"Nervous kiddo?" Ibiki asked the moment Haruka left her flat. He'd been waiting outside for the past five minutes, which was kind of unusual.
"No, but I think you are," she told him with a cheeky grin. "With Dosu out of the picture there will be eight fights before I even get to enter the ring." Ibiki shook his head at her.
"It's a really good position to be in if you ask me. You'll be able to see everyone fight at least once without having to give anything away yourself. And you could certainly use some rest after that training marathon you put yourself through," he chided.
Haruka didn't say anything to that. He was right on all counts, and had had to remind her to eat and sleep more than once during the past weeks. She was as ready for the third stage as she could possibly be, and while she had no doubt that she'd be able to handle Neji, she still didn't want to go up against Gaara.
The arena for the tournament was a big circular building on the outskirts of Konoha, which meant it was ringed by trees on all sides. It was rust red and resembled a sphere that was halfway underground and had its center punched-out. The walls were several meters high to protect the audience, that would be looking in from above, from any stray jutsu or projectiles. Inside it was mostly dirt, but there were a few patches of grass, and bushes and small trees lined the wall.
As far as Haruka could tell there were a ridiculous amount of ANBU in civilian clothing or regular shinobi uniform all over the place. She raised an eyebrow at Ibiki, but he answered her before she could even ask if they were expecting trouble.
"Yes, but that's nothing for you to worry about. Just fight your matches and don't get yourself killed."
He really was worried. Did that mean whatever they expected to happen was bad or was it about the exam? She subtly tapped a request for Jubei to go take a look around the place on her leather bracelet. It was gone a moment later.
"I'm flattered by your trust in me, Ibiki," she said, voice dripping with sarcasm. He wasn't fooled though and ignored her attempt to lighten the mood, loading her off in the arena with the other genin and then marching off.
They still had fifteen minutes before the first fight would start, so she moved over to one of the trees and sat next to Sai. He looked at her for a long time without saying a word before he nodded his greeting and handed her three drawings, two mice and one lion-dog.
"Just in case," he told her. She didn't even ask if he meant in case the fight went bad, or in case something else happened. If there was trouble ROOT would know, and if Sai was worried it was something big. Haruka smiled at him in thanks.
"If you're not called upon please stay at my side," she whispered. If something was going to happen she wanted to be close to the people she cared about. Sai could protect himself, but this way she wouldn't have to wonder where he was, and whether he was okay. He was also the only person, besides Kakashi, who was familiar enough with her style and she with his, that they could complement or cover for each other in a fight.
Naruto and Sasuke might be her teammates and would have her back, but the three of them had never actually fought side by side. They had this one technique they could use as a team. One that Sasuke grudgingly accepted as effective, and Naruto actively didn't want to use. Team 7 could fight in the same general area without getting in each other's way, but they didn't actually fight as a unit. They didn't even have the same priorities in battle. Haruka mostly just wanted to take threats out as fast as possible, Sasuke wanted to prove that he was better than his opponent, and Naruto wanted to make friends and change minds if at all possible. They approached problems from completely different angles, which wasn't a bad thing in and of itself, but without a leader to give them direction they were just three individual shinobi on the same side. If push came to shove there was no telling how the dice would fall, as evidenced by their confrontation with Orochimaru.
Haruka could work around them and they could work around her, but given the choice she'd rather have Sai at her back. With him she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he would follow orders, and not balk or try to change her mind if she decided that someone needed to die. Of course that came with its own set of problems because he also wouldn't question her orders even when he should. Still, she'd rather worry about the fallout after everything was over than in the midst of battle.
They watched the other genin trickle into the arena in silence. When the fifteen minutes were up Shiranui Genma, the referee for the tournament, told them to line up. Naruto seemed a little worried because Sasuke wasn't there yet, but was otherwise as excited as ever. What worried her was that not only Gaara, but his two teammates as well, were waiting for something. Their chakra thrummed with a kind of anticipation that was greater than Haruka thought this tournament warranted. The redhead was always up for bloodshed and would be more than ready to be let off the leash for a few fights. Temari and Kankuro, however, hadn't seemed to take the other two stages all that seriously, there was no reason for them to now suddenly be nervous and excited. Of course it was possible that the mass of people watching had gotten to them, but Haruka wouldn't bet on it with everything else that seemed to be going on behind the scenes.
