Three - The duel

"Alright, now that everyone's here, let's start the sparring session." Iruka sensei spoke while looking around.

The fighting grounds were an area around the Ninja Academy meant to be an arena.

Its boundaries were marked by the thick lines drawn on it with black paint.

"Today's first part of the class can be considered as a test. This time, we want you guys to fight to the best of your abilities. Don't worry about injuries or anything of the like. Mizuki here knows a bit of Medical Ninjutsu and can heal you."

Mizuki stepped out of the shadows of a tree and spoke with a smile on his face. "That's right, and since you won't be using Ninjutsu you don't have to worry much because I can pretty much heal any wounds students like you are able to inflict upon another."

So today's really a test... Looking around me I couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. Outwardly I looked perfectly fine, but somewhere inside me, there was a chibi Sakura shaking a lot. I might have come a long way since then, but I'm still afraid of losing.

"Alright! Did you hear that Sasuke, I'm gonna beat your ass and make you see who's the best, y'know!" Naruto, as always, was overexcited with the opportunity of fighting Sasuke. After all, it was only during exams that everyone was obliged to participate, therefore, there wasn't a single chance Naruto wouldn't find someone to fight.

"Humph, you fool. Don't you have anything else to say?" Sasuke glared at him and snorted.

"What!? You are the fool! Not me!"

Sparks were already flying between them, but Iruka's cough dispelled the tension. "Alright, sit down Naruto, no need to get overworked right now."

Looking at everyone, he nodded and spoke once more. "The rules are like you already know. You can challenge someone to a fight and the person has to accept, or you can wait for your name to be called and fight the person we arranged for you. With that out of the way, does anyone wants to issue a challenge?"

"Me!" Naruto sprang to his feet and raised his hand up high.

I shook my head at that, it would be more surprising if he chose not to challenge Sasuke.

Having received a challenge, Sasuke stood up and followed Naruto inside the square drawn on the grounds that marked the area of the arena.

"Look at that, isn't Sasuke handsome when he is about to beat up those talentless people?" Ino and the other girls were whispering amongst themselves.

"Shouldn't you be thinking about who you're going to challenge?" I replied quietly to avoid bringing attention to us.

"What do you know? It's not always that we can see him fighting. I'd rather leave my opponent to fate than risk missing him beating the crap out of someone, hehe."

Ino... so helpless... I sighed and shook my head. I had been thinking of whom to challenge for a while now.

In the last six months, my ability to use my Chakra has improved a lot and I learned a trick that can make me a lot stronger though it consumes too much energy and requires a lot of focus.

I looked left and right and spotted the figure of a girl shrunk in a corner. She was wearing her signature beige jacket with its collar turned up, hiding part of her face and all of her neck.

Her distinct white eyes which seemed to lack the presence of a pupil were too difficult to miss, even when she is trying to hide from the crowd.

Hyuuga Hinata and Uchiha Sasuke were the only ones that could provide a real challenge during sparring sessions. Since Sasuke has already been challenged, I can only go with her...

Iruka raised his hand and looked at Naruto and Sasuke, nodding, he put it down with a shout and the two rushed at each other.

At this moment, everyone was stunned by the scene. Both Naruto and Sasuke were like shadows at first. The initial outburst of strength was enough to leave a deep footprint on the ground that raised a cloud of dust.

The two met at the center of the arena, with their arms locked against each other. The impact generated a large wind blast sweeping away the dust.

Sasuke was the most surprised among everyone. It had been nearly six months since they last fought and he had improved a lot.

'Tsk! What's going on with this guy? My arm is a bit numb from this collision!'

Taking a deep breath, swept his foot in a circular motion, forcing Naruto to jump away. He followed up with his quick reflex, kicking up the ground and launching himself in the air in a mix of centrifugal movements as he swept the back of his other foot at him.

This type of quick exchange of movements was a part of the traditional taijutsu style of the Uchiha clan.

It combined the Uchiha's advantage of quick reaction and flexibility to launch whip-like attacks that benefited from exaggerated moves to greatly enhance the power behind each collision.

Like the Hyuga who focused on blocking their enemy's Tenketsus, the Uchiha's fighting style was designed towards crippling the enemy's defenses by greatly injuring their muscles with each exchange.

Caught off guard, Naruto raised both his hand to block Sasuke's leg. The powerful attack brought him back down lightning quick. Causing another wave of dust to appear.

Naruto coughed a little bit of blood as he looked at Sasuke. His arms were trembling and his feet were shaking due to not being prepared to fall down like that, which almost caused him to twist his ankle.

Their fight made everyone gasp in awe. Both because of Sasuke's overly complex moves that greatly enhanced his fighting prowess, and also because of Naruto being an extremely sturdy punching bag. Since the fight had started, he was overwhelmed by Sasuke and only managed to exchange one strike. Now he was being backed into a corner and could only defend against Sasuke's flurry of movements without being able to counterattack. But that was what made it amazing.

Nobody there could see themselves taking so many hits without dropping half dead on the ground.

Watching the battle from the sides, even Iruka was astonished by the scene. 'Since when is Naruto this strong? If I didn't know better, I'd think he was someone else dressed up as him. But this is good, he should be able to pass the final exams so long as he manages to create a single clone.'

