Chapter 34: Iwa Chunin Exams Arc: Five

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"Hana, what's your favorite story from history?" Toku asks as he leans back against the stone. We are sitting in one of the open training grounds in Iwa, sharpening our kunai on whetstones.

"I don't know." I flick the water off the kunai that I'm holding and hand it over to Itachi to dry. "There's too much that's fictionalized." Not to mention too much that isn't written.

"If you had to choose though, who'd be your hero?" Itachi carefully wipes the kunai and sets it on the pile of already sharpened kunai.

Toku picks one and slides it back into his weapons pouch. "My hero's Haya-neesan."

I blink. "Not Koma-senpai?"

Toku leans back and smiles lazily. "Nah. Neesan's much stronger than Niisan." He flicks a kunai up into the air and catches it through the loop in the handle with a finger. "She was really strong back when they were genin, always outdoing Niisan. She can still beat him into the dust." That...didn't suit the image I have of Hyuga Haya to be honest.

She's always been the quiet, demure, medic in the background. "Why is she working at the hospital then?" Itachi asks. "I thought she didn't make jonin?"

Toku twirls the kunai around his fingers. "She lost a teammate on a mission once, because she didn't know anything besides fighting. Haya-neesan's never been quite the same afterwards. That's why she's a medic at the hospital." Toku sighs. "I admire how resilient she is to keep going after losing a teammate. I don't know if I could do the same."

"She wanted to save people then." I stop sharpening the next kunai. "It's a good thing to admire." I turn back to my thoughts. Who do I respect? "I think, if I had to chose a hero, it would be Kaa-san." I say at last.

The boys both pause to consider it. "But you and your Kaa-san are so different." Toku finally says.

"I admire Kaa-san for her strength." I say. "For how she never lets anyone else's status dictate what she's going to say and for saying what she means, always." But it's more than Kaa-san's blunt and honest ways that I love. "I admire how proud she is, how she's lost but never gives in." Kaa-san had lost a sister and a husband in a year and she had loved both of them with all her heart. Yet she's still standing.

Could I do the same? I didn't know that.

"I guess I'm different then." Itachi laughs. "My hero's the Shodaime." He looks off into the distance. "I want to be able to stop wars like he did. He mended a feud between two warring clans and brought people together."

I shiver despite how warm it is. I have yet to save your future, Ita-kun. Stop going around and saying things like that.

"Ne, Sensei?" Toku leans over to where Sensei is lazily draped over the rock. "Who's your hero?"

"My hero huh..." Sensei flips himself up into a sitting posture. "I'd say you three should start your sparring match at about now." Seems this is a sensitive topic for Sensei. I wonder if he's lost hope in something before?

But then I remember that Sensei's lived through a war zone before. He's probably lost conviction in many things before. Silly me for thinking of Sensei the same way he presents himself all the time.

The boys have shifted their match out onto the water, towards the lake, and Sensei's moseyed over there to watch them. The Triplets had gone with to watch the show, as apparently watching me attempt to learn jutsu is irritatingly boring and less fun than the sparring matches. I am attempting to learn the Earth Spike jutsu, as it is my task for the month. It is five hand signs.

Snake, Dragon, Tiger, Monkey, Ram. The earth buckles upwards slightly, and I count it as sort of a win. Settling back into position I flash through three hand signs and raise an earth ring.

"So I am capable of doing this properly." I muse as I reabsorb the chakra I'd released into the ground. "Is it the fact that I'm not shaping the chakra correctly before release?" For Earth Walking I had to supply chakra to my feet, and then endeavor not to feel claustrophobic. For a mud wall or a mud ring I just needed to feel the earth rise, and supplement it with my own chakra.

"What're you doing?" A voice whispers next to my ear and I jump a kunai in my hand. A flash of blond hair and big blue eyes. Oh. It's just him.

"Deidara-kun, it's better to announce yourself from a bit farther away." I put the kunai away. "And to answer your question, I'm attempting to make the Earth Spike jutsu work."

