Chapter XII

Love Is So Twisted

Neji's Competition

"I've decided to start a tournament" Neji spoke at the full crowd, Sasuke looked around and saw a smiling Ino and scowling Tenten and so many other people that he unfortunately knew the names off. All of them were pretty exited about Neji's new and sudden event, even his brother looked exited standing next to the white eyed brunet. Or was that just him? Perhaps he was even thinking about what he wanted to do with him that night.

But he couldn't read his brother's mind.

Still, he didn't feel much right about this competition, they were supposed to be celebrating marriages not battling it out. His mother had asked him to help her out but then changed her mind and she told him to join as well. He had read his father's mind once more and everything was concluded he had asked Hiashi to let Neji start this little combat rendezvous. It would decide life or death and a lot more was in the line of this one simple competition.

Sasuke could hardly believe it.

Bet's were flying left and right, elders wanted to see how determined the younger were to decide who they want to marry and get them off of marriages. The thing was that there a few people in the crowd who did not know what all of this was about. They thought it was just to test out strength.

Still, he had only one mission and that was to crack the pink nut. He could not allow his brother to be put under all the pressure if the up-coming work, competition and marriage. There was something about Sakura that to him would not settle if she was to know that his brother wanted out of the marriage, then she'd take drastic steps to much worse. Besides that Tenten was still up-set over the fact that her marriage was to someone else and not Neji and she felt put out that he was now concentrating on this competition. Then there was the reason that Ino was smiling so brightly.

It was insane.

"This competition will lead to a minor thing" Neji spoke "the first match will be against Sai and Sir Servant Shikamaru Nara" Sai had one of his fake smiles on and Shikamaru had a dreading look in his face, he could not believe what he was hearing. Thing was Ino didn't tell him about this, he was not even aware he was going to be joining the competition, he was only here to serve Ino "they will both battle it out for her hand in marriage, the Victor will marry her and non will move on. We'll all be paired to one match each, so then let the real competitions begin"

Troublesome was the only thing Shikamaru thought but Sasuke knew Ino's thoughts and she was testing him. That's why she didn't tell him. She wanted him to fight on his own for her without her having to tell him, without him knowing of this she wanted him to prove his love on his own. She turned to him and smiled.

"Please win" she whispered and then begun to walk away as the bored looking brunet stayed there with the already stretching Sai and Neji who was conducting all of this. Sasuke followed behind and got into Ino's mind and he found that each mind was manipulated in different ways. She was happy, so forth her mind was easy to get into. Tenten's on the other hand was conflicted and hard to even read properly, she was frustrated.

Then he was startled out of Tenten's mind as he found that he could hear other's trough other people's thoughts. He jumped even more when someone came to hug him all of a sudden. He spun around to see a grinning blond with long hair that covered an eye.

"Hey, un!"

"Deidara!" Sasuke hissed.

"What? Your dear brother told me to keep you from" he looked around to make sure no one hears since Itachi asked them to not speak of it out loud "Mental power" he whispered putting air quotations. Sasuke gritted his teeth and the blond just kept grinning "you know I have some to, they are weak though"

"You do?" Sasuke asked surprised as he broke free from the hug.

"Yeah, you know I go, please let it rain, please let it rain, please let it rain, and it rains" Sasuke sweat dropped.

"Idiot, that is call wish me not"

"It is?"

"Yes, you say it three times and you get it" And then it began to rain. "Go away rain, go away rain, go away rain!" Sasuke hissed and it immediately stopped raining and Deidara pouted at his actions.

"Fine, let's go"

"No way!" Sasuke walked away on his own, but the damn blond stuck to him like his own shadow "Leave me alone!"

"Can't Itachi-sama's orders" he brought out a bash that said 'Personal Uchiha Bodyguard: Authorirized by Uchiha Itachi the Great' and then he brought out a walky talky as Sasuke begun to speed up at a speed he could not keep up with. "Sexy Red, The chibi is headed your way"

Sasuke was finally free, or so he thought when he was grabbed by the arm.

"I have caught the chibi"

"Let's take him to his seat. After all Itachi if busy" Deidara approached with a grin and Sasuke scowled at them both. He begun to struggle.

"I AM NOT A FREEKING CHIBI!"

"Cute chibi!"Deidara already loved this kid.

A purpled haired and golden eyes girl appeared out of nowhere in the up-high sky box and she smiled brightly before making her announcement.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen we are gathered here today to present you with a battle that'll decided which of these males is worth to have the hand in marriage of the high and refined princess Yamanaka" the whole crowd full of random spectators clapped and the ones that were going to be competing simply stayed silent as Ino squealed.

