𝙰𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝙻𝚘𝚞𝚍𝚎r. (𝙶𝚊𝚊𝚛𝚊 𝚡 𝚘𝚌)

Mid-week ( Chapter 10 )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The middle of the week came by fast, and Baki made sure they were well-trained for the second test. Though he ordered Ura to not train outside of his demands, she had trained for the last three days straight, only collapsing for an hour, then getting back up for more. When she had left to train with her other three teammates, Baki had locked her inside their hotel home with a trapping jutsu. She had made enough noise to get Baki back up to the hotel home, "I'm surprised to see you act this way...""Let me go train, I need to be stronger, I-""I'll let you go spy on the other teams, that will be your training exersize," Baki interupted her."What?! As in finding out with the other team's strengths and weaknesses are? Sure, i'd lo-""Then get going!" Baki threw her out the door.Ura landed on her stomach, both umbrellas thrown at her, and her hari bag landed dangerously close to her head, thankfully it was unopened. She strapped her weapons on to her, then looked around, Baki was already gone to the rest of her team. With an aggrivated sigh, Ura leaped into trees, trying to find a few of the teams that lasted to see their tactics.*This is pointless... I could've at least helped them on their training methods...but nnooo, kami forbid if I actually contribute to my team,* Ura wanted to kick Baki in his throat.

For another hour, she leaped from tree-to-tree, only finding a few at least formidable opposing teams, but none really caught her eye. She layed on a lone tree branch, not really resting, just allowing the warm air take her to a place of peace. After the last few days of constant training, it was exactly what she needed, just taking a few deep breaths and not doing much... The training she had been doing was much more intense, she was fighting her own clones, matching her own strength and strategies. Hand-to-hand combat, hari everwhere on the ground surrounding her training ground, bruises, and puddles of blood was what Ura had made in her training. Baki, Kankurou, and Temari all tried to stop her, even tried carrying her inside when she collapsed, but only one made her go.

Gaara had approached her on her final day of training, the day before, her clones were beating the crap out of her, but they disappeared when Ura fell to her knees, not knowing Gaara was behind her. He had told her she had done enough for a few days, and to go back inside. Ura was unwilling to go, even Gaara had little control over how she wanted to train, but he had then appeared in front of her. She stared up at him, not of hatred, love, or anything, just stared up at him as she panted, then had the nerve to ask him why she should comply. The only reason she was asking was because she wanted to know why he had cared so much to even bother with her. His only reply was, "Though you train for days on end, you are careless to how much and how intense you go. If you continue, you will be only known for your disgrace to our village, leaving you as worthless as your background."

Even the day after he had said that, his words stung her very heard on her soul. Many times she was told she was poor and little to no good, but never worthless or a disgrace. From how Gaara had said that statement, he didn't think of her like that, yet, she could still mess it up and make him think she was nothing.

"C'mon Sasuke, fight me!"

"Naruto, cut it out, leave Sasuke alone!"

Agonzing voices surrounded Ura when she had tried to doze off, but was unable to due to the fact that Team 7 was near...wait, Team 7? Sasuke was on that team, and he was pretty strong, to what Ura had noticed with her first encounter. She steadily haunched down on her feet, eyeing the Genin near the tree she was in. How lucky of her, not even trying and a team came to her, maybe this was a good sign. Ura had a smirk of confidence as she waited for Sasuke to be enduced by Naruto's tauntings, he had to give in sometime today.

"No...you're too weak," Sasuke commented cooly.

*Damn it... Come on Naruto, gaut Sasuke more, make him even more angry!* Ura silently cheered on Naruto.

"You feel it?" their sensei, Kakashi, looked at his team.

Sakura nodded slightly, Naruto was confused, but Sasuke was out of Ura's sight. She looked around frantically until a pair of ebony eyes met her own, Ura was so surprised from being caught that she fell out of the tree.

"Man...I need to stop falling...it's killing my back," Ura groaned as she got up with the help of grabbing onto the tree.

"Why were you spying on my team?" Kakashi narrowed his eyes on her.

Ura didn't want to give away why she was spying, so she brought out both of her umbrellas, "That would make me look like an idiot if I told, so why bother?"

"So you're gonna attack US when YOU were spying on US!? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND, WE COULD KICK YOUR BUTT!!" Naruto yelled.

"You're not going anywhere.."

Sasuke appeared behind her, snatching away both umbrellas, making her come to the point where she didn't have any more ideas on how to escape. Ura couldn't go anywhere without them, they were her only pair of weaponry that she was able to use. Now she felt like an idiot, wasting time by just pulling out her umbrellas, giving away her escape technique. Sakura crossed her arms and had a 'nyah nya' look on her face, "Out of luck now aren't you, big shot? Can't leave now without your umbrellas."

