Chapter 28

The competitor's balcony was thinning out in a hurry. Team 7, Team 8, the Iwa team, the team from Otogakure, Team Samui, the Kiri team, and the completely obliterated team from Ame… they had all fallen to the wayside along with Team Gai, the only one of them still healthy enough to walk around being Tenten at the moment.

The only ones left in the competitors box for the last fight between the Suna team and the team consisting of Kabuto and his partners happened to be Naruto, Ino, Shikamaru, and Tenten who had decided to sit through the rest of the day's fights to see what she could. Sakura could have been there as well, but she went with her team to the medical bay after the brutal loss at the hands of Fuu, who despite being victorious went there as well to patch up her own wounds along with her teammate that had been beaten into sweet unconsciousness by Chouji.

Tenten shook her head, reiterating a previous point that at this juncture in time couldn't be stressed enough if it hadn't gotten itself across by now, "The chunin exams are really violent." She had to thank her lucky stars that nothing like the brutal defeats and deaths some had suffered wound up happening to her. Naruto fought her entire team to immobilize, and while the methods used varied, the fact that she could still walk in a straight line was much better than could be said for some.

"That was…" Ino said, still staring at the horribly damaged bridge that had seen most of the direct fighting from the last battle, "Wow." She didn't know quite what to say, "Chouji, Forehead, and Sasuke-kun lost." It had been impressive and scary all at the same time to watch Fuu's unique abilities come into use during that fight, "They lost bad." At least they were still alive, especially Chouji who had fallen all the way from the ceiling which now had a hole smashed in it from where his Nikudan Sensha had hit it due to Fuu punching him up there. Snow was steadily falling and drifting into the building from that one particular spot.

At least they could take solace in the fact that tomorrow it would be three-on-two… and Fuu's teammate Houki damn sure wasn't going to be 100 percent going into that one. He had been getting his ass kicked since round one. Repeatedly, 'I can knock that guy out by myself. Shikamaru and Naruto can work together to try and stop Fuu. That's all I've got now though.'

Sasuke was just as fast as Naruto at first glance, and Fuu's flight ability made him look two steps behind. And the heightened speed he needed and showed off for the Chidori to be effective, the jutsu that killed Dorobou, it wasn't enough to move faster than Fuu and her wings. Speaking of which, that certainly put a whole new scope over the situation. She could fly. That was… kind of terrifying. Ino just didn't know what to think.

On the other hand, Naruto was thinking about it as well. Fuu's jinchuuriki form was different than his, but it would have been stupid to think that they would all be the same just because they all had something in them. There were too many factors to make them all different; village sealing styles, different monsters in them, yeah of course they wouldn't have the same abilities.

Her eyes changed more dramatically than his, and the wings were a nice touch, totally unexpected though. While her visible chakra was a slight green glow his was a raging orange, like a fire with chakra. He didn't know just what the limits of his own jinchuuriki powers were since he hadn't particularly used them in an actual fight (he did wish he could fly though, but he knew that he couldn't for certain), but if he was going to win against Fuu he was going to have to find out just what those limits were.

Trial by fire was not his perfect scenario for figuring out how to work with the tainted chakra inside of his body so he had to get that brain cranking to remember what he could from the only time he had actually fought someone using it.

As he remembered from his thrashing of Haku in Nami no Kuni he got faster, fast enough to catch up to the speedy Haku almost effortlessly in a forest when she had a head start. He was strong enough to tear apart a tree with a single punch, but he wasn't sure if that could match Fuu after what she did. But the healing had to be the best thing. His normally heightened ability to patch himself up was increased to an absurd degree. The damage Haku had done to slow him down and deal him damage with the liberal use of senbon on pressure points disappeared as if he were fresh as a daisy after he accessed the Kyuubi's chakra.

So what if Fuu could fly with her powers and take pretty much any kind of physical damage without an outward scratch on her? He could take an asskicking and keep getting up. And that didn't really sound as cool to him as he first thought it did when he started thinking about it.

Shikamaru was silent as he observed the aftermath of the battle and as Kabuto's team walked out onto the field. He had seen Fuu. He was confident that there was something they could do about that, but the Suna team were still something of wild cards.

With what he knew though, Shikamaru could say that there was no chance that the last Konoha team standing besides Team 10 themselves were winning this series, 'There's no way they win this fight.' He thought to himself, 'From what we saw in the first fight the other two don't really have skills that can match up with what little we saw from that girl with the fan, Temari. They all fight close range while she can just blow them away. I wouldn't be surprised if that thing the Kankuro guy carries on his back is another ranged weapon like Gaara's sand or Temari's fan.'

He had all night to try and come up with a decent base plan, but he needed to see more. He really didn't believe that he'd get it from this fight though.

XxX

"That was a tough crop of genin to put down Hokage-dono." Mifune commented on the last fight, "I like the Uchiha child's fighting spirit. And the teamwork was certainly there was it not?"

A nod came from Hiruzen, but then he frowned, "It was not particularly chunin advancement worthy though." He admitted, able to recognize if the others up there with him saw it as well, "While it was admirable to protect his teammate that was rather common sense to do so if one had the ability. Other than that it was just a showcase for Sasuke and young Chouji's powerful techniques. The situation with Fuu could have been handled much better."

Of course he was concerned with the well-being of the fallen Konoha Team 7, Kakashi had immediately left to find the medic bay to meet his students out of concern over their injuries, but he had to call it down the middle. He felt it could have been handled better.

"Is that not harsh Hiruzen?" The Kazekage said with the usual stern look on his face, only there was a frown evident, "Taki sent a ringer team. Their Nanabi jinchuuriki and a user of the dangerous Jiongu kinjutsu; the traditional guardian jutsu of the Taki jinchuuriki."

A seemed to understand, in his own way at least, "A kinjutsu and a demon in one's body does not make one unbeatable. There is a way to defeat anyone, and that Konoha team most certainly went about the attempt the wrong way. But that's not to say that anyone on the Taki team has shown any reason to be promoted either. Fuu is a bulldozer, you don't need a higher station in your village to be used as one of those."

"I believe we will have to promote Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro in the field off of sheer merit at some point in the future." The Kazekage said rather grudgingly, not seeing the point in bringing them back to the exams if this was what would occur, "Gaara is too strong, and he won't lose but he won't show any leadership qualities whatsoever in this exam. No genin will be able to defeat him. Aside from that, Temari and Kankuro are more concerned with staying out of his way than trying to work with him and show their own abilities. Judges will not be kind towards them for that."

