kakashi was smiling like that it usually meant two things – either that he knew something others didn't or that another Come, Come Paradise book had been released.

Since he had barely finished reading the previous one, Sakura doubted another book had been released. That meant that Kakashi knew what was happening and since he smiled, it was good thing for him. So it should also be a good thing for his team, right?

Sakura tried to figure out that tingling chakra sensation. She started to doubt that it was coming from Naruto. Or Kiba for that matter. It seemed to be coming from the dog?

Sakura really started to doubt her abilities now.

And that was when Akamaru jumped at Kiba and bit him.

Sakura doubted that she was still awake by now. Akamaru was like a part of Kiba. Akamaru didn't bite Kiba. That… just didn't happen. If Akamaru bit Kiba then it'd be like a brilliant prodigy ninja like Neji stumbling behind his own feet.

Since Sakura was concentrating on the fight, she didn't hear the bang which occurred near Lee's team. She also didn't hear the string of curse words flying from Neji's mouth as he stood up and looked around. By now the Hyuuga was sure it was all a secret plan to get him. He looked around wearily afraid to move. When nothing happened, he too started to look the battle once again, doing his best to ignore the looks he gained from many ninjas.

When Akamaru was replaced with Naruto, pieces fell into their right spots.

"But Naruto was lying there," Sakura thought, "Did he just pull off two jutsus at the same time?"

She was right. Naruto had used a clone jutsu as well as a transformation jutsu. Now he was holding Akamaru and looking smug.

That changed when Kiba gave the dog a food pill. No longer was Naruto holding a defenseless puppy. Instead his clone was destroyed by a scary dog with red fur.

"What the heck…" Naruto spoke.

Akamaru was growling furiously as he stood by Kiba and bared his teeth at Naruto.

Then Akamaru jumped onto Kiba's back and that's when everything started to go wrong for Naruto. Akamaru turned into a clone of Kiba. When Naruto was good enough to stand against one Kiba, then two was too much even for him.

Especially with those combined moves. The battle was intense.

"I won't give up," Naruto said, getting onto his feet after yet another successful combination hit from Kiba.

"It's your funeral," Kiba spoke.

"I still," Naruto coughed, "have to use my secret jutsu."

"Secret jutsu?" Sakura asked, looking at Kakashi, who shrugged.

Kiba seemed to think of that jutsu as a potential threat as he begun a string of attacks, making sure that Naruto didn't have any time to use that 'secret attack.'

Just as he was running at Naruto again, Naruto did something rather fatal for Kiba.

"Did he just…?" Lee asked, looking at Sakura.

Sakura nodded dumbly.

"Is that his secret jutsu?" Kakashi asked, blinking.

"It worked, right?" Sakura asked quietly, still a bit shocked. "Whatever works Naruto! Keep it up!"

"Hn."

"Mm."

Sasuke stared at Sakura, who stared right back.

Kurenai, Kiba's sensei, spoke, "Since Kiba has the advanced sense of smelling, Naruto's … fart sent him off edge."

Kakashi was staring at his apprentice. "Whatever works right?" he muttered, looking at the boy in the middle of the room, who was grinning sheepishly, while Kiba started to look a bit green.

"Well," Naruto spoke, "At least now I have enough time to use my secret jutsu."

Sasuke snorted when the Uzumaki barrage was revealed. It was a good move, but if he didn't know any better he'd think that it was copied after the move he used to get his own opponent to stay put while he used the fireball jutsu.

"The winner is Naruto Uzumaki!"

Sakura started to cheer. She grinned at Gaara, who couldn't get why she was so happy. It was just a battle. He wins battles all the time. Nobody cheers. Why doesn't someone cheer then? And another thing, why hadn't Sakura killed the girl when she had the chance?

He couldn't understand stuff like that yet. Sakura seemed to understand that he was questioning something, since she raised an eyebrow. Gaara shrugged almost visibly. Still nobody noticed as most people were shocked that Naruto won.

Naruto sure had come a long way.

Sakura couldn't get Gaara. He had seemed rather shocked when she had won the match like she did. Why? She had no idea.

She scratched her head, before she gently bobbed her head towards the hallway once again. She started to walk away, just as Naruto received some ointment from Hinata.

"Hey, Sakura, where are you going?" The blonde boy asked.

Sakura smiled slightly. "The lady's room," she replied vaguely, "Nice fight, though. I always knew you had it in you." As Naruto grinned victoriously, she moved away.

