Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Actions Speak Louder ❯ Can't Stop the Rain from Falling ( Chapter 12 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The Hokage explained the Preliminary Roungs, along with Hayate, who arrived at the last minute. The Suna Team went to the area where they decided to wait, Sasuke's match came up first. Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou were all into that match, watching the Uchiha win yet another battle. After Sasuke's big match, his sensei took off with him, probably to heal that wound he had on his shoulder, was Shino's match with the Sound Ninja. It wasn't a very big match, Shino still won, and then Kankurou's match came first in the Suna Team. Ura grabbed Kankurou's upper arm before he left, though she wanted to look and act strong, the child inside of Ura didn't want Kankurou to get hurt.

Just by the worriedness in her eyes, Kankurou could tell how she felt about his battle. So he just smirked and gave her wrist a gentle squeeze, "Don't worry, i'll be perfectly fine."

Ura released his arm and watched Kankurou walk down to the arena, where Ura knew she would be fighting any one of the Genin in front of her. As she watched, Ura got to see Kankurou's real ability, and was really impressed by how powerful he was at puppetry. When he came out of the wraps and broke many of the opponent's bones, Ura was caught by surprise, she thought Kankurou was going to lose. Kankurou came back with a little scratch on him, "See, told you I would be perfectly fine."

Next was Sakura's and Ino's battle, which took a bit longer, and Ura was interested in this fight. From what she had learned, Sakura and Ino were rivals to win Sasuke's heart, both losing badly. Then again, she had heard they were once very close friends, but when the match came to a draw, Ura knew they would somehow become friends again. It made her think just a little bit, what if it ever came down to her and Temari fighting, or Kankurou? Would she have the ability to actually fight them and win? She secluded that thought from her mind, her goal was to fight Gaara in the end, even if it meant her own death. As long as she got to be good enough to fight against him, that was all she wanted.

"Looks like i'm up," Temari smirked as she leaped to the arena.

Tenten, the daughter of a blacksmith, was up against Temari, but the Suna Team knew it was already won, Temari out-smarted her entirely. Ura wasn't surprised when Temari nearly broke Tenten's back with her fan, and then mercilessly tossed Tenten on her weapons, if Lee hadn't of caught her, Tenten would've been dead.

"Temari, if you're done, come back up," Gaara stated.

Temari walked back up the stairs, allowing the next battle to comense, which was Shikamaru verses Kin. Now this battle Ura was a bit confused on who had the upper hand, at first it looked like Kin, but when Shikamaru had her in his Shadow Possession Jutsu, it all changed. Kin had a concussion in the end and had to be sent to the hospital immediately, Shikamaru walked back up the stairs to his own team. Ura was a bit skeptical on who she was going to fight, but was a bit more worried, only the strong were left...

Next was...Gaara vs. Lee... Ura was all into watching this battle, she had heard this Rock Lee was very strong in taijutsu, which was exactly what Gaara lacked. Gaara disappeared with his sand as his name was on the screen, Lee leaped to the ground and told Gaara he was happy to finally fight him. Ura felt sorry for Lee, there was no way Gaara was going to let him win, not when he was this far in the game. Once the battle began to get interesting, Lee was getting to Gaara, cracking his sand armor and everything. Kankurou had walked over to where Naruto was and talked with the blonde for awhile, but Ura was paying more attention to the battle in front of her. Lee looked like he was winning, getting Gaara at every point, until...the darker side of Gaara began to emerge. When Lee had done his Primary Lotus on Gaara, the sand armor began to crack, the real Gaara appeared behind Lee with a manical laughter coming out of his lips.

"That look in his eyes..." Temari gasped, "He's...he's getting..."

Was this the real Gaara that people were terrified of? Ura had never seen that side of Gaara before, it was like...like he really was insane. Gaara began crashing sand down on Lee, taking the advantage that Lee's body was obviously seriously damaged from the Primary Lotus attack. A sick feeling of torment ran through Ura, just watching Gaara toy with Lee was almost making her ill to watch anymore. He wasn't the Gaara that she had seen, the powerful, strong, courageous Gaara that stood tall with defiance.

"Does...does Lee have a chance at survival?" Ura managed to ask Temari, who was in utter shock.

"I..I don't know now," Temari shook her head, her eyes glued onto the match with her little brother.

Ura looked back at the battle, terrified for Lee, she had a feeling this was going to end badly for the Leaf Shinobi. Then, Lee opened the Gate of Life from his chakra, then went after Gaara with instant power and force. Temari and Ura then were anxious for Gaara when Lee was about to finish the match, usually Ura would want Gaara to win at any cost, but Lee...he looked so determined to become a Chunin...crushing his dreams...his hopes... Then...when Gaara managed to survive the attack with his sand, leaving Lee exposed on the floor, trying to get away from Gaara's sand. When the sand wrapped around Lee's left arm and ankle, Gaara crushed them! Along with Lee's screams of agony, Ura shed tears of sorrow, unaware of her yelling, "No!"

