Chapter 10: Hopes and Doubts.

"Oi, Miyako-chan!"

The curious Tsubaki turned her head at the echoing sound of a familiar voice, only to see her blonde teammate running energetically down the hallway, waving his hand enthusiastically. Miyako suppressed a grin as she watched the nurses back away from the Genin speeding past the hospital equipment, clearly alarmed at the among of energy radiating from the teenager.

"The third round is starting in five minutes!" he panted, pausing in front of her as he wiped the tiny beads of sweat from his Konoha headband. Naruto looked up at her again once he had regained his breath, his cobalt eyes gleaming with question. "Kakashi-sensei told me to find you. Why are you still here?"

She smiled. "I was just clearing my head a bit. Good thing you came to find me, Naruto-kun, I would've missed the commencement…"

Naruto raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You've been acting a bit strange lately… ever since both Sasuke and I got released from the hospital. Everything okay?"

Hazel eyes flickered elsewhere, and she found a deep stain on the floor to stare at as she ransacked her mind for a reasonable reply.

"It's nothing," she answered, chuckling nervously. "Just recovering from the second round." Miyako glanced up and shot her teammate a convincing smile. "Don't worry about it—worry about who you're up against next."

Naruto grinned and placed his hands on his hips, emitting confidence. "You shouldn't be doubting me! One day, I'll become Hokage—"

She chuckled and turned her teammate around, pushing him down the hallway in an effort to hurry their movements. "You can't become Hokage without becoming a Chuunin first, Naruto-kun!"

***

After a message from the Hokage that consisted of a brief congratulations and, to everyone's disappointment, the announcement that the following ten matches were constructed through a preliminary round rather than the final round, the Genin were assembled into an empty, spacious room.

Despite the break the Genin had been given, two hours was not nearly enough time to recover from the lack of sleep that had been passed on from the previous round. In addition, the groups that had arrived last had scarcely any time at all to rest, and they were still covered from cuts and bruises from the forest.

Miyako shot a curt glance towards Sasuke, and she stiffened as she realized that he had been doing the same thing. The two looked away from each other without speaking, and Naruto cocked his head to one side in confusion as he noticed the cold, bitter expressions on both their faces.

***

(half an hour earlier)

"This… this isn't the first time."

Miyako was staring very determinedly out the window, and the dim stream of light from the warm sunset outside highlighted the flushed redness of her cheeks as she pondered over what had just occurred. Had Naruto not mumbled something in his sleep, the two of them might have continued their activities for quite a moment longer. Sasuke shuffled uncomfortably in his bed sheets as he struggled to find an answer.

"I know," he replied awkwardly. "It's just that… I don't know, actually." Sasuke suddenly looked up, and view of a conglomeration of warm colors from the sunset was suddenly immersed by a sea of charcoal. "What if… what if we really are…?"

Miyako chuckled, causing Sasuke to raise an eyebrow. She shook her head, almost as if reading his thoughts exactly.

"I didn't laugh at what you said," she answered, her damp, pink lips curling into a smile. "I just thought that I'd never see you stammer like this."

Sasuke frowned deeply, obsidian eyes flickering with unease. "I was trying to answer your question, in any case—"

Miyako laughed as she ran a hand through his ebony hair playfully, silencing his words. He was suddenly reminded of the time when he had first seen her smile so genuinely on Tanabata evening. Then he realized that had occurred less than twenty-four hours ago, a thought that was simply unbelievable considering how terribly long today had seemed.

"I might have to agree with you for once," she chuckled.

Sasuke said nothing. He was still swamped with exhaustion, and every limb in his body ached to spend the remainder of the day in bed, not to mention it was already strenuous for him to keep his eyes open. They were already beginning to shut from the warmth of the body of the kunoichi seated next to him, it was only a matter of time before he drifted off to sleep…

"… but what if this isn't right?"

Quiet as her voice was, the instance he had registered what Miyako had just said, a wave of attention surged through his fatigued body. Ebony eyes blinked repeatedly as he digested the meaning behind her words, and he turned to her, clearly surprised.

"What do you mean?" he asked incredulously.

