"I may be weak, broken, have no friends, no one that loves me, but you will not harm my teammate!" ~ Sakura
Naruto trudged back to the box set into the wall for competitors, his teeth tightly pressed together as he felt several cut protest the movement of climbing stairs as he reached the top, falling on to a bench, Hinata joining him moments later as she began to wipe the blood of his face with a cloth.
Looking across the box, Naruto's eyes met Sasuke, who glared at him and turned away, Sakura actually not trying to get his attention for once. Maybe because of the coming match, maybe because she was stunned into silence, either way, Naruto's attention was brought back to Hinata who was looking at him with a stern look that made Naruto smile.
"Hm, you look cute like that." He said, reached to hug her, only to tip forwards, face planting on her lap. "Well, guess that's all the gas in my tank for now." He joked, although it was the truth considering he couldn't lift his head from Hinata's lap, although if he was being honest, there were worse places.
Reaching around Naruto's body, using all her willpower as she reached down, she pulled the box off his hip, ignoring his protest as she stuck them into her pocket, which was located directly over her breasts, although her inner voice was hoping Naruto would try and take them back.
"You shouldn't smoke, Naruto-kun. This is what happens when you smoke, and I don't want to be with someone who does something so filthy." Hinata admonished, Sakura walking over and sitting on Naruto's other side as she looked at the blonde with a mixture of awe and fear.
"Smoke, I don't smoke. Why would think I did, Hinata-chan." Naruto said, turning his head to the side to articulate clearly, his whiskered cheek rubbing against Hinata's smooth leg in the process. Thankfully he couldn't see how her cheeks went red at the feeling, although Sakura saw but she simply sighed.
"Because I saw you stick one in your mouth right when your match started. Which was dangerous anyways, leaving yourself exposed like that when he was trying to kill you." Hinata's voice sounded like a mixture of motherly admonishment and sadness as she recalled how she'd reacted when she thought Naruto had died.
"If you're referring to the things you just took from me, they're not cigarettes." Naruto responded, and only silence was heard for the next few moments before Naruto continued, sensing her disbelief at his rebuttal of her accusation. "Here, hand me one, and I'll show you." Naruto said, managing to lift one of his hands.
"No, I'm not supporting you killing yourself, Naruto-kun. If you won't take care of your body then I'll just have to do it for you." Hinata said firmly and Naruto looked at Hinata in disbelief, Sakura actually smirking as she leaned in towards the young couple.
"Hear that Naruto, Hinata-chan is offering to take care of your body. Even I wouldn't have the courage to take care of Sasuke-kun's body like Hinata would yours." Sakura said; a teasing smirk on her face as she saw both Naruto and Hinata go atomic red, before laughing as neither Hinata nor Naruto could meet each other's eyes. She didn't notice the way Sasuke growled under his breath on the other side of the box.
Once he got over his sudden onset of embarrassment, Naruto gestured to Hinata once more. "There not cigarettes, I promise, I just want to show you. Besides, I don't even have a lighter if they were, and even then, I'm too weak to light one." Naruto said; Hinata nodded hesitantly, pulling the box out just enough to pull one free, placing it in Naruto's hand as he unrolled the paper to reveal black kanji written in a strange pattern.
"What is it?" Sakura asked, genuinely curious as Hinata looked at it confusedly, her small burst of Byakyugan revealing nothing.
"Nothing right now, because the seal is broken, but if I roll it up it fixes itself; as for its purpose, I work with fire a lot as you saw, so I made a seal to filter the air I breath in. It helps purify the air I breathe in of airborne toxins and small debris, such as ash, dirt, germs, and…" he started, only for Sakura to finish as the two other members of the trio looked at her.
"Sand, that's why you had it out during your last match, to keep that sand out of your mouth and airways, smart." Sakura explained as Naruto nodded, rerolling the paper as he began to suck on it.
"Yeah, I started speculating on the idea when we were on that mission to Wave, Hinata-chan, you remember the Demon Brothers? They wore those rebreathers to let them breath underwater, and those Rain-nin had something like that." Naruto said, handing it back to Hinata, who replace din the box, before handing it back to Naruto, satisfied that it presented no danger to her Naruto-kun.
Seconds later she asked the question that was nagging at her, "What are the ones with the red tips?" She almost regretted it when she saw Naruto's fiendish grin, and response, "Explosive notes." Hinata tried not to think too hard on that.
Once the field was cleared of most of the glass, Genma dropped to the ground to announce the next match. "Would Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha come down to the field?" He said, and seconds later the pick-haired female of Team 8 and the arrogant male of Team 7 were facing each other. Looking between the two, Genma gave a small, imperceptible nod.
