"Careful, Sachi-chan!" Kiba exclaimed as I hobbled down the street, thoroughly enjoying my crutches. I could move faster with these than I could when walking, almost as fast as running, and it was really fun. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"No, YOU be careful." I retorted. He scowled at me.

"Stop copying me!"

"No, YOU stop copying me!"

"Why would I be copying you?!"

"Why WOULDN'T you be copying me?" that stumped him, and I waved my arms like worms, "Mind fuck!"

He just blinked at me, and I took the opportunity to shoot away.

"MUAHAHAAA! IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIIIIIND!!" I shrieked, gaining some weird looks from passers by. I looked them all in the eye, "Hello mine turtle!"

I did a little kick in the air as I entered the ring, not seeing Sasuke OR Naruto. Well, SOMEone was late.

Kiba was breathing hard as he finally caught up to me, Hinata now by his side. I blinked, "When did you get here?"

"She's been with us the whole time!" Kiba exclaimed, and I frowned.

"No, YOU'VE been with us the whole time!" I shot back, and he threw his hands up.

"THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!!" He yelled, and I opened my mouth to retort, but his palm covered my mouth, "Don't say it."

(Points if you can guess what Sachi was gonna say next XD)

I just stuck my tongue out. He jumped and yanked his hand away, but had no time to say anything before I was off again, testing my mettle against the staircase up to the seating area.

"'scuse me coming through CRIPPLE CHILD NEEDS FOUR SEATS MOVE IT!!" I screamed, parting the crowds of people like they were the red sea and I was Moses.

"There's no way you need four seats you retard baka!!" some really fat guy said, waddling closer to me. I glared at him.

"They're for my friends, fatass. Looks like you'd take four seats by yourself!" I retorted, harsh, but he called me a retard!

"I don't see that someone like you would have friends anyway." he said snobbily. I growled, then pushed past him. He fell on his face.

"Oh, go eat some cake." I told him.

"I don't like cake." he muttered into the floor, utterly failing at getting up again. I turned back to him, pointing at myself.

"See this?" I asked, then deadpanned. "This is me not giving two." I then hobbled to the empty seats at the front (wise choice on the part of the people who previously sat there) leaving Mr Fatass rolling around on the floor, trying to get back to his feet. Like a tortoise.

I was about to point and laugh when Kiba and Hinata arrived, pulling themselves wearily up the stairs. I waved madly until they saw and came over, picking their way around Mr Fatass who was STILL rolling around on the floor. They took the two seats on one side of me, while I kicked my single working leg into the air, glancing around for my sister.

"Ano, Sachi!! Where are you?!" I sat bolt upright, looking around until I located the source of the voice. I waved madly until she saw.

"Ino-nee! I saved you a seat!!" I screamed over the loud chatter of the crowd.

"Thank you!!" she shrieked back, plopping into the seat. We talked about meaningless things for a while, until a loud scream caused the entire arena to fall silent. We all looked down to the gate, in time for Naruto to run in, with all the vigour of someone being chased by a herd of elephants.

"Bulls!!" Naruto gasped, when asked what was wrong, "I was being chased by a herd of huge bulls, dattebayo!!"

The Chunin that were guarding the door checked outside, and frowned at him. "There are no bulls out there that I can see."

"Huh?!" Naruto exclaimed, looking as well. I snickered and shouted to him.

"Oi, Naruto-kun!!" his head snapped in our direction, and he grinned a mile wide.

"Sachi-chan--!!" he yelled, leaping up into the air and landing on the railing in front of us, seeming pretty cool... until he wobbled, then fell forward and onto the floor face first at our feet.

"Oww..." Naruto groaned, as we all sweatdropped.

"How did I lose to this guy?" Kiba muttered to himself in disbelief.

"Are you all right, Naruto-kun?" I asked him, and he jumped to his feet, a grin on his face and a red mark on his forehead.

"Hai, hai. Ano, Sachi-chan! You came to see me fight Neji-baka, didn't you?!" he exclaimed, pumping his arms. I nodded with a grin.

