The Real Me

44

The match had barely started when Sasuke decided to jump back as far as the wall. Gaara simply grinned at him.

Naruto watched closely trying to predict what exactly Sasuke had planned. From his expression, Sasuke seemed to be really confident with whatever he had in mind.

Naruto stole glances at the Kages sitting up there, watching the match with interest but the Kazekage- Orochimaru- showed no signs of any sudden movement.
If he was here for Sasuke then he probably wanted to test him out.

Gaara raised a hand and a sand fist rose from the ground. Sasuke braced himself and as soon as the first started punching the ground he had been on, he jumped out.
He stepped on the fist once and pushed himself towards Gaara. He startled for a second when the sand that made up the fist reached out and tried to grab his leg. He twisted free and landed on the wall, using chakra to get his feet to stick to the wall.

Gaara's posture didn't waver.
He simply spread his arms a bit wider, splitting the sand in two.

The two fists grabbed at Sasuke, who ran across the wall evading them. He pushed off the wall, behind Gaara and tried to hit him with the Phoenix Flower Jutsu, but just before it could reach the Redhead, a wall of sand blocked it.

Gaara turned around to face him. "You can't break through my sand. "
Sasuke simply pressed his lips tightly as if to say "We'll see about that."

Sasuke once again ran for refuge towards the walls, but the sand was faster. Before he could leap on the wall, the sand formed a waved and blocked him, but the Uchiha seemed to be expecting it, as he kicked off towards the opposite side in a swift movement.
The sand followed him again, Gaara raised his hands in concentration, glaring at the raven.

"He's planning an attack, he's trying to build up speed." Naruto turned towards the muttering Nara.
Shikamaru turned towards him and raised his brows and Naruto simply eye smiled at him.

He looked back towards the field. Sasuke was running in sharp turns and zigzags, trying to outmaneuver the sand. And he'll, it was was working.

Naruto saw Gaara grow frustrated as he simply let go of the sand in a trusted howl.
"STOP RUNNING LIKE A COWARD! GIVE ME YOUR BLOOD!!"
Again with the blood. He wasn't making a good impression was he.
Naruto glanced at the enraptured crowd, who muttered over how smart they had been to bet on Sasuke and how Gaara still had a chance to win.
Useless.

As the sand fell, Sasuke once again ram upto the wall, and crouched this time.
He put out his left arm and placed his right hand over it.
Naruto knew he was building chakra.

Is he...? Is that chidori?

Now that's biased.

Damn that Kakashi.

Meanwhile Gaara called the sand towards him and built a dome around himself. Naruto could faintly see the sand also crawling up and covering Gaara.
His ultimate defence huh.

Tendrils of sand shot out at Sasuke, but they were too slow. The steep wall provided for a great ramp for him to run across and build up speed.
Naruto saw his Sharingan awaken.

Was he not using it before?

Gaara tried blocking his path with the sand whips but Sasuke simply cut through them. Naruto could see that Sasuke was having some trouble maintaining it. He could do it as easily and smoothly as Kakashi.
Sasuke cut through the tendrils but not unscathed. His body was riddled with scar, and Naruto could feel the crowd tensing up, for surely this was the great climax they'd been waiting for. This was what they'd get they're money on.