"What're you doing!? We're cheering for Gaara!" Temari snapped at Ura.

Gaara came back up after the 'love' lecture from Gai, he had heard Ura scream out her feeling of how he nearly killed Lee, and had seen her shed the tears. Kankurou came back over to his team, he gave Ura a strange look, in fact, Baki had done the same. It was the type of look that asked 'who's side are you on anyways?', but Ura ignored them. Listening carefully, her hand flung to her mouth, Lee...wasn't going to be a ninja anymore...all because of Gaara.

"Don't look so surprised...you'll be next," Gaara commented her way, giving her a deadly glare.

Ura looked back at Gaara, her eyes were fully dried, but they were very narrowed, daring him to do it, "We'll see when the time comes..."

After Naruto's battle with Kiba, that he had won, Neji won against Hinata, and Choji lost against Dosu, leaving Ura the odd man out. Baki then called down to Hayate, "We have one more that has not fought anyone, Ura."

Hayate manuvered his head for Ura to go down, she leaped off the bar and floated down with her two opened umbrellas. The propter then looked up at the other Genin, "This match was unexpected, seeing how I had miscounted one of the teams members, so this is going to be a new rule battle. Anyone that has won a match may come down, only one though, if you win, you continue, if you lose, you still continue, but she won't. If that's clear to anyone, get down here so we can end the Preliminary Rounds."

After a minute or two, no one came down, leaving Ura frustrated and angry that no one was willing to fight her. What? Was she not good enough? Or were they all cowards? She was gripping one of her umbrellas, she rammed the bottom on the floor, "You all are cowards!"

That had shooken up most of them...then...Neji Hyuga appeared before her, "Fine...i'll defeat you, since that is your destiny."

The Byakuan, the Sharingan had originated off of that kekkei-genkai, but she could see that he knew something a bit more, he could see 360 degrees around him. It was going to be tough, but she would do anything, absolutely anything to win this match to go on. Hayate allowed the battle to begin, but neither made a movement. Neji then smirked with his Byakugan, eyeing her every move, "By the way you hold your weapons and drenched in dried blood...it's easy to see that you like messy fights. Too bad i'll be one causing the mess with you."

"You never know, that's the thing about fate and destiny, it constantly changes," Ura got down on one knee, aiming the opened umbrella at him.

Neji cocked his head to the side, "If you're expecting me to fall for that trap, then you're going to utterly fail. I've seen you use that jutsu in the last test on the Grass Team, don't think i'm blind, I can see through your attacks."

*Think...make him expect the unexpected...that's it..* Ura made a hand-seal with her right hand, "Well then...let's see if it will work on you."

Neji ran at her, seeing through her attack, she was going to make the clone above and behind him, but it wasn't going to work on him! He rammed his palm at her umbrella, but when he did that, smoke appeared in front of him, it was a clone! Looking upward, he easily defeated the clones behind him and above him, but where was the real one? All that was left in the arena were the two umbrellas, Neji looked around, "It seems that she has fled, meaning I-"

A hard kick into his spine sent him flying against the wall, making a huge whole of that Hyuga boy in it. Ura had blood coming out of her lip, he had gotten her a little when she had formed her plan. Pointing an umbrella at him, "You didn't see the hari I had on the ground from Tenten's match, I copied myself into that form and was right behind you the entire time. When you had your Byakugan away to look for me, I took that one chance and got you to where you are now."

Neji got out of the whole, then dashed at her, obviously pissed off that she took advantage of him without his Byakugan. Now it was hand-to-hand combat, he was using the power of Byakugan to try and aim at her chakra points, but Ura was doing a good job blocking his palms. Then, he nailed her in her stomach, sending her to the ground far from him. It took her a few moments to get right back, then threw ten hari at him, concentraing her chakra into them to get him. Neji ran at her, but when he was close enough, Ura pulled out five more hari and threw it at him, which missed. When Neji leaped into the air, Ura made a mad dash to center of the arena where he landed in front of her, where the hand-to-hand combat continued.

"This is pointless...just give up and i'll let you live," Neji growled as he continued to throw his palms at her.

"No...never..." the rush of instinct was coming again, her blood was pumping harder, her heart was beating faster.

Ura was having a hard time on forming a plan when she was trying to block his attacks on her, but it was getting more complicated as the battle went on. Though it seemed like the battle had just started, five minutes had passed. When she had one opening, she did a handspring backwards, but when Neji came at her, she kicked him in his jaw. As he staggered backwards, Ura stuck two hari in the bandages near her wrist. Then, she rammed that same fist into Neji's stomach, making him stagger even farther. Ura then pulled both hari out of her wrist and sent them into his lower leg muscles, paralizing his legs. Neji fell to the ground, a sharp pain was running through his waist and lower.

