The sunlight filtered through the high walls of the stadium, casting long shadows across the battle-worn arena. Dust hung in the air, swirling gently from the remnants of a recent clash. A dry breeze swept through the stands, carrying the low murmur of a restless crowd.
Kakashi appeared with a faint flicker, his visible eye scanning the area. He blinked, momentarily confused as his gaze landed on Naruto standing beside Sukuna.
Sasuke's brow furrowed as he followed Kakashi's gaze. He was about to speak when Kakashi turned toward Genma with a casual tilt of his head.
"Are we, by any chance… late?" Kakashi asked, his tone light, almost playful, though tension sat beneath his words like a coiled wire.
Genma's jaw tightened. He cast an irritated glance at the two late arrivals, his eyes narrowing.
"Yes. Very late. Sasuke Uchiha has been disqualified."
Sasuke stiffened as the words struck him. His eyes widened in disbelief, his lips parting slightly. The world around him seemed to blur.
'I… missed it?'
Kakashi let out a long sigh and scratched the back of his head. "Ah... I really messed up this time, huh?" he muttered with a rueful expression.
And this time around, there wasn't any way to dodge the allegation either. This wasn't any gruesome training to teach Sasuke Chidori at the last-ditch minute to make him ready for Gaara.
Sasuke had long learned the technique. They were on a regular training spree in the last month.
It was entirely because of Kakashi's laziness that they were late today.
Sukuna hummed and nodded, his arms folded across his chest, and snorted toward both Kakashi and Sasuke.
Serves them right.
There won't be plot armor laid everywhere for them to break rules left and right. If Sasuke, Naruto, Karin, and his dear little sister wished to be real ninja, then they had to learn how to take responsibility for their actions.
All eyes shifted to him. Sasuke's expression twisted with irritation as he locked onto the source of his frustration.
"I told you we'll be late."
Sukuna ignored him completely, turning instead toward Kakashi, who was trying to ignore the raven kid's Sharingan eyes on him.
"Remember, I told you to stop being late all the time. It will eventually come back to bite you, didn't I?" he said casually.
Kakashi offered a familiar eye smile, though if anyone knew the one-eyed scarecrow, then they would have recognized the embarrassment in the jonin's expression.
He gave Sasuke a sidelong glance. "Had some trouble dealing with teenage hormones, but overall it was fine..."
"Kakashi-sensei... Sasuke. What the hell were you doing till now? They disqualified you idiots." Naruto didn't seem to have any filters on his emotions. He immediately shouted as soon as he saw who had come.
Sasuke's frustration hit a boiling point. His teeth clenched. "Shut up, dobe!"
What did Kakashi mean by "teenage hormones?"
He felt like exploding...
Kakashi quickly raised both hands in surrender before looking toward Genma. "Any chance we could... you know... make an exception? It would be a shame to waste all that training."
Genma didn't even hesitate. "No."
"Not even a little exception?"
"No."
"Half an exception?"
"Kakashi..." Genma's brows twitched.
Kakashi sighed dramatically. "I'm getting a mouthful after this, isn't it?"
Sasuke simply closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, silently questioning every life decision that had led him to accepting Kakashi as his teacher.
"Sukuna… were you in the middle of a match?" Kakashi quickly said, else Sasuke might put a Chidori right through him.
"Just about to start, yes." Sukuna nodded.
"Oh... then we will not disturb you anymore." Kakashi literally dragged the seething Sasuke alongside him before the raven's head exploded with anger.
With the matter settled whether Sasuke liked it or not, Genma immediately turned his attention back toward the tournament. "Since Sasuke Uchiha has officially been disqualified, we will now proceed to the next match." His voice echoed throughout the stadium.
"Naruto Uzumaki versus Sukuna Haruno!"
"Finally!" Naruto shouted loud enough for the entire stadium to hear. "I've been waiting for this! Believe it! Pervy Sage trained me for a whole month, and I'm way stronger than before! This time I'm gonna beat you fair and square, Sukuna!"
Sukuna, for some reason, felt like he had heard those words before, like a lot of times. How come everyone wanted to defeat him all the time?
Can't they just leave him alone for once?
The blond practically bounced into the center of the arena before pointing dramatically toward his pink-haired rival/brother/mentor with a grin full of confidence.
