Three days passed.
Naruto trained.
Not hard.
At least—
Not according to Naruto.
According to literally everyone else, his definition of taking it easy remained deeply concerning.
He practiced Earth-nature transformation in short sessions.
Worked on chakra control.
Repeated basic kata.
Studied sealing formulas while lying in bed because Sakura had threatened to personally remove his kneecaps if she caught him doing anything strenuous again.
He listened.
Mostly.
But every day—
Naruto looked for Sasuke.
And Kakashi.
Neither was anywhere.
The first day, Naruto checked Team Seven's usual training grounds.
Empty.
The second day, he checked Kakashi's favorite places.
The memorial stone.
The bookstore.
A suspiciously convenient rooftop overlooking the women's bathhouse.
Nothing.
"Maybe Pervy Sage is rubbing off on me."
Naruto immediately reconsidered his life choices.
The third day—
He searched the Uchiha district.
Sasuke wasn't there either.
Naruto stood outside Sasuke's apartment with his hands in his pockets.
No answer.
No chakra signature he could sense.
Nothing.
He frowned.
The Rival Growth Link still sat in the back of his mind.
MODERATE — UNSTABLE
Naruto hated that word.
Unstable.
He'd fought Sasuke.
Argued with him.
Insulted him.
Been insulted.
Been punched.
Been set on fire.
Mostly accidentally.
Probably.
But none of those things had ever felt like this.
Like something was stretching between them.
Not broken.
Yet.
As Naruto left the Uchiha compound he was met with a
PING
Rival Growth Link Activated! Significant development in Rival's capabilities!
+2 Strength
+2 Endurance
+1 Agility
Two days before Naruto was scheduled to leave with Jiraiya—
Sasuke found him.
Naruto had just finished a light cooldown circuit near Training Ground Seven. The sun had begun to set and an orange glow covered the training ground.
He was drinking water when a shadow crossed the ground.
Naruto looked up.
Sasuke stood at the edge of the field.
Black shirt.
White shorts.
Bandages around one forearm.
Sharingan inactive.
Naruto blinked.
"...There you are."
Sasuke didn't respond.
Naruto lowered the bottle.
"I've been looking for you."
"I know."
Naruto's eyebrows rose.
"Then why didn't you answer?"
Sasuke's gaze shifted.
"Kakashi had me training somewhere else."
"Where?"
"Elsewhere."
Naruto stared.
"...That was very informative."
Sasuke's mouth twitched.
Barely.
For half a second—
He looked normal again.
Then the expression disappeared.
"Spar with me."
Naruto's smile faded.
"Spar?"
"Yeah."
Naruto studied him.
Something felt off.
Not enough to identify.
Enough to notice.
"Right now?"
Sasuke stepped forward.
"Right now."
Naruto scratched his cheek.
"I'm technically still supposed to be recovering."
Sasuke's expression hardened slightly.
"Scared?"
Naruto's eye twitched.
"Okay."
He stood.
"Now you're asking for it."
They moved to the center of the field.
No Kakashi.
No Sakura.
No sensei.
Just them.
Naruto rolled his shoulders.
Sasuke loosened his wrists.
"Rules?" Naruto asked.
"Start simple."
"Taijutsu?"
"And ninja tools."
Naruto nodded.
"No ninjutsu."
"No special techniques."
"No Sharingan?"
Sasuke hesitated.
Then nodded.
"No Sharingan."
Naruto grinned.
"Deal."
They faced each other.
Sasuke raised his right hand.
Naruto's smile softened.
The Seal of Confrontation.
Index and middle fingers extended.
Naruto mirrored it.
PING
Uchiha's Personal Trainer! Activated
When Sparring together, both user and Sasuke will experience a 25% experience boost to skills!
When facing the same opponent, all stats for both individuals will receive a 10% stat boost!
For a moment—
Neither moved.
Then Sasuke spoke.
"Ready?"
Naruto's grin returned.
"Always."
Sasuke moved first.
He closed the distance with a low, efficient burst, leading with his left shoulder while his right hand stayed close to his hip. Naruto shifted half a step outside the line, expecting the straight punch, but Sasuke changed levels mid-entry and drove a heel toward Naruto's forward knee.
