> “How can one love the light and live in darkness?”

> ― Brent Weeks, "The Way of Shadows"

"BEGIN!"

Tanaka was surprised when Naruto kicked off the ground leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. His eyes were shining like the eyes of a predator closing in on its prey.

'At least he's eager...'

"Ha!"

Just before reaching Sasuke Naruto tucked his body forward and performed a perfect front flip, and brought his heel down toward Sasuke's head.

Sasuke expecting a move like this caught Naruto's foot in his hand only to have Naruto bend his knee and attempt to elbow Sasuke in the face. Sasuke caught the elbow with his other hand and holding Naruto from two points of contact slammed the young Uzumaki boy's face into the ground.

Letting go as Naruto's face skidded across the dirt like a meteor touching down Sasuke jumped back to get a bit more distance. A small smirk could be seen on his face as he glared down at Naruto. A smirk that Naruto had grown used to in his regular sparring matches with the Twins. Noramori in particular was fond of egging on the young Jinchuriki. It ensured that Naruto would try his best.

"Is that all you got trash?" Sasuke taunted Naruto as he started getting up from his impromptu landing pad.

With a face covered in dirt, Naruto spit out a bit of blood and growled out pain filled comeback.

"When I catch you, you're dead!"

"Bring it on idiot"

Naruto's eyes flashed and he dashed at Sasuke.

Just before reaching Naruto struck, Sasuke spun around and arced his foot out. Slamming his heel into Naruto's guard Sasuke let his foot rebound and promptly dipped forward onto his hands spinning out his other foot to crash into Naruto's hastily raised defense. The kick knocked Naruto off his feet, but having been subjected to Sasuke's fighting style many times Naruto was prepared for what came next.

Letting his momentum control his recovery Naruto rolled away from the follow-up axe kick that Sasuke attempted to slam down into his stomach. He knew all too well how badly those hurt. Sasuke may be a genius, but when it came to taijutsu Noramori was a monster and Naruto had spent most of his time training with the twins on the receiving end of her brutality. Say what you want about his book smarts and studying his instinctual grasp of combat came quickly to him especially when he had spent months in what felt like a life-or-death situation every time he'd sparred with Noramori.

Popping to his feet Naruto swept his leg around at Sasuke's planted heal in an attempt at bringing Sasuke to the ground.

Seeing Naruto's savage counter Sasuke jumped over the oncoming leg and flipped his body through the air driving an aerial spinning back elbow down toward the exposed crown of Naruto's head.

Tanaka saw the briefest of grins on Naruto's face as he allowed his leg to carry through with its arc until it was behind him, his stance resembling a runner's start. As he planted his foot in this position Naruto's legs bunched up and he leaped like an animal at Sasuke's aerial form, tackling him to the ground and pinning Sasuke to the ground with his knee planted in his solar plexus.

Sasuke spit a little blood at the force of Nartuo's knee compressing his stomach against the ground and gritted his teeth and responded by striking out at Naruto's face before he could lock him down into the ground and pound. Sasuke clipped Naruto's chin and rattled his brain a little bit causing Naruto to stumble back as he attempted to retreat away from Sasuke's counter.

Not wanting to give Naruto time to recover Naruto rolled back onto his hands and popped up onto his feet. Leaning forward into a run Sasuke bolted across the short distance that Naruto had managed to create in his retreat and jumped up. Driving his foot into Naruto's temple the was a sickening thud and Naruto flew spun in the air. In the time it took for Naruto to begin to turn sideways, Sasuke's foot finished the arc after driving through its arc and planted into the ground. Facing away from Naruto Sasuke leaned forward and shot out his foot behind him in a vicious donkey kick directly into Naruto's stomach.

Folding around Sasuke's foot Naruto seemed to hang in the air for a moment before time sped back up and he shot away from the kick like a bullet from the barrel of a gun.

Tumbling across the ground Naruto came to a stop in a limp heap on the ground.

Tanaka seeing this exchange winced and prepared to stop the fight only to raise his eyebrows in surprise at the sight of Naruto getting to his feet slowly.

'Great Kages Naruto is ridiculous. If they were fighting on the same level as me that combo could have killed him. Where is this dedication when we are in the classroom?' Tanaka had never seen this level of ferociousness in a child's sparring session. Neither of the two boys was pulling any punches and they fought as though they were attempting to kill each other with every strike

Looking up at his opponent Naruto grinned and received a blank stare in response.

