[37] Battle

"I forfeit."

Kagami almost laughs as the pineapple haired boy forfeits. She had seen it coming, but expected it slightly less when the boy had started to win. She is fine with the boy's outcome, everyone else not so much.

Naruto is screaming at the boy, telling him that if he had waited a little longer he would have won the fight, whereas Ino was not only experiencing disappointment but extreme second-hand embarrassment from the boy.

The boy walks out the gate, Temari ahead of him. He notices Kagami waiting for him at the end. Protocol, she must make sure there is no dirty play as the competitors walk off. He gives her a sly look, trying to figure out her standing on the outcome of his fight.

She gives him a plain look, as if he should already know her answer, but she gives him a nod to make sure. He smiles a little, happiness swelling inside his chest. That's when he sighs heavily, giving up on his game. The odds are against him but it's too much work to pull them into his favour.

Kagami glances at him when he stops next to her, confused as to why he would. He needs first aid to check him over, its protocol.

"You need to go to the first aid-mh!"

Kagami becomes flustered and her face grows bright red, she had not expected that. Shikamaru just leant over and pressed his lips lightly to her cheek before continuing on his way. [i'm cackling my way to heaven]

Kagami's eyes are wide as she makes her way back up to the contestant balcony.

"Hey, wasn't I supposed to fight first? Believe it!" Naruto turns around, pointing to himself.

"The matches were changed last minute to throw off any leaked information." Neji stands quietly at the door, next to Kagami who is still slightly dazed.

"Huh? Who?" Naruto glances around, squinting at the Anbu sitting in the crowd.

Neji glances at the girl standing next to him, who now has her face in her hands, her ears visibly red. Naruto turns around again, much to the delight of the San Siblings and squints at Neji, who is still gazing at Kagami.

"Huh? Kagami-chan?" The entire balcony looks at the girl now who has squatted down to the ground, covering her face with her hands and rubbing her eyes aggressively.

She flinches a little at the sounding of her name. She glances up from her hands at the boy, "What?"

The boy jolts backwards away from her cold tone, absolutely frightened for his life.

'I haven't done anything to annoy her since she came back. Maybe Kagami-chan really does hate me.'

Tears flow rapidly down Naruto's face as he once again side hugs Shikamaru, muttering about how he will one day have Kagami as a best-friend. Kagami suddenly bolts straight up, suddenly disappearing from her spot and onto the railing of the balcony. She just felt an odd chakra, one she hasn't felt before.

She glances around the audience, relaxing physically when she notices the Anbu scattered within the rows of civilians and the rich. For some reason, something was nagging at her in the back of her mind. Something big.

"Naruto Uzumaki vs Neji Hyuga!"

Suddenly Naruto's excitement plummets as the announcement calls out. He follows Neji out to the battleground, a little nervous for what may happen within the next few minutes.

Kagami believes in him, she may not believe that he will win the fight, but she believes that he will do better then everyone anticipates of him. She chooses not to say anything as he leaves, just a passing nod which he returned with a bright smile and a giddy laugh. She may not know it, but she sure has a lot of an impact on many of those around her.

Weeks she hasn't been with her team, in that time she has forgotten how she acted around them. She is too used to just saying hello to her brother in the mornings and leaving dinner out for him for when he gets home late in the night.

'He will do well,' Yua breaks the barrier that Kagami has been holding up all day.

'Yes he will, he will try his best. I have come to the understanding that peoples best may be better than what is wanted from them.'

'You are growing beautifully Kagami. There's tears in my eyes.' The guardian starts to sniff obnoxiously to get the attention of the girl.

'I thought you had finished the whole fake cry thing years ago?'

'Fake? These are real genuine tears Kagami, I don't know what you're on about. . . .'

'. . . . right.'

Kagami is knocked out of her head when the suspicious chakra spreads around her again. She glances around, trying not to cause any suspicion to those around her. She has a feeling that the siblings standing in front of her had something to do with this.

She moves forward, pretending to be looking down at Genma talking to the two boys. She takes note pf how Kankuro and Temari tense slightly as she moves. They have tagged her, Kagami's guess is that they had her tagged before they even made it to the village.

'I haven't left any holes or loose ends. No enemies, no identity theft. . . . oh.'