Miyako shifted her weight on the edge of his bed and heaved a sigh. "Well, for starters, you're an Uchiha, and I'm a Tsubaki."

"... Are you saying you don't want this?"

Miyako looked up at him in surprise, and it was only then when Sasuke realized how blunt as well as childish he had sounded.

"I mean, it's not like I wanted this—" he began hastily.

Amber eyes hardened almost immediately. "Then why have you been kissing me?"

The candidness of her sentence suddenly annoyed him, not to mention it was embarrassing.

"There is no reason," he retorted dryly. "You're the one who brought this up in the first place."

Miyako's sarcastic answer was cut off by the sound of Naruto shuffling around in his bed. For a few seconds, the two of them simply sat in silence.

"How's that wound he left you?" she asked coolly, insistent on not meeting his eyes this time.

Sasuke rubbed the back of his neck warily. "Kakashi said he couldn't do much to it because the mark was still fresh. He said it would most likely hinder me in the next round since it responds to sudden changes in my chakra system."

"You aren't participating in the next round, then?"

"Of course I am," he replied icily, causing her to raise a perfectly shaped eyebrow. "Do you actually think I'm going to sit out of it?"

"Don't be rash, you just said it reacts to chakra, how are you possibly going to—"

"It's none of your business what I do," he snapped. The vexation and impatience was beginning to accumulate very quickly.

Miyako's lips pursed into a thin, white line, but she said nothing. The room had lost all the warmth it had consisted of before.

"Well," she began, reaching for her mask and fastening the dark cloth around her face as she slid off the mattress. "I'll watch you go try and kill yourself in another half hour."

Sasuke simply rolled his eyes as he heard the door click rather loudly behind her. For several minutes, the Uchiha stared blatantly out the window, where the sun was already beginning to sink beyond the horizon of the village's surroundings, his mind cluttered with gnawing thoughts. The fact that she had brought up their clashing history as an excuse for their growing relationship, which was already progressing at an extremely slow pace, had annoyed him beyond belief. For all he knew, maybe he had been foolish to think that wiping such a blood-stained slate clean was feasible.

***

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi.

Despite the large, bold print flashing on the screen, it took Miyako several seconds to register the fact that Sasuke was actually brainless enough to continue into the preliminaries for the third round. The two of them said nothing as she passed by him, walking alongside Naruto and Sakura as the rest of the audience approached the upper balcony.

A sudden tinge of guilt wavered through her, and Miyako mustered a small smile—she had almost forgotten how stubbornly headstrong he had always been, even during their years at the Academy. And who was she to take away the attribute that made Uchiha Sasuke who he was today? The grim smiled widened slightly beneath her hidden mask—perhaps she did owe him an apology.

The second she had cleared out her entirety of thoughts, the weight against her chest seemed much less pressured as it had been before, and, along with the remaining participants of the Chuunin exam, she turned to watch the first match with eager eyes.

The first several moves of the match had been unexpected and spontaneous. His opponent, Akado, wore a tightly bound mask around the bottom half of his face in addition to a pair of black sunglasses, creating a very suspicious image indeed. He lunged at Sasuke the instant the match began, and Sasuke, who was undoubtedly coming up with methods to counterattack his opponent without tapping into his chakra level, evaded without any issues.

But the relief only lasted for a split second. Akado lunged forward once more, and his hand had merely grazed the tip of Sasuke's forehead, but for some strange reason, it was enough to cause the Uchiha to lose his footing. Sakura inhaled sharply as Akado managed to place one hand firmly against Sasuke's forehead, further immobilizing his movements. Naruto and Miyako watched the match with expressions of disbelief—half of them hoped that Sasuke had allowed such a blunder to occur only to perform a spectacular counterattack, but it seemed like it was not the case.

Sasuke felt his energy seep rapidly from his system, and his obsidian eyes fluttered as he struggled to maintain consciousness. In order to prevent using too much chakra, he had restrained from using his Sharingan, but his opponent had some sort of ability, something that left him feeling completely drained from what little strength he had left from the previous round.

