Chapter 55 : 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.

Though 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 form 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 am right now. 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.

xxx

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