I wasn't about to back down from my test and Naruto knew it. He charged me too and both of our fists met and collided. The force of our punches caused a large crater in the ground, surprising everyone nearby. Tsunade just smirked as she heard the explosion while Shizune looked on in wonder and shock, who had, apparently, inquired about me. No doubt that the Hokage told her my story. Anyway, Naruto and I were going at it and neither one of us were letting up on each other. Blows were exchanged and blood was spilled from those blows, but they were worth every hit. It seemed that with each hit that I took, my strength increased and, soon enough, I was on par with the blonde ninja. His blue eyes sparkled with excitement as the battle intensified. He enjoyed the fight and I did too.
"Impossible..." Neji said, shocked.
He was using his Byakugan in order to keep up with our speed. I didn't really notice how fast we were moving. My eyes were standing fast on my opponent. He then summoned his shadow clones in order to pin me down, but I countered by doing the same thing and having the same number of clones on the training ground. We charged each other and then everything was covered with clouds of dusts. However, when it cleared up, Naruto was the only one left and this prompted him to keep his guard up. I made my move by coming from below and grabbing him by the feet, dragging him down into the ground.
"HA!"
My victory was short-lived, of course. I had celebrated a little bit too early because Naruto attacked me from behind and he would have gotten me with his Rasengan if I hadn't dodged it at the last possible second. I sighed and kept my focus on him. I wasn't going to be careless like that again and I would make sure of that.
"That was an impressive show." Jiraya said approvingly.
Naruto and I was sitting on the ground, huffing and puffing and high-fiving each other for a job well done. Sakura and Ino tended to our injuries and we were eventually back in fighting form. Jiraya gave us an hour to recuperate and have lunch before we really got down to business. In the meantime, the legendary sannin turned to Kakashi and discussed whatever they observed. As for the rest of us, we went down to the ramen shop and had some really good ramen. Naruto, as always, pretty much inhaled his food. Sakura and Ino whacked him across the head, causing him to choke, demanding him that he show some good manners.
"I don't have to listen to you two." He pouted.
"Please, Naruto?" I asked with my puppy dog pout.
Naruto came close to shedding over exaggerated tears before he agreed. I grinned while everyone sweatdropped, wondering why they never even thought of pulling the same stunt that I just did. I always thought that imitation was a form of flattery but as I thought of each character trying to imitate my puppy dog pout, I shuddered. Some of the images that I saw in my mind's eye were not very pretty. Maybe it was a good thing that they didn't try to imitate me.
