Naruto/Sasuke/Gaara x Reader: Dragon Princess

And the winner is...

~~Reader's POV~~

We stand for five minutes before I slump down a little clutching my neck in pain and refusing to let it control me. Cursing under my breath I hear a thud behind me. I turn around to see Touko lying on her back on the ground panting heavily. Her armor and sword disappear showing clearly that she can't fight anymore. Just then Hayate appears and announces. "The winner of the first match, (l/n) (y/n)...has passed the prelims!"

I smile while I release my jutsu. Many cheers for me can be heard and I walk up to Touko. She has her eyes closed and bites her bottom lip. When I stand next to her lying figure she opens her eyes and stares at me exasperatedly but also kind of depressed. "Go on already! Tell me how weak and pathetic I am...!"

I look at her surprised before my gaze softens and I extend a hand to her smiling encouragingly. "Don't say that. You're a strong kunoichi and you gave me a pretty good fight. Now come on let me help you stand up. I don't think the floor is very comfortable."

Now it's her turn to be shocked. "Why...why are you nice to me? I didn't give you a reason to be..."

Still smiling I reply. "Why shouldn't I? It's true that you were mean to me in the past but what happened, happened. I'm sure you had a reason to act that way and maybe...we can forget about it and have a restart?"

She looks at me dumbfounded at first before smiling a little and taking my hand. I pull her up and help her stable her stand. Afterwards we look at each other with a smile and firmly shake hands. We let go and walk up to where everyone else is. I go to my team and instantly am tackled in a tight hug by Naruto who congratulates me with Sasuke glaring daggers at him. Before I have time to react Sakura grabs him to pull him from me and starts scolding. "What are you doing Naruto?! She needs to summon Cara and let her check her up!"

I sigh a bit smiling slightly before quickly summoning Cara. She appears and worriedly looks at me when I ask her. "Can you please take a look on my neck? It started burning again."

Growing more concerned she nods and gets behind me to have a better look at the curse. She gasps silently. "H...How could it regain it's power?...That was my strongest jutsu for such things. I'm sorry Princess but I can't heal it for now. All I can do is to take away the pain for some time and then renew the jutsu. I have to find out more about it..."

I turn my head to look at her. "I understand. It would be already enough for me if the burning disappears for a while. Don't worry, I can handle the rest." She nods and puts her hand on the seal. Cara quietly mumbles something and I can feel the pain fading away. She puts her hand away and I turn around to face her with a smile. "Thank you Cara. I'm feeling better now."

She returns the smile. "It's the least I can do Princess. Can I stay here and take care of the other participants after their fight too, please?"

I agree and ask her to check on Touko. She nods happily and skips off to find her. Once she leaves the others come to me and congratulate me for the victory. I smile and thank them before we look at the scoreboard to see who is up next.


~~Ifri's POV~~

I smile in content watching (y/n) and the other girl finally letting go of the past. Even though I'm worried about the curse seal...but I know how much this means to her so I can't help but be happy for her. She makes her way to us and once she is up here Naruto immediately glomps her. I turn around slightly to get a look at Sasuke knowing they both fell for her. As I thought he is glaring at him but he is not the only one. A little farther away a red-head also stared at him murderously. I can sense his dangerous aura and instinctively I take a step to the side to shield (y/n) from his eyes before turning back to her. Cara looks shocked at her neck and says she can't rid her off it yet. Of course it would have been too good to be true if it was that easy to heal....damn it! I swear when I get the chance to I will personally kill that stupid snake for letting her suffer! Suddenly Cara walks past me whispering. "Keep calm Ifri. I know how you feel but we have to be patient and wait for the right time to strike."

I nod at her and she continues her way. Noticing everyone looking towards the board I turn to it curious about the next fight.


~~Reader's POV~~

After some minutes of waiting the board shows us the next opponents. They are Uchiha, Sasuke and Akado, Yoroi. Turning to Sasuke I smile brightly and wish him good luck. He just smirks and walks to the fighting area. Sasuke and the guy Yoroi face each other and Hayate declares the fight to start. They attack each other and right when Sasuke had him pinned on the ground he suddenly let go of his opponents hand giving him the chance to hit him directly. It seems like Sasuke's strength got weaker but how...Yoroi grabs his forehead and that's when I see it. He absorbs his chakra with his palm! Sasuke realizes it too and quickly pushes him away from him. He seems to be thinking desperately what he should do and it's hard for me to just stand here and watch. Suddenly I feel someone laying his arm around my shoulders and turn towards it's owner to see an agitated Naruto staring at the scene below. "SASUKE!!! Are you really Uchiha Sasuke?!!! Is that the best you can do?!!!"

Looking up at us he seems to be angry at first but then his eyes widen in realization. Grinning Naruto let go of my shoulders leaving me confused. Yoroi starts his next attack on Sasuke and he uses the technique Lee tried to use on him before the Chuunin exams started. I hear a gasp next to me and turn to see Lee standing there. So that's how he remembered it suddenly. I smile happily and continue to cheer him on. Once he sent Yoroi flying high into the air he gets behind him and makes his own technique, Lion Rendan, out of it. At the end they are both lying on the floor and Hayate goes to check up on Yoroi. Meanwhile Sasuke stands back up panting heavily. Hayate announces. "I'm stopping the fight here...and thus the winner of the second match, Uchiha Sasuke...has passed the prelims!"

Sakura and Ino shout out in glee and I continue to smile. Naruto shouts. "Sasuke! Heh heh...you, you. What a lame way to win! You're all beat up, idiot!"

Some time later the medical team arrives and take Yoroi with them. When they want to take Sasuke too a voice stops them. "You guys aren't needed. I will take care of him."

Turning to the voice I see Cara sitting behind him and starting to heal him so he can at least walk by himself. The medical team leaves and Sasuke comes back to us with Cara right behind him. She asks him to sit down and then tends to his other wounds. I smile at her thankfully before I look back to the board being anxious about the next fight.