Mika walked resolutely in the direction of where she knew the Hokage was waiting for her, her face determined despite the tear marks still visible on her cheeks. She ran up the stone steps, taking two at a time and stood in front of the wooden door which had been painted white and knocked three times with her hand shaking. She heard the quiet yet firm voice calling her in and she pushed the door open before stepping inside, into the cool room. There was a table to her right where the Hokage was sat with another shinobi she didn't recognise and a wooden chair at the opposite end of the room. The Hokage indicated the centre of the room with a single lazy hand motion, Mika walked to the middle of the space and stood facing the large table.
'Tikaake Mika.' came the deep, firm voice from underneath the large white and red hat. Mika made a small noise of agreement and stayed silent. The man beside the Hokage was taking frenetic notes on a notepad while every now and then glancing up at her and giving her flashes of friendly smiles. 'You are getting on well with your training, aren't you?' came the deep voice again as the hat lifted and she was able to see the old man beneath the fringe of white.
'Yes.' she answered shyly, her hands behind her back in a position of submission. The friendly man beside the leader of the village smiled at her reassuringly before taking more notes.
'You are the last of your clan, aren't you?' he said, although she knew perfectly well that he was perfectly aware of her situation. She stayed silent. 'You are in the same situation as Uchiha Sasuke.' he continued, looking back down at the notes the shinobi beside him had just taken and nodded silently. There was a long pause during which the two men had a short, whispered conversation while Mika stood in silence, watching their movements. 'I hear you are having a little party in a couple of days.' said the withered man turning his gaze back to the young girl.
'Uhh, yes I have invited all my closest friends and friends of my late family to come and see me perform the Tikaake dance.' she answered quickly, wondering why he was asking her this. 'It's quite difficult to invite the friends of my family because I was so young when-' she stopped abruptly, her eyes fell to the floor between the table and herself.
'Indeed.' came the deep male voice, this time it seemed a little kinder than it had previously. 'I am sorry for your loss.' he added making the girl look up in surprise to see him smiling over at her compassionately.
'Yeah.' she answered her eyes falling back down to the floor. 'Me too.'
'I hope you won't mind me asking you for a demonstration of your talents.' he said after a short pause. Mika nodded without looking up. 'Shall we say, tomorrow early afternoon?' he added and this time Mika heard the question mark, inviting her to agree. She looked up and nodded in silence, watching the two men gazing at her kindly, no longer taking notes and no longer whispering. 'You will be fighting against two chuunin.' he told her, smiling reassuringly over at her as she shuffled her feet nervously. 'Would you like to know who they are?' he asked quietly, his tone amicable. She nodded silently, nerves already clenching her stomach as the Hokage looked over at the ninja beside him.
'You'll be up against Kamizuki Izumo and Hagane Kotetsu.' said the man sitting beside the Hokage, glancing down at his notes again before looking back up at her amicably.
'Thank you.' said Mika quietly, surprised that she could still breathe let alone speak. The Hokage nodded and she headed for the door glancing back over her shoulder as she slipped out and saw them shaking their head sombrely.
…
The next afternoon came a lot faster than the young girl was expecting, sneaking up on her before she had even had time to practice and cutting off both her need for food and her will to live. She just managed to feed Surplus before she had to run to the loo and throw up violently. She wanted to see Sasuke again but she was so agonisingly embarrassed about her actions the day before she didn't dare go out in the street in case she accidentally bumped into him. She didn't know what was going to happen between them, whether this was the end or whether he could forgive her and pretend it never happened. She knew she had to apologize but she couldn't face talking to him right now, not just before the biggest battle since the chuunin exam a year or so before… she didn't count the battle against Itachi because that was when she got her memory back.
She decided to go for a walk to try and calm her nerves which were screaming at her to go and hide beneath something in a dark corner somewhere. She still had about an hour before she had to be at the designated area, which just happened to be the same place where she had fought Rock Lee some three weeks ago and lost, so she decided to go there and get the feel of it, checking her new "talents" as the Hokage had called them. On her way there she passed several friendly faces who all waved and wished her luck, not stopping to chat which was fine for Mika who found that her voice box seemed to have seized up again.
