I live! So not gonna bother with the whole spiel of why I was gone. Just know I am back and anytime I am underway I will be typing what I can along with when I am home. Now back to the show!
On the last episode of Bad Romance Z…
Anko pressed the button and the names began to slow down until the two fighters were finally selected.
Rock Lee vs. Sabaku no Gaara
At that moment Naruko's heart sank.
Now back to the show!
"YOSH! LEE IT IS TIME TO SHOW THIS YOUNG MAN YOUR ETERNAL FLAMES OF YOUTH!" Gai had manly tears running down his face at the thought of his favorite pupil displaying his prowess against the foreign ninja. Before Lee could jump over the railing Naruko had made her way back up and grabbed Lee's arm.
"Naruko-chan?" His blonde friend looked worried which in turn confused and worried him as well.
"Lee-kun…something about this guy…I don't know it gives me a weird vibe. Just…be careful okay? I don't want you getting hurt too badly or worse." Lee could see her cerulean eyes glistening with unshed tears. Truly she was worried about him, and why wouldn't she be? She just saw one of her first friends who she saw as a sister get injured with possible spinal damage. Lee reached out and rubbed her whiskered cheek with his thumb, the calloused digit feeling good against her cheek. Then he gave his, what he thought to be his biggest nice guy smile, it growing larger as he saw her frown become a small smile.
"Don't worry Naruko-chan, I can't lose, I won't lose. I'll never give up because if I did you'd think I'm not cool anymore and I can't have that!" Naruko nodded at him, at a loss for words as she saw him leap over the railing down to the arena floor.
'You better not die on me Lee-kun, I'd never forgive you if you did.' Naruko gripped the railing, not caring that she was crushing the metal. Gai placed a hand on her shoulder, making her look up at him.
"Don't worry too much Naruko, Lee will be fine, you'll see. I have all the faith in the world in him." She didn't respond, only nodded and turned back towards the fight about to commence.
Lee could only look at Gaara, taking note of every detail he could about him. The man just stood there, glaring coldly at him with his arms crossed.
The proctor decided not to waste any time. "Are you both ready?" Neither said otherwise. "Then begin!" and with a leap back away from the fighters the fight began in earnest as Lee took off preparing to end the fight with his Konoha senpuu technique but his kick was blocked, not by Gaara's arms or legs, but by a wall of sand.
Moving quickly Lee jumped back and charged again altering his course midway trying to go past the sand before it could react but it seemed that no matter what he wasn't fast enough.
'Have to rethink my strategy.' With a great backflip he landed on the ram seal statue, wondering just how he could get past the sand, if only he could—
"LEE! TAKE THEM OFF!"Lee looked towards his sensei with a look of confusion.
"But sensei! You said—"
"I KNOW WHAT I SAID! BUT IT'S OKAY!" He gave his student a thumbs up. With a smile Lee moved his leg warmers revealing weights around each leg which he promptly removed.
"Yosh! Now I can move freely!"
Both Gaara's siblings smirked thinking that there was no way that the green wearing boy dropping a few pounds would change the fight…until the weights hit the ground with a thunderous crash worthy of one of Naruko's attacks.
Gai looked to his student, both faces set with a look of determination but before he could send Lee off, Naruko beat him to it.
"KICK HIS ASS LEE-KUN!" and faster than one could blink the boy vanished, the only clues of his movement being the explosions of sand around Gaara before the Suna boy was sent to the ground, much to the shock of everyone there with the exception of Naruko and Gai. Lee could only smirk as Gaara's face had an incredulous look on it at someone piercing his defense for the first time in his life.
"NOW EXPLODE LEE!" Gai yelled, Naruko having to grab the taijutsu master's hitai-ite belt to prevent him from falling over the railing.
"YOSH!" and once again Lee vanished, the sand exploding twice before he punched Gaara in the jaw sending him sprawling, only for Lee's face to mimic Gaara's earlier one at the sight of shards of compacted sand falling off the boy's face.
"WHAT THE FUCK?! LEE-KUN WATCH YOURSELF!" Naruko could only watch as one of her best friends was nearly beaten to a pulp by the barrage of sand coming from Gaara, only for him to stand up groggily and look up at her and Gai and smile. Naruko smiled back at him. She knew he wouldn't give up, it wasn't in his nature, she just hoped he knew what he was doing.
"LEE, GO AHEAD, USE IT!" Naruko looked up at Gai wondering just what he was talking about. But quickly turned her attention back to the fight seeing Lee, crossing his arms in front of his face.
'I will not fail…I cannot fail! Not when she's watching me…Naruko-chan…please notice me now when I become as you put it an utter badass!'
