Anko and I are lowered into the catacombs that lie beneath the arena. It feels like it's taking forever, but maybe the elevators in the Capitol were just really fast and this is their normal speed. Upon arrival, we're lead by masked ANBU members to the chamber where I'll be prepped for fighting. Anko and my stylists call these rooms "Launch Rooms" but people in the districts call them Stockyards. Like the place where animals go for slaughter.

After I shower and Anko brings me some bread and water, but I can barely stomach anything, let alone taste it. I'm so nervous I could be eating dirt and I wouldn't be able to tell. Anko asks me how I would like my hair and I can't bring myself to speak, so she takes the liberty to french braid it down my back. I'm just thankful to have it controlled and out of my face.

"You know, I can still cut it so that it'll make you less vulnerable- easy to grab, long hair," she informs me and ties an elastic around the bottom of the braid. I shake my head, thinking of Sasuke and what he told me. I know I should cut it, that it's the smart thing to do, but for some reason I can't let it go. Sasuke's compliments are more rare and precious than diamonds.

Anko retrieves a device from one of the shelves on the wall and smiles slightly. "You're gonna like this part." I recognize the device and my heart jumps inside my chest. I'm finally getting my chakra back! After days and days of not having it there, I'm more than ready to feel it within me again, pulsing and flowing. I remove my towel and place it on the bare table next to me, no longer ashamed of my nudity around Anko. She's seen me nude enough for both of us to be completely unfazed. Not that she ever was in the first place.

The same drilling sound fills the cold room and I feel a sharp, deep pain in my back. I try not to flinch away in pain. I hear the clangs of the screws clattering to the ground and the same high pitched ringing fills the room, it's the chakra inhibitor powering down. She drills the final screw free and I feel power surging through my veins, a dam of raw, liquid power breaking open. It doesn't feel as good as it did the first time before my private training, considering I could be dead in an hour. Less, even.

My clothes arrive and Anko helps me dress. Tight pants made out of a strange, elastic-like material and a tank top made out of the same fabric. Next come a pair of light, leather boots and thin socks that stretch just above the boots. I'm strangely delighted when she helps me into a green flack jacket, complete with four pockets sealed by velcro. Pockets for weapons. For poisons and herbs. I'm surprised they would give us something so… useful. I note the dark blue material these clothes are made out of are light and feel almost water-resistant. There are no sleeves to my shirt and even the flack jacket feels less heavy than the one issued to me at the academy.

"Based off of your outfit it's safe to assume that this year you guys are going to be somewhere warm. Somewhere with most likely a wetter climate," she says, practically reading my mind. "Can you swim?" Anko asks me and I shake my head.

"I mean, I can, but Shinobi don't need to," I tell her, speaking for the first time in what feels like ages. "We can walk on water using our chakra."

Anko lets out a short, humorless laugh. "Right. Shinobi. This year the tributes will be playing by a different set of rules."

There's nothing left to do. I find myself standing in the middle of my chamber, trembling in my Capitol-issued boots. Anko retrieves my necklace from the counter where I had laid it before my shower. She circles around behind me and clasps it behind my neck. I find its presence comforting. It makes me feel like even from here, underneath the arena hundreds and hundreds of miles away from them, my parents are here, rooting me on.

"Are you comfortable?" Anko asks me, "how does everything fit?"

I spread my legs and reach down, pressing my nose to my knee and then switch, moving onto the next leg. I snap up and jog in place, swinging my arms out in circles. "Everything fits."

I still my movements and let out a shaky breath, my fingertips tingling. Anko smiles in front of me, but this time it doesn't reach her eyes. "This would be the part where I would give some tips on how to stay alive, but you've been trained, and I have no idea about killing, especially shinobi-style."

She reaches out her hands and places them on my shoulders. She looks sad, I notice. I've never seen her sad before. I didn't even know her face could contort to show such an emotion. She's too intense. Too busy. Too… Anko.

"Do you want to talk?" She asks me quietly.

I shake my head and instead I offer out my hand to shake, "Thank you, for everything." I say sincerely. "The dresses were beautiful. And the wings, Anko, you're a genius-"

My compliment is cut short as her arms pull me closer until we're pressed together in a warm hug. I cling to her, wishing I could freeze time.

"I don't want to go," I whimper like a child.

"I know, but you have to be strong," she murmurs and steps back, brushing a stray pink strand from my face. "Come back to your parents. To your friends. To us."

