Rays of light seemed to stab at his eyeballs. Vision fuzzy. Pain everywhere, but there was also a new power coursing throughout his body. He felt like he was being bathed in fire after being frozen solid. He must have broken out of the sandy prison he'd been captured in. He guessed the power of the Curry Pill was enough to stop him from being crushed.

He felt a squeezing feeling around his torso. He looked down to see a hand of sand trying to crush his midsection. He felt it like hearing a friend in the distance shouting hello. Far off. The power of the Curry Pill, huh? It was all so weird, but cool.

"Bubun Baika no Jutsu!" he yelled. Ignoring the hand squeezing for now, his left arm shot out toward Gaara and managed to grab hold of the sand shield that appeared to defend Gaara. Using the shield as leverage, his right fist moved like a supersonic boulder toward Gaara's position.

He felt the impact of his fist against yet another sand barrier, but this time, heard it collapse inward. The second sand barrier had completely shattered on impact! The recoil from the punch slightly altered his fist's pathway, but not before dealing a glancing blow to Gaara's face, sending it reeling backward, followed by his body. His sand caught his fall, almost as if it had a mind of its own.

Choji canceled the jutsu, recalling his arms back to normal size. He almost dropped to the ground, but manage to catch his upper body weight using his knee. He noticed that Gaara must have recalled the sand that had been attempting to crush him earlier in order to defend against Choji's sudden attack.

Though down on one knee, he continued to watch his opponent. His forehead was a sweaty waterfall. His breaths came deep and raspy. His limbs felt extremely shaky though, at the same time, powerful. The contradictory sensations were still very confusing for Choji. This was only the second time that he had used the Curry Pill and he had still not gotten used to the sheer exhaustion that came from using chakra in this state.

His vision moved up and down in rhythm to the rise and fall of his chest. He felt weird and winded, but he had finally landed a hit on the Demon of the Sand.

Then he watched as Gaara's cheek began to crack open. At the place where his fist had connected, cracks formed and grew until pieces of his face began to fall off, down to the arena floor below. Unreal. Gaara must have used the same sand that he had formed barriers with to cover his face and shield him from the impact.

Breath still coming in heaves, Choji knew that he wanted to win this match. He didn't know if he could, but he knew he no longer wanted to forfeit. Gaara was basically unharmed. He would need to finish it on this next attack.

He looked up to where Team 10 had been standing. This was the most intense he'd ever seen Shikamaru, with knuckles white from his grip on the railing. Even in his endless Go games with Asuma-sensei, Shikamaru was very casual about his dominance. Ino was biting her nails, which Choji had never seen her do. Even with her never-ending anxiety over that Sasuke genius-kid and whether he'd smile or not if he passed her way. Not the solid vote of confidence from either of them. Were they scared to really root for him to win, thinking that Gaara definitely held the upper hand?

Through heavy breaths, he tried to come to terms with what he should do. He'd lost a chance to forfeit before, but snatched it back on the strength of the Curry Pill. Was this enough? He'd finally managed to inflict some damage on Gaara. The guy was a tough opponent. Was it enough?

A low, demonic chuckle escaped from Gaara's mouth. Choji took another look at the face that had emerged from its protective shell. Gaara's eyes showed a sharpness more intense than at any other time in the fight. Choji had finally done damage, but Gaara looked more alive than ever. He could've been hiding it, but he didn't look like he'd suffered any significant chakra depletion either. And where was Asuma-sensei? He wasn't there with the rest of the team? Why? Yeah, he just needed more training. He'd face whatever life threw his way with more sharpened ninja skills than ever before. BBQ sounded nice anyway, and it'd let him restore all the chakra he'd. . .

"You can do it, Choji!"

The sound pierced his ear with the sharpness of the right amount of lemon added to a dish. A girl's voice. He'd assumed that Team 10 were the only ones who really wanted to see him win the match. Was it the Hyuuga princess from Kiba's team? That bijin beauty Sakura-chan from Team 7? Hmm, no, no. It sounded more familiar somehow, he'd heard that voice somewh…

Wait…Ino!? He looked up to see Ino's hand now gripping the balcony rail, her other hand raised above her in a fist, her teeth gritted, and all her focus directed toward him. If he wasn't facing a Sand Demon, he would've laughed from the shock of it all. Most of Ino and Choji's conversation was what Shikamaru would call "troublesome." Choji, why aren't you doing this? Choji, could you stop doing that. He'd never heard Ino say anything supportive before, and assumed that the voice he heard must have come from literally anyone else.