'Hey Mika!' came Naruto's voice as their paths crossed briefly while he was on his way to get a take-away ramen. 'Good luck! Knock 'em dead!' he added enthusiastically making a punching motion in her direction and grinning reassuringly. Mika waved gratefully and continued on her journey, smiling at various other friendly faces.
As she neared the place she was heading she saw a dark haired figure leaning on the large door frame which led inside, his moody face looking straight ahead of him and away to Mika's left as she drew slowly nearer. She took a deep calming breath and bit the bullet. She might as well talk to Sasuke now and get it over with rather than dragging her agony out until after the fight, at least this way if he told her he wanted to finish it she could just let her foes destroy her, and if not she would have even more reason to survive! When she was about three yards away, walking purposefully towards the large stone entrance with her hands shaking uncontrollably, he noticed her and his handsome yet moody face broke into a wide smile which surprised the brown eyed girl, throwing her into confusion but she returned the smile with a small blush.
'I knew you'd come a bit early to check out the conditions.' he said, still smiling at her as she reached him. She blushed as she remembered why she had to talk to him, but he denied her the chance. 'Listen, Mika, about yesterday. I just want you to know that I stand by what I said and I think you were wrong but I realised something last night.' He said happily, his usually dark mood seemed suddenly light and happy, the way it had been before the incident with their clans; Mika gazed up at him curiously, wondering what on earth made him so happy. 'I love you, and I don't care what you are or what you've done. I will always love you no matter what you do, because you are what attaches me to a life when I was happy, therefore you make me happy.' Mika looked up at him in bewilderment, joy and utter bliss slowly coursing up and down her nervous body in the silence which had fallen between them as he continued to grin down at her, most unlike himself. 'Not that you don't make me happy, you do make me happy… that's what I'm saying… uhh-'
'Sasuke, I-' she cut across him tentatively, seeing his anxious distress. 'Thank you…' she said quietly, not knowing what else to say: her voice box was being decidedly unhelpful.
She smiled up at him uncertainly, watching his grin sneak back onto his lips again making her grin sheepishly back up at him. He leaned forwards, closing his eyes as he came closer and closer, his lips slightly open…
'I love you too Sasuke.' she blurted out just before his lips came into contact with hers, her deep hazel eyes wide in surprise at what she had just forced past her own lips. It was true, of course, but she was just surprised that she had been able to say anything, let alone that! She watched him smile again, his deep blue eyes darting from her left eye to her right before he closed them again and finally placed his trembling lips on hers, letting her know that he had been just as nervous as she was if not more. Their lips brushed against each others, barely touching and yet possibly more intimately than ever before.
Suddenly from inside the auditorium they heard cheers and a burst of sound which they had been unaware of previously and which now reminded Mika with painful accuracy of her task ahead. The young girl pulled away with sheer terror in her dark eyes and looked at Sasuke imploringly while he glanced over his shoulder to see where the noise was coming from.
'Please tell me it's not time…' whimpered the young girl beseeching him, but after he glanced up at the clock on the wall he looked back down at her and nodded his head apologetically, the grin gone and an apprehensive look on his face. She groaned.
'You're gonna be fine.' he assured her, putting his arms around her shoulders and pulling her to his chest, feeling her small frame press up against his as she searched for reassurance. 'I know you will.' he added, pressing her to him a little harder. He felt her give a tiny nod, the side of her face rubbing against his dark t-shirt.
She pulled away and looked up at him, terror etched across her flushed face, before looking inside the large stadium again agonisingly aware of the danger she was about to be in. She smiled back at Sasuke nervously and turned to start her slow walk into the arena, the young boy watched her go until she turned a corner and then sped off to find a good seat where he could see her perfectly.
Mika walked out into the sunny arena on the opposite side she had been on when she had fought Rock Lee and immediately saw the two men she was to fight chatting animatedly with a third man who was, she guessed, the referee. The two men she was going to fight were wearing identical mauve outfits and were smiling comfortably at each other and the third man; one of them had bushy black hair and a bandage over his nose, the other had dark brown hair which covered the right hand side of his face kept down by his forehead protector which was in the shape of a bandana. They noticed her standing there and indicated for her to join them, welcoming smiles across their faces.
