Disclaimer: Only the story, not the characters or anything else of the Naruto franchise
Ch 16: Who will she chose?
It felt like a heartbeat of tension. Nobody moved for a moment. Sakura looked so small and fragile as she stood in front of Neji crying silently. She brought her slightly fisted hands up to her face and wiped her tears away.
:Sob:
That tiny cry causing the shinobi to burst into action, especially Sasuke, Gaara and Naruto.
The three boys rushed at Neji with the intention to beat his as5!.
However with lighting speed their attack was stopped. Naruto was blocked off by Lee, while Kakashi held Sasuke back.
"THE HELLS YOUR PROBLEM!" Naruto roared from behind Lee.
"I'll show you what a real elite can do" Sasuke said in a dark menacing voice.
Seeing how no one wanted to get in Gaara's way with the dark mood he was in, he continued his pursuit.
Sakura was everything to Gaara. Without her his life would have had no love, no happiness, and no friends. Then this fool comes along, hurts his darling Sakura and thinks he can get away with IT!
"Gaara!" Kankuro and Temari shouted uselessly trying to stop their brother.
Sakura stopped her sniffing to look up and see what was going on.
Hayate futilely tried to stop Gaara and stood in his way "Fighting outside a match is prohibited" he said in a stern voice.
:grr: That meant nothing to Gaara and he passed him by, sand traveling in front of Neji.
Sakura was just about to call out to Gaara to stop him, when she was interrupted "Ga-"
Faster than a blink of the eye Itachi appeared before Neji, stopping Gaara's advances.
"Enough" he says and with that one word everyone stops their moving about and Itachi captures all their attention.
Gaara gains control of himself, folds his arms and just stares at Itachi, but not directly into his eyes. Even Gaara at this level has somewhat of difficulty meeting Itachi's burning stare.
Itachi then turns to Neji and gives him the scolding of the century.
"Three shinobi were about to engage you in combat, but I assure you more than those three individual wanted to batter your sordid body." Itachi's words caught everyone by surprise. Such threats against a genin? The fukusho was supposed to be neutral. Although Itachi carefully worded his threat, so one could tell he was one of those ninja that wanted Neji's blood.
Neji didn't respond, he only stared back at Itachi and fisted his hands into tight balls from the hostility building up from Itachi's speech.
"I would strongly suggest you cautiously phrase your comments when speaking. You could just make an enemy that is vastly out of your extent." Itachi said as he stared Neji down with a cold look in his eyes.
Then he turned and addressed everyone else. "Now everyone, please return to the stands. The next match will begin shortly"
Noooo one questioned Itachi, they only followed his command and walked up the steps to join their teams.
Sasuke started walking towards Sakura in hopes of consoling her.
Sakura wiped her face one last time then straightened up and mustered every ounce of dignity she had left. She lifted her chin and held her head high as she started for the stairs… when she was interrupted by...
Itachi! :)
Itachi had silently walked up towards her and whispered in her ear. "Suki would you like to wait in my quarters for the rest of the preliminaries?"
l
Itachi had beaten Sasuke to Sakura, leaving Sasuke a very unhappy boy. Angered Sasuke turned his back on them and started to walk upstairs to join his team. I try to be there for her and…ugh forget it.
Forget her.
l
Sakura shook her head.
"You don't have stay here for the rest of the matches; nobody would blame you for excusing yourself." Itachi said in a concerned voice. He didn't want Sakura to go through any more difficulties and just wanted to protect her.
"No it's fine, Itachi-san I'll stay" and she gave him an encouraging smile.
He unwillingly nodded and let her go.
Sakura was about to go upstairs when she saw Sasuke. Who shot her mean look and walked off with a angry expression on his face. As 'tempting' as it was to join her team she decided against it.
Sakura then saw Gaara had waited patiently for her. She smiled at him and then half hugged him by putting one arm around his back; he did the same by wrapping one of his arms around her waist.
Neji saw this and stuck up his nose :hmph: turned on his heel and walked back to his team. She was a nuisance anyway…but did she have to move on so fast. It's as if I meant nothing to her.
Gaara and Sakura sat down and leaned on the wall. He wrapped one arm around Sakura held her against him.
Once the field was cleared Hayate announce the continuation of the preliminary matches and started up the board.
The next match was about to begin with Gaara vs Lee flashing across the board.
But before Gaara traveled down to meet his opponent he turned to Sakura.
"Will you be alright?" he asked worry evident in his voice. It was clear that if Sakura said 'no' he would forfeit his match and stay behind to comfort her.
Sakura wouldn't hold Gaara back and nodded her head. "Yes, I'll be alright. Go, do your best." She gave an encouraging smile to show that she was fine.
