[X] Makka-na, bara nya, toge ga aru... sashitaka-naiga sasazu'nya-okanu...
You lunge, you slam, you hold your sword to his neck, and you're just about to demand his surrender when the referee calls "Winner, Kuwabara Ami. Now someone put out the damn ceiling!"
"Thought you'd never ask," Gaara says, and for a moment the lights are gone, snuffed by the canopy of sand as surely as the flames are.
In that moment, in the dark, you suddenly become very aware of the fact that your arm is pressed against the chest of a heavily-panting boy.
When the lights come back, you release your hold immediately and sheathe your sword. Suigetsu slides down the wall and lets out a long sigh. You notice that one of his filed teeth is slightly crooked, poking out of his mouth like a tiny fang.
Focus, woman, focus!
"Seriously, do we need like an embassy or something in Konoha...?"
"Gaara, for the last time, you are not moving here."
A bottle of water is thrown over from the balcony. Suigetsu catches it, desperately unscrews the lid and chugs the contents, throwing back his head. His eyes close and his brow unfurrows in relief.
When the bottle is empty, he lowers it, wipes his mouth with his wrist and says, "You're a complete lunatic, you know that?"
"There's no point in fighting if you aren't fighting to win," you answer bluntly.
He can say anything he wants to you, you've heard it all before; 'bully', 'gorilla girl', 'cruel enslaver of our Sasuke-kun', 'uncute', 'crazy bitch', 'wannabe-homemaker from hell', 'who does she think she's wearing makeup
for?' - and that's just your classmates.
Suigetsu just laughs, and coughs. He closes his eyes and lets his head hang. "Can't argue with that."
The lucky son of a bitch gets to wave off the medics with some line about village secrets while they're still shining bright lights in your eyes and asking you to list the Hokage in backwards chronological order and telling the one newbie who keeps demanding to know how you're still alive to shut up.
Pulling the Kubik-isn't-bocho out of the wall with a mighty heave, the Kiri-nin stumbles off to the stairs.
"Thanks for the fight, Ami," he says over his shoulder with a toothy grin. "I look forward to killing you soon."
[X] ?
-----
Scald scars are both nasty and clear proof that Ami isn't some normal girl playing at being a shinobi so she can marry the Head of the Uchiha and settle down into near-civilianhood. Sasuke seriously respects determination and strength. And that's in canon, where he
wasn't specifically told Itachi might come back and kill everyone important to him.
Plus, Ami was totally gonna look like a purple-haired ninja version of Balalaika from Black Lagoon.
Goodbye, instant Sasuke flag.