Naruto lifted the leg rather than retreating, letting the kick pass underneath, then dropped his shin toward Sasuke's thigh as he came down. Sasuke turned his hip just enough to absorb the strike along the outside of his leg and answered with a short elbow toward Naruto's ribs.
Naruto caught the elbow against his forearm.
The impact still thudded through his chest.
"Nice."
Sasuke twisted out before Naruto could trap the arm.
They reset.
This time Naruto entered.
No clone feint.
No burst technique.
Just speed.
He stepped inside Sasuke's reach before the Uchiha fully expected him to move, jabbed toward the face, then changed direction and hammered a palm toward the sternum.
Sasuke slipped the jab cleanly.
The palm—
Barely.
He crossed both forearms and took it on the guard.
THUMP.
Sasuke slid backward nearly two meters.
His shoes dug trenches into the dirt.
His eyes widened.
Naruto froze.
"...Oh."
Sasuke lowered his arms.
"Again."
Naruto understood immediately.
The stat difference.
He'd felt stronger after the invasion.
Faster.
Harder to hurt.
But feeling it against training posts was different.
Sasuke had always been physically gifted.
Naruto used to compensate with stubbornness.
Numbers.
Clones.
Chaos.
Now—
Naruto was simply stronger.
Sasuke came at him harder.
He used angles this time instead of direct entry, stepping across Naruto's lead side and attacking the body with a compact combination. A knuckle struck Naruto's floating ribs, followed by a backfist toward the temple and a sweeping kick aimed behind the knee.
Naruto blocked the backfist late.
The rib shot landed perfectly.
The sweep caught him too.
Naruto's leg buckled—
But instead of falling, he planted his free foot and absorbed the imbalance through his hips.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed.
Naruto rotated.
His shoulder crashed into Sasuke's chest.
Sasuke went airborne.
He landed in a roll.
Recovered immediately.
Naruto's eye's tracked Sasuke's hand reaching into his tool pouch. For some odd reason, he knew that based on the way his wrist was gripping the ninja tools in his pouch that Sasuke was about to use shuriken. Naruto's newly acquired visual acuity was starting to showcase itself in regular fights.
Steel flashed between them.
Sasuke sent two shuriken toward Naruto at different heights, one cutting for his face while the second swept low toward his thigh. Naruto shifted between them, shoulders turning sideways to narrow his profile, only for a thin wire to catch the sunlight between the spinning blades.
He dropped flat before it could rake across his throat. Sasuke snapped his wrist at the same moment, dragging the upper shuriken backward on its wire and forcing Naruto to roll beneath the returning blade instead of immediately rising.
Sasuke was already on him.
Naruto came out of the roll onto one knee and barely got his forearms together before Sasuke's heel smashed into them. The impact shoved Naruto backward, but rather than fight the momentum he let himself slide, planted one palm, and whipped his leg around at Sasuke's ankles.
Sasuke hopped the sweep and drove downward with a kunai.
Naruto rolled his shoulder aside. The blade punched into the dirt beside his ear, and Naruto caught Sasuke's wrist with one hand while hammering his other palm toward his chest.
Sasuke twisted with the grab instead of resisting it. Naruto's palm skimmed past his ribs, and Sasuke used the rotation to swing his free leg around, his heel cracking cleanly across Naruto's jaw.
Naruto released him.
Both separated.
Naruto dragged his thumb across his lip and looked at the smear of blood it left behind.
Sasuke lowered into another stance.
"Still think I need you taking it easy on me?"
Naruto's eyes narrowed.
"I haven't started taking it easy on you yet."
"Then stop fucking around."
Sasuke surged forward.
This time Naruto met him halfway.
Their forearms collided. Sasuke immediately rolled his arm over Naruto's, trying to trap the limb against his chest, but Naruto stepped deeper rather than pulling away and slammed his shoulder into Sasuke before the lock could form.