This was how all their fights turned out. Sasuke's skill could not be matched by Naruto, but Naruto always refused to stay down. He would keep going until he was forced to stop by an outside party or Sasuke managed to overwhelm his insane endurance and Naruto was left to drift into unconsciousness. The boy could take a massive amount of damage before being knocked out. What seemed like a battle of skill was more akin to a war of attrition for the two boys.

"Nice one! That was almost as good a combo as mine!"

The whole class looked on in awe at Naruto's apparent lack of self-preservation. Not to mention they could all see that while Naruto's attacks were fast and hit hard they lacked in any kind of proper execution. His attacks resembled a reaction more than a deliberate plan.

Noramori, seeing this familiar scene play out, let loose a giggle at the two boys' ridiculousness.

'No matter how many times we try and show him techniques he always falls right back into this animalistic free-form style.' She thought to herself.

Both boys had blood running from the corner of their mouths. They were probably both suffering from a small amount of internal bleeding, but neither of them showed any signs of backing down from this challenge. Naruto had a gruesome smile plastered on his face and Sasuke had slipped into his analytical state. Sasuke needed to pay close attention so he could focus on landing hits that would cause the maximum damage possible.

He didn't want this fight to drag out for too long otherwise Naruto's seemingly infinite stamina would overwhelm Sasuke.

"I know," Sasuke spoke in a cocky tone as his lips twitched with the faintest of smiles, "Wish I could say the same about you, dumbass."

Growling Naruto again launched himself at Sasuke. He wanted to get payback for what Sasuke said in the classroom.

Naruto crouched low to the ground as he reached Sasuke's position and pushed off the ground with all 4 limbs. Interlacing his fingers he unwound his torso and flung his interlocked fists up toward Sasuke's chin.

Sasuke swayed backward and let Nartuo's fists pass by his face. In the opening space behind Naruto's big windup, Sasuke landed a succession of quick jabs into Naruto's vitals but the Uzumaki boy acted like he didn't even notice.

Seeing that his attack missed Naruto reversed the direction's that his hammer fist was traveling. Sasuke attempted to take a step back but was surprised when Naruto bent his back leg and brought his knee to the ground so that he could cut the travel time in half. Seeing that he wouldn't be able to escape Naruto's attack Sasuke crossed his arms and caught Naruto's hands at the wrist between the valley formed by his clenched fists. The force of Naruto's blow drove Sasuke to his knees, but Sasuke was otherwise unharmed by this brutal hammer fist.

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Naruto was leaning forward and a little off balance after putting so much of his weight into his hit and Sasuke capitalized on this. Sasuke leaned forward onto his bent front leg and brought his back leg snaking right forward into Naruto's grounded knee. As Naruto's back leg stretched out behind him Sasuke twisted his hands and grasped Naruto's wrists between his own. Yanking on Naruto's wrists Sasuke tilted his head forward and drove the crown of his skull into Naruto's nose instantly breaking it and dazing Naruto for the second time this fight.

Sasuke shifted his weight onto his extended front foot in a weird crawling walk and let go of Naruto's wrists. Sasuke swung his elbow up toward Naruto's chin and jumped. His elbow connected with a meaty thump and Naruto's chin shot straight upward with his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Already in an awkward lunging stance naruto couldn't fall backward and instead, he began to flop awkwardly sideways at a slight angle to Sasuke's position. The whole class including Noramori winced at the sight of Sasuke's violent offensive.

Coming back to consciousness Naruto's eyes stopped rolling backward and his face contorted in a look of rage. He wasn't thinking anymore, that last hit had knocked what little sense he had right out of his head. The lights were on but the only one home was an animal begging to be let out of his cage.

Noramori began trembling in fear. The image of the fox she had seen in her hospital bed flashed through her mind's eye. She had repressed that memory almost immediately after it occurred, but now the sheer terror she had felt in that moment came crashing down around her. Invisible to everyone else but her Noramori watched as Naruto's aura seemed to exude a quiet malevolence. His normal sad but determined spirit had bits of red mixing in with the blue. A feeling of murderous intent and evil poured from his aura and Noramori began to connect the fox she saw in the hospital with the boy that she considered her best friend. The repressed memory was fragmented and lacked continuity, but she could just make out Naruto entering the room before she began screaming for help at the sight of what she could only explain as a presence so terrifying that it forced her brain into the instinctual pattern of prey.

Naruto's chin snapped down and he glared with empty eyes at Sasuke's surprised face. Sasuke had thought for sure that his last combo would have put Naruto down for long enough that their sensei would end the fight, he didn't expect Naruto to recover in what seemed like an instant.

