Desert Flower

Preliminaries Pt. 2

  "Seeing as only you two are able to move, do either of you have enough chakra to fight?" The man running the battles questioned the pink-haired girl and the blonde who had tied. Standing among the rubble from the previous fights, I built up only a little chakra to see if I could even do this without Kami-sama going rampant.

  Silence. Total and utter silence as nothing touched my head. Lightly sighing through my nose, I felt relief.

  "It appears that neither Sakura nor Ino are able to fight. As such, Sayuri will fight one of us." I paused while looking at the man as the words left his mouth. "Any volunteers? Due to the circumstances, however, the rules will be slightly changed to make it fair." He pointedly looked to Megumi since she had taught me, assuming she would take the offer to see how I'd fair, but she only turned away and walked away.

  "I'll do it." A man sighed, and I looked to see the silver-haired Jonin behind Naruto raising his hand. Most of his face was covered by a mask while one of his eyes was covered by his headband. "But I'll do it the fun way." From the expression in his visible eye, it seemed he was smiling as he stood there with his hands in his pockets.

  The man glanced at the Hokage, and he nodded.

  "That's fine." He stated, and the Jonin was in front of me now.

  "All you have to do is try to get the bell." He stated while pulling said object from his pocket. It seemed like a ridiculous task, but he was a Jonin, so there was no telling how hard that would be.

  "Kakashi-sensei! Don't set her up to fail!" Naruto shouted from where he was, but I agreed to the challenge, and my task was set.

  Simply reaching for it, he moved the bell out of my reach. 'I see....' I thought while quickly jumping up. I missed again and took a few steps back. Narrowing my eyes, I quickly realized I'd need to build up chakra to gain speed. Kami-sama had been silent, so it felt safe to do so.

  Standing with my feet shoulder-width apart, I put my hands together and built up chakra, concentrating it in my legs. However, it felt strange this time.... It felt more powerful and foreign like it wasn't my own. It felt....like Gaara's.

  Shaking my head, I tried to focus on what I had to do. If feeding on the boy's chakra had given me some of his power, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to assume that it was Kami-sama's way of turning food into energy like any other living thing.

  Kicking off the ground, the wind from my speed made my bangs fly back as my baggy clothes fluttered. The man with the bell wasn't moving, but his eye was following my movement. I had to be faster.

  Putting more into my legs, I kicked off my shoes and tossed my kunai pouch. The items flew through the air before hitting the ground, and when the man's attention was on them, I leapt for the bell. His hand seemed to move in slow motion as I shot right under it. The top of my head tapped it, but I had missed grabbing it due to his own speed beating mine. Huffing, I tried again.

  It was odd for it to be so quiet with Kami-sama's absence in such a situation, but I felt relieved since I wasn't being shouted at to kill or feed. Circling the Jonin, I felt more powerful chakra entering my legs as my feet were barely touching the ground now. Bringing my hands in front of me, I made a few signs.

  "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" And more of me began to circle the silver-haired man. His eye began to dart between them as each clone would launch at the bell and force him to step around and move to prevent them from crashing into him.

  Three of them leapt at once as I shot forward from the right, and he was focused on the ones kicking at his head and chest as another was barreling towards his legs. There was a split-second opening when he was dodging, and I dove for it.

  My fingers brushed over the bell, but I didn't quite have a grip on it as it slipped from the Jonin's grasp. He tried to catch it, but my clones were like a frenzied group of sharks that he had to keep dodging from all directions. Kicking off the ground, I jumped, catching the bell mid-air.

  Landing, my clones went away as I was panting, and I opened my palm to see my victory. Completely freezing, my eyes were glued to my palm. It wasn't the bell I was holding....it was a rock.

  "I'd say you passed!" Looking up, I saw the silver-haired man in front of me, holding the bell in his hand as it jingled.

  "But I didn't-"

  "You would've." He seemed to be smiling as he was tossing a small rock into the air and catching it with his other hand.