"Ten seconds until launch." An automated voice relays over an intercom and I jump. It's happening.

"I will," I say and my hands clench. I shove my rising fear down and cast one last look at Anko before I walk over to the oversized, clear tube rising out of a metal platform.

I step in as the voice says "5 seconds until launch." My boots clang on the metal and I turn around to face Anko, fists still balled. My fingernails bite into my palm and the pain stings, but I don't release the pressure.

Her sharp black eyes meet mine and the clear tube door seals in front of me. I see her give me one last nod and I sit in the synthetic quiet of my glass tube for a few moments, the silence deafening in my ears.

Thanks to my muscles being so painfully tense in apprehension, I avoid falling forward as the platform below me jerks me roughly upwards. I look up as the domed ceiling above me slides open, revealing nothing but an inky blackness. As I'm lifted up into the dark, the first thing I do is try to understand just where I am. I was expecting sunshine and wind, maybe a desert or tropical island. I was definitely not expecting to be pushed into nothingness.

"Welcome, tributes, to the 50th Annual Senshi Games and the Second Quarter Quell!" A Game Maker's voice booms around me and I jump a little. I blink, trying to let my eyes adjust to the darkness, but it's a maddeningly slow process. Impatient, I ignore my sight and focus instead on my other senses. It smells musty and… earthy, yet there is no breeze. I hear a small stream trickling behind me a couple meters back. Where are we? Have I inconveniently gone blind? The countdown begins and an automated voice counts from sixty. I look around me, my eyes picking up on some traces of blue light below my platform.

I look closer at the source and expect little Capitol-made synthetic lights, but I'm surprised to see that the dull blue glow is coming from crystals jutting straight up from the ground. Slowly, ever so slowly, my surroundings unfold in front of me like a smothering black curtain being pulled away. To the right of me I can make out an onyx wall jutting out from the rough looking ground; it shoots straight up and has a slightly inward curve. At the thirty second countdown mark a warm flash of light erupts a few yards ahead of me. The cornucopia is lit up, bathed in flickering orange light. Towering torches loom above the weapons area and I quickly count them, my eyes jumping across the chamber.

Twenty four. Twenty four torches for twenty four tributes.

My guess is when a cannon sounds, signalling the end of a tributes life, their torch goes out. Now having access to more light, I look above me and squint through the darkness, trying to see some semblance of a canopy of trees, stars, or the moon. Nothing, only rough walls curving up towards the blackness.

A cave, I realize. I'm in a cave. The 50th Senshi Games is going to take place in this dark, unforgiving, oversized tomb.

It seems oddly fitting.

"20." The automated voice continues to countdown and I look around and see tributes spaced out around the cornucopia, but from this distance they just look like black silhouettes. I squint to my right, trying to determine which tribute is next to me. They're in a lunged position, eyeing the cornucopia like a predator eyes its prey. It could be anyone.

"19."

It could be Gaara.

"18."

I swallow dryly and flick on my ANBU switch. There's no way out of this game but fighting tooth and nail. The incessant trickle of the stream behind me distracts me and I think I hear it echoing down a narrow tunnel and away from me. Tunnels are good. Tunnels are a way out, and I highly doubt Sasuke will be inclined to hang out and have tea after the bloodbath finishes. To avoid our blood being the blood spilled, I'll most likely collect supplies and weapons while he covers me.

That's the plan, I think and dip into a lunge, copying my neighbor. My knuckles are white as I grip the edge of the platform. I peer through the gauzy veil of ink and curse whatever genius it was that decided we would fight in a godforsaken cave. How am I supposed to know which pile of equipment to run to if I can't even see what it contains? How are we supposed to know who we're killing? What about the cameras? Can they see in this darkness? Can my family and friends see what I can't?

"10."

I flex my leg muscles and breathe deeply, focusing on the closest pile to me about six yards away.

"9."

I can see a white, small pack that looks like it could hold medical supplies- herbs and chemicals- and my heart beats a little faster.

"8."

I could probably just swoop in and grab it and keep running until I find Sasuke. I might be able to grab another pack full of weapons for self defence.

"7."

My eyes wander to my neighbor and I see they're looking right back at me, but I can't see their eyes, only their shrouded head turned in my direction.

"6."

My heart pounds, could it be Tenten?

"5."

Could it be Naruto?

"4."

I shake my head and scream at my mind to stop. Now is not the time.

"3."