"Second match of the second round, Hajime!" Genma shouted, leaping back, heading up the wall within seconds, although he settled on the lower alcove this time.
Immediately after being given permission, Sasuke threw several shurikan at Sakura, who dodged the first couple before being forced to block several with a brandished kunai. That irritated Sasuke as he charged the pinkette, hitting her in the chest with a straight kick that threw her back.
Sakura turned her landing into a roll as he flipped back to her feet, already weaving seals as Sasuke activated his Sharingan, hoping to copy whatever jutsu she tried to use. He'd tried to do it during Naruto's last match, but had been unable to thanks that the thin layer of chakra around the arena floor which also made it near impossible to watch the match with his Dojutsu active.
However, all that happened was a group of illusionary clones came at him, the last Uchiha gritting his teeth in annoyance. Looking around he found what he was looking for as he charged at one of them, hitting her with a snap kick to the chin that sent her tumbling. Once she came to a stop, she tried to pick herself up, wiping blood from her mouth.
However, Sasuke felt the momentary rush leave him as he felt cold steel on the back of his neck. Managing to turn his neck enough to glance behind him, he saw Sakura holding a kunai to his neck.
"When I made the clones, I also cast a Genjutsu to make it look like you'd hit the real me while I snuck up behind you. Now forfeit Sasuke…kun." Sakura said; a nervous expression on her face as Sasuke began to laugh.
"As if I would be fooled by such a simple illusion. Before my eyes, what you were doing was painfully obvious. Now then, show me your true power." Sasuke said, and before Sakura could react, he'd hooked on of his feet around her's, pulling her down, as he grabbed the kunai in her hand, using it to slice open her cheek.
However, instead of pressing the advantage, he held back as she held her now bleeding cheek, attempting to send a glare at her crush. "Come on you pathetic waste, give me a challenge." Sasuke spit spitefully as he threw the kunai at Sakura, who rolled to the side, being kept moving as Sasuke tracked her perfectly throwing kunai in an almost lazy manner, continually giving her just enough time and space to dodge.
Coming out of her roll and not seeing a kunai speeding at her, Sakura sighed in relief, only to find her breath stolen from her by Sasuke's foot as he hit her with a snap kick that sent her tumbling across the ground.
"Why do you keep holding back, Sakura? You'll never beat me like that." Sasuke said, growling at the downed pinkette. "Come on, get up you pathetic waste!" He snarled; racing at her a she jumped into the air, flipping over as tried to hit her with an axe kick, only for Sakura to manage to pull off a substitution as a log took her place, shattering on impact with Sasuke's kick.
"Looks like you still got a little kick in you after all." Sasuke said, rolling backwards into a back handspring, as several shurikan flew where his head was seconds earlier. Flipping over, he immediately spotted Sakura, who was favoring one side, being forced to throw with her non-dominant hand.
Landing on the balls of his feet, he launched off towards Sakura, sweeping her feet out from under her as he stuck both hand on the ground, using chakra to arrest his momentum as he leaned back, kicking straight up into Sakura's stomach a she was sent airborne.
Waiting a few seconds, Sasuke launched himself after as she began to fall back towards him, hitting her in the chest with a knee yelling, "Rolling Upper!" as she was sent barrel-rolling into the air, only for Sasuke to fully extend the leg he'd just hit her with as he caught her on it, managing to flip himself in the air as he back flipped, sending the pinkette hurtling towards the ground as he finished his flip, aiming downwards with his foot as if to stomp on the downed Sakura.
Managing to fight through the explosive pain, Sakura managed to force down the rising vomit, and acted out, going with the first thing to that entered her mind, mainly because she couldn't think of anything to do now. With a single hand seal, she vanished in a plume of smoke, although Sasuke kept watch of the edges in case she tried to use it to escape.
However, he was actually surprised momentarily when the smoke dispelled to find Sasuke replaced with an auburn wolf that managed to contort its body around his stomp. "Well, this is fitting you weak bitch!" He spat, only for wolf-Sakura to snarl and bite deeply into his leg, drawing blood from the arrogant Uchiha, who yelled as he kicked out, Sakura dancing around the kick with lupine grace.
Sasuke actually thought better of trying to grab the Henge'd Sakura, those fangs and jaws speaking for themselves even if his eyes could keep track of her, so instead he began to pepper her with shurikan which she tried to dodge, but even if she'd Henge'd, she was still injured with several broken ribs at least and whined as she stumbled when landing, Sasuke leaping on her perceived weakness, nailing her in her injured side with a kick.
Wolf-Sakura vanished in a plume of smoke as she hit the hard ground, blood leaking from the corner of her mouth, the pinkette struggling to stand. Slowly, she started to raise her hand, recognizing that she was outmatched here, with no chance. Apparently Sasuke recognized this too, because he was on her before she could react, tightly squeezing her bottom jaw.
