(Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com) Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do not own Wedding Peach.
I do not own any great quantity of money or property. I'm a STUDENT; that's
why I'm poor, okay?
Author's Notes: A naruhina friendship scene is in. It's just
to cheer Naruto up a little. (Hinata-chan is soooo sweet!)
A kunoichi staggered as she walked through the aisles of the grocery
store. Her third match was on the morn. For the last week, she was practicing
her ninja skills, as well as practicing kendo with chakra. She was physically
tired, and a little nervous again. 'Yup, tonight, definitely go to bed
right after a nice hot bath.'
She made it this far from the 64 original contestants, and now she was
in the top sixteen — a great accomplishment in her first try, especially
as a human. Sakura's identity was still mysterious among the townsfolk.
Rather than decrease, the stares she received in Minerva grew exponentially
after she defeated Cardella and Jura. Many looked at her with fleeting
glances. It was hard to decipher whether they held fear, awe, or scorn.
She did her best to ignore the antagonistic ones, even though her innards
screamed, 'YOU WANNA FIGHT ME?!' But at the same time, a number
of powerful-looking beings would give her polite smiles as she walked in
the streets. Two or three strangers even stopped her to quietly give her
their congratulations.
The exotic fruits and dried spices filled the store with a wonderful
aroma. Sakura asked the butcher for some fowl. He gave her a wink as he
handed over a generous package, charging her no more than what she originally
requested. She thanked him gratefully, and wished him a good night.
The kunoichi slowly walked on the gravel path leading to the mountain
forest. Her body was too drained to jump safely through the trees. Nice
and easy was the way to go now. Besides, in the deeper parts, there were
a couple of plant species whose branches twisted around warm-blooded animals
— whether they were beasts or people — and attempt to eat them.
'I wonder what everyone at home is doing,' Sakura thought as she trod
up the mountain. 'My parents. Oh, man. They must be so worried. And I know
Kakashi thinks of me... as a little sister or so.'
She sighed. 'Naruto... he better not get killed before I come back —
if I ever do, that is. And I hope Lee-san won't try anything ridiculous
while attempting to find me. His passion is awesome, but it can sometimes
take over his common sense... okay, 'sometimes' doesn't cut it. Tsunade-sama
and Ino... they'd be just as agitated as my parents.'
A nerve popped out of Sakura's head as she thought of another person.
'And Sasuke: well, he probably thinks, 'good riddance'. Not that I would
blame him. Now that I think about it, I'd like to apologize to him for
being an annoying pest.'
'And then knee him where it COUNTS. SHAANNAROO!'
'Haruno Sakura.'
A handsome lad of sixteen sat at the park bench, reading the next day's
line-up. He was an angel of flight, even though he had no wings on his
back. He was glad of this. He was advanced enough in magic to fly without
them; plus, he considered them bulky and too tiresome to take care of.
'She's my next opponent — although she's a human, she's a good fighter
and strategist. I was so afraid when Jura fought her; I honestly thought
that her death would cancel the tournament... But she was GOOD.' A lump
developed in his throat. 'And she's REALLY hot...'
"OH, YEAH!" he yelled out. The angel gave a vertical punch with a touch
of ki, resulting in a minor sonic boom. It echoed through the city park,
scattering birds from the surrounding trees.
As he snapped back into reality, he found himself standing on a park-bench
with a fist in the air. Glares from other passer-byers shot in his direction.
"Ah, ahaha... Sorry, good people," he said sheepishly, and he floated upwards.
He hid himself into the deeper portion of the park trees.
'Haruno Sakura. What a beautiful name,' he dreamed as he sat in the
branches of a flowering tree. He then sighed in exasperation. "Still, the
'fighting' part against Sakura would be the hard part," he grumbled out-loud.
"I don't want to hurt her..."
"Oh, I'll take care of that for you," a voice piped up from behind him.
He tensed, and turned around.
Potamos sat in a nearby branch. "Who are you?" the angel asked.
"Hi, Mr. Popular," Potamos squealed. "If you don't wanna fight Haruno
Sakura, then quit! It's simple!"
"No!" he yelled at her. "Go away!"
"Oh, come on," the cheerful girl replied. "I wanna fight her, and if
you beat her, then I won't get a chance at her."
"I... I get a chance at her, not you!!" He paused to think of the implications
of what he just said.
