4.8

    Proctor-san looked at Emosuke; there was a small smirk on his face. “Your name?”

    Emosuke’s eyes glinted, sharp. “Uchiha Sasuke.”

    Completely unaware of the mood, Naruto butted in. “Hey! You’re real late huh? I was wondering if you got cold feet about fighting me.”

    To my immense surprise, Sasuke grinned. “Heh, chill out you big dork, I gotta beat someone else first.” Sasuke’s eyes were glued to the waiting area, to Gaara, most likely. He looked back at Naruto. “From that attitude, you won against Hinata?”

    Naruto’s face soured, before he grinned even wider. “And now I get to beat the crap outta you!”

    While sunshine brat teased emosuke, Kakashi scratched the back of his head, looked at Shikamaru, Naruto and finally the proctor. “Don’t tell me... Sasuke lost by forfeit?” He asked.

    There was a bit more back and forth between sensei and the proctor. The gist of the talk was about the same. Politics postponed the match. No one wanted the Uchiha heir to lose without fighting. Itachi, who had been silent the whole time, touched Sasuke’s forehead, then flickered away. Kakashi said a few more words, also left.

    Proctor-san called Gaara out. “Gaara, come down.”

    At that point, Naruto and Shikamaru left the arena. The anticipation among the crowd and other shinobi was palpable. I knew I was missing something here. In the original story, Sasuke was famous for being the ‘last’ Uchiha, but that wasn’t the case anymore, most of his clan was still alive. What was the reason for all this hullabaloo over his fight? Clan politics? Propaganda? I regretted not trying to learn more about the affairs of the village, something I probably should rectify as soon as possible.

    Gaara arrived, faced off against Sasuke. Psycho boy Gaara looked possessed.

    Kakashi-sensei arrived at the stands, waved at us. “Yo, guys. And you too Lee, Gai.” He addressed the two other shinobi that had stopped to watch the match. Lee was still dressed in a hospital gown and walking with crutches. “Hinata-chan, I’m sorry I missed your match.”

    I nodded at the apology. Before sensei mentioned it, I wasn’t even thinking about that, but now that he apologized, I did feel a bit miffed that he wasn’t here to see my beautiful explosions, even if I never expected him to be here in the first place. Conversation sparked between the two jounin, but I didn’t pay attention. Anticipation started to build ever since Gaara got down into the arena.

    “Begin!” Proctor-san called out.

    Instead of duking it out like a good shinobi should do, Gaara talked with himself. It looked creepy if one didn’t know his conversation was with the one tail. “I’m sorry, but don’t worry, this time I’m sure it’ll be tasty.” Sand billowed from the container on Gaara’s back, floated around him.

    Giant serpents, with strange red colored fabric around their neck appeared in the distance. Even from here, I could see the giant monsters outside the village. They dove toward the walls, broke through it and spilled inside, destroying everything in their path. Anyone still awake in the stands was attacked by disguised Sunagakure and Otogakure shinobi, who until now pretended to watch the battle.

    I flickered toward the stand railing. Couldn’t afford to miss the opportunity to disrupt the Sound Four’s barrier.

    Movement caught my attention. Kankuro and Temari jumped inside the arena. When I wasn’t looking, the Sand team jounin moved closer to Gaara, faced the proctor. With a few words from the jounin, they took the injured Gaara, leaped over the arena’s walls, fled the place. Sasuke looked confused for a moment, until proctor talked with him. The Uchiha heir nodded, followed the Suna shinobi.

    A blur of movement sped toward me. A wash of cold cruel intent pressed against me, but it was nothing compared to Orochimaru’s or even Danzo’s. I turned to face the enemy, barely had time to grab a kunai, before the shinobi was on me.

    Everything then was a haze of movement. I parried, dodged, counter attacked. The enemy wasn’t as fast as me, but they were more experienced. It felt like I was fighting three people at the same time. I ducked under a rock projectile aimed at my head, then flickered away from the sand clone behind me. I flickered forward, trying to end the fight with a sudden attack, but the shinobi expected that move, blocked my attack, retaliated with another of his.

    On the stands, Kakashi flickered in front of Sakura, killed two attacking ninjas. Gai straight up punched a guy through the wall.

    Burst of flames, wind-blades, stone lances, shuriken. Ninja killed ninja while normal people slept under Kabuto’s genjutsu.

    Up on the roof of the middle viewer stand, a purple barrier appeared. It covered most of the structure. Shit, now was the time and I couldn’t let this fucker derail all my plans. The ninja attacking me was relentless. I threw a normal explosive tag at him, out popped three shadow clones. Clone one and clone two picked up the attack, giving me some breathing room.

    I cast my mind to the beacon I left there earlier in the day while I flir— had a picnic with Ino. A lone wood clone turned beacon. A chance to change the world again.

    The third clone extended her hands. I gave Suicide Clone-chan the bomb. You see, I had no intention of getting close to Orochimaru who could disable me with a look, or any of the previous Hokage, who were by all intents and purposes literal gods of shinobi. I wasn’t arrogant enough to think I could actually influence that fight. I was liable to make things worse for the Third if I went there, because I’m sure the old man would try to protect me at the cost of his own safety. No, my plan was just to explode one of the sound four. Without one of them, the barrier integrity would be compromised and the ANBU could do their job and join the fight, protect the Third.

    I would need to explain later how I knew to leave a teleport beacon there, but that was a concern for the future. I concentrated on my newly developed jutsu, pushed my mind toward the beacon. I connected to it, It was still there. I looked at Suicide Clone-chan, saluted her sacrifice.

    An explosion at the roofs shook me and the whole arena.

    In the central viewing stands, the purple barrier bulged and contorted, breaking like glass before fading from view. Every manner of roots, tree branches, explosions, water and more cascaded from the roof. Hit the still sleeping people on the stands. The beacon faded from my mind before clone-chan could teleport.

    I stood frozen, watching things spiral out of control. What just happened?