A/N: eh heh…needless to say, this is another long one, since it includes two fights – since I kinda ditched the last one 'coz the chapter was gettin' too long for my tastes… – in as much detail as I could do with being t3h suck at action scenes. :) And I know I said that I'd get it out yesterday, but I never knew that writing a lot of fight scenes could take so much out a person. Xx;
And thank you for the reviews! They're much appreciated. :)
Oh, and juunigatsu4ame…I normally hate OCs too…but I couldn't resist this time around. XP They just kind of…appeared with the thought "HEY! Neji should have brats!" and WHAM! He's got brats XDD
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An Unexpected Night
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Chapter Six
Her leg snapped, and she knew she had only one chance to get it right; one chance to at the very least secure half a victory against her opponent, who was much better off than she.
Shikamaru stared down at the crisp white sheets, before his gaze landed on the off-white color of the bandages on her leg. As his eyes traveled up her body, through the thin sheets he would see various other locations on her that also was bandaged until his gaze landed on her face; her eyes were closed, her face pinched (whether it was from the brace holding her neck and head steady, or from her reliving what happened just hours before in her sleep, he couldn't be sure). Silently he set a hand on the covers and shut his eyes, all the while trying to force the image of her match out of his mind.
--
"Begin!"
Aimi stared warily at her opponent for a few seconds, unsure about how to deal with the girl since for the first round they had been in different groups, and hadn't seen each other fight. Slowly she released a breath, her eyes still locked on her opponent who looked very much annoyed at the fact that Aimi wasn't doing anything to start the match, and allowed her body to relax into the fighting stance that was so familiar to her; it was nothing particularly fancy, just her legs spread out a little, one arm extended in front of her with her thumb curled over her palm while the other rested open handed just above her hip.
To those watching – like Shikamaru – her stance highly resembled that of the Hyuuga clan's when they were going to use Jyuken, and those who knew who her sensei was weren't as surprised by it as those who knew of the Hyuuga clan but not that Hyuuga Neji was her team leader. Aimi, of course, ignored the whispers coming from above, and narrowed her eyes slightly when her opponent lunged.
Shikamaru watched as Itsuki pushed off with her foot and launched herself at Aimi, her right arm positioned in such a way so that when she got close enough to her opponent she'd be able to release it without losing momentum. As she got closer to Aimi, who had yet to do anything besides calmly stand there in the like-Hyuuga stance, her grin widened, evidently thinking that she was going to get a free shot since her opponent had apparently froze when she had started to move. At just a couple feet away she stopped and immediately pulled her arm forward in a straight line, before widening her eyes in surprise when she found herself falling, and barely managed to catch herself before she touched ground. When she turned Aimi was in a different stance than before, this time closer to the ground with her left leg extended out in front of her while her right leg was bent, one arm held forward while the other one was pointed backward. In each hand she held a small dagger, which Itsuki couldn't figure out where she got from since it didn't look like she had any place to hold them on her slender body.
Aimi continued to stare warily at her opponent as she stared right back, seemingly trying to figure out how she had gotten from point A – the Hyuuga-like stance five feet away – to point B – the stance she was in right now – in a split second, while under attack to boot. Aimi, of course, wasn't about to tell her that she had sweep kicked her and had gotten into position before the girl could gather herself again. When Itsuki's eyes flashed in annoyance, Aimi decided that it would be best to end the fight quickly, since if she let the fight drag on her opponent really could become a problem, especially if she started to lose control of herself and attacked to kill; which wasn't the point of the fight, although attacking to kill wasn't against the rules.
Quickly she pushed herself off into a roll, and stopped in front of Itsuki in time to swing one of the daggers at the other girl's legs, which Itsuki barely managed to dodge, although a slim cut was left on both legs. Following along with the momentum swing the dagger had brought, Aimi moved her body so she could strike with the other dagger, and grinned in satisfaction when Itsuki hissed softly from the pain that tore at her cut up legs (the second strike had gone in deeper, like she had expected to happen).
--
At that point, from Shikamaru's point of view the fight had clearly been one-sided; Aimi had done all of the attacking, while Itsuki had done her best to even dodge, and didn't even get much of a chance to defend herself against the onslaught that was her opponent. After a few more minutes of the "one-sided" fighting went on, he had been sure that Aimi would've won. But what happened next surprised him, and probably ended up shocking everyone else there as well.
