Sasukes little rose

Chapter 31

After a while of him constantly fighting the enemies causing black goo to cover the entire floor. The clones finally disappeared as 3 ninja came out thinking we were exhausted. Sasuke then said that we'd take over and for him to have a break but Naruto didn't want that and punched the ninja to the ground. I watched him with a smile before watching the ninja come back up. I quickly brought out my Bo but obviously didn't need to as Naruto beat them all on his own. The ninja were finally beaten, so we all headed to the tower. Slowly but surely we got there running into Kabutos team as they got up him for being late. We went our separate ways walking into our room. We looked at the banners while Sakura had an idea that we'd open the scrolls together at the same time. Sakura and Naruto opened it causing a whole bunch of smoke to appear causing us to cough.

"Hey guys long time no see huh?" a familiar voice said as the smoke slowly disappeared. "Iruka-Sensei?" I asked as he waved at us with a smile. He then spoke but I didn't listen really, I was more confused at the fact that they didn't know he was at the test. In the beginning of the exam I noticed someone following us but just before we ran into Orochimaru they disappeared. 'Oh no did he kill them?' I thought watching the Hokage speak. Then another ninja came out coughing as he spoke. "I will now explain the third test to the exam" he said as he then went on explaining the exam coughing every few words. He then went on that we had to do an preliminary test causing everyone to become shocked at the sudden decision as he wanted us to do it now. I grimaced at the thought, I barely have much chakra left and I barely did something. I could only imagine how much chakra everyone else had.

I then groaned in pain as the pain of the mark came from the throb to a burning sensation going throughout my body. I almost wanted to fall over and die, I used one eye to look over to Sasuke as he was also holding his neck in pain. He looked up at me before nodding telling me that he is okay. I nodded as well not really noticing the people around us dropping from the exam. Sakura then went on saying that Sasuke and I should quit the exam which we denied as we had to do this. Sasuke started to get a bit angry at her as she threatened to tell everyone. After a while of silence the sick ninja said the rules for the preliminary, then pointed up to the screen showing that Sasuke was first to fight with someone from Kabutos team.

We then all walked up to the stairs to the side lines as Sasuke and him stayed where they were. I couldn't help but cringe when Sasuke had troubles with his mark affecting his fight. I smiled when the enemy was down and Sasuke was classified as the winner. I felt my curse mark pulse as I walked away from them sliding down against the wall sitting on the stairs. The pain was getting worse as I curled up in a ball trying to relieve the pain. "What are you doing" a familiar voice asked as I looked up from the ground. "N-Nothing" I stuttered as I looked up to see Gaara, he looked at me then looking at my hands. "Are you wounded?" He asked but he sounded like he couldn't care less. "N-No thanks" I said as I begin to walk away feeling his eyes on me. 'Don't look back... Don't look back..' I thought over and over wanting to stop this feeling.

I watched the board in dread as I saw I was in fact facing one of the three ninja from earlier. My team looked at me shocked that they even passed. "Due to uneven contestants we allowed one more team in on the condition that only one gets to fight" Hayate said as we both began to walk down the stairs. We both stood on each sides of the ground, I looked up at Naruto and Sakura as they looked at me in pity. "You can do it Mai! Believe it!" Naruto yelled as Sakura nodded at me. I gulped before focusing on my fight, I looked at him as my arms felt the dullness of the pain from earlier. "Hehehe they're mine girl" he said as Hayate signed to start the fight.