Chapter 61 : Shika Vs Sasuke 1

"Next match is between Uchiha Sasuke and Nara Shika," Hayate Gekko said, bringing my attention back from the medics taking the two unconscious girls to the hospital. They were, of course, Sakura and Ino.

Both knocked each other out.

…Sigh.

Fighting Sasuke, huh? Well, it could have been worse. As he is right now, I can beat him.

However, the real question is how much he has improved after surviving the Forest of Death and Orochimaru.

Hearing his name finally being called, Sasuke smirked as his eyes immediately lit up and a hint of red appeared in them.

I instantly caught that. Well, it wasn't like the boy was trying to hide it. In fact, the fool was looking right at me.

He should have hidden the fact that he had activated his Sharingan, but I guess he was more eager to show off.

Anyway, good for me. It's not like I didn't consider the possibility of him unlocking his Sharingan while fighting Orochimaru. In fact, I believe Orochimaru himself would have helped Sasuke unlock them.

After all, his greed for the Sharingan was enough to make him attack Konoha.

But this kind of makes my job of beating him harder. The Sharingan is quite a hack, after all.

While I was thinking about this, I saw Sasuke suddenly grab his neck and lose balance.

Hmm, of course, if he got the curse mark, then he can't use chakra that well. Maybe beating him won't be such a big drag after all.

"Good luck, Shika-kun." Suddenly, I heard this voice and smiled. There is only one person who calls me that.

"Thanks, Hinata," I replied even before seeing her face while walking toward the fighting ring.

"Who is this kid?" Asuma asked Kurenai, who was smiling at me as I entered the fighting ring.

"I told you about this kid, remember? He has good talent in Genjutsu. Currently, he is not in any team, but due to his talents, I wanted to take him into my team. But Hokage-sama didn't agree," Kurenai replied with a little sigh. She really wanted Shika in her team, but she couldn't go against the Hokage's orders.

Asuma, who was smoking at this time, was a little surprised. He wasn't expecting someone like that to be in the Chunin Exam, especially someone Kurenai thought so highly of.

Kakashi, on the other hand, was intently watching Sasuke. He didn't care who Shika was, nor did he want to know. To him, Sasuke was the best among the 9 rookies, and Shika, who didn't even have a team and didn't have an impressive record in the academy, was nothing to worry about.

What he was actually worried about was Sasuke using the curse seal. He didn't get time to seal that mark because Team 7 entered the tower only a little before the preliminaries started.

Guy, who was standing beside Kakashi, looked at both Sasuke and Shika.

One was the student of his eternal rival, while the other was a person his student Tenten praised quite a bit.

He was interested in this fight. Though, like many, he too thought that Sasuke was most likely going to win this fight.

I, on the other hand, didn't care much about this. I stood in front of Sasuke, who now had his Sharingan deactivated due to his chakra going haywire when he activated it because of the curse seal.

I looked at the proctor and waited for him to start the fight. Though hardly anyone does this here, I formed the shinobi hand sign, which we learned in the academy, showing respect to the opponent.

What can I say? I just wanted to act like a ninja and do that hand sign, nothing more.

Seeing me from the hand sign, some people just shook their heads. To them, I was just an inexperienced genin.

Even someone like Kakashi and Guy had this kind of opinion about me, but not Kurenai, her team, and the Hokage.

Because they knew that I was the same boy who killed 50 thugs in cold blood in the Land of Waves.

So they too shook their heads, but it wasn't for me; it was for those who thought I was an inexperienced genin.

Sasuke, seeing me form the hand sign, internally snorted. He was a little irritated at not being able to use his newly awakened Sharingan, but seeing me, he thought again that for me, he didn't need the Sharingan anyway.

Seeing him take me lightly, I couldn't help but smile.

Soon, the proctor gave the signal to start the fight.

Sasuke immediately rushed at me, taking the first move and attacking me.

I just took my fighting stance and waited for him. He was fast, but not fast enough.