After a moment's notice, the finishing move came. Sasuke fainted a punch in a circular motion, causing Naruto to raise his arm to defend himself, and unfortunately blocking his vision. Smirking at this mistake, Sasuke didn't waste any time and continued his move with a twist of his upper body followed by a jump using his left leg as support while kicking him in the guts with his right leg.

The impact was so powerful that it launched him flying through the air. Seeing him dropping a few meters away, the boys gulped in fear while the girls stared awe-struck at him.

Sure enough, their idol, Sasuke, didn't disappoint them losing to the lame Naruto.

Even though he won in the end, there was a frown on Sasuke's forehead. His skin was glistening with his sweat and his shirt was stuck to his body.

While everyone was admiring or fearing Sasuke, I was looking at the timer I brought and looking wide-eyed at Naruto, even though he was still defeated, this fight was notch above the previous ones in terms of skills, and he still managed to endure a minute more than before.

It was only then that I realized how much Naruto had grown, and just how far we were from Sasuke. I too could defeat Naruto, but I also knew I couldn't withstand half of the beating he took. But it made sense somehow in an ironic way. He was so shameless and everybody said Naruto has a thick face, turns out his whole body is as thick as a tree trunk.

Laughing a bit to myself, I got a little worried and went to Naruto's side.

"Hey, Naruto! You still alive?!"

He groaned in answer, making me sigh in relief. If he could groan it meant it wasn't that bad.

Mizuki with his characteristic dark silvery hair approached and kneeled down next to Naruto.

"Don't worry, Naruto, you did well. Let me help you heal up."

Extending his hand towards him, Mizuki created a glistening white sphere of light containing a gentle Chakra.

Astonished at this sight, I observed as the orb merged with Naruto's body and his body started glowing a bit like a faulty light bulb. Slowly but surely, the scratches on his body were healed and Naruto's complexion became a bit better.

Iruka walked over and nodded. Having made sure that no one was dangerously injured, he looked at the crowd and spoke. "Alright, who's next?"

Sighing, I looked at Naruto. "Hey, wish me luck."

Naruto wanted to speak something but he frowned a bit and decided to just nod.

Walking over towards the tree, I stopped before Hinata and smiled a bit. "Hinata, will you fight me?"

Hinata looked over with a start, there was some confusion on her face but she still nodded albeit a little shy. "A-alright."

Standing in the arena, Iruka looked at us and gave us the sign to start the fight.

As it was purely a match of Taijutsu, we were only allowed to use our fists and kicks, so I didn't use my kunais or the shurikens.

Putting some strength on my knees, I started with a jump bringing down the back of my foot towards Hinata.

....

Sakura's jump kick was a powerful one.

Hinata's instincts have long been sharpened due to her hellish training and she knew not to make mistakes in those situations. Rather than taking it head-on, she sidestepped and kicked the ground to distance themselves.

Sakura's kick reached the ground quickly and the impact was like a bomb in everyone's ears.

A cloud of dust was raised from the impact following a slight shake of the ground.

(A/N: For anyone wondering, Sakura has figured out just like Itachi in the novels, how to use chakra to passively boost her physical prowess on a general level. It's not as great as Itachi's boost because she is a beginner in this unnamed technique and also because her chakra levels are smaller even though Itachi was younger at that time. The main reason behind this is that Sakura trained a lot less compared to Itachi at that time, not to mention his godly talent.)

This scene made even Iruka and Mizuki frown, not to mention Hinata and the crowd.

Sakura waved her hand, dispersing the dust and allowing everyone to see the ground that had sunk where she landed by a few centimeters.

Although it wasn't on the level of a D or C rank Ninjutsu yet, not many were capable of causing so much damage without tools like paper bombs.

Iruka who watched this awestruck, couldn't help but mumble to himself. "Why do I feel I'm looking at the second coming of Neji and Lee...? So troublesome..." He couldn't help but sigh as he remembered how their fights heavily damaged the area. It was for this reason that they stopped fighting near the trees.

Staring at each other. Hinata knew that she couldn't play this easily as she did with her previous opponents. Her demeanor changed a bit as she raised her open palm.

"Byakugan!" Hinata shouted as the veins around her eyes bulged and the aura surrounding her took a sudden sharp turn.

The shout was enough to wake up everyone and make them excited. For the first time, Hyuuga Hinata would use her clan's signature ability.

Even Sasuke couldn't help but focus more on this fight. His whole life he had heard about the Byakugan from his deceased family, but he never had the opportunity to fight against it. The reason why the Hyuuga and the Uchiha were recognized as the noblest clans of Konoha was because of this powerful bloodline limit.

The biggest difference between the Sharingan and Byakugan on the surface was that the Sharingan granted its user an enhancement to every one of his genjutsus, while the Byakugan greatly boosted one's Chakra control. If the Hyuuga weren't so conservative in their usage of Ninjutsu, they would no doubt be a lot more fearsome than the Uchiha, after all, chakra control was the basis for dominating the most advanced concepts in the usage of Chakra... the so-called Nature Transformation and Shape Transformation.

Of course, that's merely on the surface. When accounting for every ability those Doujutsus have, it's not clear who can win if it's solely based on that. In the end, it all comes down to one's raw strength.