I blow out of my mouth and send chakra to my feet and calf muscles, ready to fly off of the platform.

"2."

My mind is blank.

"1."

A cannon booms and I launch myself off of my platform and onto the ground. My legs kick beneath me and my arms flatten out behind me, running faster than I ever have. I hear a distant thud and a splash, followed by a manly curse to my left. A tribute fell. I look down at the ground and notice cracks and holes in the dark, wet floor. Shit.

My eyes flash between my feet placement and my surroundings and the other tributes, careful not to faceplant and get stabbed in the back. The pile of equipment I had originally been eyeing is coming up fast and the slaps of a tribute's rapid footsteps attract my attention. A girl about my size with short, black hair and sharp eyes sprints toward my finish line and we make eye contact, both of our eyes flickering from the prize to each other. She was the neighbor who looked at me. The race is on.

Her eyes narrow and she pumps her legs quicker. In response I bite my lip and push more chakra into my thighs and calves, propelling me even faster.

"No!" A strangled plea reaches my ears and maybe it's because I'm nervous but all I can think is that it could be Naruto or maybe it's just because it sounds so desperate, I turn my head and find Kabuto lying on the ground. His hands are up in a defensive position as a tank of a tribute looms over him. "Please! Don't! I can't see anything!" He sobs and it looks like he's lost his glasses. My footing falters and my eyes flash back to the pile of loot and the other tribute racing me there, the temptation of weapons and supplies slipping a little.

"I want to live! I want to live! Please, no!" He cries and I swallow, a lump forming hard in my throat. I give one last look to the white medical pack.

"God dammit," I curse and abruptly redirect myself to the two shinobi.

I hear the hulking tribute murmur something as I fly closer, my feet moving faster than they ever have before. I see the sharp glint of a sword and I straighten myself up, pulling my fist back.

"HEY! BIG MAN!" I cry and the tribute in question has only a moment to turn around in confusion before I'm there, a chakra infused fist plowing into his face. I feel his nose buckle beneath my knuckles and I hear a sick crack and a warm spray splashes in my face. I stumble backwards in the aftermath of the harsh impact and I watch in shock as he flies away from me, his large frame tumbling head over heels backwards into the dark.

I've never… actually hit someone that hard. In training and spars it's all about testing balance and technique. This time I held nothing back. I look down at my hand and rub my sore knuckles, trying to push down a shudder at the memory of his teeth folding in beneath my hand.

A thump echoes in the dimness and I know it's him landing, I bend lower into a fighting stance, glaring into the blackness, waiting for him to come charging back like a raging bull. But he never does.

A cannon sounds and my eyes widen in shock, that didn't belong to him, did it? When he doesn't emerge, I'm unsure of what to do, so I look towards the trembling tribute that I had saved. Kabuto looks at me like I hadn't done just that, instead he looks even more terrified of me than he did his previous attacker. His panic-stricken face flickers in the distant light of the torches and I imagine how I must look to him, covered in blood after single handedly taking down a tribute roughly the size of a rhino.

"You okay, kid?" I ask, bending down and picking up his glasses. The frame is bent and one of the lens is shattered, but it's better than being blind. I offer it out to him and he just stares at me, eyes flicking from my offered hand to my face. His chest heaves and knees shake and I want to throw them at him. I killed someone for you! I want to shout. Take the stupid glasses!

His eyes jerk over my shoulder and he gasps. I feel the air around my head ripple and shift. I duck down and turn, crossing my arms in front of me in a defensive position, glasses still clutched in my left hand. A kunai whizzes above my head and the girl I had been racing sprints toward me, a wild look in her eyes.

"AKATSUCHI!" She screams, "YOU KILLED HIM!" I didn't really notice her much in training, so I have no idea what her fighting style is, but from judging by her poor aim as she launches more and more kunai at me, I would say that her fighting is better when she's calm. I only say that because I remember her score- an impressive 10.

Her teeth are bared in pure fury as she rapidly approaches me. I stumble back a little, overtaken by her intensity and the crazed look in her eye. My heel gets caught in a hole in the uneven ground and I lose my footing completely. I fall ungracefully backwards and my head smacks against the hard stone, the glasses flying out of my hand. I see stars and the next thing I know she's on me, screaming obscenities and shoving a kunai towards my throat. Her snarling face dances in front of me and I feel the sharp tip of her kunai slice into my neck, but only for a millisecond, because it doesn't take me long to find myself again and shove her back with unprecedented chakra enhanced strength.

