The pitch-black crow hovered silently in the air, its shadow blending into the shifting figures below. In the practice arena, the young trainees faced off in fierce competition.
A sudden burst of flas engulfed the swooping crow, surging forward with the unstoppable force of a volcano. Heat radiated in every direction, smoke and dust billowing skyward as the onlooking students gasped in awe at the rare and spectacular display. Only the instructor, sweating profusely, seed less than thrilled.
Regret filled his mind.
"If I'd known it would turn out like this, I would've rigged the draw."
If he could have foreseen this scene, he would never have pitted Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha against each other. But hindsight offered no solutions. Now, all he could do was do his best to keep the students safe.
As for stopping the match—
Both Naruto and Sasuke seed utterly oblivious to the outside commotion, their focus solely on each other.
"Sasuke, looks like your Fireball Jutsu's got even stronger."
Naruto held a brush in one hand and a scroll in the other, furiously sketching on the blank paper. Realistic birds and beasts sprang from the page, charging at Sasuke. This mastery of the Yang Release technique, Super Beast Imitating Drawing, was proof of his training under Zongxian.
However—
Naruto's art style had clearly evolved.
"Tch, Naruto, you're just going to hide in the back, huh... Face head-on if you've got the guts!" Sasuke swung his small blade, slashing through the ink beasts with deft, sharp strikes. His blade, now stained black with ink, bore the marks of his relentless effort.
But he had no choice—
With his chakra limited, he couldn't keep using Fire Style techniques to fend off these creatures. Relying on his sword was more efficient, a lesson learned from countless battles with Naruto. Get full chapters from novｅlfire
"Your taunts won't work on , Sasuke! That trick's been played one too many tis."
Naruto laughed, unfazed by Sasuke's provocations, as he continued to paint. Boars, coyotes, hyenas, crows, and owls leapt from the paper in an endless stream, contrasting Sasuke's strict chakra conservation and cautious use of even the simplest transformation techniques.
"Give it up! Otherwise, I'll have to carry you back to class once you're out of chakra."
At those words, Sasuke's face flushed red.
This ti, it seed Sasuke was the one provoked, his frustration erging as a fierce growl. The single tomoe in his Sharingan spun faster, and with a determined grip on his blade, he charged into the ink beasts, cutting them down like a storm through leaves.
Yet—
Despite his fury, he couldn't quite reach the strength to shatter walls, let alone make a dent in the relentless tide of ink creatures.
Frustrated, he threw three shuriken.
But this final gambit fell short. Only two shuriken aid accurately at Naruto's chest, only to be knocked away by a diving crow. The third veered off course, skimming past Naruto's left side.
"Poof!"
White chakra smoke rose into the air.
The stray shuriken transford into Sasuke himself. Or rather, Sasuke dispelled his Transformation Jutsu, revealing his true form. The "Sasuke" engulfed by the ink creatures vanished in another "poof."
It was a shadow clone.
"Naruto, you lose!"
Sasuke's small blade was now at Naruto's neck.
"When did you do that?" Naruto halted mid-drawing, staring at Sasuke in disbelief, unable to figure out when Sasuke managed to create a shadow clone, replace himself, and use the Transformation Jutsu all at once.
He was sure he hadn't taken his eyes off Sasuke.
"Right when I used Fireball Jutsu! Everyone was focused on the fireball, so I took advantage of the smoke to make a quick substitution. With you, going for a direct clash is a losing ga."
Sasuke explained calmly, completely composed—his earlier anger clearly an act.
"That was the mont? Alright, I got careless. Next ti, I'll just start with a few shadow clones to confuse you. I've got chakra to spare, anyway." Naruto admitted defeat with a grin, already assessing his mistakes.
"Hey, are you trying to get on my nerves?" Sasuke couldn't help but grumble.
"Chakra to spare"—was that even a human thing to say? Sasuke's words would probably send nine-tenths of the ninja world into fits of despair. After all, chakra shortages plagued nearly every shinobi for life.
"Is it finally over? Ahem... Winner: Uchiha Sasuke!"
Relieved, the sweat-drenched teacher eagerly announced, "Alright, Naruto, Sasuke, make the sign of reconciliation and clear the field. Next match: Yakumo Kurama versus Kiba Inuzuka. Both co forward."
Naruto and Sasuke clasped hands in reconciliation, slinging their arms around each other's shoulders as they left the center of the field, making room for the next pair.
But—
Only one fighter appeared in the arena. Kiba Inuzuka stood holding Akamaru, sharing a confused look with the teacher.
As for the other combatant, "Yakumo? What's wrong? It's your turn."
Uchiha Fujika nudged her friend, who seed distracted, to remind her it was ti.
"Hmm... I just felt like soone was watching from behind." Yakumo Kurama frowned, her imnse natural ntal power giving her an uncanny sense of awareness. Even though she wasn't a sensory ninja, she could still detect sothing unusual.
Unfortunately—
The sensation was too faint for her to be sure if it was real or just her imagination.
"Soone watching you?"
Fujika paused for a mont before her face broke into a mischievous grin. Leaning close, she whispered, "Maybe it's so shy admirer waiting to confess but only brave enough to watch you from afar?"
"What? Fujika, you and your wild ideas!"
Yakumo grumbled, pushing her friend away in exasperation.