"Don't you dare forfeit!" He ordered, and despite her instincts, Sakura's hand slowly came down as Sasuke nodded as he got right into her face. "Now use those tears of yours, and push me, challenge me, give me your strength! Show me just how powerful you are, you little useless, broken piece of wasted potential!" Sasuke ordered; his words cutting deeply into the fan girl, who actually whimpered as she fought down the tears that tried to come.
"No, I won't use them." She whispered, and Sasuke's lit with rage as he choke-slammed her into the ground.
"You stupid…" He lifted her up, only to kick her injured side, ignoring her outcry, "pathetic…" he dropped her on the ground stomping her knee as it twisted the wrong way, "broken…" he crouched down, interlacing his hands tightly in her short hair pulling her head back painfully as he bent down to hiss into her ear, "waste of potential. No one could ever love someone as weak and broken as you, Fangirl. You are nothing more than a broken, useless failure!" With that he slammed her face into the ground, over and over before someone grabbed his arm from behind.
"Stop, she's done." Genma said, pulling Sasuke up, only for the arrogant Uchiha to pull free as he walk off without so much as a look back. Genma glared after him before standing up, using chakra to project his voice. "The winner of the match is Sasuke Uchiha. The penultimate match will start in five minutes between Hinata Hyuuga and Shino Aburame!" Genma announced as medics raced on to the field, putting Sakura on a stretcher, running off the field.
Up in the section reserved for senseis and teammates, Kiba jumped to his feet, Akamaru leaping on to his shoulder before burrowing into his coat as the Inuzuka heir ran off towards the stairs, Kurenai not far behind him, who stooped and bowed quickly to the others. "Forgive Kiba, he usually doesn't think about others when someone he's close to gets into trouble. Excuse us." And with that, the sensei for Team 8 vanished after her student.
As the group turned to look at Kakashi, he put his head down in his hands. He'd thought Sasuke was getting better after their month-long training, he hadn't acted arrogant, hadn't nagged Kakashi for a powerful jutsu, he hadn't even mentioned his brother or Naruto. He was glad he had postponed teaching the Uchiha scion his signature assassination jutsu.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked through his hair to see Gai's stony gaze, "Kakashi, why did you-" Gai's question was cut short by Kakashi's angry retort.
"Why did I what, leave that attitude in him? Not report it to the Hokage? Condone this behavior in my student? I don't know Gai! Maybe because I thought it was being handled!" Kakashi shot back, Gai looked surprised at the sudden outburst.
Kakashi took a deep, calming breath. "I'm sorry; I just need to be left alone. I don't know what to do about it, but I know if nothing is done, his hatred and anger will consume him like it did Itachi. Before today, I would've asked you how you handled Neji's anger, but I don't think that'll be a problem for much longer." Kakashi observed despairingly, looking down, aware that Gai's hand was still on his shoulder.
"Well, you seemed to do a good job on training the other two, if the previous matches are anything to go by. Speaking of which, shall we watch the next match and see young Hyuuga-san's youth shine?" Gai said, and Kakashi gave a mirthless laugh as he lifted his head looking at the arena floor below where his last and only female student stood at the ready.
"Okay, if both contestants are ready, then we'll begin the penultimate matches of the Chunin Finals?" Genma asked, looking between the two. Hinata nodded, determined to drag the fight out as long as possible to give Naruto time to recover from the borderline chakra exhaustion he'd suffered in his fight with Gaara.
"Well then, Haji-" Genma's loud voice was cut off by the monotonous one of Shino who was the picture of statuesque.
"Proctor-san, I forfeit. My bugs are still busy neutralizing the poison I was hit with in my last match, and the adrenaline of a fight would only slow my recovery." Shino said, waiting a moment before turning to leave, heading for the medic bay, whether for the aforementioned poison or to be with his team, he didn't say.
"Uhmm, well, I guess you're going to the finals, Hinata-san." Genma said lowly so only Hinata could hear him as her heart dropped; she'd have to think of something else to help Naruto, especially with the way things were looking.
"Shino Aburame has forfeited, the winner of the match is Hinata Hyuuga. There will be an hour break before the final fight which will be a three-way between Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Hinata Hyuuga." Genma said, leaping up the side to the first level of seats as he vanished.
Sighing Hinata turned and jogged back to Naruto who was lightly snoring. Lifting his head, she slid back under him, laying his head on her lap. He gave a small wriggle, wrapping his arms around her waist as he lightly squeezed her, mumbling, "Hinata-hime, my Hinata-chan." Hinata resisted the urge to blush as ideas went through her head as how to best help Naruto-kun.