"SEIMON! KAI!" The onlookers could only watch as Lee's chakra exploded from his body, his skin turning blood red and his eyes going pure white, like an angry god of war, Lee hunched over, his war cry making the room shake. Naruko could only smile at her friend as she watched him pull out all of the stops.
'Do it Lee-kun, be the badass I know you are…' as if he could hear her thoughts Lee channeled more chakra.
"SHOMON! KAI!" The room began to shake even more as Lee grit his teeth from the pain, a small trickle of blood running from his nose as his eyes focused on Gaara and with a loud boom sped towards him, the floor of the arena exploding in chunks behind him. Before Gaara could react a foot to the bottom of his chin sent him skyward, faster than his sand could move to protect him. Punch after punch rained down upon the redhead.
'What is this?! My sand armor is peeling?!'
"THIS IS THE END! TOMON! KAI!" Using the bandages covering his arms Lee held his arms and place and cocked his fist back, ready to end the match finally.
"REVERSE LOTUS!" The shockwave from Lee's punch sent waves of wind all over the arena, making everyone cover their faces from the sand and debris of the destroyed arena floor. Unseen to all but Kakashi and Gai, Gaara's gourd had turned to sand and had softened the otherwise lethal impact. Lee though trying his best to move away from the encroaching sand was too damaged to avoid it as it wrapped around and crushed his arm and leg but before the sand could finish the job it erupted with Gai standing before Lee, his eyes promising pain to Gaara if he continued his attack. Memories flashed in Gaara's mind and he held his head as the pain of those memories hit him.
"Why…why would you…help him?" Gai simply smiled.
"Because he's…my precious student." Both Gai and Gaara stared each other down, neither willing to give ground.
"Enough! *cough* The victor is Gaara!"
The sound of bones popping and a body groaning came from behind Gai who stared in amazement at his student who despite being unconscious, bruised, broken, and damage possibly beyond all repair was standing and in his ready stance, still prepared to continue the fight, by sheer muscle memory and stubborn will. Gai was in tears at seeing his student who didn't want to breakhis word to Naruko about giving up.
Sakura stared wide eyed and began to climb the rail to jump it when Kakashi's voice stopped her.
"How do you intend to help him Sakura? Your presence will only cause him pain. Same thing with—" The sound of Naruko impacting the ground was heard as Kakashi saw his hothead student walking slowly towards Gaara.
'…well shit.'
Naruko slowly walked towards Gaara, the rage building inside her near its boiling point. She could feel the fox inside her seeping its chakra into her and while her mother kept whispering things to calm her down it was futile. All she saw was a redhead who she was ready to slaughter, sand armor be damned.
Gaara along with everyone present could feel the killing intent that flooded the room. For the first time in his life Gaara felt fear as the now red-eyed blonde haired girl slowly stalked towards him, her hair flowing behind her looking almost like nine tails coming from her head. Naruko stopped just a few feet from Gaara, his blood quickening at the sight of her red eyes.
"Gaara was it? You…better pray that that man laying over there will live, because if he dies…your life will be forfeit, there will be no place for you to hide, nowhere to run, no one you can hide behind. I will find you, and I will slaughter you, I will erase you from existence. So pray Gaara, that that man over there!" She could see medics talking with Gai and he seemed upset, her anger flared at the possibilities.
"IS ALIVE AND WELL!"
Naruko walked over to Lee and stared at his body, committing every wound to memory much like with Tenten. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she looked at his crippled arm and leg.
"The medics say he'll never recover enough to be a shinobi again, if only Tsunade were here…"
Naruko's blood went cold, her other best friend would never be a shinobi again, then Gai's last words hit her.
"So all we need is Tsunade huh? Then I know what I'll need to do after this exam is over…" She walked the long walk back up to the balcony. It seemed so lonesome without her two friends there. Sakura grabbed her arm tenderly.
"Naruko, I know how much Lee-kun meant to you." Naruko smiled at her, but it was a weak one, truly Sakura didn't know how much the weird looking boy meant to her and how could she? Sakura had friends growing up, while Naruko had only four people she could consider close to her though Sasuke and Sakura were slowly making their way onto the list. So lost in her thoughts she wasn't even aware that the match between Hinata and Neji had started. She caught the tail end of Neji's spiel to Hinata about her not being cut out to be a shinobi and to just quit.
"NEJI-KUN! STOP BEING AN ASSHOLE! HINATA-CHAN WHOOP HIS ASS! SHOW THAT PERVERTED BASTARD WHO'S THE SHIT! NEVER GIVE UP HINATA-CHAN!" Hinata could only smile softly at her idol's words of encouragement.
'Thank you…Naruko.' And both fighters began, jabbing, dodging, and maneuvering, their palms or fingertips only needing brief contact to do damage.