Ura was trying to make a plan as fast as she could, then an even bigger plan came to her mind. She took a step back, "Fine, I don't need them anyways..."

She made a few hand-signs, and then a cloud of smoke appeared, making her disappear. Then, the umbrellas began to twirl at fast speeds, it almost killed Sasuke when the hari began to be release at such a speed. Ura re-appeared in the air as the umbrellas went higher, and higher, she grabbed on to them and floated to the ground, landing on her feet. Without wasting any more time, Ura took a long leap away from the team, "I can only warn you to not mess around with the Suna Team, we have worked long and hard to get here. We don't plan on losing to anyone or anything, so if you wish to fight us, you better bring back-up."

With that, Ura disappeared back in front of the place she was staying in, it took a half of her chakra to make the umbrellas spin on their own. Though it was a new and strong technique, Ura would have to praise about it later, she had only gained little injo on the teams. Failing Baki's orders to find out some information, all she had were a few Grass Country, Rain Country, and the rest of the Leaf Village's teams. It would do, but it was not satisfying enough. Ura paced around the complex for awhile, but she knew her team wouldn't return for a few more hours, knowing Temari wouldn't let Kankurou win so easily if they were battling each other.

"I hope Baki doesn't hear about how I got caught... I wouldn't hear the end of it..." Ura mumbled as she kicked a small stone.

Ura pulled out a hari and toyed with it, she had gotten in a lot of trouble with Baki lately, which was very unusual for her. When she was a little girl, she would have avoided anything to not get in trouble because she didn't want anyone to be disappointed in her. But now that she was a strong ninja now...it was different, she could get into a huge butt-load of trouble and not get in much trouble for it, depending on what she did of course.

She had done so many good deeds that went unnoticed for a long time, but she had looked passed that, knowing someday she would be rewarded. That day hasn't come yet, it's been years since she actually believed that, and yet Ura continued to wait patiently.

"Hey, you're the girl that told off Sasuke...who do you think you are?"

Now Ura's patience was hitting another rocky bump, why were so many people coming up to her? She was getting fed up with just walking away, so Ura decided to make everyone know in the village she wasn't here to chit-chat and have tea, she was here to win.

"What gave you the crazy idea to tell that to me?" Ura glared at the blonde girl, "What gives you the right?"

"Because Sasuke didn't do anything to you!" the girl stated, "So i'm gonna show you why you never mess with MY Sasuke!"

This girl wanted to fight Ura, she actually challenged Ura to a battle...well...Ura smirked, then she guessed she'll have to show the Leaf kunoichi what she was really made of. Ura pulled out her umbrellas, "Fine...but be forewarned, I won't give out mercy."

"Was I asking for it? I won't, but you will," the girl leaped back, bringing out her small star.

Ura put one umbrella back on her back, that was all she was going to need to face this girl. She pulled out four hari for each hand, then...Ura waited, if she was going to see what this girl could do, then she had to see how aggressive the kid could be.

"My name is Ino Yamanaka, and i'm gonna kick your ass!" Ino ran at Ura at a fast speed, but wasn't fast enough.

Ura easily took a step to the side and tripped Ino to her face with her umbrella, chuckling a little at the klutz. Somehow, Ura expected a bit more of a match, was this what she was up against? A kunoichi that couldn't live up to such a name? What a joke...this was a pointless battle that Ura was going to win.

Ino got back on her feet, charging at Ura again, but this time, Ino was aiming to hit the girl straight on her face. She balled up her fist and readied the attack, taking note that Ura wasn't doing anything with the umbrella in her hand. The blonde kunoichi was so close to beating the crap out of Ura, she could feel victory was only a second away. As soon as she raised her arm to her shoulder, there was a sudden move, then there was something in front of her, an opened umbrella! It was too late, Ino was dangerously close, and she could see over the umbrella that Ura was perfectly happy with the attack she was about to give. The umbrella was not just opened to block Ino's punch, but it was also offense as well as defense, she was going to stab a lot of hari straight into Ino's skin.

"Have fun at the hospital," was all Ino heard before a storm of hari were sent at her, digging and scarring her skin.

Ura twirled the umbrella to the point it was burning her hands, she had won her first battle with a kunoichi. It was still an easy win, but one she'll remember when she fights harder kunoichi and shinobi. She began plucking the hari out of Ino, then brought the body to the hospital, and left, leaving the doctors and nurses to deal with Ino. When she returned to her where she was hanging out at, she noticed the puddle of blood she had made from Ino, how was she going to explain that? Oh well, it didn't matter, as long as the battle was over and Ino had a few...flesh wounds.