As he closed the gap, I slightly moved and masterfully intercepted him, blocking his attack and sending most of the attacking power and the momentum he built up to the side, offsetting his motion.

I pivoted and got out of the way of Sasuke's attack. I could just end the fight right now by using the Shadow Possession Jutsu.

Maybe Sasuke forgot that I'm a Nara. Otherwise, choosing to come this close to me wasn't a good idea. Maybe he was banking on not giving me enough time to form hand signs to mobilize my shadow. Well, if so, then too bad for him—I don't need hands anymore.

I can use the Shadow Possession Jutsu without hand signs. Of course, the power of the jutsu will suffer, but being able to use it without hand signs in the middle of a fight, especially in close combat, was a blessing.

But again, I didn't do that. I didn't train like my ass was on fire for this exam for nothing.

I wanted to see where I stand right now. More than anything, I wanted to know what is possible for me to do right now.

Can I beat Sasuke in pure Taijutsu? Am I equal to the rookie of the year from my class now?

I really wanted to know how strong I was. Of course, I can't use everything I know, but when it comes to just Taijutsu, which mostly Sasuke will stick with in this fight, I wanted to test myself out.

Sasuke, seeing his attack didn't work, didn't waste any more time and directly threw two kunai at me.

I somehow saw this coming. I blocked the kunai by taking out my own kunai and then rushed at Sasuke.

Sasuke's eyes widened a little upon seeing my speed. I wasn't faster than him, but I was comparable.

He tried for a second to remember my performance in the academy. But he remembered that Shika Nara was mostly like his cousin, Shikamaru Nara, who lazed around all day and wasn't that great at all.

But now he suddenly found that that same person was almost equal to him, and he was a little taken aback.

But this didn't stop him. In fact, this made him increase his own speed, more excited to fight now. He again rushed at me with another kunai in hand.

The next second, both of us were engaged in a close combat knife fight like commandos.

I will only say that all those fighting sessions with Tenten using kunai and other kinds of weapons really paid off.

As soon as the fight started, everyone's attention were fix on both Sasuke and Shika.

Karin was no different.

Karin wasn't sure what to do. By all means, she was supposed to be dead a long, long time ago, but somehow, she survived. She survived that godforsaken village which took away her mother, and she survived that forest of death as well.

But the latter almost seemed impossible to her. Her Mind's Eye of Kagura was the only thing she relied on; countless times, she had relied on it to come out of dangerous situations. In fact, surviving for this long was only because she had awakened her clan's sensory ability.

So when her Mind's Eye of Kagura felt that vile chakra in that Sand Shinobi, she knew for certain that she would die.

But she survived again. Guess that's what Uzumaki people are good at—surviving.

Shika Nara, that is the real reason why she is alive today. Not only did the boy save her, but he also healed her leg, a wound that even she knew was almost fatal in that forest, healed in an instant.

To heal her, he even showed what he was capable of. No one else understood the gravity of what Shika did for her more than she did.

Because she knew how dangerous it could be if people were to know what kind of healing ability he had. So she understood just right what kind of danger he took to heal her.

She was conflicted right now. Shika asked her to stay in Konoha, but she wasn't sure what to do. She wanted to, but she was afraid that what happened to her before would happen again.

She was currently watching all the ninja fights happening. She herself didn't have any fighting training. She did learn a little medical knowledge as those Kusa shinobi wanted her to be their healer, but that was it.

She had no fighting power, and thus, seeing people her age-fighting and using different kinds of jutsu was fascinating for her.

And finally, the fight she had been waiting for all this time came—the fight between Shika and Sasuke.

She learned that Sasuke was a genius, from Shika, so she was looking forward to this fight. She had a feeling that Shika was stronger than he showed others. After all, he had all those summons.

Unfortunately, he wouldn't be using them in this fight. He clearly stated to her that no one knew about his summons and asked her not to tell anyone about them either. She didn't understand why. She could understand about that healing deer, but other summonses of his were normal. Why not show them?

But she agreed nonetheless. She just sighed, knowing that Shika couldn't use them in this fight. She was actually looking forward to seeing him fight with those summons.