"Alright guys, this is the final test," Genma told them. "Rules are the same as during the preliminaries. You stay in the arena and you fight until someone is dead, unconscious, gives up or I call the fight. During the first round there is also a ten minute time limit and two matches will take place at the same time, so stay on your side of the arena. Anko is gonna referee the second match, seeing as I only have one pair of eyes.
"Now, Abumi Zaku will fight Aburame Shino on the left, and Sai will fight Kankuro on the right. the rest of you can watch from the waiting room."
The waiting room turned out to be almost empty, except for a handful of benches at the back. It was however inside of the arena wall, and much closer to the ground than the stands, which promised a better view.
The audience seemed to treat these first matches as nothing more than warm-up exercises. They were busier talking to each other, making bets or finding their seats than actually watching. It was ridiculous. Ten minutes might not sound like much time, but during a fight, when the fraction of a second could be the difference between surviving and dying, it was a lifetime.
Haruka mostly kept her eyes on Sai's match, but she did occasionally glance over to the other side of the arena. They actually both looked remarkably similar. Shino had his kikaichu swarming all over the place, whereas Sai used three dozen tiny ink mice.
Kankuro had apparently used his thirty days to create a second puppet, but Haruka couldn't tell why he'd bothered. The thing was positively shabby in comparison to the one he'd used during the preliminaries. The most intricate mechanism it seemed to have shot a few senbon, but that was it, and unless the Suna nin had suddenly become a lot worse at puppeteering the thing also handled like shit. Sai's ink mice had most of its joints clotted and useless within the first two minutes of the fight, at which point Kankuro forfeited the match instead of using his original puppet.
It made no sense, especially considering that this was his only fight no matter what, and thus his only chance to prove he deserved a promotion. Losing meant he was out, whereas winning meant he would have to fight Gaara, and there was no way he would risk that confrontation if his behavior so far was any indication. Why even step into the arena if he wasn't going to try?
Shino's match didn't last much longer. He'd used his kikaichu to block the metal tubes in Zaku's arms. Then he'd had the rest of the swarm attack from one side while he attacked from the other. Naturally Zaku had wanted to eliminate both threats at once and aimed a palm in either direction. The result was a wet ripping noise, followed by a lot of screaming.
The bugs blocking the air canals in Zaku's arms had meant the energy released by his technique had nowhere to go. So it had taken the path of least resistance and ripped his arms apart at the elbow joint. Anko had waited a moment to see if Zaku had some kind of trump card up his sleeve, but called the fight when the boy fell over.
Neither of the winners seemed particularly happy with the way their respective fights had turned out. Shino, just like the rest of the Aburame clan, never really displayed any kind of emotion, and Sai was generally indifferent to most things. He did however shift his customary position to Haruka's left side so that he stood between her and the Suna team. She didn't acknowledge the action, but took note of the change anyway.
There were way too many players in this game, and she didn't have enough information to understand what was going on. There was Kabuto, who was most likely a spy, skilled enough to get his hands on classified information from several villages without being discovered, but at the same time careless enough to show his hand to a group of genin. Orochimaru, who could apparently enter the village whenever he felt like it. The snake was clearly interested in Sasuke, but Haruka didn't believe for a second that that was his only reason for being here. Then there was Otogakure, which hadn't existed less than a year ago, but could still somehow manage to send a team to the exams. And of course the general suspicion surrounding Suna, which was an allied village, yet had sent a mentally unstable jinchuriki on a flimsy leash that nobody even bothered to hold. Not to mention Danzo, who had an unknown number of the village's shinobi force under his control, and may or may not be loyal to the Hokage.
Haruka didn't believe in coincidences of this magnitude. She was sure that at least some, if not all, of these things were connected. Konoha was clearly prepared for something to happen, but she'd feel a lot better if she knew what said something was and from which direction it would hit.