Konoha's No. 1 Most Unpredictable Ninja

[CHAPTER 36]

The crowd was still cheering, on the edge of their seats from the previous match and the one that supposedly follows it.

The chants began as soon as Naruto and Hinata left the field: Sasuke! Sasuke!

Sasuke still hadn't arrived. He would've been disqualified if he wasn't an Uchiha, if he didn't possess those bloody eyes, the sharingan.

"Listen up everyone," Genma announced, "one of the contestants from the next match hasn't arrived yet. We will be postponing that match and move on to the following: Shino Aburame of the Leaf vs. Kankuro of the Sand."

The crowd was noticeably disappointed, though it didn't compare to Shikamaru's horror when Kankuro forfeited, making him the next battle contestant.

Ah man what a drag. Shikamaru thought. Why are they moving up the matches like this? Why did my stupid match have to be next? I should just forfeit like the other guy.

His opponent had already made a big show, floating down to the battle ground on her fan.

"Shikamaru Nara come down." Genma said, the crowd now booing and shouting for some kind of action.

"I forfeit too." Shikamaru said simply. "All this is too much of a drag."

Now Temari was outraged as well, shouting profanities at him as some leaf shinobi had to drag her off the field. The crowd reacted nearly the same, someone even threw a bag of chips at Shikamaru's head, which Choji caught casually and started munching on with no problem.

With no matches left to replace him, is Sasuke finally disqualified? Genma thought. He had gotten no signal from the hokage yet, maybe it was time to begin the announcement.

"Alright, the time limit has expired for Sasuke Uchiha. I'm officially calling this match, Gaara from the Sand wins by..." Genma began, but he was interrupted. A cloud of smoke and swirling leaves appeared in the center of the arena's battlefield, and as it cleared Sasuke and Kakashi were there for all to see.

"Sorry if we kept you waiting, but um how late are we? It's not like Sasuke's disqualified or anything right?" Kakashi asked, nervously laughing.

"Like master, like pupil, even down to your lousy sense of time." Genma said, shaking his head.

"Well what about it?" Kakashi asked again, not seeing any problems if he made it on time.

"You know you were so late we extended the deadline for you, twice in fact. And it's lucky for you we did because he just made it." Genma scolded his fellow jonin who, still, had a confused look on his face. "No, he's not disqualified."

"Oh that's a relief, you had me worried there for a minute." The Hatake sighed, taking his leave to the stands of the arena.

Gaara, the red head  we met a while back. Last time he only asked for Naruto's stupid name... Sasuke scanned the crowd, looking for his teammate but he was nowhere to be seen. All he could hear and see was Sakura, much to his disappointment.

"Sasuke! Don't you dare lose to that guy!" He heard the pink haired girl say along with her other fangirl friend Ino.

The Uchiha sees his opponent walk out into the field, an unhinged look in his eyes. Genma begins to explain the rules but Sasuke tuned him out.

" ...now, both of you to the middle." The two shinobi walk, eyeing each other down. "Begin!"

Sand immediately came out of Gaara's gourd when all of a sudden his body recoiled in pain. He started grunting about his mother...blood, tainted blood...kill... his sand fell and his breathing became ragged.