*gasp* TEAMWORK -- Chapter 11 scene 1 (Sakura)
Tournament START!
Small scene, 1 000 words, but hey, at least it's started now! As always, unbetaed, if you find anything wrong or unclear please tell me and I'll fix it.
"Sixteen participants," Kakashi had told them, one week exactly before the start of the tournament. "The odds of two of you meeting in the first round are slightly under thirty percent."
Of course Sakura had calculated that one already. She hadn't liked the results much.
"Assuming you all meet strangers in the first round, and you all win... The odds rise to forty-three percent in your second match. If you get as far as your third match you will have to fight a teammate." Kakashi had given them a long, sober look. "I think you'll all agree with me that not taking those matches seriously would be somewhat insulting."
By which, she knew, he meant matches against her, because Naruto and Sasuke always fought each other all-out.
She was still annoyed at Naruto for putting on his martyr face before he agreed with their teacher. Kind of made her wish she'd get to fight him at some point, but...
She'd made progress with her speed and strength during the month, come up with strategies to use against her teammates' superior ones. She hadn't come up with a miracle.
Not Naruto or Sasuke in the first round, she prayed as she stepped out of the lineup to draw her number. That's all I ask, not Naruto or Sasuke. The rules of the tournament were the same as back home; winning all your fights didn't mean you were automatically a chuunin. Chuunin was a command rank, if the lowest one; having a good head for tactics, knowing how to use everything you had on hand, and when to cut your losses, also counted for a lot. She wanted at least one chance to impress the judges.
Huh. Number seven. She smiled to herself as she handed the engraved stick to the jounin in charge and he wrote down her name on the big board. It didn't tell her whether she would fight her teammates -- in Water Country they still used the traditional iroha chart, and if you went by that order Haruno came long before either Uchiha or Uzumaki -- but it made her feel a little lucky anyway.
When she turned around to regain her place in the line of waiting contestants she had two seconds to scan them all again.
Three of them she already knew; the rest she hadn't noticed before, but then again they hadn't met many people during the second stage, apart from the kunoichi trio and the people Kyuubi had savaged, and the first stage had been packed.
Yamanaka Inoru was a bratty little newcomer with a single special technique to his name, and one that was made more for spying than all-out combat; he'd likely gone as far as he could get this year, Ino's efforts to train him up notwithstanding. Hinata's little sister might go farther, for all that she was the same age of barely thirteen, because she would see attacks coming and her Gentle Palm would compensate for her lack of mass and reach.
Sakura had no idea how far Zenko would get.
She still wanted a chance to plant a fist in her face.
Zenko hadn't thrown Naruto a single glance; from the way her eyes glided past him when they were led out into the arena he might as well have been part of the scenery. But the constant background hum of banked killing intent set Sakura's teeth on edge.
She took her place in the line again, matched names and faces and body types and visible weapons. She could tell that a lot of other countries had done what Konoha had with them, if inadvertently; kept teams in reserve especially for this, so they'd have a better chance. No village wanted to make a poor showing of it when it was the first year Mist had ever condescended to participate.
"Psst, Sakura-chan."
Sakura's eye twitched; she kept staring ahead. They were under the eyes and intense scrutiny of about five hundred people, up in the stands; family, teachers, local Mist nin... and three Kages and several Daimyos. She couldn't get away with kicking his leg.
"Sakura-chan!"
"What," she whispered back. Or growled, either or.
"That chick looks kinda familiar. Where do we know her from?"
Blinking, she looked at the girl now drawing her own lot. About fourteen or fifteen, with short, messy, electric blue hair and a seal (maybe just a tattoo, who knew) dark on her skin, running from her cheek down into her collar, to reappear at her hip. She wasn't exactly low-key; Sakura was sure she would have remembered someone like that...
And then the girl turned to go back to her spot, and caught her looking, and blushed. Lightly, but that was unmistakably a blush, what on Earth...
And then she leered at Sakura, blue eyebrows wagging.
"... We don't know her at all and shut up Naruto."
"Sakura-chan? You're all red."
"Shut. Up. Naruto."
Oh hell, she remembered her now. That was the girl who'd caught Naruto prancing out of Sakura's shower stall in girl shape.
"You sure? Because--"
"Naruto so help me--"
Sasuke's simple "Hey" brought them both to a guilty quiet. The murmurs of the crowd hid quite a bit down there, but she was pretty sure their immediate neighbors would have no problem overhearing them, and good job looking scary there. This really wasn't the impression they wanted to project.
"Uchiha Sasuke," called the jounin in charge, giving them a narrow-eyed warning look.
She watched Sasuke leave the lineup, his back, the line of his shoulders. He'd been quiet, this last week, away from the hotel a lot -- practicing that one secret trick Kakashi had insisted they each come up with, she'd assumed, but even now he was still quiet.
She was sure no one but her had noticed. He wasn't visibly brooding, or scowling more than usual, or snapping all that often. He still flung sarcasm at Naruto when Naruto left him an obvious opening, but... She wasn't sure what to make of it.
When the jounin in charge wrote down his name on the board she forgot about it a little. Brain buzzing, the hair on her arms prickled up, she waited blankly as Naruto trudged up in turn and drew his own lot.
Looked like she would get her wish, and a little more; the gods were merciful. Two matches to impress the judges.