"I actually liked the way your child fought Kazekage-dono." A admitted, "It was rather brutal, that is a given, but it was effective. I won't say that the team with the Uchiha and the Akimichi boy, nor the team from Taki are untalented. It was a very impressive battle, as was the series that preceded it." He had actually gotten rather fired up when Lee started using the infamous Eight Gates, it was his absolute favorite part… and A had been very disappointed when it wound up being shut down without an attack even launched. Still he couldn't hold that against Team 10, that was a fantastic tactic to win without injury dealt.

Onoki let out a chuckle, "Of course, it was a very wily performance. That blonde boy is just as tricky as someone else… who was it? Oop." He shrugged haplessly, "I had the name for a moment but it just disappeared… like a flash." He said as a method of razzing Hiruzen, "You know what I'm saying Raikage-dono?"

"Not really." A replied dryly with his eyes on the field in preparation for the next fight, getting more chuckles out of Onoki as Hiruzen glared at him. Luckily the man was more concerned with watching good fight than with trying to put together pieces from his own past with what was in front of him.

XxX

(On the Field)

The look on Kabuto's face was clearly nervous as he, Yoroi, and Misumi faced the emotionless stare of Gaara. It was like they weren't even being registered as a concern to him, and that attitude seemed to fade over to Temari and Kankuro.

This time they weren't stupid after having seen the last battle Gaara had been in, they were far away from the Zen-garden. Instead both teams stood across either side of the stream/moat. If Gaara's sand couldn't touch them then there was nothing he could do to them.

Jei stood on the ruined bridge, looking out ahead to the two teams standing across from each other. He wasn't getting anywhere near Gaara if he didn't have to, "Quarterfinal match, the last bout of the day, one team battle only! Sabaku no Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari of Suna vs. Yakushi Kabuto, Akadou Yoroi, and Tsurugi Misumi of Konoha! Begin!"

Before anything else, the cork on Gaara's gourd popped off and sand began billowing out, "Just die and get out of my way already." Gaara said coldly as he instantly sent it out at Kabuto's team.

Kabuto saw the wave of sand coming at them and jumped back out of the way immediately, leaving his two teammates forward, "I'm just the support! I already used most of my chakra healing them between fights last round!"

With a scoff, Yoroi stood his ground as a blue glow surrounded his hands, "I'm not dying here, I've been a genin for long enough thank you." Misumi jumped out to the side of his partner and in a swift feat shot his right arm out across the stream in an effort to grab at Temari, smirking behind his veil when Gaara's sand didn't try to intercept.

"Idiot." Temari muttered as she unfurled her fan and took a great swing of the weapon to kick up a strong wind that pushed back against Misumi's arm, "Kamataichi no Jutsu (Sickle Weasel Jutsu)! You'll never touch me with that!"

The wind managed to cut into his arm in multiple areas, getting Misumi to retract his arm in pain, "Gah! Bitch!" He stretched his torso and arms over towards the bridge and grabbed a hold of it before wrapping himself around a pillar, "Kabuto! Get over here and heal me!"

"I'm on it!" The amateur medic genin said, racing over to his partner in an effort to assist him.

Meanwhile, Yoroi was still dealing with the sand of Gaara's swimming around him, "I'm not out of this yet." He said as he made a single hand-seal, "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu (Water Clone Jutsu)!" Two water clones sprang from the moat between Gaara and Yoroi as the older leaf genin prepared to dodge the sand to the damndest of his ability.

The two clones made their way out of the moat and went directly at Gaara, intent on attacking him up close. This was prevented when Gaara's sand came right back in an instant to protect him, smashing into the water clones to crush them in place, turning them back into the liquid that they had been created from. He then sent it back out at Yoroi who was running towards the bridge near his other teammates.

XxX

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed once he saw Gaara's sand destroy Yoroi's clones. After the water touched the sand it seemed to slow down enough so that Gaara kept it back, choosing not to use it to attack and instead sent out more dry sand to take its place, "Naruto." Shikamaru said, getting the blonde's attention, "I need to borrow one of your storage scrolls for something later."

XxX

The sand grabbed Yoroi around his lower body and tripped him up, dragging him back from where he had been running. He knew what would come next if he dawdled and was already prepared. His glowing blue hands touched the sand surrounding his lower body and he seemed to push the sand off of himself as if he were merely buried at the beach. Once he had freed himself to satisfaction he got back up and kept running.

As he did so, a rather intimidating figure leapt out of the moat, chattering and clicking audibly. It was a human looking thing with three eyes, four arms, jagged teeth, spiky brown hair, and a tattered black cloak.

"What the hell?" Yoroi said as it came right towards him, firing several kunai from its mouth at him. They missed, and it was a good thing they had. The poison was dripping off of the blades for all to see once they impaled the ground. A scratch would have been fatal. A growl came from Yoroi as the strange thing came directly at him with blades extending from its wrists.

"Run all you want to." Kankuro said with a smirk as his fingers were controlling the actions of the attacks from a distance, "My puppet Karasu can hunt you down, and eventually he'll get you."

"A puppeteer?" Yoroi said as he dodged the attack of Karasu and ran right past it between the puppet and Kankuro with his hand outstretched, "Thanks for the free chakra! I didn't even have to go over there to touch you. Now I can use my most powerful jutsu with all of the extra energy!" Yoroi's chakra-draining abilities disrupted Kankuro's control over his puppet, forcing it to drop lifelessly to the ground, "And now it's time for you to-!" Before Yoroi could even begin making hand-seals, sand grabbed him around the arms, steadily clumping on and taking great care to avoid his hands as they were forced to move outward, away from each other, "What the-?"

"You're annoying me." Gaara said coldly with his hand outstretched towards Yoroi, "Sabaku Sousou (Sand Waterfall Funeral)." He tightly clenched his hand shut and the sand responded in kind, crushing Yoroi's arms. As the member of the oldest genin team in the final rounds screamed in agony at the loss of his most effective weapons… and very important limbs, Gaara's sand crept over his entire body now that there was nothing to drain the chakra from his sand, "Sabaku Sousou (Sand Waterfall Funeral)."

And that was the end of Yoroi.

Kankuro simply turned away and ignored Gaara's finishing jutsu, instead choosing to get his connection with Karasu back up to bring the puppet back over to himself. He looked over to the bridge where Misumi had wrapped himself around a pillar to wait for Kabuto to heal him and smirked at what he saw.