Sasuke gave ground, pivoted, and used Naruto's forward momentum against him. His foot hooked behind Naruto's ankle while both hands redirected Naruto's shoulder, a clean throw that should have planted him flat on his back.
Naruto twisted in midair.
One hand touched the dirt.
His body swung around it.
Both feet slammed into Sasuke's crossed guard.
The force sent Sasuke skidding backward.
He stayed upright.
Barely.
Naruto landed and immediately pursued, giving Sasuke no time to reset. A straight punch forced Sasuke's head outside; a low kick followed toward his ribs; when Sasuke dropped an elbow to block it, Naruto turned the kick into a planted step and drove a hook toward his head.
Sasuke ducked.
His fist buried itself into Naruto's stomach.
Naruto's breath punched out of him.
Sasuke followed with an elbow across the cheek, stepped outside Naruto's lead leg, and drove a heel into the back of his knee.
Naruto dropped.
Sasuke's kunai flashed toward his throat.
Naruto caught his wrist.
Sasuke's eyes widened when Naruto simply forced the arm backward.
The physical difference was impossible to hide at that range.
Sasuke tried to shift his weight and break the grip. Naruto rose with him anyway, dragging Sasuke halfway upright before driving his forehead straight into Sasuke's.
CRACK.
Both recoiled.
"Fucking asshole," Sasuke hissed.
Naruto rubbed his forehead.
"You stabbed at my neck!"
"It's a spar."
"Yeah, well, so was that."
Sasuke spat blood into the grass.
"Again."
This time there was no reset.
Sasuke attacked while Naruto was still talking.
His first punch was a feint, his shoulder committing just enough to draw Naruto's guard before his weight dropped into a sweeping kick. Naruto jumped it, but Sasuke had already anticipated the reaction; both hands hit the ground and his other leg whipped upward.
The heel caught Naruto underneath the chin.
Naruto's head snapped back.
Sasuke landed first.
Naruto landed second.
Sasuke was already inside his guard.
Three punches hammered into Naruto's body in rapid succession—liver, ribs, sternum—before Naruto finally closed both arms around Sasuke's shoulders and drove forward.
Sasuke tried to widen his base.
It didn't matter.
Naruto carried him several feet and slammed him into the trunk of a tree.
The air left Sasuke's lungs.
Naruto's fist drew back.
Sasuke brought both arms up.
Naruto saw the opening beneath them.
His punch changed direction toward Sasuke's ribs—
And slowed.
Just enough.
His knuckles struck.
Sasuke grunted.
But the hit didn't fold him the way it should have.
Both knew why.
For several seconds neither moved.
Then Sasuke looked down at Naruto's fist.
His breathing changed.
"You pulled it."
Naruto stepped back.
"Sasuke—"
"Do you think i'm weak? Stop looking down on me!" Sasuke's eyes flashed red for an instant before returning to their normal black.
"You want me to cave your ribs in?"
"I want you to fight me."
"I am fighting you."
"No."
Sasuke pushed himself away from the tree.
"You're deciding how much of you I'm allowed to fight."
Naruto's expression hardened.
"Because you're my teammate, dumbass. I'm not trying to put you back in the hospital."
Sasuke laughed, a cackle escaping his lips. There was something off about it, humor absent in the sounds that carried across the training ground.
"Right."
His hands came together.
Naruto immediately recognized the first seal.
His eyes widened.
"Are you serious?"
Sasuke's hands blurred into the next seal, his Sharingan blazing into existence. A third tomoe found its way into his left eye. Naruto hadn't noticed yet but he would soon.
"You wanted to know why I've been training."
"Sasuke."
"Now you know."
Tiger.
Sasuke inhaled.
Naruto swore.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Flame erupted from Sasuke's mouth and expanded into a roaring sphere that swallowed the distance between them. Naruto kicked backward, hands already moving as the heat washed across his face.
"Water Release: Tidal Wave!"
Water exploded across the field.
The two techniques collided.
Fire vanished beneath several tons of rushing water, but the impact instantly converted the front of Naruto's wave into a wall of boiling steam. White vapor rolled outward and swallowed both shinobi, turning the training ground into a shifting maze where neither could see more than a few feet ahead.