Kagami's entire body tenses her eyes swivelling statically in their sockets, trying to spot where the chakra was coming from. She should of known, or picked up on it quicker than now. She curses herself as she continues to search, making sure that the siblings didn't notice her alarm.

'Where is he? Yua?'

'High, he is higher up than us, but that could be almost anyone in the crowd.'

Kagami scans the crowd, analysis each and every person as quickly as she could, she had too. She was panicking slightly Her chakra rising slightly as her alarm starts to worry Yua as well. Kagami knew she should have reported the woman at the forest. She knew that it was him, instead, she didn't want to risk being wrong and her superiority being damaged by a false alarm.

'Dumb, stupid, idiot.'

Kagami takes a deep breath, realising that there is nothing she can do until he makes an appearance, until then she must figure out what his aim is. Was it to weaken Konoha? The Hokage? The Kazekage? The genin? To eradicated the next generation on ninja?

Her mind doesn't stop racing as the fight starts.

"Start!"

She watches the fight half-mindedly. Her brain still thinking up every possibility of his infiltration. Sasuke's curse mark? Does he want to put a cure mark on her? Kagami slightly shivers, her mind becoming darker by the second. Everything is a possibility and not one idea can be shut down.

Clones of Naruto jump from all around the field, aiming for the Hyuga, but they are all easily deflected by the boy blessed by sight. Kagami stares down at the two boys, seeing the potential in both of them.

They are weak, but improving.'

s.h.o.u.t.

"Naruto Uzumaki wins!" Surprised shouts rise from the crowd as they cheer for the winning boy.

He is obviously very beat up and out of it. Probably in shock of his win along with everyone else. Shikamaru's mouth was hanging open, he had been mumbling to Kagami about the fight when Neji went down. The genin sitting within the crowd we absolutely in shock, but cheer along with everyone else none the less.

But a new problem as arrived. The rich are getting restless, they only travelled this far to see the final Uchiha fight and he hasn't even arrived, causing large amounts of restlessness and annoyance within the stands.

Genma speaks quietly to the Hokage's Anbu who in turn talk to him. Kagami looks up at him in the distance, trying to decipher what he was saying to the Anbu before it was announced. She had no such luck as the Kazekage turns and makes eye contact with her, startling her a little. She averts her gaze from him and looks back down at Genma, who seems to glance up at the balcony at the same time. He looks at her and rolls his eyes at the situation he has been placed under.

Genma hated literally anything out of the ordinary, he is the Hokage's elite bodyguard but could give less shits about his job, the Hokage is the Hokage for a reason, he can take care of himself pretty much a hundred per cent of the time. If he is needed, he takes his position very seriously but most of the time he is off playing cards with Kagami as she bad mouths her team.

Kagami and Genma met through odd circumstance. She was given a mission that involved her being on the expansive Nara land. The teen at the time was on the same land with his Sensei, Choza Akimichi who was dropping over to ask Shikaku if he felt the need to get drunk with him for the third day in a row. It turns out he said yes, but that's not the point.

Kagami wasn't supposed to be on the land, and her mission was a top-secret one that was working in par with another one that would take place a few days later, it was probably around her fifth year in the foundation. She told Genma she was surveying the land to see if there were any weak spots along the border that foreign Nin to enter through. He believed her and sat down with her for ten minutes or so, asking her why she was lying to him.

He promised to her that he would one day find out why she was really on the land and their relationship seemed to carry on from there. Of course, she hasn't told him any of the details yet so he hasn't left her alone. The Anbu guarding the Hokage appears next to Genma again, relaying information to the young man quickly before disappearing once again and re-appearing in his post.

"Matches have been re-arranged!" You could almost hear how much he didn't care about it. "Next match! Shino Aburame vs Kankuro of the sand!"

Shino makes is way onto the field almost immediately, seemingly excited for his match. Kagami is going to be playing close attention to this fight. She needs to collect as much information on the boy as she could. She would most likely be fighting him.

Yes, she has borrowed his file from the Hokage's office, but it holds little on how he likes to fight and his preferences. All Kagami had against this boy was that she didn't mind bugs.

"I forfeit!"

'I'm sorry . . . . what?'

'It would seem you have a different opponent for your battle.'

s.h.o.u.t

~shadow