"You have an earth affinity too, un?" He tilts his head back with a smile. "I have two affinities, un!" The Explosion Release is two natures, right? Earth and...

"You already know your affinity?" I smile at him. "That's impressive." He is the Tsuchikage's student after all.

He giggles. "You're trying the Earth Spike one, un?" He stands with his feet shoulder width apart and uses only three hand signs before slamming his hands down. A line of earth spikes rises with varying intensity and speed. "'S easier if you make the chakra pointy." He tells me very seriously. And of course, he knows how to do this.

Little prodigy. I think fondly. "Alright." I ruffle his hair. "I'll try it your way."

But even as I raise my hands into the snake sign, Deidara asks me another question. "Cousin Hana, un?"

"Yes?" I slam my hands onto the ground and watch as a series of seven spikes wobble their way into existence. It's not as impressive as his, but it's good enough for what I want.

"Did you get hurt during the test, un?" I smile up at him.

"Nope, un." Was he worried? I've only known him for maybe two days. "Why'd you ask?"

He scuffs the ground with the tip of his shoe. "It's super dangerous to take the chunin exams. The Old Man said so, un." The Tsuchikage's talked with you about the chunin exams?

"Don't worry, Deidara-kun." I sit down next to him. "I don't think I'm going to get hurt much this time around."

"This time around, un?" He leans closer. "There was a last time?"

"I took the exams during the last rotation in Suna." I respond. "It went a lot worse there."

"I don't want to exams to end, un." He sets his head against my shoulder and taps his foot against the ground. "Then you'll have to go away again, and no one will like me anymore."

You, oh you. I wrap an arm around his thin shoulders. "I'll still like you even if I'm two countries away, Deidara-kun."

He sniffs. "It won't be the same, un." And suddenly he's bawling in my lap. "The Old Man didn't like my spider, Cousin Hana." What? "He thinks-" Deidara gasps and shudders. "It was just a game." He buries his face back in my lap. "He thinks I play too much. The Old Man doesn't like art, un." Kami forbid that a seven year old actually acts like a seven year old.

"Show me your spider." I take his hand. "I want to see what it looks like." Deidara turns his face up to look at me and I use a sleeve to brush away his tears. "I think it's nice that you made him a spider." And he's a horrible old man if he didn't like your present.

"I'll show it to you later, un." He's glanced at the sky and realized that it's almost noon. "If I don't go back, I'll get yelled at again."

"Alright. Show me your spider later." I let him go.

Before he races off into the distance, he beams at me. "I knew you'd like to see them, Cousin Hana, un!"

And I can't help it, his laughter's infectious.

"Toku-kun and Itachi-kun." Sensei waves a hand at them. "Go find a place for us to eat dinner, I want to ask Hana-chan about her progress today."

The boys look at each other, at me, and then at Sensei. Clearly, they are confused about what's going on. "Sure, En-sensei." They chorus and head out into the city proper.

I, however, knew exactly what Sensei wanted to talk about, but I didn't want to talk about it. I cross my arms over my chest, lean against the rock face, and wait for Sensei to open the conversation. I could never hide anything from a Nara, especially not a Nara who pays as much attention to me as Sensei does. Besides, I've got nothing to hide from him.

"You've been talking to the Tsuchikage's student." Sensei drawls, and in the coming twilight his face is wreathed in shadows. "Is that wise?"

"He's only a child." I counter. "He hasn't any parents and his teacher is often strict with him." He's an unhappy child who's willing to love anyone that says a good word to him.

We walk together, a little ways out of the training ground. Sensei sticks his hands in his pockets and slouches forward. "I didn't ask you why you do it, Hana-chan." He casts me a look that I cannot read. "I'm asking you if you think it's wise."

"Probably not." I say and copy his posture. We slouch towards where Toku and Itachi are arguing together. "But I'm not looking to be wise right now."

"Mmm." Sensei shrugs. "We'll be leaving in a month. Don't get too attached, Hana-chan."

"I won't, Sensei." I know I can't afford to. He's not a bad kid, but he's not worth more to me than Kiba-chan.

