[GUtW]—❈—56:: Sixteen Down: Sixteen To Go [IV]

A/N: so... I'm back.

I apologize for the delay, truly, but my family changed houses. Things kinda went haywire after that.delay, truly, but my family changed houses. Things kinda went haywire after that.

I'm settled in now though, so there should be no more problems.

—❈—

Akatsuchi (Stone) vs. Makoto Sakihana (Leaf)

Akatsuchi’s second fight is more like his first, with his opponent (yet another skilled Leaf-nin) trying everything he can think of to break through the Stone-nin’s defense only to meet counter after counter.

In the end, much like Akatsuchi’s opponent in his last match, Makoto Sakihana exhausts himself trying to take down “The Mountain”, as the announcer has so creatively nicknamed him; a nickname of course that tickles what few funny bones Caleb’s Memories possess, for obvious reasons.

With his opponent running low on everything, Akatsuchi easily dispatches of him, winning the match.

The audience cheers.

That makes it three non-Leaf ninja who’ve gotten into the final eight now.

To be fair, only one of the ninja from the last three matches have been Leaf-nin, but even so, it has to be taken into account that, including my team, six of the ninja who made it into the second round are Leaf.

One’s down already, and I myself am facing a fellow Leaf-nin in my match, and, since I will be winning, that means that, best case scenario, only four Leaf-nin will be making it into the round of eight. And that’s a best case scenario.

More likely, especially because of the clear difference in ability between the fourth Leaf-nin—a thirteen year old named Yōsuke Nakaōji, and his opponent—Temari, it will just be my team entering the round of eight.

There’s no official stance on it, but it is definitely not a good look for the hosting village to not have their genin win The Chūnin Exam.

It's never happened to The Leaf before, but it has happened to Stone, and if Kurotsuchi’s behaviour is any indication, odds are good that they’re still salty about it.

With my teammates and I being the only Leaf-nin entering the round of eight, the responsibility for preventing The Leaf from sharing that embarrassment with Stone now rests solely on us.

I take a moment to process how that responsibility makes me feel.

“Guys,” I say to my teammates after a moment, “I know we came here aiming for the final eight, but I’m not settling for that anymore. I’m going for gold.”

Sakura and Naruto stare at me.

“Um, I thought we already were?” Sakura asks awkwardly.

“Yeah,” Naruto chimes in. “I mean, what? You thought that after almost dying to Jerk-sensei’s training—”

“I’m right here you know.”

“—I would settle for top eight? Hell no. I’m making it to the final round, so I can whoop your ass and become Hokage.”

“Keep dreaming, Naruto,” Sakura says. “If anyone’s fighting Sasuke in the final round, it’ll be me.”

Naruto eyes her. “Why?” he asks. “You don’t even think you can beat him.”

“Well, I don’t think you can beat him either, but I know I’ll make him work for it,” Sakura says, and then she gives me this… look.

I swallow.

Kakashi snorts.

Up on the screen, the next fight is announced:

Omoi Kanai (Cloud) vs. Gaara (Sand)

Omoi sighs. Audibly enough that everyone in the loge hears him.

His hot-blooded teammate, Karui, smacks him upside the head. “Quit sighing like a depressed, old man and go fight,” she says.

“Ow,” Omoi cries, massaging the smacked back of his head. “Why did you hit me? I’m about to fight. What if you give me a concussion that makes me miscast a jutsu, and the jutsu fails explosively and blows up the stadium and starts a war?”

“What the…?” Sakura mutters in astonishment, unintentionally mirroring the reaction of most of the room to Omoi’s words.

One of the people who don’t react with astonishment is Karui, who simply gives her fellow Cloud-nin this look of genuine confusion.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she asks her teammate.

Omoi gasps like Karui just said her favourite meal is boiled babies, or something.

“You can’t ask me questions like that before a fight,” he says. “It could affect my confidence and—”

“Omoi,” their jōnin-sensei, Samui, cuts in before her students back and forth could carry on any longer. “Your opponent is waiting.”

Samui points at Gaara, who actually is waiting rather patiently for his opponent.

“Oh, right,” Omoi says, before pulling out a lollipop, sticking it in his mouth, and following Gaara out.

“What a weird guy,” Naruto says.

“Like you get to talk,” Sakura says.

“And the next contestants take the stage,” the announcer says as Gaara and Omoi do just that. “In the blue corner, we have Gaara of the Sand, quite literally in his case, considering what little we’ve seen of his abilities so far, and in the red, we have Omoi Kanai, the Cloud-nin that I’m sure we all remember for his remarkable kenjutsu skill in his last match.”

“Who do you think will win?” Kakashi asks us suddenly.

“Gaara,” my teammates and I say with unplanned synchronicity.

“You all seem pretty sure,” Kakashi says, eyeing us shrewdly.

“It seems pretty obvious,” I say back.

“Regular sand, if it moves fast enough, will shred the skin off bone, Sensei,” Sakura says. “We’ve seen the range, speed, and control of Gaara’s sand.”

“Yeah,” Naruto agrees. “Unless that weird, Cloud-guy has like a really awesome trump card, there’s no way he’s gonna beat Gaara.”

“Well, I guess we’ll see,” Kakashi says.

We do see. We see Omoi last a total of ten seconds, darting futilely around the field like a hunted rabbit before he’s inevitably entombed to the neck in Gaara’s sand.

In a final gambit, Omoi tries some genjutsu on Gaara, but the Sand-nin overcomes it with such casual disregard that it’s almost disrespectful.

“Come on, Omoi, cut him or something,” Karui screams at the top of her lungs.

Almost like he can hear her, Omoi sighs. “So, I guess this is it, huh?” he asks Gaara.

“It appears so, yes,” Gaara says.

Omoi sighs again, then sucks on his lollipop (which, of course, had never left his mouth despite the fight). “Thanks for not covering my face with your sand, by the way. It would have ruined my lollipop.”

“You’re welcome,” Gaara says.

“Who cares about a fucking lollipop,” Karui screams. “Stab him!”

The proctor, Hayate Gekkō appears next to Omoi. “Do you surrender?” he asks. “I need verbal confirmation.”

“Don’t you fucking d—” Karui begins, but Omoi says; “Yeah, sure. I surrender.” Before she even finishes.

Gaara releases Omoi as he’s announced the winner, and Karui let’s out a shriek of rage and a litany of expletives.

“Oi, Cloud-jerk,” Naruto calls. “Quit your whining; our match is next and I promised you an ass kicking.

Cloud-jerk, also known as Karui, stares at Naruto, then she grins. “Yeah,” she says. “This is perfect. I can use you to practice what I’m gonna do that lollipop eating idiot I call a teammate.”

“You wish,” Naruto says.

On the screen, the next match, which is already half-begun here in the loge is announced:

Naruto Uzumaki (Leaf) vs. Karui (Cloud)