Summary: Team Masumi come out unscathed, for the most part, after battling the Suna-nin, but their troubles aren't over.
When Kokoro came to, she was lying under a white tent. Her teammates were sitting beside her, and across from them were Ameno, Kouji, and Shishio. She sat up quickly and became dizzy. She held a hand up to her forehead and closed her eyes. Enkai placed a hand on her shoulder and pushed her to lie down.
"Rest a bit more," he urged her.
"What happened?" she demanded.
"You blew us away. Literally," Kouji said with a scoff.
"You used a jounin level technique when you shouldn't have," Enkai told her.
"I had to do something," she argued.
"I'm with Enkai on this one," Junichiro said.
"Not you too," she groaned.
"You depleted a lot of your chakra, Kokoro," Junichiro said seriously. "You could have died, and for what? A stupid scroll? We could have found another way. You have to take care of yourself."
She knew he was right. In the moment, she was just so angry! Ameno had provoked her to the point of no return. She had considered killing her. Truly. But she knew Gaara would be disappointed in her if she had. She'd killed many shinobi on missions outside of Kiri, but she'd never killed someone for something so petty as jealousy. She needed to control her emotions better. She was not looking forward to the lessons she'd need from Masumi yet again.
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I wasn't thinking straight, and I jeopardized our chances." She sat up slowly, pausing every time a bout of vertigo hit her. She opened her eyes and glanced at the Suna shinobi opposite them. "I'm guessing you helped patch me up?"
"I did," Ameno said. "I'm a medical kunoichi; it's what we do."
"You're making me feel bad about what I did," Kokoro said.
"Don't," Ameno said. "I shouldn't have gone so far. That's not who I am."
"Then why did you say those things?" Kokoro asked.
"I overheard what was said that night you were attacked by that giant scorpion. I thought you had an unfair advantage over us because of your close connection to the Kazekage, that perhaps you had only gotten through the qualifying round because Lord Gaara had given you a secret passage. I didn't think you were strong enough to be here."
"I didn't have an unfair advantage," Kokoro protested.
"I know that now," Ameno said.
"So, what are we going to do about the scrolls?" Kokoro asked.
"We already decided you could have ours fair and square," Shishio said.
"It wouldn't be honorable if we took the scrolls after such a defeat," Kouji pouted.
"We'll get them in Round three," Ameno promised.
"We'll see about that," Kokoro grinned. They began packing up. Kokoro stopped Ameno and motioned for Enkai and Junichiro to wait outside the tent when they paused to see what was going on.
"Is there something wrong?" Ameno asked cautiously.
"Who is Matsuri?" she asked, getting straight to the point.
Ameno grimaced. "It's like I said, she's a big loyalist to the Kazekage. From what I've heard they're close friends. Matsuri was the only one of our class to pick the Kazekage to be her instructor. It was during a time that we didn't fully understand Lord Gaara," Ameno defended. "She's been training under him ever since."
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An Unexpected Love (Book 2 of the Unexpected Series)
Fanfiction[Book 2 of The Unexpected series] Kokoro Hatake managed to get past Gaara's defenses and became the friend Gaara's always wanted. It was hard to regain his trust and to get past strong feelings of hate and fear, but Kokoro was able to overcome them...
