Chapter 40

Katiya (approximate time: i don't know where the clock is.)

The Uchiha's match was beginning and Katiya receded back into her wheelchair-bound relative invisibility before using the time to estimate her own student's success chances. Their target appeared to be attempting to avoid Sharingan usage, but considering she herself did that for years, she was unimpressed. Zaku's arms were both in bandage wraps—likely Kin's or Konoha's half-hearted work—and the nervous look with which he used to watch the Uchiha's match suggested it was inflicted by the latter. Kin and Dosu themselves were only mildly injured.

So the last "assassination" attempt failed just as you had planned, Katiya thought to Orochimaru. Was the one month you gave me to train them to make them think they had a chance—or something else?

Katiya bit her lip. For some reason, Lord Orochimaru refrained from giving her instructions for when or what he wanted her to do upon retrieving her students from the hospital. Zaku, for certain, was going to require extensive hospitalization after his match—and Otogakure was rarely keen on expending resources for that.

Why the hell am I here?

She suppressed a shiver as Orochimaru's chakra punched through the chakra of her disguise, watching the battle. It was better her jutsu than her—her being worn as a disguise herself—and staunching that could have been a reason, but it still didn't sit right with her. Her using her chakra to disguise her lord's had the risk of catching the attention of Konohakagure's Hyuga clansmen, after all. Like the Uchiha, they had an ocular kekkei genkai, only theirs allowed for full three-dimensional 360 degree chakra visualization... Unlike her own that was limited to human sight lines and emphasized the copying of chakra flow. She turned her gaze back to the Uchiha's match. The latter had gone airborne after kicking his opponent up.

Katiya narrowed her eyes. Lord Orochimaru was either flaring his chakra to cause the Uchiha's curse mark to react—or the curse mark itself was flaring with Orochimaru's chakra—she wasn't a sensory type that could tell which. But she did watch as the curse mark spread and then receded, the Uchiha's opponent landing battered on the ground after a bout of taijutsu. Something wasn't right.

When their target left the fight room escorted by his sensei, Katiya had expected Orochimaru to immediately follow except he didn't. She knew it would be too obvious, but it was odd.

Kankuro (approximate time: 3:20 PM)

All of the shinobi from Suna noticed Gaara's fervent interest during the Uchiha's match, as Kankuro was keenly aware. Its conclusion did not seem to help the Jinchuriki, however.

Kabuto (approximate time: 3:20 PM)

After leaving the arena of the Chunin Exam preliminaries, Kabuto made his way back into the main building they were situated in, his "sensei" following behind him. His teammates were quite a bit older than he was, and himself older than the age expected to still require a jonin supervisor to the exams—partial reasons for why his teammates had been required to wear the masks they did. Still, the need for a jonin supervisor was just an excuse for his sensei to be around as another student of Lord Orochimaru—or former student in his sensei's case.

"This is the room."

Kabuto smirked, releasing the Sleeper Jutsu after he turned his sensei away from the area to walk back to whatever he was planning on doing. His sensei was somewhat a sympathizer of Orochimaru, a former student of his himself—the reason why Kabuto had been arranged to have the man as a "sensei"—but unfortunately, while he was neither an outright supporter nor an outright adversary, and though willing to turn a blind eye to his lord's antics, he was not willing to aid Otogakure at the request of him. Under normal circumstances. Needless to say, Sasori's Sleeper Jutsu was a blessing in disguise for Lord Orochimaru now as Kabuto manipulated the "randomizer". He and his true master knew Sasuke would have the first match, to have his curse mark sealed at the first opportunity. The second match would have to be that of a shinobi of Otogakure in order for his lord to slip away discreetly using the concern for said shinobi as cover.

Kabuto narrowed his eyes as he switched the punch cards to put Zaku Abumi and Shino Aburame to fight each other in the next round. It could have been a useless maneuver for all he knew of Orochimaru's plans, but it would have been nice to know what to do about the team of Oto-nin earlier.

Katiya* (approximate time: ask someone else.)

Zaku's already damaged arms exploded with the force of his own chakra. They had already been broken—and now they were irrecoverable. Katiya turned her head to ask Lord Orochimaru what he wanted her to do about the downed student, only to find him already gone, the chakra in the water that had hidden him dissipated from the distance and herself being too preoccupied to have noticed the water leaving her vicinity.

Katiya frowned and leaned back into her wheelchair. She had two more students whose battles she had to supervise anyways. Konoha, as soft as they were, would likely care better for the boy than how Oto would.

Kankuro* (approximate time: 3:45 PM)

Finally, my turn.