Sukuna, meanwhile, calmly walked to stand opposite him without the slightest hint of excitement crossing his face.
He looked Naruto up and down for a brief moment before giving nothing more than a small shrug. "Yeah, sure… let's just get this over with quickly." He said nonchalantly.
A tick mark seemed to form on Naruto's face.
"Sukuna-teme, you're looking down on me, ain't you?" Naruto shouted, childishly hitting his foot on the ground.
"Of course not, I would never do that to you." Sukuna replied while taking a banana out of nowhere and started peeling it, while observing the audience casually, not even looking at the loud blond.
"Yeah… as if. At least try to make the lie more convincing, you bastard." Hot air seemed to gush out of the knucklehead's nostrils.
Naruto puffed out his chest. "Hah! Keep acting cool while you can! Today is the day you're gonna lose."
"Sure… sure. Can we start now?" Sukuna barely gave the pouting child any consideration and shifted his eyes to Genma. As if stating,
'Come on, start the match already. I'm getting bored.'
"Ahem… the match between Sukuna Haruno and Uzumaki Naruto… begin…"
The instant Genma dropped his hand, Naruto wasted no time proving that the last month had not been spent idly. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he shouted, slamming his palms together as a massive cloud of smoke exploded across the arena.
Dozens became hundreds, and within only a few seconds nearly two hundred Narutos covered the battlefield, filling every corner of the stadium with identical orange-clad figures. The audience gasped at the sheer number while the remaining genin leaned forward in anticipation.
"How many times have I told you, stop wasting your chakra like this. Numbers are meaningless if you yourself are not capable enough." Sukuna snorted. He had, in fact, told Naruto many times not to rely on that one technique for everything.
Not only was it an enormous waste of chakra, but he genuinely deteriorated his skills if he kept relying on numbers like that.
"Haa… we'll see about that, Sukuna-teme. Today I'm winning against you." The blond knucklehead shouted back.
"YEAH!!!"
And his clones resonated with his speech.
"ATTACK…!"
"DATTEBAYO!!!"
Without waiting another moment, the army of clones charged together, some attacking from the front while others circled around the sides and rear, intending to overwhelm Sukuna through sheer numbers. It was a sound strategy against most opponents. Against Sukuna, it accomplished almost nothing.
Sukuna remained perfectly still until the first clone entered striking distance. Then he moved. His body blurred forward with frightening speed as his fist crashed into the clone's jaw, dispelling it into smoke before his elbow buried itself into another clone's chest.
Without pausing, he spun low beneath a flying kick, swept three clones off their feet in a single motion, and drove his lightning-conducting glove into the ground, sending a burst of electricity through several nearby weapons left behind from Sakura's earlier match.
'And one would think that they would clear the battlefield, but nope. This is supposed to imitate a real war situation, so they did no such thing.'
The crackling current spread across the metal, catching multiple clones by surprise before they vanished into clouds of smoke. His movements flowed together with terrifying precision.
Clones disappeared one after another until the battlefield became engulfed in smoke from constant dispelling.
Just taijutsu.
He had other ways, of course, but he needed to prove a point there, to show Naruto that if his base was weak, then numbers wouldn't matter.
Naruto attempted to exploit the limited visibility, ordering dozens of remaining clones to attack simultaneously from every direction, but Sukuna simply adjusted his footing, weaving between punches by the narrowest of margins while countering each attacker with crushing blows that instantly erased them.
He didn't need to see. For him, Naruto's negative cursed energy stood out like a sore thumb. Even if he wished to ignore him, he couldn't possibly overlook it.
"Tch… you're still holding back!" Naruto shouted as the last wave of clones disappeared around him. "I'm just getting started!" He bit his thumb before slamming his hand against the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
A gigantic cloud of smoke erupted behind him as the massive toad Gamabunta appeared atop the battlefield, his enormous frame casting a shadow over much of the arena.
Several spectators instinctively stepped backward despite the distance separating them from the fight.
'That kid, did he have to summon Gamabunta here? And what was Jiraiya thinking teaching Naruto that?' Hiruzen felt his blood pressure soaring.
Gamabunta glanced down with visible annoyance. "Kid, this better be important."
Naruto pointed dramatically toward Sukuna. "Help me beat him!"