He heard Naruto shout his name out, and in an effort to recover himself, the Uchiha mustered a rapid kick at the side of Akado's face, thus lengthening the distance between them. Sasuke scrambled up almost immediately, and he found it grueling to think of a solution to his predicament, especially as the aching in his limbs returned.

Cocoa eyes narrowed with both concentration and worry as she continued to observe the match. There was no question that Sasuke's opponent held the interesting ability to draw out the chakra of others, leaving them completely vulnerable to what was to come after. One more close encounter with Akado and the Uchiha would be done for.

Out of the corner of her ear, Miyako heard quiet murmurs regarding Sasuke's unimpressive performance so far, and she tightened her grip against the railings as she watched Akado charge at Sasuke a third time.

Sasuke grimaced as he saw his opponent head towards him once more, and he continued to pillage his pounding head for a solution. Ebony eyes widened with attention, and just as quickly as his epiphany had occurred, Sasuke disappeared from sight in no less time than it took for Akado to blink.

He clenched his teeth together in concentration and thrust his left leg upwards as hard as he could and felt it collide successfully against the masked shinobi's chin. Sasuke heard a number of surprised gasps from the crowd above, and he managed to recover his confidence from that sound alone.

He smirked as he recalled the steps of Lee's flawless taijutsu from the time they had fought each other. Sasuke reappeared behind his opponent in mid-air, his dark eyes dancing with confidence.

"Surprised, mm?" he sneered, readying himself for the next few steps of Lee's taijutsu. "From here on, it's all original. Kage Buyou!"

Sasuke swung his foot in mid-air almost lazily, allowing it to collide forcefully against his adversary's stomach. There was an assertiveness that was practically bubbling from his system, and Miyako breathed with relief as she realized that Sasuke had succeeded in turning the tables in this match.

But the reassurance vanished when a sudden streak of pain suddenly flooded into his already throbbing body. Sasuke flinched unconsciously, clenching his teeth together in pain as he felt the burning sensation spread as quickly as the black patterns seeped from the three-dotted mark behind his neck.

"You have to stop him," Miyako heard Gai mutter to Kakashi. "It's what the Hokage said—if it spreads, we are to cease the match immediately."

"Give him a few seconds," Kakashi mumbled, his one, black eye transfixed on his young student.

"Kakashi, you can't—"

There was a sharp intake of breath, and Miyako realized only a few seconds afterwards that the noise had come from her. Gai turned his attention back to the match immediately with narrowed eyes.

"The marks are returning to their original state?!" Anko said in disbelief. "Impossible!"

The peculiarly patterned ink-like markings were beginning to seep back into their original location as quickly as they had appeared. An impressed smile curled beneath Kakashi's mask as he continued to watch the Uchiha prodigy once again overcome the boundary between impossible and possible.

"Here we go," said Sasuke, landing another blow against Akado's stomach.

He landed not one, but two, three, four consecutive kicks against Akado's chest. There was no doubt that the first blow to his opponent's chin had still left him dazed and unresponsive. Sasuke twisted his body elegantly in mid-air and finished the move with one last kick, sending his enemy flying into the cold, stone floor.

Once the specks, the dust and the blood had cleared, the audience could easily see two figures lying motionless against the ground. Sasuke was indisputably out of energy, but amazingly managed to sit up as the examiner crossed the damaged floor in order to check Akado's pulse. He glanced at Sasuke, clearly impressed, and raised his hand.

"Winner, Uchiha Sasuke!"

Sasuke's vision blurred considerably, and his sore body swayed backwards. There was a sudden puff of white smoke, and Kakashi reappeared behind the dark-haired victor, lazily propping up his student's limp, aching body with one knee.

"Good one," he complimented, shoving his copy of Icha-Icha into the pocket of his coat. "I'm impressed."

Sasuke chuckled weakly and allowed his sensei to help him stand. He felt Kakashi's grip tighten on his shoulder, and the two vanished in another pillar of white, materializing a split second on the balcony above among the remaining members of team seven.

"Idiot," Naruto teased, crossing his arms across his chest. "Winning like that… you're all beat up!"

"Congrats, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura chimed in, her olive eyes shimmering with excitement.

