THE WILL OF FIRE: 2. The Phoenix (A Naruto Fanfic)

The Phoenix, Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

I was pretty restless when I made my way up to my seat. An uneasy feeling was following me around like a dark cloud…a familiar feeling that I couldn’t shake. Above all that, I learned Sasuke was missing. Well, screw him, I didn’t really care if he showed up today or not, just the whole idea of people not knowing where he was made me feel even more uneasy. He was a target, dammit.

“Heeey!!! Lily!!! Over here!!!” Ino’s yelling pulled me out of my thoughts. I noticed she was sitting a couple of rows below, with Chōji and…Sakura. I haven’t spoken to Sakura since our fallout in the forest and she made it very clear she never wanted to have anything to do with me.

“Hey guys,” I said, and sat down next to Chōji, who was furthest away from Sakura. She didn’t bother to look at me.

“I know you’re gonna root for Naruto, but I’m telling you Shikamaru’s got this one in the bag!” Ino said.

“I highly doubt it.”

“Why? You don’t actually think Naruto’ll win this one?”

“No, I’m just saying Shikamaru won’t. As much as I’d like to root for ours, I think that Gaara dude’s got this one in the bag.”

“I don’t care! I’m still gonna root for Shikamaru!!”

I loved her enthusiasm and as much as I wanted for Naruto to win this, I just knew it wasn’t realistic. Unless… no, Naruto wouldn’t resort to using Kurama. That much I knew him.

My thoughts were interrupted when the crowd started cheering and I saw my brother come to the arena with the rest of his competitors. I took an extra long look at Gaara. He did look like he could kill us all if he wanted to. A bunch of Naruto’s memories flooded into my head (unintentionally) and I saw how Gaara tried to kill Lee in the hospital. But that didn’t startle me nearly as much as the fact that he had huge bags under his eyes.

“Hitosu, hidoi kuma da yo…“ I remembered the old song my cousin and I made up. “One, with terrible bags under his eyes…”

“What?” Ino asked and it was obvious she wasn’t paying attention and luckily neither was Chōji. They were both intensely watching as Naruto’s and Neji’s match started. But I was too restless. And the beginning of the song… Hitotsu, hito yori ii nemuri… One, "sleep is better than humans," says…

“Shukaku. Goddmit!” I said under my breath.

“Do you have something in your throat?” Chōji asked me absentmindedly.

“I’m fine, I just…gotta go!”

I bolted before they had the chance so argue and made my way up to the top where the Old Man Hokage was sitting.

“No admittance,” said the Jōnin who was about the only person in my way.

“Jōnin Commander Uzumaki here and I need to see Lord Hokage right now!”

“It was determined that only the few with Lord Hokage and Lord Kazekage’s clearance have permission to go any further.”

“I thought all Jōnin had clearance!”

“What is going on?” I heard Lord Hokage say from his seat.

“I need to speak with you, sir, an emergency! It’s regarding… I eyed the Jōnin in front of me and chose my words more carefully, “…my last mission.”

“For heaven’s sake, let the child through.”

I gave the Jōnin a polite smile as I passed him and suddenly realized what I had walked into. Lord Kazekage was right there, within an earshot of everything I was about to say.