"You bet!" I told him, causing his grin to widen so much that I half expected it to split his face. I stuck my tongue out at him, "But mostly I came here for Sasuke-kun~"

He scowled at me, and I laughed, "I'm joking! I came to watch both of your matches. Though I don't know if I'll be able to watch Sasuke's..."

Naruto looked confused, and squinted at me, "Why's that, 'ttebayo?"

"Look who he's against! That guy scares me." I muttered, glancing at Gaara down in the ring. Naruto patted my shoulder.

"Don't worry, dattebayo. Sasuke can beat that guy easy." he said, giving me a thumbs-up. I still felt uneasy, but gave him a smile.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

Roll call was done and Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei were still AWOL. Naruto was getting antsy, pacing by the banister, while I just stood, staring at the gate, hoping that the proctors wouldn't disqualify him.

Finally, the weird guy with the senbon in his mouth (what is up with that? They're sharp, what does he think, that he has a Tongue of steel?) announced that they were going to push Sasuke's match back until he arrived, meaning Naruto's match was first. There were a few groans from the crowd, but Naruto himself seemed pretty excited, and leapt down into the ring once more. I shouted a 'good luck' after him, an he grinned back at me.

I was amazed by Naruto's match, to say the least. His tactic of tunnelling under the ground was very clever, and surprised me- after all, this was Naruto. He wasn't the kind of person you would expect to be intelligent. But then I realised; this was Naruto... quick-witted, strategising, and the next Hokage. And my teammate. I should have expected this from him. Maybe him coming across so dim was what made him seem so incredible when he defeated such seemingly impossible opponents.

I made sure to give him a big hug and cheer extra loud when he finished. The pleased look on his face was immense, so of course I couldn't help but grin back.

"So Sasuke's not here yet?" Naruto asked after his initial freak out. I shook my head with a frown, and he scowled. "What is that teme doing, dattebayo?"

"I don't know. They've pushed his match to last, but those two" I lowered my voice as I glanced at Gaara's teammates, "didn't seem to like that very much so they might forfeit." for some reason, I felt really suspicious of all of the sand ninja. It was hard to explain, "And that means that Sasuke has to get here very quickly."

Fortunately, the Sand girl (who I now new as Temari, the fifteen year old paedophile [since she ogled Sasuke the other day when he is only thirteen {I AM NOT JEALOUS!!!}]) decided that she was going to fight, and tried to look cool by floating down into the ring on that over-sized paper plate she calls a fan. I was going to try and persuade Shikamaru to outdo her cool entry, but Naruto kind of beat me to it by pushing him over the railing. This made both Shikamaru and I sigh.

I watched avidly as the two battled, knowing that Shikamaru wasn't the sadistic type but still hoping that he might have a change of heart and pound her face in. I was furious when Shikamaru gave up.

"What are you doing- you- you- you pineapple!!" I shouted at him when he finally dragged himself up to the balcony. But he only hit the side of his head with a disgruntled look, as if trying to bring hearing back to his ear. I was quickly distracted by Naruto's frustrated look, locked on the ring, and turned my gaze to lock eyes straight away with a thing of nightmares.

A thing of nightmares... that for some reason saved my life.

Gaara's gaze was apathetic, and I felt it deep in my stomach. I silently prayed that Sasuke wouldn't show.

As if just to cause me pain, there was a swirl of leaves and smoke in the ring, a few feet from Gaara. I hoped that it would be a lone Kakashi, here to tell the proctor that Sasuke couldn't fight because he had fallen ill. Even though I knew, deep in the pit of my stomach, that he would show even if that was the case.

And, sure enough, the smoke cleared, and there they were. Naruto grinned and wordlessly scooped me up, jumping into the ring with me as I couldn't. I cringed away from the red-haired boy's gaze this time, focusing instead on my once AWOL teammate and sensei.

I frowned at Kakashi. "This is important you know. You're lucky you didn't get Sasuke disqualified." though I wish you had...

"Well that's a relief." Kakashi replied, then looked down to Sasuke- who, I might add, was in bad need of a haircut, and was dressed a little... differently. I liked it, but I think I preferred the colourful blue shirt and white shorts combo. "Time for your match then, Sasuke."

Sasuke nodded, and then Naruto set me on my feet and grabbed his attention.