--
Aimi couldn't quite tell you what went wrong, but the instant she felt a sharp, burning pain in her lower back she knew something wasn't right. She had been so effortlessly winning, then…what? A sudden attack she knew nothing about, and somehow hadn't been able to pick up on? But…not once did Itsuki even get close enough to attack her back; heck, she hadn't even actually been close enough to attack her front! So…what had happened?
"Not feelin' too great, are we?" Itsuki said, mockery evident in her voice. "You're probably wonderin' what happened, huh? Well, like I'd tell you when clearly it tilts this fight in my favor!"
Aimi grimaced in disgust as she forced herself to stand, all the while trying to ignore the numbing pain in her lower back. If only she could figure out what her opponent was doing…but how?
Suddenly words hit her; something that Neji-sensei had told them early on in their time together, something that he clearly had been reluctant to say, but said all the same.
"Although it's a shameful way to fight, sometimes you must take advantage of your opponent's cockiness after they knock you down a couple times; act like you're injured more than you truly are and become a reckless fighter to give yourself time to come up with a plan, or learn what you need to. Make sure your injuries look bad; you don't want to be found out, especially on a mission."
She narrowed her eyes slightly and forced a grimace on her face as she quickly pushed off the ground, one hand reaching down to open the weapon pouch that was tied to her leg. When her free fingers that weren't holding her dagger curled around a couple shuriken, she swiftly pulled them out and threw them all in one step, then spun and threw the dagger that was in her opposite hand, all of which Itsuki managed to avoid, the smirk from before still in place.
Repeating this action several times over the next couple of minutes left Aimi weaponless, since she had tossed not only her two daggers – her most prized possessions – but each and every shuriken and kunai that she had had in her arsenal. She hissed softly, her eyes still locked on Itsuki's form, as she reached down to rub her lower back, which had started to burn a lot more than before with each movement she had made, and now it was practically unbearable; she had noticed in her last round that her legs were weakening, attesting to the fact that she definitely had a lumbar spine injury (but again, she couldn't figure out how).
Itsuki suddenly dashed at her while dodging all the scattered weapons on ground, her eyes narrowed in annoyance. Aimi for her part took another stance, her legs shaky underneath her. Before she had the chance to command her body to move – whether in retreat or defense – Itsuki was already in front of her, her left leg darting out to strike her in the stomach, which instead landed squarely on Aimi's right femur instead, since her legs had started to give out on her and she had ended up stumbling back to try and catch herself.
Aimi fell hard to the ground, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes as she glanced down at her leg. As she tried to stand black spots appeared in her view, causing her to lean against the wall behind her and assess the damage that had been done to her leg. It hurt most definitely far more than how her lower back felt. When she attempted to step on it pain shot up her body and she had to hold back a gasp.
The whole thing about Neji-sensei telling them that it was a validly-shameful way to fight to fake your injuries? Yeah, that wouldn't work here, since even if she wanted to she couldn't block out the searing pain that now was her clearly broken – possibly worse – leg, and the problem she had with her lower back, which was making her lose control of her lower body entirely. She couldn't fake worse; doing so would put her on the ground and probably make her appear unconscious; and was something she definitely didn't want.
Aimi clenched her jaw, knowing full well that her body wouldn't be able to take much more of this, meaning that she would have to end the fight now, or more than her leg would be shattered and unusable. Ignoring the searing pain shooting through her leg, Aimi stood fully and launched herself at Itsuki once more in hopes of getting one more hit in before having to call it quits. But before she got too far, Itsuki was there again, this time sweep kicking her legs out from under her and immediately kicking her body into the air.
She couldn't fight it in the state that she currently was in, and could do nothing else but look on as Itsuki appeared by her side in mid-air, then spun quickly to build up momentum to kick her back down again. The kick hurt, launching her quickly toward the ground below; what made the landing worse than just hitting the ground was the fact that her head caught the wall, making a soft 'snap' sound and causing large black splotches to enter her vision instead of the previous tiny black dots from when she had initially tried to set her leg down.
Her whole body hurt; she couldn't move much except to follow Itsuki's movements as she landed on the ground on the opposite side of the battle area and walk toward her through the field of weapons once more. When the girl reached the middle of all the weapons, Aimi forced her arms to move, her body protesting all the way, and begun forming seals; the name of the technique she was using she whispered quietly enough so no one could hear besides herself.
