"What you did was uncool dattebasa," Sasuke heard a voice next to him.
("What?") Sasuke was shocked upon seeing Naruto silently sitting next to him as he stared down at both of their clones below the tree.
"…" Shikamaru and the entire cla.s.s, including Iruka as well, were shocked beyond words.
("Oy, oy, oy")
("How much of a genius can you become overnight Naruto…") Shikamaru thought.
("Naruto…") Iruka stared at Naruto who was next to Sasuke on the tree.
Meanwhile, Sasuke, who was on the tree branch beside Naruto was sweating bullets.
("Was Naruto always this strong?")
("How well did he hide it…") Sasuke cursed himself for not noticing sooner.
Boruto who sat next to Sasuke finally turned to take a look at him.
"Cat got your tongue?" Boruto asked.
"…"
"Interesting…" Sasuke stared at Boruto as he got up.
"It"s just a clone, in the end, isn"t it?" Sasuke asked.
"hehe," Boruto smirked.
"hmm?" Sasuke frowned upon seeing Boruto"s reaction.
Below the tree, Boruto"s clone looked at Sasuke"s clone.
He then took a few steps towards it and raised his hand…
Sasuke"s expression took a turn for the worse,
("It should be a clone right?") Sasuke questioned himself.
However, the next action was once again a face slap waking him into reality.
(whoosh!) Sasuke"s clone was dispersed.
("What?") Sasuke and the entire cla.s.s were shocked once again.
Boruto looked at Sasuke who was on the tree beside him.
"Mine"s a shadow clone," Boruto replied with a smirk.
("NANI?") The entire cla.s.s was staring with their mouths wide open enough to fit an Ostrich egg inside.
However, at the same time, they all had one question going on in their minds.
("How did Naruto become this good?") They asked themselves only to see that they couldn"t come up with any explanation on the spot.
("A SHADOW CLONE? WHERE THE h.e.l.l DID THAT COME FROM?") Iruka was beyond shocked.
"How about you show me your real skills now?" Boruto asked suddenly.
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked with a vigilant expression.
"Come on Sasuke, we both know that you didn"t unleash your full shuriken skills back in the target practice,"
"Even now, you are not putting up a good fight," Boruto explained following which he jumped from the tree branch onto the ground.
(poof!) Boruto dispelled his clone, following which he looked at Sasuke with expectations of meeting his request.
"Hmph," Sasuke leaped out of the tree with his usual arrogant expression.
As he landed on the ground, he looked at Naruto.
"Never have I expected a loser like you to become so much interesting all of a sudden," Sasuke stared at Boruto with a resolve to fight a proper battle.
Boruto, on the other hand, was excited to battle against his mentor at his full strength finally.
"We should let our fists do the talking," Boruto said as he brought his right fist out.
On the sidelines, Hinata, Shikamaru, Chōji, Shino, Ino, Sakura, Kiba and everyone else now had their full attention to the match with so many exciting things happening all of a sudden.
"Hmph," Sasuke snorted following which he dashed out in top speed.
Boruto got into his battle stance eagerly waiting for Sasuke"s first move.
(Whoosh!) Sasuke appeared in front of Boruto.
("I finally get to see Uncle Sasuke"s moves up close…") Boruto was super excited.
("Let"s see how you dodge this taijutsu move…") Sasuke thought following which he unleashed a kick with his left foot.
As Boruto saw the incoming kick, he smirked at it.
("It"s the surging fire wild dance,") Boruto thought following which he brought both arms to his left side.
("I"ll block it the same way Iwabe blocked my moves back then…") Boruto thought back to his first meeting with Iwabe, where they both got into a fight.
_______________________________
(Refer Boruto Episode 002 around 12 mins in)
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(Bang!)
Sasuke"s left leg hit the place where Boruto had blocked.
"Whoah…" Ino, Sakura, and the other girls stared at the fight in awe.
Whereas the other boys were secretly rooting for Naruto to show Sasuke his place. If this were some other time, they wouldn"t believe that Naruto had a chance to win; however, the earlier skirmish gave them hope.
("He fell for it,") Sasuke became confident seeing the way Naruto had blocked it.
*sh!*
Boruto immediately used his right hand to catch hold of Sasuke"s left leg.
"Hmph," Sasuke followed by making his body upright and unleashing a straight right at Naruto"s temple region.
(Bang!)
To Sasuke"s surprise, Boruto had blocked it by raising his free arm up and catching his fist.