Her body hits the ground beneath her roughly and I know she must have hit her head too, because I hear a thump and a groan. I sit up and eye her warily for a moment, but her form remains still. The clang of clashing kunais rings throughout the cavern coupled by the rare cannon boom and I know the bloodbath has started. Shouts and grunts make my head pound in pain and I bring one hand to my nicked throat and the other to the back of my skull. I summon healing chakra to each and ease the swelling in my skull while I quickly seal the small slice closed with my other hand.

It's like someone is hammering my skull and I look through one open eye at the pack lying in front of me abandoned and lying on its side. It's a grey pack with one strap, slightly open and overflowing with weapons. The female tribute must have dropped it. I reach out for it and stand up on shaky legs, pulling it up with me.

A sickening crack sounds and I'm splattered in a warm, wet liquid that I know isn't water. I turn in shock and find Kabuto trembling and heaving over the girl's body, but when I drag my eyes down I see that where her head should be is a large, heavy looking rock. My stomach churns sickly and bile rises up into my throat as another cannon goes off. I swallow it down and try to calm myself. It's just a body. It's just blood. It's just death. You're gonna have to get used to it. Kabuto's uniform is red with her blood and he breathes heavily, holding something in his hand.

"She was about to throw this at you," he says and holds up a throwing star dipped in something purple. Poison. We stand there for a moment, breathing heavily and staring. Neither of us are accustomed to death or being covered with it. I notice his broken glasses sit crookedly on his nose. He must have picked them up.

"Thanks," I croak after I find my voice.

"Y-you're the girl everyone's in love with," The silver haired boy whispers and I laugh. What a stupid, far away thing to bring up. I've only been down here two minutes and I can already tell that there isn't any love down here.

Whatever anyone thought in the Capitol about Sasuke and Naruto and I only matters there anymore.

It's a humorless, dry laugh, but it isn't the response he expects and I see him jump at the sound. He looks down nervously at my pack full of poisonous weapons and then at his own shuriken. He seems to remember where he is and he clutches it a little tighter. I sober up. I don't know what he's capable of, he could easily throw that at me and with this short distance I wouldn't have enough time to avoid it.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I say slowly and I shrug the pack off of my shoulders and he purses his lips and watches me, knees quaking. I don't know why I do it, but I reach out and offer him the pack. "Here. You'll need this more than I will."

His eyes flicker from my face to the bag, as if contemplating whether or not it has an exploding tag in it. I keep my stature open and my arm outstretched, painfully aware of the sounds of battles ringing out a couple yards away that could easily get messy enough to include us.

He takes it tentatively and slings it over his shoulder, looking behind me warily as the other tributes fight. "Thanks," he says, it's almost a whisper, "good luck." He runs off into the darkness and I release a shaky breath.

Now that that's over with I turn around and take in the scene before me: tributes are already running off and disappearing, arms and pouches full, but some stay, fighting fiercely over a treasure or two. Even less bodies litter the ground and I feel sick when I notice a good portion of them are where I stand. I don't see Naruto anywhere.

I find who I'm looking for and I start towards him, running at full speed, clutching Akatsuchi's sector mate's kunai that had almost been dug into my throat. It's not much, but it's something. I make sure to steer clear of other tributes and any loose throwing stars.

When I get closer to Sasuke I see that he's fighting someone. Someone short. They move quickly and I immediately recognize Sasuke's signature fighting techniques. I almost stop and gawk at how fast and fluid his attacks are, but I feel horror seep into me when I see just who he's fighting: the twelve year old from sector 11.

The kid is doing well, but there's no way in hell he's going to win. I slow down when the full realization of the kids fate hits me. Sasuke strikes a staggering blow to the boys stomach. He falls back and ends up on the ground, my sector mate lazily picks up the sword he had obviously won and looms over the boy.

The boy holds up his hands. I grind to a halt and watch in horror as Sasuke shoves the sword straight through the boys heart. It's over quick and the boys arms fall down onto his chest. I know it's a better death than some will experience but I can't help the strangled cry that erupts from my lips "No, SASUKE!"

He looks over at me with a mild look of surprise, he pulls the sword out of the boys chest and makes his way over to me, sliding the long blade into its sheath. I realize that my feet are carrying me backwards and my mouth is dry. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end and goosebumps erupt on my skin.. Am I... Afraid of him?