Misumi on the ground covered in cuts and breathing shallowly while Kabuto sat nearby, cuts all over his body as well, "I give up okay?" Kabuto said shakily. He had seen Gaara obliterate Yoroi, and it wasn't like he or Misumi had been doing too hot against Temari. Neither of them could even get close enough to her, instead being held back easily by her ranged wind attack, "Just don't kill me."

A frown came across Temari's face as she put her fan up, "That's not really up to me as much as you'd like to think." With that, Gaara walked over and stared at the downed forms of Kabuto and the badly wounded Misumi. His sand began to creep towards them until a voice stopped its movement.

"That's enough. This fight is over." Jei said, trying to keep some semblance of control over the competition. There was already a rather considerable finals body count. It didn't need to climb any higher needlessly, "One of them can't fight anymore and the other one just gave up. If you continue to attack them then your team will be disqualified."

Kankuro and Temari were perfectly alright with the battle being over. The problem was Gaara. He stared down at Kabuto as if the next few seconds would decide whether or not he would be dying miserably. Eventually Gaara blinked and his sand flew back into the gourd. He turned around and began to walk away, "Fine."

Kabuto looked utterly relieved that the fight was over and he hadn't been killed like Yoroi had been.

With the catastrophe averted, Jei projected his voice to announce the result, "The winners, and advancing to the final round with their bye as winners of bracket three: Sabaku no Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari of Suna! The matches will be suspended until tomorrow ladies and gentlemen!"

Sighing in relief at Gaara not trying to kill Kabuto or Misumi after the fight was called, something that would blow all of their chances at getting promoted, Kankuro and Temari headed out to find a way to spend the rest of the day before the match tomorrow they were scheduled to fight in.

XxX

As the crowd began to let out applause and clear out for the rest of the day, Tsunade was still sitting in the stands ripping up a mess of betting stubs with an angry look on her face, "Damn it! That brat cost me money! I'll squash him like a grape!"

'You cost us the money.' Shizune thought to herself with a deadpan look on her face as Tsunade threw a mini-tantrum, 'You made bad bets. You bet on things poorly.' She took the remaining empty stubs from Tsunade's hand, "And you'll be doing no such thing."

"He won three back-to-back fights after it only took one of that team with the Hyuuga and the kid in green to get his other teammates out of there." Tsunade said to her first apprentice who was standing up, situating the pet pig in her arms comfortably, "This is totally rigged."

"Were you even paying attention to the fights?" Shizune asked with a raised eyebrow as they filtered on out of the arena with the crowd, "I think that strategy was beautiful." She especially enjoyed the part where Ino poisoned Lee with her paralysis serum despite the vicious mismatch and her crushing defeat, something more subtle than the usual kinds that would just kill enemies in varying amounts of times for blackmail purposes. She didn't even use any fatal poisons the entire time, "That Lee was fighting like a monster."

"Yeah… he'll be paying for that though." Tsunade said, referring to his use of the Eight Gates, "If he can even sit up straight again before tomorrow I'd be shocked." She pulled out a stub and smirked, "I guess I'll have all my money back tomorrow."

'Oh no.' Shizune thought, "How are you going to be money that we don't even have?"

"There's got to be something I can use as collateral… besides the necklace." Tsunade thought out loud, confident that the winners of the tournament would be clear-cut for tomorrow after today's events, "Or I can get a line of credit. I mean, who wouldn't give me credit?"

"Everyone that knows that you run out on your debts when you can't pay…" Shizune deadpanned with Tonton oinking in agreement for effect.

Tsunade deflated visibly at Shizune's point being made, but she perked back up when she came to a conclusion on that herself, "…But no one here knows that. Ninjas aren't that famous in Tetsu no Kuni, this is a samurai state. And I don't ever come here either so no one knows that I lose that much. I've got one more wager to win back everything!"

Shizune sighed and slumped her shoulders as she followed her master out in a disinterested fashion, "Or lose us even more…" She looked down at the small pig in her arms, "I wonder if the samurai will chase after us once we start running away for not paying the debts."

XxX

(Hours Later – Nearby Hospital)

The medics in Tetsu no Kuni were very skilled at their practice, they had to be with the very physical nature of the samurai that defended their lands liberally, but their medicine while very good was also slower to work than the ninjutsu-based treatments given by the medic-ninja from the hidden villages.

As far as the medic-nin supply went, Sekka of Sunagakure was more or less the only one on hand for all of the villages, thus the more heavily wounded genin were left with being treated by the samurai who were more concerned with safety and developed techniques for long-term effectiveness than with speed of treatment.

Team 10 wound up going to the hospital for the injuries that Naruto and Ino had suffered during their matches, though only Ino actually wound up being treated. Much like he had been saying, Naruto was pretty much as good as he was going to get by the time that they arrived. All he wound up receiving ended up being a few bandages to cover his no longer bleeding gashes on his face and a few bruises on his body from Neji's Kaiten. Ino received short treatment for the beating she had gotten from Lee, she would be fine by nightfall. Shikamaru only needed a bit of rest from using so much chakra in overloading his jutsu trying to hold back Lee.

Speaking of other competitors, out of Team 8 only Shino was completely unharmed. Hinata had suffered a beating similar to the one Ino had received from Fuu in their first round encounter only somewhat worse, but she would be fine in a day's time. Kiba had taken the full unprotected measure of Fuu's wrath and had fractured his skull from her kick as well as suffered a broken collarbone and two broken ribs. His treatment had been completed, but he hadn't woken up yet.

Team Gai had Tenten in very good condition as she was trapped instead of battered into defeat. Lee had torn many of his muscles due to his use of the Eight Gates. Ino's paralysis poison had left his system safely, but he had a broken nose from Naruto's final attack that put him down. Neji had taken a bit of a beating, but his real damage came from the cuts Naruto's wind jutsu had dealt him.

Kabuto's team, aside from the one fatality of Akadou Yoroi, had both Kabuto and Tsurugi Misumi suffering cuts from Temari's ranged wind assault. The 20+ year old genin Misumi had tried a last ditch attack to attack Temari and he had paid for it dearly prior to his defeat, ending up hurt far worse than Kabuto was. His loss of blood actually required a transfusion unlike the silver-haired medic who was able to treat most of his own damage before his arrival. Though his own admitted faults at medical ninjutsu made it so that seeing the doctors of the samurai still seemed like the best course of action.

