Chapter 26: Interruptions

"The next match is Hani Mihomi against Yuri Chibana. Both of you come to the field." The proctor says.

Anything to get away from the conversation with Kankuro. She didn't want to talk to him now, and she would show him she was smart as well. If she could only show Sasuke she was smarter than him. Yuri jumps down and lands on her feet, she also knows that Hani jumped as well.

"I'm itchy, let's start." Hani pulls out a kunai and quickly starts against Yuri.

"I didn't- awe whatever!"

Yuri jumps onto the kunai that Shikamaru left and looks down at Hani. She was fast, and Yuri needed to slow her mind down. She needed to block out everything else that was bugging her, she could win this, or lose and still become a chunin. Do what Doki taught her and think ahead. She was going to pass this and she was going to do it well.

She needed to think like Shikamaru and remove her emotions, Doki said that was going to help her. Doki said she had too many thoughts, and needing to block out those thoughts was important, and it was going to help her. Physical skill was important, but her mental skill was more important. She didn't have the same habit as Shikamaru, but she was smart.

"Fast aren't we?" Hani moves away.

She has to be a distance fighter, Yuri just needs to trap her or pin her well enough that if she had a team coming around. It was going to be a term of getting Hani pinned.

Hani sprays water at Yuri and she makes a few quick handsigns and grabs the kunai she is standing on. Throwing them as she is encased in a doom of the wall. Hani might expect her to vanish, and she was going to do just that. But instead, pull something strange.

Sinking into the wall, she isn't able to. That is weird, that shouldn't happen. And she realizes, Hani must have done it. It was small, but it forced Yuri to make a move.

Hani has earth and water release. She is trapping me to move out.

Yuri shakes her head. She needs the next few moves. The problem is… she doesn't know her skill. Yuri was in a sense flying off the wall. She grabs the knife Doki gave her and takes a deep breath. She would have to figure it out. She had to draw her fire, figure out if she has other releases, and then she needs to get close to her. With knowing the gentle fist style and general taijustu, she might be able to manage.

And Yuri shakes her head, she has to figure things out. She was outed with earth, fire, wind and water release. She could counter most things… and it would be helpful. But that doesn't help that she needs to engage in battle. Doki helped her grow and figure out things to help her. Her main goal should be to pin Hani down, she should go with non-lethal. While she is a fighter, sometimes they would need information.

She just had to get Hani into the perfect spot, and not the holes, she would expect that. While they could be used to get Hani there, she would avoid them since Shikamaru showed how deadly they could be should people not pay attention.

Then it hits her.

Why not the area Shikamaru was in, she might be able to set something there… The question is what.

She has some string.

Seeing her path, Yuri puts the knife away and begins to move.

She bursts out of her spot and moves as fast as she can, going to Hani and engaging at hand to hand, she needs to get them out of the way. Hani is also very good at hand to hand. She was keeping up with Yuri, and she was mixing styles. Though Yuri isn't planning on just fighting, she just needs to play her cards right.

And Yuri was tangling her in a web, she knew stopping her movement was to her advantage. She was only going to battle to set it. It was the main thing, she should have had a team with her, it would help. But it was just her, and she had to lay traps by herself.

Disengaging from Hani, Yuri runs to the other side and hides in the tree, she is pretty sure Hani will see through her plan. But she has to hope she is able to make enough of a web that Hani doesn't. She has to make it work.

Why not purposely make it halfassed? She manages to set up most of it as a strong gust of wind hits Yuri and she goes against the wall. Running along it, she notices the holes. Maybe a distraction? Yuri pauses and drops some paper bombs on them, she has layers of traps. She wants to get her to the trees.

"Come on! What are you even planning?" Hani asks.

Yuri pauses and tilts her head. "Planning? I have many things planned. Maybe you should pay attention."

Hani's smirk vanishes as she looks down and sees everything. But she looks up and stares at Yuri, she pauses for a moment. But something doesn't feel right to Yuri. And she realizes Hani has something else up her sleeve. She is about to pull the strings, but Hani moves too quickly.

"Fire style! Ball of light!" She releases fire and Yuri covers her eyes.

Looking back, all the things she placed around Hani were burned to a crisp. There goes her first plan of tying Hani up was a bust, but that wasn't her main plan. She was going to trap her in the trees, like a spider. But she has fire release too! Is there anything this girl can't do?

"Ah, you are full of surprises. A woman after my own heart." Yuri muses.

Hani smiles. "You'll have to enlighten me later."

Yuri chuckles and she knows she isn't going to lose her focus. She is having fun with this, Hani has been challenging, and she enjoyed it. Yuri pulls out a kunai, and will just need to strong arm her into the area. Make it look like she is going for the holes in a last ditch effort.

The girls clash over and over. Yuri makes it look like she is pushing Hani to the holes, something Yuri has to play into. Make Hani think she is making the choice, but Yuri really is.

"Trying to pull the same trick as your friend?" Hani asks. "Bet you probably put explosive tags on the holes so I fall in them."

"Awe… how could you tell?" Yuri continues to go after her.

