Naruto: God of Shinobi

Chapter 55: Recognition from the Crowd

The wind did not come like a gust. It came like a wall, a solid thing with weight and edges, and it tore up grass and threw dirt and small stones into the air as it crossed the arena floor.

Sakura threw her arms up. It did not matter. The wind hit her like a fist the size of a building and lifted her clean off her feet. She hit the arena wall hard enough that the impact drove every bit of air out of her lungs at once, and she slid down the stone with her vision going white at the edges.

Temari was already moving. She closed the fan and used it like a club, swinging it down at Sakura's skull. Sakura rolled, and the fan cracked into the stone where her head had been a half second before. A spiderweb of fractures spread out from the point of impact.

The second swing came faster. Sakura ducked under it and felt the wind of it pass over her hair, felt the pressure of something that could have taken her head off if she had been a fraction slower. Then Temari's foot caught her in the ribs and she was airborne again, hitting the ground, rolling, coming up on her knees with blood in her mouth and her ribs screaming with every breath.

Temari stood over her. The fan was open again. All three moons showed.

“Did you think I was that easy," Temari said, and there was no cruelty in it, just a flat kind of certainty. "

She swung the fan.

Sakura could see the wind gathering, could see the blades forming in it, and she knew with total clarity that she could not dodge this, could not block it, was too slow and too hurt and too tired. So instead of trying, she let herself think, just for a half second, about the hospital room. About the kiss. About the way he had gone still under her hands instead of pulling away, and then had told her, calm as anything, that he was going to rebuild his clan. That there would be other girls. That it wasn't a maybe.

She thought about the warning that came after it. That he was probably going to end up an enemy of the Leaf someday. That something was coming, and she needed to take her training seriously if she wanted to still matter to him when it did.

She had trained. She had split her knuckles open on tree bark. She had run until her legs gave out under her and then made herself stand up and run again. She had burned through her chakra so many times that her hands shook from it, and she had done it for herself, yes, but she had also done it so that when he looked at her again, he would see someone worth standing next to.

The wind was almost on her.

Her hands moved on their own. The seal was fast, automatic, a thousand hours of practice compressed into a heartbeat.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu."

Three of her split off and scattered, hitting Temari from three angles at once. Temari's fan cut through the first clone in a single swing. The second went down a moment later. The third lasted only slightly longer. But the real Sakura wasn't among them. She had substituted with a log the instant the clones appeared, and now she was behind Temari, slamming her palm flat against the earth.

"Earth Style. Mud Trap."

The ground under Temari's feet went soft and thick, and mud climbed her ankles before she could react. She pulled and the mud held. Two kunai came flying in from behind her, one for the shoulder, one for the leg, and she spun to block them with the fan, which meant her guard was open for the half second it took Sakura to close the distance.

Sakura's fist caught her in the ribs. Temari's breath left her in a gasp. The knee that followed drove into her stomach, and the elbow after that snapped her head back, and the heel that came last buckled her knee out from under her.

Temari was off balance, hurt, wide open.

Sakura pulled everything she had left into her fist. Every scrap of chakra, every ounce of the last four weeks, and drove it into Temari's chest.

Temari went backward like she'd been shot out of something. She hit the wall. The stone cracked under her. She slid to the ground and did not get back up.

The arena went silent. Not that it made any noise before.

Sakura stood in the middle of the dirt with her fist still out in front of her, her knuckles split open and bleeding, her face pale, her breath coming in ragged pulls. She looked at Temari's body for a long moment before she let her arm fall.

"I did it," she said, quiet, mostly to herself.

The silence held for one more second. Then the arena broke open into noise, applause and whistling and shouting that rolled down out of the stands in waves. They had come to see the Hyuga prodigy, the last Uchiha, the boy who carried the Nine Tails. They had not expected two girls to give them a fight that honest. Two kunoichi who had bled for it, who had pushed each other right up to the edge and given everything they had. The crowd was on its feet.

Sakura looked up at the thousands of faces, the clapping hands, the banners moving in the wind Temari had left behind. She didn't smile. She was too worn down for that. But something in her eyes loosened, just slightly.

Medics were already crossing the arena floor toward Temari.

Hayate raised a hand. "Winner," he said, and coughed once into his fist before he finished. "Sakura Haruno."

She walked off the arena floor slow, careful with every step, her body screaming at her the whole way, and did not stumble once. She climbed the stairs to the balcony, found a stretch of wall to lean against, and closed her eyes.

She had done it.

The crowd was still buzzing when Hayate cleared his throat again. "The next match. Shikamaru Nara, of the Hidden Leaf, versus Dosu Kinuta, of the Hidden Sound."

He looked out at the empty space where Dosu should have been standing. A Sound jonin stepped forward from the visitors' section, his voice carrying flat across the arena. "Dosu Kinuta has forfeited. He's already returned to the Hidden Sound. The match is conceded."

The crowd booed. Another forfeit. Another match they wouldn't get to see.

Hayate nodded like he'd expected nothing less. "Shikamaru Nara advances by default."

Somewhere up in the stands, Shikamaru let out a long breath. "Troublesome," he muttered, and went to find a wall of his own to lean against.

Hayate checked his scroll, glanced up toward the Hokage's box, then toward the veiled figure seated beside him. "The next match. Naruto Uzumaki, of the Hidden Leaf, versus Neji Hyuga, of the Hidden Leaf."

The crowd leaned forward as one. The tension came back into the arena like something you could touch.

Naruto wasn't there.

The Hokage and the Kazekage had their heads bent together, talking low. The old man's face had gone grim. They were close to calling it, close to handing Neji the match by forfeit the same way Shikamaru had gotten his, when a thick column of white smoke bloomed in the center of the arena floor.

When it cleared, he was standing there.

The orange and blue jacket was gone. In its place was something dark and close to the body, black pants, a black shirt, a fitted vest, his headband tied loose around his throat instead of his forehead. His hair had grown out since anyone had last gotten a good look at him, longer now, wild, standing up in spikes that reached past his ears and gave him a harder look than he used to have. His hands sat in his pockets. His face gave away nothing at all.

"Sorry I'm late," he said. "Traffic."

The crowd didn't boo. They roared. They had been waiting for this one, the son of the Fourth, and here he finally was.

Up on the balcony, Sakura's eyes went wide. "Naruto," she said, barely above a breath.

He looked up and found her without much trouble, took in the blood dried along her jaw, the swelling starting to close one eye, the split skin over her knuckles. His gaze dropped to Temari's unconscious body being carried off the far side of the arena, then came back up to Sakura.

"Good job," he said. "You did well."

Heat crawled up her neck and into her face, and she didn't have a single word ready to say back to him.

Neji was on the arena floor a moment later, there so suddenly it was as if he'd simply decided to exist there, arms crossed, pale eyes flat and cold.

"You're late," Neji said.

Naruto looked him over, slow, head to foot, and something almost like a smile pulled at one side of his mouth. "I'm here now."

Neji's eyes narrowed at that, just slightly.

Naruto turned toward Hayate, hands still buried in his pockets, unbothered. "We ready to start this or what?"

Hayate glanced toward the Hokage's box. The old man gave a short nod.

Hayate lifted his hand. "The match between Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuga will now begin."

The crowd roared loud enough to shake dust from the stands.

Next Time: The Strongest Genin Ever!! Neji vs. Naruto

Two boys who never got along are finally about to settle it, and only one of them is going to be walking away happy.

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