"You better not lose, Sasuke-teme!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin, but I just cast my gaze downward. I noticed Sasuke frown at the way I was leaning heavily against Naruto with his arm wrapped around my waist, but said nothing. Instead, the ravenette smirked.

"I guess that means you won yours then." he said, and Naruto nodded.

"Yup!" He exclaimed, "It was awesome, ne, Sachi-chan?"

"Yeah." I mumbled, shyly, keeping my gaze on the floor. I glanced up to meet the stare I could feel on my back, then dropped it when my gaze made contact with the red-haired sand shinobi's. I didn't get why he kept staring at me. It was kind of creepy.

I looked back up at Sasuke, ignoring Naruto's complaining about my lack of enthusiasm about his match. I smiled at him, and he didn't return it, but that was okay. I could read the softening of his onyx gaze.

"Good luck." I said, silencing Naruto. I chewed my lip, then added, "Be careful."

"Thanks." he replied, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Our blonde teammate gazed between us in confusion.

"Am I missing something here, 'ttebayo?" Naruto asked. Neither of us answered, but I thought a:

'Yes, yes you are.'

"Can all people but the contestants exit the field please?!" The proctor yelled, and Kakashi turned to Naruto and I.

"That's us." before I could say anything, I had been scooped up and deposited in my seat, crutches on my lap. I scowled at Kakashi (he really needed to start warning me when he was going to pick me up like that) and he closed his eye in a smile and chuckled.

I was on the edge of my seat from the moment the proctor called to start. I could feel the tension and excitement from the crowd the moment Sasuke shot forward, clashing with Gaara. I could feel their hope that someone would get hurt. They were sick.

Minutes passed and Sasuke didn't seem to be making any progress- Gaara's sand always shot up to defend him- and kept getting thrown back. He managed to land a hit or two, however, when he picked up speed, almost disappearing from view. It was a sight to behold, especially when Gaara made a sand clone and yet Sasuke still managed to reach him. It looked almost as though Sasuke might win- but then I saw the panicked expressions on Gaara's siblings' faces.

At first I thought they were worried for their teammate- I knew my face would be something similar should the tables be reversed- but then I realised. I knew their sort. They regarded Gaara with fear, maybe even mild hate. Why would they care if he got hurt, or even killed?

It was when Gaara's sand grouped around him that I realised. I could feel the darkness and fear-created being that was being almost nurtured inside the sphere of sand. The corpse's musk was great- I couldn't help covering my nose with both hands since it burned my nostrils so painfully. I whimpered, and Kiba turned to me in concern, Naruto too fixated on the match.

"Are you okay?" he whispered, and I shook my head, not taking my eyes off the field. Sasuke was frowning irritably at the sphere. 'Get away!' I was screaming in my mind, 'Don't fight any more!!'

Sadly, my attempted telepathy failed, as Sasuke tried to strike Gaara throug the sphere, failing everytime as more sand spiked out to fend him off. Before I realised what was happening, I was being dragged away by Kiba.

"No!" I exclaimed, struggling to see what was going on over people's heads, "Let go!! I want to watch!"

"Stop it!" Kiba grunted as I hit him in the face, "Just let this ANBU check your back and then we'll sit down again!"

I blinked frustratedly, "That's not why I moaned! My back's fine, now let me go!"

"I don't believe you!" he dragged me back behind the podium. I crane my neck round as the audience released a simultaneous gasp.

"She just had an operation on her spine and it's still sore. Can you check her out please?" Kiba asked someone- I didn't know, I wasn't looking. He forced me to lay down on my front and held me still.

Over my cussing, I heard the ANBU say, "Okay, I'll heal her if she lays still." and froze.

I yelled, "Kiba, stop him-!!" what felt like one thousand tonnes of darkness collapsed on top of me, shortly followed by the thud of my friend falling.

- - -

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... thar be a very long wait for this... sorry. I was... procrastinating.

Yeah, not much action (or good quality writing) in this chapter, but at least it's long (and has some o' the random humour that I started this off with)! I don't like this part as it's a lot of fight scenes and chiz and I just want to get to the romance! :3 might do a filler chapter next, there's some whizz that I wanna get written down.

Well, fan, vote and comment! :D