Blood of a Lost Girl (Book 1, Naruto)

Chapter 28

"Sorry we're late. You wouldn't believe the traffic." Naruto grinned at them.

"And you are?" The proctor asked Sasuke. Naruto jumped down from the waiting area.

Sasuke looked toward him. "I'm Sasuke, Uchiha." Everyone cheered. Show off. I don't see what's so cool about him. He's the last Uchiha, big deal. I huffed in silence. This was so unfair. I was in the mood to fight, damn it!

"Huh, so you finally decided to show up after all. I was betting you wouldn't come, 'cause sooner or later you'd have to face me." Naruto gave a cocky grin.

Sasuke smirked. "So what about you guys? Did you win?"

"No. I was about to fight when you guys got here." I grumbled. I had been excited to show my new-found skills off, but they just had to interrupt...

"You know it." Naruto replied.

"Huh, well don't get too full of yourself, you're still a loser." I could see Sasuke was actually proud of Naruto. Well, they're coming along quite well.

Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "Sorry if we kept you waiting, but uhm... how late are we? I mean, it's not like Sasuke's, well, disqualified or anything, right?"

We all turned to the proctor. "Like master like pupil, even down to your lousy sense of time."

"Well, what about it?" Kakashi asked, still scratching the back of his head. Does he have fleas or something?

"You know, you were so late that we extended the deadline for you and it's lucky for you we did, because you just made it. No, he's not disqualified."

"Oh, that's a relief. You had me worried there for a minute, so we're ok."

I rolled my eyes. "Just barely, if you hadn't arrived after my fight, you would've been disqualified."

"Just make sure you don't lose to this guy." Naruto said.

"Got it." Sasuke was still looking at Gaara as if he was some sort of puzzle.

"Hey Sasuke! Don't lose, 'cause I want to fight you myself."

And once again Sasuke replied with 'Got it.' I started walking toward the waiting area again as Gaara was called to come down and Naruto turned to walk with me. As we walked up the stairs again I caught a glimpse of Gaara's sand. I stopped walking and held up my arm, stopping Naruto from continuing up. I held my finger to my lips when Naruto was about to speak. I heard that there were some guys who was threatening Gaara, but then it turned into promises of death. What, are they idiots? I shook my head at their idiocy. Even I could feel Gaara's bloodlust from here. I heard the sand scraping along the floor and then the men's terrified screams resonated through the air. I breathed in and then out again, focusing my hearing. I glanced at Naruto. He was frozen on his spot, shaking a bit. Gaara was slowly making his way toward us. We would not want Gaara to find us while he was in this state, I knew this better than most. I grabbed Naruto's hand and appeared in the waiting area. Naruto let out a shaky breath. "We need to warn Kakashi-sensei!" He practically yelled in my ear.

I nodded and folded my arms. "I know we do. But not even Kakashi-sensei would be able to stop Gaara." I leaned closer to him. "He's like you." I stood up straight again. "At least that's what I think. Only he's much more dangerous and a bigger threat than you could ever be." I said, putting my hands on my hips. I had a feeling that Gaara was exactly like Naruto. He may have a tailed beast inside of him too. I've read in one of the books in the restricted section –it was exceptionally hard to get in there- that there are more than 4 tailed beasts. In fact, there are a total of 9 tailed beasts. Each big village apparently had one. I don't know which one Gaara had, but I know it was a very dangerous one. Apparently, depending on the amount of tails they have, their strengths differ from each other, but only a little. Nine tails, being the strongest – the one that Naruto harboured inside himself. I put my hand on my chin. "But still... It'd be better if we stopped this match before anything bad happened." I mumbled to myself, nodding. "Right. Naruto, let's go. We have a match to stop." Unfortunately the match has already begun.