Because I Met You

Chapter 40: Preliminaries Part 4

Mari... This is the best possible outcome. I'm going to fight against Mari! I can barely hold my excitement. I can't wait to beat her up. I'm going to go all out!

"Good luck, Kiu!"

Yukari cheers for me. Yuto and Ikki give me a thumbs up.

"You're much better than her, Kiu."

Koji gives me a small smile. Maru's still pretty down from his fight but he manages to give me a nod. Kankuro and Temari just smile at me, but I still feel their silent encouragement. Gaara puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Be careful out there."

"You don't have to worry about me."

"But I do worry. You're... very important to me."

I'm speechless. I mean I'm really happy to hear him say that.

"Kiu? Are you okay? Your face is red."

"It's nothing, Gaara! I'll be going now! Thank you!"

I just blabbed out a bunch of nonsense... I just got too flustered, it's not my fault! He's really affecting me much more than before. Maybe that's why Temari wanted us to have separate rooms. Alright, I should really make my way down there.

When I get there, I see Mari standing right across from me. She's looking at me with disdain. I can't wait until I punch that look off her face...

"Begin."

The proctor jumps away, leaving just me and her, staring each other down. We stand there for a while, waiting for the other to do the first move.

"What? Too scared to come at me?"

I chuckle at her comment.

"Scared of you? I know for a fact that you're going to lose this. Don't you remember what happened back in the forest?"

Mari frowns.

"Well I can assure you that it won't happen again."

She throws a kunai at me that I easily dodge by stepping a bit to the left. So I guess she just did her move. Time for mine! I run at full speed at her and attempt to punch her. She manages to dodge it. You thought I was done? I prepare to land a turning kick on her. She starts bringing her hand up to block it. Wait...! There's something in her hand! A needle! I quickly jump back before my foot hits the needle. It still manages to scrape a bit of my skin, though. It's not exactly anything to worry about. Huh...? My vision is blurring...

Mari smirks.

"Now I've got you!"

My vision blacks out. I still know that I'm conscious, but I can't see a thing! There must've been some kind of poison...! I shouldn't have been so careless!

I can sense her coming closer! Am I going to have to fight her without my eyesight? What kind of poison is this?

"Kiu! Move!"

That's Koji's voice! I can't let myself be shaken by this! That's exactly what she wants. She's coming closer and fast. The right!

I jump away from her. She keeps coming at me. I get away as much as I can until... my back just hit something! It's a wall... She's trying to corner me! I can't let her. I need to concentrate. Feel everything around me. Let my instincts take over. I move to the left, avoiding a punch that was aimed right at my face. I hear her fist make a loud noise after hitting the wall.

"Stay put!"

She sounds a bit in a rush. This poison... It's probably temporary! I just need to get away from her until I regain my vision. Now that I'm more calm, I notice how her movements are pretty predictable. She's basically just counting on the poison to cripple me. The darkness over my eyes starts to fade. The light is a bit blinding, but I need to just ignore that and deliver a decisive blow before she figures out that my vision is back. Since it's probably a poison of her fabrication, she must know the average time it takes to wear off. I quickly make a bunch of hand-signs and inhale. Here's my air bullet jutsu that I couldn't show off at the Academy graduation exam!

An array of wind spheres shoot out from my mouth and knock Mari back into the wall behind her. I hear some of her bones crack.

"Like I said, Mari. You're no match for me."

She coughs out blood. The impact was probably a bit strong. She starts trying to get back up.

"Ugh...! W-Why...?! Why... do you always... have to ruin my life?!"

Huh? Me? Ruin her life? She must be kidding. She thinks she's the victim?

"Stop acting like such a crybaby! I never wanted to hurt in any way, Mari! You're the one who didn't want anything to do with me! You even kept harassing me for no reason!"

"Shut up!"

She gathers up her strength and throws three needles at me. I take out my kunai and block them. I'm not letting that poison near me again.

"It's because you abandoned me...!"

"Me? Abandoned you?"

"You preferred being with that monster..."

Her voice is now a low mumble. It even sounds a bit broken, like she's about to cry.

"He's not a monster. Gaara's always been there for me. He's more important to me than anyone else in this world."

Mari clenches her fists.

"Shut up shut up shut up shut up!"

She runs at me with full speed, preparing to strike. What is she so angry about? For some reason she's pissing me off so much more than usually right now. I just don't understand how she's feeling at all! It's because I'm personally convinced that I did the right thing back then with Gaara. He needed me more than her. And I even planned to be there for both of them, but she's the one who rejected me. And now she has the guts to say that I abandoned her?

I make more hand-signs and put my hands on the floor. This causes it to crack and become uneven, causing Mari to lose focus. This is a jutsu I got from the people Gaara killed back during the suicide mission the Kazekage had assigned us. Taking advantage of the moment, I deliver a devastating kick to her stomach, causing her legs to give out, making her kneel on the floor. I then hold the back of her head in my hand and I bang it down on the ground. This should keep her from getting back up.

She lies there, motionless. I made sure not to do it hard enough to kill her, but hard enough to make her lose consciousness. I look at the proctor who comes closer, taking a look at Mari's body.

"Due to one of the contestants' incapacity of continuing the fight, Kiu is the winner of this match."

I guess I won. But why don't I feel happy at all about winning? Looking at Mari's body, I feel my heart squeezing uncomfortably. I thought I'd actually feel satisfied after beating her up a little, but... I don't like it. It's probably all that crap that she said earlier. It's weirdly affecting me.

I get back up to the balcony where all of my friends are. They all congratulate me. Except for Gaara. He just looks worried for me. That's just so like him. Seeing him just naturally brings a smile to my face, though.

"Thanks for everything, Gaara."

Gaara slowly shakes his head.

"If there's something bothering you, don't hesitate to tell me."

"Yeah. I'll make sure to tell you later."

It'll probably do me some good too. Maybe I'll be able to sort out these weird feelings I'm having.