Temari VS Nara Shikamaru!
"Ugh, what a drag."
Shikamaru let out a long sigh, his expression that of a man being led to his execution, as he slowly descended from the observation platform and made his way into the arena.
"Teacher Kakashi, where are Naruto and Sasuke?"
Once Shikamaru had gone down, Sakura turned to Kakashi beside her.
Kakashi shrugged helplessly. "I don't know either. Probably training, I'd imagine."
"That reckless idiot Naruto better not have forgotten today is the finals."
Sakura pressed a hand to her forehead.
She wasn't worried about Sasuke. He was almost certainly training.
Naruto, on the other hand...
That guy might have genuinely forgotten.
Kakashi spread his hands. "Let's just wait. Their match is the last one anyway, so there's still..."
Before he could finish, a gust of wind rushed past, and Naruto's figure appeared in the arena in a flash.
"Ha ha ha! I'm not late, am I?"
Naruto struck a pose he clearly considered very cool and called out loudly.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "You made it just in time."
... He's faster than before. Noticeably faster.
Sakura noted this quietly.
"Wait, where's Sasuke!?"
Naruto looked around, found no sign of Uchiha Sasuke anywhere, and started muttering under his breath. "What is that guy doing?"
"Since you're here, Sasuke will probably turn up soon enough."
Kakashi cleared his throat, then looked at Naruto with a cheerful smile. "Judging by your expression, you've made quite a bit of progress with that technique, haven't you?"
"Obviously. That's exactly what was supposed to happen, Teacher Kakashi."
Naruto crossed his arms with a self-satisfied grin. "Just wait and see how I take down Sasuke. Heh heh!"
Sakura gave him a flat look. "You say that every time, and every time Sasuke ends up putting you flat on the ground."
"This time's different, Sakura!" Naruto snickered with a distinctly mysterious air. "I learned an incredibly powerful jutsu!"
"Sure you did."
Sakura clicked her tongue and turned her attention back to the arena.
Out on the field, Temari was swinging her three-star fan, sending howling gusts tearing across the arena.
Faced with her relentless, pressure-heavy offense, Shikamaru had no choice but to scramble around desperately.
Yet every so often, Shikamaru managed a small, precise counter that left Temari scrambling and brought her dangerously close to losing her footing.
"It looks like Lord Jiraiya taught you quite a bit."
While Sakura's gaze had drifted to the arena, Kakashi turned to Naruto with an easy smile.
"Don't even bring that guy up!"
The moment Jiraiya was mentioned, Naruto's temper flared.
"That Pervy Sage almost killed me."
After Naruto had already shown off both the Rasengan and the Big Ball Rasengan, Jiraiya had decided to teach him the Summoning Technique.
Naruto had no interest in learning it and kept insisting he wanted to open more of the Eight Inner Gates instead.
So Jiraiya used a sealing technique to block Naruto's chakra entirely, reasoning that it would awaken his latent potential.
And accounting for Naruto's exceptional physical abilities, he also bound him tightly with specially reinforced steel wire.
He then threw him off a cliff a thousand meters deep.
Jiraiya's intention had been to awaken the Nine-Tails' chakra within Naruto, letting him access a portion of the fox's power ahead of schedule.
What he hadn't anticipated was that in the face of mortal danger, Naruto never entered the sewer-like inner world at all, leaving a certain fox who had been shut in for years sorely disappointed.
Instead, driven by a fierce, desperate will to survive and a refusal to die, Naruto broke through his own physical limits.
He forced his way past the Gate of Life, then the Gate of Pain, and in four-gate mode, shattered every seal Jiraiya had placed on him.
Naruto could now open the Fourth Gate freely. The Fifth was only a matter of time.
It might look similar to Lee's progression on the surface, but the gap in actual combat power was enormous.
"That's... quite a teaching method from Lord Jiraiya."
After hearing Naruto's account, Kakashi's expression turned awkward. He looked at the still-fuming Naruto and managed a strained smile. "Well, setting the process aside, the result is what you wanted, isn't it?"
Naruto gave a short grunt, but didn't argue.
While the two of them were talking, the match between Temari and Shikamaru had reached its decisive moment.
"I forfeit!"
To everyone's shock, after successfully trapping Temari, Shikamaru made no move to press his advantage. He cited running out of chakra and surrendered a victory that had been sitting in the palm of his hand.
A stunned silence fell over the arena. Then, within moments, the murmuring began.
Shikamaru paid no attention to any of it. He turned and walked away on his tired legs, leaving Temari standing there with an expression no one could quite read.
Lost the match, won something else entirely.
"Second match. Winner: Temari!"
Genma glanced at the list in his hand and continued. "Next up: Gaara versus Haruno Sakura!"
"Go get him, Sakura!"
The moment Genma made the announcement, Naruto shouted over at her. "Make sure you give that guy a good beating!"
"Sakura!"
From somewhere in the crowd, Ino appeared. The instant their eyes met, they locked onto each other with the sharp intensity of a pair of rivals.
A beat passed. Then Ino broke into a bright, full smile. "Do your best!"
Sakura smiled back, serene and gentle, her green eyes curving like crescent moons. "Thank you," she said softly.
Ino stepped forward and quietly pulled her into a hug. In a low voice she said, "This is a one-time thing. Don't go thinking I'm just handing Sasuke over to you."
The corner of Sakura's mouth curved upward. "Same goes for me."
"Be careful."
"I will."
Sakura descended from the platform at an easy pace, her green eyes scanning the crowd the entire way down, searching for one particular face.
After a moment, she gave up. No matter where she looked, she couldn't find Sasuke.
A trace of something bitter crossed Sakura's face. Right now, more than anything, she had wanted him to be here. Just to hear him say something, some small encouragement.
To win with the person you care about watching. That was what every girl with a heart full of feeling secretly wished for.
She gathered herself. One slow, deep breath. The trace of bitterness disappeared, replaced by something quiet and composed.
Stillness before great moments.
Something Sasuke had once said in passing, the kind of offhand remark he never repeated. She had held onto it ever since.
She pressed one hand to the railing, pushed off, and dropped down along the wall.
When she landed, she stood straight and still, looking at the red-haired boy across from her without a word.
At that very moment, Sasuke stepped out from the gates of the Uchiha district, dressed in a black high-collar long-sleeved shirt and black shorts.
Something made him pause. He lifted his head and looked toward the direction of the finals arena.
After a quiet moment, he said softly, "Do your best, Sakura."
He turned and walked the other way. As he moved, the clear black-and-white of his eyes shifted suddenly into a fierce, vivid crimson.
Sharp. Cold. A killing intent that cut to the bone.
___
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