Kankuro headed down to the ground floor of the arena. We would know he had the other one of Kabuto's masked teammates to fight against. Kankuro did a soft Substitution Jutsu coming face-to-face with his opponent. His puppet under a Transformation Jutsu had now positioned Kankuro himself off to the side held at arm's length, wrapped in what were his puppet's thin carrying bandages. They had a bit of a banter and then Kankuro's opponent proceeded to attempt to disjoint him by wrapping his own body around Kankuro—his opponent having an uncanny amount of flexibility—his opponent yammering about his disjointment being maintained via his chakra.

Kankuro privately grinned. Close combat against Karasu? You little sucker—!

Kankuro stuck his hand out of his bandage wrap, undoing the mummy-like holding and replacing his hood. Kankuro envisioned a swift victory to minimize the amount of time Karasu had to stay out in the open. To that, he had Karasu grip his opponent around the waist and then constrict his four multi-jointed arms. He couldn't help but smile. His opponent and his snake-like disjointment ability was about to be crushed like a boa constrictor's prey.

"Oh, come on, imagine how much more flexible you'll be without any bones," Kankuro said to his opponent's outcries.

When his opponent finally passed out from the pain—and injury from his crushed ribs—Kankuro released his puppet. The proctor declared him victor and he headed back up the steps to his siblings as he didn't need any medical attention.

Temari* (approximate time: 4:50 PM)

Getting to ground-level, Temari had tucked her chin to get ready for any opening blow that might have been delivered by her opponent only to have her opponent—very coincidentally the Konoha kunoichi who cheated earlier in the exams via ridiculously obvious Sealing Jutsu—startle and leap back.

"Are you planning to wait out and see how I make my first move? Let me just tell you, once I start my attack, you'll be finished in a second. You're not skilled enough to read my movements if I attack first, so stop trying to look good," Temari called before goading her opponent to attack first.

Her opponent took the bait, leaping up for an aerial shuriken attack. Temari sent chakra to her entire body for a split second, combining a Body Flicker Jutsu with her tessenjutsu, using her fan to deflect the weapons thrown at her faster than the normal human eye could catch. The thrown shuriken landed behind her. It was the same maneuver she used to dodge the mess Gaara had made back in the Forest of Death. Temari's opponent appeared really, quite sadly befuddled by the weapons seemingly missing their target. By a long shot. It was just all too easy for Temari to taunt her over it.

"I thought I'd have some fun, but it seems I can't expect much from you."

Temari's opponent threw more weapons. But once they came in range, they too landed at her feet. It seemed the girl poured all her energy into her aim and weapons mastery and had no other skills.

"This is the first hoshi," Temari said, opening her fan slightly to expose the first circle on it. "There are two more. When the third one appears, you'd have lost."

Temari's opponent—Tenten—gritted her teeth. With a look of newfound determination after some motivational yelling from some boy in the stands, Tenten met Temari's gaze and took out what appeared to be two Storage Scrolls from the holsters at her hips. Temari tilted her head with a smirk, warning her about the eventual jutsu failure.

Temari's opponent ignored her. "Rising Twin Dragons!"

The two Storage Scrolls took to the sky in plumes of smoke, shaped as the dragons of its namesake. Temari blocked her face with her arm from the rush of air the dragons' formation created. Temari's opponent jumped to a height of about twelve meters to meet the dragon heads and grabbed the first two weapons to come out. With the speed and size of the symbols on the scrolls, it would be difficult for a casual observer to discern whether it was a Summoning or a Sealing Jutsu. But on the ground, Temari remained underwhelmed, an arm still on her barely open fan.

"Even if you increase the amount, the result is still the same." Temari flicked her fan's rivet into her hand from where it was on the ground, the action pulling it more open. "Second hoshi!"

A chakra enhanced wind gust blew yet another barrage of weapons away. They landed in a wide arc around her. It wasn't even quite a Wind Scythe Jutsu yet, as Temari didn't add the chakra to turn the wind into an invisible blade.

"I'm not done yet!" Tenten yelled as she leapt up once more, attaching chakra threads to every weapon she threw. With a wave of her arms, she sent them back to Temari once more.

Temari's eyes widened, surprised by the puppeteer-esque move but recovered quickly. Temari simply threw her fan to its fullest and swung once more. This time, both the weapons and Temari's opponent were thrown back. The opponent landed with a sliding thud. Now, Temari stood at a ready position for her next strike, her fan behind her in a defensive position, her left hand on the flat of her fan.

"Third hoshi."