Suddenly the stadium opened up and then it reached up to show a barren field that had nothing on it but a wide open range area. Sasuke stared at it intently trying to ignore the red head and blond idiot that had him in captivity. Thing was they could keep him here but they could not stop him from his mission. He had one of the in-between matches and as he looked around he saw a pink blur approach Ino and Tenten.

Perfect

He concentrated on her and got into her mind but flinched when an exited thought ran through him. She needed to calm down!

"Sai" said raven man looked up to see his blond lover. He smiled but this time it was a real one.

"Naruto"

"Lose this match for me" Naruto smile as he swayed his hips to come near his lover and hugged him "Besides, loser get's the best price!" Naruto winked "Me!" Sai laughed and then kissed his silly little blond.

He never planned on winning.

Shikamaru stood there awkwardly, feeling alone and cold. It was almost as if Ino was making him take this challenge to prove his love and loyalty. Still, how could he be with someone like her, she's royalty, what difference could this match make anyway?

Suddenly his heart stopped.

"To the left we present you with Nara Shikamaru! He comes from a family of hard working lower class and serves the Yamanaka."

The stage was opening and reluctantly he walked out to the stage where it was full of people and roars from the crowd. He really nearly fealt like he was going to die, at this moment all he wanted was to be away at home were he could just lie under a tree and watch the clouds all day long. Troublesome women, troublesome love issues! "Isn't he handsome!?"

"And to your right the beautiful Prince Sai!" and then there was his opponent with flat raven hair that framed his pasty pale skin. A smile spread his lips and he was ready to fight, or at least put something up of a show. He suddenly got into a position that meant that he was going to get ready to transform. Sparkles of light surrounded him and his outfit changed to something more revealing down his middle, tight short fighting pants up to his knees and opened toed shoes, his hair remained flat and everything else pretty much the same.

In a way he was like a dead doll.

Taking a deep breath Shikamaru decided that he had no choice and to better be down with this as he also got to his position and transformed with shadows surrounding him and soon he came out with his hair loose over his shoulders, and spiky to the sides framing his face. He had a tight shirt over a lose botton down shirt and baggy fighting pants. He wore boots and he was ready to battle.

He was like a shadow beats/

"Art of destruction" Sai said as he hit the ground making it crumble, but not enough to break through only to have the black cracks it made spread around like an astray of long black lines as they begun to create something more, something was coming out if it. It was a terrifying hand that was ready to grab at its opponent but Shikamaru jumped up.

He charged toward Sai as said raven moved his hands around trying to control his lines and make a wall between them but Shikamaru seemed to vanish before his eyes. He looked around but he could not find him, suddenly he felt like he was kicked and he fell to the ground surprised. It had hurt.

"What" he looked down and saw his shadow getting strangled and soon he was coming short of breath. His eyes widen as he watched Shikamaru's shadow work, he placed his hands down on the ground as he groaned and tried to breathe.

The crowd watched astounded.

Sasuke was even paying attention, he looked to his left and right and then spotted his brother. He was speaking with Neji and someone else. The adults were all there too. He narrowed his eyes and returned to watch the match. Shikamaru had been taken out of the ground and strung up with black lines that seemed to be sharp enough to draw out blood.

Shikamaru then placed his hand down on the black line and tried to break them as a light black glow came from his hand and broke the lines. Sai hissed at that "Why are we even doing this?" Shikamaru asked breathless over the crying out crowd.

Sai looked at him.

"Only one motive keeps me going like this, and that is my blond" He threw a punch but Shikamaru managed to dodge it by dropping to his knees. He kicked out to try and trip Sai as he got back to his feat.

"So you love Ino"

"Ino is not the only blond here, now is she" Sai threw a head high kick and Shikamaru caught his foot.

"Temary?"

"Are you crazy?"

"Maybe, since I'm doing this" he twisted Sai's foot, but Sai twisted his whole body and dropped to the floor landing at the palm of his hands. "Fighting is too troublesome" He deadpanned, maybe it was because he was too lazy.

"I do this for Naruto" Sai hissed. Shikamaru's eyes widen.

"For….Naruto"

"Yes!" Sai managed to kick Shikamaru away and crouched down as he glared at the brunet. "I love him more than life itself, I'd do anything for him…..so here's the question" he was suddenly before Shikamaru his hand around the brunet's neck. "Exactly how far would you go to get Miss Yamanaka Ino"

Shikamaru was speechless.

THANK YOU ALL WHO REVIEWED!! It's been a while since I came here, huh? Hopefully you are enyoying this. I'm not good with fights, so sorry if it's kinda being rushed..... It continues onto the next chapter thoug. And there will be an ITASASU LEMON!!

Please review!!