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chapter twenty-one

"The wise choose their battle. The foolish battle everything and everybody. The ignorant convince themselves there is no battle to be fought."

- Toni Payne

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Naruto linked his fingers together, stretching his palms outward and cracking the fingers. He sighed loudly, jumping restlessly on the balls of his feet. Sakura and Sasuke had both gotten their fights, and he was now about to fight one of them. The proctor pulled open an envelope, and read two names from it, the entire village sitting forward in their seats in anticipation.

"Sakura Haruno versus Naruto Uzumaki."

Sakura looked at Naruto for a moment, then back at Sasuke, who imperceptibly shook his head, telling her not to do it, to just fight Naruto and whoever won...

"I forfeit."

Sakura and Sasuke's heads whirled as Naruto said it at the same time as Sakura.

"Both of you can't forfeit..." Hayate said, the frown obvious in his voice. The three of them had their eyes locked on each other, and murmuring broke through the crowd. "One of you forfeits if you want to, decide amongst yourselves."

Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto were now standing in a triangle in the middle of the auditorium, matching frowns on their faces.

Sakura-chan, let me do this.

No! Why the hell would I let you do that? You forfeit, you have no chance of being Chunin.

Sure, but you've got a nasty habit of letting us take advantage of you, Sakura-chan!

Naruto, it's something I do because I want to. I want to let you and Sasuke have your fight. You never got to last time.

But Sakura-chan, it's not fair! I wanna do something nice back for you and this is what I get?!

Someone has to keep an eye out for Orochimaru, Naruto, and I'm better at spotting genjutsu than you two. I can't be distracted by the fights. If Orochimaru's going to cast the Temple of Nirvana genjutsu, the one to spot it first would be me.

But I can see through genjutsu better now 'cause of Sage mode. You don't have to check for it, I can. Bastard, back me up here!

Sasuke said nothing for a good time, watching the two of them warily, hands crossed over his chest. Tension was running high in the arena, coming from the three of them. The place was silent, everyone straining to hear the obvious discussion that was being had, even though it wasn't through conventional means. The three of them were utterly silent, Hayate Gekko looked at them with his hands on his hips, quietly telling them to get a move on.

Sasuke closed his eyes. "Tch." He said aloud, looking away. He knew Sakura had a point, that she could spot genjutsu easier than himself and Naruto, and he did want to fight Naruto, but he also wanted to fight Sakura. He wanted to see Sakura fight Naruto. He didn't want her to cut herself out of the spotlight to let them in anymore. "Shit," he breathed.

Naruto, she has a point. As irritating as it is, she's better at finding genjutsu than we are. But Sakura, the dobe's also right. You do usually let us do what we want to you, and to ourselves.

Sasuke, it's not up for discussion. There are lives at stake here.

And that's the only reason why I'm allowing you to forfeit.