The Kumo team had taken a bit of a beating from Lee and Neji. Karui had a broken arm and a few cracked ribs, Samui had taken some internal damage from Neji's victory over her, and Omoi needed to rest to have his tenketsu reopened later.

No one knew what had happened to the living remnants of the Otogakure team as they had disappeared from the medical bay before they could be sent over to the hospital in Zaku's case or released in Kin's case.

After arriving at the hospital though, the discovery had been made that of the Iwa team that Team 10 had fought in round one, Hisashi had wound up dying from the blood loss generated by the extremely deep cut made by Naruto's machete being thrown through his barrier, the move that had ended the fight. The gash had been extremely difficult to close up due to the abnormal wounding pattern made by the weapon and Naruto had wound up nicking an artery in the arm he had wounded.

It was kind of weird hearing that he had done that after the fact, but it was what it was. Naruto had killed one of their opponents in the exams, even if it had been inadvertent.

The worst of the injuries suffered by those that were still among the living had been endured by Team 7 though. Sakura had a few bumps and bruises from her two battles from the day, but she was more or less fine. Chouji had broken his tailbone, right arm, and broken five ribs from his fall from the ceiling in his expanded form. Even with the sand, had he not been using his clan technique he would have died on impact. Sasuke didn't fall from nearly as high, but he didn't have any of Chouji's built-in natural padding either. Luckily the trees were thick enough to break the scariest part of his fall. His arms and legs were toast though, and his back was several different kinds of busted up.

Even as night fell, Kakashi was allowed to sit in with his injured students. They had been worked on by doctors for hours respectively before being placed in the same room to recover. Sakura had managed to fall asleep in a chair after the very long day that she and the others had.

'They did well.' Kakashi thought to himself as the lights were off in the room for the comfort of the genin. He wasn't reading at this point in time, he was watching over the students set to be under his care, 'I'm very proud of them… but this was just too much.' Hopefully Asuma's kids would have the chops to overcome that Fuu girl tomorrow. She was beatable for certain, there was no one in the world that was undefeatable, but a 16 year old jinchuuriki with the abilities Fuu had would be a tough mountain to climb.

'And then the winner has to fight the team from Suna later in the day.' That was the real kicker. There was no way that the winner of the previous match would be able to succeed in that encounter. They had all been told beforehand that fair play wasn't exactly a concern when the brackets were set up, but it was hard to believe that such a discrepancy between competitors on one end of the setup would occur, 'That won't end well for whoever ends up there.'

XxX

(Elsewhere in the Hospital)

Misumi's body was racked with pain. Temari's wind attacks cut him deeply, 'Vengeful bitch…' He thought to himself. He couldn't really move or else his wounds would reopen, and this wasn't something that was particularly welcome to a person that stretched and contorted their body as their main fighting style.

Now Yoroi was dead as well. Misumi didn't know why their leader had insisted on them fighting that battle. There was no particular reason to do so. Hell, Kabuto didn't even break his cover so it wasn't like they were even really going for the win. There didn't seem to be much of a purpose behind it other than doing it just to do so.

And he was still stuck as a genin to boot. Granted, it was an undercover position, but who wants to be an undercover grunt? He never saw why Kabuto figured it was such a good stance to have. Being seen as useless was useful as a spy and all at some points, but there was only so much you could rightly do.

At that moment he saw a movement from the shadows of his room. It had better not be Kabuto there to gloat. The bastard really was insufferable when there weren't any others he needed to keep his cover around.

But as the shadowy figure made itself known to him he then wished that it really had been Kabuto… Kami, how he wished it had been Kabuto.

"What are you doing here?" Misumi asked in a frantic raised voice until his mouth was covered with sand to muffle him. His attempts to yell were not heard at all and he desperately started to thrash in his bed to no avail as sand was already moving over his body.

"Mother I know you're tired of the blood of weaklings… but just one more… you only have to suffer through one more weak one." He thought as his sand started to force its way down Misumi's mouth and throat instead of crushing him the way it usually did, "Tomorrow we can kill Uzumaki or the Nanabi girl. We can take their blood… and it will be the sweetest moment."

The sand that had piled into his mouth cut off Misumi's breathing. There was no noise coming from him other than the sound of choking. He couldn't even thrash his body about to make any desperate noise to get anyone's attention. As if anyone that would hear him could possibly help. Even his useless 'sensei' wouldn't be a match for Gaara alone.

"So just for tonight…" Gaara said as Misumi's movement finally slowed and came to a stop, his eyes frozen in horror, "Just for tonight… this will have to do. I promise you'll get more soon, just be patient. Please." The sand slowly crept out of Misumi's mouth, not leaving a single grain behind anywhere as it flowed back into the gourd it had originally come from. With that, Gaara looked out of the window at the full moon, the very rarely seen moon with the country's usually cloudy weather, with his dead looking eyes, "I'll get all the blood you want mother. All for you… all to validate my existence."

XxX

On the roof of the hospital, Kabuto stood nearby a water tower, leaning against it, covered in bandages. He suddenly smirked and tilted his glasses up on his face, "Well it certainly took you longer than I thought it would to get away. Is there trouble on the homefront Orochimaru-sama?"

Sitting on the top of the water tower was a man with extremely pale-skin to the point of it being white. He wore a grey garb that went down almost like an apron with a thick purple rope tied in a large knot behind his back as well as tight black sleeves sticking out from the arms and black pants. He had long waist-length black hair, yellow eyes with slitted pupils, purple markings around the outsides of his eyes and a smirk on his face

"Oh there's no trouble at all Kabuto. Nothing more than the usual problems that come with running one's own village. Dealing with the arrangements with our new 'partner'." The man said in a very sly sounding manner, "It's a shame about your team. What a significant loss." He didn't seem sincere in the least in that regard.

Kabuto let out a laugh at that, "Better them than me. There's no way I'm sticking around while Gaara is on his little bloodthirsty rampage. I feel sorry for the last Konoha team left in the exams. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place." He shook his head in amusement, just thinking of what watching that desperate little struggle would be like, "So speaking of our partner, how livid is Gato right now anyway? I think he was really counting on that team you sent to kill Sasuke."

"As if I would kill such a specimen simply because of that little toad's grudge." Orochimaru said in a derisive manner, "I simply said that they would to get him to agree to funding our village. A team of their level could only be used as a means to a test… a test Sasuke-kun passed with flying colors." He then began to laugh slightly, "I only wished I could have seen it."