"I mean it, Hana." Sensei's tone is serious, but he doesn't look at me. "You've got a good heart. You just might get too attached."

"Hah!" I leap forwards towards Toku, and he catches my kick on his wrist, and turns my momentum away, to somewhere past him. I fall forwards and roll out of his range.

From behind us a Katon jutsu roars to life. "Katon: Phoenix Sage Flower." I make four very familiar hand signs and the earth swallows me up. Now, where did Itachi go?

I can't find him properly, and I'm concerned about whether or not Toku made it out of the flame path with his long and flowing hair intact. I burst out from the ground and...are those shuriken explosive?

Three hand signs. "Doton: Earth Ring." The impact is enough to rock my almost dome, but not break it completely. I pull more chakra to my ears. Where are they? There.

A kunai in hand I charge. Itachi answers with another three exploding shuriken which I redirect to somewhere to the left while still moving forwards. He makes two hand signs. "Katon: Great Fireball."

I make three. "Doton: Earth Wall." As the wall rises and the flames seep over the top, I see Toku standing behind Itachi.

"Six Trigrams, Two Palms." I melt below the earth. They should still be there. "Sixteen Palms." There he is.

I wrap my hands around his ankles. "Gotcha." I only pull Toku down to his knees-it would be a pain to dig him out later if I did a full body burial-and rise slowly out of the earth.

Itachi whips a kunai across my throat. He holds it there lightly though, and there's no threat in it.

"I yield." I announce and his kunai drops.

Toku's scowling when I come over to pull him free of the earth. "You know, Hana. I only let down my guard 'cause I was worried you'd get burned to a crisp."

I laugh. "I know better than to get fried by a teammate before the Third Exam, you know." I'm happy that the spar went well, but I'd used only four jutsu this entire match and a bit of chakra to enhance my hearing. My legs still feel like jelly.

Sensei's clapping rings out across the field. "I think you three have been doing well." He grins ruefully. "Tomorrow, you three will spar for fifteen minutes one on one with me."

"Really, Sensei?" Itachi looks at Sensei quizzically. "You never take part in spars though." Oh Kami, you don't know anything about Sensei's skills in a sparring match.

Toku bumps his shoulder. "There's a good reason for that, Ita-kun."

I shudder. "Sensei's the Devil. Especially in taijutsu only matches."

Sensei chuckles. "I only forced you to use the Earth Wall jutsu three times the last time, Hana-chan."

I stick my tongue out at him. "Well, I was also a year younger than I am now. It was exhausting alright, Sensei?"

He ruffles my hair. "Don't be such a brat, Sprout." He pokes my cheek. "Inuzukas are supposed to be durable."

Ichi huffs. "I don't have that durable a human partner." From behind me, Ni and San break out into doggy chuckles.

I glare at them. "Stop that!"

"Sensei?" Itachi appears on Sensei's other side. "If you are actually good at taijutsu why do you never actually spar with us?"

"Because I'm a lazy Nara." Sensei deadpans. "That and lethal take down techniques are not to be used on my cute genin students when I don't know if they're good enough to dodge."

Itachi pales. "Oh."

Sensei sets a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go visit that nice tea house I found yesterday."

The morning of the tournament dawns crisp. We troop down to the stadium together.

"No hard feelings if someone beats someone else in the ring today?" Toku asks, his hands laced behind his head.

"No hard feelings." Itachi bumps his shoulder. "We should wipe the floor with our first opponents though. There are still another nine people, we won't have the first rounds with each other unless luck really hates us."

Sensei sets a hand on each of our shoulders, and ruffles our hair in turns. "If the Vicious Hag was here she'd want to coo over how much you've grown. Just take it from me that we're both proud of you three today." He smirks. "Now go out and get them."

"Yes, Sensei." We slouch forward together, a mimic of his normal pose. "We won't let you down."

"Wait, un!" Deidara races around the corner. "Leafy, take this." He shoves two things into my hand. "Put it in your pouch, un. Throw it at someone dangerous and it will explode." He whispers. "I'll show you my spider later, un."

