Preliminaries: Part II

[Damn. Since Sasuke's fight, I was praying that my opponent would be either baby Hyūga or the plain-looking girl next to String Bean. Preferably the one with the buns though. I hate seeing the Hyūga veins pop up when they activate the White eyes. I wonder if it hurts. It looks like it would hurt…]

"…*cough cough* Haku…"

"Goddamn it. I heard you the first time."

All eyes watched silently—of course their eyes were silent, be creepy as fuck if they weren't— as my sandals clicked down the stairs, step by step. I almost tripped one step, but I caught myself with the hand railing. How embarrassing that would be if I actually fell.

By the time I made it down, Bandana was giving me this emo stare. I returned it with equal torpor.

But then, I suffered a gruelingly painful realization that Bandana looked way too familiar. I soon recognized his one and only irrevocable lethargic face. He was by no doubt, the lover of the purple-haired hot Leaf Anbu that Zabuza once had a thing for and told me to spy on.

Then I coughed.

I fucking LOATHED this guy. He who had stolen the girl my Master watched from afar. He who had stolen my week's worth of better food. Because of him, I lost FIVE fucking pounds in a week.

"Match…commence!"

In a flash, my two hands were equipped with three senbon each. All six, I casted at Cough Face.

Yeah. If I had to fight. I fucking choose him.

The crowd watched in confusion. Ino-Pig froze stupidly in the corner as Bandana took out a short blade to block the senbon I was attacking him with.

"Haku!" Naruto yelled, cupping his hands to enhance the volume of his voice which was already exceedingly audible. "Ino! Your opponent is Ino!"

[No shit.]

Right then, three shuriken were thrown at my feet. They were all thrown with dead on accuracy, but I dodged them just in time to save my pants. The ground was not as fortunate. Because each of the weapons were chakra-infused, the cement split open upon contact.

That could have been me. [Shit.]

Looking up, I saw that the wielder was none other than Silver-hair Kakashi. I smirked, placing both hands in the air.

"Guess I'm out of the race," I said with a triumphant attitude. I picked up my senbon from the floor, brushed them off, and stuffed them back into my shirt.

"On the contrary…" Kakashi closed his Icha Icha. That wasn't a good sign. He already made it clear before the matches that he intended for all of Team 7 to pass with flying colors as to not shame his good name.

"So are we going to fight or what?" Ponytail asked with her overly irksome voice.

I looked at Sensei. I wasn't going to bite the hand that feeds me. "Fine."

I turned to the jumpy blonde. "You ready for this?" I asked, pulling out my weapons once more.

She vanished from my sight and decided to do an air kick from above. It was quite unexpected to be honest. I didn't expect her to pull something so obvious for the first move. I blocked with the sides of my forearms. Her kick was infused with chakra so I'd definitely bruise by tonight.

For a girl her size, she was surprisingly flexible. She kicked me in the face right after. I took it like a man. I continued to let her display a series of fancy but weak kicks. I thought it was quite funny especially with her sound effects.

But mainly, I didn't really care. She seemed to be having fun—jumping left and then right. It's obvious that someone didn't use any chakra in the forest. Leaf kids are spoiled.

"What's wrong?" she taunted while sidestepping in different directions. "Scared…Girl Face?"

Ino—that bitchee.

Before my brain reacted, my body ran through the hand seals. But nothing came out. It was then that I suspected that my chakra flow was damaged. The pain in my neck wasn't planning to miss out on the party and came to haunt me again. My eyes widened in horror. Shit.

I dropped down on one knee, using my hands to balance. My ears were making a buzzing noise for awhile, but right now was off the charts. All I heard was a 'beeeeeeeeeeep.' The world around me was spinning like I was undergoing some genjutsu, which I probably was or was not. I didn't know. I could care less. It didn't matter if I won or not. I just wanted it to be over.

"Perfect!" Ino found her way right in front of me before forming a triangle. "Mind Transfer Jutsu!"

And then everything went black.