Because I Met You

Chapter 37: Preliminaries Part 1

"Now... Please begin."

As soon as the proctor says that, the man named Yoroi performs a hand sign. His right hand then gets enveloped in a blue chakra glow. He then reaches for his weapon pouch and pulls out shuriken that he throws at Sasuke. Sasuke then immediately takes out a kunai knife and deflects the shuriken back at his opponent.

Then something unexpected happens. Sasuke stumbles from the movement and falls to the ground. What? How can a ninja fall like that? He does look pretty beaten up, though. For some reason, even if I don't know the guy, I can't help but cheer for him deep down.

Yoroi doesn't miss his chance and tries to punch down on Sasuke. The latter then dodges at the last second, resulting in Yoroi's punch to destroy the floor boards under him. That was close... It doesn't end there though. Sasuke pins his kunai in the floor and rotates back to Yoroi, and pins him down in an armlock. I can't even blink or I'm afraid I'll miss something! I hear Naruto cheer for his teammate. I'm almost tempted to start cheering too.

Yoroi then places his hand on Sasuke's chest, maintaining a firm grip on his clothes. Then I see it again: the blue aura! What's he doing? Sasuke's grip suddenly loosens, leaving an opening for Yoroi to punch him, sending him rolling away. He then immediately chases after him, grabbing his hand in his glowing hand.

"Sasuke-kun!"

The pink-haired girl screams for her teammate.

"What the heck is that?"

I turn to my teammates, hoping one of them might have the answer. Both Maru and Koji shrug and shake their heads. I sigh and turn back to the fight. Sasuke's arms were lying on his sides, seemingly to have lost all their strength. Wait... Is he sucking his chakra? That would explain the extreme loss of stamina. He shouldn't be able to even move at all, then...

"Damn..."

Sasuke's voice is even shaking.

"...You!"

He then kicked Yoroi off of him. How did he even find the strength to do that? He then starts getting up.

"Heh... You guinea pig. You still have power left?"

Yoroi says mockingly. Guinea pig? What does he mean by that?

"Sasuke! Are you really Uchiha Sasuke? Is that the best you can do?!"

Naruto shouts at his teammate. That's true... Even though he's getting his chakra sucked, why hasn't he been using any jutsu before that? Yoroi then charges at Sasuke. Sasuke then high kicks him in the air. It's not a normal high kick, though. It's like its goal is to propel the opponent high enough, as opposed to knocking him out. Sasuke then jumps up with yoroi, positioning himself behind him.

"Ugh...! Leaf Shadow Dance!"

Yoroi screams. So this is a known move in Konohagakure.

"Take this."

Before Sasuke does anything, he coughs out blood and starts shaking. What's going on? Something's not right with him. That's when I see it. Black markings on his neck start spreading. This seems serious. It doesn't last long, though. It recedes right after appearing. What was that?

Sasuke then regains his composure and places his hand on Yoroi's back. He rotates Yoroi's body in the opposite direction as how he starts rotating his own body and performs a kick on his opponent's left side. Yoroi blocks it however. Sasuke then, taking advantage of Yoroi being concentrated on blocking the kick, punches him downwards up his chin. He doesn't stop there, though. He punches Yoroi in the stomach, pushing him down with him to the ground. Just as they are getting close to the ground, Sasuke performs a powerful rotating kick on Yoroi's stomach, causing him to crash even harder on the ground. Sasuke then attempts to roll away, but collapses on the ground further away. The proctor then looks at both contestants. He goes to check Yoroi's body. Sasuke then sits up with his last strength.