I don't open my hand. He wants to make sure that I'm safe? "Thanks, un." I smile at him. "I'll hold you to it."

He grins and runs away up into the stadium seats. "I'll watch you fight, Leafy!" I slip his present into my pouch.

Sensei and the boys seem to want to ask something, but there's no time for that. The Hokage's arrived.

He's flanked by about eight ANBU. "Hello Ensui." One of them has spiky silver hair, and I do my best to not seem surprised. Kakashi's here?

Sensei bows. "Hokage-sama. I'm honored that you're here to watch my team." Unlike the other Chunin Exam I'd been in, there's only one team from Konoha in the finals. It's just us.

To be honest, I'd not expected the Hokage to travel across two countries to watch three genin from his village fight in a pit in a country as hostile as Iwa, but perhaps he has a reputation to maintain. Perhaps he is attempting to be accepting.

The Hokage smiles. "Your team has been a credit to Konoha." He looks at the three of us with approval in his eyes. "I expect to see great things from you three today."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." We don't look at each other. It would be rude to do so in front of the Hokage. "We are very proud to represent Konoha today." We chorus.

"Will the competitors come down to the fighting pit?" Kitsuchi-san lines up the twelve remaining genin, and one of them is that boy from Suna who'd been so rude after the first test, and another is Nii Yugito. "Now we'll begin the tournament. Step forwards and pick a number from the hat. That will determine your opponent and your bracket."

We choose slips of paper, and hold them in our fists until Kitsuchi asks for our numbers.

"Three" Itachi says, and drops his slip back in the hat.

Kitsuchi-san makes a note of it. "Who's the other three?"

"I do." Nii Yugito steps forwards. She also drops her slip back. She sees me, and winks. "I want to fight you later, Little Leaf. It seems that it'll have to be after I take on your teammate."

I feel my lips curl up. "Yeah. I'll look forward to it if you beat Ita-kun."

"Four." I state. The number of death. That's rough.

It's the boy from Suna who steps forward after my announcement. "I have the other four."

"Six." Toku whispers.

A boy from Kumo, he might have been on Nii Yugito's team, steps forward. "I have the other six."

I'm beginning to believe that it is no accident that we've been split so that we'd have to fight each other to get to the top. If I win my match, and Itachi wins his we have to fight. And then whoever wins that match fights Iwa, and Toku gets a bye.

I tune out the last words before the first match. I run my hands through Ichi and Ni's fur, and pat San on the head. "We're all going to be in the ring together today." I whisper at them.

Two shinobi from Iwa forfeit when they realize who they have to fight. The two that are left are likely important from an in village standpoint or they're just simply too good. We'll see which one it is when they're matched with each other.

"Now, would Uchiha Itachi of Konoha and Nii Yugito remain in the pit while the other competitors return to the viewing area?" Kitsuchi-san smiles widely as we troop up the stairs to the waiting area.

Stay safe, Ita-kun. She's a jinchiruki. "Be careful." I whisper, as I brush past him. "She made it out of the first test before me."

Itachi's eyes widen. "Got it." He nods.

It is strange watching a teammate of mine fight alone. But Itachi settles into a practiced taijutsu stance. The traditional Uchiha style. My mind supplies helpfully. He's been working on that, but hasn't used it in a sparing match.

"Let the first match begin!" Kitsuchi-san announces and leaps back.

Itachi and Yugito clash in a flurry of sparks. Itachi's the first one to leap back. Her fingers had gained claw like extensions and his blood trickles down his arm into the sand below.

"Hey." The boy from Suna comes to stand next to me. "So guess what I heard after asking my Sensei a question."

I'm concerned about Itachi, but he's flashing through the five hand signs necessary for the Phoenix Sage Flower Jutsu, and I can't help him at the moment. Besides, ignoring other people is rude, and while I'm blunt, I do have manners.

"What did you learn?" I ask, not taking my eyes off of Itachi's fight down in the ring.

I see him smirk out of the corner of my eye. "He said that there was a girl with three dogs who ripped out her opponent's throat during the exams last year back at home." Below, Yugito dodges the Katon jutsu and makes for Itachi again. Itachi throws a few kunai towards her that she deflects, but I see the ninja wire attached. He'll be fine. There's going to be no deaths down there.