Naruto moved immediately.
So did Sasuke.
Naruto heard a foot scrape through wet grass to his right and twisted away just as Sasuke emerged through the steam. Sasuke's first punch passed Naruto's cheek, but his second attack was already coming low, a sweeping kick forcing Naruto to hop before a rising elbow chased him into the air.
Naruto blocked it with both forearms and landed outside Sasuke's reach.
Or tried to.
Sasuke was already there.
A kunai cut toward Naruto's ribs before his feet fully settled. Naruto knocked it wide, but Sasuke used the deflection to turn his shoulder through and drove a fist into Naruto's cheek.
Naruto staggered two steps.
"What the fuck?"
Sasuke's eyes burned red through the steam.
Naruto finally saw it.
His right eye still held two tomoe.
But his left—
Three.
Naruto's eyebrows shot upward.
"When the hell did you get another one?"
Sasuke came forward.
"While you were looking for me."
Their arms collided again.
Naruto threw faster now, testing him with a jab-cross before stepping into a hook that would've caught Sasuke cleanly ten minutes ago. Sasuke's head was already moving before each strike reached him, the three tomoe rotating as Naruto's shoulders and hips betrayed the attacks before they were fully committed.
Naruto changed levels and kicked.
Sasuke checked it.
Naruto turned the recoil into an elbow.
Sasuke leaned beneath it.
Naruto's knee followed.
Sasuke's palm caught his thigh and shoved it outside.
"Okay," Naruto muttered. "That's fucking annoying."
Sasuke's fist caught him in the mouth.
Naruto stumbled back.
"Yeah, yeah. Fuck you too."
Naruto stopped chasing him.
Sasuke noticed.
The steam continued moving around them, but Naruto planted himself and listened instead, waiting until Sasuke's silhouette appeared through the haze.
Sasuke didn't take the bait.
His hands blurred.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu!"
Smaller fireballs ripped through the steam from multiple angles.
Naruto's hands came together.
"Wind Release: Cyclone!"
The air around him twisted violently.
Naruto didn't launch the technique.
He widened it.
The rotating wind caught the steam first, ripping open the battlefield in a widening circle and giving Naruto his vision back. Then the outer current slammed into Sasuke's fireballs, bending their trajectories away from Naruto instead of meeting them directly.
Three curved harmlessly into the dirt.
A fourth sailed over his shoulder.
The fifth—
Naruto ducked.
It struck a tree behind him.
Naruto attacked before he could answer.
Cyclone was still rotating.
Naruto shoved both hands forward and compressed one side of the current.
The entire technique lurched sideways.
Sasuke saw Naruto's movement before the wind shifted. His Sharingan caught the turn of Naruto's shoulders, the extension of his arms, even the slight change in stance that preceded the manipulation.
He jumped.
The Cyclone passed beneath him.
Naruto grinned.
Exactly.
Sasuke's eyes widened.
The wind wasn't aimed at him.
It struck the ground beneath him.
Dirt, grass, water and shattered branches erupted upward as the Cyclone tore across the flooded field. Sasuke's landing point disappeared beneath the rotating current, forcing him to twist in midair and plant against a tree instead.
Naruto was already forming seals.
"Water Release: Tidal Wave!"
Water slammed into the tree.
Sasuke jumped an instant before the trunk disappeared beneath the surge.
The wave wasn't trying to hit him either.
It spread.
Fast.
Naruto swept both arms outward, pushing the water across the lowest parts of the training ground until the battlefield became ankle-deep in moving water.
Sasuke landed.
His foot slid.
Barely.
Naruto saw it.
Sasuke saw Naruto see it.
Another Cyclone ripped across the water.
The technique caught the surface rather than Sasuke directly, turning the shallow flood into a rotating spray of water, mud and debris. Sasuke's Sharingan tracked Naruto through it easily enough, but reading Naruto didn't tell him where solid footing would exist two seconds later.
Sasuke jumped onto a stump.
Naruto redirected the current.
Water slammed against it.
Sasuke leapt again.
Another current chased him.
He landed on a branch.
