Caged Birds Lullaby

chapter 28

"Sabaku no Temari vs Uzumaki Naruto"

Naruto felt blood rush rapidly inside her as her adrenaline accelerated. She smirked. Finally, it was her turn!

"Thanks, Kaka-sensei! I'll beat her Suna ass for sure, ttebayo!", she growled out silently, pumping her fist in the air. Beside her Sasuke who was still abashed at the presence of swords, smirked as if telling her not to lose. The blonde understood the Uchiha mimics and smirked back. She was defiantly not going to lose. After all, she had a few asses to kick. Like Sasuke's own, like Gaara's, like Neji's. His ass was the most important of all. She really wanted to kick it. She paused, horrified. Maybe she WAS obsessed with asses?

"Don't lose, Naruto!", egged on Sakura, smiling fondly at her teammate. This snapped the blonde from her daze. She gave a victory sign to the pinkette.

"Good luck, and don't overdo it."

"Sensei…you said that to all of us..", sweatdropped Naruto, turning to him as she attached the swords to her back with a white and blue sash, clasped together with a small dark blue Uzumaki spiral at her chest. With one last smug smile, she jumped down and landed on the arena the same way Kiba had done.

Temari was already there. She wasn't smiling. Her light chocolate eyes where narrowed and serious.

Naruto, feeling eyes on her, looked up and gave a smirk at Neji. He smiled back confidently.

"You seem to be a strong opponent, Uzumaki Naruto. I will not beat over the bush. I will finish this quickly.", she stated and lowered herself slightly, hand on the enormous black metal rectangular pole, which was strapped to her back.

Neji was watching her. She couldn't lose. Never!

Naruto lowered herself to her kenjutsu stance, eyes narrowing as well. This would be the first time wielding these swords, but she had trained with Kakashi. That training wasn't enough, she knew it. She had only mastered some of the basic kata. And they were done with a bokken shorter then her swords. She had planned from the start to have twin blades, that's why she had practiced with her both hands. At least she would be free of that handicap.

It seemed she would have to improvise. Plus she had made a promise to herself. She would come up with a cool technique during the battle like Sasuke-teme had. And she wasn't going to lose to him! He was her rival!

She would have to somehow wing it. Kakashi must have had a reason to give her the swords now. She felt that if this Temari girl hadn't been her opponent, she wouldn't have gotten them.

But it was no time to dwell on it. She needed to focus. Her hands twitched to grab the handles of her swords strapped to her back.

And she waited. She couldn't rush without a plan no matter how much her giddy nerves where telling her to.

Minutes passed and she snapped.

Deciding not to use the swords just yet, Naruto dashed at the older girl, her foot swinging to deliver a perfect roundhouse kick.

Temari hooked her hand around the black pole and whipped it open. Naruto gasped. It was an enormous fan with three purple circles etched in the middle.

Seals. They most probably represented the strength used for attacks.

Wait, all three where open.

And it was a giant fan.

Then it her. Wind this was the strongest attack. A clone sprang into existence as she propelled her right foot on it's back and flew up, away just as the girl swung the weapon and an enormous gust of wind erupted from it, speeding towards Naruto.