"This squirt. Why should I?" Gamabunta didn't immediately attack, instead talking back and refusing to fight against Sukuna.
"Ahaaa… come on, boss. I need help here. Didn't you say you'll make me your henchman? Shouldn't you help me out here?"
"Wait…"
Genma shouted before Gamabunta could attack.
"Eh… what now?" Naruto squinted his eyes like a fox in confusion.
"Summons are not allowed in one-on-one fighting."
"Ehhhhh… Since when?"
"Idiot, didn't you read the Chunin Exams rules?" Sukuna grumbled to himself with irritation. How come both protagonists of the story were so unreliable?
"Release the summoning jutsu or else I'm afraid I have to disqualify you, Uzumaki Naruto." Genma shouted from below, the mountainside form of Gamabunta making him nauseous.
'Are genin capable of this now? Are they sure that is a genin?'
"Awe man… that sucks." Naruto grumbled like a child denied his favorite toy and pouted hard.
Without saying anything else, Gamabunta's huge form disappeared and Naruto landed lightly on the arena floor.
Sukuna barely had time to straighten before Naruto appeared directly in front of him with a swirling sphere of chakra. "Rasengan!" Naruto yelled, thrusting the technique toward Sukuna's chest with everything he had.
Naruto thought he got him, but Sukuna easily sidestepped slightly to the side at the last possible instant, his left hand catching Naruto's wrist before the Rasengan could connect.
Using nothing more than perfect timing and superior balance, he twisted sharply, redirecting Naruto's momentum completely.
The blond's own speed worked against him as he was thrown headfirst over Sukuna's shoulder and smashed into the stone arena hard enough to create another crater.
The Rasengan vanished harmlessly as Naruto's concentration broke. Before he could recover, Sukuna was already standing over him. One gloved fist crashed into Naruto's stomach with enough force to drive the air from his lungs, followed immediately by a knee to the ribs and a final spinning kick that launched him skidding across the battlefield until he rolled to a stop several dozen meters away.
Silence settled over the stadium as Naruto struggled to rise, his arms trembling violently before finally giving out beneath him.
"Told you, Naruto… numbers will only matter when there is skill in those numbers. You have to improve your basics." Sukuna said, only earning an annoyed grunt from him.
Honestly, he was a little harsh here. Naruto had improved a lot. He was a far cry from what he remembered of him from the canon story.
This Naruto already had solid taijutsu. For a genin, that is.
He could pass even for a chunin, but that just wasn't enough. For someone who used clones so much, Sukuna had repeatedly told him to improve his evasion skills and taijutsu more.
The pouting blond could really be a force of nature if he could fight like that.
Instead of just throwing numbers around, just wonder what a skilled Naruto with jonin- or kage-level taijutsu skills and his clones could do.
Add impressive evasion skills to the mix, and they were looking at a small army of jonin-level taijutsu masters working in complete synergy, which was also extremely hard to take out.
Alas, that was Sukuna's vision. He knew Naruto wasn't exactly the taijutsu type. His real talent would shine in ninjutsu with how much chakra he had.
But still, while the loudmouth blond was still young and hadn't started relying on firepower to solve all his problems, Sukuna wasn't letting him get by with just passable taijutsu.
If he was using clones in a fight, and if he was gonna charge headfirst, then at least he should be good at it.
"Anyways, give up or I'll have to use more painful methods." Sukuna mentioned, and a shiver ran down the blond's spine.
Genma watched the blond remain motionless for several moments, after contemplating whether it would be worth going down easy or going down with many of his bones broken...
Genma seemed to take that as an acceptance of defeat and shouted.
"Naruto Uzumaki is unable to continue." He raised his arm toward Sukuna. "Winner… Sukuna Haruno."
"Waa… wait. I haven't said I am done yet." Naruto shouted, his head whipping at Genma like the man had stolen the hot bowl of ramen from right in front of him.
"Ah, shut it. You know better than I do that you're not winning this shit. Just stay down, would you, you idiot." Sukuna grumbled, already putting his hands in his pockets and moving back.
"Hey… come back here. I'm not done yet." Naruto shouted and tried to stand up, only for pain to rattle his insides like crazy.
"Ahh… that Sukuna-teme. Did he have to hit that hard?"
xXx
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