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chapter eighteen

She looked around the stands, and noticed a bunch of people had come in to spectate. Sasuke's mother and Naruto's mother sat next to each other and Kiba's mother, each cheering. Fugaku Uchiha sat beside his wife. Up behind them, with a journal open in front of him, Minato Namikaze watched the fights with a sparkle in his eye. Rasa sat beside the Hokage, looking intently at his children, but not making any indication of wanting one to win. His entourage sat next to him, while Minato had only Shikaku Nara and Shibi Aburame next to him. Hiashi Hyuga sat next to his twin, and two other body guards, arms crossed, and face carefully controlled, watching the fights. Sakura's stomach sank.

None of the Genin teachers were there except Baki, who lead Gaara's team. Sakura had a feeling Kakashi was somewhere with Asuma, Guy and Obito.

As Sakura had expected, the next round was Hinata versus Neji. She winced to herself, remembering how this round went the first time. She gave Hinata an encouraging squeeze of the hand.

"You can do it, Hinata-chan! Beat that asshole!" She pumped her fist into the air. Hinata looked terrified, but nodded.

"H-Hai!"

Sakura leaned forward on the rails, her hands unconsciously bending the bars as she watched the fight anxiously, ready at any time to step in and heal Hinata. But Hinata, miraculously, pulled through this time, and was knocked out at the same time as Neji. With no clear winner, both of them were disqualified. She had tied with the prodigy of her clan. Sakura's eyes widened, and her face split into a grin. The same thing had happened with her and Ino, and usually that meant they were pretty evenly matched. So if Hinata and Neji were pretty evenly matched...? She felt a grin come onto her face. Neji had trained her, she just knew it.

Naruto was stunned. "Wow, that was different."

Sakura nudged his shoulder. "Hey, you know what this means, right?" Sakura asked, smiling at him.

"What?" Naruto asked, looking at her, utterly confused.

Sakura laughed. "This means you can go visit her in the infirmary!" Sakura grinned, shaking his shoulders. "This is good news! You can go and cheer her up! She'd get a lot of confidence from you telling her how good she did."

Naruto blushed a bit. "Sakura-chan," he whined, more of an exasperated whine than a complaining one. Sakura bit the inside of her cheek, trying so hard not to laugh. He was truly oblivious. She nearly pitied Hinata that this goofball was who she was attracted to. But ultimately, she knew Naruto was the best person she knew, and perfect for the shy Hyuga heiress. He would love her and support her unconditionally, and Hinata would do the same... when Sakura finally set them up for good. She decided to get pointers from Kakashi, who was truly the matchmaking master. (He'd worked some miracles with Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei, and he said he'd been making progress with Itachi and Izumi).

"Go!" She said, shoving him in the direction of the doors. He scrambled over to it, muttering something about how violent she was.

<>

Hinata sat up in her bed, moaning and gripping her head. Her chakra pathways were in terrible shape, and she'd be weak for a long time, but it wasn't something she wouldn't recover from. She'd just woken up to a nurse hovering over her, medical chakra healing Hinata's nerves and chakra pathways. Her fight with Neji had taken more out of her than ever, and her nerves were shot. Her legs were shaking from the adrenaline, still. She looked around the room briefly, her eyes aching slightly from the strain of using her Byakugan so extensively.

Neji sat in a cot across from her, stretching his aching muscles. He looked up when he felt her looking, and a small smile grew on his face. "You knocked me out of the Chūnin Exams."