Previously on NARUTO TCG…

Sasuke basically goes berserk with his newly acquired power. As Zaku attempts to stop Sasuke with Maximum Air Cutter, Sasuke effortlessly picks up Naruto and Sakura and moves them out of harm's way. He then performs Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu (Fire Phoenix Flower Jutsu), fire balls that turn into shuriken, and attacks Zaku. Once he gets close enough to Zaku, he holds him by the arms, dislocating both shoulders. He then turns his attention to Dosu.

Sakura watches Sasuke's actions with horror. Before he gets to Dosu, she runs up behind Sasuke crying and holds him back. She repeatedly asks him to stop. When Sasuke sees her tears, the cursed seal disappears from his body and he returns to normal. Dosu then offers him their scroll and offers them a deal. They must leave this battle in order to confirm something, but if they are ever to fight again, they will not run or hide. Before he leaves, Sakura demands to know what Orochimaru did to Sasuke, but he doesn't respond. He can't understand why Orochimaru would have told them to kill Sasuke after he gave him the cursed seal.

When the sound ninjas finally leave, Ino Shikamaru Choji runs to the fallen's aid as Sasuke sits, staring at his shaking hand.

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NARUTO TCG: CHUNIN BATTLE TOURNAMENT DUELS-

COILS OF THE SNAKE

Chapter 12:

Fear

Sakura and Sasuke are all battered and bruised. Naruto is the last one standing and Orochimaru is coming for him when suddenly…

(bonk!) "Ouch!" Naruto lays up rubbing his head. He was awakened from a dream by Shikamaru and Choji, who was using a stick to do it. The first thing on his mind when he awoke was that person he was fighting. In a state of panic he quickly ducked down and stood his guard. "Everybody get down! That grass ninja, where could she be hiding?!"

His sudden burst let everyone know that he was awake. Especially Ino. "It's about time the lazy fool woke up."

"You really are one of a kind, that's for sure." Shikamaru says while Choji pokes Naruto on the head. "And I mean the kind that gets on my nerves." When Naruto looks at Sakura he realizes that her hair is short.

"Sakura, what happened to your hair?1" he dashes to her side.

"What, this? Oh, it's just a little change of image. It's an Image change. I would like it longer, but I couldn't let it get in the way during this tournament."

"Oh." Naruto turns to Shikamaru. "By the way, what are you guys doing here anyway?"

"Oh, man, explaining things to you is such a drag."

While Ino was carrying lee on her shoulders, Tenten arrived. "I'll take care of him now, Ino."

"Uh..okay." Whe Tenten grabs hold of him, she violently shakes him by the shoulders, just so he can wake up. "C'mon Lee, pull yourself together!!! Wake up already, alright!"

Whe he finally came to, he was still exhausted. "Tenten, is that you? What are you doing here?"

"I came to help you out. What do you think?"

"Wha...What happened to those sound ninja guys?"

"Sasuke took care of them. Don't worry about it Lee."

"Oh… Really?"

"Just what were you thinking rushing in their by yourself? Look at you, you're a total mess!"

"Well, Sakura was in trouble. So, I had to do something, right?"

'He's got to be kidding. He had to know that he didn't stand a chance alone against all those guys.' "That was pretty darn stupid, don't you think?"

"Heh, heh, Well, I guess I can not really argue with that."

"Aha!" Naruto jumps in. "I know you, Bushy-Brow!"

"Knock it off! You'd better not say anything bad about Lee!" Sakura punches Naruto for insulting him. He lands hard onto the soul like a lump.

'Oh, man, what in the world happened when I was asleep? Everything's gone crazy!'

Shikamaru and Choji waches from a fair distance. "That Naruto is completely out of the loop." "So far out of the loop, he doesn't even know there is a loop. He's not going to be the hero of this little story."

"Lee, thank you. Because of you, I was able to stand up for myself." Sakura says "And I've become a little stronger."

Lee was so touched that he even fell to tears. "Thank you Sakura! But, I guess my efforts alone were not good enough." Then he pulls himself together. "So Sasuke, you are as good as your reputation. Just what you'd expect from the Uchiha clan, to chase off those ninja you must be very strong. Not like me, I just got beaten to a pulp."

'What is he talking about? "Beaten to a pulp"?' Sasuke thought 'Is he serious? Are those guys really that strong?'

Lee was sulking in the ground. When he is quite finished, he prepares to take his leave. "Sakura, the lotus of the leaf village blooms twice." He said "So, the next time that we meet, I will have become a stronger ninja. I promise." Lee leaves the area and Tenten follows.

As the commotion dies down, Ino offers to fix Sakura's hair. After all that Sakura has been through, the least that Ino can do is help. "Why, you sneaky little troll...hugging him like that...billboard brow!" Ino says to Sakura. "Haven't you heard the expression, "All's fair in love and war." little Ino pig?" Sakura answers to Ino.

10 hours earlier, about 50 minutes into the survival exam, Kiba and his team were happily making their way to the tower after getting their final scroll. "Yahoo!" Kiba shouts, "Now that's what I call 'survival'! Right, Akamaru?"

"Arf! Arf!"

"Of course it's lucky for us that people caught in that trap had an Earth Scroll card! And now we're gonna be the first ones to reach the tower!"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Kiba, that would be dangerous." Shino said. "Let's just be cautious and not draw any attention. Even the smallest insect, in order to protect itself, must always…"

"Yeah, I know that Shino...but as usual, you gotta say it in a weird, vague way...bug nerd. Anyway, stop acting like the boss; I'm the leader of this squad."