"And you deduce that the girl is me." I murmur. "How very smart of you."

"I'm here to beg for mercy actually." He says, in all mock seriousness. "I would like my throat to stay where it is, thank you very much."

Ichi looks at him with disdain. "We won't need to rip him. You just need a few earth jutsu and he'd be down under."

"Believe me." I whisper as Itachi tightens the ninja wire and strings Yugito up. She sustains a few long ranged injuries due to his excellent shuriken skills. "I would prefer that option immensely as well."

"You would?" He leans forwards. "Well I'm Ishimaru Masato. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Inuzuka-chan." Yugito disappears in a poof of smoke and a log's ensnared instead.

"Likewise, Ishimaru-kun." I whisper as Itachi whirls around and flashes through four hand signs for the Great Fireball Jutsu.

It backs Yugito into the wall beneath us as she leaps to evade. Itachi races forwards, matching her in taijutsu again despite the still dripping wound on his arm. But her arms are injured too and the claws on her hands have disappeared.

In another four minutes, it's over. Itachi stands over her with his hands in the last seal for Great Fireball. "Concede." He says very clearly. "And there will be no more blood."

Down in the ring, Nii Yugito loses the first fight. And Itachi heads over to be checked on by a medic.

"Ita-kun!" I race over to check on his arms as he arrives back in the waiting area. "Are you alright?"

Toku's half a beat behind me. "Yeah, it didn't look like it hampered you much down in the ring, but still, is everything fine?"

Itachi smiles tiredly. "Yes. But I think I used too much chakra in that match." He sighs. "We should ration our chakra more."

"You can't say that." I counter and gesture towards Sensei who's still in the stands with the Hokage. "Our first priority is not dying."

"Will Inuzuka Hana of Konoha and Ishimaru Masato from Suna come down for the fourth match?" I glance back at Itachi and Toku and then up into the stands at Sensei, the Hokage, and Kakashi. Well, here goes.

I flip over the railing and into the ring. The Triplets follow me down.

"Let the fourth match, begin!" Kitsuchi-san leaps back, and I make four hand signs. Time to see what he knows. I melt into the earth, and the Triplets leap at him, Fang over Fang over Fang for them, and the earth walk for me. The Triplets must have missed, because Ni's angry growl is unmistakably frustrated.

I narrowly miss being electrocuted and decide that the earth is not a nice place for me to stay. Is he a sensor, or does he just have a teammate who earth walks? I attempt a grab at his ankles, but Ishimaru's already moving away. Somehow, I'm having flashbacks to the last exam in Suna. I toss Ichi a soldier pill and shift onto all fours. Doton is weak against Raiton. I can't use any of the earth jutsus that I know in this match. Except for the earth spike jutsu, but I'm saving that for the match with Itachi.

And we are one and the same and I feel our brothers shifting beside us. We leap and clash against the enemy our jaws snapping, teeth moving. The Raiton shock through our systems is unpleasant. And I distinctly smell the scent of singed fur.

We drop to the ground behind Ishimaru, a girl and her dog again. Well, there's no help for it. We tried.

Ishimaru turns around, breathing hard. "It doesn't look like you're that scary after all." My lips pull back in a snarl.

My hand slides into my pouch. "Don't speak too early." I mutter under my breath. And then I lob one of the two whatever they were that Deidara had given me before the match at him. He actually gave me more than one clay thing.

He's such an overprotective little genius.

The resulting explosion is...extensive. Sand billows, forwards and I automatically shield my face as I leap away from the blast, the Triplets not even half a beat behind. I could get used to amazing explosions like this.

"You should tell us when you do this, Hana!" San barks.

I grin at him sheepishly. "I didn't expect it to be that big." From the other side of the dust cloud, Ishimaru staggers to his feet.

"I'm not done yet." He gathers lightning in his hands, but it's weak and indistinct.

