ᴅᴇꜱᴛɪɴʏ ʀᴇʙɪʀᴛʜ|ⁿᵃʳᵘᵗᵒˣⁿᵃʳᵘᵏᵒ

Same shit, different day p.2

Arriving at the sparring grounds, Naruto waited on one side of the sparring ring in the middle as he waited for the rest for the class to file out, all of them eager and curious to see his abilities. Naruko stood to the side with her friends and he noticed that Kiba had stood across from him as the dog user glared daggers at him, but he also noticed that the boy's pants were different than the ones he wore in the morning when he came in.

Kurama chuckled, "See? Told you so..."

Naruto chuckled back mentally, 'Alright, knock it off Kurama-nii, the fight's about to start...'

Iruka stood in between them as he listed down the rules. "Alright you two, the rules are simple." He began, "First one to knock your opponent out of the ring or until either one of you can't fight anymore, wins. If the spar gets out of hand, I'll step in if necessary."

Both Naruto and Kiba nodded as Iruka continued. "Ready?" Both boys got into their respective taijutsu stances, with Naruto adopting his personal taijutsu stance while Kiba got into the Inuzuka Clan's style on all fours, causing the crowd of students to wait in anticipation, "Begin!" Iruka shouted as he stepped away from the ring.

Kiba wasted no time as he dashed forward at the blonde at speed, intending to end the fight with one hit. His hopes of an easy victory were shattered as Naruto sidestepped the punch that was aimed for his head, skilfully turning around and landing a roundhouse kick at Kiba's back, who stumbled forward at the force of the kick.

Kiba growled before charging again, this time going for feint by going for the blonde's stomach, quickly changing stances and went for a sweeping kick, intending to knock his opponent's feet out from under him. The Inuzuka heir was once again denied his chance when Naruto saw the attack coming from a mile away and just dodged both of his attacks by jumping over them before striking a palm thrust at Kiba's chest, sending him skidding backwards before stopping at the edge of the ring.

Naruto stood there with his arms crossed, eyes cold and serious, "Is that all you've got? I'm not impressed, dog boy." he said dismissively, making the other boy growl in anger. Naruto extended an arm and made a 'come hither' motion at Kiba, smirking as he did. "Come on, Inuzuka — show me that your clan is not all bark and no bite!"

"You'll pay for that!" Kiba shouted.

Dashing forward again in an attempt to hit the blonde in the chest, he only managed to hit air before he was sent flying when Naruto suddenly appeared under his guard and uppercutted him in the chin. While still in mid-air, Kiba had only a second to clear the cobwebs in his head before Naruto appeared above him, twisting his body before slamming a falling axe-kick into the dog user's midsection, sending him crashing to the ground with a painful thud. As the dust cleared, Kiba laid on the ground, coughing in pain as he panted and spat out the blood in his mouth where he had bit his lip. Naruto landed gracefully on the ground as he crossed his arms, not feeling the slightest bit winded from the fight.

"You done yet?" Naruto asked with a blank expression.

Kiba spat out some of the blood in his mouth, snarling at his opponent as his bloody teeth was shown. "NOT YET!" he shouted, before dashing forward again.

Seeing the charge, Naruto braced himself as Kiba came at him again, and again, and again. Jabs, punches, kicks, knees and elbows were exchanged between the two combatants as Kiba tried in vain to find a hole in Naruto's seemingly unbreakable defence. Not even fighting Sasuke was this hard, Kiba idly mused before he was sent flying when Naruto landed a solid kick in his stomach, sending the dog-user skidding towards the edge of the ring.

Coughing slightly as he struggled to stand, Kiba looked up to see Naruto still standing in the same spot as before! The blonde hadn't even moved from his original position since the spar started! Kiba's eyes could only widen in shock as he looked into the blonde's cold cerulean eyes, which were bordering on arctic blue.

Shivering slightly at the look, he coughed weakly before raising his hand in defeat.

"I forfeit sensei."

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!" Iruka announced to the stunned class.

Kiba was definitely one of the best fighters in their class, and some say he was in a class of his own and only Sasuke or Naruko could even stand a chance against him. But, Naruto had defeated him with ease and in such a short time, and the blonde was not even winded after the fight. What was most shocking was the fact that he had not been hit once since the beginning of the spar, which was nothing short of amazing.

As Kiba tried to walk back to his friends, he suddenly felt an arm wrap around his midsection to support him as he walked. Looking up, the Inuzuka Heir was shocked to see none other than Naruto was helping him limp back to his friends.

The blonde had an appraising look on his face. "Not bad Inuzuka-san, you've lasted longer than most people when they fought with me — and I've fought plenty of them." Naruto commented with a grin. Kiba merely grunted in acknowledgement as beginnings of a smile began to appear on his face. The blonde male patted him on the back, "My advice is this — train harder, and find a purpose to become stronger than yesterday, something for you to believe in and to be willing to fight for. That's how I've become so strong."

Naruto looked up in the direction of his sister, a warm smile on his face. Following his gaze, Kiba immediately understood what, or who, drove his former combatant to become this strong. The dog-user shook his head — he was already beaten the moment he had put his foot in his mouth with his insensitive comments.

Kiba then grinned back at the blonde, his earlier misgivings about him gone and were now replaced by respect. "Y'know, you're actually a decent guy, Naruto." He began, chuckling before he winced at the pain in his stomach. "I need to go home and think about what you've said, but I expect a rematch with you in the near future. Deal?"

Naruto merely chuckled. "Deal." He replied, extending his free arm. "Friends?"

Kiba looked at the offered limb, before returning a forearm clasp with the blonde boy. "Friends."

Everyone who witnessed the scene couldn't help but feel respect at the blonde's sportsmanship, which was rare in the shinobi world. Naruko smiled in pride as she beamed proudly at her brother — his people skills were truly a sight to see! It was then they noticed Iruka walking over to them, a smile on his face.

"Well done you two, especially you Naruto!" Iruka said with pride, "Being a shinobi of Konoha means helping and protecting your fellow shinobi, which you did splendidly!" He continued as he smiled, "Congratulations Naruto, you've passed your taijutsu test."

Naruto smiled and nodded. "Thank you, sensei."