Ino had forgotten how big the stadium really is; sure she had been there before, but never as the main attraction. Well, not the Main Attraction per-say, but the opening band at least. Maybe not even that, maybe the opening band for the opening band. The main attractions were Neji, Sasuke, and Gaara. She looks around at the waiting area where all of the competitors, except Naruto and Sasuke, are standing. Kakuro catches her eye and winks at her.
She smiles weakly at her competition, unsure what else to do.
She knows that she looks good. She'd spent a lot time in front of the mirror, more than she wants to admit, making sure that she looks as sexy and beautiful as she can. She figures that if she is going to die in this arena, she might as well look good before it happens. The fishnets fit the perfect amount of tightness around her freshly shaven legs. The shorts are just snug enough to show off her lower body, and she loves the purple top. She'd made sure to tie the strings on the side tightly with a perfect bow. She did the best she could with her stupid hair; choosing to put it in two french braids. She'd even decided to weave her trademark side bangs out of the way.
The red ribbon that she'd once given Sakura is wrapped stylishly around her wrist. She foolishly scans the audience, looking in vain to find pink hair.
Nothing.
"Ino." she looks over to see that none other than her former teammate had called her name. Shikamaru looks the same as always; dressed in his usual attire with the same lazy look on his face. She can't help but be jealous of the ponytail that the member of the former Ino-Shika-Cho. She also notices the four pigtails that his opponent has.
Of all the things to concern me, fucking hair? I chose the wrong profession.
"Shikamaru." she answers as she walks to him begrudgingly. Secretly she is relieved, having both him and Shino there makes her feel less exposed. Especially when she feels Dosu's glare land on her.
"Damn Goldie, what'd you do to get on his bad side?"
"He thinks that I am a waste of his time. He just wants to fight Sasuke." Ino answers blindly. She turns to see the Suna boy, Kankuro, standing a little over a comfortable distance from her.
"I think everyone wants to fight the Uchiha." Kankuro answers.
"Do you?"
Kankuro chuckles and rubs the back of his head. "Not even a little bit."
Ino laughs bitterly in the direction of the competitor entrance to the stadium, no sign of Sasuke or Naruto. "Me neither."
"Where the hell is Naruto?" Shikamaru asks no one in particular.
"The blond idiot is around here somewhere." Neji says from his place, he is leaning against the back wall in the shade, his pearlescent eyes closed. He is standing in the stereotypical Cool Guy pose. Arms crossed and the bottom of one foot pressed up against the wall. His eyelashes almost brush the top of his cheekbones.
The doors to the stadium burst open and Naruto sprints inside. The boy quickly joins them in the waiting area.
"Where have you been?" she hisses at him.
Naruto rubs the back of his head awkwardly… "I got held up."
She rolls her eyes as Naruto walks past her and stands next to Shikamaru. The two immediately begin to converse.
Genma steps into the middle of the arena and a roar bursts through the crowd. The handsome ninja moves his signature sebon needle toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. Ino's mental list of top 5 sexy male Konoha ninjas changes rank- Genma's name moving from #4 to #3.
She struggles to pay attention to the battle between Neji and Naruto. At first the fight seems pretty one sided, she strains to hear the words that are being exchanged, but her own heartbeat pounding in her ears makes them hard to hear. She watches Neji preform the Gentle Fist flawlessly, his movements more akin to dancing than fighting. Naruto is the opposite, his movements are jagged and harsh. As blows are exchanged, Ino feels her anxiety increase. Naruto's blood is splattered on the ground, she hears Neji mention something about killing her classmate.
She can't breath.
A hand covers her own sweaty one on the rail. They don't entwine their fingers, the owner of the hand simply covers t hers, long fingers in a loose cup around the back of her hand. She follows the tanned hand up the lean, muscular arm, to the bony shoulder, lightly toned chest, and realizes that it is Shikamaru. He isn't looking at her, his attention focused on the match below. She is about to pull her hand away, but thinks better of it, instead she lets her former teammate hold her hand. She wants her former teammate to hold her hand. She needs him to ground her in some way. His cool, dry hand is a relief to her hot and sweaty one. He knows that she is looking at him, he knows everything. Instead, he squeezes her hand slightly and she returns her attention to the match below.
Then it happens.
No one expected it.
Naruto won.
She yanks her hand from Shikamaru's grasp and claps her hands furiously, screaming and cheering for her orange clad classmate. Naruto is breathing hard and there is blood dripping from his torn and bloody fingers. But he did it.
He'd won.
The medics take an unconscious Neji off the field, and Naruto is escorted off the battlefield.
"Will the next competitors please enter the arena." Genma announces as he strides back to the middle of the stage.
Her name appears. Yamanaka Ino vs. Kinuta Dosu.
Fuck.
The Sound Ninja gives her a glance before jumping off the balcony and strides to the middle of the arena.
She tightens her grip on the railing before taking a deep breath. She swings the rest of her body on top of the railing, but Shikamaru tightens his grip. She looks over at him, her body crouched and ready to spring.