From where Shikamaru was standing it looked to him like something TenTen knew, and watched quietly as all the weapons that had been scattered lifted themselves off the ground and were hurled in Itsuki's direction; effectively catching her off-guard and causing her to stop walking. Before she knew it the weapons – which Shikamaru now could see had a wire attached to them – wrapped themselves around the girl, binding her in the middle of the battle area and leaving her immobile; a single dagger was situated just in front of her throat, as if waiting for orders to slice her throat.
It was waiting for orders…orders which never came.
Aimi shakily stood, her body leaning against the wall she had landed against. Her gaze landed on Itsuki's bound form, then locked onto the girl's frightened eyes. Wryly she smiled as she took a hesitant step, and then said, "I…give up."
A collective gasp was heard from the crowd from above, who had been certain that Aimi would win now that she clearly had the upper hand. The wry grin stayed on Aimi's face as she collapsed and whispered, "That's all I…had left…"
The weapons that had been surrounding Itsuki fell harmlessly to the ground, and a very shocked Itsuki followed soon after, her eyes wide and disbelieving. Shikamaru stared in surprise for a couple seconds before slowly walking to Aimi and knelt beside her body. He could see the rapidly spreading bruises that were both on her shattered leg and neck, and instantly knew that Aimi had made the right choice to give in; if she had been able to do anymore it wouldn't have ended very well for her at all.
Clearing his throat he stood and looked up at the spectators. Quietly he muttered "smart girl" to himself, before shouting, "Winner, Murakami Itsuki!"
--
That fight he'd never be able to forget, although it had been brutal to watch. Or…maybe that was why it stuck so clearly in his mind, because it had been brutal and had shown Aimi's determination to win as clear as day? The corner of Shikamaru's mouth lifted ever-so-slightly as he gently squeezed the girl's arm through the sheets. She had done amazingly well, and would definitely have won if it hadn't been for those three major injuries she had gotten during the course of the fight which had rendered her mostly immobile.
The door slammed open behind him, and he turned in surprise to see Keiichi and Hiroshi, who were breathing hard like they had ran all the way to the hospital from wherever they had been.
"How is…she doing?" Hiroshi asked quietly, his eyes softening as soon as they landed on the beaten form of his teammate.
"She's sleeping right now, but she's expected to make a full recovery." Shikamaru replied, and watched as the two boys breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing his words. Feeling the need to say more, he added, "She did very well and is unexpectedly good at strategy; I probably wouldn't have thought to set up that trap at the end at an earlier date. But…she's a little reckless with it, though, since it landed her here."
Hiroshi smiled slightly, and said, "She's always been like that. You should see her when we're on missions with Neji-sensei; she's a lot more reckless then." He went quiet for a few seconds before adding, "She's not…particularly strong, and her body's really fragile, but she's definitely the smartest person I know."
Keiichi immediately nodded in agreement, bringing a small smile to Shikamaru's lips. After a few moments of silence Shikamaru sighed, then nodded at the two boys before heading toward the door. They probably wanted some time alone with their fallen teammate, since clearly she meant a lot to both of them. As he quietly opened the door another thought hit him, before he mentally swished it away; they wouldn't pull anything in front of Aimi's sick bed, since it wouldn't have been right to fight amongst themselves when their friend was hospitalized right in front of them. Sighing as he closed the door behind him, he said, "Don't forget that the tournament starts at noon in two hours, you guys. Don't spend too much time here."
When Shikamaru ended up outside, he tilted his head toward the sky and was disappointed to see not a cloud in sight, before he sighed and began walking down the street, his hands dug deep into his pockets. He honestly would've preferred to have stayed with Aimi, but since her teammates had came and he left, he now had nothing better to do than to wander around town for the next to two hours, making him groan softly in annoyance.
"Oiii! Shikamaru! Wanna have lunch with us?"
Shikamaru turned upon hearing his named called, and raised an eyebrow as Sakura, Naruto, Lee, and TenTen came into view. "If it's going to be ramen, no thanks. I've had too much ramen in the past week."
"It's not." Sakura smiled, a soft chuckle slipping out. "We're having barbeque; Lee and TenTen's treat."
Shikamaru sighed, figuring that he couldn't deny good – free – food. Very slightly he nodded and followed the group to the barbeque restaurant, which they quickly arrived at and sat down. After ordering what meat they wanted, the four he was accompanying entered a heated discussion, which he, with a wide yawning, blocked out. Only when he heard TenTen say "Neji probably would want to know what happened to Aimi-chan…but since we don't know where he is, we can't tell him…" did he look up and see Sakura staring at him from the corner of her eye.
