Disclaimer:
Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto.
I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 92: Ino's Determination to Fight
As Naruto was about to reach the top of the stairs, he came face to face with Ino, who was about to go down.
"Oh, there you are. Congratulations, Naruto!" Beneath her gentle smile was a great deal of concern.
"Thanks… you're not actually going to fight that Gaara… right?" Naruto asked her.
She immediately became upset.
"You too? I already heard this enough from my father and Sensei. I'm not giving up before even trying."
"You don't seem to understand how dangerous that boy is," Naruto warned her.
Ino had missed the match between Gaara and Rock Lee, so all the information she had about him was from third-hand sources.
But she was aware of how strong he was.
"I'm not stupid, Naruto. I know I don't have much of a chance to win… but I won't give up that easily. If I do… I'll never become a Chūnin, you know? I also have ambitions…" she said with mixed feelings.
"It's not about winning or losing. If you step in there, he won't let you leave the arena alive." Naruto had already faced Gaara directly and had a good grasp of how deranged that boy was.
"Oh? Are you perhaps worried about me?" She had a mischievous smile.
"I can't blame you for becoming smitten by my beauty. But I still like Sasuke." She wasn't sure if that was true anymore, but she said it anyway.
"But I will tell you something." She walked past Naruto and began to descend the stairs.
"If… you win this tournament, you can take me out to dinner," she added without stopping.
"Wouldn't winning the tournament mean that Sasuke has to lose?…" Naruto said, but she was too far away to hear it.
When he returned to the viewing area, he found Kakashi and the others in the same place.
"Congratulations, Naruto. I never doubted you for a second." Kakashi made a victory sign. If he had any concerns about what Naruto did, he kept them to himself.
"Yes, congratulations Naruto!. You did great. " Sakura at least had a sincere smile. She didn't understand what had happened down there but was at least happy that her teammate had won.
"What did you do at the end?" Sasuke's cold voice cut through the short silence. He had not been able to figure it out with the use of his sharingan.
"Oh? You wanna know?" Naruto glanced at his teammate. "Maybe if you ask nicely, I will tell you."
"Tsk! Forget it." Sasuke went back to ignoring him and glanced back at the arena.
"Sasuke..." Sakura looked at him with worry. He hasn't even acknowledged her presence since he came back.
Ino was just walking in while Gaara was doing the same from the other side.
The medics had already taken Neji away, and Genma was alone at the center.
Naruto saw Maito Gai and his two other students close by.
"Naruto!" Rock Lee called for him in a formal manner,
as they had barely talked since they met before the exams.
"Ah… you are out of the hospital already?" Naruto saw that his left leg and arm were still heavily bandaged, and the boy was using a cane to hold himself steady. "How are your wounds?"
"It's going well… I'll be in top shape very soon, you'll see!" Lee said with enthusiasm.
By the expression that his Sensei was making… that seemed unlikely.
'And that would be a problem…' thought Naruto.
He had been planning on exchanging some low-rank cultivation method for the Eight Gates technique.
But that won't work if the boy was a cripple.
'Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the healing arts.' Now he was regretting being so focused on cultivation during his previous life.
Perhaps some knowledge of alchemy, runes, and medicine could have been very handy.
But it was too late for regrets. If his initial idea won't work, he would have to find another one.
"Oi Naruto. That was a very interesting match."
He saw TenTen approaching, and she didnt seem very angry with him at least.
"I thought you would be more upset with me. Isn't Neji your companion?"
"Companion? You mean as in boyfriend?…" Tenten's face got very red.
"Of course not! We are just teammates…" even though she wouldn't mind if there was something more.
"I was just surprised. I never thought I would see Neji being slapped around in such a manner," the girl said.
"Right! That was insane!" Lee added.
"I sparred many times, but with his Byakugan, it is impossible to land a hit on him. You were moving so fast that he could not react… maybe if I had used gates…"
"Lee…" Gai had a warning tone.
"I know, Sensei. I was just…"
"And besides, Naruto was not really moving much faster than Neji," Gai added.
"Really? But Neji could not follow his attacks, even with the Byakugan active," Tenten said.
"He could follow them, but he couldn't avoid them in time. All attacks have momentum to them. During a brief period of time, there will be an opening. No matter how good or refined your fighting style is, there will always be an opening that can be exploited. It is up to the user to cover those openings the best they can. " their Sensei explained.
"You are saying that Naruto was exploiting those openings in Neji's moves?… That's…" Tenten glanced at Naruto with surprise.
Lee was doing the same.
They both thought that Naruto had somehow become faster than Neji and used this advantage to overwhelm him.
But surpassing someone like Neji with pure technique was a whole different thing. It meant that Naruto was at least at jōnin level when it came to Taijutsu technique and expertise.
"Hey, Ino's match is about to start!" Sakura exclaimed.
Naruto got closer to the wall and looked down at the arena.
"This is not a match… this is an execution."
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