A strange new life

4.7

Naruto wasn’t happy with me or with how the fight ended. Not one bit, if the glare he sent my way meant anything. I expected him to holler, to yell and cause a mess. He just glared. Silently. He was still silent when we left the arena and entered the corridor leading to the waiting area.

I didn’t want to leave yet another thing to fester. I still felt guilty over the whole Sasuke situation, and it was just easier to talk with Naruto, for some reason. I wrote on my board, presented it to the brat. “Naruto-kun, something is wrong, haven’t you noticed it?”

Naruto’s glare worsened. He crossed his arms. “Noticed what?”

Well, good thing I wasn’t really lying. “In the crowd up there, the amount of ANBU shinobi in disguise.”

“An-what? What are you talking about?” Naruto asked, sounded interested.

I forgot Naruto didn’t really know much about how the village operated, even after yelling that he was gonna be the Hokage left and right. I erased the previous message, wrote another. “Black ops shinobi, the Hokage secret police. They aren’t supposed to be out and about. I think Orochimaru is going to attack again.”

Naruto looked left and right, like Orochimaru would attack right now. “That freaky snake lady?” 

“Yes.” I got closer, showed him the next message. “I don’t have the same stamina as you do Naruto-kun. I can’t get up like you always do.” I praised the brat, just a bit. No, I wasn’t feeling guilty about not fighting him properly. “If we went all out, and Orochimaru attacked again…” I left the outcome unwritten.

Naruto furrowed his brow. “What should we do? Tell Kakashi-sensei? Where is Kakashi-sensei?”

I dismissed his idea. “Sensei is probably helping Sasuke train. We can only wait and see. Be alert, but don’t let others realize you know, we don’t want to scare the people watching and let the attackers know we know.”

Naruto squinted his eyes, nodded.

“Let’s go, or we’ll miss the next fight.” I turned around, ran up towards the waiting area. I hoped this would be enough to patch things up. If not, I would think of another way to appease the sunshine brat. Perhaps more cupcakes? I was already working on the third cupcake of the special series, this next one dedicated to Kakashi-sensei.

I crossed paths with the next two fighters, waved at them. I guess they delayed Sasuke’s fight, fate or politics. Shikamaru looked bored and tired, Choji was still stress eating. They waved back. I kept running up. There was some hollering behind, something along the lines of “fight hard, but not too hard”. Was that Naruto’s attempt at subtlety? I shook my head, but a smile still crept onto my face.

Up another flight of stairs, across some corridors and doors until I arrived at the stands. I found part of the rookie 9 sitting on the left viewing area. Sakura, Ino, Kiba. Beast boy was the first to notice me.

“Hey, Hinata, here!” he waved, “there’s two free spots here.”

I waved back. Meandered across the other spectators. Some waved at me, probably recognizing me from the fight. I waved back. It was nice to be famous, at least for the fifteen minutes it would last. When I got to the seating arrangement, the free space wasn’t near Ino, or Sakura, which was a shame.

Kiba pointed at my bruised face. Burst out laughing. “You got beat up by Naruto!”

Ino slapped Kiba’s arm. Defended me. “You lost as well!”

Sakura didn’t say anything, but she smiled. I dunno how people could say she was ugly. Maybe in the original story the big forehead could be a thing. Here? She looked like any other pretty girl. Even more with her long pink hair. 

I sat down by Kiba, looked at him for permission. I got the eye roll from the boy. Did a small guts pose, petted Akamaru. Silly shinobi dog was so cute!

Naruto arrived soon after, sat by my side. There was a bit more teasing, but it soon ended. Down in the arena the proctor went about introducing the competitors. I noticed, from the start Shikamaru positioned himself closest to the growing shadow cast by the walls. Clever boy.

The match started without much fanfare. Choji didn’t attack immediately, fled to the brighter side, away from the shadows. Being teammates, it was not a surprise Choji knew what Shikamaru planned for the fight.

I had no idea how this fight would go. It was a horrible match-up. On one side, Shikamaru had his cheat-like shadow bind and brains, but lacked stopping power. If Choji got close, he could bind the chubby boy, but I have no idea how he would end the fight, since I doubt that making Choji hit his head against the wall would work. On the other end, I wasn’t sure about the exact details of Akimichi jutsu. I remember they got big, and Choji already demonstrated the wrecking ball version of that. Did he even have any way to attack from afar?

Choji started the fight by throwing kunai and shuriken, the standard ninja attack. Shikamaru avoided it with ease. It went on for a few minutes, with neither side doing much of anything, until the crowd got restless. 

“Fight!” A hoarse voice sounded from my right. “What are you waiting for, fight?” It was a robust, sweating man. He held a crumpled piece of paper in his hand. That spurred others, and soon, there was a bigger clamor demanding the genin in the arena to fight.

Choji wasn’t immune to crowd peer pressure. The boy looked more nervous with each yell from the crowd. His hands flashed on multiple seals, and big ball Choji appeared again.

That, at least, got the crowd happy again.

It wasn’t a great move. Human cannonball Choji sped toward Shikamaru, throwing dirt and dust into the air. The moment he got close enough, Shikamaru’s shadow connected to the fast moving ball. In a display of their group team-jutsu, Shikamaru directed the ball away from him, and into a wall. Choji crashed, the walls shook, dust billowed. When the commotion died, big ball Choji was still stuck to the wall. Soon after he released his jutsu, but wasn’t in any condition to continue the fight. Proctor guy called out Shikamaru as the winner.

There were a few claps here and there. Shikamaru scowled, massaged his shoulder, prepared to leave. He didn’t even get the chance to climb up to rest. After Choji was escorted out of the arena, proctor guy called the next competitor. Temari.

She got down on her flashy giant fan. This one got the crowd happy and yelling. She didn’t even wait until proctor guy called the fight. She waved her giant fan, blew wind everywhere. Having already seen the shadow jutsu in action, she, too, kept from the shadowed area, which didn’t save her. It went the same classic way: Shikamaru tricked the girl to flee from the flying kunai parachute, only to catch her by using the hole Naruto dug in his fight with me. Then, much to everyone’s surprise except those who really knew him, Shikamaru surrendered, after having succeeded in his plot to catch the girl.

That got some cussing from everyone around. Naruto and Kiba hollered their displeasure. Sakura looked thoughtful. Ino scowled. At least Ino’s scowling face was cute, but I might be biased.

“Why did he give up? Is he stupid or something?!” Naruto kept hollering. “That really makes me mad! I’m gonna go give him a lecture.” Then the sunshine brat jumped into the arena. Pointed at Shikamaru. “Stupidhead!” Hollered again.

The comedy down in the arena didn’t keep the crowd entertained forever. Everyone wanted a piece of the Uchiha genius, the top of the year rookie. It hadn’t been five minutes when the crowd got restless again.

“What’s up with the next fight? Where’s Uchiha?”

The crowd wasn’t disappointed for long. A whirlwind of leaves filled the center of the arena. Three shinobi stood there: Kakashi-sensei with his hands in his pockets and a cool man’s pose. An older, cooler Uchiha, dressed in the clan’s traditional dark blue with his hand on Emosuke’s shoulder. Did Itachi help Sasuke train as well? And the most wanted boy Sasuke, who looked cocky, confident, dressed in a strange black singlet, left arm covered in bandages and dark bracelets.

By my side, Sakura looked smitten, Ino blushed.

That moment, I realized Sasuke had a very punchable face. I hoped Gaara did the punching for me.

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