Katiya* (approximate time: it really dont matter)

The wind-style user's match was of interest—especially her Wind Scythe Jutsu. She activated her Sharingan during the match under the guise of her darkened lenses—to make that powerful Wind Scythe Jutsu of hers hers. Katiya smirked to herself as her mind and her eyes replayed the jutsu—the chakra flow of it made just ever so slightly more copiable by the eyes of her kekkei genkai.

…

And perhaps just one match later, Kin got walloped. As expected.

Kankuro* (approximate time: 5:30 PM)

The match between one Neji and Hinata Hyuga was… fascinating. Fascinating, being the gentler term for what had happened. Neji was brutal and the fact that he and his opponent were related to each other by blood did not seem to help Gaara's bloodlust. Gaara had already started getting antsy back during Sasuke's match but now, while the proctor had to get someone to actually mop up the blood—?

—I'm curious about that Neji guy, Kankuro thought, occupying his mind. He wanted away from Gaara. Especially since they were getting down to the last matches and Gaara still hadn't gone—meaning his match was bound to come soon. It being essentially an interlude period, he found himself looking to the other side of the arena. Yeah, that might work, he thought to himself, finding the same orange-wearing knucklehead of a genin he met before. The orange one, despite being a knucklehead, had won his own match against an Inuzuka canine unit.

He moved to exit, walking around Gaara.

"Where are you going?" his sister asked.

"Just doing a little recon. I'll be back," he told her, picking his reason of choice. He went up to the Naruto-punk and exchanged a few words with him, but not getting much information, when Gaara's match started as expected. Gaara was up against the green spandexed bowl-cut kid we had seen a lot of recently.

...

"I don't know what kind of moves the guy with the dumb haircut has got, but he'll never take Gaara down, not in this lifetime."

"Wrong," Naruto replied without even a second glance.

"What?"

"Lee's stronger than you think, you have no idea."

Katiya (approximate time: when it matters, let me know.)

Dosu's match would be the last, the way things were going, and Gaara's preceded his.

She made no move to contact Gaara despite their vicinity in the fight room. And Gaara likewise made no attempt to contact her. She could almost feel him keeping her in his peripheral view, as she did for him. But that was all. She knew he was likely under orders not to kill anyone from Oto. She didn't want to push her luck, not so publically. They were nothing more than strangers to each other now. Nothing more.

Kin and Zaku both failed, and Dosu was busy sizing up the remaining contestant, and his competitors. Katiya flicked her gaze over to Gaara on the ground level. He was skinny, impassively pale. He kept his gaze on his opponent and appeared to notice none of his other surroundings. Not even her.

A part of her would have made a joke, even if only a mental one, about hoping his eyebrows would have grown in—hoping it was just a symptom of his innocent baby-like youth. But that would've had to have been a long time ago. If things had transpired differently. Katiya closed her eyes and waited for sounds of fighting to start and pull her attention back. Dosu's match would be up next.

Gaara (approximate time: 5:30 PM)

There was something in the last match—Neji's versus Hinata's that stirred something in him. The idea that it was his pReY'S DesTinY to be killed by him and that it was his own to kill others. A very similar message to what his father trained into him, his own destiny to be nothing but a weapon. oOooh HoOoo… LoOKiT wHaT We HaVe HeRE… KILL HIM. KILL HIM—AttAcK HiM—NOW! Shukaku agreed, seeing their new opponent. Gaara expelled his sand gourd's plug. It whizzed by to his opponent's face.

YES! YES! yEs! tHiS onE wiLL bE fUnnnNnn!!!

Kankuro (approximate time: 5:30 PM)

Kankuro saw the look in Gaara's eye. A part of him wanted to believe the Naruto-punk. But he knew it was likely nothing more than false confidence.

Gaara* (approximate time: 5:35 PM)

Gaara's opponent—who we know to be Rock Lee from the match signboard or just "Lee" as most people thought "Rock" was a dumb name—said something to which Gaara gave no verbal response. Rock Lee then began the match with a Leaf Hurricane. There were a series of deflections and blocks from Gaara's sand versus Rock Lee's hand-to-hand and then kunai-wielding combat, all automatic movements on behalf of Gaara's.

"Well? Is that all?" Gaara asked. "I hope you haven't finished entertaining me... We haven't had enough… blood…"

Gaara pushed his sand forwards intentionally now—intending on grabbing and hurling Lee. After which, the latter did a series of somersault dodges. Gaara began smashing his sand into the ground. Lee tripped on the sand. CruSH hiM. CrUsH HIM—CRUSH HiM NOW! Gaara complied, only to watch as he somersaulted out of that as well. Gaara's prey landed on the statue in the middle of the arena.