Kabuto held up a series of Ninja Info Cards, one with Sasuke's picture and statistics that Kabuto picked up from his battles, the others with actual information on the battles themselves, "It was a good show. The only thing that seemed able to stop him was Takigakure's Nanabi jinchuuriki. Hatake Kakashi is watching over him right now. We could possibly take him now."

"We could…" Orochimaru said in a manner showing that he had already considered this possibility on the way there, "I believe that you would be more than enough to keep Kakashi at bay if not kill him in battle, but that would call down the full force of the samurai of this country. I am not foolish enough to cause a stir in Tetsu no Kuni. Despite their neutrality towards affairs in the ninja world there is reason that trouble isn't caused within their borders. Do not think for a moment that they won't chase us south into Oto no Kuni. Not even taking into account the multitude of shinobi here as well willing to retaliate against me. I haven't made many friends Kabuto."

"So what's making a few more enemies?" Kabuto joked as he got the Ninja Info Cards up to Orochimaru, "Still, I see your point. Is there anything that you do want me to do?"

Orochimaru accepted the cards and looked at the first one detailing Sasuke's skill with a smile that could kill a puppy, "Yes. I want you to keep an eye on Sasuke-kun. A close eye. At the nearest opportunity I'll be looking to mark him. A promotion in these exams would have only made that easier in the future, and I'd rather not raise the alarm so to speak once I do so."

Kabuto nodded but felt he had to ask a question, "So is there another reason that you don't want him now?" The opening was very good. Sasuke couldn't fight it, only Kakashi really would be able to at the time and with the two of them there would be no problems… at least that was Kabuto's reasoning.

"I want to give him time to grow." Orochimaru admitted, "Best case scenario would have me obtaining him once his body has adequately grown. Even then if I desired to twist and bend him to my liking there would be a magnificent base to do it from."

"I see." Kabuto said, looking up at the moon with a smirk on his face, "So you're going to have Konoha do the grunt work and then you're going to reap the rewards at the nearest opportunity. How spiteful Orochimaru-sama."

Orochimaru let out a laugh, "Yes, well it is all that rat's nest is useful to me for in this instance… for taking good care of my future. But in the meantime we will need to further consolidate our place as a rising hidden village."

"Gato seemed quite ecstatic to put some money towards that cause." Kabuto mentioned, "I think he believes that dipping his fingers into the ninja business is like any other business venture he's expanded to in the past. I'm sure somewhere down the line he'll find it a little more… how should I say, cutthroat?"

Once again, Orochimaru seemed amused by Kabuto's choice of wording, "Kukukukuku… indeed."

XxX

(Elsewhere – Konoha Competitors' Hotel)

On the way back to the hotel, Team 10 found that they were the only ones from Konoha to do so with their entire squad intact what with the multitude of hospitalized genin. There was a begrudging silence between them as none of them particularly had anything to say. What was there to say? They all knew what the score would be the next day when the fights started up again.

No one knew more than Naruto did.

So after Asuma had taken them to get something to eat he had dropped them back at their hotel suite, as not only did the sensei get better rooms to themselves this time the competitors received a two room suite to themselves for getting to the finals. They were all assured that he was nothing but proud of their performance in the tournament and the overall exam and told them that whatever they decided to do tomorrow would be the right thing.

He then proceeded to leave them for the night to allow them to get their rest for the next day.

And as the silence settled between them as they all tried to find something to do to in order to quell any nerves or misgivings, Naruto figured then was as good a time as any to let them know just where they stood in the whole scheme of the jinchuuriki thing.

(Flashback – Team 10 Hotel Suite – Early Nightfall)

Naruto was laying out on a couch in the main room covered with extra blankets and pillows that were shoved off to the side due to there being no use for them at the moment. There were still bandages on his face and parts of his body from his visit to the hospital though he wouldn't need them by tomorrow.

Over at a table by the window showing the darkness outside and the moonlight, Ino sat with her travel pack out as she began replacing her own poison supply for tomorrow. She had one bandage on her cheek from the bruises that Lee gave her, and with the bandages that usually covered her body one couldn't tell where else she had been hurt. Her neck had a rather angry red mark on it from where Lee slammed her into the water but she didn't seem to be complaining at the moment.

For once Shikamaru wasn't sleeping with the down time granted to him, he was making a house of cards on the floor although his concentration seemed to be elsewhere.

Abruptly, Naruto sat up straight on the couch, getting the attention of both Shikamaru and Ino, showing that they were just as on edge as he was. Though their reasons for such were grossly different.

Naruto released a sigh and took a deep breath before speaking, "I have something I've got to tell you guys. It's not really something I want to say, but I'd have to eventually… and now's kind of the best time for it."

"What are you talking about Naruto?" Shikamaru asked, not caring that his house of cards fell. It was just meant to keep him occupied, he didn't care about it. But he couldn't see the use of Naruto telling them something important right before such a serious encounter that was going to occur the next day, "Why now?"

"Because it has to do with who we're fighting tomorrow." Naruto said, watching Ino walk over to them to get a better spot to listen from, "You guys know how Fuu and Gaara are both jinchuuriki right?" He said, trying to ease into the topic the best way he could.

Ino took a seat next to Shikamaru on the floor since Naruto was the main one speaking and explaining, "Yeah. But they don't really seem that much alike. Fuu and Gaara do different things in fights, and I'd much rather have to face her than Gaara." She let off a shiver, "At least Fuu won't flat out kill you when you can't fight anymore."

A nod came from Shikamaru at Ino's statement, "Gaara's infinitely creepier than Fuu. She just seems angry, Gaara doesn't seem mad when he fights… ever, but it's like he just kills like nothing as if it were second nature."

Naruto had to agree with that. As far as the danger scale of jinchuuriki went in his head it ranged from docile, i.e. him, to intermediately threatening given certain circumstances, or like Fuu, and then there was Gaara who would kill you if you sneezed ten feet away from him. It was a rather extreme contrast, one that would make the coming news that much more difficult for some to process.

Still, he had to know more about what they thought on it, "So since you guys have seen them up close and personal for a bit, what do you think about jinchuuriki? We spent the entire day like twenty feet away from them."