Back to the fighting ring, Sasuke and Shika were going at it. Due to Sasuke not being able to use jutsu, he was just sticking with normal taijutsu right now, and Shika was matching him all the way.

This was surprising for others. Most of them didn't know what exactly either Sasuke or Shika was capable of, but just Sasuke's name was enough to know that he was strong. Not to mention others knew that Sasuke was strong, considering that he was the rookie of the year of his class.

So seeing that Shika, a person who didn't even get a team, was matching him in taijutsu was surprising for them.

And what about those who knew what Sasuke was capable of?

Kakashi, who earlier was not paying attention to Shika, after seeing him matching Sasuke on his taijutsu level, was amazed. His single eye grew wider in surprise while the Guy standing beside him narrowed his eyes. He saw glimpses of his own fighting style in Shika's moves.

But that wasn't enough. He also saw the Hyuga's fighting style in that too, both his and Neji's.

Kurenai saw Shika matching Sasuke in taijutsu and couldn't help but smile brightly. "Yup, that's like the Shika I knew," she internally thought, feeling a little proud.

Earlier, she was a little worried, seeing that genjutsu wouldn't work that well against a Uchiha. Though she wasn't sure whether Sasuke had activated his Sharingan, knowing Shika's genjutsu level, she knew that it wouldn't do much.

Genjutsu of that level wouldn't work if Sasuke really had the Sharingan. But unlike what she thought, Shika didn't even use genjutsu and was pretty much matching Sasuke with taijutsu.

She smiled seeing this. One thing is understandable and can be chalked up to talent, another thing as well, but the third is that is not just talent but Shika being a genius.

Shika not only showed talent in genjutsu and water style but now also in taijutsu. She couldn't help but want him more in her team, though the way the boy was going, there was a possibility that he would be a chunin sooner than later, so her wish might not come true.

But there was also one thing that was making her a little mad. Even after learning so much from her, that child wasn't using genjutsu in fights yet. She repeatedly told him that he needed to involve genjutsu in his fights regularly to get a good grasp of these techniques, but he never listened.

Sigh... She couldn't help but sigh at this.

Asuma beside her was now finally interested in this fight. After all, Kurenai was interested in that kid, and not to mention, he too could see how Shika was fighting on equal footing with Sasuke.

Others were also surprised at this. After all, Sasuke was the best among them, and now Shika was fighting him equally.

Maybe out of all of them, only Team 9 and Hinata were not that surprised. Team 9 because this level of taijutsu was nothing for them, for obvious reasons, and Hinata because in the last 3 months or so, she was Shika's default taijutsu partner. No one right now knew better than her how much Shika had improved.

But in the fighting ring, Shika himself was a little frustrated. He was holding back. After all, he was using weights even right now to hold himself back and train in the meantime. He started some time back to train his body, but seeing that currently he was only almost equal to Sasuke, he felt frustrated.

Only he knew how much he worked to get up to this level, and even after all this, if he wasn't able to beat Sasuke, then it was frustrating. And that is when Sasuke wasn't using his Sharingan.

He believed that if Sasuke activated his current 2-tomoe and 1-tomoe Sharingan and he removed his weight, then they should pretty much again be equal.

Sigh...

But that was not the only reason he was frustrated. He was only equal in taijutsu with Sasuke, but his shuriken jutsu was much better. The Uchiha clan has one of the best shuriken jutsu in the village, and Sasuke learned them all.

His shuriken jutsu was giving him a hard time. Dodging all of them was not hard, but Sasuke was really good at using those shuriken thrown at close range, making some throws almost point-blank.

Tch.

Shika barely dodged the upcoming kunai and parried another one incoming with his own kunai. There were already a few shallow cuts on his body. But those cuts were just on the clothes. In reality, right now, Shika was so good at using the round deer's reverse curse technique through his body that he could directly heal his body mid-fight. 

"Okay, I understand my average level now. Let's end this fight." Shika, after understanding his level, was ready to end the fight.

xxx

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