For a few seconds they stared, before Shikamaru sighed and broke the eye contact as the meat was delivered to their table. Minutes passed as the meat was put on the hot plate in front of them to cook, and when a few pieces were done he sighed again and awkwardly stood. "I'll take it to go; I have some things I have to do before the tournament starts."
After quite a few protests to his leaving, Shikamaru stepped out of the building, a small bag of cooked meat in hand, and sighed before he turned to begin walking home to report to Neji what had happened to his female genin.
--
When Shikamaru arrived home, several pieces of the meat had been eaten, and several more were still in the bag waiting. Immediately his eyes landed on a slightly surprise Neji, who was seated on the couch, and closed the door behind him before he went to join the other boy. Awkwardly he set the bag between them and stared at the ground before beginning. "Keiichi and Hiroshi are doing really well; they're in the actual tournament later today."
Neji nodded, and "hmm"ed softly in understanding, his gaze landing on the bag. When Shikamaru motioned for him to take it, he questioned, "And Aimi?"
Shikamaru unconsciously clenched his fists, before sighing again. "She…lost, and is in the hospital with a neck fracture and a shattered femur, along with various other injuries. But she's supposed to recover well, which we should be grateful for." Neji didn't respond, his hand bringing one of the pieces of meat to his mouth, making Shikamaru suddenly feel even more uncomfortable than before. Quickly he added, "You're a good sensei, Neji. Aimi's fight's proof enough of that, since she apparently was really bad before you got a hold of her."
Neji shook his head before quietly saying, "No…Aimi was the one who fought, not me."
Shikamaru unconsciously stiffened and stood, his head turned away from Neji. "I should be getting back now. They might need me early, which is a pain but…"
Neji tilted his head slightly in acknowledgement, to which Shikamaru sighed again and headed for the door. When his hand hit the door knob he paused, and murmured, "Her room's 319, if you want to visit her."
Just as he had been about to step out, he heard Neji say "Nara, wait", which stopped him immediately, and made him turn toward the other boy in curiosity. When Neji had his attention, he said, "Kei and Hiro…don't let them fight during the tournament."
Shikamaru blinked in surprise, before saying, "The slots have already been decided, and I can't change who fights who. It's a pain in the ass in this situation, but there's nothing I can do about if it they do end up fighting."
Neji went quiet for a few seconds before he sighed. "Then if they do fight, stop it before it gets too bad; with Kei as he is right now, that's definitely something that would happen."
When Neji said no more, Shikamaru nodded and continued his way out the door and toward the stadium where the rest of the chuunin exams were to take place. As he stepped away from the building he couldn't help but think that Neji was indeed a good sensei, and clearly cared dearly about his genin and didn't want to see any of them go through any sort of painful situation, be it physical or emotional.
--
A couple hours later, Shikamaru found himself, paper in hand, in the middle of the very same stadium he had taken his chuunin exam fight against Temari in, a million and one beady eyes staring down at him. Awkwardly he cleared his throat and spoke into the mic he had on him. "We'll now begin the final part of the chuunin exams. It will be tournament style, and we've already paired up the fighters." Carelessly he held up the paper although he knew no one could see it from the distance they were at before he continued. "Each victor will fight each other until there is only one left. Now I'll read the names off of who will fight each other."
Shikamaru turned the paper so he could read it, then cleared his throat again. "The first fight will be Takahashi Kenta versus Murakami Itsuki. The second will be Natsume Masao versus Tomokazu Kazuki. The third will be Takahashi Keiichi" - …what? That sounded funny to him. Hadn't he just said 'Takahashi'…? – "versus Tamakazi Mitsuru. Fourth, Arakaki Hiroshi versus Kawabata Mahiru. The last fight will be Adachi Nobuo versus Yonokawa Tetsuo. Now, to get this tournament going, will our first pair please come down?"
The first round fights he didn't actually pay much attention to, only enough to announce the winners, since his mind was still on the bedridden girl he had visited just hours before, and whether or not Neji actually would go and visit her like he had suggested (which he doubted, since he wasn't really sure if Neji was ready to go out or not). Only when he heard Genma next to him announce that the first round was over did he shake himself out of his thoughts and look over the chart that Genma had taken upon himself to fill out, since he had apparently been to out of it to do it himself.
