The Academy ground was packed.
It was supposed to be a normal after-class day, but now almost every student was gathered outside, forming a wide circle. At the center stood Sasuke, arms crossed and eyes blazing, and in opposition to him was Sukuna, completely lacking the former's grace.
Very much nonchalant, like he was there for a stroll.
From the edge of the crowd, Kiyomi was panicking. She did everything to stop that stupid brother of hers, but he didn't listen.
On the opposite side, Sakura was flailing toward Sukuna. "You better not hurt him too bad, okay?! Please?!"
It was amusing seeing how the girl already knew her crush was gonna get crushed by her brother. It filled Sukuna with a sense of pride. This was very much a brother's job. He wasn't failing in this, and he was proud of it.
As for whether these two really ended up together in the end—
"Not until that brat fixes that attitude of his." Sakura might be annoying, but she was his sister. He wasn't gonna let her chase after that avenger if he turned out exactly like how he was in the anime.
Sukuna turned toward her and smiled. "No promises, duckling... consider it a little tough love to check what's so great about that Sasuke of yours."
Naruto, with a wide grin, whispered to Shikamaru, "This is gonna be good!"
"Troublesome…" Shikamaru muttered, already sensing how this would end.
Ino, Hinata, Kiba, Choji, and most of the class were present, either cheering or silently watching. The girls swooned at Sasuke, while most of the boys rooted for Sukuna.
"This is just taijutsu, right?" Kiba asked.
"Yeah," Naruto said, "no ninjutsu, no genjutsu, no nothing. Just fists and feet!"
"Good," Choji said, munching on chips. "Meaning it will end soon."
The match started with Sasuke dashing forward, aiming a punch straight for Sukuna's face.
Sukuna blinked and tilted his head slightly.
Whoosh!
Sasuke missed completely, stumbling forward.
Sukuna gave a nonchalant smile as he dodged away.
Sasuke growled and attacked again. Punch after punch. Kick after kick. He gave it everything.
Sukuna dodged casually. When he felt lazy, he blocked with one hand or tapped Sasuke's wrist aside like it was a fly.
The girls on the sidelines started to worry. "Sasuke-kun… he's trying so hard!"
"I wish I could jump in and help," Ino sighed dramatically.
"For your own safety, you better not do that. Sukuna is rather gender-neutral when it comes to giving beat downs," Shikamaru muttered. "Ask Sakura if you don't believe me."
Ino stiffened. Her eyes darted to Sakura who also looked a bit sheepish. Sukuna never actually hit her per se.
But bully her... she can't remember a day when he didn't. And Sakura tried to fight back. The keyword being tried. Even without lifting a hand at her, Sukuna always tossed her around.
"Now that I think about it, my life is pretty pitiful, isn't it?" A sliver of moisture appeared in her eyes upon this realisation.
While Sasuke was giving his best, Sukuna was getting bored soon. He said he was gonna give a beat down, but that felt like bullying, and not even the kind he does to Sakura... that was just tough sibling love.
While he was ruthless when it came to his goals, he didn't consider himself particularly bad. Yeah, he had started to act and behave like Sukuna, but he was maintaining a clear limit of what he would become in his pursuit of power.
'Damn it...damn it...' Sasuke was getting more pissed as time when and then suddenly as it was a dream, Sukuna saw something which almost made him stumble.
His eyes turn red.
'Sharingan...' Sukuna was completely taken a back at this sudden change. By the story, Sasuke isn't suppose to activate his Sharingan anytime soon.
'What changed ?' He pondered hard, the story was changing at faster speed than he realised.
'Did my action cause this ? but how, that shouldn't be the case right...Itachi long got to Sasuke before he found me. There was no interaction between me and Sasuke back then.' Sakuna mind raced, perhaps he was overlooking something.
'Could the Uchiha having survivals would have something to do with this, or perhaps...' Sukuna's eyes moved towards the girl who looked almost exactly like Sasuke.
While thinking, he almost forgot that he was in the middle of a fight. Sasuke incoming attack after opening his Sharingan changed direction. Predicting Sukuna's next move. He spun with a kick—fast and sharp coming directly at Sukuna.
Sukuna saw the kick coming almost at the last second. He was able to block it easily enough; dodging wasn't possible thought, though, his mind gave him another solution.
One which he was dying to test out ever since the Uchiha massacre. Knowing that his position wouldn't reveal his secret, his smirk thickened.
'I'll Copy'
The coming kick, which Sasuke thought would be a turning point in the fight, suddenly passed right through him like smoke.
Poor Sasuke's eyes went wide like saucers, his brain for once stopped computing.
Others didn't see it. Even if they did, they wouldn't figure it out.
Sukuna smirked. Kamui worked.
