Ah, the preliminaries.

Also known as the part where Hanako finds out if random generation can be canon.

Hanako sat with her back against the wall, listening with her eyes closed as the other participants complained about the arrangement. True, the preliminaries were a little unorthodox, and no one except her had really anticipated them, but to complain so loudly with the Hokage in earshot was a little...

"Hey, brat."

Hanako opened her eyes and looked up at Shikaku Nara, her sensei smirking down at her benignly.

"Hay serpientes en el bosque. Tenemos que decirle a Anko."

She watched as his smile froze before growing. His eyes were serious as he spoke. "Entiendo. Algo mas?" His accent was still a little weird, but way better than Shikamaru's.

"Hay crías en las hojas. Su madre está disfrazada de sonido."

He nodded, patting her on the head as he turned around and made his way to the Hokage on the other side of the arena. All along the raised walkway, teams stood with their senseis. The air was tense with anticipation, and even Hanako wasn't immune.

Things were different now.

And it wasn't just her presence she had to worry about. Kabuto hadn't dropped out. Instead, a member of the Kumo team had stepped down, citing injury, leaving an uneven number of participants. To make up for this, one genin would get through to the finals without a fight.

Heck, the Kumo team was the most worrisome aspect of all this. Orochimaru and his spies were easily countered, but these guys? These guys had Killer Bee as a sensei. The Hachibi jinchuriki stood leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, gaze obscured by dark sunglasses. The two Kumo genin still fighting stood nearby, their own expressions closed off and guarded.

Whose idea had it been to invite them? Did no one see the potential for disaster there?

Whatever. On the bright side, Neji had set aside some of his animosity to stand in front of a cowering Hinata, glaring at the foreigners from the exact opposite side of the arena. Enemy of my enemy, and all that.

The giant screen hanging from the ceiling chimed loudly and everyone looked up at it.

Huh. Sasuke vs. Yoroi.

Just like canon.

And, unlike canon, Sasuke had no curse mark to hold him back.

An easy win, then.

"Hey," Sakura said with a scowl when Hanako remained where she was. "Aren't you gonna watch?"

Hanako shrugged. "What's the point? The outcome's already decided."

"Huh? What do you mean, Hana-chan?" Oh, Naruto.

"She's right," Shikamaru drawled as he took a seat beside her. "Sasuke's got this in the bag. Why waste energy watching when we can be planning, instead?"

Hanako nodded. Her thoughts exactly.

Sakura pursed her lips and turned her attention back to the fight just in time to watch Sasuke land his finishing blow.

Not even two minutes, dang.

Well, that's Sasuke for ya.

Next up, Shino vs. Zaku the annoying Oto guy.

Again, just like canon.

At this rate, it looked like nothing was going to change. Hanako felt goosebumps rising all over her skin. If nothing changed, then Lee...

Kankuro vs. Kabuto.

Oh, that was different.

Her body deflated with relief and she scooted over the railing to better watch the fight.

"What, is this one not obvious?" Sakura sneered. Poor girl was still acting her age, huh?

"It would be, if Kankuro was fighting anyone else," she answered seriously as the boys got into position. "Yakushi-senpai throws a wrench into things, though."

"Oh?" Temari looked down at her with a smile while Gaara remained balefully aloof. "Feel like sharing?"

Hanako reached out and touched Gaara with her chakra, smoothing any rough edges she came across as she smirked up at his sister. "Not really. I'll give you a hint though," she turned back to the fight. "Strings can be cut."

She meant that in more than the literal sense, though she doubted anyone who heard her would recognize the meaning. How ironic that the puppet would be fighting a puppet master. Poor Kabuto.

She half expected him to throw the fight, to be honest, but she wasn't too surprised when he claimed a solid, if prolonged, victory. His chakra scalpels had cut right through Kankuro's chakra strings, rendering the puppets useless.

Temari hummed in appreciation. "What an interesting technique."

"It's a medical jutsu, if you'd believe it," Hanako supplied willingly. "I'm pretty sure Yakushi-senpai's the first one to weaponize it since Tsunade-hime, herself."

That wasn't something she was supposed to know, but being the Jounin Commander's apprentice had its perks.

Kabuto rejoined the cluster of Konoha genin with surprisingly genuine smile on his face. He'd been forced to quit before reaching this stage before, so she supposed it was only natural he be glad to advance in this, his final run.

"Good job, senpai," she said happily.

"Thanks," he replied, wiping nonexistent sweat from his brow. "I'm glad that's over with."

After that, every fight progressed exactly as she remembered them and the knot in her stomach grew tighter and tighter. Lee...

Hanako vs. Karui.

"Damn," Kankuro said with a whistle. "Kid, you're really depressing."

She looked up at the giant kanji which made up her name and smiled grimly. "I told you, so."

With little preamble, she jumped down into the arena, carefully extricating her chakra from Gaara's as she prepared herself to face the Kumo kunoichi.

Chouji's future wife looked down at her with contempt, red brows furrowed in a scowl.

"Seriously?" She crossed her arms and popped her hip in a show of disdain. "Who let the kid in here?"

Oh. One of those.

Rather than acknowledge her, Hanako instead began taking stock of what she knew about her opponent.

It wasn't much.

Raiton and kenjutsu were the only things which came to mind, plus a fiery temper. Barely enough to work with, but—.

The moment Hayate Gekkou gave the signal, Karui launched herself forward. Hanako barely had enough time to twirl away, drawing on her years of sparring Neji and Lee to dodge the larger girl's blade. Hanako fell into a defensive stance, rocking on the balls of her feet as she waited for her opponent's next move. Karui lunged again, and Hanako leapt into the air and bounced off her opponent's back, touching the hanging screen with a smirk before landing with a roll in the arena below. Thus, began a carefully controlled pattern of lunge, dodge, wait, repeat. Hanako watched with growing satisfaction as Karui's movements became increasingly jerky and uncoordinated. This was her go to strategy: wear down the enemy and then strike when they either a, lose their temper, or b, run out of stamina.

