Broken Lives Go So Well Together (Gaara Story)

Chapter 22

The Hokage nodded at me and said, "And now I will begin the explanation of the final rounds."
As he said this I felt Orochimaru's presence nearby again. I subtly tried to use a little bit of chakra to look around, but ended up coughing up a small amount of blood into my mask instead.
"Honoka are you alright?" Temari asked being one of the only people to notice.
"I'm fine, don't mind me." I said as a command more than an answer, hinting at her to drop it.
"In the final rounds, each of you will put your battle skills on display. You'll demonstrate the power and control you've achieved in your respective disciplines, Accordingly the final battles will commence one month from now."
Naruto looked confused, I began to chuckle but it hurt so bad that it turned into a whine."Wait, we're not going to do it here and now?" he asked the Hokage. "This is to provide a suitable period of preparation."
"What do you mean by that?" Kankuro asked. "Simply this, in addition to announcing the conclusion to the preliminary matches to the countries leaders, we must also have some time to prepare and distribute the summons for the final selections. Not to mention that you examinies need time to prepare for something that is this important." I tried to hold in my smile as I thought, 'the only reason the sand siblings and I are even here was to represent our village, we don't even give a rat's ass!' "Look I don't really get what you are trying to say. What's the point of this?" Kankuro asked again."I mean that to know your advisories and prepare yourselves, you need time." –Or you just need to tap into their subconscious and torture them to an extreme extent- Bakeneko thought happily. 'Shut up! I'm trying to listen to the old man!' I replied, getting a humongous head ache from the demon and the loss of chakra. The Hokage continued to speak."In order to make the finals fair and just, we're giving you this month, each of you must embrace the opportunity to practice hard and learn some new tricks. By now everyone here knows your techniques, so using your old tired tricks is a sure way to lose in the finals. Remember to get some rest as well." As the Hokage said this I looked over to Gaara, I could feel Naruto doing the same beside me. 'Does Naruto know that Gaara doesn't sleep?' I asked myself. I looked at the red headed boy in concern. 'Would Gaara be more powerful if he could sleep?'"Now with all of that behind us, I would like to begin winding things up." The Hokage continued. "But before we can bring this to an end, there is one more important matter that we must take care of for the final rounds." "Let's get on with it!" Naruto talked, (or in his case yelled) in my ear. "I mean come on, how much longer do we have to wait until we start training?!?" I winced because A. he yelled in my ear, B. I had partial cat hearing already so it made my ears even more sensitive than normal, and C. I twitched away from him when he yelled out of a natural reflex causing more sharp pains to illuminate in my sides. Temari caught me from falling on my side as I yelled at Naruto in my head, 'I'm gonna KILL you Naruto, SLOWLY!!!'"In a calm orderly fashion, all of you are going to take one slip of paper from the box that Anko is holding." The Hokage said. "Everybody just stay where you are, I'll come to you." She said, sneaking me a glance. –That was nice of her to notice that you could barely stand, let along walk in an 'orderly fashion'- Bakeneko said mocking the Hokage. "Just take one." Anko said when she reached the sound ninja. She began walking down the row of Genin, once she reached me I put my hand inside the box and pulled out the number 5. She continued this until she was done and she walked back to the Hokage's side. "Good now everyone has one. Going from left to right, tell me the number that is written on your slip of paper." Said the Proctor from the first exam (the written one)."I've got 10" said Dosu, sounding almost zombie like. "Number 1, of course." Naruto said cockily. "5" I hissed, realizing that it hurt to talk now too, still half hanging off of Temari. "9" Temari stated. "7" Kankuro said. "3" Gaara said emotionlessly. "11" Shikamaru said. "I've got 6" Sakura said sounding way to cheery. "2" Neji said. "8" Shino said. "And that means Sasuke will be number 4." The Hokage said. Hearing his name made me remember what Orochimaru just said making me tremble again, nobody seemed to notice this though. "Right...Very good, now I'm going to tell you about how the final selection tournament is going to work." Naruto made a very annoying sound from beside me, unfortunately I didn't even have the strength to make a sarcastic remark at him. "Is that what the numbers were for? Drawing lots?" Shikamaru asked. "Ibiki, will you reveal which ninja have been paired up." The Hokage ordered. "Yes sir."I looked up at the chart and it showed that the first match was Naruto against Neji. Then Gaara against Sasuke. Continued with myself vs Sakura, then Kankuro vs Shino, followed by Shikamaru going against Dosu, and whoever won that would go against Temari. I looked up, normally the thought of me getting to kick the liver out of Pinky would have been enough to make me feel fine again, but then I remembered Sasuke. 'Wait!' I thought to myself sharply, 'I'm not supposed to care about him! I'll just cheer for Gaara, that way Sasuke will be out of my way forever!' I thought, but there was still my conscience in the back of my head saying, 'he's your brother! Your own blood! Make sure he will be okay!' I growled at the thought and tried to push it away."Wait I have to go against HER?!?!" Sakura almost yelled in her very annoying, I want to cut my head off, way, "That's no fair!"