Sasuke felt his lips curl into a wry smile in thanks, and he found his eyes wandering towards the familiar masked face standing next to Sakura. For a handful of seconds, neither Genin said anything, then—

"I—" the two of them began simultaneously.

Kakashi raised a curious eyebrow as he stared at the slightly flustered teenagers before him. Miyako grimaced and reached out, gripping Sasuke's wrist tightly in her hand before turning to her sensei.

"Can I borrow him for a moment, Kakashi-sensei?" she asked with an innocent smile. "It won't take long, of course."

Kakashi shrugged. "Mm. I'll come find you in a few minutes, Sasuke. We need to go and seal up that mark."

Coal-black eyes widened in interest as Sasuke allowed her to drag him outside the spacious room and into the brightly lit hallway. The two took a sharp turn and he found himself in a dimmer, emptier corner. Sasuke felt the curiosity simmer inside him as the two Genin shuffled awkwardly into the narrow space.

"What is it?" he asked warily as he felt the fatigue return.

"I—" began Miyako. She stopped herself and heaved a deep sigh, rubbing her temples anxiously.

"Just say it, I have to go back soon—"

He felt her trembling hands glide against his injured face and simply gazed into the ocean of amber with a mixed expression of amusement and surprise.

"I… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have—"

"No, it's all right," he said hastily, turning his head away. It was the last topic he wanted to discuss. "I understand if you feel that you don't want—"

"I do," she insisted impatiently, causing Sasuke to glance up at her with confused eyes. "I was wrong to let something as trivial as that get into the way."

He heard her words drift off into silence as he pressed a warm hand against her cheek, caressing it gently.

"Continue," he murmured calmly as he untied the knot hidden underneath her black hair.

Lengthy eyelashes fluttered downwards, as if that action alone could conceal her image even as Sasuke drew the cloth away.

"And, well," she began awkwardly. "The past is the past, and what matters—"

"Tch," he scoffed lightly, his hand cupping her cheek lightly as he leaned down, bringing their faces to level. There was a weak smirk pasted against his exhausted, yet still attractive face. "Were you that worried?"

"No," she answered defensively, almost a bit too quickly. Miyako cleared her throat and frowned. "A bit, I suppose…"

Her frown deepened as she heard him chuckle in amusement.

"I shouldn't have pulled you aside," she pouted, glaring at the floor. "This is so embarrassing."

"Don't doubt me," he whispered in her ear reassuringly. "Where's my reward for being so forgiving?"

She smiled warily. "Well, at least your ego has returned. There's a sign of improvement."

Sasuke felt her eyelashes brush against his cheek and took in a deep breath. Ever since their encounter in the hospital room, he felt some sort of bizarre craving surface every time they were alone. He smirked as he leaned forwards in the darkness and met her lips, marveling at the sweet, indescribably satisfying feeling that he was immediately presented with. His thumb continued to caress her cheek lightly as he kissed her slowly and he found his free arm tightening itself instinctively around her waist, now completely unaware of the aching limbs in his body.

"Ah-hem."

The two jumped apart so swiftly, turning their heads frantically at the reason behind the curt interruption. Kakashi stood there with both hands in his pockets, flashing a brilliantly innocent smile.

"Hello," he greeted amusingly, acting as if he had seen absolutely nothing and causing both their cheeks to flush a deeper shade. "Sasuke, we should probably head on up to the hospital and seal that nasty mark of yours up now that Shino's defeated that one Sound nin… and Miyako, you might want to check out the contestants for the third round."

The two Genin leaned from their secluded corner, squinting their eyes as they attempted to read the white board several yards in front of them. Miyako felt her heart skip a beat as she recognized the all-too familiar names.

Tsubaki Miyako vs. Kankuro.

author's note:

personally, i feel like this is another uneventful chapter. my deepest apologies. :[ i feel as if i need to make the storyline progress, and thus everything has been roughly sketched out and a bit unimaginative. i am really looking forward to the events three years from the current time stage and if i could, i would skip to shippuden and start from there. but the progression is necessary, so please bear with me! also, i wanted to thank the reviewers - reviews do encourage me to do a better job with the next update... and of course, they also make me happy. many thanks! :)