Someone from the stands must have sensed his student was losing and so a voice from above called down. "Alright Lee, take 'em off!"

The one named Rock Lee and the one above—Gai-sensei—exchanged words at the end of which Rock Lee pulled off his leg weights. The effect was immediate.

Floosh!

Huh?!?

His sand barrier had moved—he felt it—but now he was unable to see the movement of his opponent's—it was unexpected. For both him and the riling thing within him were caught by surprise. No one was that fast in Sunagakure—all of the ninjutsu-less and genjutsu-less shinobi were expelled from the Academy—none of them were trained—no one else needing to be that fast when they had other jutsu to compensate—and none of them had tried to test Gaara's speed limits on his jutsu. Gaara received a downward kick to his right shoulder. It took some skin off his face. ARrrRGGGgHHhh!

"Yes, Lee! Let the Power of Youth explode!" the stands called.

Gaara now intentionally formed a sand barrier before his natural sand would, seeing Lee charging for an attack. Gaara pulled some of his sand to himself, feeling Shukaku's insistence to have it nearby. KiLL hiM—KiLL HiM—KILL HIM NOW! Lee pivoted, charging again—forcing Gaara to switch back to his automatic barriers. Gaara took a direct hit to the face after his automatic barrier blocked three more taijutsu attacks. The stands sent verbal applause. GgggRrRrAaaaHhhh! CoME oN, pAThEtiC LiTtLe GAARA, AtTaCK!

Gaara gasped, wheezing. Shukaku would not stop yelling and was getting louder now. He let his sand armor break off and reform. All of his injuries disappeared with the armor change, Shukaku pushing at him to recover so he could fight longer, the sand stinging and burrowing and burning into the wounds as they closed. Gaara grinned very widely, his eyes blown open from the sensation. GRRAHHHhhh! Shukaku screamed within him, wheezing with an aching joy with him.

The sand covered him.

Gaara's countenance returned to its indifferent "normal". Up in the stands, his team saw it and the masses of moving sand as a prelude to a shift to Shukaku's manifestation. Hidden, so creepishly poorly under the facade of a child.

"Well, is that all?" Gaara rasped apathetically. Internally, he had his face pressed up against the bars of Shukaku's enclosure, his arms wrapped around them as if attempting to hug Shukaku but failing. Shukaku was so close to him, growling with anticipation.

"Get ready," Lee called back to him.

"… What are you waiting for?"

"Well, you asked for it." Lee kicked Gaara up. "Try this!"

Rock Lee threw Gaara up—if one of us had paid attention, we would know the move as a "Front Lotus" or "Primary Lotus"—but Lee closed his eyes from the pain. He was defying gravity after all, kicking skywards and pushing his chakra to the skin, against the air to use as a force field to "walk" him and his opponent still higher. Gaara took the moment, abandoning his sand armor with a Substitution Jutsu while airborne.

The sand armor of Gaara's hit the ground. While the proctor walked over to the cracking and abandoned sand armor, Gaara tapped into the chakra of his sand, letting it dissolve him, become him, and reform him on the ground. He then stepped out of his sand, chuckling. The look in his eye shifted. The proctor Body Flickered back, seeing the match was not over just in time as the Jinchurki and his demon smashed their weakening prey against the wall repeatedly. Shukaku licked his lips, Gaara did the same. They pulled their hands into the tora hand sign to resume attacking.

Rock Lee got back up after a bad dodge, determination in his eyes, beginning the process we know to be opening up the five of his accessible eight chakra gates. Blood rushed to the surface of Lee's skin, turning it a rather red hue. The transformation sent Shukaku rattling up against the bars of his seal—watching it silenced him temporarily—but only increased their interest in the pReY.

Gaara got kicked back after this transformation, his sand armor cracking again. Even faster now, Gaara was bounced around by Lee in the air again. Lee, leaping and bounding from the walls across the arena to bash off Gaara's armor from all angles.

In Gaara's own state of weakness, Shukaku silenced completely, his hackles raised. Gaara was thrown away from Shukaku's enclosure, Shukaku himself silent despite pressing himself against the bars again—his eyes boring into Gaara's rather mentally and now physically prone form.