Immediately his eyes widened in slight horror at what he saw, and couldn't help but close his eyes and open them to see if he was seeing things, or if what he saw on the page was really there. In the second round, the two people that Neji had said he didn't want to fight were fighting, and there was nothing he could do about it. Reluctantly he said, "The second round will start now. Takahashi Kenta versus Natsume Masao."
When the two fighters came down, he started the match, this time trying harder at paying attention to the fight going on in front of him instead of allowing his mind to wander. But he couldn't help it, and almost jerked in surprise when he saw Kenta go flying across the arena. This Masao boy…he could easily fight on par with Kenta, who hadn't even gotten hit during any of his previous matches!
Yet, before he knew what happened, Kenta was standing over the fallen body of Masao, his hitai-ate lowered to his neck and his arm wiping sweat from his forehead. Somehow he had won in the last minute that he had not really been paying attention, although the last thing he had seen was Masao winning, not the other way around.
Groaning softly to himself, he stared down at the page again and even more reluctantly before said, "Takahashi Keiichi versus…Arakaki Hiroshi."
Keiichi was the first to reach the ground, and blinked in surprise when he saw Kenta standing in front of him and wasn't making any move to continue his way out of the arena. Before Keiichi could ask what he wanted, Kenta smiled wryly and rested a hand on Keiichi's shoulder. "Good luck, Keiin. Should be a good fight, ne?"
Keiichi fumed a few seconds as Kenta walked by, before he turned and almost shouted about Kenta not calling him "Keiin", before he stopped himself in surprise. Hiroshi had come out of the same tunnel he had, and was staring at Kenta in surprise before Kenta waved at him childishly and continued on his way again, saying nothing to him like he had done with Keiichi.
From where Shikamaru was standing he could see Keiichi clench his fist, curiosity and worry both surfacing. If what he thought of Keiichi and Kenta's relationship was true – and he should by now, since it had been really obvious, now that there was so few fighters left – then Keiichi didn't like Hiroshi and Kenta being together. But that part of the relationship he couldn't understand one bit.
When the two fighters stood in front of him and were facing each other, Shikamaru looked them both over before he sighed and raised his hand. "Begin!"
Immediately Hiroshi grinned and put his hands behind his head. "Oi, Kei! This is like those training matches we have all the time, huh?"
To Shikamaru's surprise Keiichi rushed Hiroshi and viciously punched the other boy in face, causing Hiroshi to fly backwards. Keiichi then narrowed his eyes; his fists clenched, and he said coldly, "No, it's not."
Hiroshi spun his body and landed against the stadium wall on his feet, then pushed off hard and ended up landing just a few feet from where Keiichi was standing. Carelessly he wiped the blood from his mouth, the playful grin from before gone. "Look, Kei. Whatever problems you've got with Kenta isn't my fault."
Keiichi clenched his jaw and attacked again; this time Hiroshi managed to dodge and counter, effectively pushing Keiichi away a few feet before the other boy attacked again, this time his leg flying around to kick. Quickly Hiroshi put up his arm to block then grabbed Keiichi's leg with one hand and going to punch with the other. The hit landed, but not before Keiichi turned his body to kick Hiroshi with his other leg, catching the other boy off-guard and knocking him to the ground with a blow to the head.
As he stood, his hand reaching up to massage the spot where he had been kicked, Hiroshi forced a smile on his face and said, "C'mon, Kei. Can't we just enjoy this fight? Does it really have to be over something that I have no control over?"
Keiichi didn't respond and instead attacked once more, making Hiroshi sigh and block again. Repeatedly he tried placating the obviously pissed off boy, and failed each time. After a few more minutes of the clearly one-sided fight – since Hiroshi wasn't doing much attacking – he sighed again and said, this time with annoyance in his voice, "Why don't you tell him what's wrong? He's your brother after all, not mine!"
Keiichi stopped in surprise, the arm he had had held up for a punch falling to his side. He opened his mouth to respond before he closed it again, his eyes darting to the ground. For a few seconds his gaze remained locked on the ground, before he raised his narrowed eyes. "Then what does that make me, huh?!"
Quickly he pushed off the ground and attacked Hiroshi once more, this time catching Hiroshi – who had been frozen in shock by Keiichi's words – off-guard and pushing him far enough back to ram him into the wall. Hiroshi raised his head slightly and smiled wryly again, and muttered something that Shikamaru couldn't hear.