'You can do it Hinata, you can beat him.' Naruko truly didn't know the girl but she wasn't about to let Neji spout his crap and force her to quit without her at least proving herself. Hinata was quickly thrown to the ground by the force of Neji's blow to her chest.
"Give up Hinata-sama, this is difference between you and me, an elite and a failure. Fate has decreed that you would lose the moment you decided to continue the match. Now I'll tell you again, give up."
Hinata slowly picked herself back up, small droplets of crimson falling from her mouth staining the floor.
"I…won't give up…because that's my nindo!"
"HELL YEAH! YOU SHOW HIM HINATA-CHAN!"
'Naruko, you've always been a source of inspiration for me. I've watched you for years, wishing, hoping that one day I could be as strong as you, as brave as you, as cool as you. Now, here with you watching me, I won't give up, because you wouldn't.'
Hinata resumed her gentle fist stance and while she knew her tenketsu were closed and thus she couldn't actually do the gentle fist style, she wouldn't give up.
Neji's eye furrowed at the sight of his cousin getting back up when she should have quit long ago.
"It's time to end this." Neji charged forward ready to deliver the killing blow. Hinata despite her best attempts wasn't able to block it and coughed up more blood as she crumpled to the floor.
"This match's winner is—"
"HOLD THE HELL UP DEAD MAN! THE MATCH AIN'T OVER YET!" Sure enough Hinata continued to get up, on wobbly legs, mouth covered in blood, and palms shaking as she once again assumed the gentle fist stance.
"Why do you persist Hinata-sama? If you keep this up you will die." Hinata smiled at him which slightly confused him.
"It's because I know now that you are suffering, it is you who is caught by fate, the fate of the branch and main families." That was the last straw for Neji, first this failure refuses to give up, then she spouts off that he is suffering under fate. It was time to destroy her. But before he could put the failure in her permanent place he was held in place by no less than four jonin and a glaring Naruko kneeling over Hinata's now unconscious body.
"You did great Hinata-chan. Just rest, the medics are on their way." As the medics loaded her onto the stretcher Naruko just stood and shook her head while she cracked her knuckles.
"Looks like Naruko's List of Bitches to Put Down is getting longer by the minute, so far I got two Suna-nin and a perverted Hyuuga." Naruko honestly didn't even pay attention to the fights with the sound nin, she knew off the bat Shikamaru despite being the laziest man in the world would win while Choji's match against that Dosu guy she was sad to see end the way it did. Her mind was more focused on the four people she'd have to visit in the hospital after this was over. She sort of auto-piloted as the Hokage gave his speech about the purpose of the exams, and only heard that she had a month to train and to pick a number which put her up against Neji. Smiling almost maniacally Naruko balled up the paper and tossed it.
"Well looks like one person on my list is gonna get crossed off already, awesome. Now to get some training. Hey bubblegum! Where's Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura thought for a moment and remembered he left a second ago to probably go check on Sasuke.
"He's probably with Sasuke-kun!"
"Awesome thanks!"
Naruko ran to the hospital as fast as she could, once she was done asking Kakashi for training she'd go visit Lee, Sasuke, Tenten, and Hinata.
"Hey what room is Sasuke Uchiha in?" The nurse looked at her with a bored expression, reminding her of her one-eyed sensei.
"Visiting hours are closed."
"The hell?! What for?!" The other nurse just shrugged.
"Hospital policy, sorry nothing we can do about it." Naruko was livid, if the old man hadn't spoken for so long she may have made it in time.
"Oh come on! It's not like I'm going to—"
"Naruko, you're in a hospital, be quiet!" Her sensei came around the corner, his expression matching the nurses, bored and uninterested.
"Ah just the guy I was looking for! Kakashi-sensei I want you to train me—"
"I know and I can't, but don't worry I got your teacher already planned. In fact they'll be here right about now—" A puff of smoke and there stood Anko Mitarashi in all her provocative glory.
"Hey there girlie! Kakashi-kun said you'd need a tutor for the month before the chunin exam finals, so since you made it through, I'll be your tutor."
"REALLY?!" A shh sound from Kakashi and the nurses made her quiet down.
"Why don't you and Anko go outside and discuss your plans for the next month Naruko. I'll be busy but I'll be sure to be there for the finals." Anko slung her arm around Naruko's neck.
"Come on girlie, you're with me for the month, first we'll get you some clothes worthy of your self-appointed title of Head Bitch in Charge, then we'll work on your basics, from what Kaka-kun has told me, your chakra control could use some work, after you've mastered that we'll see what else we can teach you kay? Now let's go shopping!"
While Naruko was slightly disappointed that Kakashi wouldn't be training her Anko was a cool chick in her opinion and also a jonin to boot so this would be fun, right?
If only she knew…