"See? Destiny always takes a twist...c'mon, the battle is over," Ura offered him her hand, "Just end the match, even if you take the hari out, your muscles will still be in shock."

Neji glared at her, but took her hand...then stuck one of her hari into her stomach! Hayate hadn't called off the match, but seeing Neji stick three more hari into stomach made him ready to call it all off. He was about to open his mouth, when he noticed chips of skin fall off of Ura like blocks of sand, like Kankurou and Gaara had done in their own battles. The hari that were in 'Ura' were then in a pile of sand, though there was still blood on the sand, meaning Neji had gotten her at the last minute. Neji was only able to sit up, until the fowl odor of dried blood surrounded him. He looked around, everyone seemed a bit afraid of something, but when he turned around, all he saw was the front of an umbrella, "Wha?!"

"You can't use a substitution jutsu, with the hari I just stuck in you, I had a certain type of liquid on them to drain chakra instantly when they punctured the skin. You're as good as dead," Ura glared at him over the umbrella.

Neji looked at her feet, a huge puddle of blood was below her, this time, it was her own blood. She was slowly losing a lot of blood, but that was something she was used to, Ura then twisted her hands, preparing to make this the final attack. Neji was stuck, this was his fate...death...

"Die, Hyuga!" Ura stated as she twirled the umbrella in his face.

A huge cloud of smoke surrounded the two Genin, but when it cleared, a huge block of wood stood before Neji, taking in the hundred hari. Baki was behind Ura, holding her wrists so she wouldn't move them anymore, even Hayate was over there, holding the edge of the umbrella to make sure she wouldn't do anything. Gai had summonded the piece of wood to protect Neji before Ura desegrated him to pieces, "This isn't the type of match you wanna kill someone..."

"Well...seeing how Neji is unable to fight back...Ura wins, both of you will continue," Hayate announced.

Those who won stood in a horizontal line facing the chart in front of them...the final test. Naruto was fighting Neji. Sasuke was fighting Gaara. Kankurou was fighting Shino. Temari was fighting Shikamaru. Shikamaru had to fight again with Dosu. Ura, of course, would fight whoever was left and willing to fight again...

As the Suna Team left, Kankurou congradulated Ura on winning against the Hyuga kid, Temari also did the same, but Gaara and Baki gave her looks that made her cringe. When they reach the hotel home they were staying in, Ura went straight to her room, wanting to get some sleep that she desperatetly needed.

**After she Woke**

Finally waking up from feeling someone shaking her gently, she turned to turn on a light to see Baki with something behind his back, "Get up, i'm teaching you how to use puppetry."

"What? My umbrellas are all I need," Ura yawned and stretched, "Why do I need to use puppets?"

"People have seen your jutsus and attacks, they know what you use and that you like to do sneak attacks. That can only so long until someone catches us, for the next month, Kankurou and I will be teaching you how to use this," Baki dropped a Karasu look-alike on her bed, "Once you master this...you'll win against any opponent...though it won't be needed..."

"I don't understand..." Ura gave him a confused look, "I need to use it, but I don't?"

"Temari, Kankurou, and Gaara already knew about this because I told them while you slept. The Sand and Sound Country are going to invade this village when the final matches begin, then we need to flee so we can stay alive," Baki explained.

Now this was something she didn't even want to understand, "I thought we were at peace with this country? Why are we going to invade this place when they are our ally?"

"Speak to the Kazekage about your opinions, not to me, i'm just following out the orders that are given to me," Baki left the room.

Ura looked down at the puppet in front of her, it was midnight, and now she had to invade this stupid country? This beautiful country that she had fallen in love with? Ura opened her window, she needed to clear her own thoughts, so she leaped out of the window and onto the ground. The moon never looked so beautiful before, full, pearl white, it was like the moon was begging her to relax within it's glow of radiant light. Ura walked along the dirt path through the village, thankfully no one was up at this late, not even the bars.

She sighed...a month from now, she and her team would be planning on invading, getting ready to barge in when they were already there... This wasn't supposed to happen, they were supposed to become Chunin, but the Kazekage was ruining their chances of ever doing it! Ura wanted to punch the madman for destroying his youngest son, her dreams, everything... She leaped to the top of the highest building, remembering her father's harsh words of long ago, not wanting her to work for a madman...who knew she would call the Kazekage the same name her father gave him...

"I regret it now...of all times when I need some strength," Ura smirked at how childish she was acting.

Maybe it was best if she didn't become a ninja, then she didn't have to be here. Yeah, that would mean that she wouldn't fight Gaara, ever, or be friends with Temari and Kankurou, but...she could still be herself with her family, not weilding two dangerous umbrellas and a million hari in one bag. What would she be doing at that same moment if she listened to her parents that one evening so long ago? Probably sleeping peacefully after a long, hard day of working, that's what. There was a saying she heard an elder say one time, it meant that no one can stop their fate from opening up to them, it was what caused it all to happen: You can't stop the rain from falling.