No. I try to tell my trembling body and I firmly plant my feet. He's your ally. He'll help you. I hope the darkness shrouds my shaking as he walks closer with the casualness of someone who definitely did not just kill a child.

You killed someone too, a little voice says at the back of my head.

"Hey," he says casually and I try to swallow the lump in my throat away. If he notices that I'm covered in blood he doesn't say anything.

"Hi," is all manage to say without my voice wobbling. God, I'm pathetic.

"So, I found a decent pile of loot over here. You can pick the best stuff, only the stuff we'll need- and I'll guard you," he tells me and turns on his heel, walking away from me. I stumble to catch up and notice that he's still talking "people have already run away so there's not much of a threat left; we can likely take our time."

Unfortunately it's the pile closest to where he was fighting his last opponent and I try not to stare at his unmoving body as we get closer to the pile of weapons and supplies. The terrain is even more rough and uneven over here so I can't see his entire form, only the tips of his shoes and the top of his head. From here it looks like he could just be sleeping. I can't tear my eyes away from his forehead and the brown swath of hair that graces it. That was a forehead that a mother once kissed. Hair that a father once tousled. And now he's gone, and said parents probably saw it happen.

My vision blurs and I blink. Crying would probably be the worst thing I could do right now, so instead I shake my head and harden my resolve. If I spend time mourning over every innocent life lost in these games I'll never spend a moment dry-eyed. I fall to my knees in front of the treasures and I start shifting through the loot with trembling hands.

Dammit, Sakura, I think to myself and tighten my hands into fists, toughen up or people will think you can't handle yourself. I'm sure that the cameras aren't focused on me, as there's a battle raging on on the other side of the cavern, but I need to appear calm and collected, just in case.

It's hard to choose what we'll need when I can't exactly tell what it is I'm looking at. The flickering orange light coupled with the dull blue twinkle does nothing to help me understand what an object is. Weapons are easy enough: I grab the usual gear that we're both familiar with due to academy training. But there are also a couple of capitol-made gadgets that look like they could be helpful so I grab them. Then I get to some small boxes full of foreign and unfamiliar things. I notice one of the boxes is an exploding tag kit, but the tags are blank and there's a paint brush and ink, so we have to make them ourselves. I shove that into a backpack I find. I think another box is full of bugs, which I shudder at and promptly set down. Why would anyone need that?

I grab a medical pack and wrap it around my waist, it's full of your standard medic-nin gear. Gauze and antiseptic, vials and syringes. I grab another bag specifically for food and start loading it, much less selectively. I shove every edible thing I can find into it. Unless we want to eat cave-crawlers for the next week, I need to pack a lot. Thankfully I find several canteens full of water and pray that we'll be able to find more.

I'm about to pull the top of the bag tight when I realize I haven't packed anything to sleep on. I scan the large pile and find what I'm looking for: two rolls of padded material. Sleeping bags. As I reach for them I feel something slither up my leg.

My first thought is that it's a snake, so without even thinking I grab a kunai from one of my pockets and stab it, expecting to feel it fall off of my leg and flop to the floor. But when it keeps climbing up I look down in alarm and try to stab it again, but my kunai is stuck. I yank at it with more strength but it doesn't budge, and the black snake keeps climbing higher.

My heart beats wildly in my chest and I wonder if I'm losing my mind or I'm under a powerful genjutsu, because it doesn't look like a snake, it looks like the ground is swallowing me whole. Blackness seeps up from the ground and rushes onto my leg with an alarming speed.

"S-SASUKE!" I scream, finally finding my voice. The next thing I know I see a chakra infused blade cut easily through the tentacle of earth holding me. My leg is released from it's grip and I shake it free. Loose grains fall to the floor easily.

It's sand. I have just been attacked by sand. The black mass starts to move below us again and we both jump back away from it's reach. What's going on? Who's doing this?

"KARUI!" A frightened, male cry rings out and echoes through the large cave and I notice that the clangs and clashes of telltale battle are gone. Instead there's only screaming and panic.

"What's going on?" I ask Sasuke, clinging to his sleeve as we look around for the sources of the screams.

"The same thing that happened to you," My ally says and points a couple of yards to our left to one of the sources of the cries. I squint through the darkness and realize that it's Omoi, elevated high above the ground, the same black mass that had threatened to swallow my leg now covering him completely.

He struggles to get his arms free but it's useless. He calls out Karui's name again and I follow his terrified stare down to his sector partner. She backs away slowly from his rising form, a kunai shaking in her hand. Tears stream down her face and she looks from him to the safety of the darkness behind her.