Karui looked to be type a.

Of course, this demanded that Hanako, herself, have stamina to spare. She'd spent the past six years wisely, training under Guy as much as Shikaku in the hopes of balancing herself out. She'd completely forgotten about genjutsu, though...Oops.

"Man, is this what it looks like when I fight Hana-chan?" Naruto didn't even try to keep his voice down. "I didn't realize I looked so lame."

Oof.

"Yeah," Shikamaru sighed as Hanako dodged again. "She's a great teammate, but the world's most annoying opponent."

Hey.

Hopefully, Karui's hearing wasn't as good as Hanako's—.

Yeah, no, she definitely heard them.

With a twisted glare and an aggravated snarl, she ran at Hanako once more. This time, her blade was wreathed in lightning.

Belatedly, Hanako realized her opponent hadn't used any jutsus. Was she trying to win using only taijutsu? To be fair, Hanako hadn't used any either, but that was mainly to frustrate Karui into making a mistake.

Like the one she was making now.

The sparking blade gave off a lot of light, throwing the rest of the arena in shadow. It was like a strobe light, making Karui's approaching figure all the more menacing. Everyone watched as Karui's blade made contact with Hanako's chest, sliding into it with little resistance. Hanako's body blurred, the color fading as the water clone abandoned its shape in favor of enveloping Karui. The water conducted her lightning, forcing her to experience the very pain she'd planned on using against Hanako. Karui's mouth opened in a scream, but the water trapped the sound. Less than a second later, she fell limp and the water splashed to the ground in a puddle.

"What the heck?" Sakura asked, looking around the arena with wide green eyes. "Where did she go?"

Kabuto chuckled behind a hand. "Hatake-chan did say that foreign ninja might be at a disadvantage in the forest, but I didn't think she'd use the same tactic here." The clustered genin all looked to him in surprise and he pointed a finger upward. "Take a look."

Hanako smiled down at her friends as they all turned their gazes upward. She'd switched places with a water clone when she touched the jumbo screen at the beginning of her fight. The clone was mostly for show, and couldn't really take much of a hit, so she'd kept up the dodging routine until Karui finally gave in to her anger. It was just a matter of letting nature take its course after that.

Hanako let go of the screen, landing on her feet in the center of the arena. Medics were already checking Karui over and she heaved a sigh of relief as they told Killer Bee and her teammate she was fine.

Thank god.

Hanako bowed to Karui's prone figure before leaping back up to her place between Shikamaru and Temari. Huh, maybe she should have chosen a different spot? These two were fated to be, after all. It wouldn't do to get in the way of romance.

Gaara vs. Lee.

Oh no. No. NONONONONONONO.

Hanako clutched at the fabric of her haori, hands shaking with fear and something else. This fight was important, for both Lee and Gaara. Lee left a lasting impression on the people around him on the importance of hard work and dedication and used his time in the hospital to reaffirm his own ambitions and reasons for becoming a ninja. Gaara faced an opponent who actually made him work for a victory, forcing him to look at Lee as something more than just another insect to be stepped on.

There was a reason so many people shipped them, ok?

And, while she knew everything would turn out fine, for both of them, she couldn't help but tremble at the thought of the upcoming fight. Lee was her friend. Her first friend. Heck, her best friend. They didn't spend as much time together now as they used to, but they were still incredibly close. The idea of him ever even entertaining the idea of not being a ninja any more hurt her heart in ways she didn't fully understand. And she also knew that whatever happened in the arena wouldn't be entirely Gaara's fault, because Shukaku was an asshole, which made this entire situation completely messed up. Things were rarely black and white, but she really preferred it when they were. At least, then, she knew who to blame.

Lee jumped down into the ring, all exuberant bluster, and Gaara dissolved into sand only to reform across from the boisterous teenager.

Was there anything she could do? Anything at all?

The answer was clearly no. The fight progressed exactly as was written, with Lee dropping his weights in his iconic revelation of strength and Gaara's sand have increasing difficulty defending against Konoha's Green Beast. She watched with mounting horror as Lee opened gate after gate, his skin reddening with the effects of his released chakra. Her eyes burned as she watched Gaara's sand armor crumble, his manic expression revealed for all to see as he crushed Lee's limbs in his Sand Coffin. Her best friend's screams resounded in her ears as tears flowed freely down her face.

"Lee!" She couldn't contain herself any longer. "You can forfeit, Lee. There's no shame in knowing your limits!"

Neji scoffed, the sound barely audible over his teammates cries of agony. "That failure should have known better."

Hanako rounded on him, glare so intense she felt the heat in her brain. "Watch your fucking mouth."

Neji's pale eyes widened, face going slack in shock. She'd sincerely tried to groom him out of that nasty superiority complex of his, but nothing she did ever seemed to have any lasting effect. She'd leave it to Naruto, then.

Turning back to the arena, Hanako watched as Lee's blood soaked Gaara's sand. The image of both boys lying on the ground and Guy standing between them burned itself into her brain, a high definition photograph of her worst nightmare come to life.

She was vaguely aware of Gaara leaving the arena, but she kept her gaze fixed on Lee. They were loading him onto a stretcher, and she made to follow when a hand fell on her shoulder. She followed it up to her father's face, his expression changing rapidly from shock to confusion to sad resignation. With a sigh, he placed a hand over her eyes, the burning sensation finally leaving them.

"I'm so sorry, kiddo."

A swift hit to the back of her neck and she was out.