Naruto swept his arm.
Cyclone ripped through the canopy.
"You gonna fight me or redecorate the entire fucking forest?!"
Naruto laughed.
"You started throwing fireballs!"
Sasuke jumped as the branch beneath him snapped.
Naruto was waiting where he landed.
His fist came straight for Sasuke's face.
The Sharingan caught it.
Sasuke leaned outside.
Naruto's other fist followed.
Sasuke turned.
A kick came low.
Sasuke lifted his shin.
Naruto stepped through the blocked kick and slammed his shoulder into Sasuke's chest.
The Sharingan had read everything.
Sasuke had reacted correctly to everything.
It didn't matter.
THUMP.
Sasuke flew backward.
He flipped before hitting the ground and landed in the water on both feet, one hand dragging through the surface to stabilize himself. Naruto closed the distance before he could straighten, throwing a heavy right that Sasuke read and slipped before answering with two quick strikes to Naruto's ribs.
Naruto ate both.
His left hand caught Sasuke's shirt.
Sasuke's eyes widened.
Naruto yanked him forward and drove a knee toward his stomach. Sasuke twisted enough that the strike caught his hip instead, then planted a foot against Naruto's chest and kicked himself free before Naruto could secure the grapple.
Both slid apart through the water.
Sasuke was breathing hard now.
Naruto wasn't.
That bothered Sasuke more than the hit.
Sasuke looked at the water around his ankles. Then to the destroyed trees. The mud. The steam.
Naruto hadn't simply become stronger.
He was fighting differently.
Cyclone wasn't just an attack anymore.
It moved fire.
Cleared steam.
Destroyed footing.
Controlled landing points.
Tidal Wave wasn't simply a wall of water.
It killed Fire Release.
Changed terrain.
Created steam.
Fed Cyclone.
Naruto had spent the entire ninjutsu exchange turning Sasuke's own techniques into pieces of the battlefield.
And Sasuke's Sharingan—
Even with three tomoe—
Could only read what his eyes could see.
It couldn't stop the field itself from changing underneath him.
"Enough."
Sasuke's head lifted.
"No."
"Sasuke."
"I said no."
His Sharingan spun.
Naruto's expression hardened.
"You wanted me to stop holding back."
Sasuke straightened slowly.
Naruto gestured around them.
"So I stopped."
Water ran from Sasuke's clothes.
His arms trembled.
His ribs hurt.
His stomach hurt.
His Sharingan burned.
Naruto stood across from him a slight smear of blood adorning his bottom lip. His left leg was slightly guarded, low kicks from Sasuke starting to make his knee shake.
Sasuke felt like he'd been hit by a fucking cart.
That difference burned.
"Use it."
Naruto frowned.
"What?"
"That wind technique."
Naruto's expression immediately changed.
"No."
"Rail Pierce."
"No."
Sasuke laughed bitterly.
"There it is again."
"Don't start."
"You're still holding back."
"Of course I'm holding that back!"
"Why?"
Naruto stared at him like he'd lost his mind.
"Because it puts holes through fucking Bijū!"
Sasuke's face tightened.
"Gaara survived it."
"Gaara was inside a giant sand monster!"
Silence.
For half a second, Sasuke almost smiled.
Almost.
Then the anger came back.
"You think I can't handle your strongest technique."
Naruto's hands dropped.
"No."
His voice lost the humor.
"I know you can't."
Sasuke went completely still.
Naruto realized too late how that sounded.
"Sasuke, that's not—"
"Shut up."
Lightning crackled.
Naruto's eyes widened.
Blue-white chakra screamed into Sasuke's hand.
Birds shrieked across the ruined training ground.
Chidori.
"Sasuke."
The lightning intensified.
"Turn that off."
Sasuke lowered his stance.
His three-tomoe Sharingan fixed on Naruto.
"Make me."
Then—
He charged.
Name: Naruto Uzumaki
Village: Konohagakure
Rank: Chunin
Stats
Strength: 134
Agility: 157
Endurance: 154 (+40%)
Intelligence: 146
Charisma: 100
Luck: 15