"H-help me!" He screams, terrified and desperate. But even I know there's no helping him without getting sucked into the wall of black sand yourself.

"We need to move," Sasuke brings my attention back to our situation. The sand is slowly creeping it's way toward us. I nod to him and I'm about to start running away from the cornucopia when I realize something.

"I forgot the packs!" I cry and look to Sasuke in panic. "Sasuke, we can't leave them. We'll die of dehydration before anything."

He looks a little annoyed but just nods in understanding. Just as the creeping sand decides to lash out at us, like a python striking at it's prey, we jump out of its path and run towards our packs. We swoop in and each grab a bag, I sweep up the one full of food onto my back and he retrieves the other one. I see something in the corner of my eye and I shout "Watch out!" We both jump backwards in the nick of time and avoid being pummeled by another blast of sand.

It feels almost like this stuff has a mind of it's own, it strikes out at us time and time again. I'm thankful for all of those years of being taught to deflect attacks. I duck and dodge and jump, avoiding blast after blast of black sand. I can see Sasuke slicing through the sand with equal ease and I know we must be quite a sight for the audience. The Capitol wouldn't be accustomed to so much fluidity and grace.

"The cornucopia!" He shouts and I understand what he means right away. My feet are constantly sinking into the ground and almost being swallowed up. On the cornucopia there's only a sleek, metal top. You can't break down metal into sand so easily.

I wait until I have an opening and I sprint to the cornucopia, confident that Sasuke is close behind. I push chakra in my feet and legs and jump the final stretch onto the roof of the strangely shaped armory. I land easily and whirl around, expecting a stream of sand ready to blow me off the roof onto the ground. But there's nothing. Not even Sasuke.

I look around, ready to save him if need be, but I can't even see where he went. My mouth goes dry and my eyes scan my surroundings. How can someone just disappear? I try to listen for him, but I can only hear the cries and struggles of some other, unlucky tributes, undoubtedly fighting a losing battle against the sand.

"Sasuke!?" I cry, sounding as panicked as I feel, but I don't care what the sponsors think. I can't lose my ally right away in the first couple of minutes of the games!

"S-sakura…" I hear and my head snaps around and I see Sasuke collapsed onto the metallic surface behind me. My heart plummets into my stomach and I run to him.

"Are you okay? What happened?" I ask and drop to my knees. I summon healing chakra to my hands when I see blood. How much could happen in two seconds when I turn my back?

"My knee… It crushed my knee," he grounds out and I immediately turn my focus to his knee. I survey the damage and wince. I'm going to have to seal his shattered kneecap back together, but luckily there are only a couple of hairline fractures to his femur. There's blood where the skin is broken, but that's the least of my problems.

"Sasuke, will you watch out for anyone or any… sand around me while I heal this?" I ask, taking out a kunai and slicing off his pant leg right above his knee. I see him nod in my peripherals and I pull down the torn material to his ankle. There's already some slight bruising but I'm not concerned. I rebuilt a tongue completely. I can fix a patellar fracture easily.

I get to work, mending the cells and forcing them to align. I hear him grunt and I ease some soothing, numbing chakra into his wound, hopefully dulling some of the pain. "I'm sorry," I whisper and keep myself focused on my task at hand. The faster I heal this the faster we can get out of here and away from that… sand.

"Where is it even coming from, anyways?" I ask more to myself than anyone, perplexed and frustrated at the unexpected deadly obstacle.

"I think I know," Sasuke says through gritted teeth. I look up at him in surprise, eyebrows raised. He glares somewhere off to the right of us and I follow his eyes.

Two more shifting and slithering black columns of sand rise above our place on the cornucopia. Both of the tributes from Sector six are struggling in the clutches, both screaming obscenities at someone below them. While the girl is just hissing and spitting inaudible threats to who I'm guessing is controlling the sand, Deidara preaches and shouts about how his art will destroy this sand and everyone around.

Coming from someone who's face is about to be swallowed whole, I really don't think he has room to threaten anything or anyone. As the sand inches up and up, covering more of his features fear grips me and I have to tear my eyes away. I need to heal Sasuke quickly so we can get out of here. Once someone's arms are trapped in that mysterious, choking sand, I really doubt that there could possibly be a way out. The attacks on us have halted momentarily, but I am one hundred percent sure they'll start up again soon.

