Because I Met You

Chapter 43: Preliminaries Part 7

Not many people are left now. Looking around, I'm pretty sure everyone's done their battles except for four people. Three of which are Gaara, Koji, and Ikki. The fourth is that Lee guy in the green jumpsuit. So there's inevitably going to be two of us Sunagakure shinobi that have to go up against each other. I look at Gaara. He seems unperturbed. That's so like him. He's just that confident. Ikki is being cheered on by Yukari. Koji also seems pretty normal. It's like he's not nervous at all. The display screen starts beeping. My attention is now completely focused on that.

"Let's get right back into it now."

The proctor coughs. The display screen stops beeping...

"Next match... Gaara vs Koji."

No! This is so not good. I have a really bad feeling about this. Those two don't exactly like each other... Koji looks at Gaara with an irritated look before heading down the stairs. I notice a frown on Gaara's face as he also heads down. I just hope none of them get badly hurt...

"Begin."

The proctor clears the arena. As soon as he does, Gaara strikes first. He chases Koji with his sand. Koji starts running from it, dodging the many attacks. He then gets closer to Gaara and throws a bunch of shuriken at him. Of course, the sand rushes back to protect him. Koji then seizes this opportunity to make a bunch of hand signs. He's going to cast one of his smoke jutsu!

"Take this!"

Koji shouts as he inhales and then releases a cloud of black smoke. Black smoke? That's the first time I see that jutsu... I then hear sizzling. Gaara jumps far back from the smoke. There's smoke stuck on his face! What is that?! The smoke then falls down on the ground along with some sand. Does Gaara always have a layer of sand over himself as extra protection? Well it's a good thing he had that now, though.

"Didn't think you'd cave from just one attack."

Koji smiled provokingly. Gaara doesn't answer him and mends the crack on his face with more sand. This smoke acts almost like acid. If Gaara didn't have the layer of sand, it would've probably burned his face! I intertwine my hands together, bringing them up to my lips, hoping with all my heart that none of them get hurt. Gaara's still going after Koji with his sand. Koji's dodging it, but barely, considering how fast the sand is. While he's running away, Koji takes out a smoke bomb and throws it, concealing his location. Gaara then immediately brings back his sand, protecting himself from any incoming attacks. The smoke bomb's smoke then starts to expand more. How's that possible? It's supposed to dissipate after a short time, not get larger. That's when it hit me. One of Koji's smoke jutsu is a grey smoke... Of the same colour as the smoke bomb's smoke! This is the smoke that consumes the oxygen in the area it touches! Gaara's in trouble if it gets to him! Koji's already out of the smoke on the other side, completely in Gaara's blindside.

Gaara seems to have noticed that the smoke is not normal. Now all that's left is to make sure he doesn't get in contact with it. Gaara then expands his sand, and starts waving it like a fan, pushing the smoke back. Koji can't even react! The smoke is already surrounding him! I hear him coughing. The smoke then dissipates. He probably undid his jutsu himself, since it's lethal, even for him. Grasping the opportunity, Gaara imprisons Koji in his sand.

"Ugh! Dammit!"

Koji exclaims. I sigh in relief. No one got hurt... I'm so glad.

"Aaaah!"

Koji screams in pain. What? Why? Is Gaara doing this?

"Stay away from Kiu."

Gaara's voice sounds really serious.