'Hey there, you must be Tikaake Mika.' said the one with half his face hidden, still smiling a little roguishly down at her. She nodded silently, nerves constricting her already shy voice box. 'I am Izumo and this is Kotetsu. We're the ones you'll be doing battle with.' He said it as though it was nothing, as though he did this sort of thing every other day (which he probably did but we don't mention that)!
'And I'm your referee for today.' said the man standing beside the three of them, also smiling kindly at her. 'Shall we begin?'
'Shall we not?' managed the girl in a small choking noise. She was surprised they could understand through the strange gurgling noise which had passed her lips, but somehow they were all laughing.
'Okay then, three yards back please.' said the referee after calming down a bit but he was still grinning. 'Keep it clean!' he shouted at the three people who were now separated by a six yard distance. 'Shall we not…' he added, shaking his head and chuckling a bit. 'GO!'
She jumped as his hand fell to his side and instinctively raised her right hand in a grasping motion, at the same time Izumo had leapt up and was running at her with a ferocious expression on his handsome face. Behind him she noticed Kotetsu being grabbed by what looked like a hand made entirely of tree roots, his face contorted in shock as he was pulled down until only his head was above the ground. Izumo swiped at her with a kunai knife but was pushed back by a large wall of water which had sprung up between them, he leapt over it so that he was standing behind the girl who looked at him in terror. For a moment he thought she was going to cave in but in the nano-second he hesitated, a powerful gust of wind threw him off his feet and about two yards to the right of where he had been standing. He noticed Kotetsu being held captive in his earthy prison and realised that there was a lot more to this girl than the Hokage had let slip, he looked over at the girl who was standing quite still watching him with a determined look on her young face.
'Fire style! Phoenix flower jutsu!' He cried while doing the rat, tiger, dog, ox, rabbit and tiger signs and glaring at the young girl whose eyes widened in surprise as the flames came speeding towards her menacingly. She threw out both her hands as though trying to push the balls of fire back, her face screwed up against the effort and the determined frown still stuck to her forehead. Suddenly the flames were heading straight for him, back the way they had come, forcing him to spring out of the way as they hit the place where he had been standing less than a second before; but when he landed the flames were still following him, eerily flying after him at top speed. He did the Tiger sign followed by the snake and tiger again with his face screwed up in frustrated nerves as a huge wall of water appeared in front of him, dousing the fire balls and leaving him unharmed.
Now he knew why the Hokage had said he'd need both of them to fight her: one alone wasn't much of a challenge for her. He watched in horror as his water wall suddenly began moving towards him like a huge watery serpent, crumbling the ground beneath it with it's strength and leaving a path of cracked earth behind it. He quickly used a substitution jutsu and hid in the only tree in the stadium, his chest heaving as he caught his breath, watching as the young girl looked around herself. Suddenly Izumo felt something grab his ankle and pull him backwards with incredible strength, pulling him out of his leafy refuge and holding him upside down by his ankle out in the open. He glanced up and saw the girl watching him with a fierce look on her young face, her hands hanging uninterestedly by her sides. He watched as she looked over at Kotetsu who was still writhing in his earthy captor, trying desperately to get lose but failing miserably.
While she wasn't looking Izumo quickly used a second substitution, creating at the same time a clone to distract her for a moment while he thought of what to do. She jerked her head around as he disappeared with a furious expression, watching the clone running towards her with a large sword pointed straight at her. She lifted her hand in the air, closing her eyes as she did so in concentration and giving Izumo the break he needed to sneak up behind her. He slunk up through the ground he'd been hiding in, holding a kunai in his mouth and a large extent of wire in his hands, his whole being concentrating on remaining unseen.