I shift back on to all fours. "Well, come." I leap at him and we grapple around on the floor of the arena. But this is not like last time.

This time, I'm not the one who's desperate to avenge something. He does still manage to scratch my arms with a double pointed kunai and knife me once in the leg, but I ram my knee into his stomach and cut a tendon behind his knee. He hisses in pain. Clearly, he'd been cut before, because normally cut tendons are a cause for screams, but he makes very little noise.

I hold a kunai to his throat, and the fight goes out of Ishimaru. "I yield."

I get to my feet rather shakily. "The winner of the match is Inuzuka Hana." Kitsuchi-san announces, and appraises me with new eyes. Did he think I survived thus far due to only the merits of my teammates?

He ought not think such a thing. I pull Ishimaru to his feet and sling his arm over my shoulder. He probably needs to see a medic. "Good fight." I offer, and he doesn't seem too upset. "Proctor-san, I think we need a medic here." My own leg isn't feeling too great right now despite the cut on it only being over muscle. Still, the slippery feeling of blood is bad, and if we stood around for too long, it might cost us both a leg.

"Good fight." Ishimaru replies. "What was that explosion? I didn't see a kunai with a tag." Of all the things you had to ask.

"Oh, I brought my own explosives." I'm just hedging the truth a little. "At any rate, it's been a while since I've been forced from the ground before."

He grins. "Well, I didn't want to fight Uchiha anyway." He looks at me and winks. "Better you than me. You're not half bad." And you, Ishimaru-kun are one of the few foreign ninja that I've fought that did not want to all out kill me. And given that we are both fine after a few minutes at the medic tent, we head back up to watch the matches.

The next match, match five, marks the first death in the exam. The shinobi from Kumo, which I assume to be a teammate of Yugito's has the shinobi from Suna pinned to one of the walls with ninja wire.

And then the Raiton jutsu begin in earnest. The first scream rips the air apart and I feel a shudder run down my spine. Is this what death sounds like?

"No." Ishimaru's clutching the bars of the balcony. He's leaning against the edge as sweat beads at his temple. "No. NO."

"What's the matter?" I ask. He knows that boy down there, doesn't he?

Ishimaru turns to me with a smile that looks like it's made of broken glass. "I did always tell Asahi that he'd get himself killed." He turns back to the scene as if he couldn't tear his eyes away. "Why aren't you forfeiting, you idiot?" He whispers, and against the darkness of the metal, his knuckles are horribly, horribly white.

More importantly, why aren't they stopping the match down there? It's clear who won already.

The screams go on, on and on and on and on and on. My eyes find the Hokage's box. Sensei. I need-where.

I meet the wrong eyes. ANBU Hound has just glanced across the stadium. Very carefully, he inclines his head. Breathe. I hear Kakashi's voice whisper in my ear. Breathe.

I take a breath, and then I let it go. There are more important concerns. The boy down below has stopped screaming.

I make my way over to Toku, who looks decidedly green. "You'll have to fight the teammate of this one, Toku." I whisper. "I don't think they're going to accept your forfeit should you choose to make one."

He looks over at me, steely determination sparking in his eyes. "He's going to be the one who asks for mercy." We stand, shoulder to shoulder.

Itachi squeezes Toku's other shoulder. "Please don't die."

"Oh I don't plan to." Toku looks down at his hands. "Oops. It looks like I've bent the railing on this thing." And indeed he had clenched too tightly.

Toku slides down the wall as though he's surfing and drops into the pit. The sixth match has begun.

Itachi and I stand and watch from above. He sets his hand over mine. "Toku-kun will be fine."

"Toku better be fine." I mutter. "He's not so stupid to get caught like that."

Below, the opponent from Kumo has clearly not realized the futility of engaging a Hyuga in close quarter combat.

Toku has half the tenketsu points on his arms sealed before he even knows what's going on.

The match is disturbingly fast after that. "Yield." And Toku's veins are bulging even more as he says this. "Yield or die." His stance is clear, precise, and he isn't even breathing hard.

He's up in the stands with us a moment later. "They make me angry." He says.

I squeeze his hands. "No one died this time."

