"Sakura versus Kin!" Hayate wheezed.
"Eh?" Sakura jumped. "Me? Already?"
The Sound kunoichi looked up sullenly and glared at Sakura from the far balcony. She made her way into the arena.
Sakura hesitated. "I…I'm not ready for this?" she asked Kakashi.
Kakashi looked back at Sakura without expression. "Was that a question?"
"So is she coming or what?" Kin shouted arrogantly from the arena floor. "Doesn't matter to me if I don't have to crush some soft girl."
Sakura twitched slightly. "What did you say!?" she yelled back.
Kin sneered. "I said you are a soft, weak, worthless little girl. Just stay where you are and drop out so you don't get hurt."
Sakura quivered slightly, not in fear but anger. She straightened up and walked mechanically towards the stairs.
Sasuke watched Sakura out of the corner of his eye. She was a useless fangirl…usually. From how Naruto told it, she had carried him through the forest when he was unconscious. When he woke up, she had been over him in a defensive posture. And against the rain ninja, she hadn't fought but she had been fast and efficient in taking care of the objectives. So perhaps she was not so useless. He closed his eyes and sighed. "Useless or not, she has no business on the front line," he muttered.
"Perhaps," Kakashi said easily. "She'll certainly never catch up to you or Naruto in a contest of taijutsu. But there are other kinds of combat."
Sasuke turned to watch.
Hayate coughed lightly and looked between the two kunoichi. Kin was cold and calm. Sakura was hot...but there was calm beneath the surface.
Inner Sakura loomed up inside Sakura's mind. "Time to teach that bitch a lesson!" she cackled.
"Begin," Hayate said calmly.
Sakura ran through a series of handsigns.
"Too slow!" Kin shouted, throwing a handful of senbon at the pinkette. Sakura yelped and jumped to the side, but one of the needles caught her sandal and pinned her foot. Blood pooled around the weapon and Sakura screamed in pain; it had penetrated through her foot and stapled her to the ground.
Kin decided the screams were annoying and threw another handful of senbon. Each one struck with unerring accuracy, the silly girl too consumed with pain to even dodge. The one in her neck cut off the screams, but the three in her heart and two in her eyes were the ones that killed her.
Kin smiled cruelly and crossed her arms as her team cheered from behind her and the proctor raised his hand. "Winner, Sakura."
Kin closed her eyes and nodded, yes that…wait. "What!?" she snapped, opening her eyes and looking up.
Sakura was not lying dead and bleeding before her. Instead, there were unmarked senbon scattered in the general area. And Kin's hands were bound with a spool of wire that went around her back. And Sakura was behind her, completely unharmed. "The daydreams of expectation genjutsu," she said sweetly. "Whatever you just saw was just how you hoped the battle would go." She looks over at the senbon. "Hmm. I am pretty sure that with that grouping, you thought you killed me." Sakura spun back towards Kin, bringing her elbow up as she spun and smashing it into Kin's nose. "Now you know better."
Kin hit the ground and felt the wire cut into her wrists painfully. She glared at Sakura. "I'll get you for this," she slurred through her broken nose.
Sakura spun on her heel and walked off. "Maybe. But today, this weak little girl is stronger than you."
Kin snarled in rageand struggled against the wire, doing nothing but opening her cuts up worse. She eventually had to be sedated and carried from the arena.
"That was kinda scary, Sakura," Naruto murmured as Sakura rejoined them.
Sakura nodded slightly and slumped to the floor. "Took a lot of chakra, too," she panted. "I only had the one shot. And for a genjutsu that weak…"
"You did well," Kakashi praised. "the expectation daydream jutsu is hard to get off smoothly. Timing it with her throw was very good." He blinked at the lack of response to his praise and turned. Sakura was asleep…but she was smiling.
Kakashi allowed himself a smile. She'd earned the rest.
Sasuke looked to Sakura, now that it was safe to. He nodded at her. She had been…impressive.
Hayate coughed. "Shikamaru versus Kankuro!"
"Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed, getting up.
"You're not going to whine about it?" Ino asked, surprised.
"You'd just throw me over the railing if I did," Shikamaru said.
Kankuro put his heavy satchel on the arena floor and looked at his opponent. "Um, are you okay?"
Shikamaru climbed out of the hole Ino had thrown him into. "Yeah, sorry about that. My teammate can be a bitch."
"You want to come up here and say that!?" Ino raged.
"No," Shikamaru answered calmly.
"Begin," Hayate announced.
Kankuro rushed at Shikamaru fast and straight. "Poison breath!" he yelled, exhaling a purple death cloud.
Shikamaru frowned and jumped out of the way. He circled the arena part-way, opening up the distance between him and the puppet, and made the sign of his hijutsu. His shadow speared out towards Kankuro while Shikamaru crouched in obvious concentration.
Kankuro sidestepped the shadow and rushed Shikamaru again. "Poison guhurk!?"
Shikamaru smiled, his shadow now connected to Kankuro's bundle. "Shadow Posession Jutsu is a success," he announced. He stood up straight.
The real Kankuro mimicked the motion, which was not at all how the cocoon around him was supposed to unravel, getting him hopelessly tangled. His face, half-covered by bandages, was a mask of hate.
Shikamaru flexed his hands and fingers randomly, twisting them about and exercising every muscle he could think of. Kankuro did the same. And the chakra threads they controlled made the puppet "crow" almost rip itself to pieces. "Your puppet doesn't move quite right," he explained. "And since you're from Sand, and your hair was sticking out of your satchel, it just made sense." He stopped and looked to Hayate. "He can't move and his weapon is worse off than he is."
Kankuro grumbled but didn't object. It was true, after all.
Hayate considered and shrugged. "Winner, Shikamaru."
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(Posted Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:55)
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