The duel between Naruto and Sasuke was about to begin, each on one side with Professor Iruka in the middle ready to signal the start.
Usually, Sasuke acts cool in moments like this, but this time, he was more serious, staring fixedly at Naruto.
"It's about to start..." Kiba murmured.
'Iruka is acting a bit strange...' I thought: 'Normally, he tries to prevent duels like this from starting so early, but this time, he accepted it easily, I even feel like he was expecting it to happen...'
"Begin!" Iruka shouted, snapping me out of my reverie.
Iruka's shout had barely stopped echoing when Naruto ran towards Sasuke, closing the distance between them.
"Sasuke, this time, I will defeat you." Naruto said as he ran: "After I defeat you, Aizen will be next, and I will prove to everyone that I am not just a nobody and make everyone recognize me, especially Sakura!"
"I don't care about your delusions, but..." Sasuke quickly made hand seals before continuing: "If you can't even defeat me, stop dreaming about defeating Aizen." He exhaled flames from his mouth as he blew on his right hand.
"It's unbelievable, no matter how many times I see it..." Iruka murmured.
I could understand. The level of chakra required to create such an attack was large, but it didn't surprise me at all.
On the other hand, Naruto seemed to be expecting this, saying: "Not so fast, Sasuke."
"Substitution!"
Naruto shouted as the flames almost hit him.
Next, Naruto appeared a few meters away from where his substitution trunk was. Although he had lost speed by using the substitution technique to move laterally, he didn't stand still and began to move.
Running bent forward, hands behind his back, one of them holding a kunai, Naruto exclaimed confidently, "No matter what you say or do, Sasuke, I will be the winner. I'm sure of it - Dattebayo!"
"Dream as much as you want, Naruto." Sasuke replied indifferently, grabbing a kunai.
Without moving, he waited for Naruto's attack with his sharp eyes.
"Clang!"
A metallic sound echoed as soon as the two clashed. I noticed that in terms of strength, Naruto was winning, but in terms of skill, Sasuke was more ingenious in using Naruto's own strength to push him back, then he took out several ninja stars and threw them towards Naruto.
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"Darn it, I won't lose, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted as he finished spinning in the air after being pushed back, then using substitution for a trunk that was hit by five ninja stars, appearing on Sasuke's right side.
However, I saw Sasuke follow Naruto with his eyes; he was quite calm when Naruto hit him.
I could see the gleam in Naruto's eyes and his smile that stretched from ear to ear when he successfully hit Sasuke, but his smile turned into confusion, then despair when what he hit turned into a trunk.
"Idiot." Behind Naruto, Sasuke appeared and with his right hand, he delivered a karate chop to Naruto's neck, who was bent forward after hitting his substitution, then Sasuke's blow hit him squarely.
"Bang!"
"Ahhhh!"
Naruto shouted as he fell face-first onto the ground. His reaction time was not fast enough; he didn't even have time to form hand seals to create a substitution.
"Stop right there." Iruka interrupted and announced, "The winner of this duel is Sasuke Uchiha!"
"Darn it...!" Naruto, who had fallen face-first onto the ground, knelt with his forearms on the ground. Then, with his left hand, he punched the ground a few times while exclaiming, "I lost again, this time I felt like I could win, darn it, darn it - Dattebayo!"
*Clap, clap!*
Even though I knew Naruto had lost, I felt he did well, so I applauded. Hinata, who looked at me, applauded, followed by Ino, Sakura, Kiba, etc.
When Naruto saw that everyone was applauding, some even encouraging him, saying he did well, I saw his eyes light up again, with a hint of shyness.
Getting up, Naruto, who was covered in dust, put his left hand on his cheek, scratching it a bit while laughing with his eyes closed, "Hehe, thanks everyone."
Not that he was excluded or anything, but being applauded even after losing and receiving encouragement from many of them, I saw that it was enough to make him feel on cloud nine.
After that, Naruto clenched his right hand into a fist and pointed it towards Sasuke, saying, "Sasuke, I may have lost this time... but I will definitely be the winner next time... just wait for it... I know I can do it - Dattebayo!"
Sasuke replied disinterestedly, "Whatever."
However, I noticed him tighten his hand in his pocket, clearly indicating his surprise with Naruto's performance. Despite their duel ending quickly with him being victorious, I could feel that he was not satisfied with the result at all.
That was easy for me to understand, after all, Naruto, who received a strong blow from him, was now jumping and shouting as if nothing had happened.
━━━━
Hokage's Office.
In his crystal ball, Hiruzen Sarutobi watched the fight between Sasuke and Naruto. He was not alone; there were several Jonin around watching the whole process.
When the duel ended, Hiruzen cleared his throat, "Cough, very well, this was just the first duel. I want you all to look carefully and choose wisely, after all, your choices will determine your future and the future of these children."
"Yes!" Each of them nodded firmly.
"Hokage-sama." One of them drew his attention.
Hiruzen looked at him while stroking his beard, "You may speak if you have any doubts."
Adjusting his posture, he asked with doubt, "This is the boy Naruto. Are you really going to allow him to leave the village?"
His question made everyone turn to look at the Hokage. Obviously, they all knew that Naruto was the Jinchuuriki of the Kyubi. Many of them considered it dangerous to let Naruto roam freely. They even thought he should not receive proper ninja training so as not to become a danger to the village in the future.
"As for that..."
━━━━
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