(What?) Sasuke was speechless, and so was everyone else, but that didn"t slow him down for there was a last move in the combo he had to unleash no matter what.
("Let"s see how you dodge this!")
"Argh," Sasuke grunted as he twisted his body around to unleash one last kick towards Naruto"s head.
Boruto immediately raised the arm that also held Sasuke"s right hand towards the top to block the kick.
(Bang!)
Sasuke"s right knee collided against Naruto"s upper arm.
("WHAT?") Everyone, including Iruka, was caught off guard once again.
("This fight has already exceeded Genin level, even if I were in Naruto"s place I couldn"t have probably blocked the last one…") Iruka thought to himself.
Boruto at this moment smiled through the gap between the duo"s limbs.
"It"s my turn," Boruto said.
(Whoosh!) Boruto threw Sasuke into the air with all his might.
(Whoosh!) Boruto appeared behind Sasuke as well.
("Is it the leaf shadow dance?") Sasuke thought of the possible taijutsu combos Naruto could possibly unleash from that position.
("Hehe,")
("What Uncle Sasuke doesn"t know is that I am going to use his own move against him,") Boruto smirked following which he pulled Sasuke closer by tugging onto the back of Sasuke"s shirt.
"Hah," Boruto unleashed a kick to Sasuke"s side.
("It can"t be…") Sasuke felt the world spin around him.
The lion"s combo was a technique that Sasuke came up with all by himself after learning various combos within the Uchiha clan. However, to think that Naruto was also aware of the technique… Sasuke could no longer understand if what was happening was real or not.
"STOP!!" Iruka shouted at the top of his voice.
"huh?" Boruto turned behind to look at Iruka standing on the ground.
("Well, there goes my wish,") Boruto immediately stopped his move and landed on the ground, followed by Sasuke falling a few meters away from him.
"This spar is a draw," Iruka announced.
"What?" Boruto, Sasuke, and others were not satisfied.
"What I say remains final, now both of you step forward and perform the sign of unison," Iruka ordered.
"tsk," Boruto turned away.
"NARUTO! That applies for the both of you," Iruka shouted.
Sasuke, on the other hand, though he felt unsatisfied from the match, it was also like his dignity being saved, so he chose not to argue over it. Internally, however, he had plans to fight Naruto once again at some point.
The two walked towards each other.
As the two reached the center, Boruto and Sasuke stared at each other.
At this moment, Boruto no longer felt like himself.
He felt fully in sync with the world he was in, where he now saw Sasuke as a rival like the way Naruto used to.
The two stretched out their fingers and shook each other as a sign of reconciliation after the spar.
("That Naruto…") Shikamaru truly felt happy for him as a friend to see Naruto on the path to success.
("Even if he has changed, he still remains that stupid old goofball…") Shikamaru thought as he saw Naruto walking towards him.
Kiba ran towards Naruto and caught him by the neck and started to Ruffle his hair roughly.
"d.a.m.n it Naruto, How did you become so cool?" Kiba asked.
"Hehe," Boruto could only smile helplessly.
Boruto wanted to battle against Sasuke immediately, but that wasn"t going to happen any time soon.
Shikamaru and Chōji also showed up beside Naruto, followed by the rest of the cla.s.s.
Meanwhile, Sasuke, who stood alone away from the crowd, stared at Naruto being swarmed in by the others.
("Something is definitely wrong here…") Sasuke thought.
Soon, cla.s.ses were over, and everyone was on their way home.
"How about we go home together dattebasa?" Boruto asked Shikamaru.
"…" Shikamaru stared at Boruto silently.
"What?" Boruto asked.
"Something is strange about you…" Shikamaru said as he stared at Naruto.
Boruto felt some sweat appear by the side of his head as he stared at Shikamaru with an awkward smile.
"It"s just going home, okay," Boruto said.
"Right…" Shikamaru started to walk away with Chōji following behind him.
"So is that a yes or no?" Boruto asked.
"I didn"t say no now, did I?" Shikamaru asked.
"hehe," Boruto followed the duo on their way out.
The three walked down a lane with the sound of the footsteps echoing about in the quiet surrounding.
"This is where we part ways," Shikamaru turned around and said suddenly.
"Hmm?" Boruto had an expression of a question mark.
Chōji then suddenly pointed out in a direction.
"The library is that way, Naruto!" Chōji said with a smile on his face.