"Is it the fact that the biju are inside of them?" Ino asked with a tilt of her head. She didn't figure Naruto knew that much more than them, but he seemed to have a handle on the obscure things that they didn't understand so why not just ask him? It couldn't hurt since he seemed to be in control of the conversation anyway, "You know, that makes them act that way?"

In response to her question, Naruto shook his head in the negative, "I think I already said it. Just having one of the demons inside of you doesn't make you super unstable or unpleasant. The people around them did that to them. Fuu kind of let slip to me the way she was treated in her village to make her the way she is, and I don't even want to think about what happened to Gaara in the past." Whatever screwed that guy up had to be heavier than Naruto could imagine.

Ino's blue eyes blinked, "Why would anyone treat something they know could be dangerous badly, are they crazy?"

"Fear." Shikamaru said, trying to list reasons to her as to why people would do such a thing, "Maybe just hate. I can't imagine that getting one of those things inside a person would be easy. Maybe it killed tons of people before that and the people just project the hate onto the jinchuuriki instead of the monster. It makes sense to me. It isn't right, but it makes sense."

'So he can put that much together, but he isn't going to get this without me telling him more.' Naruto thought. There just wasn't enough from his explanation to link the word 'jinchuuriki' to him, "People will treat them as sub-humans or weapons. They'll keep away from them and make sure no one goes near them just because they're scared. There's all kinds of things that happen to jinchuuriki."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the mournful way Naruto was speaking on the subject, "Why are you telling us all of this stuff Naruto?"

"It's kind of obvious by now isn't it?" Naruto said with a humorless smile as Shikamaru's eyes widened in realization, "But just let me ask one question before I say anything else. Does it really matter to you?"

Getting over his shock at more or less cracking the code, Shikamaru realized that Naruto was waiting on an answer, and Ino was confused over what he was talking about, "Honestly? If I knew before I got to know you it probably would… but there's no way it would bother me now. You may be a troublesome bastard, but you're nowhere near as much of a drag as a demon or anything."

"Good." Naruto said with a relieved look on his face before turning to the still lost Ino.

"I don't know what's going on anymore." Ino said, scratching at her temple as she knew something had gone over her head and had been lost in translation somewhere, "Why'd we switch to talking about Goldie-kun and about something mattering?"

Oh well, if it came to an end after all of this and she didn't want to team with him anymore at least they took it all the way to the chunin exams beforehand. It was a good six months to say the very least, "Ino-chan… I'm a jinchuuriki too."

Even though Shikamaru had picked up on it moments ago, hearing him openly admit it was something that still hit him right in the stomach. Ino on the other hand was just staring at him with her mouth hanging open, "Y-You? You've got a monster stuck inside of you like Fuu or Gaara?" A sad nod was the answer, "But how? Why? And which one?"

"I already know which one…" Shikamaru said with a groan and a hand over his face, "There's only one that makes any kind of sense… and the only one any person our age knows anything about at all. Damn Naruto, how did you end up with that thing in you?"

"I say the same thing all the time…" Naruto returned dryly.

"Stop talking like I know what's going on!" Ino suddenly exclaimed, waving her fists. It was like being a child stuck in the middle of an adult conversation. You can hear everything but you can't really contribute, "What's in him?" She demanded.

"Kyuubi." Naruto and Shikamaru said at the exact same time, looking at each other to make sure that they were on the same page in this instance.

"Bullshit." Ino said flippantly, "The Yondaime Hokage beat it way back in the day remember? Why is it stuck in Naruto? How on earth would it have gotten there?"

In response, Naruto with a deadpan look on his face held up an empty sealing scroll from his supply and a folded fuuma shuriken. He used the wicked blade to destroy the scroll before pulling out another one and unfurling it, proceeding to seal the weapon away inside of it, "Does that explain it well enough or do I actually need to use words?" Ino just sat there staring at him with a blank expression on her face.

Shikamaru sighed and chose to actually use words instead of a crappy visual aid to explain, "The Kyuubi is the shuriken. The first scroll that Naruto cut up represents the people that the Kyuubi killed as a way of explaining that it was the Kyuubi. The second scroll is him. The Yondaime beat the Kyuubi by sealing it into Naruto with fuuinjutsu like Naruto sealed the shuriken away."

"He couldn't kill it so that's what he did with it." Naruto said with a shrug.

Ino was starting to get the picture, "Why you though?"

"I say that same thing all the time…" Naruto once again returned dryly to his fellow blonde, "I guess I'm just the closest kid he could pick up in time for it. Either my parents were killed in the attack or they dumped me after they realized I was stuck with the Kyuubi for life. That's the best explanation I could come up with as to why I don't have family when I'm supposed to be in a clan."

"That's terrible." Ino said, "I don't think your parents would ever do anything like that." The other alternative theory on his parents' fate was the original one, that they were dead… and it was still a crappy substitute for being abandoned, "You can't use any attacks like what Fuu can do or Gaara."

Naruto shook his head, "You've just never seen me do it. In Nami no Kuni when I thought you guys were dead, that was the first time I ever did anything… it was out of anger so I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and I didn't know it until I found out that I was a jinchuuriki. I never knew… but every adult in Konoha did."

As far as things went for Shikamaru, it was pretty simple after the fact that Naruto had the Kyuubi inside of him. Was he a dangerous person? Other than the obvious fact that he was a ninja, no, he wasn't dangerous or unstable. And he was a buddy. A good friend. So things were a-ok with Shikamaru.

Ino on the other hand had to take a moment to think. In school she had heard others say that their parents told them to stay away from Naruto, that he was a bad person. She had never even bothered to ask why, she had just gone along with it until it had become second nature to see Naruto as nothing. If it had happened like that with her then how many others were told the same? How many of the adults in the village hated Naruto vicariously through their kids? Sure he was kind of annoying in school, and he was loud, but he wasn't any brasher than Kiba had been.

There was just so much to put together. Naruto, the same person she had lived, eaten with, fought alongside, all of that… he somehow had within him the beast that nearly destroyed their entire village.

"I… I think I'm going to get ready for bed." Ino said, getting up demurely, greatly out of her character as she walked towards one of the two rooms slated as hers, "Goodnight Shikamaru… Naruto." She sounded a little shaken up by the whole thing when she had spoken to them.

Shikamaru looked at Ino as she walked to her room, a frown evident on his face. The door to the room shut and he turned towards Naruto who was looking the same way as well, "Hey Naruto are you going to be alright after telling us-?"