And then on her third match she would come up against Sasuke.
--
Next.
Small scene, 1 000 words, but hey, at least it's started now! As always, unbetaed, if you find anything wrong or unclear please tell me and I'll fix it.
"Sixteen participants," Kakashi had told them, one week exactly before the start of the tournament. "The odds of two of you meeting in the first round are slightly under thirty percent."
Of course Sakura had calculated that one already. She hadn't liked the results much.
"Assuming you all meet strangers in the first round, and you all win... The odds rise to forty-three percent in your second match. If you get as far as your third match you will have to fight a teammate." Kakashi had given them a long, sober look. "I think you'll all agree with me that not taking those matches seriously would be somewhat insulting."
By which, she knew, he meant matches against her, because Naruto and Sasuke always fought each other all-out.
She was still annoyed at Naruto for putting on his martyr face before he agreed with their teacher. Kind of made her wish she'd get to fight him at some point, but...
She'd made progress with her speed and strength during the month, come up with strategies to use against her teammates' superior ones. She hadn't come up with a miracle.
Not Naruto or Sasuke in the first round, she prayed as she stepped out of the lineup to draw her number. That's all I ask, not Naruto or Sasuke. The rules of the tournament were the same as back home; winning all your fights didn't mean you were automatically a chuunin. Chuunin was a command rank, if the lowest one; having a good head for tactics, knowing how to use everything you had on hand, and when to cut your losses, also counted for a lot. She wanted at least one chance to impress the judges.
Huh. Number seven. She smiled to herself as she handed the engraved stick to the jounin in charge and he wrote down her name on the big board. It didn't tell her whether she would fight her teammates -- in Water Country they still used the traditional iroha chart, and if you went by that order Haruno came long before either Uchiha or Uzumaki -- but it made her feel a little lucky anyway.
When she turned around to regain her place in the line of waiting contestants she had two seconds to scan them all again.
Three of them she already knew; the rest she hadn't noticed before, but then again they hadn't met many people during the second stage, apart from the kunoichi trio and the people Kyuubi had savaged, and the first stage had been packed.
Yamanaka Inoru was a bratty little newcomer with a single special technique to his name, and one that was made more for spying than all-out combat; he'd likely gone as far as he could get this year, Ino's efforts to train him up notwithstanding. Hinata's little sister might go farther, for all that she was the same age of barely thirteen, because she would see attacks coming and her Gentle Palm would compensate for her lack of mass and reach.
Sakura had no idea how far Zenko would get.
She still wanted a chance to plant a fist in her face.
Zenko hadn't thrown Naruto a single glance; from the way her eyes glided past him when they were led out into the arena he might as well have been part of the scenery. But the constant background hum of banked killing intent set Sakura's teeth on edge.
She took her place in the line again, matched names and faces and body types and visible weapons. She could tell that a lot of other countries had done what Konoha had with them, if inadvertently; kept teams in reserve especially for this, so they'd have a better chance. No village wanted to make a poor showing of it when it was the first year Mist had ever condescended to participate.
"Psst, Sakura-chan."
Sakura's eye twitched; she kept staring ahead. They were under the eyes and intense scrutiny of about five hundred people, up in the stands; family, teachers, local Mist nin... and three Kages and several Daimyos. She couldn't get away with kicking his leg.
"Sakura-chan!"
"What," she whispered back. Or growled, either or.
"That chick looks kinda familiar. Where do we know her from?"
Blinking, she looked at the girl now drawing her own lot. About fourteen or fifteen, with short, messy, electric blue hair and a seal (maybe just a tattoo, who knew) dark on her skin, running from her cheek down into her collar, to reappear at her hip. She wasn't exactly low-key; Sakura was sure she would have remembered someone like that...
And then the girl turned to go back to her spot, and caught her looking, and blushed. Lightly, but that was unmistakably a blush, what on Earth...
And then she leered at Sakura, blue eyebrows wagging.
"... We don't know her at all and shut up Naruto."
"Sakura-chan? You're all red."
"Shut. Up. Naruto."
Oh hell, she remembered her now. That was the girl who'd caught Naruto prancing out of Sakura's shower stall in girl shape.
"You sure? Because--"
"Naruto so help me--"
Sasuke's simple "Hey" brought them both to a guilty quiet. The murmurs of the crowd hid quite a bit down there, but she was pretty sure their immediate neighbors would have no problem overhearing them, and good job looking scary there. This really wasn't the impression they wanted to project.
"Uchiha Sasuke," called the jounin in charge, giving them a narrow-eyed warning look.
She watched Sasuke leave the lineup, his back, the line of his shoulders. He'd been quiet, this last week, away from the hotel a lot -- practicing that one secret trick Kakashi had insisted they each come up with, she'd assumed, but even now he was still quiet.
She was sure no one but her had noticed. He wasn't visibly brooding, or scowling more than usual, or snapping all that often. He still flung sarcasm at Naruto when Naruto left him an obvious opening, but... She wasn't sure what to make of it.
When the jounin in charge wrote down his name on the board she forgot about it a little. Brain buzzing, the hair on her arms prickled up, she waited blankly as Naruto trudged up in turn and drew his own lot.
Looked like she would get her wish, and a little more; the gods were merciful. Two matches to impress the judges.
And then on her third match she would come up against Sasuke.
--
Next.