A/N: Yeah, this was a hard chapter for me to right. I had to revise a couple of sections twice before I was truly satisfied with it. Next chapter we'll start to see some more mayhem brewing, but for now, enjoy!
Chapter 25: A Break in Proceedings
"I don't mean to pour salt in the wound, but seriously Kankuro. You look like hell!"
"Thank you, sis! I SO wanted to hear that right now," the puppeteer mumbled, wincing as the medical ninjas started applying healing jutsu to his various wounds. ". . . I never thought your bedside manner was so amazing. It really lifts my spirits up."
"Okay, okay, I get it. You can stop with the sarcasm now . . ." Temari mumbled, raising her hands to show she meant no harm. "Look, I guess you're not in the mood to hear my snark right now, so we'll just leave you be. Is the next match going on right now?"
"Nah; the proctor called for a 20-minute break to give them time to fix the battlefield, and to allow the audience a few minutes to stretch their legs." Kankuro mumbled, wincing as a healer moved to heal his right hand. ". . . Ow."
"Ok, we'll leave you to your healing. C'mon Gaara, let's give the healers their space."
Gaara nodded before following Temari toward the exit. When they were close to Sasuke's bed, they saw that he was not alone, though the medics that had been working on him were long gone.
Sakura was now sitting at his bedside, her back turned to them. Both were silent, a tense air hanging over the two as Sasuke stared down at his covered legs and Sakura kept looking at everything but his face, her fingers tapping along her knees in a way that screamed that she was nervous.
"If you're going to say something Sakura, just say it."
"I'm still trying to put the proper words together . . ." she mumbled, looking up to see the two siblings walking up. Noticing her sudden silence, Sasuke looked up to see the siblings as well, though he didn't pay Temari much mind. His focus was purely on Gaara, though the redhead didn't return his gaze.
"Please pardon us. Don't stop on our account." Temari mumbled as she walked by them without even batting an eyelash their way, Gaara silently following behind her.
"Wait!"
The siblings turned their heads to see that Sasuke was directly staring at them, well, Gaara specifically. Sakura, for the most part, was watching her teammate, wondering what in the world he could be up to.
"I want a rematch!"
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" The pinkette immediately screeched as she stared the Sharingan wielder down, her voice at a volume that would instantly get some of the medics on her case about yelling in the infirmary.
Sure enough, a couple of the medics walked up to see what was going on, their eyes already going straight to Sakura as if they already knew it was her. She quickly bowed before muttering her apologies, and the two medics quickly settled on giving her a warning look before leaving.
"Again, are you serious?!" The pinkette repeated, keeping her voice low as she hissed at her teammate.
"It's not like I'm asking for one right now Sakura." Sasuke chided her, visibly annoyed by her quick assumption.
"Now why would you ask such a thing?" Temari decided to ask, interested to hear his response. "Not many people tend to survive their encounters with Gaara . . ."
They almost never do . . . Shukaku corrected, but Gaara dutifully ignored him.
". . . And those who do survive aren't very eager to fight him again, especially so soon after their first match," Temari finished as she stared the Sharingan wielder down. "Why so eager?"
"I knew that my battle with your brother would be a highly watched affair, but don't think I was competing today to bring honor to my kingdom or some shit like that," he answered, his sudden use of foul language startling Sakura. "I competed today to prove something to myself."
"And let me guess, what you were hoping to prove didn't come to fruition?" Gaara decided to ask.
". . . No," Sasuke admitted, scowling at the thought. "In all honesty, you weren't the person I was hoping to face today. My other teammate holds that honor."
"You were hoping to face Prince Naruto." Temari concluded.
"Yes, I was. I got overzealous and thought too far ahead instead of focusing on the here and now," Sasuke admitted, and Gaara had to commend him for it. Not many grown men were willing to own up to their mistakes, and the Uchiha was putting his own pride aside to admit his shortcomings to someone who was technically his opponents a few minutes prior. "You're an opponent that should never be second guessed. That was my mistake, and I don't make the same mistakes twice."
"You don't make the same mistake twice . . ." Gaara mumbled, thinking it over. ". . . We'll see."
Before Sasuke could muster a proper response, the redhead was out of the room, Temari following after him with a quick wave of goodbye. Sakura simply shook her head before turning to see the Uchiha's reaction, which she was quite shocked by.
She expected him to be scowling or brooding in the wake of the royal siblings' departure, but instead he was smirking. He was actually smirking, which wasn't something that he did when he was denied something he wanted.
It made Sakura both confused and worried.
"Um, Sasuke? Why are you smirking?" she finally decided to ask. "He didn't say he was going to give you a rematch."
"True, but he didn't say no either."
"You have got to be kidding me . . ."
As Sakura shook her head at Sasuke's somewhat positive thinking, Gaara and Temari continued to make their way back to the waiting area. When they reached their destination, Shikamaru was off to the side, taking a nap, Shino was missing, and Naruto was busy talking to his sister and her team by the railing. Both their eyes went straight to Haruka, who barely looked banged up after her encounter with their brother.
Sheesh, did your brother even try to hurt the girl?! Shukaku grumbled as his host and his sister moved to approach the two. Though he didn't appreciate hearing the tanuki's two cents, Gaara couldn't help but admit that the tanuki had a point.
While Kankuro was dealt some pretty nasty injuries, Haruka came out of their match completely unscathed by comparison.
"You sure you don't want to stop by the infirmary Haruka?" Nanami mumbled as she watched the brunette. "You've been rubbing at your eyes even before you got back up here."
"I'll be fine," said the cat teen as she blinked her vision into focus. "That pepper bomb Kankuro hit me with had some potent stuff. . . A little water in my eyes should do the trick though."
"Still, you should go to the infirmary to get your eyes checked out," Shizuna suggested as a smirk lined her face. "It would at least settle Nanami's nerves if you did."