Punch to the gut by Lee, groundwards, Gaara was grabbed by his cloth sash. His sand shield lagged behind, behind Lee, too far away. Lee yanked Gaara towards himself to deliver another blow, using his right knee and elbow in conjunction to drive into his solar plexus. Dust was blown up around the entire arena. Gaara disintegrated his gourd to catch himself. He sucked in ragged breaths from the landing, Shukaku sensing his opponent's weakness and increasing his demands for blood. Gaara reached his hands up for a Sand Coffin. The sand responded—Gaara wanted a quick death of his opponent now—the sand reached out. He himself barely had enough chakra now, however. It wasn't a full Sand Coffin.

Gaara grabbed his opponent around his left side—his opponent disabled by his own jutsu—his own false attempt at a transformation to a form of more power.

"Sand Coffin," Gaara rasped, recovering himself partially to follow up with more sand. "Now you will die..."

Katiya (approximate time: …)

Katiya watched from where some of the other sensei were gathered, her chest pounding. The killing intent—it was feverish now—ravenous as if starved of blood. She had opened her eyes to it and could not find it in herself to look away.

You were a fool, she thought to herself.

Gaara* (approximate time: 6:00 PM)

"Heuhhh..." Gaara breathed raggedly. The sensei of his opponent—father?—person—blocked his jutsu. Like Yashamaru would—

"But why… ? He failed. Why save him… ?"

"Because he's… because he is my student and also because he is precious to me."

Gaara closed his eyes before pulling himself up. The sand covered his wounds once more. He had a headache from the memories—Yashamaru—the look in his eye when he would have—when he—saved—

"I quit," Gaara said after Rock Lee was already downed.

Kankuro (approximate time: 6:00 PM)

It was a close match, he'd give Konoha that.

He swung his gaze over to Temari, whose expression was deadpan but her eyes… stunned. Then Baki-sensei, who was much the same. Kankuro bowed his head nearly imperceptibly. Suna was a different place than Konoha, for a sensei to have saved a student during their own battle.

Gaara* (approximate time: 6:05 PM)

The proctor made to announce the winner—since the other was unable to continue—only for that other—Gaara's opponent—to stand up. Gaara shifted to watch. And so he watched as the sensei—hugged—his downed student, apparently unconscious but still standing. Gaara scoffed at the… display.

"The winner is Gaara."

It was all he had to hear as he walked back up the stands. He was physically unscathed as per his custom. Some blonde kid in an orange jumpsuit ran towards the bloody scene, side-eying him as he passed. The blonde boy made Shukaku shift oddly but he was of no concern to Gaara.

Temari. "Good to have you back, Gaara."

It could have referred to her seeing him rather than Shukaku—or seeing him get back over to the stands—but either way, Gaara did not care to hear a word of it.

Katiya (approximate time: breathing. breathe time. breath. yes.)

You were a fool to have thought—

Orochimaru was not there. But she just had that sense, that if he were, he'd have given her a side-eyed glance of amusement watching her stiffened position and clenched fists. Amusement. Wheelchair bound, the two Konoha-nin that had taken an interest in her gone, the only person who was potentially close enough to see and read her body posture was Dosu, soon to be competing in his own match.

This is the true reason why you're here. Not because Lord Orochimaru needed some cover-up for his chakra—this—Kabuto. Katiya thought back to her conversation with him. "I favor the quests that are sustainable for me"—that's—him.

She heard the analysis of the other Suna-nin's. Gaara was just toying with his opponent, in those last moments before the Sand Coffin—the same move he had attempted on her.

You must mean nothing to him now, Katiya realized. For him to have made such a move. I suppose it's true—I had left him after all, we barely see each other now—and he doesn't—I don't think he ever—

—wanted me.

Dosu had gone to the lower level of the fight room and emerged with a swift victory. Expendable. It was what everyone was, in the end. And Katiya could see from the jerky movements of anger in his action, Dosu had made a similar conclusion, if only on the other end.

I have no place in Suna—but I do in… Otogakure. Katiya closed her eyes as all the other people made their way down the steps to get the details for the public finale of the Chunin Exams. Katiya pulled out her scroll of water to lift herself down the stairs to exit with Dosu. In the end, she would always be alone. It hurt more because she knew she was seeing only what Orochimaru had set out to let her see. Because even though she knew that, she couldn't find any way to argue that what Orochimaru was showing her was invalid.

The small shred of a thought in her mind—to use the chaos of the attack on Konohagakure to sneak away to Suna—had perished. And now looking at the situation with Dosu, the preeminent option was to defect to Konohagakure. But a part of her wondered what the point of that would be. Konoha would not welcome an Oto-nin after Oto's attack on them.

I'm not so conceited as to think I'm any more important in Oto. But where else can I go?

She left the arena alone, rolling behind a Dosu who wanted to get away.