He nodded in understanding and traveled down to meet his opponent.
Lee and Gaara faced off. Lee getting into his taijutsu stance while Gaara pop off the cork from his gourd.
"Now 9th match please begin!" Hayate shouted and commenced the match between Gaara and Lee.
Lee charged at Gaara "Leaf whirlwind!", but Gaara's sand stopped it. He then tried hitting Gaara from different angles, which was pretty useless until he finally took off those profoundly hefty weights. Causing Lee's speed too increase greatly and became much closer to nailing Gaara a good one. He kept on, until he finally landed a kick on Gaara's head.
He tried his hidden Lotus, but Gaara had enough time to make a clone and free himself from severe damage.
Lee then began opening four of the eight celestial inner body gates.
"And the fourth Harm Gate…Open!" Lee screamed and transformed his body into a powerhouse.
He lunged at Gaara and started thrashing him across the arena.
"This is the End! The fifth, Limit gate OPEN!" He shouted and slammed his palm into Gaara.
He intertwined his hand around Gaara's sash and preformed his most deadly attack
"Extreme Lotus!" Lee's fist and foot smashed into Gaara.
The dust settled and it seemed as though Lee had beaten Gaara, because it looked as though Gaara was down for the count.
Lee started to get up with great difficulty. Using the five gates took a harsh toll on his own body.
Gaara was enraged and brought his sand up to perform his :sand coffin:.
When all of a sudden "GAARA NO!" Sakura shouted.
It looked as if her shouts had no effect, as Gaara's sand continued to wrap around Lee's arm and leg. Sakura started to panic. Dread filled her. She felt as if she was about to relieve the painful memory she had just encountered with Neji. No, no not AGAIN! She thought and continued to try to get through to Gaara.
"GAARA!" she shouted at the top of her lungs and this time her pleas broke through his fury and reached him.
Instead of shattering Lee's arm and leg Gaara settled for roughly throwing Lee against the wall and knocking him out cold.
As soon as Lee was knocked unconscious the match was over.
Sakura ran to Gaara's side, while Gai-sensei went to Lee's.
"Gaara are you alright?" she said while putting one hand behind his back and lifting him up.
:groan: He grunted in pain as she lifted him up. "Yeah" he said as he looked up into her face.
There was barely any distance between them as he whispered against her lips "I heard you" .
A warm aura quickly engulfed both of them, causing them to have a surreal moment. They were slowly but surely gravitating towards each other. Gaara's eyes were locked on Sakura's lips.
Sakura was starting to regret lifting him up so close to her, as she looked into his eyes and it became clear what he intended to do she :gasped: in surprise, which left her wide open for him.
Gaara quickly took action and closed the distance between their mouths.
He kissed her. Right in front of everyone! Wtf?
He slid his right hand up on the side of her face to hold her to him. He only planted that one sweet kiss then slowly pulled his lips back to see her face. They panted a bit as they stared into each other's eyes; their breath mingling from the intensity of it.
In a serious face he whispered to her "I would never hurt you".
To say the least Neji was beyond pissed. He. Was. Infuriated! He literally saw Red and expected flames to burst out of his eyes any second.
Sasuke was also mad. Although not as mad as Neji. To Neji this was the first time seeing his 'girl' with another man.
But Sasuke has been kicked around way too much by his precious Suki, he still feels mad, but now anguish dominates his feelings each time he sees her with someone else.
l
Lee was carried away to the infirmary to be treated. He would heal and live to fight another day.
After their little show Sakura had insisted Gaara go to the infirmary also, but he refused.
"No, I said I'll be fine. Come on let's go back up; the last match is about to start."
Gaara had wrapped one arm around Sakura, so that she could ' help' :winkwink: him walk up the stairs (and also to be near her and send a message to the other males that Sakura was now his, but I digress).
The last match was of course by Choji and Dosu; in which Choji lost horribly.
The genin who had won their matches were then given numbers and assigned matches in the finale.
Sakura would be fighting Dosu, but she knew who would be watching her.
Orochimaru
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Author's note
Alright Sasuke fan's before you guys get mad at me let me tell you now that Sasuke will have his moment in the next chapter. K. it's a good moment and in my opinion I always thought Sasuke was in Sakura's life more than any of the other guys. Seeing how they live together and were in the same grade.
I know I haven't updated in a while, but I will be delivering two chapters back to back.
Tomorrow's chapter will have SOOOO much in it. Let's just say that by the end of it Sakura will no longer be in Konoha! :winkwink:
:Smile: and :Sigh:
As always let me know what you think and ideas are always welcome.