"You make it sound like having concern for a fellow teammate is a bad thing." Nanami grumbled as she looked away, her eyes finally noticing that Gaara and Temari were approaching them. "Hm, we got company."
"Oh, the Sand Siblings have returned huh?" Haruka mumbled as she and the Fire twins turned their heads.
"If you're worried about us having any ill will towards you because of what you did to our brother, don't worry about it," Temari announced, playing peacemaker. "It's all a part of the competition after all . . . Besides, if he was barely able to make a dent in you during your fight, then he deserved the ass kicking you gave him."
Did I forget to mention how much I love it when your sister gets blunt with people?
"Now now Shukaku . . ." Gaara bit back as he looked around at the various expressions that marked everyone's faces. Haruka was grinning from ear-to-ear, Nanami looked spooked, Naruto looked impressed at the admission, and Shizuka only looked at her fellow blonde with an eyebrow raised.
"So, how is your brother anyway?" Shizuka was quick to ask, deciding to be the diplomatic one.
"Aside from his fucked up right hand, his scratched-up arms and torso, and his sprained looking right ankle, Kankuro's just fine," Temari conceded, her tone less than diplomatic yet still getting the point across relatively well. "You definitely did a number on him, that's for sure."
"Yeah; after that pepper bomb, all bets were off . . ." the cat teen mumbled as she went back to rubbing her eyes.
"I'm sure the audience appreciated the effort," Temari mumbled as she looked over the railing to see a few of Konoha's shinobi force fixing the ground with their earth-based ninjutsu. "After Gaara beat Sasuke, the home crowd must have been eager to see another homegrown ninja win."
"Yeah; Sasuke was one of the competitors heavily favored to win this entire thing. Considering he comes from one of the most powerful clans to ever exist, is expected to lead it once he's come of age, and is a prodigy in his own right, it's not hard to see why," Nanami mumbled as she brought a hand to her chin. "A lot of people placed bets on him too . . . Those poor saps."
"Save your sympathy for Sasuke himself . . . His elders happen to be some of the crabbiest old shits in this village," Naruto mumbled as he looked off into the audience. "I wouldn't be surprised that they're already resting their old pipes right now for when they tear him a new one later."
"Eh, comes with the territory of being a noble," Temari mumbled as she looked off to the side. "I don't know which noble drawback is worse: elders or the rules you're expected to follow as a noble lord or lady."
"Both are terrible choices in their own right . . ." Shizuka mumbled. "Why can't it be both?"
"Hm, fair point." Temari mumbled, the two of them locking eyes. Gaara was fairly certain that in that one moment, the two blondes reached an understanding that the rest of the group simply weren't privy to.
"And speaking of elders berating their clans' heirs for a poor performance in the Showcase, I better get going," Nanami mumbled as she got up from her seat. "It won't be long before the next match is called, and if I remember correctly, mine happens to be next on schedule."
"I'll come with you . . . I think I need to make a stop to the infirmary after all." Haruka mumbled as she too got up. Once the two had disappeared into the hallway, all that remained were the four royals and Shikamaru, who still remained asleep.
Temari was quick to notice this.
"Is he going to be like this throughout the entire tournament?" the blonde grumbled as she looked derisively at the sleepy teen.
"As long as he's not competing in a match, probably," Shizuka mumbled as she turned her eyes to Shikamaru, who hadn't moved once since the Wind royals returned. "I would say that he was simply gathering his strength for his match against you, but then I would be lying. Shikamaru is simply not that kind of person."
"Oh great . . ." Temari mumbled as she looked away. ". . . Maybe I'll have an easy victory?"
"Yeah; that's not happening," Naruto immediately stated, bursting the blonde's bubble. "Yeah Shikamaru may be a bit of a lazy ass, but it would be wrong of you to underestimate him."
"Should you really be saying that?" Gaara asked, stepping into the conversation. "There can only be one winner in this competition after all and we're technically enemies. If Temari takes out Shikamaru, that's one less person to worry about, especially since he is also from this land, just like you."
"Sure, you make a fair point," Naruto immediately conceded. "However, I really hate it when people simply look at a person and assume something that's possibly off base. You set yourself up for failure immediately, especially if your opponent ends up being the complete opposite of what you expect."
"You put your guard down too easily; not something you want to do when your competing to bring pride to your kingdom," he added, not fazed by the stern gaze Temari was sending his way. "Hey! I'm just offering some advice. It's up to you if you want to take it or not."
"Eh, I'll think about it," Temari mumbled, her tone still a little unconvinced. The sudden rise of volume instantly grabbed everyone's attention, their eyes moving down toward the battlefield to see that Genma was standing in the middle of it, raising his arms in an attempt to hype up the crowd. "Hm, it seems like things are starting to pick up."
"Are they starting things up again?"
Their eyes went straight to the sleepy-eyed Shikamaru, now awake thanks to the loud noise that the audience was making all around them.
"Oh, I'm so glad you could join us in the land of the living Shikamaru," Shizuka teased, turning her gaze back to the field. "Had a nice nap?"
"More or less . . ." he mumbled as he sat up. ". . . What a drag . . ."
"Eh, classic Shikamaru." Naruto mumbled, his face going neutral. Gaara, having noticed the sudden change, followed the blonde's line of sight until he reached the VIP box. Everyone in that box were busy talking amongst themselves or looking down at the field, except for one person.
His own father, who was looking straight at them, continuing to do so until Shiranui's asked the crowd to settle down a little.
"There's something not right about him. . ." he could hear Naruto mumble under his breath, so low that he probably thought no one heard him. Gaara actually did, and he couldn't help but agree with his assessment.
Something was not right about his father, and he had a feeling it wouldn't be long before he found out why.
A/N: Please review!