Hani hits a bomb and the girls seperate. Neither girl is panting yet, which is a sign Hani trains just as much as Yuri does. A challenge indeed. And Yuri was having so much fun with it, she isn't like Shikamaru, who is lazy. She likes pushing her limits.

But leaves begin to form once they start heading towards each other, both running and through the leaves she sees two figures. But she can't stop, and neither can Hani.

She ends up moving and she and Hani went the same way, engaging in each other. Yuri was SO close to trapping Hani, and they jumped away from each other. Hani and Yuri both look at who came in during their fight and all Yuri can see is red.

Sasuke Uchiha, her boyfriend, is standing there with Kakshi.

"Oh… sorry, are we intruding." Kakashi puts up his hand, in a means of apologizing.

"I give. I know Yuri was about to trap me." Yuri freezes and sees Hani raise her hand.

She shakes her head. "Truthfully, if they had been on your side you would have trapped me, having me occupied, it was going to be close. I only had a handful of moves left before you could have turned the tides."

"Winner, Yuri Chibana."

Hani walks off and Yuri turns to Sasuke. He can tell she is angry, he just stepped in on her match. She was cut off from showing what she could do. There seems to be a pause between the two of them.

Sasuke opens his mouth. And Yuri realizes she doesn't want to hear anything Sasuke has to say to her.

"Yuri-"

"Save it. You intruded on my match and vanished for weeks. You better have a good reason." Yuri walks away.

She kept her voice and body calm. But she wasn't. Yuri was beyond pissed at Sasuke, and anyone who knew her well… knew.

Asami's POV:
Sitting next to Asuma and Kurenai, the three had been talking. Asami was keeping an eye on Kenji, he was still having a few problems recovering. Luckily he was sitting with Sakura, Ino and Choji. They seemed to be enjoying themselves and it made Asami happy. Her team had shaped up nicely in the preliminaries, she was proud of them.

Kurenai was disappointed that Shino didn't fight. As was Asami, Shino was always a fun genin to watch fight. Watching Shikamaru fighting, Asami couldn't help but laugh. Smart kid and Temari would have been toast if Shikamaru had a team. Isamu had done well, they knew he wasn't going to move on, not with Isesu, the girl who took Kenji down.

From the moment Yuri and Hani entered the area, it was a fight.

And Yuri had calmed down and was thinking it through. Asami could tell her movements were more thought through and she wasn't wasting energy any more. She was taking after Shikamaru but she had the heart of Naruto.

"She's going to be a beast when she gets older." Asuma comments during the fight.

Asami smiles. She knows Yuri is going to be a threat. Especially as she learns to calm down and think things through.

Kurenai agrees. "I have to say, the person you got to train her, worked wonders."

"I have to say Doki did wonders. He worked her hard." Asami shakes her head.

Watching Yuri going into hand to hand combat, she is using minimal styles of Hinata and Sasuke, making it her own. Asuma and Kurenai notice since they knew her secret. And they didn't realize she could combine them, it was something she needed, make something her own. It was something to fear.

After a bomb goes off, so many people are on the edge of their seats watching this. It's a good match and it wasn't short. No one knew who was going to win this match. They can all tell Yuri is reserving her chakra if she moves on she can face the next person.

But leaves start to dance.

"Oh no." Asami mumbles.

Kakashi better not be.

But seeing Yuri and Hani divert and still engage, she is pissed as well. Yuri and Hani were at the peak of their battle! Hani could have tipped it in her favor, but Yuri set a trap for Hani. It was going to go wherever they managed to spring their trap first. Had Yuri had a teammate on the way, Hani would have been dead.

When Kakashi and Sasuke appear, Hani forfeits. It leaves the three jonin's in shock, out of all the time. Asami can tell Yuri is so pissed off. And she had every right to be.

"What timing." Asuma shakes his head.

Asami growls. "That idiot. Yuri has every right to punch him."

"Kakashi or Sasuke." Kurenai asks, her tone casual.

"I would like to punch Kakashi." Asami crosses her arms. "They came in in the middle of the match! How the hell is that fair?"

She can only see the back of Yuri's head, but she can feel the anger. Yuri doesn't like being interrupted in a fight, and she is even more upset that it's Sasuke. She feels bad for the girl, she won't lie.

"Man… hopefully Shikamaru and Naruto can calm her down." Asuma says.

"We can only hope Sasuke lives after the finals are over." Kurenai says.

While Sasuke and Yuri were cute… Asami was also annoyed when Kakashi just took Sasuke and left. While Yuri didn't show much of her true emotions and everyone was busy, Asami knew Yuri was waiting to explode. After the finals, Yuri was going to pumble Sasuke. Asami doubts anyone would stop her.

Asuma lets out a sigh. "Leave it to Kakashi to show up at the last possible moment."

Yuri's POV:

Entering the tunnel, she wasn't even going to bother with Sasuke. She had heard Naruto jump down and she rounded a corner. Yuri stops in her tracks, unable to move as she begins to shake. She could barely see straight. She was beyond upset!

