ᴅᴇꜱᴛɪɴʏ ʀᴇʙɪʀᴛʜ|ⁿᵃʳᵘᵗᵒˣⁿᵃʳᵘᵏᵒ

Same shit, different day p.4

Looking down, his eyes widened in pain and stunned realization when he saw Naruto's fist driving deep into his stomach, azure eyes staring deep into the Uchiha's soul.

The entire class gawked in stunned surprised and even Naruko had to suppress a surprised gasp. Although she was the only Genin in her graduating class who was capable of taking on Sasuke in taijutsu one-on-one, she wasn't as fast as him, and even she would have had a hard time fighting him with his advantage in speed.

But Naruto basically sidestepped the Uchiha's attack at the last possible moment, proving without a doubt which one of the two fighters was superior in both speed and reflexes.

Sasuke winced in pain as he staggered back towards his starting point, with Naruto not even moving an inch from his own spot. Sasuke's onyx eyes flared in utter fury as he growled audibly at being hit. In all his years spent in the Academy, never once had anyone landed a hit on him, with the exception of Naruko who he'd found to be his equal, none of the other Genin could even match up to him in taijutsu. To be upstaged by this no-name clan less orphan who just showed up was extremely degrading to the Uchiha's pride. But Sasuke had already planned to remedy that.

Sasuke launched himself at the blonde again, closing the distance before bringing his leg up to kick his head which Naruto ducked effortlessly under it. Sasuke then followed up with a series of small jabs and punches, intending on probing the blonde's defences, only to find that every attack was either dodged or deflected like they were nothing, which infuriated Sasuke even more as he blindly charged again and again, with Naruto dodging and deflecting in kind as well.

Sasuke growled in anger when he saw the blank look on the blonde's face, appearing as if he was not taking the spar seriously. But unknown to him, Naruto was conversing mentally with his tenant while muscle memory and reflexes did all the work for him at the moment.

"Err, kit... do you really have to toy with him that much? You'd come off as showing off." Kurama stated, amusement clear in his voice, "I mean, he's still a bastard and all and still with the stick up his ass, but aren't you going a little too far? Even if his ego needed to be taken down a peg or two?" He asked with a knowing grin, causing Naruto to look up mentally at the Bijū with a small blush on his face which was twisted in a frown while his real body fought with Sasuke, if one could call it a fight.

"I don't like the vibe he was giving off towards Naruko-chan..." Naruto explained embarrassedly, "And you know I can sense emotions thanks to you right? Well I sensed his intentions, which I think you felt it too..." he growled at end as he watched his body slug it out with the last Uchiha, who was visibly showing signs of tiring out.

Kurama sighed and chuckled. "Yeah, I felt it. Sounds to me like you are jealous kit!"

Naruto's blush returned full force as he spluttered, "N-No! I was just... looking out for Naruko-chan! Yeah, that's it!" he laughed awkwardly as he shuffled his feet in water of the sewer of his mindscape, trying to laugh off his situation, before eventually hanging his head in defeat. "Yeah... I'm jealous."

"Figures,"

"Can it Kurama," Naruto retorted angrily, "What would you do if someone looks at your most precious person like some trophy to be won or meat to be bought?" he asked rhetorically, causing Kurama to nod in understanding even if he knew that he too was angry at the raven-haired Uchiha. "I can't stand it when people look at her like that."

The Kyūbi no Kitsune chuckled as he slowly stood up and stretched. He could already tell that his container cared for his new sister more than a brother should, and he respected and supported him for it. "Then by all means — kick his ass." He encouraged, a manic grin on his snout. "All Uchihas needed to be beaten down a peg or two, and I'm speaking from experience here!"

The blonde Sage nodded as he grinned. "That's the plan, Kurama!"

Back in the real world, Sasuke was cursing internally as he stood across from the blonde dobe, panting as he tried to regain his breath.

For the past ten minutes, he and Naruto had fought with him still attacking and the blonde still defending. Sasuke couldn't remember the last time he was this tired, not even when he had sparred with him. What's more infuriating was that the blonde still looked daisy fresh even from the non-stop fighting and was still full of energy, mocking him with that same blank look on his rugged face.

The graduating class was also stumped at the 'Rookie of the Year' was being outlasted by the newcomer as they had expected the fight to end fairly quickly like Kiba's with either Sasuke or Naruto winning, but it seemed to most of the shinobi-to-be there that the blonde was purposely stalling and prolonging the fight, and for what purpose than to tire out the Uchiha, they didn't know.

Naruko frowned as she contemplated on her brother's motives in his match against Sasuke. Carefully putting the pieces together in her head through her observations and past experiences with both boys, she couldn't be more perplexed.

For one thing, Naruko was very confident that her Onii-chan can win this fight without much effort and outright dominate the Uchiha, but for some reason beyond her comprehension, he didn't. Instead, he was choosing to obviously toy with Sasuke by just sidestepping and deflecting his strikes. From the short time that she had known Naruto, she knew he wasn't the kind of person to toy with his opponents and the only reason he even resorted to this kind of display was...

Naruko then thought back to Sasuke's past interactions with her, the looks he gave her, the way he talked to her and her alone and not his fangirls who he wouldn't even give them the time of day, and judging by how well her brother judged a person's character — then it all clicked.

A blush slowly crept up Naruko's cheeks as she finally understood her brother's motives — it was all out of jealousy of Sasuke! Then her thoughts whirled towards her brother actually jealous of her interactions with other boys and the slight possibility that he could like her. She shook her head to clear the insane thoughts as she focused her attention back to the fight. After all, in her mind, she would always be the little sister in Naruto's eyes, no more, no less.

So, why did her heart felt like breaking when she had thought that?

"Stop stalling you bastard!" Sasuke shouted as he panted from the exertion, "Fight me like a true shinobi!"

"True shinobi?" Naruto parroted, voice amused, as he chuckled lightly, "Sasuke, if I fought you like a true shinobi, you would've probably been dead the moment you charged me." He lectured, ignoring the look of fury on the Uchiha's face.

"That's it!" Sasuke yelled as he pulled out a kunai, ignoring the alarmed shouts of Iruka and the others as he charged, "I'll kill you!"

Naruto sighed as he nodded to Iruka who quickly nodded back with a concerned frown, thus giving the blonde the go-ahead for an all-out spar.

Then his calm azure eyes briefly clashed with concerned purple ones of his precious person, eyes which shone with love that was meant only for him and him alone, and he smiled back—

—before backhanding Sasuke in the face when he tried to jab the kunai into his skull while Naruto was distracted, before locking his right arm in a hold. Twisting the raven head's arm slightly, Sasuke let out a cry of pain as he dropped the kunai he was holding before Naruto kneed his stomach and punched him in the face, making the boy fly back and land on the ground with a painful thud. As Sasuke tried to stand, he was once again sent skidding back when a knee connected with the side of his head.

Naruko gasped in amazement as she watched the fight — Naruto was completely outclassing Sasuke.

"A-Amazing..." she breathed, with the lavender eyed Hyūga beside her nodding in affirmation.

Sasuke growled as he spat out blood from his mouth, eyes flaring in fury. No way was he letting this dobe steal his rightful place as one of the best! It was time to end this. "I'll kill you for that!" He started making hand signs as he flared his chakra, making Iruka call out in shock.

"UCHIHA SASUKE, STAND DOWN! NOW!" Iruka boomed, but it was too late as Sasuke had finished the hand signs as Naruto readied himself for the oncoming attack...