The stadium is quiet.
I can't tell if a lull in the action is to blame, or if I'm just that far below. It's been a long time since I left my friends and collective sensei in search of the genin booth, and something tells me the several stories of stairs I've been down so far weren't the way to go. Why is this place so huge, anyway? There's no way you need multiple underground floors just to house a few competitors!
"Left."
I come upon a fork in the hall and turn left, grumbling about samurai and their crazy architects.
"Right."
I squint through the darkness of the new hall, finding a small offshoot tucked away to my right, and shrug. Why not?
The newest hall leads me down a dizzying network of tunnels, staircases, and seemingly abandoned rooms. I navigate it all with the deft ease of someone who has no idea what they're doing, a strange sort of calm settling over me in spite of my current status as completely fucking lost. After a while the distant clamor of the stands prickles at the edge of my senses, alerting me that I'm making my way back up to the ground level if nothing else.
"Upstairs."
I take the next staircase I see up, and yeah, I'm definitely getting closer to the stands. If nothing else, I should be able to find a samurai wherever I pop out who can direct me to the genin booth.
"Left."
I come upon one last fork in the road and pause, considering each path critically. I can see sunlight winding through the path off to my right, which means open air and guidance. The left path is as hopelessly dark as the labyrinth below me, and I think I can even see some stairs leading back down at the end of it. But...
I turn left, treading cautiously through the shadows. The crowd noise has risen back up to a dull roar at this point, digging into my ears and casting aside all the little noises that had been so clear further below.
"...-top."
I stop. I crane my head around, alighting on the dull outline of a door just to my right. I crack it open, and grunt in surprise as light comes gushing through the gap. I throw it open, blinking rapidly, and find myself on the receiving end of quite a few glares, courtesy of my fellow competitors.
Wait a sec.
"I... found the booth?" I mutter to myself, thrown off balance by the sheer odds.
"Naruto!"
I manage to get my arms in the right position a split second before Sakura hits me, and wrap her up with a laugh. "Hey there! How'd I do?"
"You crazy, crazy idiot!" She scolds, squeezing me so tight that I find myself wondering if she's augmenting her hug with chakra.
"N-...-t."
Ah, never mind, then.
"Everyone thought it was over when that dragon swallowed you up," she continues, her voice lowering. "Some genin from the other villages started cheering, and-" She shakes her head, glaring at my chest. "Oooh, I could just kill Sasuke!"
I can't decide whether to be touched or insulted. Is it really that unexpected that I won? I mean, I wasn't really expecting to win either, but that isn't the point!
Ah, whatever. "Don't be too hard on him," I say, spinning her around on the spot. She squeaks, her glare gone in a flash. "It was sort of my fault, freaking out like I did. I deserved a lot worse than I got."
"Still! That was too much, wasn't it?"
"I won, didn't I?" I cheekily retort, and finally earn myself a smile.
"You did," she agrees, still very much hugging me. "Congratulations."
Ahem. I don't remember the Land of Iron being this hot.
"Uzumaki Naruto," a familiar voice intones. I look up over my teammate's bubblegum pink hair, searching out the source, and lock eyes with Gaara. "You surprised me."
"Yeah?" I ask, glancing away to survey the rest of the room. I shiver a little bit as I take in the rest of the competitors- a handful of them, like Neji and Lee, are too engrossed with the current match to pay me any attention. The rest, though, more than make up for it. I can feel the Iwa genin stabbing me to death with their eyes, and even the genin that aren't obligated to hate Konoha are eying me darkly.
It wasn't this bad when we all gathered up before the first match, was it? Why are they all so tense now?
"Af-...-aid."
Afraid of what? Me?
"Yes."
"I was certain I'd lost my chance," Gaara says, snapping me from my questionable observations.
"Your chance to what?"
Jade eyes flash. "Crush you."
Oh, awesome. "Not just yet."
"Do keep going. I'll be disappointed if you can't make it to our match."
"Says the guy who hasn't even fought yet-" Oof. Now it's a chakra hug.
"Don't let him get to you," Sakura whispers, letting me go, and I grimace in mixed pain and chastisement.
"My bad."
"I see." Gaara smirks. "So you aren't the leader of your team after all."
I sigh, forcing my indignation out through the exhale. Have to keep in mind where I am right now, and the kind of company I'm with. Everyone's already on edge as it is, which may or may not be my fault, so picking a fight with the Kazekage's son isn't going to do me or Sakura any good. Even if he is an ass.
"We don't have a leader," I reply, forcing a neutral tone. I could technically point to Hatake, I guess, but I get the feeling that isn't the kind of leader he's talking about. "And we don't need one, either. We're a good enough team as it is." Sakura fidgets.
"Dis-...-ees."
Wait, what? "You disagree?" I ask her, stricken.
"Wha- no!" She quickly shakes her head. "I love our team! It's just, Sasuke and I are always following your lead, so I thought..."
"I follow you guys too, right? We alternate!"
"We do?" she asks dubiously.
"All the time," I assure her. "So no more of that, okay? We all need to be ready to take charge if the other two can't."
Sakura nods seriously. "I understand, sempai."
"Right, so like I was saying! We don't need a leader to win this tournament," I say, thumbing my chest. Gaara, for his part, regards me with something like disbelief.
"You're not all that bright, huh?" a familiar hooded shinobi drawls, and the Kazekage's eldest son steps out from the throng of Suna nin, a condescending smirk on his make-up covered lips.
My eyes roll. "Alright, cat boy."
A girl from Kiri sniggers at that, before she realizes who she's laughing with and schools her features. I smile innocently at cat boy, who looks more than a little put out about the name. I swear his pointy ears are twitching and everything.
"Arrogant punk," he growls, fingers spasming.
"Kankuro." Cat boy freezes up, and Gaara addresses me. "His name is Kankuro."
Sakura pokes me in the side. Fine, fine. "Nice to meet ya. Good luck with your match." Kankuro grunts, unimpressed. Before he can get smacked down by his little brother again, though, the third and final sibling makes herself known, flanking Gaara with an air of haughty dignity about her.
"You're a wind specialist," she says.
"I am?" I look to Sakura for confirmation. She nods, fighting a smile, and I reply more firmly to the last sibling- Temari, if I remember right. "Right, I am."
"What was that last jutsu you used?" she asks, completely ignoring my sarcasm. The tension in the room, which has been slowly draining away as the other competitors get a good look at how scary I really am, amps right back up. "It didn't sound like a great breakthrough, and you didn't use a hand seal like with the rest of your jutsu."
"I don't have a name for it," I hedge. Even Neji is taking notice of our conversation now, glancing sidelong at me while Lee cheers on one of the genin in the arena. I think he is, anyway- it's hard to tell with the Hyuuga eyes. Temari crosses her arms over her leather breastplate, teal gaze digging into me.
"I sort of came up with it on the spot," I say, and am rewarded with more than a little skepticism from Temari and most of the onlookers. "Um. Why do you ask?"
"Je-...-ous."
She's jealous? I guess that makes sense. That giant fan of hers was channeling some solid wind in the third task, but nothing close to Kazu's gift. Hell, I can't do anything close to Kazu's gift. Or couldn't?
Can I... do it again?
...
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