Along with using the technique, he also moved away from the kick to make it look like he dodged the attack. The confusion written on Sasuke's face was a clear indication that if he was doubting whether his attack was miscalculated, then what could others say?
He turned to Sasuke and teased, "Didn't know you had butter on your foot. Slipped right past me." He smirked, making the raven-haired boy even angrier. Sasuke didn't know how that happened, but it wouldn't happen again.
Which was quite right. Sukuna used Kamui just to test it out. He wasn't planning on using it in the open without reason.
Finally, Sukuna raised his fist. Having enough of this drama.
With one clean motion, he punched Sasuke in the stomach.
WHAM!
Sasuke's eyes went wide. He fell to his knees, winded, then flat on his back.
The crowd gasped.
"Okay, that looked like it hurt," Kiba muttered.
"Ouch," Choji said, still chewing.
And they were right. It hurt, a lot. Naruto knew better than anyone how much because he went through that every day.
"Seems like you didn't just come after with anger and revenge fueling your ego after all Uchiha... Saving Sharingan to pull a fast one was good strategy though. However, you if you have this kind of power then rather than saving it back, you should use it from the start.
In real fight, you would have died even before you could showcase your new shinny eyes." Sukuna taunted.
Others also now realised that Sasuke's eyes were different and many gasp. Seeing them. Mostly the civillian kids.
Sasuke in response just grunted, half in annoyance and half in pain. That punch really was strong. Almost made him puke his lunch out.
Sukuna looked down at the fallen kid with a little complicated look. Sasuke technically shouldn't have awakened Sharingan right now.
'It it like how Sakura is different in this world as well...' Sukuna hummed to himself, he didn't saw strengthening body in Sasuke to draw parallels, if anything, he found Sasuke's body quite average. And yeah, it's supposed to be Naruto with a monstrous body but Sasuke too being a Uchiha, have a strong body.
However, only one punch was able to bring him down. He doesn't seems to be able to takea beating well.
Kiyomi couldn't take it anymore. She ran into the circle and knelt beside her brother.
"Stop it! He's had enough!" she shouted, arms out like a protective shield in front of Sasuke.
Sukuna blinked, surprised. For a moment, he stared at her, amused.
"Huh," he said, rubbing his chin. "Ah... look, brat, this is how little sisters are supposed to act... learn something," Sukuna shouted at the pink-haired girl who was glaring murder at him.
Hearing him, Sakura's face turn red, internally promising that she would take revenge.
"Okay... fight over, I guess..."
Sukuna chuckled, stepping back with both hands in his pockets.
"However, that's gonna cost ya." Sukuna, who looked like he was backing off, suddenly had his grin back and looked at her intently. Under his eyes, she faltered a bit.
"He already agreed with your condition, didn't he?" she replied, remembering the changed condition Sukuna proposed before to spar with Sasuke. She wasn't sure why, but as long as it wasn't something that would hurt Sasuke, she didn't care.
"Tsk... Tsk... Tsk... that's the price he has to pay to challenge me. This one's to spare him the beating for losing again."
"What... what do you want?" she gritted her teeth and agreed. There was nothing she could do about it.
Sasuke groaned behind her. "I… almost had him…"
"No, you didn't," everyone replied in unison.
"Let's keep that for later. I'm too busy to take out time to ponder over what I want. Delay it a bit, shall we?" Sukuna shrugged and turned around. Kiyomi visibly looked relaxed but equally deflated.
"This idiot," she glared at Sasuke with ferocity.
Sakura sighed in relief. "Thank goodness it's over…"
Naruto pointed and laughed. "HA! He got wrecked again!"
"That's bold coming from a guy who once tripped over his own shadow clone," Shikamaru said.
"HEY! That was one time!" Naruto protested.
As the crowd began to disperse, Sasuke stayed on the ground, groaning. Kiyomi helped him sit up, still glaring at Sukuna.
Sukuna looked at her, a spark of curiosity in his eye. However, he really didn't have time to go probing her secrets. There were still 4 years of the academy left. He had enough time.
"And you, Uchiha... don't forget your end of the deal." Sukuna grinned, making Sakura grunt in disagreement, but he didn't deny it.
The next day, when Iruka entered the class, he was baffled. He had to take a double look at whether he was in the right class.
He saw a range of students sitting, wearing all sorts of glasses in the class. It started with Sasuke—he wore glasses as part of the agreement.
His fangirls followed, behind their Sasuke-kun...
The boys, competitive in nature, didn't lag behind either.
Sukuna made a killing selling glasses yesterday and recovered all his losses when he purchased them in bulk. And boom, he started a new trend in Konoha.
His mission: glasses was a success. An overwhelming success.
Iruka was now panicking, "Did an eye disease hit the village, targeting the village youngsters... is this a biological warfare by other villages?
I have to tell it to Hokage-sama..."
xxx
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