Crouching down Naruto leaped at Sasuke and began mindlessly wailing fists on the young Uchiha heir. His blows were violent and lacked any kind of coordination. They rained down like sledgehammers and repeatedly rocked Sasukes head into the ground. After the first three punches, Sasuke lost consciousness, but Naruto didn't show even the faintest sign that he was preparing to slow down. Sasuke's face was a mess of blood and dirt.

Noramori was frozen, she knew she should do something but the feeling of Naruto's aura froze her in place. She couldn't bring herself to act and images of her old mother unconscious at the hands of her abusive father flashed through her mind. She felt helpless and she just hoped that someone would do something to help her brother.

Tanaka rushed toward the two boys and attempted to yank Naruto off Sasuke. As his hand reached out toward Naruto it was flung back by a wildly swinging hand that carried far more force than Tanaka expected to encounter.

Snarling, Naruto turned on their teacher and rushed at him running on his hands and feet like a wolf chasing its prey. Tanaka paused for just long enough for Naruto to pounce forward. Naruto's hands drove toward Tanaka's eyes, but finally snapping out of his surprised state Tanaka's experience took over and he palmed the back of Naruto's head, Pushing down he slammed Naruto into the ground face first and pivoted around his body so that he could grab on of Naruto's arms and wrench it up behind his back.

'I didn't expect for him to show signs of this so early on. It doesn't look like he produced a cloak, but it seems that he was on the verge of exactly that.' Tanaka's face was set in a frown.

"You," Tanaka addressed the still frozen medical ninja, "What the fuck are you waiting for, help him."

The medical ninja shook themselves out of their dazed state and rushed over to the downed Sasuke, but not before casting a look of equal parts disgust and fear toward the still-struggling Naruto.

It was a poorly kept secret that Naruto was the nine-tails Jinchuriki. Most people even believed that Naruto was simply the Kyuubi reincarnated. Tanaka knew the truth and knew that the boy was simply dealt an awful hand in life. That didn't stop him from glancing down at the boy with a little bit of disgust as well. He didn't want to consider the boy an animal however that display brought up a lot of bad memories for him. Tanaka had lost both of his parents and his reaming grandparent in the attack 8 years ago. This loss had been what had pushed him to become a teacher. He wanted to ensure the next generation was nurtured and taken care of so that they wouldn't have to experience what it was like to suffer such great losses.

A soft voice spoke from his right.

"I can take him off your hands."

Tanaka glanced up to see two Anbu standing next to him. Hound and Cat if he remembered their masks correctly. Tanaka didn't sense their approach and hadn't noticed them until one of them spoke, but he wasn't in the least bit surprised. He knew that the Hokage probably kept a close eye on Naruto in case something like this were to occur.

Tanaka nodded and Hound reached down with Chakra-coated palms and chopped his hands against the base of Naruto's neck. Instantly Naruto went limp and drifted into unconsciousness. Seeing this, Tanaka stepped back from Naruto and allowed Hound to scoop Naruto up and hang him over one of his shoulders. Hound walked over to Sasuke and put him over his other shoulder. Cat was standing by Noramori and whispering to the terrified little girl.

"Cat come on we need to bring all three of them to the Lord Hokage, this must be addressed as soon as possible. They can recover in one of Lord Hokage's meeting rooms." Hound spoke in a serious but slightly disinterested tone, like nothing in the world sparked his interest.

Nodding to Hound, Cat whispered something else to Noramori and scooped the nearly catatonic little girl into her arms.

With one last nod in Tanaka's direction, Hound and Cat flickered and dashed away from the training field, presumably headed toward Lord Hokage's offices.

Tanaka gave one last worried glance in the direction he assumed they went. He didn't know what to think about what he just witnessed.

"Sir, are they going to be alright? Naruto scared me. I've never seen him like that before," Sakura spoke up in a clear voice after finally recovering from the swollen visage she had received from her sparring match.

Turning around with a big grin on his face Tanaka put on a brave face and attempted to salvage the situation as best he could.

"Of course! Don't you worry about them. Sometimes these things get out of hand, that's why we keep a medical ninja on staff for any events like these." Tanaka's voice was filled with a lot more warmth than he felt at this moment.

'I wonder if they really will be alright. I wonder what Lord Hokage has in store for them, ' Tanaka's thoughts were in turmoil as he gave one last glance in the direction of Lord Hokage's offices.