"You don't have to do this." Shikamaru whispers.
She meets his shadowed eyes.
"You've proven your point, Ino. Don't let yourself get killed."
"I haven't even started to make my point." she growls.
The two glare at one another.
"Yamanaka, do you give up?" Genma calls
She can feel all of the eyes of the arena on her.
On her and Shikamaru. Two members of Ino-Shika-Cho- two members of the Rookie 9 and one of two teams to have two competitors in the Final Exam.
She roughly shakes Shikamaru's hand off before jumping and landing in the arena. She stands up slowly and gives a weak smile. She makes sure that her noise cancelling ear muffs are around her neck.
The two chunnin hopefuls meet in the middle of the arena. They stand across from one another with Genma's arm between them, Ino's last form of protection before the onslaught.
"You two know the rules. You fight until one of you can no longer fight, or is dead. I will only intervene if necessary." Genma says. Ino notices that the older man's eyes slide ever so slightly in her direction. Thanks for the support, asshole. Genma's spot on her sexy shinobi list drops from #4 to #7.
"Begin!" he says, dropping his arm and leaping out of the way.
Ino and Dosu do the same, each jumping out of attack range. For a moment they just stare at one another, daring the other to make the first move.
"You ready to die, Yamanaka?"
Ino narrows her blue eyes at the Sound NInja and with obviously shaking hands, reaches into her thigh holster and removes a kunai.
"I can see you shaking." he mocks. "You scared?"
Ino takes a deep breath. Terrified actually.
"You wish." She yanks her ear muffs over her ears, then makes the first move, hoping the ear protection will somehow protect her from the onslaught of a sound wave.
To her surprise, he doesn't use his arm. Instead he draws his own weapon and the two collide in the middle of the arena.
Their weapons clash, sparks flying before they leap away from one another. It happens again and again. Ino channels chakra to her feet and runs halfway up the wall of the arena before kicking off as hard as she can. Her momentum sends her flying into Dosu, knocking him to the ground. She stumbles trying to regain her balance as she kicks Dosu's weapon out of his hand.
From the ground, Dosu sweeps his leg against her ankles causing her to fall to the ground as well. He is on top of her, straddling her- one hand over her throat and the other yanking her ear muffs off her head.
She gasps for air; pink painted fingernails clawing against the Sound Ninja's grasp.
"You know." he says softly applying the slightest amount of pressure to her already strained windpipe. "When I am in this position with a woman, usually it's for a fuck. If you scream like they do, I can make this a fast death."
His other hand goes to her throat.
Her struggles become more erratic, panic and loss of oxygen causing her to loose control. Her thoughts become more muddled as she struggles, her only desire to get him off of her.
She sees the madness turn to glee as black spots begin to cloud her vision. She gasps harder and harder, the sound of her pulse muffling the roars of the packed arena.
Dosu shifts his weight ever so slightly and Ino almost misses the subtle shift of weight to the left. She wraps her fingers tightly around Dosu's wrists before channeling her chakara to both her arms. With one last desperate gasp she swings her body hard to the left, throwing her weight and Dosu to the side, using significantly more chakara than necessary. She coughs crawling and scrambling to her feet as she attempts to run away from her opponent.
A barrage of sebon needles swarm her; piercing her back, her arms, and the backs of her legs. She ignores the pain and the needles sticking out of her body before turning and throwing a handful of kunai at her enemy. She hears Dosu grunt in pain, a kunai piercing his thigh. She dares a quick glance over her shoulder, her kunai is embedded deep in his leg.
He stumbles and rips it out of his leg, blood gushes from the wound.
Very deep.
She stops and turns, still ignoring the needles embedded in her body. But a barrage of sound waves hit her; she screams, and goes flying against the wall, all the needles in her back hammered deeper.
Ino gasps for breath and groans, trying to hold back the nausea. There is an excruciating pain in her ears as they ring. She attempts to climb to her feet, but falls instantly.
Dosu is limping towards her.
She tries to stand again, using the wall as support. She feels like a newborn deer trying to climb to it's feet. She is sure that she looks like one too with her eyes wide and knees shaking. She half claws her way up the wall, looking up just in time to see Dosu raise his Echo Speaker a second time.
Here goes nothing. She preforms the necessary hand signs. "Earth Style: Practice Wall Technique" she whispers, the earth wall grows from the ground and she instantly drops to the earth on her stomach, covering her still ringing ears. The wall ends up being a little over knee height; some of the sound waves slide over the wall, others careen against it. The wall is shaking and the thinner sides crumble, a dust of debris from Naruto's battle get blown into the air. A huge crack appears in the middle of the wall, but to her relief, it stands.
Ino dry heaves behind the wall, and before the dust settles, sticks her head around the right side. She sees her hot pink ear muffs about 20 yards away- I need those. The blonde isn't sure if the tacky pink monstrosities are worth risking her life for, but she does know that she can't afford to get hit by her enemy's Echo Speaker again. She ducks behind the wall again and pulls a kunai with an exploding tag from her holster, she pauses and grabs three smoke bombs. Like a soldier looking out from the trenches, she gets a rough estimate about where the Sound Nin is standing. Ino sends a burst of chakara through her fingers, activating the exploding tag- She throws it, in tandem with the smoke bombs in what she hopes is the right direction before dashing from behind the wall. She runs across the arena, slides and grabs the ear muffs, and sprints behind the lone tree. It's a scrawny little thing, too thin to completely cover her body.