I looked over at her and smirked, "You're lucky." I spat out at her going into another coughing fit.
Temari immediately pulled off my mask to try and get a better air flow in my lungs. She pulled her had away from the mask and she had my blood smeared on her hand. "Honoka!" she said quietly. "Shut up!" I choked out. She reluctantly agreed to keep quiet once more. Luckily, again, nobody seemed to notice my 'soon going to be on my death bed' behavior, because Shikamaru began to speak."May I ask a question?" he asked raising his hand like he was in school. "Yes, you may." The Hokage replied. "Alright, if this is a tournament," he began, lifting his pointer flinger in front of his face, as if saying 'one', "does that mean that there is only going to be one winner? I mean only one of us is going to be able to become a Chunin then?" I had to admit, it was a good question. "Actually it is quite the contrary." The Hokage stated, "There are going to be several judges for the final rounds, including myself, the Shinobi leaders, and the Kazekage, along with the lords from the various countries, that will ultimately be assigning your missions to you." 'He doesn't know!' I thought instantly, 'I... I think the Kazekage is in danger.' –that or he's already dead. I don't think the Kazekage would ever go so far as to try and declare war against Konohagakure- I gasped in my mind, 'You don't mean...' –Unfortunately, that is exactly what I mean, the Kazekage's dead, and Orochimaru, or at least one of his followers, is posing in his place-"Through this tournament, the judges will be able to make a thorough evaluation of your abilities."
Now Naruto was nodding his head along with everything the Hokage said, I could only see it just out of my peripheral vision so it was like a fly constantly flying into your face. "This will decide if any, or all of you has the qualities that are required to become a Chunin. Even if someone loses the first round, they could still become a Chunin." Temari looked up and let me stand on my own, "So there's actually a chance that every one of us that competes in the final selection could become Chunin." "Correct, but conversely, there is also a chance that none of you will be chosen. The advantage in fighting more rounds in the tournament is that in getting more chances to display you talents in front of the judges who will decide your fate. Does that answer your question Shikamaru?" the Hokage finished, "I thank you all for your patients, now let us adjourn until next month."With that we all left. Well we (as in all of the sand ninja) stayed behind so nobody would REALLY notice how weak I had became. Once everyone was gone I gasped and fell to the ground again. Temari looked at me and crouched down. "Oh my gosh! Honoka are you okay!?!" she asked. I looked up at her, "No, I'm coughing up my own blood and withering in pain for fun." I said dryly, unfortunately I was coughing at the end of it. "We need to get you to a hospital!" Temari said. "Oh, nonononono! Hell no!" I said. "She's right Honoka, you won't get any better like this." Kankuro said. I glared at him and said, "Look, I'm just drained of Chakra, that's all! I just need to get to a bed and rest."
Once more I was coughing up blood at the end of my sentence."We are taking you if we have to drag you Honoka!" Temari exclaimed. I began to try to crawl away, when I noticed a small sand wall appearing separating me from the sand siblings."Let her do as she pleases." Gaara said plainly.The sand wall then dropped and I saw Kankuro and Temari nodding at Gaara, and as usual Temari was trying to stutter out words to convince Gaara that taking me to the Hospital was the better plan."Shut up. I don't care." He said, then walking over to me and transporting us to the hotel.
I looked over at him and managed a shaky smile. "Thanks." I said going into another coughing spree. I knew that Gaara would probably leave now, considering who he was. I took a shaky step forewords and my knees buckled, but when I was suppose to hit the ground I found a pair of strong arms supported me instead. I looked up to see that Gaara had caught me. I wanted to ask him a billion questions like why he caught me instead of sand catching me, or even why he transported me away from his other siblings, but now even as I took a breath in I'd cough up blood.At first I thought I was getting dizzy when I saw the scene around me begin to move, but I then realized that Gaara was carrying me into the hotel, into my room. Another wave of questions hit me, but once again I couldn't ask them. He walked me into my room, and placed me on my bed. I gave him a shaky smile of thanks and used the last bit of my chakra to thank him telepathically. As I was passing out from the overuse I saw Gaara turn his back and begin to walk out of the room. The last thing I heard was, "Next time, don't be such an idiot."