Suddenly a bolt of lightning smashed down inches from his face, forcing him to jump backwards to evade it as he did so he noticed the girl jump out of her skin and cry out in fear, spinning around to see what had happened as though it had taken her completely by surprise as well. The two fighters looked up at each other in shock, both pairs of eyes wide in fear at what had just happened, but behind her the clone was still running towards her with the sword held aloft. As it got to within a yard she glanced over her shoulder, crying out in alarm as she registered what it was; she fell back on the ground and held out her left hand in the same manner Izumo had watched Gaara doing less than a year ago, and watched a thin blade of earth spring up from beneath his clone, splitting it right down the middle before it disappeared in a puff of smoke.
At that moment, Kotetsu managed to break free and threw what looked like all of his shuriken at Mika who scrunched up her eyes again and lifted both her hands in the air before bringing them crashing down whereupon a huge wall of water fell in front of the shuriken, forcing them to stop. Kotetsu watched in dread as the waterfall started rushing towards him at great speed making the ground around him tremble, he leapt out of the way and landed right beside the wall only to find a vast amount of water falling on him where he stood forcing him to the ground where he lay spluttering, panting in exhaustion. He could see Izumo running around the girl and watched as they both drew kunai knives and started thrusting them at each other… but his vision was becoming hazy… he couldn't see which was which… He felt something grab him by the ankle and lift him off the ground, lifting him up so high that he could now see the spectators faces as they watched him being placed carefully in a seat, out of harms way, in awe.
Izumo literally threw himself at the girl, his teeth gritting as he watched what looked like a tree picking his friend up and putting him in the stands. The girl was glowering at him across their knives, the sparks flying everywhere as they continued to smash against each other. Suddenly a spark turned into a tiny flame as they wrestled together, kunai against kunai, brute force pushing at the other, the girl was being pushed backwards towards the wall but the tiny flame which had appeared where the kunai knives were touching burst into life and grew so fast that it engulfed both the bodies, making Izumo cry out in pain and leap backwards. He put the fire on his body out and looked back over at the girl who was still covered in flames, glaring at him ferociously through the haze between them which the fire was creating.
'Do you want to continue?' came her echoing voice over the sound of burning, the crackling of the grass scorching beneath her feet but for some reason not her. She picked up the kunai he had dropped with the heat and threw it to him, her eyes following it's journey as it landed between his feet, stuck in the soft ground. He looked up at the girl, her plum coloured hair seemed more red in the colour of the flames, her skin seemed strangely lighter, but her eyes were still a deep hazel just with fire burning in them. This girl was dangerous; not just her powers, but there was something about her which Izumo didn't like, a strange longing for more which she didn't know about yet but he could see it. He could feel it in the hot air around them.
Mika watched as the man looked at her, a determined frown on his handsome forehead and his chest heaving. She knew she could take him, he was hesitant about the flames which were floating around her body, licking her limbs almost affectionately as though trying to comfort her. In a way she wanted him to pick up the knife and run back at her, forcing her to fight back; now that he was alone and she didn't have to worry about being ambushed, she could have a bit of fun with him… What was she thinking? Was this really her? She wasn't like this…
'Go ahead, have some fun…' came a silky male voice in a tiny whisper which she guessed was in her head, because she would never have heard it other wise. She jerked her head around, looking for someone who might have been trying to trick her but the man she had knocked out was still slumped in his seat and the man in front of her was undecided. She heard the voice chuckling quietly. 'You won't see me… but I can see you…' She was scared now, who was this? What did he want? Was he a threat? 'I don't want to hurt you, Mika.'
The young, handsome man in front of her picked up the knife and took a few steps back before taking his defensive position, ready to continue the fight. Mika shook her head, trying to get rid of the silky voice inside her mind and grasped her kunai tighter, her frown intensifying as she readied to resume battle. Izumo ran at her, gritting his teeth as he did so, but before he got to her he disappeared in a small flicker like what happened when Mika used her favourite genjutsu: Hidden dear.