Naruto nodded quietly before speaking up to his genius partner, "I think she's scared of me." He admitted quietly, "I kind of thought that it would happen, but it still sucks you know?"

Shikamaru wound up walking over to Naruto and putting a hand on his shoulder before speaking, "Hey, just give her a little time. I don't think she hates you or blames you or even thinks that you're the demon at all. Nothing like that. It is pretty shocking stuff."

Yeah, but he saw into her eyes before she left, and he knew what fear looked like when someone looked at him, "I think I'm going to go to bed too… I'll see you tomorrow Shikamaru." He said, getting Shikamaru to head towards the room that was his own while he started gathering together the bedding on the couch.

(End Flashback)

So with that, the young genin team broke off for the night and split up in their suite. The way Ino had her own room Shikamaru had his own as well. Naruto and Shikamaru would have been rooming together, but sleeping in the same tent or room and the same bed with another person were completely different things. Not particularly because it was strange or anything, but because Naruto would rather hit the couch than share such a close proximity with someone else as he was far too used being all alone at night. Shikamaru simply rolled with it since he seemed so sure about it, and Naruto slept out on the couch for the first night they had been there before the tournament and that night as well.

He tried to sleep, but it was just a semi-aware hazy state where he was trying to sleep but just couldn't take that last step to actually get there, either because something in his own head wouldn't let him or for whatever reason. Still, the fact that he was awake meant that he could feel the door to one of the rooms open up and could feel the presence of someone exiting the room. A burst of his sonar jutsu had him sensing Ino as she walked out.

The blonde girl had her long hair down instead of up in her usual ponytail and she had on a light purple set of pajamas as she drifted barefoot through the room. She walked in front of the couch that Naruto was sleeping on and seemed to look at him as best as she could in the low light. Naruto wished that he could make out facial expressions with his sonar jutsu, but he still had trouble distinguishing exact figures with it. He knew it was Ino from the room she had exited from and because of the feel of her chakra itself.

"Are you awake?" Ino finally asked quietly, getting no response from Naruto who was trying to fake it, "I know you are. If you were actually asleep then you'd be all sprawled out on the couch and snoring a bit. It was so cute back in Nami no Kuni when you-."

"Okay… I'm awake Ino-chan." Naruto said, cutting her off from going into any more detail about his sleeping habits and getting a giggle from her, "So why are you up?"

Ino crouched down from her distance to him as if to get closer to eye level with the resting jinchuuriki, "I couldn't sleep. I tried for hours but I just couldn't do it. Using my sleep toxin to put myself to sleep is a really bad idea too… even if I wasn't immune to it in the first place." Her eyes turned away from Naruto before she spoke again, "I guess I'm kind of scared."

"I'm sorry." Naruto said before he could stop himself. Ino blinked in surprise of hearing him cut her off in such a manner, "I should have waited before saying something about the Kyuubi… and I kept wondering if I even should have said anything at all. But you deserved to know, especially with what's going on tomorrow and who we're facing. I'm sorry I scared you."

Ino kept silent until he was done speaking before crawling over to him to sit on her knees in front of him, pulling his strange animal sleeping cap off and flicking him on the forehead, eliciting a yipe of pain from him, "I'm not scared of you stupid. I could never be scared of you. Goldie-kun is too much of a sweetie to ever be scared of, Kyuubi or not. You might as well not even have it for as much influence as it has over you." She didn't know how much it meant to him to hear that come from her, "It's Gaara and Fuu, even though I'm less scared of one than the other."

'It's not me…' Naruto thought to himself in relief. He didn't know how tightly he had been holding his breath in his chest since Ino had walked away that night.

"It's just…" Ino kept explaining, wringing her hands in a nervous motion, "I look at them and I look at you… and how could anyone ever be scared of you? You never even get mad and even then I don't remember ever hearing about you doing anything to make anyone scared of you. But with them it's clear why they're dangerous, and they're so strong. And even if we somehow get past Fuu and her teammate without getting turned into paste then we have to fight Gaara, and if we lose before we get to him then he'll kill us all for sure, and you, he's already said that no matter what he's going to kill you! Naruto he's going to kill-!"

Sensing that Ino was starting to panic, Naruto sat up from his place on the couch and quickly reached out for Ino, pulling her towards him. The side of her head and face impacted off of his chest and at the very least the surprise of him doing such a thing got her to stop before she started getting out of hand. During her rant in the moonlight he could see the liquid beginning to well up in her eyes and once he heard her voice start to break that was all he could take. As had been expressed in his opinion before, such a painfully pretty face should never have to cry.

Ino for her part was mostly just surprised, "G-Goldie-ku-… Naruto." In the past she had freely taken it upon herself to grab him and wantonly hug him tightly either as a method to tease him or as a legitimate show of affection for someone that she quickly learned hadn't received much of it at all. This was a direct opposite of anything that he had ever done to her. He'd play with her back, but this seemed far more serious, "W-What are you doing?"

"Tell me what you hear right now Ino-chan." Naruto said quietly, seemingly trying to calm her down. It seemed to work as her breathing had slowed down from borderline hyperventilation levels to a more normal and serene one.

In Ino's ears she listened and tried to pick up on what he was talking about. She couldn't hear anything much other than the wind blowing outside and barely at that. She shut her eyes to try and focus before she realized exactly what he might have been implying. Her ear was right up against it, "I can hear your heartbeat." It was really strong. She couldn't feel anything erratic about its rhythm at all and it kind of annoyed her that he could hold her that close and not even be nervous about it… but that wasn't important, "Is that what you're talking about?"

"Yeah." Naruto said before holding her away from him to look directly at her, "Listen to me. I promise, I won't let anything happen to you. You and Shikamaru are my best friends. I'm not going to let you two die or get maimed because Gaara wants to fight me. Either way, win or lose to Fuu or not I'll solve this myself."

Ino raised an eyebrow, "Solve it yourself? Naruto, tell Asuma-sensei. At dinner you didn't say anything about it at all, and you pretty much mad-dogged me and Shikamaru into keeping our mouths shut. Why?"

"I want to see if I can prove something…" Naruto said, frowning deeply as he thought about getting Asuma to fight his own battle and pick up his own mess like the man had done in Nami no Kuni, "If I can't handle this myself…" He didn't know exactly what to say to explain his reasoning, "I'm supposed to be like Gaara or Fuu Ino-chan. You think that I was never angry enough to want to kill anyone? When I was little I used to feel like that all the time. I hated that no one ever really looked at me, that they ignored me like I didn't exist, and I didn't know why people treated me like that. I didn't know why people seemed to want me to just disappear and I just wanted them all to die. If I stayed like that, who knew how I would have turned out?"