That was why Ura chose the umbrella and hari as her weapons, not because they could easily tear open the skin, but they were fast. Without knowing that, anyone facing an opponent with hari and an umbrella were doomed to fail. For example, Ino didn't realize that she had set herself into that trap, no one ever attacks in front of the umbrella, either below or behind, but never to the side or front. The hari was something many shinobi had difficulty blocking because of the agile speed it caused, and because it was so thin and fine, it was hardly noticable. But, with speed and sharpness comes training extremely hard with both weapons, if you cannot master them, then they are useless. Ura was still in training with throwing her hari, but was very skilled, that's one of the minor reasons she trained so long and hard.

After waiting patiently for about two more hours, she felt a familiar flicker of chakra approaching her. Her team had finally returned from their own training with Baki, Temari and Kankurou were exhausted, and Gaara looked like he was ready for more.

"What news do you have?" Baki asked Ura as they entered their part of the hotel.

Ura explained all that she had learned during the day, and Baki seemed a bit pleased, then he stopped, looked out the window, then turned back to Ura, "Where did that puddle of blood come from? It better not be yours..."

"No..it's not," Ura looked to the floor, "There was a girl who attacked me, and I fought back, she lost."

"You idiot!" Baki snapped at her, "How many times do you have to screw up?! You're this close to being sent back to the academy!"

"I didn't do anything to her, I just fought back," Ura stated back at her sensei, "She's not badly injured, just a few holes in her skin."

Baki rubbed his temples, "Why does this have to happen...? It better be nothing more than what you have just said, because I don't know how many more times you could screw everything up."

Ura didn't want to continue arguing with her sensei, so she just went to the small balcony on the farthest room so she could get some peace. She wasn't screwing anything up, all Ura was doing was just giving herself a title. Temari, Kankurou, and Gaara already had their title, but what was Ura? Just a teammate, just a fighter, just a Suna member...no one, nothing else. She hadn't proved her purpose in life, and she wouldn't be able to if she just idled by.

"Did you kill her?"

Kankurou joined Ura out on the secret balcony, she wouldn't mind if he he had joined her, but no one else, or she would leave. Ura looked at Kankurou with tear stricken eyes, she only trusted him with her tears, no one else, "I didn't...she told me that I told off Sasuke and challenged me to a battle... I'm tired of hiding, Kankurou, so I fought her, I wanted to be known like you, Temari, and Gaara."

"Aw c'mon, you're known, Ura...just, subtly," Kankurou tried to lie, but failed.

"No i'm not, and you suck at lying," Ura commented, and went back to depressed.

Kankurou didn't know what to say, hell, he didn't know what to do when Temari was getting attention about her fan and Gaara was getting attention about his demon, he was left out of everything. Just seeing a few tears drop from her sand eyes made him want to try and comfort her, but he didn't know her reaction if he had touched her. So, he made the attempt, he put his right arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer to him until he was fully holding her, "Hey, don't worry about being known for now, you work harder than most Genin that I know. You'll be known when the other test comes, and that girl you fought will probably tell everyone. So don't worry about anything..."

"Hm..." Ura grumbled a little, remaining in his arms, allowing him to comfort her further, "Take off the headgear..."

"Why?" Kankurou looked down at her.

"I don't like it," Ura commented dryly as she took it off herself, setting it at her feet, "I never did..."

Kankurou chuckled a little, she was back in her normal spirit, so he released Ura so she could have her space, but layed his hand on top of her own as it rested on the railing. Ura had a smile on her face yet again, wiping away the once yet places on her face where the tears had fallen, "Thank you."

"Well at least i'm good for something besides killing," Kankurou smirked at her, "Don't let being known get to your head, for now, we all need to lay low."

"Yeah, I know," Ura sighed, "Sometimes I just get a little envious, that's all... I can't wait for the exams to be over with, I miss the desert."

"I do too...it's starting to feel colder out here," Kankurou rubbed his arms.

"Your body temperature isn't used to the place, mine is though," Ura commented as the sun began to set, "Konoha is very beautiful, I may move out here, I may not... But i'll always remember this place, forever and ever."

Kankurou smiled lightly, then eyed Ura, for once in a long time, he had seen peace swept through those eyes of hers. He was her closest friend, and she was very close to him as well, they had a connection that she and Temari could never form. When he had first met her in front of the academy, Kankurou had felt that shock of the invisible thread that connected them so deeply. It was true, he did not have intimate feelings for her, but that didn't stop him from trying to be intimate with her, he's always been the lady's man, but failed most of the time. Sometimes he wished he could punch Gaara upside his head for not noticing a girl like Ura, for not seeing that she would kill anyone that ever threatened Gaara's existence. Yet it wasn't his place, but someday he would, and he would make sure Gaara would have a really bad headache from it.