"Na, ah! She's much stronger than you. You will have noooo chance against
her. Especially if," she grasped his hand, "you're knocked out."
He expelled a shot of air at her — or rather, at her clone. It burst
into spray of water. A muffled laugh echoed from above.
He glanced upward, just in time to see the real Potamos drop a column
of water on top of him. The shot blasted the flight-angel through the tangle
of branches, and he landed with a painful thud. He was soaked and out cold.
Potamos giggled. "You're not fast enough, anyway." She jumped through
the trees, leaving the scene.
Naruto was down in the dumps. The results of the Chuunin exams came
out. Naruto could not go this semester — neither as an entrant nor as a
spectator.
Currently, he was practicing his aim with projectile weapons.
(( Kakashi stopped Naruto in the streets. "Naruto!" he called out. "I
have to talk with you."
The silver-haired jounin sighed quietly as the fox-boy trotted over.
"I know this might upset you. But you're not taking the Chuunin exams this
semester. Both Jiraiya and I agreed. It's just that..."
Naruto turned away. "It's alright, Kakashi-sensei," he said in a low
voice. "I'm in no mood to go for this round."
Kakashi's one eye widened at Naruto's sullen response.
Naruto looked back at his teacher. "Maybe in another six months, when
I have my team back," he said, giving a phony grin. He walked off in the
direction of the Ichiraku Ramen bar. ))
'The scary thing is, I actually meant it.'
Naruto threw some shuriken at a training doll. His aim was good, but
not perfect.
'That Sasuke-bastard is gone... And now Sakura-chan is gone, too. I
hope that Sakura-chan didn't run off looking for him.' He sighed. 'Then
again, I want to do the same for Sakura-chan. And I tried it and failed
when Sasuke ran off. If he gets himself killed... I'll kill him! Wait,
that doesn't make sense... If he gets himself killed... I'll kill him again.
Wait, no... THE POINT IS, SAKURA-CHAN IS MISSING!'
"Na, Naruto-kun?" a quiet voice came from behind him.
"Hm?" Naruto turned around, to find Hyuuga Hinata standing behind him.
There were a few cuts and bruises on her skin, but she looked fine. The
Hyuuga arrived home the day before, after taking the Chuunin exams in the
Lightning country. A slow blush crept up over her cheeks, which Naruto
(like always) thought was just a strange quirk of hers.
"Oh, Hinata! Good to see you! Hey, don't worry about failing the exam;
I heard from Kiba and Shino that you were great!"
"Th-, thank you, Naruto-kun," she squeaked out. "But I'll definitely
need more training before I become a Chuunin."
Naruto grinned. "You'll get there. I'm VERY sure."
The match between Hinata and her fearsome cousin Neji, back when Konoha
hosted the Chuunin exams, was still fresh in Naruto's mind. And after he
argued with Neji about fate and his picking on Hinata, then beating him
to a pulp in the exams — Naruto was ready to defend the blue-haired girl
anytime. He still thought her a little gloomy and odd. But he liked people
like her, and he even told her that.
He was utterly clueless, even now, about how much those words meant
to the timid girl. At least that part of him was still there: the inability
to add one and one to get two, especially when it came to human relationships.
"Um... ah... Naruto-kun, Tsunade-sama wants to see you in her office
at six o'clock," Hinata stuttered. 'Why do I have to get so nervous whenever
I talk to him?' she thought frantically.
"Okay, thanks!" Naruto pulled out his shuriken from the training doll.
Hinata's appearance reminded him that he still had friends and family in
Konoha. And for that, he was thankful.
Sakura looked at the official in disbelief. "You're kidding me."
"He fell from a tree yesterday, so it seems," the official explained.
"He had a few broken bones. Also a mild case of hypothermia. You got a
free ride; now you automatically bump up to eighth round. Off you go."
He shooed her out of the room.
Sakura felt more cheated than relieved. She came here, all pumped and
ready to fight. Instead, her opponent just — failed to even show up. "And
because he fell from a tree..." Sakura grumbled. She strode out of the
room, clearly in a mood. She yanked open the door and departed, ready to
see the next matches.
As she walked down the hall, she saw Minoru at the foot of the stairs.
"Hello, Minoru-san!" she called out, and ran to him.
"Sakura-san, is it true that your match was cancelled?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said, rolling her eyes. The two started to climb up the
stairs. "He didn't show up, my opponent. Fell from a tree. That's what
the official said, anyway."