Sasuke came to her match and caused her to not even finish. He had been so late and picked the worst possible moment to show up, during her match. Worse… Hani gave up before anything was fully finished!

Feeling all her anger building up, Yuri doesn't know how to let it release. She had been so calm about the whole thing, Doki taught her to not show her emotions around other people. It was going to be good for her, and allow her to think clearly about a situation.

She turns to a wall and punches it.

"That is some punch." Yuri turns around and sees Shikamaru.

She only stares at Shikamaru for a moment. Feeling all the emotions beginning to bubble over she doesn't even know what to say. She didn't even know what to do! She was feeling so many things about what just happened. She hadn't told anyone about her feelings fully. She vented a little, but not an indepth look.

"Come on. You haven't talked about it for a while. Clear by your punch." Shikamaru points to the wall.

Yuri groans. "Ya, I am pissed off. Sasuke ran off for weeks without saying a word, mind you days after he asked me out. And now? Now he has to show up in the middle of my match! I could have trapped Hani! I had her! But she quit."

"Yuri." Shikamaru starts. "Yuri."

He grabs Yuri's shoulders and she only looks at Shikamaru. Clearly she was getting a little too emotional, and it might be a little too much. And she feels some tears coming to her.

"No need to cry. You showed your abilities, and when you face Temari, you can do the same thing. You need to be the one to face Sasuke so you can kick his ass." Shikamaru keeps eye-contact.

Gently, he moves a hand up and lightly wipes the tears from Yuri's face. His eyes soften ever so slightly, and Yuri knows she needs to calm down. And if she makes it through the finals to fight Sasuke, she would beat him so hard. And not just in a battle. She knew she was smarter than Sasuke.

Slowly she nods. "After the finals, I am fighting Sasuke. And I am not holding back."

Shikamaru chuckles and nods his head. It was slightly out of pocket for Yuri, and she knew Asami sensi would allow it. Hell, she might fight Kakashi for her as well.

"Understandable. I'll gladly watch."

That manages to get Yuri to smile a little. And they stand there for a moment, Shikamaru's hand goes back down to her shoulder and they only stand there. It's a nice moment of silence.

"Let's go up and watch." Shikamaru finally says.

But Naruto's voice comes through. Breaking the silence that Shikamaru and Yuri had created. Something that she didn't realize she needed until that moment.

"Will you two hurry up? Come on." Naruto says.

"Relax Naruto. You're going to give yourself an ulcer." Shikamaru grumbles.

Yuri rolls her eyes as she moves to follow Naruto. "What a pain in the ass."

Naruto pauses and Yuri looks to see what Naruto is staring at. Shikamaru even asks what Naruto stopped for.

They see Gaara walking down the hallway with two other ninjas facing him. Yuri grabs onto Shikamaru's wrist. Gaara tastes like so much blood right now… even more than normal. He was wanting to kill and his chakra was off the charts. She's on a step higher than the boys but she ducks down just slightly to be a little more out of sight.

One of them speaks. "You puny kids think this tournament is about you, but it's really about the people who bet on you, or against you in your case. You see our master's got a lot of money on the other guy to win."

"Got it?" The other says. "That means you gotta lose."

Yuri notices the cork on his gourd move. Not liking this at all, it makes her worry a little about Sasuke. While she would like to fight him… she doesn't want him to have a death wish. And that's what might happen if he faces Gaara.

"Well, so what's it going to be kid?" The first one asks.

"Maybe he's too scared to talk."

That isn't the case. Gaara opens his eyes, and the sand comes out. The lights all break and Yuri gets in front of Shikamaru as the sand crushes one of the guys without Gaara even moving. She doesn't breathe or utter a word to the boys. The other guy comes running out of the darkness, but sand catches up to him. And he takes out the other guy without a problem.

There is a moment of silence. Gaara walks towards them, and Yuri needs to gulp down her fear… but he just killed two people without a second thought. Yuri, Shikamaru and Naruto all remain frozen.

She is trying to process what she just saw. How he just took out two people so easily. All without a second thought. And she knows it could have been them. She doesn't want to vocalize it though, she can't even bring herself to speak.

Once Gaara is away, Shikamaru and Naruto sit down. Leaving Yuri to stand as she can only stare right in front of her.

"Yuri… if you had come up the stairs a second earlier." Shikamaru starts.

She can't even answer. All the anger she felt has been replaced by fear. Gaara was someone to fear… and Sasuke is about to face him. While she is mad at Sasuke… she can't let him die that easily. Not in the tournament, and Shikamaru saying if she had come up earlier when she was still pissed off… she might have died.

"I've never in my life seen anyone kill like that, without even batting an eye. Things don't look so good for Sasuke after all." Shikamaru continues.

Finally Yuri utters words. "We need to warn people…"

Notes: Hello! Thank you for reading the Chunin exams! I am very happy and the ending of this story is drawing closer. Never fear though, I am working on the Shipudden leg of it! I might expand into the next gen as well, but I don't know just yet if I will be doing that. Please, leave a comment and follow the story!