Keiichi's eyes widened in surprise, before they narrowed again in anger; his fists clenched as he relentlessly began to beat the other boy against the wall, not giving his teammate any time to defend himself, until Hiroshi couldn't stand anymore and ended up slipping to the ground, which was dotted with crimson splotches of blood.
Keiichi took a step back as Hiroshi shakily stood, his eyes pointed toward the ground, his fingers splayed on the wall to hold himself steady. "If…letting you beat the shit out of me means that I'm telling the truth about what I just said, then so be it."
Shikamaru blinked in confusion as Keiichi reared back for another attack, and widened his eyes in surprise when he saw that Keiichi's next attack was riddled with chakra. Before he could do much else besides stand there and stare, the punch landed squarely on Hiroshi's chest, immediately causing the boy to spew out a lot of blood. Hiroshi then raised his head again, albeit this time slower than before, and said weakly, "I'll even…give up this…m-match, if it'll…make you h-happy, Kei."
"Damn it, Hiroshi! How the hell would that make me happy?!" Keiichi shouted, his eyes narrowing further as he focused his chakra into his fist once again, fully intent on aiming it at Hiroshi's head this time instead of his body.
When a gasp of horror came from some of the younger girls who were watching, Shikamaru knew that it was time for the match to end, or else Keiichi would do something Shikamaru knew the boy would end up regretting later. Quickly Shikamaru stretched his shadow to lock onto Hiroshi's, and just managed to pull the boy to the side before Keiichi's attack landed on the wall where Hiroshi had been; when the wall exploded and a huge dent was left, Shikamaru breathed a sigh of relief that he had managed to get to the boy in time. Glancing at Hiroshi to make sure the boy was alright, and that no flying rocks would harm him, he released control of the boy's body and appeared at Keiichi's back, and rested a hand on the red head's shoulder. "This fight's over, Keiichi." Turning his attention to the crowd he said, his voice devoid of excitement, "Winner, Takahashi Keiichi."
Keiichi's face slackened in shock, before he turned his gaze to the bloody mess that was his teammate. Slowly, as if in a trance, he shrugged of Shikamaru's hand and made his way to Hiroshi's body, before he knelt down beside it and stared into the other boy's empty eyes. Hesitantly he reached out to touch Hiroshi's cheek, and then widened his eyes in surprise when the other boy flinched, his eyes clenching shut. After a few seconds Hiroshi opened his eyes, and saw Keiichi's hand was still in the same place it had been before. Smiling awkwardly he whispered, "Sorry…Kei. I don't…know why I just…did that."
Immediately a stretcher came to pick up Hiroshi, leaving Keiichi to sit the same position from before, his body still from the shock. Shikamaru stared at the boy a few seconds before he walked over to him and gently grabbed onto his shoulders to help him stand. When Keiichi showed no signs of being able to stand on his own, Shikamaru carefully picked him up and glanced down into the boy's eyes, which were wide and, for all intents and purposes, dead. As he stood and carried the boy out of the arena, a voice came onto the intercom and said "we'll take a ten-minute intermission at this moment, so be sure to be back in your seats before the next match!" for which Shikamaru was grateful, since it would give him time to see if Keiichi would recover from realizing what he had just been about to do.
A couple minutes later Shikamaru arrived in the medical ward, and was greeted by a worried Sakura, who had just turned away from instructing the medi-nins to quickly take Hiroshi to the hospital. Her eyes shining from sorrow, she softly said, "According to the way the tournament's set up, you'll be fighting again, Kei. I'll heal your body so you'll be ready, but it'll be up to you to see if you can fight again or not."
Keiichi didn't respond, and Sakura sighed before beginning to heal his wounds. When she was done with that she stared at the boy for a few seconds before enveloping him in a hug. Quietly she whispered, "I know you didn't mean to do it, Kei. Hiroshi's going to be fine…"
The next fight couldn't even be called that; Keiichi had barely even attacked at all, his mind still shocked by what he had done, while his body simply reacted to the situation he was in. Before even five minutes passed by Keiichi was being carted off by medics, this time Sakura with them.
Keiichi's opponent snorted in disgust, his arms crossing over his chest. "Damn weakling, I hate guys like him. It must've just been a fluke for the bastard to have gotten so far."
