Chapter 25: Sasuke Uchiha vs Gaara

The audience buzzed with anticipation for Sasuke's arrival. A ninja from the Hokage's office approached the examiner and instructed him to wait 10 minutes for Sasuke. If he didn't arrive, he would disqualify him.

Time passed, and with only 1 minute left, Sasuke and Kakashi arrived in style, surrounded by rotating leaves.

I couldn't help but think, 'Why didn't I get a cool entrance like that?!'

Kakashi: "Sorry we're late. You wouldn't believe the traffic."

Examiner: "And you are?"

Sasuke: "I'm Sasuke Uchiha."

Kakashi: "Sorry if we kept you waiting. But umm how late are we? We're not disqualified, or anything are we?"

Examiner: "No, he's not disqualified."

The crowd erupted into cheers as Shikamaru, Naruto, and I headed up, and Gaara entered the arena.

The match began. Gaara's sand flowed from his gourd as Sasuke threw two shuriken, but Gaara stopped them with his sand and created a sand clone. Gaara sent sand towards Sasuke, who dodged by jumping up.

Suddenly, Sasuke moved super-fast, almost as fast as Lee's normal speed, and punched Gaara in the face, cracking his armor.

Sasuke: "So that's your sand armor? Guess it wasn't anything special."

Sasuke continued to attack Gaara with his amazing speed, sending him flying back before running circles around Gaara and attacking him again, hitting him in the stomach with his knee before jumping back.

Both Gaara and Sasuke looked tired. Gaara covered himself with sand as Sasuke ran towards him and tried to punch Gaara but instead got hurt by spikes formed by Gaara's sand.

Just then, Naruto and Shikamaru appeared panting.

Naruto: "Kakashi sensei, please, you have to stop the match right away! If this continues, Sasuke will die!"

An eye made of sand appeared above the sand covering Gaara.

Kakashi: "Relax, no need to panic. You know Sasuke and I weren't just goofing around. There's a reason we were so late getting here."

Sasuke started running towards Gaara and threw three kunai, jumping into the air. As he landed, he continued running towards Gaara but was blocked by spikes created by the sand. After a while, Sasuke jumped back onto the wall.

Sakura: "What were you doing?"

Kakashi: "Well, it's kind of a long story."

Sasuke started making hand signs while on the wall.

Naruto: "Oh come on, will you please do something! This is no time for talking!"

Kakashi: "You're right, so shut up and watch. Keep your eye on Sasuke, he's about to surprise you. If you wonder why I always insisted on training Sasuke myself, now you know… It's because he's like me."

Just then, Sasuke's chakra became visible, and he started running towards Gaara.

Guy: "I see, that's what you were doing all this time. You were building his speed up to the required level."

Kakashi: "Exactly."

Naruto: "Wow, I've never seen him do that before!"

Sakura: "What sort of technique is that?"

Guy: "It's the only weapon in Kakashi's arsenal he didn't copy from someone else. The secret of the jab is in the speed at which it's delivered. It's the weapon of choice for assassination, and the ninja's ability to focus its chakra at the point of impact. Once these two elements, speed and focus, have attained a certain level, the chakra actually becomes visible…"

Sasuke stabbed the sand surrounding Gaara, injuring him before jumping back. As Sasuke retreated, the sand around Gaara fell, and Gaara held his left shoulder, which was bleeding.

Just then, I noticed some white feathers falling, and I turned to Sakura, saying, "Sakura…"

Sakura: "Yeah…"

Sakura and I: "Release!"

Looking around, I saw everyone asleep except for the jonin, Sakura, and me. Kakashi sensei jumped in front of us, saying, "Sakura, Hinoka, release the Genjutsu and wake Naruto and Shikamaru. Naruto will be delighted; he'll be getting a mission after such a long time."

Sakura: "What kind of mission?"

Kakashi: "You'll have to be careful on this one. It's the first A-rank assignment since the land of waves."

Sakura: "But sensei, what are you doing? With this battle going on, why send us off on some mission?"

Kakashi: "Sasuke's chasing Gaara and the other sand ninja's. Sakura, Hinoka, release the genjutsu, wake Naruto and Shikamaru, and follow Sasuke."

Sakura: "Then shouldn't we wake Ino and Choji and go in a group?"

Kakashi: "No time. I suspect that many sound shinobi may have already infiltrated this village. Besides, if you have more than the four ninjas essential to the squad and your already 5, it's harder to hide from the enemy. You did learn that in academy patrol training, didn't you?"

Sakura: "Of course."

Hinoka: "Sensei, you said it's even harder with 5 people, who's the fifth?"

Saying that, Kakashi sensei performed a summoning jutsu, and a puppy appeared.

Kakashi: "Pakkun, you will track Sasuke down by scent."

Sakura: "Wait, seriously, our fifth member is a puppy?!"

Pakkun: "Listen here little girl, don't just go around saying I'm just some cute little puppy."

Kakashi: "Ok, it's time. Go release the genjutsu!"

Sakura and I made our way to Naruto and Shikamaru. As Sakura released Naruto from the genjutsu, I turned to Shikamaru and asked, "Are you seriously going to taking a nap right now?! We both know you can release genjutsus."

Pakkun then walked up to Shikamaru's leg and bit it, making him scream.

Sakura: "You release Genjutsu too, you faker! Why were you pretending to be asleep this whole time?!"

Shikamaru: "'Cause I didn't want to get involved. Just give me a break. I couldn't care less about Sasuke."

Pakkun bit Shikamaru's hand this time, making him scream again as I tried to contain my laugh.

As Naruto was waking up, a ninja appeared behind him, but just as he was about to slash Naruto, Guy sensei pinned the ninja to the wall then sent him flying through the wall, creating a hole.

Kakashi sensei then explained the mission to us before we headed out through the hole created by Guy sensei.

Before we left, I sensed Shino's chakra but didn't say anything and followed the others.