As she left, the next fighters were announced and as Hinata and Neji got ready, nobody noticed the sand genin disappear in the whirl of sand.

He moved into the room Sakura had been before and he wasn't surprised to find her sitting on a table there.

"So?" Sakura asked, "Why have you been looking me like THAT for some time now?"

"Like what?" Gaara asked cautiously and quietly, remaining near his spot by the door. He was intimidated by Sakura. Not her fighting skills exactly, but the way she made him feel.

She made him feel … Normal. Like he was just another boy from the sand village. Nobody else did that. Just her.

Sakura shrugged casually, "Like you don't get me. Like I'm a Martian."

Gaara looked at her. He didn't speak for several minutes, until he asked,

"Why?"

"Why what?" Sakura asked instantly.

"Why didn't you attack when you had a chance? She was vulnerable," Gaara exclaimed.

Sakura looked at him strangely, obviously not been expecting that question. She started rather hesitantly,

"You see this isn't a battle for life exactly. I believe you shouldn't harm people without a reason to do so. If to win, you need to make the other unable to fight or to give up, then you don't have to kill them."

"But isn't that the whole point? To win? To let people know your strong?"

"Yeah," Sakura agreed, "But you hurt more people if you actually kill somebody. If you had one really good friend, me for example," Sakura grinned, "and somebody would, you know, kill me, then how would you feel?"

Gaara blinked. "I… don't know."

"You wouldn't feel good," Sakura said, "I thought that Sasuke died once. It doesn't hurt you physically, but there's a pain in your chest. In your heart."

"It hurts, Gaara," Sakura spoke, "It'd hurt me when someone from my team, some of my friends, like Lee or Ino, yeah her, or even you, gets hurt and it will hurt you when people you care about get hurt."

Gaara closed his eyes to block out the image that had appeared in his mind. It was his uncle after Gaara had removed his mask. He had died. But he didn't care. Right? He had tried to kill him. He deserved to die. And yet, that pain Sakura had told him about. Why had it hurt that much?

"It's hard to hurt your friends Gaara either mentally or physically."

"I don't understand such things," Gaara spoke, looking down. "I don't have any…"

Sakura jumped down of the table, trying to make the talk more cheerful. There were so many things Gaara didn't understand and Sakura was trying more and more to suppress the anger she felt towards the people who made him like this.

"If you say you don't have any friends you'll hurt my feelings, you know?" Sakura asked; a joking tone in her voice.

"Really? That too hurts?" Gaara asked. He didn't have problems with hurting people. Especially if they hurt him first.

"Not a lot, but a bit, yeah," Sakura said. "It's hard to explain with just words."

Gaara didn't react, though his eyes grew more distant. His uncle had said that too when Gaara had asked him to explain wounds.

"So," he finally said, "If somebody hurt your friend, it hurts you too?"

Sakura nodded.

"And you don't like hurting someone without a reason?"

Sakura nodded again.

"I think I'm starting to understand something," Gaara said. "But sometimes… there are missions…"

"A mission is a good enough reason to kill somebody…"

"…to kill me," Gaara ended.

"…who deserves to die," Sakura quickly amended, stepping closer to Gaara, "Gaara, you don't deserve to die. You have a demon inside you, correct?"

"Yes."

"Well it's inside you, so you're the boss here. You order the demon around, not the other way around. Remember that!" she said, "And if anyone tells you something else, let me at them." She then walked next to him, ruffled his hair for a good bit, before she turned to leave.

"You haven't fought yet," she said with a smile, "Make sure you're not late."

Then she left. Gaara stared her harder than ever. Then he took off his gourd and shook it violently. The sand reacted and flew around him.

"Why do you do this to me?" Gaara asked. "Are you here to just make me more confused?"

The sand swirled a bit more.

"You don't even work," Gaara snapped at his sand, not aware how stupid he looked, talking to sand like that, "What happened to Gaara's-untouchable-plan? WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME???"

Then he coughed and disappeared in a whirlpool of sand.

XxXxXxXxXx

A/N – Wohoo, another chapter down. I rule! See, now I added a base to the whole Gaara being more willing to act nicer. It's going to build from here… I think. Anyways R/R. I'll try to post the next chapter when I have what… 120 reviews? Huh? Huh:D

REVIEW!

By the way, I started to work on another bugging idea of mine [Obviously SasuSaku. I'll post the first chapter as fast as I can. Love you all. See you :D