However, with the interruption, she felt even more unsure about the strange sensation of being watched. Urged once again by her teacher, she temporarily pushed down her confusion, quickly stepping forward with the intention to finish this boring class swiftly and figure things out later.
The battle ended swiftly.
Facing Yakumo's genjutsu, Kiba Inuzuka, who had been boasting about showing her his strength, was imdiately ensnared. Controlled by her genjutsu, he ended up throwing a punch at their teacher instead. The teacher, with a deep sigh and a head full of frustration, reluctantly declared Yakumo the winner, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.
"What kind of monsters are these?" the young teacher thought, sighing internally.
He couldn't even grasp how Yakumo had managed to control Kiba so easily with her genjutsu. His intuition told him that he himself probably couldn't block such mysterious techniques. He was a Chūnin, yet he felt outdone by a bunch of students.
But the teacher's mood quickly shifted from frustration and amazent to resignation and helplessness.
When Uchiha Fujika and Hotarugumo Homura took the stage, each of them crushed their opponents as well. The power they displayed far exceeded his expectations for students. By the end of the combat class, the young teacher, now deeply shaken, retreated to his office in silent defeat.
Thankfully, his ntor at the academy was a man nad Iruka, so it was unlikely the school would lose a teacher so easily.
...
The sun began to set, and the ninja academy had already been dismissed for a while.
But the students weren't in a hurry to head ho. Although the academy didn't have clubs, the training grounds were always full of dedicated students. Recently, a boy in a green jumpsuit had beco sothing of a permanent fixture there.
Of course, most students weren't quite that hardworking.
So boys gathered at the bookstore to read manga for free. Though they had money, so manga couldn't be brought ho without risking their moms finding them, which would be embarrassing. Worse yet was if a sister found their prized collector's edition… Sasuke still had nightmares about that. Not even his doting older brother would back him up in front of their father.
Since then, Sasuke resolved to move his manga stash to Naruto's house.
But even there, he faced trouble. Jiraiya would "borrow" them without asking, and seeing his prized editions stained with drool and unknown substances made Sasuke feel the world was truly out to get him.
After that, the boys gave up buying manga altogether.
They'd mastered the art of "reading for free."
"Boys are such idiots," Fujika scoffed as she glanced at Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, and the others peeking at the shelves. "What's so interesting about that stuff anyway?"
"Co on, Fujika," said Yamanaka Ino, nudging her. "Let's go already! If we're late, the movie will start without us."
"Well, that's because you wasted ti eating those at croquettes," Fujika replied.
"What does that have to do with ? Sakura, you ate two of them, too!"
"I… I did not eat that many! And shut up, Ino-pig!"
"Forehead-girl!"
"Ino-pig!"
The girls' bickering grew loud enough to draw the attention of the boys "appreciating art" inside.
"Ah, there they go again, Ino and Sakura!" Kiba sighed, as though it was nothing new.
"Won… such a hassle," muttered Shikamaru, tiredly.
"That's why manga is better," Sasuke chid in, still haunted by obsessive fans. "Won are nothing but trouble."
Naruto scratched his head and remained silent, refraining from joining his friends' complaints.
Outside, the girls noticed that Yakumo, who usually played the diator, seed lost in thought, staring blankly down the street toward the park.
"Yakumo?" Fujika called out, nudging her. "Are you still thinking about that feeling of being watched? Do you still feel like soone's watching you?"
She glanced around, but nothing or no one unusual appeared in sight.
"I don't know," Yakumo replied, shaking her head.
The sensation of being watched had vanished, but it only made her more certain that it hadn't been her imagination. At the academy, it could've been a trick of the mind, but experiencing it again outside confird sothing wasn't right.
"What?" Fujika's eyes widened. She couldn't understand what Yakumo was sensing.
"Maybe I'm just overly sensitive! Sorry, Ino, Sakura, Hinata. I don't feel well, so I'll skip the movie today," Yakumo said suddenly, stopping Ino and Sakura mid-argunt, both exchanging confused glances.
The shy, pale-eyed Hinata looked puzzled too.
"Oh! I just rembered, my brother asked to see him after school because of my last exam. I barely passed and he's probably going to scold ," Fujika said suddenly, changing her plans as well.
"Well… looks like the movie's off, Ino, Sakura, Hinata. Let's plan for next ti, and make Yakumo and Fujika treat us," Hotarugumo Homura suggested, glaring at Fujika for her flimsy excuse.
"No problem; we'll just go next ti."
"See you all later."
The girls split into two groups—Ino, Sakura, and Hinata went one way, while Fujika, Yakumo, and Homura took another, parting with smiles.
...
"Why did you purposely reveal your presence?" Black Zetsu asked in confusion, looking at the swirl-masked figure. "Isn't that just alerting the enemy? If Uchiha Zōka gets suspicious, it'll make using them much harder!"
"I want Uchiha Zōka to feel a little pressure."
"What?"
"I said, I want him preoccupied. Things in Konoha will be changing soon, and while so things can't be stopped, it won't hurt to keep him from getting too comfortable. Besides, I don't have much else to do lately."
Black Zetsu could only shake his head in exasperation.
He'd expected so grand plan, only to find out it was because this guy was bored.
But then again, perhaps there was more. Obito always had his own agenda, and even if Black Zetsu couldn't foresee it all, at least he was confident Obito wouldn't escape the bigger picture they'd already drawn up.
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