'He's behind you.' came the voice again, making her turn around and sure enough there he was, what looked like the sword from earlier held aloft as he prepared to stab her and keep out of the way of the fire. She squealed and hastily summoned a tree to grow between them, a branch grabbed his wrist and pulled him forwards into the hard bark which slowly enveloped him. She took a few steps back and shook her head again, brushing her hair out of the way as she did so, and held her hand up at shoulder height close to her chest which was heaving. She watched as the tree slowly turned around and showed her the prisoner as he squirmed in the strong bark which had enclosed him in it's grip, she smiled as a strange kind of delight filled her young body and pushed her to do more. 'Play with him… I know that's what you want…' came the voice again making Mika's expression turn from that of perverted delight to that of surprised fear, making her decide against what she had planned.
'Do you want to continue?' she repeated quietly, watching him look up at her in frustration as the flames subsided from around her progressively. He took a deep breath and looked down at the ground, shaking his head in defeat. Mika tilted her head to one side as she ordered the tree to release him and subside back into the ground from whence it had come, which it did. She stepped forwards, disappointment coursing through every fibre of her small being as she watched him standing up and brushing off the leaves and small pieces of wood off of himself.
'Good fight.' he said after a moment, his old smile recovered and stuck to his handsome face as he held out his right hand for her to take. She smiled back up at him as she shook his hand, slightly proud of herself that she had mastered all her powers well enough to defeat two chuunin… well, all except the electricity which hadn't done as she had told it and instead had saved her life. She knew that it hadn't saved her life because Izumo wouldn't have killed her, but had she been in a real battle it would have saved her. 'Thanks for putting Kotetsu up there.' he added as they headed towards the exit.
'Well I didn't want him to get more hurt than he already is.' she answered shyly, surprised that she had recovered her normal voice instead of the growl she had used during battle. 'Will he be okay?' she asked looking up at the man walking beside her.
'You tell me! You were the one who almost drowned and crushed him at the same time!' he replied with a laugh but Mika noticed a slight edge to his friendly voice. 'Will he be okay? I think so, he's pretty tough. Not as tough as you though! You're something else.' he added, nudging her as they got to the exit. 'I'll see you round then.' he finished as he turned off up the stairs where most people were crowding down, waving at her as they passed. Mika sighed to herself and turned the other way, heading down a dark corridor she hoped she would be alone in: she was curious about the strange silky voice she had heard when she was fighting. But she didn't get very far when-
'Mika!' came a loud voice behind her. Before she had time to turn around someone had thrown themselves onto her back, their arms around her neck and their legs wrapped around her waist in a piggyback. 'You were great, Mika! Believe it!!!' cried Naruto from his position on the girls back, ignoring the fact that her knees were buckling badly and she was close to falling to the floor.
'Get off her Naruto!' came Sakura's familiar voice before Mika felt a bump indicating the she had hit the blond boy on the head. She felt Naruto slowly let go of her neck, and his legs slip down hers until the were firmly on the floor, she turned around and smiled at Naruto rubbing his head and Sakura blushing at her uncomfortably. 'That was… uhh… impressive…' she said, trying to find something nice to say about the girl who had stole the boy she loved from her. (inner Sakura: CHA! I should get a medal for this! GRRR… I'll get Sasuke back one day!!!)
'Thanks…' answered Mika uncertainly, taking a hold of Naruto's upper arm to stop him from swaying and holding him steady beside her. 'It was… It was really hard…' she admitted, feeling her cheeks burn.
'Oh yeah!' interrupted Naruto, suddenly coming back to himself and lifting his index finger in the air and grinning. 'Sasuke told me to tell you that he'll see you later, but he had to go.' he told her, still grinning broadly at her. She sighed discreetly in disappointment.
'Thanks Naruto.' she said quietly as a nasty headache suddenly hit her. The one thing she really wanted to do now was talk to Sasuke and he was busy. 'I'm gonna go and… umm… feed the cat…' she finished lamely, pointing vaguely down the corridor she had been heading down and letting her feet slowly lead her that way, leaving Naruto and Sakura standing there with confused expressions.
'But, the exit is that way…' pointed out Naruto to Sakura after Mika was out of earshot, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at the door so many people were filing out of.
Sorry this was such a long chapter but the beginning on its own was WAY too short... so I guess I had to put it with the fight scene! blushes