"Winner, Yonokawa Tetsuo!" Shikamaru turned toward the muttering boy, and then said, "You probably don't want it, but I have to ask the troublesome question anyway or I'll get in trouble. You want to rest any before your next match?"
"Nah. Didn't even break a sweat against that last guy."
Shikamaru nodded as he tried his best to keep the annoyance he felt toward the Otogakure nin, and couldn't help but shoot a withering glance at the current kage, Sasuke, before clearing his throat. "Final match: Takahashi Kenta versus Yonokawa Tetsuo!"
When Kenta arrived on ground level, Shikamaru widened his eyes in surprise at the serious look on the normally childish boy's face. His eyes were empty, making Shikamaru wonder just what the boy was thinking after his brother had been so heartlessly destroyed, and a pair of shoes was slung over his shoulder. As Kenta neared him, Shikamaru said, "The top medic, Sakura, is going to be taking care of your brother and Hiroshi. I just thought you'd want to know."
Kenta nodded his thanks, his expression not changing at Shikamaru's words.
Tetsuo scoffed, a smirk settling into place. "That wimp was your brother? You're probably no better than he was; another damn fluke!"
Kenta didn't respond, and instead sat down and begun to change shoes, from his usual black and red ones to the ones he had brought with him, which had a leather bottom and was silky in appearance. When done with that he stood, his eyes rising to lock onto Tetsuo's. "I show no mercy to those who slander my brother's name and nearly kill him when he clearly was in no condition to be fighting."
Tetsuo snorted, the smirk widening. "A good shinobi would be ready for any fight, regardless of what happened before. So obviously that means that the idiot's a weakling, and should just quit tryin' to become a chuunin, since he's too pathetic to! He hadn't even been anywhere near worth fighting!"
Kenta slowly undid the button on his jacket, then slipped it off before he carefully folded it and held it in his arms. His eyes were cold as he spoke again. "You want a fight?" Carelessly Kenta threw his jacket off to the side, causing everyone watching to jump in surprise when the wall exploded from the impact. "You got one."
Shikamaru watched as Kenta reattached his staff to his body, tied his hair back, and got into the stance he always used at the beginning of a fight. So…Lee weight trained Kenta like he had been, huh? Clearing his throat, Shikamaru raised his arms and said, "Begin!"
Immediately Kenta attacked, stunning everyone by his sudden burst of speed compared to what he had shown in all of his previous fights. Clearly the boy had been majorly holding back, and now was releasing everything to enact revenge on the boy who had so demonically defeated his brother. Very little time at all flew by before Kenta finished the fight, which had been taken into the air by a swift kick to Tetsuo's back, with a swinging down of his chakra-filled staff, causing Tetsuo to slam into the ground. The boy didn't stand again; to be perfectly honest Shikamaru wouldn't have been surprised if the boy had died, or had been knocked unconscious from the impact.
When Kenta touched ground, his hands working to put his staff back in its place, he said, "Winner, Takahashi Kenta!"
The crowd erupted in cheers as Kenta sighed, his hands dropping to his sides as he finished putting his staff back. When he locked gazes with Shikamaru, the jounin noticed that the boy wasn't excited like most would've been had they just won the chuunin exams; his expression was still empty like before, his eyes still cold. Shikamaru nodded at him, mentally telling him to go visit his brother, before turning his attention back to the crowd. "The chuunin exams are now over! If you would like to see who has been promoted, please come back here tomorrow! Remember, if you had gotten to at least the second round of preliminaries you are still eligible for promotion!"
Shikamaru sighed as the crowd begun clearing out, and tilted his head back so he could stare at the sky. A couple clouds now were rolling by, but he couldn't enjoy them; what was so enjoyable about watching the carefree clouds, when he couldn't stop worrying about the team he had adopted? Stretching to pop a kink in his neck, he yawned and decided to follow after Kenta, figuring that visiting the three would be a lot better than going somewhere else and stewing in his thoughts.
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A/N: Annnd, the exams are over! Wrap-up is next chapter, along with a couple other things with the genin, then the story will refocus on Neji again, with some fun, possibly startling information!
To be perfectly honest I had been reluctant to write Keiichi and Hiroshi's fight, for the simple reason that I felt that I'd screw up the emotion running between the two. So I shortened it so I wouldn't end up doing that. :Sweatdrop:
So what did you think?
Read and review!