"Kick his ass!"

Her six-word pep talk was simple, but it brought back to his mind the question his father gave to him the night he'd received the Colored Pills. Even when breaking out of the sand prison from earlier, he hadn't quite answered his father's question.

Gaara's low chuckle evolved into a louder, maniacal laugh. He had turned his gaze from Choji and was now staring directly at Ino as well. Laughing, he pointed a finger toward Choji, then brought a thumb to his neck to pantomime slitting a throat.

Tabasco lit his soul. Fire. The anger began to course through Choji's veins, and it was clarifying. He realized it now: his power was to protect those that mattered to him. It sounded cliche, but it was one thing to care for those that mattered to you – a completely other thing to take the responsibility to protect them. And if he failed here, now, who would step up when the next crisis happened?

Realistically, he only had one shot at this, taking in his current chakra levels and general fatigue. For a few moments he stared at Gaara, summoning up the will for this final attack. Gaara stared back at him with a sadistic gleam to his eye. If it wasn't obvious from the previous attack which Choji survived, he was even more sure of one thing: Gaara would kill him if he had the chance to. If Gaara actually got the chance to do that, then maybe it was what he deserved. This was all or nothing.

"Bubun Baika no Jutsu!" Choji raised his arms toward the sky as they expanded one final time, this time with the fingers of both hands interlaced. Once both hands had reached a point overhead his arms stopped expanding. His hands pulled up slightly before he yelled, "Akimichi Sledgehammer!"

Both interlaced hands, with a force much greater than just gravity itself, accelerated toward its target.

The sound of a tremendous crack reverberated throughout the arena.

Team 10 - and everyone else within range - covered their ears again, some doubling over from the shock of the soundwaves coming from Choji's attack.

Ino, ears covered, kept her eyes still trained on Choji.

Shikamaru, eyes locked on Gaara to determine the result of the impact.

The balcony itself rippled from the sound waves coming from Choji's attack.

As observers of the match recovered from the effects of Choji's powerful ninjutsu, cracks could be seen in the arena floor surrounding Gaara. Sand debris, that was propelled skyward following the impact, was settling again. As the sand settled, a shape gradually came into view. A rounded edge at first, then, extended curves connecting on both sides, until finally, the full shape of a sphere of sand came into view. Gaara, it seemed, had completely guarded against the attack with a complete sand barrier.

And above it, the impact of Choji's Sledgehammer attack had broken through Gaara's defense. Choji's hands rested within a crater at the top of the sand sphere. If this attack had connected with Gaara's head, it was possibly the end of the match.

Choji himself had fallen to his knees. "Never take your eyes off of your opponent," was a fundamental of the fundamentals. So, his eyes were fixed on Gaara, but everything else seemed to droop with fatigue.

Choji's entire body received the recoil from the impact of this last attack. And now, to preserve his chakra, he retracted his arms to his side. He tried to correct the suddent change in balance, but lost it, falling forward on his face. Even if he had the strength and the chakra reserves to continue the fight, he wouldn't have even been able to move much. He was a sitting duck.

He had managed to use his right hand to push up his upper body enough to free his trapped left hand. And then he heard it. Gaara's cry:

"Blood! My blood!"

Choji struggled to keep his upper body suspended off of the ground as he tried to persuade his face to move upright. His attack must have penetrated the barrier? Every second counted.

He finally felt his upper body lifting as his face was flung upward. Propelled upward by an arm of sand.

His eyes took in the giant arm, shooting out of the sand shield that surrounded Gaara, with something small and circular that looked like a single eyeball floating in the distance.

His back was slammed against something hard. He coughed out blood on impact. His head rebounded off of a wall behind him, his neck violently snapping his head back as it dropped. The hand of sand pressed against his body, keeping him pressed against the wall behind him. The fingers slowly began to spread toward his neck, threatening to directly execute its earlier plan to squeeze the life from Choji. Choji's limp body showcased that he was nothing more than an animate corpse now. The sand finally reached his neck and began to apply pressure. The already weakened Leaf shinobi began wheezing, doing his utmost to keep his throat open and connected to the air he needed.

SLASH!

As he faded from consciousness, eyelids dropping, he saw the distinctive wind blade of his teacher, Asuma-sensei, slice through the wrist of Gaara's arm of sand. In a flash, he gripped the band of sand that was tightening around Choji's neck. His face was angry.

"Let's just say you earned that BBQ, kid."