I spoke too soon. The next match between the two shinobi from Iwa dies the floor of the pit red. It happens so fast that it's almost hard to process.

I don't want to go earth walking in that anymore. The medics cart the body of the dead girl off into the sidelines. And I thought Nara Kasuga using my body as a meat shield was bad. He didn't intend to kill me. I might have to forgive him when we get back to Konoha.

The sun is directly overhead now, and we break for lunch. We're sitting with the Hokage, his ANBU guard, and Sensei.

"One of us is going to have to fight that one that just killed someone from their own village." I frown at Itachi. "We can't have an overdrawn match or we'd die." The next fight after lunch is Itachi and me, and then it's Toku and the other Kumo ninja, the one that had killed someone.

But after that, either Itachi or I will have to face the boy from Iwa. And whoever wins that fights Toku for the final match.

"Just taijutsu then?" Itachi asks, his eyes flickering back and forth. Clearly he's also uneasy about this opponent. "So we can keep our chakra stores replenished." He clarifies.

"That will be a good idea." I set a hand over his. "But you know what would be a better one? I forfeit and you don't have to go through a taijutsu taxing fight either."

Itachi looks torn, and Toku breaks in. "You can't do that Hana." I raise an eyebrow at me and he goes on. "You'll lose a chance at promotion then. At least have the taijutsu fight."

Itachi nods. "You shouldn't forfeit just so I can have full reserves."

Are they idiots? Itachi's going to go up against someone who has no compunctions about killing a fellow shinobi from their own country. There wasn't even any hesitation during that fight. It was a rip your throat out kind of deal. "No." I state flatly. "I'm forfeiting. There's no way I'm prioritizing looking good for the judges over your life against that enemy."

They still have protests, and Sensei's eyes are shadowed beyond belief, but I refuse to budge.

I'm not going to change your fate by making you die of all things, Itachi. The dream I'd had before the second exam rises to the forefront of my mind. Take that, dream nonsense. I won't be cowed by you.

"I forfeit." I announce as soon as we land down in the pit for the eighth match.

Kitsuchi-san raises an eyebrow at me. "You're mostly fresh, are you sure?"

I raise my own eyebrow right back at him. "I'm sure." Right after he calls the match in Itachi's favor, I remember Deidara's present.

I still have one left. I slip it in Itachi's hand as we leave to go back up into the stands. "Throw it at the enemy. It should cause the same size explosion as during my match." I whisper at him.

He's confused, but he nods. "I'll remember that."

I pass Kitsuchi-san with a smile that looks as fake and plastic as I feel. Unbidden, my eyes find ANBU Hound again. I wonder what you're thinking, Kakashi?

You're not made of stone. These deaths meant something to you. Kakashi does not move again, but I feel his eyes follow me, up into the stands, and there it ends.

Toku's summoned down to the ring for the ninth match. The other Kumo nin seems to have learned from his teammate's mistakes. He stays farther than an arm's length away from Toku, and expects Toku to chase him.

Unfortunately for him, he has to be able to catch Toku in the ninja wire to have something for his Raiton to travel on.

Trying to trap an enraged Hyuga in ninja wire is a difficult task. Still, he does manage to catch one of Toku's arms, and the resulting jutsu makes Toku grimace in pain before he snaps the ninja wire with a dulled kunai.

And then I understand why Toku had been caught at all. He catches the end of the still spiraling ninja wire that is connected to his opponent and pulls. "Six Trigrams: Two Palms."

He used an injury to lure the enemy within the range of his divination.

He's really angry this time. "Eight Palms."

The Kumo nin is having a hard time defending himself, but he does manage another Raiton jutsu in Toku's direction. It doesn't slow my enraged teammate the slightest.

"Sixteen palms." Toku's eyes are hard and angry. "Thirty two palms." His hands are a blur of harsh motion.

He's never been able to complete the sixty-four palms. He's always stopped at thirty-two. Koma-senpai said he wasn't ready for more than that when we left Konoha.

