Sakura Momochi Hatake || Naruto

Chapter 26

The preliminary rounds lasted for hours. Now, it is a match between Gaara and Lee.

"Sakura." I turned my head to see Gaara's teammate. The puppeteer.

"You are Gaara's teammate, Kankuro right?" I asked.

"Yes." He answered.

"Congratulations on winning the preliminary rounds!" I smiled.

"Thanks..hehe" He laughed sheepishly. "You too."

"Thank you,and thanks for saving me back there." I said remembering my encounter with the sound ninjas.

"No problem, Gaara is the one whom saved you anyway."

"Yeah.."

"Anyways, I saw you managed to control Gaara despite his condition." He said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

He looked at me from the corner of his and looked at their battle again.

"I'm only telling you this because I think you can be trusted and you might have the power to control Gaara. Especially when you are the only person who can actually get near him."

I looked at him curiously.

He continued,"Gaara has a One Tailed Beast sealed inside him." I widened my eyes. Like Naruto! "When this Chunnin exam started, he became unstable."

"What do you mean by unstable?" I asked.

"When sees blood, he gets excited. He kills for the fun of it. Mercilessly."

I felt like my world stopped. Who knew the innocent little red head whom saved me became a merciless..shinobi..? I looked quietly ahead of me.

"So..you mean the beast is taking over him? Like the seal has weakened in some way?" I asked.

"Yeah..you can say that." I gulped. Wow.

I watched the fight. Lee was doing good so far. Until he start to open the 'Eight Celestial Inner Body Gates'. What?! That... Isn't that forbidden?!

"Extreme Lotus!" Lee shouted.

"It can't be..he managed to hurt Gaara." Kankuro exclaimed in shock. "Gaara is going to lose control."

Shit!

"Sand Coffin!" Gaara exclaimed. Holy crap!

The horror before my eyes. The cruelty. Blood. My body is starting to shake. Daddy seemed to notice it. He put a hand on my shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze.

"That kid is going down." Kankuro said.

My head snapped into reality and saw Gaara about to harm Lee, even though he clearly won the fight!

"STOP!" I vanished and appeared in front of Lee protectively to only be trapped in Gaara's sand.

As I wait for the pain to come, none came. I opened my eyes and saw daddy pulling me out from the sand. The sand as well has retreated. I looked at Gaara in the eye.

"Sakura..w-why..." His eyes and voice was filled with sorrow, confusion and..loneliness.

"Because he is my friend. He is my comrade. And.. I can't stand cruelty.." I whispered the last sentence that only he and daddy could hear. He stood there dumbstruck.

"L-Lee.." Gai sensei said. Lee!!

I turned my head to him and saw him standing, but his eyes.. It was empty. He was..unconscious. Gai sensei cried as he hugged his fellow student. I stopped my tears from flowing as I went over to see if I can heal him. Unfortunately, his wounds are too severe. My medical skills aren't that good yet.

"I'm sorry..Lee.." I whispered with my voice full of self hatred and guilt.

"It's not your fault, Sakura. You tried your best." Gai sensei said. He and a medical team went to the infirmary to treat him.

Daddy put a hand on my shoulder and both of us stood on the platform to watch the next match. Kankuro as well has returned to Gaara's side. I mentally cursed myself for not being much of a help.

At last, the results are out. The opponents for the final tournament:

Naruto Uzumaki vs. Neji Hyuga

Shino Aburame vs. Kankuro

Temari vs. Shikamaru Nara

Sakura Hatake vs. Dosu Kinuta

Gaara vs. Sasuke Uchiha

So I get to battle with him again, eh? I smirked. I know what you can do, but you don't know what I can do..

I made eye contact with him and we both smirked.

I mouthed,"Good luck."

He mouthed back,"Good luck to you too. You will need it." I smirked and broke the eye contact.

Published: December 2014

Edited: 13 January 2017