Naruto: Rise of the Uzumaki by X009

Chapter 15

Naruto felt conflicted as he looked down at the arena with one hand on the railing, watching Fuu start to exit while the people in the stands cheered on. But, of course, Sasuke had already left; no surprise there.

On the one hand, he wouldn't lie: part of him was glad his friend/rival had won. Of course, what sort of jerk wouldn't be? He'd like nothing more than for all his team to become chunin and start the next phase of their careers together.

But, on the other hand, Fuu was his friend too. And he couldn't imagine she was feeling good right now, knowing her brother saw her lose.

He had some experience with acting upbeat when you weren't feeling it.

"It's too bad," said Hinata. "She'd been so excited to find out her leader would be watching..."

"She doesn't seem to be taking it too hard," Lee observed.

Naruto frowned. Yeah, Fuu seemed fine from here, but, well...

"Doesn't mean she's really feeling it..." Naruto said. It was clear from his tone that he was speaking from experience. Sakura gave him a sympathetic glance.

"Eh, I wouldn't worry," Giichi commented, and Naruto frowned at him. He waved off the glare as he elaborated. "Everyone back home knows she and the boss mean the world to each other. Knowing him, he's probably on his way to give her a pep talk right now." He then looked to the ceiling. "Hell, he'd do it for any of our ninja who's having a hard time if he could never mind her."

Oh. From what Fuu had said about her adoptive brother, that sounded like him. Still, he was worried about how she might feel after that loss. Maybe he should track her down, too?

"Besides, you're looking at this the wrong way," Shikamaru said, leaning forward with his head resting on his arms. "Sasuke's the one you need to feel sorry for."

Naruto frowned as he and others turned to the lazy genin. "Huh? What the hell does that mean? That was an awesome fight they had."

"Yeah, but right now, Fuu's chances are miles ahead of Sasuke's," Shikamaru said, tilting his head and looking back at Naruto with one eye. "He's going to be kicking himself when it hits him. He made it this far and may have blown it in the first two minutes."

Naruto blinked before crossing his arms and frowning. What the hell was he talking about? He ran through the start of the fight and couldn't see the problem. It looked like Sasuke had her with that genjutsu.

A gasp drew his attention to Sakura, who had covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh... oh."

Naruto turned to the pink-haired girl who'd raised a hand to her mouth. At his questioning gaze, she gave him a slightly anxious look. "Naruto, think about it. That genjutsu he pulled at the start was a pretty clever trick, but what did he do after that?"

Naruto closed his eyes and thought. She obviously wasn't talking about the fight. I mean, he got put on the back foot, but once he recovered, he...

... Wait.

His eyes shot open. Oh, he got it now. He then grimaced.

Sasuke had let his clan's power and dojutsu go to his head, slowly walked up to Fuu, and made to push her over to show his victory. That was definitely a Sasuke move, given how much pride he took in his family. His eyes evolving hadn't helped there.

... And that's where he'd made his mistake.

Fuu had broken his genjutsu and turned the tables on him. It had made him look bad, sure, but what he'd done there was worse. He'd slowly walked up to his opponent, sure that the battle was already over when she was still standing. Leaving himself wide open the whole time.