Maybe spiteful of the people around himself like Fuu to the point where he would lash out freely, or just crazy enough to act on his impulses to kill the way that Gaara did. Either way wasn't exactly a comforting thought.

"Am I weak because I'm not like that?" Naruto kept on speaking, now as if he were talking to himself instead of just her, "Gaara and Fuu seem out of this world strong. Are they strong because of the way they are? I don't understand. Gaara fights and kills for himself because he thinks it makes his existence. Fuu fights for herself so that people will leave her alone the way she wants to be left." He was wondering if he could really overcome his enemies without a flat out killer instinct the way they seemed to have. He couldn't help but care about others even while he was fighting. If he could win without killing that was always his first choice.

"Are they happy?"

Naruto looked at Ino in confusion, "What?"

"Are they happy?" She said, repeating herself, "Yeah, they're really strong. But they don't have a dream like you have. They don't have a goal to reach other than what you said, to prove their existence by killing or to just be left alone. I've never seen either one of them happy, even when they won. Each time they succeed they don't even care. It's like you're reaching for a goal and they're trying to just hold their ground… does that make sense?"

"I don't know… kind of?" Naruto said, squinting his eyes in heavy thought trying to comprehend what Ino was saying, "But I feel like I have to deal with this one way or another. I don't even think it's about the exams anymore."

Ino just stared at him after he finished speaking, "Do you think you can win?"

It took him a moment to think about it, but not too long for Naruto's eyes to grow serious with a nod of determination, "Yeah. I can win, because it's not just me tomorrow. We can win. And none of us are going to die okay? I already dodged that bullet once, I don't feel like thinking one of you died for real this time." Ino looked away from him with some nerves still evident in her eyes before she turned back to him and nodded with a smile, "Good. Now I'm going to try and go to sleep. I couldn't really do it either." With that, he lay back down on the couch and threw the loose beddings over himself once his head hit the pillow.

Still sitting there on her knees was Ino though. The look on her face was one of discomfort for some reason and if there had been any light to do so he would have seen how red her cheeks were. Eventually she got up the nerve to ask her question, "Um Naruto… I'm still kind of scared. I don't feel like sleeping alone tonight, so if it isn't too weird to ask would you sleep in my bed tonight?" She saw his eyes snap open and look at her in sheer surprise, "If you want to… I mean, I'm just asking! You don't have to say yes. It's not a big problem."

The entire reason he was sleeping on the couch in the first place was because he was totally uncomfortable with the idea of sharing a bed with anyone else… so Ino's request caught him totally off-guard. Awkward didn't even begin to describe how he felt at the moment, but Ino was fidgeting, and if it would help her then why not? He would have liked to believe she would have done it for him if he had asked her to… if there was a way to ever do it that didn't make him feel like or look like Jiraiya.

"I'll do it." Naruto said, not able to meet her eyes much the same way she was unable to do the same with him, "It's not a big deal or a problem at all Ino-chan. Honest." That was a blunt and blatant lie, it was a big deal and the potential for a problem was quite high. But he pretty much went along with it when Ino stood up and grabbed his hands to get him off of his former sleeping space to lead him along.

"You shouldn't be sleeping on the couch anyway." Ino said as she moved into the room that had been hers, "You should have at least made Shikamaru trade off with you tonight instead of you just taking the couch again. You're too much of a softie." She got into the bed and pat the spot next to her for Naruto to get in, "That's why we like you though. How could you ever think I was scared of you?" Naruto hesitated at first to get in, but relented when he saw Ino frown, "It seems like you're more scared of me than I am of you."

As Naruto got into the bed and set his head down on a pillow he was surprised when Ino got close enough to set her head on his chest, similar to the way she had been when he pulled her towards him on the couch. Almost as a reflex he put his arms around her in turn and when she didn't call him out on it he realized that it felt pretty nice, "It's not my fault Ino-chan. Girls are scary. Sakura-chan gets mad and beats things up, you yell at people, poison them, and do stuff to their minds, Tenten throws tons of metal things. Why shouldn't I be scared of you?"

"Don't push it, you're ruining the moment." Ino said, though there wasn't any irritation in her voice as she got herself comfortable, 'Kami he's solid.' She thought to herself as her cheeks reddened again, 'This is good. He's super-warm. I don't think that's the Kyuubi either, I think it's just him.' Why was she blushing so much? It was completely out of character, and he wasn't even doing anything that really made it appropriate, he was just being himself, 'Oh no, I think I might be-. No. Don't think it. He's your teammate, you just know him really well. But we had to mean something to him if he told us that the Kyuubi was in him. Gah, what's wrong with me? I need to get my head in the game! I can't be thinking about personal crap with Goldie-kun before tomorrow!'

It didn't escape the notice of either that it was far more comfortable with the other in the room than not, but it was forgotten just as quickly with the speed the two nodded off with. They had work to do tomorrow. It was undoubtedly going to be a very, very long day.

In the dark of the living room of the suite however, none of them saw a single eye that had been looking at them and their moment with the help of the moonlight. After they had gotten up to head to Ino's room it merely turned into sand particles that floated away.

XxX

Outside of the building, across at another hotel building there was one person in the village that just couldn't sleep. He merely stood on the roof of his lodgings and stared out at the opposite one with a hand over his eye, through the window. He had been there long enough to use his spying jutsu, clearly able to see as Naruto pulled Ino into a hug, and later as Ino pulled Naruto into her room.

Seeing the contact that one jinchuuriki was having with a normal person struck a chord with Gaara, seemingly making his head hurt as his hand pressed against his forehead and he was visibly seen struggling to keep himself in check, straining and groaning as his hand reached higher and clutched his messy red hair, "Tomorrow one way or the other you'll give me what I want Uzumaki. You'll prove my existence and give me the fight of my life… because it will be for yours." His hand dragged down his forehead and exposed the red kanji for love on his head as the full moon shone down on him. The sound of the wind made a howling noise in the village that stood at the top of the Three Wolves Mountains.

"Fight me with all of your strength. Do it so I can crush you and show you that your ridiculous need to be accepted by weaklings like that girl brings you nothing, and your promise to protect her means even less. Only fighting for yourself makes you strong, and your blood will make me stronger than I've ever been."