Ten Minutes (Naruto fanfiction) EDITING--DO NOT READ!!

Chapter Twenty - The Match Goes To...

Chapter 20

The Match Goes to...

Tenashiuta's orbs flitted open to see that she was still in Gaara's embrace. He was sleeping, though, so she carefully slipped out of his grasp and made sure not to wake him. She turned and began to gracefully slip away.

She stopped suddenly. 'I wonder...' she thought, pondering a few seconds. She had never tried to do that before. 'It might work...' she finally decided, then slipped into a room. She closed her eyes and hummed four notes, like Rue's melody from The Hunger Games. Low, high, medium, low.

It seemed as if the time around her was zooming by without pause, and she saw a few people zip by without looking at her. She finally came to a stop after she had seen the sun rise and set about five times (she wasn't actually counting). She looked about herself before stalking off to join Naruto and Team 7 where she was sure they'd arrive soon.

When she looked about her, she could see that 4 days had passed.  She finally reached the room where the rest of the ninja were.  'Good timing...' she thought as she slipped up to join Naruto and the rest of the Leaf teams.  Naruto noticed her and turned with a giant grin on his face.  "Ashi-chan!"

This exclamation turned heads as all the leaf ninja besides nearby turned to see if it actually was her.  Apparently she was a little 'celebrity' for being the only person on her own team without any teammates.

"I was worried!" Naruto exclaimed, putting a hand on each of her shoulders.  Her eyes widened a fraction of a fraction of an inch at the unforeseen contact and she stiffened a bit, unnoticably.  "It's really dangerous!  We almost didn't make it!"

That's when a little prick could be felt in Tenashiuta's heart.  She had just ignored them, abandoned them, when she should have helped them.  She quickly fought it away.  They were an enemy team in the forest.  It was no fault of her own.

"You!" she heard and looked up to see Rock Lee.  "After the preliminary fights are over, you and I will fight!" he vowed, then turned away.  'Okay...' she thought with a look on her face that clearly showed her indifference.

"The first match," Hayate stopped to cough.  "The first match is..."

The board cut him off by showing the names 'Tenahiuta vs. Ryuu Takeda.'  Naruto turned to Tenashiuta.  "It's your fight, Ashi-chan." he informed her.  She calmly strode up to the railing and jumped down, landing gracefully on her feet.

Ryuu Takeda was a ninja who looked far too old to be a Genin.  Tenashiuta glanced at the Sensei out of the corner of her eyes and saw Kakashi nod to confirm her suspicions.  This match was fixed.  This person was a Jonin.

Someone yelled for them to begin and Ryuu immeadiatly whipped out some kunai.  He began to run at Tenashiuta and threw them while in motion.  She easily stepped to the side to evade them, shocking the onlookers due to her speed.  Ryuu was unnaffected and continued his charge.

Once he finally reached her, he raised his sword up high in the air and brought it down on her.  Everyone gasped as she didn't even make a move to stop it.  However, half a second away from when it would have hit her, her hand flashed up with a kunai in it.  The kunai was held loosely between her pinky and her thumb.  It easily held back his sword.

Everyone watching gasped as she easily drove him off her and sent him flying back, still gripping his sword 'till the death.  He landed on both feet hard and stumbled a bit, but regained his balance and did quickk handsigns.  "Grand Fireball Jutsu!" he yelled, spitting a giant fireball at her. 

When the smoke and ash cleared, there was no Tenashiuta where she had been standing.  Instead, the entire crowd heard a loud cracking sound coming from behind Ryuu.  He spun around with everyone else to see Tenashiuta easily break his sword in half and throw the halves to either side.