"B-but Shino does have a point." Hinata stammers.

"Alright. OK. Gezze." Suddenly, Akamaru caught a scent, and so does Kiba, tht team makes a quick halt. "We have to be cautious and not draw any attention, right? Hinata, can you look around the area for us?"

"OK" Hinata activates her Byakugan, which lets her look from long distances. She spotted someone form 1km away. "There are 6 people fighting."

"OK, let's go check it out!"

"Are you serious? We shouldn't." Shino scowls.

"The proctor lady just said to take both Heaven and Earth Scroll cards to the tower, right? She never said we can't bring one of each. So if we get more cards now, we'll have fewer teams to worry about later. Besides, if thing get ugly, we won't butt in."

"Um, o-okay." "(sigh) alright," when squad 8 arrived at the battle, they see Akamaru sitting behind the bushes just shivering. "What's wrong, Kiba?" Hinata asks, "Why did we stop just now?"

"It's Akamaru. He just started shaking."

"Do you mean he's scared?"

Akamaru scampered into Kiba's jacket. "Yeah, something just spooked the little guy. I have no idea; Akamaru can sniff out the level of an opponent's chakra. I've never seen him this scared by it before. Whoever those three duelists up ahead are, they aren't your average shinobi."

The battle was just about to start, and it's the three sand ninja against the shinobi from the hidden rain village. "Three sand ninja fighting against us head-on? How foolish." Their leader said.

Their objective is the same as the other's: find the opposing scroll card and get to the tower. "Hey Gaara! " said Kankuro, "Doesn't it make more sense to follow these punks and gather information first? I mean, if they have the same type of scroll card as us, we're just fighting an unnecessary battle."

"Hmph, I don't care. They looked at me the wrong way, so they're gonna die."

"Ha! Let's hurry up and do this!" the head rain shinobi shouted. "Here I come!" he takes out several umbrellas and twirled them around him. Then, throwing them into the air, the umbrellas floated. "Ninja art: sprinkling needles!" the umbrellas then shot thousands of needles at Garra and created a huge explosion. When the smoke cleared, Garra emerged unscathed, shielded by beds of sand. "What? Impossible!" he tried again, firing needles directly at their target, but another shield of sand caught them. It's as if Garra's is making the sand his shield.

"You made it rain 1,000 needles?" he growled. "Now, I'm going to make it rain blood."

"You've just witnessed Garra's 'Sand Shield'. He hardens it with an enormous amount of Chakra. Only Gaara can use it, and he uses it to protect his body. Regardless of Gaara's will, the sand shields him, so all attacks are nullified. Face it: there's no way you can beat Garra."

That made the rain-nin angry as he charges with another umbrella. Garra makes a hand sign, and thrusts into the air with his palm. "Sand Coffin!" he engulfs the rain-nin with sand so that he cannot move. He was immobilized while his umbrellas fell to the ground. "All I have to do is cover your big mouth and you'll be dead…" Gaara slowly walks towards him with one of the Rain ninja's umbrellas and shields himself. "But that would be too easy and too boring." he lifts the sand cocoon up as he shouts: "Sand Burial!" The cocoon explodes, killing the rain ninja. blood splattered everywhere, raining onto the ground. "There wasn't any pain. I crushed him with more force than necessary so it was over quickly. The corpse's bitter crimson tears flow and mingle with the endless sand, feeding the chaos within me and making me stronger."

The other shinobi were scared. The wanted to escape. "J-Just take the scroll. Go on, here." The placed their Heaven Scroll card on the ground and backed away. But Garra isn't finished. He repeatedly killed the other two as he has done the first.

"Whadaya know," Kankuro said as he claimed their prize "it's the Heaven Scroll. We had better get to the tower. I want to get out of this forest as quickly as possible."

"No." Garra growled. "…I'm not finished yet." Kiba's team tried to flee from their hiding place but couldn't for they think Gaara has spotted them.

"C'mon, Garra, let's just stop. Alright?"

"Huh, are you afraid… coward?"

"Garra! You may be alright, but this is dangerous for us! We only need one scroll card! Anymore is…"

"Don't tell me what to do, you piece of garbage."

Kankuro grabbed Garra by his sash. "All right, that's enough! Sometimes you have to listen to what your big brother says!"

"Too bad I don't think of you as my big brother at all... If you get in my way, I'll kill you." Uttering his threatening words, Garra knocked Kankuro's hand off of him.

"Wait...just hold on, Gaara...you...don't have to treat us like we're the enemy," Temari pleaded "...look, do it as a favor for your sister...please?"

Garra aims for the bush in which squad 8 is hiding behind. With sand around them, there is no way of escape. He powers up, ready to do one more sand coffin.

"Garra, stop! That's enough!" Temari shouts.

Clenching his fist, Garra made a cork out of sand, and places it onto his gourd. "Fine."

Gaara then walks away, as Kiba's team gasps for breath out of relief. Akamaru still trembles and whimpers behind Kiba's jacket. "So that's what you were talking about."

"What did he say?" Shino asks.

"Akamaru said that the big guy was about to get killed by the kid from the Sand. I don't know what that Sand Village squirt is...but whatever he is, he's way too dangerous to mess with...He's bad news.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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Tune in for the next chapter of NARUTO TCG.

Next time: Illusion

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