Minoru frowned. "That can't be true," he said flatly.
Sakura turned to him. "Why's that?"
"Your opponent, Icarus, is a flight-angel," he explained. "It is IMPOSSIBLE
that he would get injured from a fall to the ground — unless he was drunk
or whatnot. Much as an imbecile he is, he would never binge out the day
before a match. He has too much pride."
Sakura froze at the top of the stairway. "And the offical told me that
Icarus also had mild hypothermia. That would require lots of cold water
at this time of year..." Her eyes widened with realization.
The elf nodded. "Potamos," he said gravely. "In fact, her match is coming
up. Right now." The two ran to their seats.
Sakura was unconscious after her fight in the first round. In the second
round, Potamos had her own fight before Sakura set foot into the arena.
In fact — with the mild exception of that incident with Minoru — the kunoichi
had never witnessed the powers of the water-demon.
"Sixth match of the third round: Angel Erda versus Potamos of the Water-Demons!"
A young girl dressed in tan armor faced off against Potamos. She was
an earth-angel, standing up tall and resolute, like a determined fighter.
But Potamos...
"Is she... dancing?!" Sakura asked incredulously.
"It seems so," Minoru answered. Potamos seemed to be in her own little
world as she spun like a ballerina.
"Ready... GO!!" The referee blew the whistle.
Potamos immediately stopped twirling, and put her hands together. A
snake of water blasted out of her palms. Angel Erda was knocked clean off
her feet, and skidded on the ground. She was quick to get up, and mumbled
a few lines.
Poles of sand shot out of the ground, trapping Potamos like a bird in
a cage.
"Not bad," the water-demon said. "But you've got to watch your surroundings."
The earth-angel looked shocked as the clone in the sand jail splashed
away. Then she experienced another ice-cold push, this time on her back.
She fell again into a wet heap.
As Erda struggled to pick herself up, she felt something cold and sharp
touch her neck. She opened her eyes to see Potamos pointing an ice spear
at her throat.
The earth-angel smirked. "You know you're not supposed to kill me,"
Erda mumbled. "You'll get kicked out of the tournament."
Potamos' yellow eyes glinted. Her grin was no longer mischievous — instead,
it bordered on sadistic. "You think I care about winning? It's been a while
since I've killed. If you don't surrender now, I'll drive this spear through
your neck. In front of everybody."
The angel's heart froze with shock and fear. 'No... impossible... But
she looks serious...' Terror gripped her, and beads of cold sweat formed
on her brow.
Meanwhile, everyone else in the stands was wondering, just why Angel
Erda was not getting off the ground as Potamos stood perfectly immobile
over her. Nobody except the two saw the weapon in the demon's hands — not
even the referee.
"I SURRENDER!" Angel Erda screamed. The spear of ice vanished from Potamos'
hands. Confused murmurs spread throughout the crowd.
"What's she doing?" Minoru mumbled in irritation. "Erda still had a
chance."
"Genjutsu," Sakura said quietly.
"Pardon?" Minoru turned his head to the kunoichi.
"I think she was using an illusion," Sakura explained. "From how Potamos'
hands were positioned, and the look of sheer terror on Erda's face... It
would be easy to imagine Potamos holding something long and sharp at Erda.
The reason why it wasn't visible to anybody else was because Potamos made
the illusion to cover only a small diameter. Once the spell was in effect,
Potamos could threaten to take her life."
"But..."
"That's the only theory I can come up with. I have a limited knowledge
of genjutsu in the Shinobi World." Her fists tighted. "But if I'm right..."
Sakura muttered, "I could see that Potamos was enjoying EVERY minute of
it."
The water-demon jumped up and and down in glee. She then stopped, and
turned her head in the direction where Minoru and Sakura were sitting.
The eyes of the two girls met. The corner of the water-demon's mouth turned
up into a smirk, and Sakura gulped.
"I get it..." the kunoichi mumbled. Minoru quietly observed her. Goosebumps
covered her arms, and a tiny smile feathered her pink lips.
"Sakura-san... Are you not well?" Minoru asked in concern.
"I'm fine, Minoru-san." Her fingers touched her partially-opened mouth,
as if she were deep in thought.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please tell me! If
I suck, by all means tell me. In an intelligent manner.
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