I pour more chakra into fixing up his leg and can't help but glance at the two black columns flickering in the torch light, now completely muffling their victim's protests. A second later the sand tightens and shrinks in around them and a warm spray of blood rains down onto us. The muffled cries cease. The blood burns my skin and the uncontrollable urge to puke rises up for what feels like the fourth time in an hour.

This isn't a bloodbath, I think morbidly, this is a blood shower.

I fuse the cells that I can, not completely done, but I decide that its good enough for now. I offer him my hand and say, "it's not perfect, but it will do. We need to get out of here."

He looks a little annoyed with needing to have assistance, but grabs my hand anyway. I pull him up easily, wrapping an arm around his waist and draping his arm around my shoulders. I hold onto his wrist and prepare to move as quickly as we can out of the cavern and into one of the many tunnels I know are around. Before we can start moving, though, a huge explosion rips through the cave; I feel the searing heat blast behind us.

We stumble forward from the sheer impact of the bomb and we both look over our shoulders, shocked. Deidara's column of sand falls away almost fluidly and he emerges, looking insanely ticked off, but relatively uncrushed.

"Didn't I tell you!?" He cries, eyes unnaturally wide, "my art is a BLAST!" With this he throws out his arm and releasing what I'm guessing are several more bombs.

"Shit," I curse and turn around. As if murdering sand wasn't enough, let's throw in a mentally unstable man with some pyrotechnics. I push chakra into my muscles and jump off of the cornucopia and onto the rocky ground. More blasts erupt behind us and the earth trembles violently beneath our feet. We push forward and move as quickly as two shinobi can with an ineffective knee and unsteady ground, which is still pretty quick. More and more blasts fill the cavern and my ears ring in response. I chance a look over my shoulder and almost stop dead at what I see:

There, standing on their own little pillar of sand, are the tributes from Sectors four and five. Gaara stands in front, one arm lazily held out in front of him. Waves and waves of sand to counter and block Deidara's attacks. It's terrifying and amazing all at the same time.

"I knew it had to be him," Sasuke says and I nod speechlessly beside him. It would be so simple to just stay and watch this brilliant display, but we both know that it would mean certain death for both of us. As if feeling our stares, said tribute turns his head to look over his shoulder and I seize up in fear as we make eye contact.

I feel his hatred for me like the searing waves of heat from Deidara's explosions. I wish I could just bow and say, 'Haha, oops! Sorry, you're the real, true 12 here. It was all a misunderstanding. Please don't kill me.' but I can't because that isn't how these games work.

He doesn't break eye contact yet he still easily directs his sand to defend him and his allies against the onslaught of paper bombs. Deidara's crazed laughter echoes along side the deafening explosions.

What is he?

"Sakura," Sasuke's voice makes its way into my head, I turn and look at him, "we have to go." His dark eyes are deadly serious and I nod fearfully in response. If Sasuke can't take someone on, that's how you know they're truly dangerous.

We continue our trek forward and into the 'safety' of the darkness. "There was a tunnel and stream this way," I tell him and lead him towards what I'm hoping is the right direction. As we go further and further away from the flickering lights at the cornucopia, we have to rely more and more on the little blue crystals, which emit such a limited amount of light that I have to squint.

Eventually we find our way, using the position of the cornucopia behind us as a reference to where I heard the stream. The battle still rages on behind us and we use the small blasts of illumination to find our way. Although the light only lasts for seconds each time, we successfully locate the tunnel.

I step in first, hands and feet tingling in apprehension. There aren't any crystals. There aren't any torches (not that I had really expected any.) There's nothing. As we walk further and further into the tunnel the sounds of the blasts gradually fade and the air gets cooler and moister. The walls vibrate when I put my hand to it to guide me through the darkness, indicating that Deidara and Gaara still haven't finished their duel. I take some comfort in that, knowing that Gaara will be too preoccupied to have his sand follow us.

After a while the vibrations stop and we continue our journey downwards and I wonder what happened in the end. I hope Deidara took him out, I think to myself, but I know that that probably wasn't the case. The silence and fatigue finally catches up with me and I walk a little heavier.

The games have begun. Sasuke is a murderer... I'm a murderer. We're covered in the blood of our fellow tributes and there's only more death ahead of us. Yet we're unable to do anything but keep moving and let the tomb of earth swallow us up.

A/N: Hi readers! Sorry about the long wait but was it worth it or what? Review and let me know what you think! Was it what you expected?