Damn it Ino, still too fat.
She shoves her vanity aside, just fast enough to dodge Dosu's kunai. Ino throws another kunai in his general direction, she is still dizzy- stumbling from side to side, there are multiple Dosu's walking towards her- she knows his mouth his moving but she can't hear anything. She puts on the ear muffs anyway and hangs onto the too thin for actual coverage tree. Kunai leave her hand one after another, trying to hit the multiple Dosus that seem to surround her. But her kunai go through what she thinks are shadow clones.
I was hit so hard that I am seeing doubles and triples.
She is hit from behind with another sound wave- she falls on her face and slides, she isn't sure how far she slides- but she slowly rolls onto her side groaning loudly.
Dosu circles her slowly, a shark circling his prey. He is twirling a kunai around his fingers, there is a smile on his face and his one visible eye is glittering with glee, she can feel the murderous intent radiating off of him.
He kicks her hard in the ribs before grabbing her by her hair.
Ino cries out, the pain in her head momentarily giving her a sense of clarity. She wraps hands around the other ninja's Echo Speaker and closes her eyes tightly.
"Hypnosis Jutzu" she whispers to herself. She swears she can feel her hair slowly being yanked out, and shoving the pain aside focuses on the mantra she was going to implant in his mind.
Your Echo Speaker is broken. The holes have been clogged with dirt, you have to get it out.
Dosu's grasp loosens ever so slightly, but the Sound Ninja still holds on.
She pushes harder. You can't kill her without it
She feels his mind hesitate. You couldn't do it with a kunai. If she gets hit again, you'll win.
All around her the audience is silent with the occasional scream- obviously wondering why the two fighting ninja are remaining motionless on the field. Ino with her hair tangled in Dosu's grasp, with her hands wrapped tightly around his Echo Speaker.
She broke it.
That does the trick, he throws her away from him onto the ground, she catches herself o her hands and knees.
"What did you do to it?" he screams cradling his arm.
This is it. She plops on her bottom, knees bent out in front of her. Then preforms the hand signs of the very first jutsu she learned.
"Mind-Body-Switch." she gasps. Her body falls to the ground.
She is in Dosu's head. Shoving aside the man's fucked up memories and past- she raises his hand, just like she did Sakura. Hoping that he doesn't have 2 Souls, or a stupid strong will that would knock her out of his mind.
"I, Kinuta Dosu, concede defeat. Ino Yamanaka wins." she struggles slightly to grunt out her enemy's words. She is tired, but she pushes on, she will drain all of her chakara if need be.
Genma saunters to the middle of the area, hand in his pockets. She almost screams at him to hurry up.
"Are you sure. You surrender?"
Ino forces Dosu to respond. "Yes. Yamanaka Ino has defeated me."
Genma looks at Ino's prone form of the ground. "I can only call this match if you can stand up, Yamanaka."
Ino glares at the proctor through Dosu's dark eyes. While in his mind, the other ninja's willpower is weaker. Faint she pushes before releasing her jutsu.
Her eyes flutter open, hoping for just an instant that this was all a dream. But seeing Dosu's unconscious body only feet from hers gives her that final jolt of energy she needs. She has to stand up. She pushes every last remaining bit of chakara into her body and manages to stagger to her feet.
A cheer breaks through the crowd. She'd won.
"Winner. Yamanaka Ino." Genma says although there is a tone of disbelief in his words.
She can't help but smile at the crowd- her lip is split as she taste her own blood and she can feel her left eye swelling.
"Come on, Yamanaka. We need to keep this ball rolling." he gives her a wink.
Ino's heart flutters ever so slightly.
She turns and begins to limp to the entrance, the medical ninjas already waiting at the awning.
A scream of rage and the sound of multiple ninja shunshin causes her to turn around quickly and uses her arm to block the kunai that was meant to hit her in the back of the head. She bites back a cry of pain, feeling the weapon pierce bone.
Asuma, Gai, and Anko appear- each one holding onto Dosu; Asuma has the sound nin in a headlock, Anko is holding onto the Echo Speaker, and Gai has two fingers on his forehead.
Cries of rage and screams of Unfair begin to echo in the arena.
Genma's loud voice echos. "Kinuta lost to Ino. The battle was over before the Sound Nin regained consciousness.
The Hokage stands from his podium and the arena immediately goes silent. "Genma is correct. Kinuta lost the battle. Yamanaka Ino wins."
Ino yanks the kunai out of her arm and throws it at Dosu's feet. She can't help but glance at Asuma. He has a proud look on his face, and she can't help but give him a ghost of a smile back.
She makes it through the awning, under the stadium before she faints into the arms of the waiting medic.