Disclaimer:
Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto.
I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 93: Hope and Despair
"What?! Why would you say that?" Sakura frowned.
"He is not wrong," Kakashi added. "What is Asuma thinking? He shouldn't have let her set foot in that arena. There is always the next Chūnin exam… there's no need to push her luck this far."
"I'm sure Asuma warned her of the dangers. That is as far as he should get involved as a Sensei…" Gai commented.
"Wait, is he not going to help Ino if things get dangerous?" Sakura said with concern. She also thought this was a terrible idea, but Ino was too stubborn to change her mind.
Kakashi glanced towards Asuma, who was standing on the other side. The man was obviously worried and would not take his eyes off his student. "We'll see…"
Down at the arena, Ino and Gaara had taken their positions and were ready to begin.
"The fourth match is about to begin. Gaara of the Sand versus Yamanaka Ino…" Even the referee seemed a bit hesitant to give the signal, but he had a job to do.
Genma lifted his right hand in the air. "Begin!"
Ino began moving immediately. She pulled some kunai and threw them at Gaara.
Gaara lifted his hand and used the sand already on him to block the attack with little effort. He did not even bother to release the sand inside his gourd.
Ino did not seem deterred by this. She ran a bit closer, got three more kunai, and threw them in the same way as before.
Gaara had a disgruntled expression. This was not the fight he wanted, he needed to prove his existence by killing strong opponents.
He once again blocked the three kunai using the sand from his armor.
But he failed to notice that these kunai were a bit different from the others.
That was until he heard the sizzling noise coming from the seals tied to them.
"Got you!" Ino smiled.
Her kunai exploded while still on Gaara's right arm, and he was covered by a cloud of smoke and dust.
But Ino knew this was not going to be enough.
She approached even more while taking a water clay jar from her backpack. She unsealed the lid and performed several hand signs.
The water inside the container rose up in the air and floated in front of her.
While she did this, the smoke cleared up a bit, revealing that Gaara was still alive.
His sand armor had managed to stop most of the blast, but the one on his right arm had not been thick enough to protect him completely, and there were some clear burn marks on it.
"Hurts…" Gaara began to mumble while his expression went through many emotions.
"That girl hurt Gaara?…" Temari and Kankuro stared in disbelief.
"She threw those first kunai to make him believe she was not a threat and then used the explosive ones," Kankuro said.
"Oh… that's clever," Kakashi said, right before Ino completed her jutsu.
The sphere of water floated in front of Ino's face.
"Water Release: Wild Water Wave!"
A blast of water impacted Gaara at a tremendous speed. However, there was not much force behind the attack, and for the most part, it only had the effect of getting Gaara completely wet.
"Clever, but it's already too late," Naruto said. He could commend Ino for the idea of blasting the sand with water to make Gaara more vulnerable, but she should have started with that.
Ino threw four more kunai at Gaara while he was still recovering. The expectation was clear in her eyes. If she could get him again with those explosive kunai, the wet sand would make it much more difficult for Gaara to block the impact of the explosion and he would be defeated.
"Ahhh!" Gaara shouted with rage. The gourd on his back exploded and the sand contained inside surged with tremendous force, covering him completely and creating a sphere of sand where the four kunai hit and exploded.
"Oh…" That's when Ino realized her mistake. She did not account for Gaara being able to release that extra sand in time.
"It's a shame," said Gai.
"Yes." Kakashi agreed. "Had she started with that water jutsu, and followed it with a surprise explosive kunai aimed at a vital area instead of his arm… she may have had a chance to take him down before he could unleash all his power."
"Wait, what are you saying?…" Sakura became increasingly worried for her friend.
Ino took several steps back. Her hands went to her pouch, but as expected, it was empty. Those were all the explosive kunai she had.
The smoke cloud cleared, and it became immediately evident that Gaara had suffered no damage at all this time.
The sphere of sand had a few indentations that quickly healed before it opened to reveal the shape of a very angry Gaara.
"You!…" He pointed at her. "You hurt me!" His hand was trembling with barely contained anger, and his eyes were bloodshot.
"Die!"
Ino didn't know what else to do now, he mind switch jutsu would require her to be even closer than this, and...there was no way she could do that.
She saw large strands of sand shoot at her like arrows and tried to move away in a panic.
One of the strands touched her left ankle and quickly wrapped itself around it, not letting her go.
Ino had no time to say anything before Gaara closed his hand to form a fist. At that moment, the sand around Ino's ankle compressed, destroying the bones and turning them into smithereens.
The girl let out a bloodcurdling scream that covered the entire arena and made everyone present feel part of her pain.
"Enough, stop!" Genma decided to end the match here. There was nothing more that Ino could do at this point, other than die.
But Gaara was not willing to leave it here… she had to pay the ultimate price. He had released the sand inside his gourd and his mother would not be happy if he let the girl live now.
"No!" Gaara screamed and continued his assault.
His sand shot everywhere and forced Genma to use some defensive moves to avoid being hit by his attacks.
Ino saw as a large mass of sand flew directly at her. With her ankle completely destroyed, she could not move in time to avoid this.
'Is this it?…' she thought in despair. Why didn't she listen to her Sensei… to her father… or to Naruto?
'I wanted to prove that I could do it…' She reminded herself. This was not just for the exam. She was trying to prove to everyone that she was a good ninja… that she could get far.
'Maybe I also wanted him to see me…' The sand was almost onto her.
"Ino!"
She heard her father scream. It was very close… and also very far.
But then… Ino heard something else. It was 'his' voice and it was much closer.
"RASENGAN!"
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