Who won the competition? I'm going to get straight to the point and say Shikamaru!
Yes it may be disappointing to some of you, but there are loads of Gaara love stories and we need more Shikamaru. Besides I can always make a Gaara story later.

"Ahhhhhhhhh." I screamed terrified. "I always imagined I would die in battle, not like this!" Right before Chirika shut her beak I could see Jiraiya and Naruto screaming at me, yet I couldn't hear them.

I was in shock. Many things had happened in my life, but this definitely got in my top five weirdest things. What exactly was weird? Well, a giant owl swallowed me.

I guess I can't exactly say swallow, after all I had taken my sword and jammed it in her throat. This kept me hanging I one spot. My feet were dangling and I could feel her internal heat. It wasn't pleasant knowing that I very well could be killed here.

Third pov.

"Himawari!!!" Naruto screamed watching his friend be swallowed by the giant owl. Naruto got ready to run to attack the owl in hopes that it would upchuck his friend. Before he could, Jiraiya stopped him.

"Pervy-sage! We need to save Hima-chan!" Naruto continued to struggle.

"No!" Jiraiya yelled getting Naruto's attention. "This is her trail. She needs to do this on her own."

Naruto reluctantly agreed and sat down on the ground intently watching to see what his friend would do.

Himawari's pov.
Suddenly, her whole body shuddered. I could feel Chirika cough and hack because I wasn't going down. How am I going to get out of here? Maybe I could use a water jutsu and flood her stomach. Or I could use paper bombs. Water. Less chance of Internally hurting her.

Reaching for my ninja pouch I pulled out two water scrolls. I quickly swiped my finger across them releasing all the water. I quickly held my breath as I felt water rushing around. Only a second or so later I could feel my body rush upward and into the air.

Before, I could hit the ground I could feel myself hit somebody. However, it wasn't a soft catch. I could feel us slam backwards into the ground. Looking up I saw Naruto. He had scrapes across his body, but overall he seemed fine.

"Thanks, Naruto..." I groaned standing on my own two feet. "But don't help me anymore. This is my fight. I'm going to prove to her that I am the one who summoned her."

Naruto looked at me hesitant. With a confident face I glared at him to leave it to me. Obviously, he got it because he gave me a wide grin with his thumbs up.

"Go Hima-chan!" Naruto shouted jogging backward. I gave him a grin before turning back to Chirika.

I quickly unsheathed my katana and pointed it at her. The sun was reflecting off of the pale surface of my blade. At first glance it appeared to be very fragile and thin, but that was to people who knew nothing about it. It's fragile like nature made it slice through wind. Putting emphasis on fragile like, this blade would hold. It would take a lot for Nadare to crack.

"I'm going to prove to you that I am truthful, for why would I lie!?" I yelled lunging forward.

I went to jump, but before I could she caught me with her talon. However, she was surprisingly gentle. She looked at me with inquisitive eyes, so when she unwrapped her talon so I could just stand I didn't move.

"Thats the exact same thing Takara said to me so long ago..." Chirika paused to blink. "You must really be her student then. I only knew Chikako." (I only now realize how close their names are.)

"So you believe me?" I inquired sheathing Nadare. "Will you take me on as the official summoner?"

"Yes to both. From now on your my official summoner, and you'll refer to me as Chirika-sama." She sat me down on the ground before continuing. "Typically, with the summoning contract you have one specific one to summon. Usually, it's the first one you summon, but since I was Moe's partner I can't be yours."

"Partner?" I questioned really curious. I glanced behind me seeing Jiraiya-sensei and Naruto leaving. They probably trusted me to handle this on my own.

"Yeah. I know! My Grandchild, it's perfect." The owl started to laugh. It wasn't a normal laugh. It was that kind of laugh that wasn't to be trusted, A laugh that meant trouble.

"Um... Grandchild?"

"Yes, grandchild." She laughed once more before a puff of smoke appeared right in front of me.

As the smoke cleared, I could see a roundish figure. It wasn't a sphere and I could see it was white. It's... And egg! About the size of house cat.

"A-a-an Egg!?" I exclaimed surprised.

"I'm entrusting it to you, so you better take good care of it!" Chirika chirped disappearing before I could protest.

I sighed loudly, before bending over. I took my scarf from my neck and gently wrapped it around the egg. Then I slowly started walking back to the village.

--—•—--

"Himawari!!!" I heard in the distance behind me.

I turned around to see who was calling me, but with all the people in the way I couldn't tell. I walked to the side of the rode to try to lead whoever it was out crowd.

"Himawari!" A different voice yelled.

I could see two people heading towards me, Ino and Sakura. They looked out of breath as if they had been running for a long period of time.

"Hima, we have been looking for you for hours!" Sakura shouted.

"Where have you been all day, and what are you holding?" Ino asked eyeing the egg I was holding carefully.

"One. Why have you been looking for me?" I asked in return to Sakura. "Two. I have been training. Three it's an egg."

"An egg? Why do-" Ino started to ask before getting cut off by Sakura.

"Nevermind that! Have you asked anybody to the festival tomorrow?" Sakura questioned ecstatically.

"Festival?" I inquired honestly surprised. I hadn't heard anything about it before now.

"Yeah! The fireworks festival is tomorrow. Of course, I'm going with Sasuke-kun!" Ino swooned making me roll my eyes.

"No way! I'm going with Sasuke-kun!" Sakura argued.

They glared at each other for a few seconds before turning their eyes towards me.

"So who are you going with!?" They shouted. "Shikamaru right!"

"W-what?" I stuttered immediately getting flustered. "I only j-just now heard of it. H-how could I already have a date?"

"Then we need to set you two up!" Ino grinned obviously proud of herself.

"They'd make such a cute couple!" Sakura agreed putting her hand on my shoulder. She quickly yanked it away. "What is that!?"

"Owl saliva..." I responded slowly watching her frantically trying to rub it off.

"Eww!" Ino yelled disgusted. "You can't ask out a boy covered in saliva!"

"I had no intention of asking out anybody!" I shouted back. By now I was pretty irritated.

"Those clothes are definitely ruined, so just throw them in the incinerator." Ino just laughed making sure I didn't touch her. "Come meet Sakura and I tomorrow morning!"

As they walked away, I only just now realized how bad it really was. I stunk, and Ino was right, this isn't going to wash out.