(Picture reference above⬆️)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Iwa: Rock
Yoroi: Armor
~ One Month Later ~
It's time. And I'm more than ready.
Kakashi, Lee, Gai, Kiba, Hinata, and Teneten.
I had trained with practically everyone. Everyone but Sasuke, in fact, I'd avoided Sasuke for the entire month. As of right now though, he was with Kakashi, training, while we are all standing in the stadium, waiting for them to begin, but everyone knows that Kakashi won't be here until last minute.
"First match. Naruto Uzumaki vs. Neji Hyuga." The proctor yells from the bottom. Said two make their way to the bottom, and as you probably know, Naruto won, stealing my underground clone move. I didn't know whether to be pissed or smug as hell. I ignored both feelings and just watched as the fights continued, which weren't really fights at all. Kankuro dropped out, but Temari went, and Shikamaru beat her in my book, but Temari won by the exam's standards. And now, it was my turn.
"(Y/n) Daku vs. Iwa Yoroi. Please, step down and begin." I let a smirk fall to my face as gasps spill out around the entire arena. As soon as my name was announced, the people in the crowd went wild. They'd been waiting for this. A very bulky, meat headed teen walked down the stairs with a sinister smirk on his face. He stared me down with a glint of mischief in his eyes.
"Are you sure a little girl like you can beat me? If you cry, I might go easy on you." The teen, maybe two or three years older than myself asked, then mused. My face remained completely indifferent to his idiotic teasing, which aggravated the boy to no end.
"You're asking all of the wrong questions that I don't want to hear, nor care about. Would you like to attack first? It does appear to me that you are weaker than I am." I said monotonously. The guy, Iwa, gritted his teeth and growled, and to my surprise, his entire arm slowly turned to rock and he charged at me, swinging, and missing each time.
"Your arm is too heavy, you're slow, and so is your rock armor transformations." I analyze blankly as I grab his shoulders and use them to flip myself behind his body. I then kick the back of his knee, sending him falling forward before kicking him in the middle of the back, causing him to pound into the dirt below. When he got up, he was unscathed, except for his back.
'I see. I'll have to use harsher blows to slow him down. Using gravity won't work, because his kekki genkai is a little faster than that.' I think to myself as I pull my katana from my back as a diversion. The man smirks at this and charges again. Mistake. As soon as he reaches me, I swing left, causing him to dive to the right, right into my trap. I pull a kunai out and jab it into his left arm, rendering it as completely useless. Iwa's eyes go wide, but he gets angry and swings his rock covered leg, hitting me in the hip, sending me tumbling to the side. I quickly catch my balance and play it off with a graceful flip through the air.
"That's gonna bruise, asshole. I didn't want to kill you, but I'm going to now." I growl as I gently pull my shirt up to see the very red skin. I switched my Daku on and stared at the man, who stared at me, completely confused. I began taking slow steps forward, which freaked him out, so he started to back up. Once I was right in front of him, he swung his fist at me, but I quickly added chakra into my own two hands, making a chidori in one, and a rasengan in my other, one of my clans specialties, double jutsus.
"Rasendori!" I yelled as I punched his fist with the both of mine, shattering his rock armor, causing Iwa to scream in pain. He clutched his fist and fell to his knees in front of me wide eyed, which made me giddy with excitement for what comes next. I reached out and jerked his chin upward with the tips of my fingers so his face was now up toward mine, and once his dull colored eyes caught mine, it was all over.
The crowd roared as the massive man fell over in a crumpled heap, eyes, ears, and nose pouring dark blood. I deactivated my jutsu and slightly turned my head toward the proctor, who was looking with wide eyes at the man, four times my size, that had just been taken out with a single glance. Just as I was walking back up to the top balcony, a gust of wind blew by me, carrying a familiar scent. I quickly snapped my head to the way the wind was blowing, and what I saw shocked me.
Sasuke and Kakashi stood back to back, Sasuke in a completely new outfit, my favorite color, too, and his hair much longer. He'd probably been training so hard that he hadn't been taking care of himself properly, for he also looked much thinner.
"He's not disqualified yet, is he?" Kakashi asked with a sheepish laugh as he scratched at the back of his head. Sasuke ignored everything else and was searching for something, or someone. Me.
Once his eyes landed on me, a certain look filled his eyes that absolutely terrified me, but it wasn't meant to scare me, and a smile made its way onto Sasuke's face. I hesitated before lowering my head and turning around to go back up the stairs. As I was walking up, Gaara was walking down, a look of pure insanity on his face, which angered me. When we got on the same step, I held my arm out in front of him to stop him from walking.
"Kill him, or injure him to the point of no return, and you will die. Do you understand?" I growl out, shocked at myself for the words that had just passed my lips. Gaara's expression remained blank as he nodded his head and continued down, then I continued up. As soon as I'd gotten to the top, I went to the rails and watched as the two stood in front of each other, the air tense.
"Begin!" The proctor yells, and not a second later, sand pours from Gaara's gourd, but he hesitated momentarily, grabbing his face in what looked like pain, but sand kept coming. Sasuke looked indifferent.
"His conversation have started already." I hear Kankuro say from my right. I turn my head to him with narrowed eyes. He's looking at Gaara, worry evident on his face. This heightened my anxiety. I looked back to the match to see Gaara's sand falling to the floor. Neither of them have moved, not an inch. Gaara's sand started buzzing around once more, and this time, Sasuke threw shuriken.