"SIXTY FOUR PALMS!" Toku roars and the Kumo nin collapses to the floor of the pit. And Toku immediately doubles over, his hands on his knees, trembling from fear, exertion, fatigue? I don't know.

But he's won the match.

When Toku comes back up, they're already calling Itachi down.

"Thank Kami I have a bye this round." He whispers as he sets his head on my shoulder. "I want to be able to worry about our teammate in peace."

"What do you think I want?" I wipe the sweat from his temple with a handkerchief I pulled from my pouch. "You really got angry out there."

"I don't know what I was thinking." He admits. "I just saw what he'd done to an opponent that already lost, and I couldn't."

"I know." We turn back to watch Itachi's match with the Iwa nin.

He's used two fire jutsu in the space of five minutes, breathing hard, but still mostly fine.

The sandy haired boy across the ring smirks. "I didn't think the Uchiha were this weak."

Itachi grits his teeth. "I won't be dying here today."

They flash through hand signs together, and Itachi blows out a huge cloud of fire...and the boy from Iwa does nothing?

Itachi misses. What? He's never missed before?

What's going on?

Itachi's staggering, as if he's drunk, his eyes wide with horror. "No. No. No."

The sandy haired boy moves forwards for the kill and Itachi evades the cut to his throat just barely, the enemy kunai opening his shoulder instead, eyes still vacant.

"It's a genjutsu." Toku murmurs, his Byakugan active. "I don't know what he's seeing or how it's working, but I can see it in the air."

"Itachi!" I scream. "Genjustu!" He has the Sharingan. This should be the work of a moment to fix.

It seems that he hears me, and he activates his sharingan. The genjustu is clearly gone, because his eyes are no longer caught in slack horror, but they're bleeding now, as he punches his opponent in the jaw, and he lands about five feet away.

Painfully bleeding, and when he raises his head it's clear that something is horribly horribly wrong. Mangekyo. Itachi has Mangekyo. The Iwa nin gets up.

His hands fall to his pouch as the Iwa nin closes in. He's searching for something, and his eyes are still bleeding. Kami. How? How'd he-I killed you. He'd believed that he'd killed me that morning. His Mangekyo had activated before he realized that it was just a clone.

I felt my heart bleed. Oh Itachi why didn't you say something? He'd been so quiet that morning, and later that night, but if his sharingan had been active-He has that memory for the rest of his life. What else was it that he said? It's strange to see you?

It must have been, if you so vividly remember my death.

And then Itachi throws something at the incoming Iwa nin, and that part of the stadium explodes.

Only Itachi rolls out from the blast, his eyes back to normal. He's bleeding from the shoulder, and it dies his shirt a darker shade. He has burns across his chest, light burns, but coupled with his emotional state it leave him swaying on his feet, and his eyes though normal, are haunted.

Kitsuchi-san calls Toku down. "Are they kidding?" Toku whispers.

I meet his eyes, still reeling from the epiphany. Itachi has the Mangekyo. He has it four years earlier than canon. And it wasn't because Shisui died. "No, Toku, I don't think they are."

Toku leaps down into the stadium.

"Now, let the final match be-"

"I forfeit!" Toku shrieks at Kitsuchi-san. "I forfeit." He runs forward to steady the still swaying Itachi, and suddenly I'm racing across the stadium floor.

My feet do not listen to my commands to stop. "ITA-KUN!" Before me, Itachi crumples into Toku's arms.

"MEDIC!" I scream. From the corner of my eye I see Sensei moving down into the stands, his face the same frightening blank that he always is when he's angry. Sensei, help.

A.N. This chapter is a monstrosity. And it refused to end. AHHHH. But now it's over. I despise fight scenes, and I wrote far too many for this chapter. And we realize that Itachi's actually been traumatized quite a bit throughout this entire ordeal. He did seem a little less traumatized than everyone else while they were having the 'oh my god I killed my teammates but not really' drama.

It was a lie.

Thanks so much to WhiteFang001, Everbear01 and Snidekick for reviewing!

And to everyone who favorited and followed!

And I'm very tired, so I'm going to bed now.

~Tavina.