"Idiot." I mumble under my breath. Sasuke's eyes widen as a sand clone comes out and blocks the weapons, then waves of sand start coming at him. Sasuke kicks the clone and disables it, then goes for Gaara, but changes track at the last second, speed intense. Sasuke throws a punch at Gaara, sending him flying backwards, cracking his sand armor. Sasuke charges forward, much too quickly for the sand to catch, and kicks Gaara, sending him in the other direction, then runs in circles before attacking once more.
A small smirk graces my lips as I watch Sasuke make a chidori and charges, but it falters when I feel the aura coming off of Gaara. He does a hand seal and a ball of sand encases him. Before I can yell anything to anyone, Sasuke charged, and his hand went straight through Gaara's ball of sand.
"GAAAAAAHHHHHH! BLOOD! IT'S MY BLOOD!" A crazed scream rips through the air. And involuntary gasp escapes my lips as I grip the rails so tightly my knuckles turn white. A massive arm, Shukaku's arm, rips from the sand. Sasuke sits on the ground while gripping his own arm. Gaara's chakra spikes wildly, and becomes much darker. It's happening, it's Shukaku.
The sand around Gaara starts cracking like an egg, before spilling completely. Gaara grasps his shoulder and pants, more like wheezes, then, the air stills. My body tenses, and when I turn around, every civilian in the stadium is asleep.
"Genjutsu." I growl to myself as I spin around quickly, finding Kakashi and Gai at the top of the stadium. He catches me looking and I race toward him. Suddenly, a bomb goes off where the Hokage was sitting, then Gaara and his siblings flee with Sasuke chasing right after them. My eyes widen as I land right next to Kakashi.
"(Y/n), wake Shikamaru and Naruto. Something big is going on here, and you're the only one I can trust to be responsible. Track Sasuke down and stop him, and take Pakkun with you." Kakashi says and summons a small dog. I nod and run to Naruto and Shikamaru and release them from the genjutsu, but only Naruto gets up. I narrow my eyes and kick Shikamaru in the back.
"OW! What in the hell was that for you troublesome woman?!?" Shikamaru yells as he sits up, rubbing said area to soothe the pain. I ignore him and sidestep a sound ninja that was just thrown through the wall by Gai, making an opening for us to go through.
"Let's go. We're trailing the sand siblings while Kakashi and Gai stay here to fight." I say as I place my foot on the edge of the hole and push off, sending myself through the air and into the trees.
"What a drag." I hear Shikamaru groan before he, Naruto, and the dog follow behind me. After running with the dog, Pakkun, in front, I feel chakra signatures near us, and trailing.
"We're being followed." I say monotonously as I push harder, getting faster, while the other three struggle to keep up.
"Boy, Sasuke must really be important to you if you're trying this hard to get to him. Anyhow, who am I to stop you from saving your love or whatever he is? I'll stay behind and stop the ninja." Shikamaru teases. My face tinged pink as I glare at the smirking boy.
"Shikamaru, I'm going to kill you when you come back. Alive." I state as I throw him a smirk. He stops on a branch as we keep jumping, a small smirk gracing his lips as his eyes closed lazily.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, my greatest fears or whatever, just hurry so I can set some traps to buy you some time." Shikamaru says. I nod and push forward, Pakkun following quickly, but Naruto lagged.
"Be careful, Shikamaru." Naruto says seriously, then speeds up. We continue to speed forward so Pakkun could keep the scent, but puppet boy came out.
"Well, if it isn't the loudmouth brat and the pretty little demon girl." Kankuro smirked as he grabbed the puppet from his back and began to unravel it.
"Are you trying to make me angry? I don't want to kill you for the sake of Gaara, but I will to test my limits and abilities if you insist on fighting." I say monotonously as my eyes flash a bright blue color. Kankuro's eyes widen considerably as I jump a branch closer to him, but right before I attack, a hand touches my shoulder lightly.
"That won't be necessary, (Y/n). I owe him one from the finals." A smooth voice calls out next to me. My flaming blue glare snaps to the insect controller himself, before it flicks back to Kankuro. I sigh and let my eyes dim before signaling Naruto and Pakkun forward, then jumping away myself.
"Alright then Shino, good luck. And one more thing. Don't touch me, bugs are disgusting." I yell blankly as we jump away from them. Shino's chuckle echos as we bound forward.
"(Y/n), you are so rude to people who are saving your butt!" Naruto scolds me. I roll my eyes and push forward faster because of the dark change in the air.
"Your point?" I replied flatly. This irritated Naruto because he growled and quickened his pace to catch up with me.
"I'm just saying that-" Naruto began, but a loud screech cut him off. A loud, demon - human mixed voice.
"TO LIVE, IS TO KILL, AND YOU ARE MY PREY!" Gaara, and Shukaku. This worried me to no end, and apparently it showed on my face as well. I gasp slightly and push harder, cracking the branches beneath my feet.
"Sasuke!" I yell, surprising myself, and Naruto. My hand involuntarily slapped itself over my mouth as my eyes went wide in pure shock at what I'd just done.
"Did you just-" Naruto began, but again, a loud, screeching demon voice pierced the air, and this time, it held satisfactory and victory.
"SASUKE UCHIHA!" The voice of Gaara yelled in relief, to my dismay. My breathing quickened at the negative thoughts that swam through my head. I jumped faster, and finally, the smell of blood thickly mixed in the air.
"Oh no."